The Cecil Whig., 1886-01-16

never to contract another. but this
demon debt is great .tempter as are
all the unhealthy passions that make
our earthly life hell, and the ambi-
tious young man is drawn on and on
from day to day deeper and deeper
into the dark vortex of the malstrom
of debt, until the surging waves over
whelm him and he rides anchorless and
rudder.ess lost in lost world How
many are there who hear his cry of,
''Save me, or | perish ?" There Is not
charity enough in the land to answer
every cry of the kind that ascends from
the thousand melstroms debt has made
in the great ocean of life. The relief
of debt is the cause of eternal struggle.
You see SO many men who should be
happy, yet are the very personfication
Of all that is miserable. When you
look upon such you may assure your
self that the name of the skeleton in
their closet is-debt. Individually and
collectively debt is the reighing torment
of our American citizens. Happy the
man who has never been so tormented
And why should it be the ruling terror
of the age? Can the ambitious young
man answer, or can the unhappy man
who should be happy tell? What could
their answer be except-sour desires
90 beyond our means" 10 permit
desire to 60 beyond such reasonable
bound is crime, and it is ftly pun
ished by the torments of debt. In the
law of reversals the first clause should
be, "keep out of debt Is it impos-
sible to do so? Not if you are man
and not the poor remnant of that Won
derful creature. The man who cannot
curb desire which will bring Kim five
minutes enjoyment at the cost of five
years torment deserves the torment in
its maddess degree. Sometimes, how
ever, debt is necessity. Circumstances
are such as demand a financial obliga-
ton to be made, this men would call
honorable debt, but it is not the debt
that always turns out the most
honorable IN the long run, for example,
look at Ferdinand Ward in Sing Sing,
at the presidents and cashiers of
American banks congregated in Canada,
and at the thousands whose obligations
imprison them, if not in dungeon cells,
at least in such small limits of social
and business intercourse that many
would prefer the prison vault. Debt
means worry, and worry literally trans
lated is death. Where is the physician
who will cure this ruling epidemic ?
Who will teach men to live without the
haunting companionship of debt? Who
will instruct the world in such creeds
as will reveal to it the noble truth that
desire can be curbed down to an ex-
istence within the bounds of circum-
stance and that debt is un unnecessary
evil? Contentment can alone instruct
US in these things. A contented lot
prohibits debt. The satisfied mind
and body are never enslaved to the
ruling torment. Thankfulness for what
we have and hopeful assurances of more
in the future are better than unhappy
yearnings for that which is unattainable
except through the medium OF debt.
We can easily conform our lives to the
condition under which we exist, and
upon whatever currents any particular
life may drift it will surely beled by the
one unseen pilot of all lives into fruit
full and pleasant channels. We may have
to wait long for the fulfillment of cher
ished dream, but better cultivate the
patience required by waiting than to
plunge ahead at one bound by the aid
Of debt only to plunge behind again in
a short time under the burden of that
miserable condition. We believe a
revised version of the Ten Com
mandments should bear the additional
mandate, KEEP OUT OF DEBT.