Article January 21, 1933 Issue

Business, and the Kingdom of God

ROLAND R. HARRISON

One whose business had shrunk almost to the vanishing point, whose debts were mounting and whose bills were unpaid, took his problem to a Christian Science practitioner. The picture he painted of himself and his business was to human sense a most gloomy one. He had an appointment for the next day to meet one of the officers of a large manufacturing corporation which was his chief creditor. The company already had extended credit far beyond the point where it would be considered justifiable.

"What," he asked, "am I to do? I no longer have any credit rating. I cannot get a loan from any bank. What can I say to my creditor? I must have goods to do business, and yet I cannot pay for what this company already has let me have."

He saw himself at that moment as poor, restricted, limited, and resourceless. Did the practitioner see the same thing? No! The practitioner saw him as God's child, spiritually rich, wonderfully rich, with credit unlimited, with resources inexhaustible. As he looked into this one's face, there shone out of it a great, rugged honesty of purpose, a sincerity of motive, a desire to be just, a love of fair dealing with all men. And these thoughts came to the practitioner: What are glowing mercantile reports, big bank balances, unlimited business credit, which may vanish almost overnight, when compared to the wonderful divine qualities which the real man reflects? Honesty, loyalty, sincerity, truthfulness, pure motives, trustworthiness, a desire for good, love for God and man, obedience to God's commandments constitute an array of assets within righteous thinking wherewith to do business—to be about the only business there is, our Father's business.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Truth, the Great Employer