“This
New Thought gospel is not new in the sense that it is radically different from
the things that have been taught heretofore. It is only new, as I see it, in
the application. In other words, we in this age are practical, and especially
so in America. We do not much regard anything that cannot be applied and demonstrated.
This is not in any sense a denial of idealism--quite the contrary, but it puts
idealism to the test. If it is of worth, it can be used. If we believe anything
we can apply to that thing the acid test of practice, and, if it does not prove
up, it is not a thing on which we can waste our time.
Truths taught by the Master have been
preached all through the ages, and believed--at least in a sense.
But they were
not believed enough to put them to the acid test of demonstration, of
application. All that the New Thought movement and other kindred movements have
done in this day is to work at our faith. We have had the faith before. We have
had the ideal. Throughout all these ages the splendid example shown by those
who were of the bone, blood and sinew of the Church has proved that they
believed, for they gave themselves to the uttermost, as willing sacrifices.
They permitted themselves to be fed to the wild beasts and to be burned as
living torches in the name of their blessed Master. They did not lack in faith;
they only lacked in the adaptation.
Looking at the world as it is today, it
grows ever plainer to us that Christianity has not failed --real Christianity,
but that people have failed to be Christians. I use the term 'Christian' as one
who is a follower of the Christ. He commanded that we should heal the sick, but
we have not healed the sick for nineteen hundred years; and, when a cult arose
in our own time, who began practising this, His most oft-repeated commandment,
they were placed beyond the pale of the Church. He commanded us not to lay up
for ourselves treasures upon earth, yet in this age and in the lands called by
His name, we have the most colossal fortunes the world has ever known. He
commanded us not to pray in public to be heard of men, but to pray to the
Father in secret, and yet the sects continue to pray to be heard of men. He
commanded us to avoid lip service. He said unto those who call Lord, Lord, that
he would not know them. He fixed this standard as the mark of His followers: those
who kept His commandments. Yet we have called Lord, Lord, throughout the ages
and have not kept His commandments. A house divided against itself cannot
stand. We Christians must become all for Christ or all for anti-Christ. For
nineteen hundred years we have temporized between the two until anti-Christ
arose and smote us in this present world-tragedy.
I do not say these things in the way of
criticism. I say them because they appear the profound truth. We have learned
in this age that we get what we give, that there is no power over us that rules
us to ends other than those we have shaped; that the things that have come into
the world, that have manifested, are the results of the thoughts of the people
in the world. This world war is the result of years and even centuries of fear,
hatred, race antagonism and like negative things that people have held in their
thoughts; and we shall have to work out of these things by changing our
thoughts. There will be a new heaven and a new earth whenever there is a new
thought of heaven and earth in the minds of men, and not before. That is the
reason for the New Thought movement.
I am asked often: What is the relation of
this movement to the Church? What is its relation to the other new movements of
the day?. I am going to answer these questions as far as I may with utter
frankness.
This is not a new religion. It is not an
institution seeking to build itself up for the mere sake of the institution. We
do not ask anybody to leave the Church--far from it. We have members of the
Alliance, of the New Thought centres, that are members of churches and of no
church. We ask them to become better members of their churches than before. The
New Thought is designed to make people better and more efficient in whatever
relation of life they may find themselves--if a man is a teacher, a soldier, or
an accountant, to make him a better teacher, soldier, or accountant. It teaches
him to depend upon his own inner powers. In his domestic relations, it makes
him kindlier. If he is an American, it renders him a better American. It
teaches him to fulfill the place he is given (whatever that place may be) to
the utmost of his powers and without fear, knowing that he has nothing of which
to be afraid and that within him are untapped levels of energy upon which he
may call. In other words: 'New Thought teaches men and women only the old
common-sense doctrine of self-reliance, and belief in the integrity of the
universe and of one's own soul. It dignifies and ennobles manhood and
womanhood.'
But the main idea on which Christianity
was founded is that of communion with God, that of worshipping God in spirit
and in Truth. This is the very cornerstone of these modern movements that
recognize men and women as the living temples of the God within. This thought
has triumphed over all the centuries and over all the mistakes of the followers
of the Nazarene-those who have called themselves by His name--until the
Christian faith is the greatest upon the earth. And I predict that this new
interpretation and new understanding will become universal in the new age that
is now dawning; for, after all, as I see it, the New Thought is but the Christ
Thought--without forms or ceremonies, without any appeal to religious prejudice
or to tradition, but in the common-sense way of everyday living and
application. It is the realization in practical affairs of the teachings not
only of the Nazarene, but of every other great religious teacher since the
world began; for in their essence these teachings are fundamentally alike; and
the New Thought and other new spiritual movements are but the efforts to apply,
in our relations one with another, these simple and sublime truths.” Mr. James A. Edgerton
The
New Thought has often been stated in mystical language, as if it meant the
confusion of man with God. But there is no advantage in such statements. What
is meant is individualism in the better sense. The New Thought stands for the affirmation
or freedom of the individual. It is thus distinctly American in its idealism.
There is an advantage in maintaining this its distinctiveness, in contrast with
Orientalism in all forms. A History of the New Thought Movement by Horatio W. Dresser First published by Thomas Y. Crowell
Co., New York, 1919
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