Editorial October 30, 1920 Issue

The Equitable Price

Gustavus S. Paine

At a time when prices are changing, there is every reason to rejoice and nothing whatever to fear. If a price is really right for one, it must be right for all concerned. Otherwise it would not be truly right. Any readjustment must be taken as an opportunity for demonstrating more clearly than ever the supreme government of Principle. Only in this way can the price nearest right in the circumstances be established. This is what every business man or woman as well as every consumer needs to know. No human phase of things can ever work a hardship on any one, if each one knows for himself that the activity of the divine Mind is all that is really manifest, with both perfect continuity and infinite flexibility, in spite of human phases. Hence a readjustment of prices in conformity with Principle must mean a wider prosperity than ever before for all. The main question is as to what is actually right for one and for all. This can be answered only through that sturdy prayer which is consecrated reasoning in accord with divine intelligence. So, in the midst of any economic situation, right reasoning on the basis of divine Principle as the only cause of true price or anything else is enough to redeem any suppositionally opposite sense of things through the replacement of the spurious with the genuine.

Divine intelligence expressed is all that constitutes true value. The manifestation of intelligence is the idea of which any so-called commodity is merely the human counterfeit. Since the divine Mind is infinite, its idea is necessarily varied eternally in its activity of unfoldment. The whole activity and exchange or interchange of activity which represents Principle cannot be limited within human concepts. To one who understands this, the fluctuations of mortal prices are of importance only as they turn attention to the boundlessness of the unfoldment which is spiritual. Spiritual value certainly transcends mortal attempts at valuation. The recognition of just how Truth manifests itself involves a precise balance in spiritual accounting, a rendering to God of all that is due.

The real price which one pays to the great Giver of all good is simply continuous right activity. This is, of course, boundless and absolutely equal to the value received. In one sense, the real man's whole living is energetic receptiveness to Principle. In another sense, it is just as correct to say that spiritual existence is the divine Mind with its expression. The two statements are after all identical in their meaning. Combining them, one sees that expression of intelligence is real receptivity. In other words, true expression and true receiving are one indivisible process. As one knows this, one realizes that immortal value and immortal price are spiritual, quite apart from any material suppositions. Only in this way can one truly keep his balance in the very face of unforeseen complications in human economy.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

The Equitable Price

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access