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Put It to the Test

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 17, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 45.

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Put It to the Test

By Editor

Several times within the past few years we have referred to the stir created in English theological circles by what is known as the “new theology,” which was a veneering of the old pantheism, has proved deficient in that it lacks dynamic.
City Temple (London) and Rev. R. J. Campbell
City Temple (London) and Rev. R. J. Campbell
When put to the test, it has failed. Mr. Campbell in its defense declared that he would put it to the test in the slums of London. An urgent appeal was made for funds to enable this to be done. As yet nothing has happened. The new cult seems to have been unable even to get to the people it was going to uplift. To quote the Rev. John Henry Jowett, Dr. Dale’s successor at Birmingham: “It is not sufficiently inspirational to make people benevolent.”
A similar inadequacy manifests itself in regard to foreign missions. When Mr. Campbell entered upon his pastorate at the City Temple he declared again and again that he was determined to urge his people to make a greater effort in working for foreign missions. This he has entirely failed to do. Any effort he may have made has met with dismal failure.
In the two directions where preeminently religion is required to show its power, the “new theology” has completely failed. These failures are an eloquent comment on the tendency and potency of this new cult.
We would respectfully suggest that all new “isms” be tried out in the same way. There are plenty of these quackeries in our midst. “Eddyism” and the “New Thought” and the “new anything” can easily be tried out. Let them engage in either of the two enterprises we have mentioned, and their absolute inadequacy will speedily be manifest. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” said One who claimed to know. We will unhesitatingly abide by the results of the experiment, but we certainly sympathize and stand ready to succor those on whom it is tried. —Episcopal Recorder, R. E., Philadelphia.