Any business man will tell you that the more he knows about his business, the more likely he is to succeed in it. It may be laid down as a self-evident proposition that when one is unfamiliar with the details of his business, or when lie leaves it to some one else to manage, there is often shipwreck of his fortunes. There is the truth about a man's business, and there is a belief about it. Christian Science is little by little taking hold of the lives of men, altering their dispositions, furnishing purer ideals, spiritualizing their concepts, and its mission is to every man and to every phase of mortal belief. Science, art, music, and commerce, when based upon materiality, are temporal concepts of spiritual realities. Christian Science comes to show us the permanent and valuable in every department of life.
The ordinary business man has a material and therefore erroneous notion of his business. He is limited by the laws of his own belief about his business. He is literally a victim. St. Bernard says, "Nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault." This may be an extreme view, and from the Christian Science standpoint it leaves out all consideration of the influences of a general belief, yet it is suggestive of the modus operandi of mortal mind, whereby it induces limitation and failure in the business life.
Jesus was eminently successful, and he said, "I must be about my Father's business." His business, according to his own statement, was that of his Father, and this is the one important fact which Christian Science is urging upon the consideration of business men to-day. The first thing for such a man is to know what constitutes his business. It makes no difference whether we are artisans, mechanics, day laborers, artists, or musicians, it is necessary for us to know that our true business is our Father's business, and that it is in Mind, not matter. Such a thought dignifies all right endeavor, and confutes the opinion of Aristotle that commerce "is incompatible with that dignified life which it is our wish that our citizens should lead, and totally adverse to that generous elevation of mind with which it is our ambition to inspire them."
