The Unsuccessful Salesman
By B. M. GRANDY
Sought a Paltry Prize — Lost His Position
A SALE was on. Rugs and carpets at reduced prices, and remnants at cost! Every salesman in the great store doing his best, that he might be the winner of a cash prize offered to the one making the largest sales! One salesman was waiting upon a woman who wanted a piece of carpet of a certain size. A remnant, marked at $7.25, was shown her. The quality suiting her, she said she could use the piece if it were the needed size. Unwilling to cut the piece, yet fearful of losing a sale, the salesman offered her the entire piece for $5.35, which was less than the first cost. Not prepared to take the piece that day, she had it laid aside, promising to call the next day. When she came, another salesman waited upon her. Designating the piece of carpet she wanted, she told of the transaction of the day before. He at once informed her that, according to instructions from the proprietor, no salesman was permitted to make any reductions on the marked price. The proprietor was called, and after a few inquiries, he indignantly remarked that the too anxious salesman would be summarily discharged. In his anxiety to win a paltry cash prize7and make a record for himself, the salesman would both rob his employer and cheat his fellow salesmen. In the great heavenly storehouse, there is a robe of righteousness and a crown of gold for every one who will pay the price. No human being could ever pay the cost, but there was one who could — the Son of God. The only-begotten of the Father could pay the cost with His precious blood. Thus was the cost paid. The beneficiary of this transaction must accept the gift, and besides, add all that he has — his life, his all. Many eager salesmen are to-day pleading with men to buy of the goods of the heavenly storehouse. Now, as of old, it takes all to buy the robe and the crown. Some, in their eagerness to make a record for themselves, are offering these for less than the marked price. Failing to appreciate the importance of their trust — the infinite value of the goods entrusted to their hands — they cheapen the things of heaven. Like the dishonest carpet salesman, they thus dishonor their Master, discredit their fellow laborers, and at last fail of the prize, and hear the fateful words, “Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” The faithful salesman does not add dishonesty to diligence in the race for the eternal prize. There are still many souls, amid the teeming millions of earth, who long to reach the high standard that the Infinite demands. These pass in disdain the cheap substitutes that are everywhere offered in place of the true. Men bearing the title of ministers of God, standing as watchmen on the walls of Zion, can ill afford to preach anything else than the complete gospel of Christ. Neither prophet, apostle, nor even the Christ would or could annul or change the commands of God. These commands stand “forever and forever.” And it was the hypocritical scribes that made them of no effect by their traditions. Is the gate less strait, or the way less narrow, than it was when the Saviour discoursed on the mount, and led His disciples in their work of winning souls to be robed with His righteousness and crowned with the crown of life?