“Debt! There is no worse demoralizer of character. The sad records of defaulting, embezzling, and dishonest failure which we meet with so constantly in the daily press are often, indeed most frequently, the result of the demoralization of debt, and the consequent desperate efforts of extraction. The financial props have given way.... 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 all your bills. Look every man in the face, conscious that you owe the world no more than it owes you. Be indebted for nothing but love, and even that be sure you pay in kind, and that payments are frequent.”—Talmage.
“This running into debt is a great cause of dishonesty.... Young men are growing quite shameless about being in debt; and the immorality extends throughout society. Tastes are becoming more extravagant and luxurious, without the corresponding increase of means to enable them to be gratified. But they are gratified nevertheless; and debts are incurred, which afterwards weigh like a millstone round the neck.... The safest plan is to run up no bills, and never get into debt; and the next is if one does get into debt, to get out of it again as quickly as possible. A man in debt is not his own master: he is at the mercy of the tradesman he employs.... No man can be free who is in debt. The inevitable effect of debt is not only to injure personal independence, but, in the long run, to inflict moral degradation. The debtor is exposed to constant humiliations.”—“Thrift,” by Samuel Smiles, pages 243-247.
The following testimony on this subject is borne by a Chicago lady, who had been happily wedded for fifty years. “I know why John and I have been happy during these fifty years. In the first place, we have made it a rule never to go in debt. I have lived in Chicago sixty-eight years, and never during that time have I owed a person a cent.... I believe a good deal of unhappiness is caused by spending more than you make. It has been our policy to buy what we could well afford to have, and then stop.”—Chicago Tribune, Aug. 24, 1902.
Respect Of Persons
Peter In The House Of Cornelius. "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." Acts 10:34.
1. Of what has God made all nations?
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” Acts 17:26.