Year: 1868

Whether this utterancc of the Apostle is to
be understood, with some interpreters, as an in
junction never to incur debt, always to pay at
once for that which we buy; or with others, as a
command punctually to discharge our debts at
the time due we shall not attempt to decide
Whether the law of Christian duty as here an
nounced requires rigid and universal adhe-
renee to the cash system, or whether it allows a
credit system faithfully and honestly acted upon,
may be question difficult to determine. But
that it does demand the punctual and faithful
payment of debt according to promise-this
mach at least-cannot be doubted.


Evidently to contract a debt which we know
ve-shall not have the means to pay, is fragrant
dishonesty. 1t is to take advantage of our neigh
bols confidence IN our honesty and truth, to get
from him his property and appropriate it to our
own use without any intention Of compensation
or return. To go in debt beyond what we know
to be our ability to pay, is species ofswindling
baser and more fagitious than highway robbery;
for to the Injustice of it are betrayal of trust,
and violation of truth. A man may so con-
trive to perpetrate it as to escape punishment
by the laws of the State. But there is another
law which will catch hin in it's tolls, and another
court which will bring him in guilty, and another
Judge who will lay righteousness to the line and
judgment to the plummet.


But little if any less guilty is he who contracts
a debt, if his ability to discharge it when due is
doubtful. The man who snaps gun at another
when he is uncertain whether it is loaded OR not
is near about as wicked as he who loads it and
then shoots him. To make promise and on


the strength of it to induce our ghbor to place
his property in our hands, when we have reason
to doubt our inability to fulfil that PROMISE is at
most but one step from the sin first mentioned.
And to be strictly honest and honorable; we will
incur no debt without seeing our way clear to
pay it. We will not be willing to take our
neighbors property and use it for our own pur-
poses when we are uncertain whether we shall
be able to replace it. The man who does, is but
short degree from swindler. He defrauds,
or at least endangers the property of his neigh
Dor, from Indifference tojustice and honesty; the
swinder from contempt Of them. The distance
between the two therefore is only that between
Indifference and contempt, and it is not far.


And yet how many there are who 90 in debt
when they see no certainty Of being able to pay!
when there is only hope possibility, chance,
that it will be i'll their power to do so-a chance
depending on the innumerable hazards of busi-
ness, seasons, life, and thousand accidents. If
they do not in the end violate TIE command of
God and wrong their fellow man, it will be due,
not to ther moral principle and integrity, but to
accident and fortune


And what shall we say Of those who can, but
do not pay their debts punctually at the time
promised? What can be said but that they are
guilty of stealing, to which they add the further
sins of betraying and deceiving the confidence
reposed in them by their creditor, and of false
hood and lying To withhold from our neigh
Dor what belongs to him, what, relying on our
integrity, he has confded to our trust for sea-
son, and what we have promised to deliver up to
him, is iniquity of ordinary character.
And yet there arc men, claiming to be honest
and honorable, who make light Of paying debt
when due, and some who never pay except in
the prospect or under the pressure of compul-
sion. They thieves who & we up their plum
der when they keep it no longer. Some
times these men neglect to pay their debts, when
they could if they would, because they cannot
without some inconueaicnce-an example Of sell
is wicked We may affirm that man who is
lust and honest according to his convenience is
not truly just and honest at all.


Some do not pay punctuay because they
wish to lay out their money in buying additional
property, in speculation, or in some private
personal or domestic expenditure. They are III
fact trading, buying and spcculating with another
mans money-moncy illegally, unjustly, dis
honestly, and dishonorably withheld from its
rightful owner. If it had tongue it would cry
aloud in their thievsh ears ''Stolen! stolen"
Surely no man can be an honest man who is not
scrupulously cautious in contracting debt and
scrupulcusly faithful in fulfilling all such obli-
cations. If he is not, however he may disguise
the fact to himself, he is in heart an offender
against the commandments Of God, deficient in
the principle Of honesty, and must be ranked
with those of whom it is written 'thieves shall
not inherit the kingdom of heaven"