THE BASIS OF GOOD BUSINESS

VIRGINIA WILKINSON KOFFMAN

In adhering to divine Principle, God, the businessman has an exact standard by which to gauge his conduct. He finds that this Principle governs his human affairs to the extent that he places himself under its jurisdiction.

If the businessman is to exemplify good business, his every thought and act must be in line with the divine demand for perfection. Integrity and sincerity are required. To temporize with Principle and, at the same time, to seek to succeed is idle. Mankind cannot steer a straightforward course under expediency, human will, or mere human outlining.

The alert Christian Scientist does not look to mortal mind to tell him whether business conditions are good or bad. Although recognizing the activity of business cycles in human experience, he gives no credence to them. But he takes to heart the admonition in Proverbs (3:5, 6): "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

When trust in Love's provision and Mind's direction supersedes trust in fallible human ways and means, the Christ, Truth, lifts one above the turbulent sea of financial chance and change. Intelligence, rooted and grounded in its primary source, the all-knowing Mind, finds expression in vigorous, courageous, and decisive action. When one's purpose is based on Principle, Mind, it is untouched by material sense testimony of fear or failure.

Christian Science teaches that good and abundance are not the possessions of a lucky person. Luck has nothing to do with true success. Good is spiritual; it is impersonal, impartial, indivisible; it cannot be divided up in pieces like a pie. God, the Father, has bestowed abundant good on all His children. The all-pervading Spirit, inexhaustible Love, knows no "mine" or "thine," but gives infinite good to all.

A limited, grasping sense is born of the fear that there is not enough good to go round. Jealousy and unfair competition are its concomitants.

Man includes all right ideas by virtue of his spiritual relationship to Mind as reflection. These ideas are as vibrant and vital as sunlight and equally as incapable of being contained in a brief case, or a filing cabinet, or a human mentality calling itself a brain. Mind's action is unlabored, and right thinking has its source in infinite intelligence; inspiration is the gift of divine Love.

Human methods claim to be able to test and rate capabilities, but divine Mind knows no human classifications. If one is tempted to underrate his mental ability, let him consider the source of man's intelligence. Would he undervalue the manifestation of the infinite Mind? Let him not, then, wrongly evaluate himself. In "No and Yes," Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 17), "Man is the climax of creation; and God is not without an ever-present witness, testifying of Himself."

There are no limitations in the infinity of Spirit. There are no mental roadblocks isolating one from the limitless abundance of right ideas and divine qualities which man already includes as Mind's infinite expression.

One Christian Scientist allowed self-imposed limitations to restrict her activities in a field which as a child she had deeply loved. This field was architecture. Lack of ability to draw and a sense of timidity kept her from taking even the first steps toward becoming an architect.

Through the application of Christian Science, however, the restrictive beliefs of limited creative expression gradually fell away. She entered the field of real estate on a modest scale and found a wide sphere of activity. She shared the joy of building new houses and remodeling old ones; she arranged for the financing with no sense of indecision or confusion. She found good business opportunities constantly unfolding as she relied on God to guide her.

Sound counsel for the businessman is found in Mrs. Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1902. Here she writes (p. 17): "It is wise to be willing to wait on God, and to be wiser than serpents; to hate no man, to love one's enemies, and to square accounts with each passing hour. Then thy gain outlives the sun, for the sun shines but to show man the beauty of holiness and the wealth of love."

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FEELING DIVINE ENERGY

February 28, 1959

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