Today's variable economic conditions cast their shadows over many a business organization. Men with heavy family responsibilities find themselves concerned with the possibility of enforced idleness and its effects upon financial obligations. But the acceptance of popular belief along these lines would lay one open to the very conditions feared. Indulgence of apprehensive speculations only generates more fear both for the individual and for business in general.
Christian Science teaches that one is not under compulsion to accept abnormalcy— financial, physical, mental, or moral— since God is the only governing force in the universe and the all-inclusive power of divine Mind equips one to exercise the authority of right thinking over every erroneous situation. Knowing that man is the individualized reflection of God, one can move with the spiritual poise, assurance, and freedom of reflected power, meeting every situation as victor, not victim.
The individual who finds himself suddenly unemployed can help himself by dealing first of all with his own response to the situation. He can immediately and firmly exercise his God-given mental control over resentment and depression, for they would only cloud his vision and stifle his inspiration. He can realize that mortal mind, God's opposite, can neither place nor displace him, since the disposal of all his affairs rests with the governing Principle, God. He must refuse consent to the popular beliefs that circulate so freely in this area of human affairs: age, general economic conditions, seasonal fluctuations.
As long as one consents to the proposition of evil's reality, he loses sight of his right to reject it. Thus he may submit to its conditions and suffer the penalty therefor. But alertness to evil's presentations and denial of them unveils our God-given ability to deal with them effectively and thus demonstrate the power of good alone as real. This power is as demonstrable today through confident, spiritual reasoning, as it was when the Red Sea parted for Moses, the prison doors opened for Peter, or the storm quieted for Christ Jesus.
In her book, The People's Idea of God, Mrs. Eddy makes this profound and comforting statement: "Few there be who know what a power mind is to heal when imbued with the spiritual truth that lifts man above the demands of matter."Peo., p. 12;
The level of thinking is the determining factor in the solution of any problem. When thought is impregnated with fearful, hateful, material beliefs, one's experience tends to be dragged down to that level. The need is then not so much for a changed condition of matter as of thought. What may appear as a pressing human need for money, opportunity, or work must be translated into the basic demand, which is always for a spiritual approach to the situation.
In the Bible, wherein Christian Science finds its authorization and proof, is found this statement, which, understood scientifically, offers a practical approach to every problem: "The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall."Ps. 18:28, 29;
A Christian Scientist made this passage the basis of his thinking when he found himself in a dismaying business circumstance. After two decades of fruitful service to an organization, he was summarily dismissed by the new owner at a time when business affairs generally seemed in very low gear. He left the office and went immediately to call upon a Christian Science practitioner, who pointed out the verses from the psalm quoted above. The two then discussed the deep spiritual signification underlying the familiar words.
The purpose of prayer in Christian Science is the enlightenment of the darkness of material thinking. Whatever shadows may be cast by universal or individual beliefs are dispelled by the Christ light of divine Love, which illumines thought with the recognition of God's ever-presence and all-power. As the mental atmosphere becomes increasingly enlightened, fear and doubt are dispersed and the unshakable confidence which comes from spiritual understanding is established.
Practitioner and patient reasoned together along these lines. Then they claimed the right of every individual to "run through a troop" of aggressive, persistent arguments, such as fear, resentment, or disappointment, that would delay progress and halt spiritual unfoldment. They also affirmed the God-given ability of each individual to leap "over a wall," to surmount successfully every obstacle placed before him, such as popular beliefs of limitation owing to age or insufficient opportunities.
The Christian Scientist was consistently alert in refusing to give his consent to the erroneous belief that he could be out of work and hence unprovided for. In this refusal lay his divine right to object effectively to all the claims inherent in such a situation. With a deep awareness of his innate dignity and power as the God created, God-governed child of Mind, he followed implicitly the instructions of Christ Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew: "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."Matt. 6:31, 33;
Within a short time this man was offered a position superior in every respect to the one he had held.
The power of Christianly scientific thinking is the great regulator of human affairs. No restricting economic condition, however widely accepted, can operate in the experience of one who identifies himself and his activities as divinely protected. It is of the greatest importance to work daily and prayerfully for oneself and one's business activities, to recognize the basically spiritual nature of all one's concerns—things that appear sometimes so material—home, business, human relationships, and health. To gauge all motives or decisions from the standpoint of unerring Principle rather than from a personal sense of things is to understand more fully that the uninterrupted, inexhaustible source of all supply is God, infinite, unchanging Love, who pours forth the riches of His goodness freely upon His creation. Since God is the directive, protective force of all being, and by His law maintains each of us in a prosperous, progressive path heavenward, mortal mind cannot push one into the wrong place nor keep one out of the right place.
There is no limit to one's accomplishments when thought is dedicated to righteousness and predicated upon Christianly scientific love for God and man, when reasoning is God-centered, rather than self-centered.
In her Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy gives a statement which we might well apply to the condition and the rewards of the spiritually diligent businessman: "Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry, evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself."Mis., pp. 204.
