I assume that the major business we are here for in this world is to be a rightly fashioned person as an organ of the divine purpose.
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God is spirit and therefore reveals Himself at the highest and best through man who, in his measure, is also spirit… We find Him when we enjoy beauty. We prove Him whenever we discover truth. We are with Him and in Him whenever we love with a love which rises above self and gives itself to another. He is there whenever we suffer and agonize over sin and wrong, and dedicate our will to make righteousness and goodness triumph.
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“To turn all we possess into the channel of universal love,” John Woolman said, “becomes the business of our lives".... This spirit does not keep a man out of commercial business, nor does it command him to confine his business to narrow limits and to small returns. But if he is to belong to the goodly fellowship of those who live the simple life, his business must be made an avenue of ministering to human life… Poetry, art, and music belong to the simple life, if they minister to man’s larger life... Beauty is as genuine a reality as truth is, and so is harmony.
***
Now on Line: Jones' 1918 William Penn Lecture, Religion As Reality, Life And Power
Moderator's note: I fell in love with Rufus Jones when I was searching for my own path back in high school, which was some time ago. I took note of these quotations when I was working on my essay on the Quakers for
Parabola about five years back. When I applied to join CarbonCopy PRO they sent me a DVD of
Insideout, company founder Jay Kubassek's pathbreaking interview with Mike Dillard, in which he insists that the entrepreneur must start with a commitment to spirituality, though people don't use that word much these days, and culminate in a sense of mission. I realize now that one reason I joined the company is that Jay's vision of business success as part of what Friends call the simple life is something I have long felt to be true and right. If that vision is your vision,
I invite you to join me. Because it's not all about the money.
