Since the process of making a living has always been attended with difficulty ever since the day when Adam began to get his supply from matter and to earn his bread in the sweat of his face, it is not surprising that quite as many persons seem to be struggling with what is popularly termed "the business problem" as with any other phase of human experience. We are all busy at something, and we want that something to be successful, and if it is not successful we want to know why. "Why?" is the cry of the ages; and to humanity's appeal Christian Science makes compassionate reply, for it teaches that if anything seems wrong or unjust or unsuccessful, we have a right to know why. Hence it is as proper and legitimate to bring our financial problem to Christian Science for solution as it is to bring one which is called purely physical.
To the young student of Christian Science, however, some perplexities often arise along this line. It matters not what his business may be, whether it be selling groceries or running a bank, or financing a new business, or driving a street-car, he who enlists the services of a Christian Science practitioner to help him, usually finds that his former theories about business must undergo a radical readjustment before he can hope to make any progress in solving his problem metaphysically. Whatever he may have been doing, the first thing he has to learn is that in reality there is just one business, and that is the "Father's business," of which Jesus spoke, and it is never in matter at all.
Another thing which the student quickly learns is that he cannot come to Christian Science to "put through" any specific business deal. The man who fancies he can turn to this religion to make money is laboring under a grave mistake. Although a lack of anything which is good, desirable, and essential is not in accord with God's government, and can be and should be overcome by right thinking, yet to attempt to utilize metaphysical treatment for the purpose of material gain is seriously to misunderstand the nature and purpose of this pure and undefiled religion. It is not the business of Christian Science to accumulate matter for any one. A treatment is not given in order that a small supply of matter shall straightway become a larger form of the same thing. A correct treatment, on the contrary, would include the realization that since "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468), there is no matter, and hence no material business.
