Christian Science teaches that there is and can be no genuine gain without giving; that in every ethical transaction, whether between man and man or between man and God, a just balance must be maintained. The disposition to ignore this morality always means degradation of character, whether expressed in the cleverness of the gambler, the scheming of the stock manipulator, or the ignoble attitude of those beneficiaries of endowed institutions who have been most unwisely educated into a spirit of contented mendicancy. The significance of this teaching to Christian faith, and especially to the nature of Christ Jesus' saving work, is set forth by Mrs. Eddy on pages 25 and 26 of Science and Health.
The willingness to possess and enjoy, at the expense of another's labor or his inevitable sacrifice and disadvantage, and without thought of making any return to him, has found gigantic and well-nigh universal expression in the field of economics, the attempted private appropriation of communal assets, the cornering of food necessities for speculative purposes, and in the taking of unfair advantage in the numberless other ways to which business men say they must be wide-awake. Late years have chronicled very many swindling undertakings which recall the days of the "South Sea bubble," and which witness to the dominance of that desire to "get rich quick" which is quite forgetful of or altogether indifferent to the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal."
Speaking of the exploitation of the many by the few which characterized the history of the East India Company, Burke declared that it was a "corrupt and destructive tyranny." This scathing indictment, which as events proved was not overdrawn, is certainly merited by that mortal impulse to get something for nothing which is the bottom fact of most speculative undertakings and which is ever leading men to combine to secure a monopolistic control of any natural resource that supplies an imperative human need.
