Any religion that will not stand the strain of modern business may have
been good for some other age; but it is valueless in this one. The
test of your piety is not peace in the pews of the church, but power
and direction in the stress of the market, its adaptability to your
activities as well as your meditations.
The problem of the reconciliation of business and religion is not
nearly so complex as we would believe. The people who are saying it is
impossible to be upright and get on in the world mean that it is
impossible to be honest and to gain all the questionable advantages on
which they have set their hearts. When a man says that religion and
business will not work in harmony he either has a wrong brand of piety
or a false conception of business.
Religion is built for business. The only creed that is worth a
moment's thought is a working creed, that is, one that gets into
action. Religion is not the mere acceptance of a speculative
philosophy of this and other worlds. It consists in principles,
ideals, and motives which dominate conduct. It is more concerned with
the kind of a world you are making here than with the conceptions you
may have of a world beyond.
Religion is more than an institution; it is a course of life. It has
to do with the church only in so far as the church serves its purposes.
It is more concerned with what a man pays his employees than with what
he puts into the plate at the collection. The man who can put all his
piety into the prayer-meeting and the services of the church never has
enough seriously to embarrass him under any circumstances.
If for your religion you have adopted principles of high living; if you
have set the worth of the soul above all other things; if you have
determined to frame your life according to the golden rule of the great
Teacher, and, with Him as hero and ideal, are seeking to do good to
others and make this world a better place for us all, with less of sin
and sorrow and more of joy and love, you will make your business as
well as your praying the servant of these ends.
But if you have said that you wish to do these things, that you wish to
live the pure and beneficent life while in your heart your sole desire
is to get riches, to gain fame, to secure power, then there is bound to
be conflict between the religion you profess and the business that
possesses you.
Everything depends on the purposes of living, on the things a man
really and deep within himself sets first in his life; he will follow
those things no matter what other professions he may make. Business as
a servant deserves our allegiance and devotion; business as a master is
the most evil and soul devastating thing in this universe.
There is the most perfect harmony; there is relatively easy settlement
of problems and difficulties if but this principle be adopted; that you
have taken as your chief business in life the ends of true religion,
the development of character and the service of humanity, and, with
this purpose, the daily toil, the opportunities and enginery of your
trade or profession shall be made to serve these higher ends.
Religion then becomes the motive in business and business the
manifestation of religion. A man serves the Most High in his office
with the same devotion and elevation of spirit as a priest at the
altar. He is doing a great work, because the spirit is great. In
questions of conscience he can afford to lose everything except the
great end; he will not sacrifice the lesser to the greater.