I think we have no _intelligent_ reason for believing that the
motives with which we prosecute our secular business, have any
influence in the _pecuniary_ results.
My reasons are _common sense_ reasons, rather than strictly Bible
proofs, viz.: I regard man as existing in three distinct departments
of being, viz., his physical or animal, his mental or intellectual,
his moral or spiritual; and each of these three distinct departments
are under the control of _laws_, peculiar to itself; and these
different laws do not interchange with, or affect each other's
department.
For instance, a very _immoral_ man may be a very _healthy_,
long-lived man; for, notwithstanding he violates the _moral_
department, he may live in conformity to the _physical_ laws of his
animal nature, which secure to him his physical health. And, on the
other hand, a very moral man may suffer greatly from a diseased body,
and be cut off in the very midst of his usefulness by an early death,
in consequence of having violated the physical laws of his animal
constitution. But on the moral plane he is the _gainer_, and the
immoral man is the _loser_.
So our success in business depends upon our conformity to _those
laws_ on which success depends--_not_ upon the _motives_ which act
_only_ on the moral plane.
On _this_ ground, the Christian farmer has no more _reason_ to expect
success in his farming operations, than the impenitent sinner. In
either case, the foundation for success must depend upon the degree
of _fidelity_ with which the _natural laws_ are applied, which cause
the natural result--_not_ upon the _motives_ of the operator; since
these moral acts receive their penalty and reward on an entirely
different plane of his being.
Now comes in the question, how then is it true, that "godliness is
_profitable_ unto all things," if godliness is no guarantee to
success in business pursuits?
I reply, that the profits of godliness cannot mean, simply,
_pecuniary_ profits, because this would limit the gain of godliness
to this world, alone; whereas, it is profitable not only for _this
life_, but also for the _life to come_. Gain and loss, dollars and
cents, are not the coins current in the spiritual world.
But happiness and misery are coins which are current in _both_
worlds. Therefore, it appears to me, that happiness is the profit
attendant upon godliness, and for this reason, a _practically godly_
person, who lives in conformity to all the various laws of his entire
being, may expect to secure to himself, as a natural result, a
greater amount of happiness than the ungodly person.
So that, in this sense, "Godliness is profitable unto all things," to
every department of our being.