Did Mary Baker Eddy ever refer to “a business God”?

We are sometimes asked about the authenticity of a statement attributed to Mary Baker Eddy, containing the phrase “Our God is a business God.”

Our research led us to an account of Eddy’s student and longtime household staff member Laura Sargent, who had been put in charge of the account books. Sargent’s sister, Victoria Sargent, was also Eddy’s student. Some of the people Victoria taught subsequently published their recollections, including this one:

She [Laura] was asked by Mrs. Eddy to do the household bookkeeping. That was not along her line, and she told Mrs. Eddy that she knew nothing about bookkeeping. “Laura,” Mrs. Eddy said to her, “God is a business God. He attends to the business of the universe, and you reflect His business ability.” The books were thereupon posted and balanced.¹

That statement also appears in the reminiscence of William Curtis Coffman, himself a student of Victoria Sargent.

We have found another instance of Eddy using the term “business God,” in a letter to Edward P. Bates. In addition to studying Christian Science with Eddy, he held several prominent positions in the early days of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and supervised various construction projects, including the building of the Original Edifice of The Mother Church. In September 1894, as work on the Original Edifice was surging toward completion, Eddy wrote this to Bates:

Now for another bit of business. It is a rest for me to transact business with you who are a business man, and, I trust, governed in it by a business God. I thank Him most fervently for this.²

These are the only places in our collections where we find Eddy making reference to a “business God.”