One of the vital concerns of the business man—be he engineer, executive, or salesman—is production. Production must be kept up or there will be stagnation in the business cycle, with resulting unemployment and distress. According to human belief, there are many factors which tend to make production uncertain, and which claim to limit or halt productive processes. From the material standpoint the outlook of the business man is far from being one of continuous hopefulness.
Christian Science, however, brings to this prospect in human experience another view. It lifts thought from the uncertainty and hopelessness of the material sense to the spiritual fact of creation. It shows that, since God is the only creator, the real creation is sustained by Spirit and governed by divine Mind. The spiritual sense of production, therefore, may be gained from Christian Science, wherein it will be found to be an effect of divine Principle. Spiritual understanding beholds the perfect manifestations of infinite divine Principle, Mind. In the reality of being all is harmony.
Those accustomed to regard production solely as material must lay aside this notion in order to understand the unlimited nature of spiritual substance and reality. True production is the utilization of the ideas of divine Mind. Utilizing divine ideas, one is not duped or thwarted by material illusions, for he knows the unreality of error.
"But," one may ask. "how can the contemplation of spiritual ideas increase industrial production? What I need is that the wheels of industry start turning and keep turning." Let such a one ask himself this question: "What has stopped the wheels of industry from turning?" Is it not, in the final analysis, the supposed action of fear, greed, selfishness, or hate? If the trouble is primarily mental, it is logical that the correction must be spiritually mental.
Christian Science shows that our economic and other difficulties are rooted in a false material concept of existence. The recognition and realization of what is spiritually true counteract false belief, eliminate the evidence of discord, and establish harmony in experience. The understanding and utilization of the Science of being remove from our consciousness and experience that which is unlike God, good. Because God, good, is All-in-all, we can prove that evil is unreal, nothing, no person, place, condition, circumstance, or power. Christian Science unfolds the facts of spiritual creation, and teaches the student to exchange material sense for the spiritual concept of existence. As we reason from a spiritual basis, we draw true and scientific conclusions, and realize harmony in our affairs.
The Scriptures declare, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." "All things"! That leaves nothing to be made by another power. Thus, if one falsely believes that he of himself can do something, independently of God, the divine Mind, he may experience friction, interruption, and frustration, because engrossed with the false and fleeting concepts of the human mind. Rather, let the business man start his day by reverently acknowledging God to be the divine Mind, the only source of intelligence, and man as God's reflection. Let him recognize and realize the presence of divine intelligence, and claim its omniscient power as his only guide, influence, and judgment. Let him deny the false belief that evil has intelligence and power, that it can ignorantly, fraudulently, or maliciously interfere with the concordant activity of Mind. As one thus prays scientifically and gains the spirit of his prayer by reaching the conviction of the absolute reality of divine good and the unreality of evil, he will find that harmony is the law of God, which governs all, including his business.
God's ideas are expressed in consistent and universal harmony, since perfection is the product of eternal Truth. On page 544 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "In God's creation ideas become productive, obedient to Mind." The fact that spiritual ideas are effective and productive has been proved time and time again. The affluent resources of being were made available through the enlightened consciousness of the Master when he fed the multitude, although the supply at hand appeared inadequate to personal sense. Needed supply was realized by Hagar when she discerned the well in the wilderness while error was declaring itself as lack. We must let no misapprehension as to the nature of God and of man withhold from us our wonderful inheritance of ever-available, inexhaustible goodness, which is ours by divine right.
A spiritual understanding of God as the only Mind and of man's indissoluble unity with eternal Life, Truth, and Love, is of inestimable value to the business man. Economics, precedent, and human contrivances must bow before the Christ-idea, which guides human thought spiritually and reveals the power of good as made manifest in right production, distribution, and utility.
The false belief in minds many is stultifying to successful endeavor, for it is from this false concept that fear, envy, and rivalry spring. The spiritual significance of the divine command, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," will be recognized as one discerns and demonstrates the infinitude and oneness of immortal Mind. Animal magnetism fosters distrust, fear, friction, and rivalry whenever it can gain entrance to an unguarded thought and suggest a multiplicity of selfish and opposing minds. In reality there is no mortal mind arrayed against Soul. In the allness of Spirit, the omniscience of divine Mind, and the omnipotence of good, there is no place for the belief in an evil mind or so-called destructive forces. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 259), "Immortal ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results."
Intelligence and power, both of which are attributes of divine Mind, belong to spiritual man by reflection. The infinite divine intelligence, which discerns, designs, constructs, and guides, is God, Mind. An unceasing communion with infinite Soul, the source of power and wisdom, enables one to reflect the creative Principle, to do good, and to achieve constructive results. Spiritual vision guides the human mind to unfold better and more useful activities, promotes the growth of the human mind out of its own limitations, lessens materiality, lightens drudgery, and reveals ample opportunity for spiritual communion and growth. Intuition, perception, faith, logic, understanding are qualities which reflect divine Mind.
If one believes that he is not getting as much as he should from experience, one may well ask himself. Am I bringing out as much good as I am able? Self-examination will uncover mistaken concepts and erroneous habits, and self-correction will remove the error responsible for a seeming limitation of good, and harmony will be recognized as alone real. Evil has no power to limit our opportunities or hinder our capacities, and we prove this when we cling to the truth of man as God's reflection, and realize that true ability and provision are manifestations of infinite good.
Man, reflecting God, is not subject to failure. Thus the real man has no consciousness of weakness or frustration. He is never severed from divine Principle, nor does he ever lack any ideas essential to harmonious activity and satisfying accomplishment. Nothing mutable or erring is ever expressed through him. Perfection is the nature of man as God's likeness.
How can we hear the still, small voice unless we are still ourselves? What is stillness before God, but heightened spiritual attention, a listening to what He has to say to us in conscience and insight—and very greatly what He has said to us through experience as we see it in retrospect. We are still before God when we trace—also in retrospect—the lines of action which have issued in happy permanencies and in the true wealth of life. We are still before God as we consider what love and duty now ask of us.
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