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Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings (Prov. 22:29).
Today we highlight three enterprising Presbyterian businessmen whose names have endured long after they passed from the scene of their earthly labors.
John Wanamaker (1838-1922) founded one of the first department stores in the United States. We have highlighted his Grand Depot store in Philadelphia previously as it was the site of a famous evangelistic meeting at which D.L. Moody and William S. Plumer spoke to large crowds. Wanamaker’s store was known for its policy of allowing cash refunds, and it is said he invented the price tag. He aimed to run a Christian business operation and once said, “The Golden Rule of the New Testament has become the Golden Rule of business.” His store was a landmark in Philadelphia and New York City for many decades.
Wanamaker’s Philadelphia Grand Depot in 1876.
From the posthumously-published Prayers of John Wanamaker, we have extracted an example of his devotion:
O GOD, Thou hast set in motion the world's great clock, and from the eternity of the past it is wound up to go on to the eternity of the future.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven. All things are beautiful in Thy time, and always shall be, until Thine angel shall declare that time shall be no more.
The massive trees, the bright gardens and the blossoming shrubbery are witnesses to Thy faithfulness.
These Sabbath days are Thy times for worship and praise and prayer, and for ploughing into Thy Book of Truth.
When our days of trial come, may we re member Joseph who through trial ascended to the place of power.
We say our prayers through Jesus Thy Son. Amen.
His stores were closed on the Lord’s Day (as noted by Nicole C. Kirk in Wanamaker's Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store), as were Belk department stores, an iconic chain in the South, which began near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Belk took its name from the founder William Henry Belk (1862-1952), who also recruited his brother, John Montgomery Belk (1864-1928), to jointly run the business. The Belk brothers grew up in a Presbyterian household, although their father was killed in 1865 by Union troops. Their mother had an Associate Reformed Presbyterian background. The following illuminating autobiographical extract comes from LeGette Blythe, William Henry Belk: Merchant of the South, pp. 185-186:
“I just didn’t think I was good enough to join the church,” he explained recently. “I felt that a fellow to be a member of the church ought to be a mighty good person and I just didn’t think I was good enough.
“But when I was twenty-one years old and a grown man they had a revival in my mother’s church and I was going to the services. The Reverend A.W. Miller, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte and a wonderful preacher, was doing the preaching. One night he preached an unusually powerful sermon. I still remember it clearly. He was preaching on the text, ‘God is love.’ During the course of the sermon he went over some of the excuses that people make for staying out of the church. One of them was that you’re not good enough. The preacher then went on to answer that argument.
“‘You say you are not good enough,’ he said. ‘The truth about the matter is that you are not good enough to stay out of the church. If you were perfect you wouldn’t need to be in the church. But you aren’t perfect, you need the cleansing blood of Jesus to make you fit to be a member of the church. For that reason you should come to Him and be saved and then you will be fit to join the church and strive to be a better man or woman.’
“It sounded like a pretty good argument to me. It settled the very point that had been bothering me all those years. I went up to the preacher that night, confessed my sins and accepted the Lord as my saviour, and joined the church. And I have never regretted that step I took.
“There’s much good in all churches, I think, and all of them are headed in the same direction. But I just like the Presbyterian brand best. It seems to me that Calvinism is the best developer of sound Christian character. I believe that it is likely, if a man follows it, to make him a strong, moral force in his community. My mother was a strong Presbyterian and I guess that has a lot to do with the way I feel about the Presbyterian denomination.”
His love for his denomination, as he indicates, is but another testimonial to the love he had for his mother and his eagerness to testify to her greatness.
The first Belk store was located in Monroe, North Carolina.
These successful businessmen were each committed Christians who were members of the Presbyterian Church. They applied Christian principles to their business operations and were successful in their endeavors despite (as the world might wonder) the fact that they closed their stores on the Lord’s Day. They also contributed philanthropically to their communities, and to the ministry and educational efforts of the church. For many decades these stores reflected the values of their founders, and that is a heritage worthy of remembrance.
