Article December 19, 1931 Issue

True Investment

CUSHING SMITH

When Jesus fed the multitudes, on one of those two occasions recorded in the Bible he gave careful instructions to his followers to gather up the fragments which remained. On the other occasion we are told that they also gathered up the fragments. In both cases the amount so gleaned was sufficient to fill a good many baskets with the bread and fish which had not been eaten. In these instances Jesus not only justified a surplus, but showed how carefully this surplus must be garnered for useful purposes. So it is that the investment of surplus funds has its legitimate place as a subject of discussion in Christian Science. It is a subject which requires much consideration; for true investment is not merely the placing of surplus funds in stocks, bonds, or real estate, but is the utilization of spiritual understanding in ways which make for the betterment of the conditions of mankind.

A young bond salesman offering an issue of public utility securities to bankers was greatly discouraged by his failure to consummate a single sale, owing to objections raised on purely economic grounds. The issue was to provide electric current for an extensive mining district which had never known this convenience of modern life. Then it was pointed out to him that he must lift thought above the merely financial view of the investment to something more substantial spiritually. On his next trip he proceeded to offer these same bankers a bond of loving coöperation and interest in the lives of the sequestered but worthy people of the district. The former objections vanished, and his trip was the most successful of his career.

This illustration shows that a true investment in bonds is not confined merely to a matter of mortgages, material values, and financial yield, but involves the understanding of the true substance of divine Love and Truth, evidenced in the desire to bless and to help mankind. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 41) is found the statement that Christian Science "brings into present and hourly application what Paul termed 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' and shows man that his real estate is one of blessedness." The true estate of man in God's image is that of inheriting all things from his Father-Mother God, from whom he receives only the patrimony of purity, goodness, and righteousness—gifts of divine, ever present Love. The ultimate utilization of land or buildings must be such as to bless the neighborhood and the community. To judge the investment on this basis means to consider true substance as the basis for it; and as this condition is fulfilled, there is legitimate hope for satisfactory enhancement, since the blessing received by all is in accordance with God's purpose, and His purpose represents unfailing progress.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

True Investment

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access