The Test of the Genuine
By L. A. S.
The true religion centers about the cross of Christ. The sentiment of the true Christian is, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Gal. 6:14. Every false religion eliminates the cross of Christ. It may substitute some other cross, or it may have no cross at all. To the latter class of false religions belong most of the new cults of the present day. Any one who will examine these new religious movements of the day, which claim to bring new Christian light and truth to the world, will find nothing in them relating to the cross of Christ. That is conspicuous by its absence. Take for example, Christian Science, or the New Thought. Where in all of Mrs. Eddy’s writings, or where in all the literature of the New Thought, is the soul brought in touch with any such experience as that which it meets at the cross of Christ? “Down at the cross where my Saviour died,
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried,
There to my heart was the blood applied,
Glory to His name!” Where does the soul meet with this experience in any of the new cults? Where does it meet with the experience of crucifixion? A religion without the cross,—that is a pleasing substitute for gospel religion to the natural heart. How easy to believe in Christian Science, which involves no cross, no crucifixion, death, and burial of self! Or how easy to believe in a religion which promises salvation through works and ceremonies, as does Roman Catholicism. The adherent of Rome knows all about saying prayers and “Hail, Marys;” all about doing penance, attending mass, and other outward religious forms and ceremonies; but he knows nothing about being crucified with Christ. He feels secure in sin. Is it not the business of the church to save him, and can he not, in the hour of5death, obtain absolution from the priest? Pagan religion makes a show of denying self, which is really a parade of self. The religion of Christ involves true self-denial, which is self crucified with Christ, self dead and buried, self entirely out of sight, self forgotten and lost, swallowed up in the love of Christ and the service of those for whom he died. A religion without the cross of Christ is a religion without Christ; and a religion without Christ is a religion without salvation; fair and pleasing indeed to the natural mind, but a satanic delusion which has perdition at its further end.