In the course of the steady progress of humanity, nothing has evidenced more clearly its advancement from barbarism to civilization than the development of business. In the dawn of human history men were obliged to care for themselves; each head of a family provided its food and shelter. In time a system of barter developed, and later men commenced engaging in business in its primitive forms. The last fifty years, however, have marked more rapid developments than all the preceding centuries. In the beginning of commerce, things could be forwarded only very short distances, but gradually traders sent their wares over land and sea, exchanging their products for those of distant lands. Today the lanes of commerce have been incalculably widened and shortened. Within a short time after cotton is picked in the fields of Louisiana in the United States, it is received in the mills of Lancashire in England, converted into textiles, and reshipped to the merchants of Bombay and Calcutta in India. This great revolution in the world's business has been immeasurably stimulated by the telephone and telegraph and the remarkable development of rapid transit over land and sea and through the air. The world is becoming more and more closely knit together. The products of field and factory are rapidly transported to the remote corners of the earth. It is gratifying, to be sure, to see the progressive steps taken toward promoting better relations between the employer and the employed and toward establishing cooperation in business, resulting in the betterment of all.
May we not ask ourselves, however, notwithstanding all these transforming influences and resultant benefits, how much has humanity learned of the significance of the reply of Christ Jesus to Mary and Joseph, when he said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" With all that we mark of humanity's progressive march, is it not only too plainly perceivable that the sons of men are still very largely actuated by the same passions, the same greed, the same selfishness as in past ages? Then, it behooves us to gain the true or metaphysical significance of these words of the Master and translate them in a practical manner in our own lives. Christian Science is pointing the way of doing this very thing.
The word "business" quite naturally associates itself with being busy or active. Christian Science declares and proves that there is but the one and only activity, right activity, spontaneously and eternally emanating from divine Principle, God, who is omniaction, or all action. Hence, unless an effort be righteous, it cannot express activity, true activity, in the slightest degree. And man, the inseparable and unalterable idea of infinite Mind, must be eternally engaged in the one business of actively and alertly reflecting Principle. This business must be uninterruptedly joyous, for its returns are not material, but spiritual. As the great apostle to the Gentiles expressed it, these returns are "the fruit of the Spirit . . . love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." While mankind struggles to gain these riches, these fruits of the Spirit, it will seek after them in vain through matter, through the vain endeavor to accumulate matter or merely worldly possessions, instead of turning to the true substance, which is in divine Mind, and where neither moth nor rust can corrupt nor thieves break through and steal. But rather are we counseled to lay up our treasures in heaven. This accumulation of heavenly treasures comes in the exact proportion in which we put on the Mind of Christ, or Truth, as it was expressed in the earthly experience of Jesus of Nazareth. "From early boyhood he was about his 'Father's business,' " writes Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 52). "His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His master was Spirit; their master was matter. He served God; they served mammon. His affections were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evidence of sin, sickness, and death."
