The Hardware Dealer Sent Customers To His Competitor

The Hardware Dealer Sent Customers To His Competitor

by Starr Daily

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Our Father, may we be guided in what is said and in what is heard. Help us, and help us to hear what is right. Be safe in the right way. For Jesus’ sake, amen. I noticed coming in here tonight that there was a sign out in front that said there was a wedding going on over in the other church.

And I guess Dwight is performing that ceremony. And I thought as I read that sign that if they pray together, they’ll stay together. And if they don’t, they won’t. They may stay together, but they will not be together.

When my wife and I were married, we… the minister’s own married life was cranking up. In fact, it was already on the rocks. They had a 12-year-old daughter. And both of them loved the girl. And they were just about to separate and did soon afterwards.

And the reason why they couldn’t hold that thing together was they had ceased to pray together. And consequently, they couldn’t stay together. It’s awfully hard to maintain the love relationship in marriage unless it is centered in God. It’s awfully hard to hold something together that isn’t consummated in the kingdom of heaven in the first place. And so this minister said to us, the very cynical thing, when he pronounced the final words, he had come to the place where all that marriage meant to him was that it was just an illusion. And he, a minister of the gospel. Well, I hope these two who are being married will not so consider it, will not at any time in their lives ever think of it as anything except a very sacred bond.

Well, I’m going to give three talks tonight in one. If I had about another week with you, I wouldn’t do that. But I don’t have but one more chance at you tomorrow. And some of you have come from so far distance, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, down here. I brought some friends from, I think, 150 miles from here to hear this talk tonight. Well, it better be good. And, Brother Smith, that’s what you call hungry and thirsty. Anybody who will drive 150 miles to hear religious talk, that’s hunger and thirst.

And the first talk that I want to give out of the three is based upon an old truism, that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. And the only tragedy and catch in that is that when people come to an extremity, they fail to make it possible for God to turn it into an opportunity.

But if at the point of extremity, when we can’t do anything more about it, and when seemingly no one else can help us, and all the skies seem brassy and there seem to be no escapes, then if in that extremity we surrender to God, the extremity becomes His opportunity.

One of the greatest experiences in my life of a miraculous recreation of a human personality and deliverance of a soul came out of the extremity of the mother of the one who was released. Back in the thirties, I was called to minister to the unchurched. And I used to have my meetings always in neutral places.

I would either have them in theaters or I would have them in public halls. And my whole purpose and mission was to reach those who were not church. And I think there is something like 85 million people in the United States who have no church affiliation at all, none whatever.

Most of them have never even been inside of a church. And most of them have been brought up in homes where there were no Sunday school connections even. And so we are a Christian nation, but over half our population is not identified with any Christian church. And so I was trying to reach out and gather in some out of this large body of people. And I was up in Seattle, Washington.

And I had a series of lectures scheduled up there in a hall on Christian psychology for the type of people I was seeking to reach. And the lectures I had all typewritten and practically committed to memory. And eight of them. They were all advertised and the papers had publicized the thing. And a large mailing list had gone out to these people, inviting them to these lectures. And we had a house full. Something like 500 people had gathered there to hear these talks.

And when I came on to the platform to begin, I noticed a little woman coming down the aisle slowly, and she looked as though she was in great sorrow. And her life looked very broken, in fact. And she came down with her head down. And I thought she was coming to one of the chairs. There were a few chairs up in the front. And she was holding something in her hand. But instead of stopping at the chairs in front, she came on up to the edge of the platform and handed me this paper. It was an envelope. And I took it and pointed her to a chair. And I put it in my pocket.

And I stepped to the stand and started to speak and had my manuscript lying on it. And for some strange reason, I was unable, not only not even to see that manuscript, I couldn’t read it. And I couldn’t get started with my lecture.

It seemed that I had no power. I don’t know whether you’ve ever had the experience of being in a nightmare and straining and striving to do something. And all the time realizing that you had no power to do it. That you were helpless. That you were helpless.

And that’s the way I was. And I simply couldn’t get started. And finally, I bowed my head in an effort to get my thoughts going. And I looked up and the people’s heads were bowed. And until then, they thought I was leading the… beginning the meeting in silent prayer.

And I said to myself, if they think I’m praying, maybe I had better pray. And I did pray. And when I prayed, my mind cleared. But the subject upon which I was scheduled to speak and advertised to speak passed out of my consciousness altogether.

And I spoke upon a subject that should have driven every one of them out of the place. For they came there to hear a certain thing. And I began to speak upon an entirely different thing. None of them were religious.

Had no connection whatever with religion. And I began to speak on a purely religious subject and to give my own testimony as to what Christ meant to me and what He had done for me. And they all stayed.

And as I got deeper and deeper into it, I finally got to the place where I was describing my situation in a penitentiary. Where I, too, was at in an extremity. Physically, morally, spiritually, and every way. In fact, I was practically dead on all levels of my life. My conscience was dead.

I had been bitterly atheistic. And as a young person, I had been very caustic and cynical and skeptical. God had never been able to touch me. All I had for religion on religious people was a sneer. No three tears in my heart for religion. I considered religious people to be escapists from reality.

I felt that they were unable to face their problems. That they couldn’t take the responsibility of living. That they were always running away from themselves. And making a religion a refuge from responsibility. I was very, very caustic about religious people. And very antagonistic toward them. So my conscience was dead.

And there was no animation or energy at all that was active in my soul. And no spiritual light in my being. And consequently, the thing that happened to me was in the nature of a resurrection. It was a resurrection experience because I was dead, almost literally so.

And I was describing this experience there that night. And I got to the place where I told about lying there in that dungeon cell. For I was in solitary confinement. Under punishment for violating prison laws and rules. And I was describing the presence of Jesus coming into me. And standing over me and looking down upon me with compassion.

And then I said in one moment I was this, a thoroughly conditioned criminal personality. And in the next moment I was born new, a new creature in Christ. And when I said this, a young woman stood up out in the audience and threw her hands up like that and said, “I’m healed.” And she began to praise God and to cry over and over and over again, “I am healed.” And she kept praising God. And the place seemed electric. The more she did that, the more profound became the experience of that group. And I myself was undergoing an amazing experience out of what she was doing and saying, because I knew that what she had experienced was real.

Suddenly she became a real Christian. Not just a church goer. Someone who goes to a Sunday school or a Bible class. Not an artificial Christian. She became genuine and clear through. And I went to the hotel after this was all over.

And I happened to remember that the envelope this little lady had given me. And I took it out of my pocket and read it. And it told me that this little lady who came up and gave me that was the mother of this girl, this young woman. And this mother said that she had read one of my books.

And she told the tragedy of this young woman’s life, that’s steeped in sin and narcotics and dissipation and prostitution and everything else. She had been in many institutions up and down the Pacific coast and many jails. And told how the father and mother had done everything that they could over a period of about seven years to try to help her. She had gotten started on narcotics as a musician, first taking it merely to get stimulation. And later she was taking the barbiturate tablets to sleep. And she progressed out of that into heavier narcotics and became an addict. And then she did everything that she could do to get money to keep up the supply. And much of this money came from her parents.

And she wrote all this down in the letter. And she said that she had prayed and prayed and prayed until she had come to the end of her rope. In other words, she had come to a place of extremity concerning the one she loved. And there wasn’t anything else she could do. And this was her last… her last opportunity.

And she read about these meetings and she came. And she said her daughter promised to come with her. But she said if she gets nervous, she will get up and go out. Therefore, she closed the letter with, “If you ever spoke to anyone in your life, speak to my daughter tonight.” Now, I had not read the letter. It was in my pocket. All I knew was that she came down the aisle and gave it to me. I had a set lecture schedule to give.

Then if I didn’t read the letter, who did? And who took the lecture that I had in mind out of my mind and reversed the whole process and put into my consciousness and my intention an entirely different thing that I had in mind, which was the only thing that would speak to that woman’s daughter?

Well, I believe that it was the whole experience. Who did that? I believe that there was a real experience there because in an instant’s time, what money and persuasion and kindness and love had been unable to do, the Spirit of God did in a moment while she sat in a seat in a neutral auditorium. Now that is somewhat of a miracle. And yet that is the power of God under salvation.

And that is the power that we need in the world’s day. If there ever was a time in the history of this country and all other countries when we need that kind of transforming power, it is now. Up to and including the period of the Civil War, the founding fathers in this country believed in prayer. And they used prayer all the time.

In the haggling, in the first congressional assembly, when they were trying to get things straightened out and get their minds together on what they ought to do, they could come to no agreements or could arrive at no harmony or no plans. And Benjamin Franklin rose and said that unless they appealed to the Father of Lights, all their deliberations there would be in vain.

And it was there that prayer was introduced into the governmental deliberations of this country. And that was very vital right up to the time of the Civil War, and personally I believe that this nation was founded under God.

And that it was set apart with a kind of a destiny, and that if the people of the United States will get back to their Bibles and back to their God, they can yet make a tremendous contribution to the world’s need at this hour. If our extremity becomes great enough, it may be that in a corporate body, that as a nation we may surrender our lives to God nationally as well as individually. And if we do, I am quite certain that there will be great grace and great transforming power come to us as a nation, and that we can really be a beacon light in a dark world. Now that is talk number one. I’m going to give you another talk.

And this one is another title. I believe Stanley Jones has used this title a great deal. Man’s problem is God’s possibility. Our problems are God’s possibilities. I heard him speak on that subject one time and he gave a magnificent address on it.

I was in a men’s retreat about two years ago. 150 laymen gathered and these were all churchmen. Many of them were officers in their churches, but once a year they gathered out in this lodge and held a retreat.

They came out on Friday and went back on Sunday afternoon. And at this particular retreat they had invited me there to fellowship with them and be with them. And the man who gave the keynote address to start the retreat was a hardware dealer. He owned a hardware store.

And he got up and said that they were out there to attempt to deepen their spiritual lives. And he asked a number of questions. I was sitting there on the front seat. One of the questions that he asked was this.

Is our religion a Sunday affair? Or is it something that on Monday we should put aside and go back into the same old routine of our everyday lives? Or does religion apply also to our work and to our professions?

And I don’t know how true he was in making this statement, but he said that the religion that was preached in their churches was of such a nature that it was up here while their lives, their everyday lives, were now here.

And that their religion and their work were not identified. And he said, what we want to know is, does religion work all the way down from the above clear down through what we are doing every day? In our professions and in our businesses and in our work should our religion also apply?

And he was putting those questions to me, for I was going to be giving some messages there. And he made it very easy, for I believe that religion is an everyday and an every hour proposition. I believe that we should apply our religion everywhere, in our work, in our leisure, in our pleasure, and that God is not separate and remote, that He belongs where we are and we belong where He is, and that it’s up to us to let our everyday affairs be a part of His business. And he gave me a tailor-made schedule there and pattern follow. Now this same hardware man later on in that retreat sat down with me off in the corner and told me about his problem. That’s where the problem and possibility comes in here. He had a small, rather small town, and really there was not room in the town for a competitor in that particular kind of business.

Yet a competitor did move in and set up a competitive hardware store, and there wasn’t enough business for the two really. And so his competitor began to use pagan methods to put him out of business. He was a Christian and his competitor was a pagan.

He had principles and his competitor had none. As a Christian there were certain limitations he imposed upon himself and were imposed upon him by his church and by his Bible and by his God. But his competitor had no such limitations. He could use cutthroat competitive methods and he was doing it.

And the more he did it, the more difficult it became for this Christian man to cope with it. And finally this competitor libeled him, point blank. He hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t done anything. He just turned the other cheek and had been smacked on at every time.

But finally this fellow libeled him. Libeled his character and libeled his reputation. He had him over a barrel if he had wanted to press him. He had the man right where he wanted him. He not only could have put him out of business but he could have sent him to the penitentiary.

He had the legal big stick right over his head. And he was on the verge of doing it. And then he came up against his Christianity again. What does the Bible say about this? Shall I take this man into a pagan court?

Or shall I use the principles of dealing with matters of this kind laid down by Christ and by St. Paul? And that was where he was debating between these two courses when we talked it over. And he said, “You’re not in this situation, and the chances are never will be.

“But just suppose you were in my place. Your character had been defamed. Your reputation had been attacked. Not only you, but people who believed in you were at stake. And your family. A lot of things at stake here. If you were in this situation, what would you do?”

I said, “Well, it would be very glib to say anything. Or it’s easy to talk when you’re not in the situation. And it might seem very trite for me to tell you that you ought to do the Christian thing.”

Well, he said, “That’s what I’m struggling with. What is the Christian thing?” I said, “The man is your enemy, isn’t he?” He said, “He certainly is. And he’s a very great and energetic enemy, and he’s intending to put not only me, my business out of commission, but also my life.

“He’s a danger,” said to me. Well, I said, “The Christian thing is to love him.” He said, “That is easy to say, isn’t it?” And I said, “Yes, it is. Very easy to say and very hard to do.”

He said, “Do you think that would work?” I said, “No, not if that was your motive. It wouldn’t work. You’re not to love him simply because you want to escape from the difficulty you’re in. And you don’t want to love him simply because you want to attain something or achieve something out of this problem. You want to love him because it’s the Christian thing to do and his soul is at stake.

“This man has sold his soul for gold. And unfortunately, you are the object that has caused him to do it. So that you, in a way, are responsible for what he does and for what happens to his soul.

“Hence, you should apply Christian love to him simply because that’s what you ought to do, that’s what you’re commanded to do as a Christian.” And he said, “How would you do it?” Well, I said, “You can pray for him and you can exercise goodwill for him.

“And if you ever get stamina enough, courage enough, you can do good to him in a way that he may never know who does it. Not letting the left hand know what your right hand is doing.” And we broke up our little trius there and I didn’t know what would become of it. I just threw that out. That’s what came. And I gave it to him and forgot about it.

The next year, I was back to that retreat that he got up and gave his testimony. And his competitor was in the retreat with him. He began to pray for the man and to exercise goodwill toward him. And the more the man attempted to use mean and unusual competitive methods against him, the more he prayed for him, the more he attempted to love him and exercise goodwill toward him. And then he brought into action this principle of not letting the left hand know what the right hand does. And when he had a commodity in his hardware store that he knew might possibly be inferior to the other man’s, he recommended that the customer go to his competitor.

And if he didn’t have an article in his store, he would always recommend that they go to his competitor that it could possibly be obtained there. And he did this secretly. But of course the people who went didn’t keep a secret.

They would go in and they would say that Mr. So-and-so recommended that you might have this article. And that went on and on. And by and by a customer came into his store and said that he had been sent by his competitor.

And he was giving this testimony and pretty soon he said, our customers were going like this back and forth to each other’s store. And then he received a letter from his competitor. Yet I’m ashamed to call you on the phone or to meet you in person.

But I wish we could get together. And he grabbed at that opportunity and went right down. Then he said, they came to this conclusion that since we are no longer in competition but are chasing our customers back and forth to each other’s store, why don’t we merge and just have the beginning of a chain of hardware stores. And they did that. And they were both there together at the retreat.

He had done the right thing, and if he had taken that man to jail and into a pagan court and had gone through with an unchristian faith, his own Christianity never would have worked in his life. As a matter of fact, he was up against a type of problem there that as a Christian, only a Christian attitude could be taken. And had he taken any other attitude, he would have stabbed his Christianity in the back.

He has made his Christianity work not only on Sunday in an abstract way, but he has made it work in his everyday life right down where he is as a businessman. And as a matter of fact, these two men are even at this very moment in the process of organizing a chain of hardware stores is, might be called from defeat to victory.

And I guess the greatest defeat in historical times was the defeat of Jesus on the cross. And I suppose this turned in to the greatest victory. For if it had not been for the victory of Jesus on the cross, we would still be living in an unregenerate world with no salvation possible for the soul, we would be no better off than the followers of Buddha, or the followers of Mohammed, or the followers of any other world religion.

Had He not had that defeat on the cross, which was turned into a victory, we would be bankrupt of any possibility of salvation by grace. Oh, how the Christians in other lands than ours have struggled and sacrificed for their religion, for their Christianity.

There are countries in the world now where Christians are willing to expose their lives to death, that they might go into secret places in caves and houses and out-of-the-way places, merely to worship their Christian God. And how we here in America, with free speech, to write freely, to assemble, take our opportunities and our privileges so lightly, scarcely willing to walk across the street for the privilege of worshiping our Christian God.

Christians in Russia would love to have this opportunity that we have here. How the Christians died in Germany under Nazism. What valiant ones they were. How they were willing to pay for the privilege of even dying for Christ.

And we have it all, every opportunity. No Gestapo, no spies, the right freely to assemble and worship God after the dictates of our conscience. And how little do we even think about that as being one of the most magnificent privileges in our lives.

Well, maybe we need some defeat. A great French woman said the only trouble with America is it hasn’t suffered together. Her land has never been invaded. She said America will become great and will become a Christian nation if it ever suffers defeat enough.

Maybe that is coming. Maybe it needs to come. Who knows? And if it does, out of that defeat may come our victory. But we do know that out of defeat in individuals’ lives, God has gathered great victory. I was in Oakland, California, one night giving a talk, and I kept looking out in the audience at a very, very bright looking face of a man. He just seemed to be radiant.

Seemed to be possessed of a marvelous spirit. And so much so that when the meeting was over, I went down and made his acquaintance and asked if I might have a talk with him. And we went over to the hotel lobby and talked. His wife was with him and two children, one about ten, I think, the other about twelve. And they were very happy looking. And over in that hotel, he told me his story of defeat. He was brought up in a family of ministers on both sides of the family, both the mother’s side and the father’s side. But he himself didn’t take to it and he got off on the wrong foot and went in for drinking and gambling and finally crime. And he served two terms in California prisons, one in Folsom and one in San Quentin.

And he lost his health. His stomach was full of ulcers and he was in a dying condition when they turned him out, and when they didn’t turn him out he had no nerve left to commit crime. He was too sick.

And he didn’t know what to do and he was afraid to steal, and so he finally in his desperate need to get medicine and the right kind of food, he knew he had to do something, and the easiest place to go to steal was a church. So he attempted to rob the poor boxes in the church. And he slipped in and the rotunda, the poor boxes were up there in the rotunda and there were some little alcoves around this place with some statues in them. And he was feeling around there in the dark around that rotunda and his hand went into one of these alcoves and touched the hem, the stone hem of the garment and the statue of Jesus.

And he said when his fingers touched it, he fell flat on his face as though he had been struck between the eyes with a hammer. And in that instant, he said, he was healed physically and spiritually. And the next morning, he went to that pastor of that church and confessed what he had done.

And the pastor took him into his study and they prayed together. And he fed him and got him a job. And at this time, he was conducting an automobile agency. A prosperous man, a healthy, happy man, a married man with a wonderful family. He had reached a point in his life where he was utterly defeated. Now, mind this, he was not going into that church to find God to worship. He was going in there to steal.

But he had a long heritage of religion back of his. And no doubt through the prayers of his parents, God’s hand had been on him. And now in his great physical need and desperation, not enough nerve left to commit a decent pride. Yet knowing that he had to have money, he went into the church, the sanctuary, that represented the best that his family on both sides had known and lived. And there in that defeat of his, by the grace of God, a miracle of grace was for Bar.

Merely by touching the stone hem of the garment of Christ, he fell flat and in the twinkle of an eye was a changed and transformed man. Well, if it takes defeat to bring us to an experience, a vital experience with Christ, then it is worth it. But what is the need of being driven to some extremity?

What is the need of being so entangled in problems that we can only come to Him out of such a negative state and condition? What is the need of waiting until we are utterly defeated needed? Before we turn to the source of a true, real supply, there is no need at all.

The real need and the intelligent thing is to turn to God without being driven like stock, to turn to Him willingly and eagerly and hungrily as these folks driving 150 miles just to worship God.

There is no need to be pounded down and hammered down to the last dead level of degradation and defeat and pain and suffering in order to find an adequate redemptive experience with God. All we need to do is just keep whispering and lifting our hearts to it intelligently.

Keep seeking Him. Keep asking and keep knocking. He is ever available. The Holy Spirit came with Pentecost and has never left. We don’t have to pray, “Come, Holy Spirit.” He’s already come. We pray, “Come, let Thy kingdom come.” But the kingdom’s already here. And all we have to do is to yield to the kingdom and let the kingdom come in.

But if we can’t enter into these great experiences of God in any other way except by pain and suffering, then the pain and suffering is worthwhile. But not at all necessary. Let us close with a prayer. Father, we thank Thee for being ever available.

As close as hands and feet. As close as breathing. We thank Thee that in Thee our problems do become possibilities and our extremities do become opportunities and our defeats do become victories. But we would ask that we might be guided by Thee along a path that does not mean to depend upon these negative states and conditions, that we may be wooed and persuaded to come to Thee as children freely and spontaneously, unspoiled and ready to receive.

Thank Thee for the opportunities we’ve had here. For this open door. We ask Thy blessing upon this church. Which is brand new. And has a great future ahead of us. New ministry. Bless the pastor and his family. That they may prosper their loss.