THE everyday activities of thousands of business and professional men and women center in their offices. City streets are bordered by hundreds of towering structures devoted solely or principally to offices, in which hundreds of thousands of workers are employed. How important that a proper concept of this familiar institution, the office, should be held! Of assistance in gaining this proper concept is the meaning of the word itself, with the light that is thrown upon it by Christian Science.
However commonplace the noun "office" may have become through constant use, it is a word of striking dignity. It is probably derived from the Latin words ops, signifying "ability, wealth, help," and facere, to do or make. Among the meanings given by a dictionary are the following: a service; duty connected with an occupation, position, etc.; position of trust or ministration; proper action; function; the place where a particular kind of business or service for others is transacted.
The last of these meanings is the one which is most frequently conveyed as the word is commonly used to-day. It is worthy of emphasis that an office is by definition a place where is performed a business or service for others. One may not, then, properly speak of his headquarters as his office unless he is transacting there some sort of business or service for others. No business of an exclusively selfish nature, no activity inimical to one's fellow man, can be carried on in an atmosphere worthy of the name of "office." It is related of the treasurers appointed by Nehemiah, that "their office was to distribute unto their brethren."
