Article December 29, 1923 Issue

The Father's Business is to do Good

HUGH STUART CAMPBELL

Through the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, men and women of action are learning the truth about business. Christian Science is directing the searchlight of divine wisdom upon the world's work, changing many a troubled night in the marts of trade into a dawn of glorious promise. It enters the realm of commerce with the comforting message, "Peace, be still." It enables the sword of contention to be beaten into the plowshare of contentment; the heavy-laden find rest; and the Scriptures are fulfilled: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." This fulfillment, accordingly, is neither speculative nor theoretical. It is the natural result of the practical operation of divine Principle as taught in Christian Science, whereby the might and majesty of God is revealed as a healing and saving grace among men.

One unacquainted with the teachings of Christian Science may ask, But how am I to make use of God in my business? I know there is the Golden Rule; but if I make use of it all the time, the other fellow will take advantage of me. I must do as others do in order to succeed! And then looking back on years of blasted hopes and disappointments, he may turn, and appealingly cry, as did the jailor converted by Paul, "What must I do to be saved? Such an appeal, made in all humility, prompted by a sincere desire to learn more of God, is rewarded, because it is true prayer. Of such prayer Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 2): "Are we benefited by praying? Yes, the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void."

Now, to be saved by the power of God, to be delivered from the distresses which have come to the human race because of their ignorance of God, it is first necessary to know God as He is, and to understand what His tender relationship to man, His reflection, really means. The Bible declares God to be the sole creator of all that was made. God is Spirit; and the universe, including man, is spiritual: "So God created man in his own image," we read in Genesis. If God, Spirit, made everything that was made, and pronounced it good,—as the Scriptures declare,—man as God's image or likeness reflects all spiritual ideas, of which God is the creator. Man thus endowed and blessed inherits from the loving Father all wisdom, all activity, all good; and therefore man possesses all the qualities of good which comprise good business. For true business might be termed the activity of right spiritual thinking, whereby all mankind is blessed.

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