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Chapter 15—Business Principles and Methods
There is no branch of legitimate business for which the Bible
does not afford an essential preparation. Its principles of diligence,
honesty, thrift, temperance, and purity are the secret of true success.
These principles, as set forth in the book of Proverbs, constitute a
treasury of practical wisdom. Where can merchants, artisans, or
directors of men and women in any department of business, find
better maxims for themselves or for their employees than are found
in these words of the wise man:
“Do you see those who are skillful in their work? they will serve
kings; they will not serve common people.”
Proverbs 22:29
, NRSV.
“The drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness
will clothe them with rags.”
Proverbs 23:21
, NRSV. “Whoever walks
with the wise becomes wise.”
Proverbs 13:20
, NRSV.
The whole circle of our obligation to one another is covered by
that counsel of Christ, “In everything do to others as you would have
them do to you.”
Matthew 7:12
, NRSV.
How many might have escaped financial failure and ruin by heed-
ing the warnings so often repeated and emphasized in the Scriptures:
“One who is in a hurry to be rich will not go unpunished.”
Proverbs
28:20
, NRSV. “Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting
fancy of those who seek death.”
Proverbs 21:6
. “The borrower is ser-
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vant to the lender.”
Proverbs 22:7
. “To guarantee loans for a stranger
brings trouble, but there is safety in refusing to do so.”
Proverbs
11:15
, NRSV.
With these principles are bound up the well-being of society,
of both secular and religious associations. They give security to
property and life. For all that makes confidence and cooperation
possible, the world is indebted to the law of God as given in His Word
and as still traced in lines often obscure and well-nigh obliterated
in human hearts. The psalmist’s words, “The law of Your mouth is
better to me than thousands of shekels of gold and silver” (
Psalm
119:72
), state an absolute truth and one that is recognized in the
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