SCALING DOWN | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1881

SCALING DOWN.

It is sometimes the case that merchants are obliged to reduce the valuation of their stock, in order to keep on a par with the present market value. Prices sometimes change from fluctuations in trade, or goods depreciate in value. Paper currency is sometimes exchanged for gold, and a re-adjustment of prices on the basis of existing currency becomes necessary. Some persons yield with great reluctance to such necessity. A man, for instance, has a stock of goods invoiced at ten thousand dollars, but he cannot sell them, no one will buy; his customers are all leaving and purchasing elsewhere, and at length his clerk or manager tells him, "You cannot do business in this way. What you need to do is to scale down these goods, and reduce your prices from fifty to sixty per cent.; and then you can do business." A man would naturally hesitate to take such a step. His goods were worth ten thousand dollars years ago, and he is loth to admit that they are not worth as much now. But one thing he becomes certain of, they will not sell at present prices; and so, after trying every other means, he accepts the situation, reduces prices on all his goods till he can sell them, and taking his reduced capital, purchases new stock, and endeavors to transact business upon a cash basis.

There are churches in this world which are laboring under a similar difficulty. They carry too much dead stock. Everything is rated far above its market value. Fictitious prices are the rule. The church has, perhaps, five hundred enrolled members, of whom, it may be, not one in ten is an active, faithful Christian; many know that they are unconverted; others do not know whether they are converted or not, and their most intimate friends share in their uncertainty in this respect.

A church in this condition, in order to work effectually, may need to be scaled down. Gideon's army of thirty-two thousand was too large; his host of ten thousand was too large; it was only when the whole had been reduced to three hundred men, that the Lord gave them command to go forth to battle, and crowned them with victory.

The church at Laodicea had their estimate of their real value. They were, first, "rich;" second, "increased in goods;" third, they had "need of nothing." This was Laodicea's inventory of her church property. But the "faithful and true Witness" had a book in which it was set down differently. In His estimation they were, first, "lukewarm;" second, "wretched;" third, "miserable;" fourth, "poor;" fifth, "blind;" sixth, "naked." This was their rating in the Lord's book of account. Now it was evidently impossible for them to transact business with or for the Lord on such a fictitious basis. They were either overvalued by themselves or undervalued by the Lord. Their stock was rated so high that there was no chance for dividends. The only course open to them was to come down to the divine valuation, acknowledge their poverty, blindness, and nakedness, and then buy of the Lord gold well tried in the fire, that they might be rich, white raiment, that they might be clothed, and to anoint their eyes with eye-salve, that they might see. If they were willing to do this, they could once more take their position with a reduced capital, and do business on a solid basis.

There are churches to-day that need to undergo this kind of purgation. The vine may stretch its branches hither and thither, but how long is it since it has been pruned? How many of the branches are dead, and fit only to be cut off and gathered for the flames? There are men who, on the church books are in good and regular standing, but on the Lord's book, perhaps, are hypocrites, guilty of secret iniquity and open transgression. There are men who, in the church inventory, are rated as ministers of the gospel, when in fact, they are time-servers, mere worldlings, who have intruded themselves into the sacred calling of the ministry for a piece of bread. There are sermons preached, which, in the sight of men, are eloquent and finished productions, but in the sight of God are empty, void, and vain, and are utterly lacking in honesty, sincerity, and truth. There are experiences related which are thirty and forty years old, out of date, dead, musty and mouldy as the bread in the sacks of the Gibeonites of old; and yet they suppose that all these old, worn-out experiences are really marketable goods. There are prayers offered which were out of date long ago, last year's prayers, prayers for the year before last, prayers that have been sent forth a hundred times, and never brought back even an olive leaf for an answer; prayers that are as dry as dust, and that bring no blessing to those that offer them. If these prayers were scaled down until there was nothing left of them but, "God be merciful to me a sinner," there might be some answer.

If we are to do business in the Lord's market, we must do it on the basis of actual values. The publican's short petition has more value than the Pharisee's boastful oration. When we come down to the actual condition of things, the actual facts in the case, we shall find the Lord ready to hear and answer and succor us. But no deception avails with him, no over-valuation is allowable; we must be rated at what we are worth, without hypocrisy, deception, or disguise, and must serve the Lord in simplicity and godly sincerity, with reverence and godly fear.—The Armory.