Modern business is often complex, subject to varied pressures, and may at times present difficult and confusing aspects that make the businessman unhappy and fearful. Discords that seem to affect him adversely, whether they stem from the characteristics of a commercial operation or from personalities connected with it, diminish as the one affected gains a more correct view of man. The teachings of Christian Science provide one with a clear explanation of what he really is, the reflection of God.
The understanding of one's real or true nature is vital to the solution of a problem and is indispensable to the discernment of the right human footsteps which may be necessary for its solution. This understanding is essential, because no problem is completely solved while fear or doubt remains in thought. Fear and doubt often arise when one considers himself a mortal and therefore entirely dependent upon his human reasoning abilities. The correct view of oneself in the light of divine Truth eliminates fear. This correct view is found in recognizing that, as the Bible states (Gen. 1:27), "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him."
Because the real man derives all his qualities from God, the first requirement of one faced with a difficulty is to become acquainted with God. He must become clearly aware of God's qualities and attributes and confidently recognize His infinity and ever-presence. The next requirement is to see and acknowledge, in spite of all material testimony to the contrary, that the qualities and attributes of God are by reflection actually one's own. Then it becomes easier to deny the blatant suggestions of a material sense of existence, to see that they are without truth or substance, and that, therefore, they cannot affect one's poise, happiness, and usefulness.
Beginning with God, then—and not with the pressing problem—one must realize that God is All and ever present, a basic fact taught by Christian Science. In the light of this allness and ever-presence of infinite Love, it becomes evident that there is no real activity except that which is characterized by God's attributes. All true activity expresses good attributes, such as divine grace, perfect order, justice, intelligence, love, and joy.
Conversely, it becomes clear that activity characterized by opposite qualities, such as pressure, disorder, injustice, ignorance, and so forth, is not activity at all, but is simply an erroneous suggestion concerning the divine and only activity, a suggestion that something other than the divine activity is operating.
"The divine Mind includes all action and volition, and man in Science is governed by this Mind." So states Mary Baker Eddy in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 187). And it is of interest to note what Mrs. Eddy continues to say, "The human mind tries to classify action as voluntary and involuntary, and suffers from the attempt."
On the basis of the realization that God is the source of all real action, it can be seen that improper and hurtful business practices are without real origin or divine sanction. Understanding this, one finds it easy to dispense with the fear of being adversely affected by improper activities. Freed from the fear of being harmed by evil motives or manipulations, one finds no difficulty in taking a stand for true integrity. He finds it normal and natural to do the right thing without fear of the consequences, knowing that the consequences of good can be only good.
The wonderful feeling of fearlessness is much more than human courage, It is a divinely inspired confidence in the omnipresence, omnipotence, and perfection of God. This divine confidence is possible only because evil never had nor can it ever have entity, reality, causative power, or effect in the universe created by divine Mind, the only true universe. Good alone is the fact of existence.
It is most important to note that in becoming aware of the divine nature of true activity, one is freed from fear. One need not fear loss of employment, and one who has no fear is not likely to be victimized by injustice or personal vindictiveness.
The foregoing explanations are illustrated by the experience of a student of Christian Science. Establishing his residence, a stranger in a large city, he took employment in a field, all the aspects of which were not familiar to him. One of the beliefs commonly accepted about this particular activity was that those engaged in it were under great pressure. The pressure seemed heaviest at certain seasons of the year, and it was in the midst of one of these periods of greatest stress that the student took over a job particularly affected by the demands of time.
At first the newness of the work, coupled with the excessive demands, presented an almost overwhelming picture of strain and discord. The constant ringing of the telephone and the urgency of the demands thus conveyed seemed to leave hardly any time for the fulfilling of the demands and certainly no opportunity for the planning that would bring order and continuity to the work.
After a short time the student recognized that all this was a suggestion of evil just as surely as any disease is a suggestion. As he began to work in Christian Science, a passage from Science and Health kept coming to his thought. On page 258 Mrs. Eddy writes: "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God."
The student was impressed by the fact that God's expression constitutes the infinite idea. God does the expressing, and therefore the irresistible power of divine omnipotence is the source of all ability and strength of purpose. True ability and strength do not depend upon the student's so-called personal ability or inability. Progressive unfoldment is immutably inherent in divine law, never to be impeded.
He could see that "Mind manifests all" in its own universe of good and that therefore anything seemingly manifested that is not of the nature of divine good is actually not being manifested at all, but is simply an aggressive mental suggestion, without cause, tenure, or effect. And the student grasped the fact that in the understanding of God is to be found the true concept of man.
Certainly the untempered pressure of personal sense had nothing to do with the poise, effectiveness, and grace of the divine omniaction! The confusion, competition, and discord of many demands could not emanate from the orderliness of the divine Principle, Love. The picture of frantic, fearful, angry persons had nothing to do with the reality that man is the expression of his ever-harmonious Father-Mother, God! At this point, the great assurance of that portion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount dealing with God's unstinting provision for man came to thought (see Matt. 6:25-34). Fear of failure and of loss of his position was eliminated when the student realized that the idea of God is forever maintained by divine Love and cannot be bereft of needful things; that man does not till the soil to exist, but that his useful activity is the result of his nature as the expression of God, the all-acting and always acting divine Principle.
The student felt a great quietness and assurance, and this characterized his approach to the work in hand. The results were quickly evident. Though the currents of pressure persisted for a while, they could not diminish the student's feeling of joy, of poise, of freedom; and soon the pressures themselves began to diminish, finally to disappear altogether. The assigned tasks were done in a manner that elicited appreciation from both those in charge and those dependent upon the proper completion of these tasks for their own activity.
The blessings and fruitage came through the simple fact that it is possible to know oneself in the true divine sense. No effort was made to alter outside conditions, to change people, or to revolutionize a business system. The student realized the true nature of God, His omnipresence and omniactivity, and the nature of man as the reflection of God. He acknowledged that all was well already in the real and only divine universe. Despite error's cloud of suggestion and discord, ever-present good was seen and experienced.
In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 129), "And how is man, seen through the lens of Spirit, enlarged, and how counterpoised his origin from dust, and how he presses to his original, never severed from Spirit!"
