Article April 30, 1921 Issue

The Profit of Labor

NELLIE A. GREEN

WE read in the Bible, "In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." Before commencing to learn the true nature of God and His creation, one lives with the door of spiritual sense closed, laboring for matter to bring happiness, to accumulate the riches of this world, or to live longer for their enjoyment. Jesus taught the right way to labor, in all his experiences with the people. After he had fed the multitude with the loaves and fishes, some time was spent in searching for him, and finally he was found at Capernaum. He knew they sought him for the material gain, and told them so, admonishing them not to labor for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which giveth everlasting life; and when they asked him how they might work the works of God, his reply was to believe him, whom God had sent.

When one, finding his business threatened with inactivity by reason of scant supply, lessened demand, and so on, causing loss to all connected, desires to work as Jesus taught, he finds the labor to be mental, and seeks to know what God has already given him. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Both Science and consciousness are now at work in the economy of being according to the law of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy" (Science and Health, p. 423), and the profit of this labor is recognized as the proving of the one consciousness as God, and by the expression of it in daily activities. The price of this unlimited and inexhaustible knowledge is paid by giving up or casting out "the talk of the lips," or what the physical senses may say. Thus fear of lack and loss, worry, and idleness disappear, and if any of these false beliefs reappear it means more earnest and honest effort to uncover and uproot them, that the abundance of good and the activity of divine Love may appear. Solomon says, "A faithful man shall abound with blessings." This labor is joyous as the release from the bondage of this world's disturbances is realized and it is perceived that material sense is not of the kingdom of God.

There can be no bluffing out of wrong conditions nor anything gained by only denying their reality, for the effects of these conditions are present until corrected with spiritual understanding. Since God or Mind is the only true consciousness or intelligence, all opportunities must be known to God; and man in His image and likeness, reflecting this intelligence, is enabled to see and grasp these opportunities as substance. Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 468 of Science and Health, "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." We need not labor for more opportunities but for more of the Mind of the Christ, to see the ever present opportunities. Our work is the same to-day as yesterday, and as it will be forever, and this constant turning to God lessens mistakes and losses and we understand God to be the only employer. Thus the suggestive appeal for work and the fallacy of waiting for adjustment is silenced, not with the "No help wanted" sign but with the understanding that all work is God's work, and man, the result, is continuously expressing God, and as God's work is perfect and eternal, it requires no adjusting.

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