One day about fifteen years ago I suddenly came face to face with myself and realized there was something quite empty about my life. My friends and associates perhaps didn't see it. By the generally accepted standards, I was "successful," I was head of a prosperous manufacturing concern and led what is usually referred to as an "active" life, both socially and in business. But it didn't seem to me to be adding up to anything. I was going around in circles. I worked hard, played hard, and pretty soon I discovered I was hitting the highballs harder than I needed. I wasn't a candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous, but to be honest with myself I had to admit I was drinking more than was good for me. It may have been out of sheer boredom.

    I began to wonder what to do. It occurred to me that I might have gotten myself too tightly wrapped up in my job, to the sacrifice of the basic but non-materialistic values of life. It struck me abruptly that I was being quite selfish, that my major interest in people was in what they meant to me, what they represented as business contacts or employees, not what I might mean to them. I remembered that as my mother sent me to Sunday school as a boy, and encouraged me to sing in the church choir, she used to tell me that the value of what she called a good Christian background was in having something to tie to. I put in a little thought recalling the Golden Rule and some of the other first principles of Christianity. I began to get interested in YMCA work.

    It happened that just at this time we were having some bitter fights with the union at our plant. Then one day it occurred to me: What really is their point of view, and why? I began to see a basis for their suspicions, their often chip-on-shoulder point of view, and I determined to do something about it.

    We endeavored to apply-literally apply-Christian principles to our dealing with employees, to practice, for example, something of the Golden Rule. The men's response, once they were convinced we were sincere, was remarkable. The effort has paid for its pains, and I don't mean in dollars. I mean in dividends of human dignity, of a man's pride in his job and in the company, knowing that he is no longer just a cog but a live personal part of it and that it doesn't matter whether he belongs to a certain church or whether the pigmentation of his skin is light or dark.

    But I can speak with most authority on how this change of attitude affected me and my personal outlook on life. Perhaps, again, many of my friends did not notice the difference.

    But I noticed it. That feeling of emptiness, into which I was pouring cocktails out of boredom, was filling up instead with a purpose: to live a full life with an awareness and appreciation of other people. I do not pretend for a second that I have suddenly become a paragon. My faults are still legion and I know them.

    But it seems to me better to have a little religion and practice it than think piously and do nothing about it. I feel better adjusted, more mature than I ever have in my life before. I have no fear. I say this not boastfully but in all humility. The actual application of Christian principles has changed my life.

    大約十五年前的一天，面對自己，我突然意識到我的生活十分空虛。我的朋友和同事們或許并不明白。根據(jù)公認的標準，我是"成功人士".我的制造公司生意興隆，我在社交界和商界都很"活躍".

    但這對我來說并不意味著什么。我一直都在圈子里轉(zhuǎn)來轉(zhuǎn)去。我努力工作，盡情玩樂，不久就發(fā)現(xiàn)自己喝酒有些過量。我并不是嗜酒者互誡協(xié)會的候選人，但說實話，我不得不承認我喝酒過量。這也可能只是因為我感到十分無聊。

    我開始考慮該做些什么。我突然意識到我可能太專注于自己的工作，結(jié)果卻犧牲了最基本但卻是非物質(zhì)的生活價值。我突然意識到我一直都很自私，我對其他人的主要興趣完全在于他們對我意味著什么，他們作為我生意的關(guān)系戶或是雇員對我有什么好處，而不是我可能對他們意味著什么。我記得，小時候，母親送我去主日學(xué)校并鼓勵我參加教堂唱詩班時，她常對我說，虔誠基督徒的價值在于他的精神有寄托。我試著回想《圣經(jīng)》中的金箴和基督教義中某些最重要的信條。我開始對基督教青年會的工作產(chǎn)生興趣了。

    剛巧就在那個時候，我們和工廠里的工會發(fā)生了尖銳的沖突。有一天我突然想到：他們的觀點到底是什么，為什么會這樣？我開始明白他們產(chǎn)生懷疑和習(xí)慣性的敵對態(tài)度的根源，因此我決定采取相應(yīng)的行動。

    我們努力運用--其實是照搬--基督教的信條來處理我們和雇員之間的問題，比如說，將金箴中的某些忠告付諸實踐。一旦雇員們相信了我們的誠意，他們的反應(yīng)就相當(dāng)好。這樣做雖然痛苦，但卻值得。其回報不是金錢，而是人的尊嚴，是一個人因他的工作和他所在的公司而自豪，他知道自己不再只是一個小齒輪，而是整個公司有血有肉的一分子，無論他屬于哪一個教會，或他的膚色是深是淺。

    但是我敢說這種態(tài)度的轉(zhuǎn)變影響了我和我的人生觀。同樣地，或許我的許多朋友并沒有注意到我的變化。

    但我自己意識到了。那種我試圖通過酗酒來排遣的空虛感，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)被明確的目標填充了：充實地生活，意識到并尊重他人的存在。我并不是假裝自己突然之間變成了一個模范。我很清楚自己仍然有許多缺點。

    但我認為與其虔誠地思考而不采取行動，不如有一點宗教信仰并付諸實踐。我覺得自己比從前調(diào)整得更好，變得更成熟了。我無所畏懼。我并不是吹噓，而是謙卑地這么說。將基督教的信條用于實際改變了我的生活。