The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-11-07
A LITTLE SERMON on SAVING.

uoney lalQ Dy Tor future emergencies,
but a great many of them find the
savings of small sums so tedious and
discouraging that they either never
begin to save, or having begun, do
not keep it up for any length of time.
They would like to be rich, but they
want to get rich quick. Nobody
wants to transform our young men
into money-grubbing misers whose
thoughts never rise above scraping
and saving. The miser is about the
unlovliest specimen of human kind it
Is possible to imagine. But there is
a golden mean between the miser and
the spendthrift, and young people
should try to attain it. Here is some
excellent advice in this connection
from the -Saztia,43-c ,Lna14ea,AL
No matter how little it may be,
make start to save. Begin to live
on less than you make; begin to put
by the capital which will one day
mean freedom and opportunity.
We do not advise the saving of
money merely for the foolish gratif-
cation Of spending 1t. That would
not be worth while. We urge you
to save now that you may be spared
the humiliation of slavish dependence
later on. We advise you to save,
above all, that you may be able to
seize an opportunity, should one pre-
sent itself.
Many of the worlds brightest men
are wasted because they lack the little
ready money that would let them car
ry out their ideas.
Great inventions have been lost to
the world for lack of very little
money. Some Of the world greatest
spirits have lived miserably and died
in despair because they could never
learn to keep the money that came to
them.
When you do get little money to-
gether, put it in the bank. Don't
buy anybody's watered stock. Let
no trust mining scheme or other large
hearted swindle lure you. If those
things ever do pay, they shake out
the little men first.
Get enough money to free you
from worry, and don't let anybody
get it away from you. Don't put it
into any scheme. Let it simply ena-
bic you to change your employment,
if you see better chance. Let it
make you secure against poverty in
old age.
Don't give up your little certainty.
If it comes very slowly, let it go even
more slowly. Begin now to save.
Be one of those that are free, that
have something.
You will never know what real in
dependence is until you are indepen-
dent of any mans pocket book save
your own.
We are exhorted by Christ to lay
up our ureaSuIc5- ia hSavSn, and Is
we fail to do this-the most impor-
tant duty of all-a1l our saving, all
our scheming and planning, all our
possessions or earthly riches, are of no
avail. But our nature is two fold.
Our life on earth has two sides, and
the laying up of treasures in heaven
does not preclude the wise forethought
and thrift which bids us lay up some
of this worlds treasure for a rainy
day. To be occupied altogether with
worldly interests and affairs, to have
ones thoughts continually on the dol
lar, or the dime, or the nickel, all
this is disastrous to our higher nature
and our eternal welfare.
But we owe duty to ourselves and
our neighbors in the matter of saving
our money. It should be the desire
of each and every one of us to be so
situated that we may not, when mis-
fortune comes, be a burden to anyone.
And the only way for the most of us
to accomplish this is to get into the
habit of saving little when we are
Young. This means self denial, of
course. It means the loss of repu-
tation for being a good fellow. But
it means a help toward the build
ing up of a reliable character. 1t
means being In position, later on IN
life, to help others.
The spendthrift is no good to him
self or anyone else when the hour of
trouble comes. He can neither help
himself out of a hard place nor have
the satisfaction of helping another
who may happen to be in straitened
circumstances. He must look help
lessly on when some one whom he
loves very much, perhaps, is in sore
need of assistance. He Is compelled
to see his children take inferior posi-
tions in the world because he has new
er had the ambition or the strength
of character to save his money for
their sakes.
All this is very hard and humilia-
ting to man of generous impulses,
and all this waits in the future for al
most every spendthrift, and can be
avoided by the young people of today
only by acquiring the habit of saving
their money.