into confirmed vice under the pressure of early and unmanageable debt. So too many a disaster in business has come as the direct result of carelessly incurring obligations which could not be met, and of trading on chimerical probabilities.

And

Like Horace Greeley, Thomas Carlyle hated debt so violently that he would not borrow even to relieve real distress, and toiled through years of ill-paid labor to win for himself a competence. The eccentric John Randolph once sprang from his seat in the House of Representatives, and exclaimed in his piercing voice: "Mr. Speaker, I have found it!" then, in the stillness which followed this strange outburst, he added: "I have found the Philosopher's Stone; it is pay as you go!" It is a fact that more dishonesty, often involuntary dishonesty, is caused by recklessness in incurring debt than in almost any other way. Every young man should write it down as a fundamental principle of practical ethics, that simple honesty demands that he shall make no debt which he cannot surely pay. Nothing will compensate for a failure resolutely to observe this principle. No amount of genius atones for dishonesty. It is said that when Sidney Smith once went into a new neighborhood, it was

given out in the local papers that he was a man of high connections, and he was besought on all sides for his "custom." But he speedily undeceived his new neighbors.

great people at all," he common, honest people,

"We are not said; "we are only

people that pay our

debts." Let it be ever remembered in honor of Sir Walter Scott that he sacrificed his life by his prodigious labors to pay his debts, for a large part of which he was not responsible, and to save Abbotsford, his home, and that the Waverley Novels are a perpetual testimony to his chivalrous regard for the sacredness of financial obligations.

I have no power adequately to depict the wretchedness and pain which have been caused by debt heedlessly incurred; every community affords abundant illustration. You all remember Dickens' character, Mr. Micawber, and what a laughable, pitiable, lovable, and contemptible character he is, ever discharging old obligations by making new ones, and fatuously fancying that one note was paid when another, bearing a more recent date, was given in its place. You remember, too, the wise words which Micawber uttered, but the wisdom of which, in his conduct, he scrupulously avoided: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual ex

penditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." The misery which Micawber continually experienced is representative of the misery which multitudes endure who indulge in the folly of living beyond their means. And the worst of it all is not the misery, but the actual guilt -the dishonesty before God and men which invites and receives certain condemnation.

The writings of Benjamin Franklin are worthy of a place in every young man's library, if for no other reason, for the sake of the soundness and pointedness of his counsel on the conduct of practical affairs. "Think," he says, "think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity, and sink into base downright lying, for the second vice is lying, the first is running in debt, as Poor Richard says, and again, to the same purpose, Lying rides on Debt's back."

2. I turn now, for a few minutes, to the broad meaning of debt as something which is

due, — that is, as synonomous with duty. Because man is a moral being, having intimate and responsible relations with his fellow-creatures and with God, he is subject to duty. Under a comprehensive and beneficent moral law he is in debt to all men and to God. This debt is permanent; it is not extinguished by payment, for it rises freshly into existence with every moment of life. We do not assume this debt, nor can we throw it off. We may refuse to acknowledge it wholly or in part; but its claim is never relaxed, and, unlike financial debts in some States, it is never outlawed. No man is or ever can be clear of it; it inheres in the very nature of his moral being and relations. There is no difference, with reference to this fundamental fact of moral life, between the Christian and the heathen, between believer and unbeliever. The one may recognize and acknowledge what he owes to his fellow-men and to God, and the other may not; but the recognition does not make the debt, nor does the lack of recognition unmake it. Every man is bound to live justly and benevolently toward other men, and reverently and righteously toward God. The fact that the best men do this imperfectly does not affect the obligation, does not make it less than absolutely imperative and everlasting. Salva

tion is the process of coming into that perfection of moral life which this obligation implies as the true ideal and destiny of man.

There are many erroneous ideas with respect to the scope of moral obligation. It is said sometimes that the Christian ought to be better than the unchristian man, and the preacher better than the pew-holder. Properly qualified this statement is true, but unless thus qualified it is not true, it is even absurdly false. Every one is bound to be the best in character and conduct that is possible for him to be. The confessed follower of Christ ought to exemplify the virtues and graces of his Master; but is it not true that the rejector of Christ should also exemplify these virtues and graces? Does the Christian's recognition of his duty constitute his duty? The truth is simply that the former openly recognizes in some measure what he ought to do and be, while the latter does not. There is no escape from obligation by refusing to acknowledge obligation; otherwise there would be an end of all virtue. God is no respector of persons; moral law is universal. Duty is as broad as humanity. A chief function of Christianity is to teach and convince men that they all should obey God, that they all should follow the mind of Christ, that they all should turn from sin and live the beautiful life