Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-04-02
" Pay What Thou 0MeSl.N

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What is debt? What one owes another
Who does not owe! Who pays The &C
nowledgement of debt is not rare There is
Ertue in this With how many is not acknow-
dgement the last the only moral growth of debt?
But where this would seem the most natural off
ring Of the human sou, where nothing more
an be done in requital for never ceasing offices,
nd which involve the highest obligation, but to
acknowledge them, the agency is wholly
+ ove, the love of God for his intelligent offspring,
now rare is the sense of debt, how wanting the
desire, the disposition to pay.
"Pay what thou owes" The mercies Of
God are new every morning. They come to us
l0h the swift wings of light, in the invisible air,
the gentle rain, They come to us in that inf
mite supply of human want which could not for
a moment be withdrawn and human life remain.
And then the moral gifts which come in cease
less revelations out of the vast discipline of life
How deep are the measures of the divine in the
human soul Who laid them up there for i'm
mortal being, and for ceaseless use! Who kin
died within him mans continents of reverence,
oflove, of hope? Whence has come that which
is as daily food for his inner life, and which
hourly fits him for its great, its holy Offices 2
Whence man? Whence the human soul p
For such an inheritance of glory, for such
present possession of such infinite gifts Of bless
ing, to whom is the debt, and how to be repaid!
1t is to God we owe so much and all things
1t may be all paid with thankful heart, and an
obedlent life. 1t may bring with it no outward
glory to do this. There may be no honor OF
men come out of the deepest plety, the profound
est worship and obedience to God. Oh, no
Christian reader, your record is in heaven, the
heaven Of your own SOUL and that which the
presence of the divine ever makes. 1t is in il
that the debt of an infinite love must be paid
1t can be paid nowhere else. How blessed were
life were such the relation of all men to God
"A relation felt every day and every hour
what dignity would there not be in these pass.
ing moments,-what surprising excellency were
they telt to be every one of them filled with
and made by, the Infinite Presence, the scene O
his divine agency! Who would ask TO fill sucl
a moment with any wrong doing Who would
be so recreant to his highest nature as to defle
such holy time with an impure thought, a wick
ed word, wrong act? Reader as you value
and cherish your highest felicity, think now
this moment and always, that il is God who i.
nearer to you than any of his works. These are
reveaers of Him. He is alone Himself Witt
this thought comes, and is the recognition o
your constant obligation to God In it lies the
deep meaning of the heading, "Pay what thou
owest"
Men have debts to each other. Made as the,
are in the image of God, moral OF spiritual, az
well as external benefits are perpetualy passing
between them. A man has debt of money
lie owes that which he has borrowed and h,
pays 1t by simply returning the same things, o.
Its value in other things il this will satisfy hi
creditor A man does well TO do this, thu
cheapest, the easiest act of virtue. He woult
be dlrgraced, had he power, if he did not Blu
men sometimes have not the'power They hav,
managed unwisely. They have done rasl
things, or others have with whom they are asso
cated. Many causes have conspred to de(ea
the purpose of gain,--and the large debtor be
comes large bankrupt Society manages thi
condition variousIy, and its laws give 10 it vari
GUS interpretations. The general result is tina
the bankrupt pays what he has to pay with, an,
then gets discharged from farther liability. NOV
and then, nay very often, it happens that tn
bankrupt retrieves his fortune, grows rich again
And what nowl In some rare cases the Of
debt is paid, principal and interest, and the pres
reports the act with great commentator.