THE BIBLE AND BUSINESS

 THE BIBLE AND BUSINESS 

 (An address by C. M. Pulling, delivered before the Exchange Club, Nashville Tenn., at luncheon.)

 Gentlemen:

 It is my greatest pleasure to have the honor of being your guest to-day and the privilege of speaking to you. I am very much unlike other speakers, since I have devoted my entire life to the study of only one book, and that book is the Bible. It is, therefore, but natural for me to select a subject which belongs to and concerns it. My subject, then, is "The Bible and Business." 

In the study of the Bible we have a concrete idea of every legitimate theme in the world. It is, therefore, not strange to think we would find in the Bible the sanest and safest business ideas--yea, the finest guide to business to be found anywhere. How many business men that feel the use and need of the Bible in their business affairs. 

By the great majority it is business and religion--the Bible for religion, church, Sunday school, and the sick room, but something else for business. But the Bible has a place in every store and factory and business place, as well as in every home and heart, church and Sunday school, religious gathering and sick room. 

 It is the Bible that sweetens the air and makes the world a fit place in which to live. But for its influence there would not be an institution of mercy or benevolence on the earth; no orphan homes, asylums, hospitals, or homes for the unfortunate; neither would your present property values be worth ten cents on the dollar. It has not only been the power that reared every institution of mercy and wielded a mighty influence over men and women--morally, intellectually, and spiritually--but builder better homes and raised better horses, mules, and cattle, and its influence has been as marked even on the farm lands. 

The hand that is under the influence of the Bible has the magic power to make the earth bud and bloom and burst into golden fruitage. The Bible, therefore, is the direct cause of civilization's advancement; for where it has not gone, the savage man plows the native ox, with the bark of a tree for his harness and a forked stick for a plow, while he lives in a den or a cave or dwells in a tree.

The Bible brings him out of this crude state and makes him build homes and schoolhouses, characterized by sanitation and purity--socially, religiously, and otherwise. The business world would not be troubled again by bankrupts and delinquents if the Bible were the guide; for it says, "Not slothful in business," but "diligent in business ;" and, "Provide things honest in the sight of all men." This followed, and the business of the world would be so renovated and overhauled that all the friction, economically and industrially, would entirely disappear, as well as all domestic disorders. 

The same Bible, furthermore, says that we should learn honest trades for necessary uses, that we be not unfruitful. (Tit. 3: 14.) "Do your own business;" "work with your own hands;" "that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." (1 Thess. 4: 11, 12.) "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." (Eph. 4: 28.) 

This would protect the merchant and safeguard the buyer, for all would produce something; hence, all would have something. All could and would meet their obligations; and, therefore, the Golden Rule would become a reality instead of a theory. "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them"--socially, industrially, or otherwise. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing;" and the earth "shall rejoice" and "blossom as the rose." 

The Bible bears the same relation to the spiritual world as the sun does to the material world. But for the sun, the moon and stars would not shine; neither would the grass grow nor the water flow; there would be no rippling stream nor babbling brook. The Bible, in a metaphor, picks open the petals of every heart and twines the tendrils about the throne of God; it picks the frozen locks of frosty streams and sends them singing to the sea; and it kisses bud and bloom into life and lifts the ocean of sorrow to the clouds. Thank God for the Bible, which is the rule of life in everything and brings faith and hope and love ! I thank you.