Our Cover-Page Cartoon—“New Labels on Old Cans.”
By Editor
MR. MAYBELL’S cartoon speaks for itself. The present-day theology, of which Mr. Campbell, of London, is an exponent; the New Thought which places man’s salvation within himself, and which is deluding thousands with its fairy assumptions of half-truths; “Christian Science,” which is neither Christian nor scientific, and which also makes man his own saviour by making him divine; modern Spiritualism, which brings its devotees within the influence of malefic spirits under the guise of the spirits of the dead; and Mr. Maybell might have added Esoteric Buddhism, Theosophy, and other cults, which are finding so many followers, are all as old as error, finding their root in the first great falsehood, told in that ancient Garden of Delights, “Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God.” Very new and enticing are all these names. Why not “New Thought” and “New Theology” in these progressive days? Why not the “ism” which is “spiritual”? Theosophy—God wisdom—why not? and surely the blending of Christianity with science—a problem of the centuries—must be a good thing! The devil knows the longing of the human heart. He knows that man wants salvation as he does riches in some easy way. He knows that man wants the honor and glory of doing it all himself. He knows that the human heart loves to be persuaded that sin is not sin; that man is not a fallen creature; that he is not doomed to die—therefore all the old substitutes for the plan of salvation in Christ Jesus. Therefore the old theories under new names to catch the moderns. Yet every one of them has been found wanting, as the history of peoples whom they have dominated proves. Let no sophistry paste cover the delusive errors of the past. The food of God is fresh every day. Pluck it from the hand of the Life-giver, as it comes fresh from the Tree of Life. Drink from life’s living fountain. Let the age-canned foods rot in their own corruption; go direct to the great storehouse of grace, to the ever up-springing fountain of life. In Jesus Christ and the Spirit-filled word is life and salvation. Search elsewhere for redemption from sin and death will be as fruitless of results as the fabled quest for the Holy Grail, as Ponce de Leon’s hope in the fountain of perpetual youth. The quest leads to death not life. In Jesus Christ is life.