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.

    大约十五年前的一天，面对自己，我突然意识到我的生活十分空虚。我的朋友和同事们或许并不明白。根据公认的标准，我是"成功人士".我的制造公司生意兴隆，我在社交界和商界都很"活跃".

    但这对我来说并不意味着什么。我一直都在圈子里转来转去。我努力工作，尽情玩乐，不久就发现自己喝酒有些过量。我并不是嗜酒者互诫协会的候选人，但说实话，我不得不承认我喝酒过量。这也可能只是因为我感到十分无聊。

    我开始考虑该做些什么。我突然意识到我可能太专注于自己的工作，结果却牺牲了最基本但却是非物质的生活价值。我突然意识到我一直都很自私，我对其他人的主要兴趣完全在于他们对我意味着什么，他们作为我生意的关系户或是雇员对我有什么好处，而不是我可能对他们意味着什么。我记得，小时候，母亲送我去主日学校并鼓励我参加教堂唱诗班时，她常对我说，虔诚基督徒的价值在于他的精神有寄托。我试着回想《圣经》中的金箴和基督教义中某些最重要的信条。我开始对基督教青年会的工作产生兴趣了。

    刚巧就在那个时候，我们和工厂里的工会发生了尖锐的冲突。有一天我突然想到：他们的观点到底是什么，为什么会这样？我开始明白他们产生怀疑和习惯性的敌对态度的根源，因此我决定采取相应的行动。

    我们努力运用--其实是照搬--基督教的信条来处理我们和雇员之间的问题，比如说，将金箴中的某些忠告付诸实践。一旦雇员们相信了我们的诚意，他们的反应就相当好。这样做虽然痛苦，但却值得。其回报不是金钱，而是人的尊严，是一个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个小齿轮，而是整个公司有血有肉的一分子，无论他属于哪一个教会，或他的肤色是深是浅。

    但是我敢说这种态度的转变影响了我和我的人生观。同样地，或许我的许多朋友并没有注意到我的变化。

    但我自己意识到了。那种我试图通过酗酒来排遣的空虚感，现在已经被明确的目标填充了：充实地生活，意识到并尊重他人的存在。我并不是假装自己突然之间变成了一个模范。我很清楚自己仍然有许多缺点。

    但我认为与其虔诚地思考而不采取行动，不如有一点宗教信仰并付诸实践。我觉得自己比从前调整得更好，变得更成熟了。我无所畏惧。我并不是吹嘘，而是谦卑地这么说。将基督教的信条用于实际改变了我的生活。