What principles should distinguish a Christian business?

[The Christian should be governed by the principles of the kingdom in everything. If he is engaged in business, he should conduct his business as a child of God, and a servant of Christ. He should not have a Christian character on Lords day, and a commercial character on Monday. I should have the Lord with me in my shop, my warehouse, and my counting-house. It is my privilege to depend upon God in my business; but, in order to depend upon Him, my business must be of such a nature, and conducted upon such a principle, as He can own. If I say, "I must do business as others do business," I abandon true Christian ground, and get into the current of the world's thoughts. If, for example, I resort to placards, newspaper advertisements, and all such means of puffing and pushing, I am evidently not working in simple dependence upon God, but rather depending upon the world's principle. But some will say, "How am I to get on in business?" I reply by putting another question, namely, "What is your object? Is it food and raiment. or to hoard up?" If the former God has promised it so that you are in the way of His appointment, you have only to depend upon Him. Faith always puts the soul on a totally different ground from that occupied by the world, no matter what our calling may be. Take, for example, David in the valley of Elah. Why did he not fight like other men? Because he was on the ground of faith. So also Hezekiah. Why did he put on sackcloth when other men put on armour? Because he was on the ground of simple dependence upon God. Just so in the case of a man in trade; he must carry on his trade as a Christian, else he will mar the testimony, and rob his own soul of blessing.]

And then when you travel outside the domestic circle, and mark the conduct of the heads and members of the family toward those outside — mark their business, if they be in business; hear the testimony of those who deal with them, as to the quality of their goods, the style and character of their work; the spirit and temper in which they carry on their business; such grasping and griping, such covetousness, such commercial trickery; nothing of God, nothing of Christ, nothing to distinguish them from the most thorough worldling around; yea, the conduct of those very worldlings, of those who would never think of such a thing as family worship, would put them to shame.

But it will not do in the world. But what does this prove? Simply that the world is untrue and dishonest. If truth and uprightness cannot get on in the world, then what must the world be? Still, the Christian must be honest. His object is not to get on in the world or to make money, but to glorify God in his daily life. Can he glorify God by adulterating goods and telling lies?

We feel the immense importance, dear friend, of the subject which you have brought before us. We believe it demands the serious attention of all Christians engaged in manufacture and commerce. There is immense danger of being drawn away from the path of Christian integrity and falling into the wretched spirit of covetousness and competition so prevalent on all hands. We have to bear in mind that Christianity is a living reality. It is divine life coming out in all the practical details of our daily history. It is not confined to the benches of a meeting room. It has more ways of showing and expressing itself than by preaching, praying and singing — most precious as all these are in their place. It must come out in the factory, in the warehouse, in the shop, in the office, in the daily occupation, whatever that may be. How terrible to think of a man singing and praying on the Lord's day, and on Monday morning adulterating his bread and selling it as genuine!

We are not aware of any specific direction in Scripture as to the conduct of servants toward one another, but surely the general teaching as to Christian walk and character would bear upon that relationship as upon every other. If Christian servants will only study their model and seek to be formed thereon, it will regulate their conduct both towards their employers and toward one another. Further, Christian employers have to look well to the manner in which they conduct themselves in their relationship, for we may rest assured that to this question, as to all others, there are two sides. Back

A man who puts pasteboard into shoes and sells them for leather is unworthy of the name of Christian; indeed he is not even an honest man. We may be told, “It is the custom of the trade.” Well, how does this alter the matter for one who desires to walk in the fear of God and keep a good conscience? It may be the custom of the trade to put inferior yarn into cloth and to put water in the milk. But can a Christian or even an honest man do such things? Most assuredly not. The conscience of a Christian must be regulated, not by the custom of the trade, but by the Word of God. If this be lost sight of, there is an end to all practical Christianity in commercial life.

A Christian manufacturer could no more think of putting pasteboard into shoes and selling them as all leather, than he could think of picking a man's pocket. If indeed it be the custom to put pasteboard into shoes — if everybody does it and everybody knows it, then there is no deception in the matter. But if I sell a pair of shoes as all-leather when I know they are made of leather and pasteboard, then I am a liar and a thief. I am morally worse than a highway robber since he openly avows what he is, what he does and what he wants. A man who adulterates his goods is guilty of the very worst dishonesty.

Do you suppose for one moment, that the man who walks to his daily business, and transacts it before God, can stoop to any of the thousand tricks of trade that pervade every calling — practices that are either commonly winked at or openly allowed, but which are not according to God's standard of right ? Impossible. He must do one of two things: he must forego all such ways and buy and sell and transact his business according to the perfect light in which he stands as a Chris­tian, or, turning his back on the light and shutting his eyes to it, he must descend to the level of this world's morality, and allow many a thing to pass in his business life that he would shrink from allowing privately. Alas, how few are found in all things to carry out the former practically! How many dwarf their souls, check their spiritual life, and grieve their Lord by slipping into the latter. O beloved reader, weigh for a moment your daily life as you read these pages; consider how it will all look before the judgment seat of Christ. Think not, because it may be you are not actively employed in business, that this has no voice for you. All have their temptations to unrighteous­ness, and often in most insidious forms. Live as Paul did, in the light of God's presence and the nearing eternity, and do not allow yourself to stoop to any action, however advantageous to yourself, however commended and advised by false friends, which will not bear that light.

Certainly. This is but God-honouring. A lazy Christian is a disgrace to the coat he wears. But it is one thing to do our business heartily, and another to be so occupied with it that Christ is shut out, and instead of feeding on the bread that comes down from heaven—HIMSELF—to be feeding on the dry husks of business. To start with, you should run your business as the Lord’s steward, and for His glory primarily, not for your own profit. When this is the case the dull routine of business has a halo of glory around it, and commonplace actions are invested with a dignity, before which the crown and sceptre sink into utter insignificance.

It teaches the Christian to give full and proper pay to those he employs. It teaches the tradesman to give full measure, and eschew any trick by which illicit gain may be made. It teaches the workman to give steady and honest work, as conscientiously when not supervised as when under supervision. And if any have a believing master, or conversely a believing servant, no advantage is to be taken of that fact, as 1 Timothy 6:2 shows.

Dishonesty and untruthfulness He prohibits, especially with the profanation of His name; and He denounces oppression of one's neighbour, were it but in delaying for a single night to pay what was due to a poor labourer. Wealthy Jews were guilty in this way: is it confined to men of Israel? Vers. 11-13 are of great weight. The employment of labour is often conducted in a hard spirit, grinding the faces of the poor. It is no compensation but rather an aggravation in God's eyes for masters to give liberally to so-called Christian or to philanthropic objects what is wrung out of tears and curses. And what has not trade or commerce to answer for in the oppressive desire to grow rich?

Let us now turn to another statute of our section. "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob Him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning." (Lev. 19:13) What tender care is here! The High and Mighty One that inhabits eternity can take knowledge of the thoughts and feelings that spring up in the heart of a poor labourer. He knows and takes into account the expectations of such an one in reference to the fruit of his day's toil. The wages will, naturally, be looked for. The labourer's heart counts upon them; the family meal depends upon them. Oh! let them not be held back. Send not the labourer home with a heavy heart, to make the heart of his wife and family heavy likewise. By all means, give him that for which He has wrought, to which he has a right, and on which his heart is set. He is a husband, he is a father; and he has borne the burden and heat of the day that his wife and children may not go hungry to bed. Disappoint him not. Give him his due. Thus does our God take notice of the very throbbings of the labourer's heart, And make provision for his rising expectations. Precious grace! Most tender, thoughtful, touching, condescending love! The bare contemplation of such statutes is sufficient to throw one into a flood of tenderness. Could any one read such passages and not be melted? Could any one read them and thoughtlessly dismiss a poor labourer, not knowing whether he and his family have wherewithal to meet the cravings of hunger?

Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor, so often manifested by the rich. These latter can sit down to their sumptuous repast after dismissing from their door some poor industrious creature who had come seeking the just reward of his honest labour. They think not of the aching heart with which that man returns to his family, to tell them of the disappointment to himself and to them. Oh! it is terrible. It is most offensive to God, and to all who have drunk, in any measure, into His grace. If we would know what God thinks of such acting, we have only to hearken to the following accents of holy indignation: "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them that have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." (James 5:4) "The Lord of Sabaoth" hears the cry of the aggrieved and disappointed labourer. His tender love tells itself forth in the institutions of His moral government; and even though the heart should not be melted by the grace of those institutions, the conduct should, at least, be governed by the righteousness thereof. God will not suffer the claims of the poor to be heartlessly tossed aside by those who are so hardened by the influence of wealth as to be insensible to the appeals of tenderness, and who are so far removed beyond the region of personal need as to be incapable of feeling for those whose lot it is to spend their days amid exhausting toil or pinching poverty. The poor are the special objects of God's care. Again and again He makes provision for them in the statutes of His moral administration; and it is particularly declared of Him who shall, ere long, assume, in manifested glory, the reins of government, that "He shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him that has no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight." (Psalm 72:12-14)

May we profit by the review of those precious and deeply practical truths! May our hearts be affected, and our conduct influenced by them. We live in a heartless world; and there is a vast amount of selfishness in our own hearts. We are not sufficiently affected by the thought of the need of others. We are apt to forget the poor in the midst of our abundance. We often forget that the very persons whose labour ministers to our personal comfort are living, it may be, in the deepest poverty. Let us think of these things. Let us beware of "grinding the faces of the poor." If the Jews of old were taught by the statutes and ordinances of the Mosaic economy, to entertain kindly feelings toward the poor, and to deal tenderly and graciously with the sons of toil, how much more ought the higher and more spiritual ethics of the Gospel dispensation produce in the hearts and lives of Christians a large-hearted benevolence toward every form of human need.

True, there in urgent need of prudence and caution, lest we take a man out of the honourable position in which he was designed and fitted to move — namely, a position of dependence upon the fruits, the precious and fragrant fruits, of honest industry. This would be a grievous injury instead of a benefit. The example of Boaz should instruct in this matter. He allowed Ruth to glean; but he took care to make her gleaning profitable. This is a very safe and a very simple principle. God intends that man should work at something or another, and we run counter to Him when we draw our fellow out of the place of dependence upon the results of patient industry, into that of dependence upon the results of false benevolence. The former is as honourable and elevating as the latter is contemptible and demoralising. There is no bread so sweet to the taste as that which is nobly earned; but then those who earn their bread should get enough. A man will feed and care for his horses; how much more his fellow, who yields him the labour of his hands from Monday morning till Saturday night.