“A PROTEST ON THE ‘NEW THOUGHT’ QUESTION.”
UNDER the above heading, Mrs. May Mabette Anderson enters a striking and truthful arraignment of this growing delusion, in Christian Work. After “studying the question with keen and abiding interest,” and giving due credit to the “attractive” features of the New Thought theories, she says:— “Yet hearken. It teaches a heaven to be won without the atoning blood. A Christ—but not the Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary. The way to the heart of God, and of restoration to His favor and image through the sacrificial death of the ‘Son of Man,’ is wholly ignored. “In other words, the deep significance of the atonement is left out of this lovely structure. It is an imposing, inspiring, and beautiful edifice, yet it is built on sand, and not on the abiding Rock. No hint that ‘ye must be born again’ is found engraven on its walls. It appeals to the ‘I AM! I CAN!’ in man’s perverted nature. It exalts the merely human, and, if adhered to, will lift its votaries to the highest point of excellence possible to the unregenerate heart. “It is a clever counterfeit of the real edifice. The true building—as clearly outlined in the Word of God—is built on the Rock Christ Jesus, whose life and mighty power permeate and fill and enfold each ‘living stone’ placed on this eternal Foundation. “The counterfeit of this majestic edifice has been planned, and is being reared in its lordly proportions and proud position, by what truly appears to be an ‘angel of light,’ and of wondrous beauty as well as of beneficent heart. Yet it embodies and accentuates the peril of the present hour, namely, the minimizing and dethronement of Christ, as a sacrificial offering for sin, from the popular religion of the day. “Nor is this all. In one of the most widely-read books which has appeared under the protecting wing of ‘New Thought,’ the reader is urged to open his heart and being to hosts of beautiful spiritual beings that inhabit the ether all about us. We are told that they await to indwell each earnest soul that bids them enter, and will lift the recipient of their favors into a higher spiritual plane than would otherwise be possible of attainment. “Spiritism, you see, in a fresh and lovely garb; so very lovely that even ministers of the Gospel are publicly placing their seal of approval on the teaching. “If one will carefully study the Word of God, and note the solemn warnings given against all commerce with ‘familiar spirits,’ ‘necromancy,’ ‘sorcery,’ etc., a shudder will reach the innermost depths of the heart of one whose eyes are opened to see how these deadly forces—on which God’s lasting anathema rests—are, under modern and captivating names, being pressed on the attention and acceptance of devout and earnest souls. “There are many in our midst entitled to our confidence and respect who, in the midst of other absorbing duties, have given but a hasty glance into this fascinating cult. They have seen its beauties, but failed to make the searching examination needful to disclose and lay bare its dangers. Hence this word of protest.”