Article December 18, 1920 Issue

Christian Science as an Asset

E. R. BARAGER

That Christian Science is really an asset for the business man can be undeniably established; in fact, the evidence of Truth's demands in business established; in accumulate nearly two thousand years ago, when Jesus, answering the anxious questionings of his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, replied: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" While the references in Holy Writ to business, as we understand the term to-day, are not voluminous, they are sufficient to satisfy us that no inconsiderable weight was at that time given to the transaction of business, and, in the second chapter and fifty-second verse of Luke, we are also told that by reason of his strict attention to and diligent effort in the prosecution of the Father's business Jesus "increased in wisdom ... and in favour with God and man."

Turning to the record as given in the Old Testament we find in Proverbs this very suggestive admonition: "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men." And what does this mean? Surely no less than that the man who is diligent in his own business, if that business and that diligence square with the Golden Rule, shall most certainly not only find favor with the right kind of men, but he shall also inevitably be "about the Father's business," as well.

One of the most prevalent errors that appears to cloud the horizon of human kind is that to be "about the Father's business" is a sort of one-sided affair. In other words, that to enter upon a godly life to any considerable extent or with any particular degree of fervor means the giving up or changing some part or element of one's daily business activity; that a business man, if he would be a Christian, must of necessity be different in business from what he has always been. Not by any means! If his business methods and daily life have heretofore been in accord with the Sermon on the Mount, there will be only unfoldment. It will still be necessary for him to "put off the old man." An excellent method of doing this Paul gave most definitely in the twelfth chapter of Romans, when he said: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

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