Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1875 — Pay As You Go. [ARTICLE]

Pay As You Go.

Among the storms of winter, and especially a storm that Beldom fails to visit every locality about the first of January —is a shower of bills. How they come in —these great snowflakes —and they stick and stare at you until they are paid and stick and stare at you when they are paid. Among the multitude of resolutions formed for the new year there ia no better one than a resolve to pay as you go. It seems passing strange that the payment of debts should be inculcated upon professing Christians, and yet is there any evil habit to which Christian men are more addicted than that of incurring debt which they cannot discharge at maturity? And the causes of this condition of things are many and multiform. Sometimes it is the result of a weak desire to live in a style beyond one’s means. Oftentimes it is the result of thoughtlessness, or a general unwillingness to systematize one’s expenditures. Often it proceeds from a free-heartedness and a desire to do for others, especially for the family, more than one’s circumstances admit; and not infrequently it is owing to a spirit of extravagance whjch is a legitimate inheritance from father to son. But, whatever the cause maybe, as a general rule del* can be avoided and much unhappiness saved. - To do this, above all firmly resolve to live within your means, however limited they maybe; make no promises which you have not a reasonable certainty of keeping; be firm in applying whatever money you may have on hand to the liquidation of some debt in whole or in part, and above all avoid, so far as possible, contracting a future obligation wherewith to pay a present one. And in your purchases: when you want that for which you cannot pay at the time, wait till you can, before procuring it, and when you do get it you will enjoy it all the more for the sacrifice which it has cost. There is a true nobility in denying yourself that Which you cannot afford which will increase your own self-respect and raise you in the estimation of your friends. “Do you see this addition which I have just put up?" said a friend in our hearing, not long ago. “ I was offered a loan on my house; hut no, I thought I would wait. I did wait. Things which I wanted I denied myself. Finally I accumulated sufficient to pay for nay improvements. They cost more than the carpenter’s and mason’s bills: they cost a spirit of sacrifice; and don’t you suppose I enjoy it all the more for this?” And he was right. Nor do we forget that there are some who cannot pay; there are those who, unfortunate in business, simply cannot meet their obligations. They Save bought on a falling market; their good name Is unscathed though their credit has been dishonored by those who had engaged to protect it; parties owing them have failed to pay them, and bankruptcy stares them in the face. But for all that—and you can find such people everywhere—you do not doubt them, you are drawn to them in their misfortune as you never were in their prosperity; you are only too glad to do all in your power to help them, and in so doing discharge only a simple Christian duty. It is not of such that we speak. Debt: There is no worse demoralizer of character. The sad records of defaulting, embezzling and dishonest fail-, ures which we meet with so constantly in the daily press are often, indeed most frequently, the result of the demoralization of debt and consequent desperate efforts at extrication. The financial props have given way. The little debt which at first was as small as a grain of mustard seed, like the rolling snowball, has gathered weight and multiplied itself a thousandfold. And still it grows, and, like the fabulous hydra which Hercules was sent to kill, you no sooner strike off one head than two shoot up in its place. The struggle is severe, but in the end decisive ; either confession is made of a hopeless bankruptcy which might and should have been avoided, or integrity sacrificed to the temptation of the moment. Debt ruins as many households and destroys as many fine characters as rum; it is" the. devil’s mortgage on the soul, and he is always ready to foreclose. Pay your grocer; pay your pew bills; pay ’ your minister. ' Be indebted for nothing but love, and even that be sure you pay in kind, and that your payments are frequent; we especially commend this adVice to old bachelors.— Christian at ITenfc.