The 25th chapter of Genesis records one of the poorest business transactions of all times.

READ Genesis 25:29-34;

We see that Esau, the son of Isaac, heir to the covenants God made with his father and grandfather, sold his precious birthright for a mess of pottage.

I would like to share with you another business parable. It is about, a lamp, a student and a businessman. In times of old before the advent of the electric light, it was necessary for one to read by the light of a lamp.

The lamp in this parable was of the "Argand" type, commonly known in the day of its popularity as the "students lamp." It was so named in acknowledgement of its particular suitability for the reader's table. This type of lamp was provided with a hollow wick, and had a straight cylindrical chimney, with a constriction near the base, where the enlargement adapted it to the burner. It was constructed in accordance with the best knowledge of the day. The diameter of the tubular wick was less than the width of a finger. It allowed efficient air inlet at the bottom insuring fairly complete combustion with a minimum loss of energy through useless generation of heat. The oil reservoir was supported on an upright standard several inches from the place of combustion. The desired result: the holder cast no shadow upon the printed page or writing tablet, provided the lamp was properly placed.

Lamps of this kind were among the best in the long ago. In the long ago of which I speak, illuminating gas was known only in large cities or in pretentious towns with a history, and electric lights in dwellings were a rare novelty. Candles and oil lamps were the only common means of domestic illumination.

The student of which I speak, in his college days was the owner of the lamp. He had bought it with hard earned savings and it was counted among his most cherished possessions.

He took good care of the lamp. He had in it a pride such as the horseman feels about his favorite mount. Whom likes personally to groom and feed his steed, and so had the student allowed none but himself to trim the wick, burnish the chimney, and fill the reservoir of his lamp. When brightly burning, with its deep green opaque shade, brilliantly deflecting and reflecting beneath, it diffused a wholly satisfactory illumination upon his page. As he studied night after night, through the late and early hours, the lamp became more than a mere physical illuminator-it was a sympathic companion, an inspiration to mental and spiritual enlightenment. A relentless never-failing friend, an ever-present and ever ready companion.

Compared with waxen candle and ordinary oil burning lamps it was high efficiency. What matters it today that such a lamp is counted dim? It was the best; it was excellent in its time. If you ask how much light it gave? The student could answer your query with precision, for as early as that time, in the long ago, he was a student of science; and had tested the lamp according to the laws of photometry in the improvised laboratory. The light generated from the lamp was rated at twelve candle power, in terms of the generally recognized and standardized rating. It was brilliant for that period.

One summer evening as the student sat studiously in the open air outside the door of the room where he lodged and studied. A stranger approached. It was noticed that he carried a satchel. He was affable and entertaining. The student brought another chair from within, and they chatted together till the twilight had deepened into dusk, then the dusk into darkness.

Then the peddler a businessman said "You are a student, and doubtless have much work to do 'o nights. What kind of lamp do you use?" And then without waiting for a reply the peddler continued: " I have a superior lamp I would like to show you, a lamp designed and constructed according to the latest achievements of applied science, far surpassing anything heretofore produced as a means of artificial lighting."

The student replied with confidence, and confessed with some great degree of pride: " My friend, I have a lamp, one that has been tested and proved. It has been to me a companion through many a long night. It is a Argand lamp, and one of the best. I have trimmed and cleaned it today; it is ready for the lighting. Step aside; I will show you my lamp then you may tell me whether yours can possibly be better."

They entered the study room, and with a feeling which is akin to that of the athlete about to enter a contest with one whom he regards as a pitiably inferior opponent, the student put the match to his well-trimmed Argand.

The visitor was voluble in his praise. It was the best lamp of its kind he said. He averred that he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He turned the wick up and down pronounced the adjustment just perfect. He declared that never before had he realized how satisfactory a student lamp could be.

The student liked the man; he seemed to wise, and he assuredly was ingratiating. Love my horse, love me, Love my lamp, love me, he thought, mentally paraphrasing a common expression of the period.

"Now," said the peddler, "with your permission I'll light my lamp." He took from his satchel a lamp then known as the "Rochester." It had a chimney which, compared with the Argand, was as a factory smoke stack alongside a house flue. Its hollow wick was wide enough to admit four fingers. Its light made bright the remotest corner of the room. In its brilliant blaze the Argand wick burned a weak, pale yellow. Until that moment of convincing demonstration the student had never known the dim obscurity in which he had lived and labored, studied and struggled.

"I'll buy your lamp," the student said: " you neither explain nor argue further: " The curiosity overwhelmed the student to find out just how powerful his new acquisition was. It was off to the laboratory that same night to determine its capacity. It turned at over forty-eight candle power fully four times the intensity of the student lamp.

Two days after the purchase, the student met the the lamp-peddler on the street, about noontime. To his inquiry the peddler replied that business was good: the demand for his lamps was greater than the factory supply. "But," replied the student, "you are not working today?" His rejoinder was a lesson. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to go around trying to sell lamps in the daytime? Would you have bought one if I had lighted it for you when the sun was shining? I chose the time to show the superiority of my lamp over yours; and you were eager to own the better one I offered, were you not?"

Such is the story. Now consider the application of a part, a very small part thereof.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven."

The man who would sell the lamp did not disparage the students. He placed his greater light alongside the feebler flame, and the student hasted to obtain the better.

so is the business of running and living our lives. Are we like the foolish businessman Esau who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage? Do we sacrifice the now for the better future. Or are we like the Lamp peddler that refused to compromise his position in the light of the day but chose to shine forth his light when and where it could do the most good. Do we really teach our children or neighbors by our example; or do we teach our children and our neighbors by our example.

 

Eternity is a long time to eat pottage.