Article September 1, 2013

Protection in business

Originally published in the 1911 pamphlet titled “The Providence of Good”

All persons who are doing the world's work are engaged in enterprises which supply in one way or another the needs of their fellow men, and in return for their labors a just wage is supposed to meet their need. In the business field the belief in evil, however, works such havoc upon the ideals and purposes and plans with which men set out that the most sturdy and the most honest often meet misfortune; trials multiply about the best endeavors, and failures crowd thickly where success should stand. To this unhappy condition Christian Science brings a positive remedy, for it teaches each individual to conquer his own belief in evil, and so begins to set him free from the effects of the general belief in evil.

Many men in the business life have wrought out much of that spirit which is called the golden rule. Hand in hand with this endeavor, however, has gone the fear of calamity and the educated expectation that avarice and greed will prevail where simple goodness fails. Experience points to this as fact, say the worldly-wise. Christian Science reverses this belief, and proves step by step in the life of its followers that right thinking and right doing prevail by divine authority. The main issue lies in this: the well-meaning business man uninstructed by Christian Science believes and fears that his best efforts to do right may be unavailing, for he thinks that evil has power; the same man enlightened by some understanding of Christian Science will learn that evil is not endowed by God with power, and that he himself must not invest it with power, and that he may reasonably expect his righteous endeavors to be blessed. So Christian Science changes the situation.

The Christian Scientist's chiefest concern in his business life is whether or not he is obeying the demands of God in every detail of his work; whether he is choosing that which will bring the greatest good to the greatest number rather than that which brings good only to himself; whether he serves his employer as he himself would like to be served; whether he spares his competitor as he would like to be spared; whether, in short, he loves his neighbor as himself. Being a Christian Scientist is indeed an altruistic business. It calls for the surrender of self-interest, that the welfare of the whole may be considered. It teaches man to find his life, as did the master Christian, by laying it down for others. The business world sorely needs this spirit; for what calls more urgently for purification than politics and business the world over? What is more vital than the relation of capital and labor, producer and consumer, employer and employee? What more important than salvation in the workshop, the factory, the markets, and the fields? Surely, "an angel with a flaming sword" should come among us! And seeing this, the Christian Scientist strives to be, like his Master, about his "Father's business" first, knowing that all will be well with him if he succeeds in serving God.

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