ez&* I I ■ MM Hub "Owe no man anything." BJ 1533 ■ E2 08 Copy 1 j^ SERMON PREACHED AT THE UNION STREET CHURCH November 8th, 1839, PUBLISHED BY REQUEST Eauffor : PRINTED BY EDWARDS & SMITH, West Market Place. L 17390 1533 SERMON ROMANS, XIII— S. 11 Owe no man anything but to love one another." This injunction may be thought to require an impossi- bility. It is one which circumstances render it often exceedingly difficult to comply with. A general and long continued indulgence in the opposite practice, — a habit, on all hands, of resorting to credit for the satis- faction of some real or imaginary want, where immediate payment is not convenient, may occasion such a state of things as shall render it difficult, if not impossible, for the individual, sharing as the individual must, in the general embarrassment — to act upon this precept, how- ever his own inclinations might dispose him to do so. In order that the individual may act upon it, he must re- ceive like measure from others. In most cases, he can deal in such matters only as he himself is dealt with. The present is a period when, through long violations of this duty, in time past, its observance has been ren- dered, in many instances, impracticable, in reference to past obligations, and few among us, in these years, can boast an exemption from pecuniary burdens beyond their power to discharge. None the less, but the rather on this account, is the precept in question, to be urged and in- sisted on, as the only means of disentanglement from 4 these difficulties, and the only defence against similar involvements in time to come. " Owe no man anything." — We have in this injunc- tion, a striking example of the strict harmony which exists between the moral law and the laws which regu- late success in affairs. To owe no man any thing, is not less the dictate of sound policy, in relation to ourselves, than it is of simple justice, in relation to others. And here, as in all other cases, the Christian rule, so far from interfering with worldly prosperity, is precisely the one best adapted to promote it. The advantage which business derives from obedience to this rule, is that of security over chance, according to the obvious and well-approved maxim, that a moderate certainty is better than a large expectation, and a reason- able profit that lies close at hand and may be depended on, more desirable than a very extravagant one that is somewhat problematical. In a season of unbroken prosperity and unquestioned credit, bold adventures based on expectation, may yield the largest apparent returns, but these returns like the source from which they spring, are' often imaginary, and vanish into air, when the prosperous season, shortened by such adven- tures, gives place to seasons of perplexity and failure. So that, taking one period with another, through a long series of years, it will be found that the safe policy which builds on actual possession, and proceeds no farther and no faster than it can find support in present and availa- ble means, is the most successful. In life as in nature, all great and permanent results are the fruit of slow and silent accumulations. Whoever will investigate the his- tory of private fortunes in any community, will find that where one man has become rich by speculation, ten have become so by exact economy and patient thrift. But whatever maybe the effect of punctuality in these matters on worldly thrift, no one can doubt the beneficial influence of this virtue on personal comfort, to which nothing is more essential than regularity in all the ar- rangements and relations of life. To live comfortably it is necessary to live compactly. We may extend as widely as we please our thoughts, our imaginations, our sympathies, and not only suffer no inconvenience, but derive great accession of comfort from such extension. But we cannot contract within too narrow limits our prac- tical liabilities, or square too exactly our accounts with the world. These pecuniary obligations are so many nerves and morbid sensibilities, which the farther we ex- tend, the more liable we are to lesion from abroad. A man who embarrasses himself with debts, is like one with a lacerated skin, exposed, at every point, to galling collision with a hostile environment. He has as many sources of irritation as he has liabilities. Every debt is a point of painful contact between him and the world — an open sore, detracting so much from the soundness of his condition and the comfort of life. No one who has experienced the discomfort arising from this species of contact, will pronounce it a desirable condition. Every one must value a whole skin, however, by rashness or im- prudence, he may have failed to preserve his own intact. To the motive of personal comfort may be added, as another inducement to comply with the precept of the text, the more powerful motive of self respect. The re- lation of the debtor to the creditor, involves a depen- dence which cannot be otherwise than painful to one who values as he ought, his personal liberty. Whatever rights the law may prescribe or deny to the latter, every ingenuous mind will feel this relation to be one of bond- age. To owe no man anything, is the natural wish of such a mind, which it sometimes carries to excess, with savage independence disdaining every obligation by which it may become indebted, even to the voluntary service or the good will of any. There is a limit beyond which this feeling should not pass. There are obliga- tions which we cannot avoid. However we may exult in a fancied independence of our fellowmen, we owe to them more than we can well repay. We owe to them our position in society, which we hold by their permis- sion. We owe to them the protection of their laws, — the aids to improvement, the stores of knowledge and of thought which have grown together from the gradual accumulation of all the Past, — everything, in abort, where- by civilized, Christian man, in this late time, is distin- guished and blest above the naked son of the forest who succeeds to no other inheritance than the common air and skies. For a being thus accommodated and endow- ed, to speak of independence and to boast himself free from obligations to his kind, is to incur the just reproach of ingratitude and pride. Whatever he may think, the individual is a debtor to his kind, for the larger portion of all that he possesses, or can by any possibility acquire. A compound and accumulated debt has devolved upon his head — a debt, of which the interest is all, that with livelong effort, he can hope to discharge, — a debt con- tracted, in part, before he saw the light, multiplied by ail the years of childish imbecility and childish obliga- tions, and crowned by large draughts on years to come. The Past, Present and Future are his creditors, and all that is in him shall barely suffice to satisfy their just de- mands. To ignore this debt is no part of honorable pride. The true honour consists in accepting it thank- fully, and the true independence consists m meeting it manfully, with resolute efforts to cancel so much of it, as a life of useful labor may avail to discharge. Wherefore, the rather, seeing we are thus burdened, and in order, the more effectually, to discharge this prior obligation, which Nature and life have imposed upon each, let each endeavour to keep himself free from special obligations to individual creditors, which may hamper his activity, abridge his usefulness and increase his dependence. The debt of which I speak is an in- voluntary obligation, to which the most scrupulous as well as the most thoughtless, the most honorable as well as the meanest must needs submit. But no scrupulous person will voluntarily incur a debt to which he is not im- pelled by a present necessity, and no honorable person will desire to receive a benefit for which he has no equiva- lent to offer, in anything he has yet realized by his own efforts and worth. If, as we have seen, a regard to ourselves, — if personal comfort and self respect demand our observance of the precept in question,— still more is it required of us by a regard for our fellowmen, that we owe no man, if possible, anything but love. Not every debt which we incur is a crime against our fellowmen, but every un- necessary debt, which a man assumes without any visible and certain means of discharging, is an act of injustice to others, more or less criminal, according to the circum- stances of the case an.d the views of the individual, — who is chargeable with blameworthy thoughtlessness, if he has failed to consider his ability, and with down- right fraud, if, having considered his ability-^— he is not sure that he possesses or can ever possess the where- withal to satisfy the liability he has incurred. But who can be sure of anything in which contingencies are in- volved ? Who can be sure of the future, or say with certainty, that coming years shall fulfil the conditions on which his expectations are based 1 Above all, who can be sure that the first and great condition, his mortal life, which a blast may extinguish, shall be spared to his wish, till all that he designed has been accomplished ? • 8 What just and conscientious person can think calmly oi quitting a world which, however unintentionally, he has robbed of its dues, and which will press with unsatisfied claims upon his dishonoured dust. How sad to think of going down to the grave, not only without having dis- charged that original and unavoidable debt which every human being owes to his kind, hut burdened, in addition, with new and needless obligations, incurred for the pur- pose of gratifying a foolish fancy or a mad ambition. I speak of needless obligations, and how large a pro- portion of our pecuniary obligations will be found, on examination, to be of this description. Herein consists the danger of the practice I am condemning, that it tends to create imaginary wants, and to beget a heed- lessness with regard to pecuniary liabilities, which is no less inconsistent with strict integrity, than it is with worldly wisdom. The facility which credit affords, of satisfying such wants without an immediate equivalent, by removing to an indefinite distance the day of account, makes the cost seem less considerable than it really is. The ratio between the outlay and the income is not ob- served so nicely and cannot be observed so nicely, as where a present want is to be met with a present pay- ment, and those whom necessity would otherwise com- pel to moderate their desires, are betrayed unwittingly into extravagances which exceed their intentions as far almost, as their means. What has now been said, suggests the most practical, and indeed the only practical method by which the apos- tolic precept of this discourse can be fulfilled. The rule of Christian duty, as of worldly thrift, is that each one live within his means. It is not always easy for men of business, and for those whose income is fluc- tuating and precarious, to ascertain with precision, what is the exact amount of means within their command, or within their just expectation. The safer course, there- fore, if practicable, would be to abstain from every un- necessary expenditure, for which the individual cannot offer, not merely a nominal equivalent, but an actual and unquestioned value. In a period like the present, — when the medium of commercial transactions, for a num- ber of years, has been a currency based chiefly on credit, and probably far exceeding the present capital and avail- able resources of the nation, — the property acquired by such means, has a merely nominal, and to a great extent, fictitious value ; and many a one has supposed himself to have grown rich, who, — whatever his relative condi- tion, is no richer in point of real value than before. No wonder that so believing, he should indulge a style of living which corresponds rather with his supposed wealth than his real poverty. To descend from these lofty imaginations and meet the actual conditions of the case, to stoop from splendour and large indulgence to shifts and straits, to come out from the fat years of our abundance into the leanness of these ill favoured times, is a painful process with all who depend, (and who of us does not depend ?) on externals for our enjoyment. It is like a strain of music abruptly stopped, or a tale that is told. And yet, to one who considers these things in the spirit of that wisdom to which all things external and foreign from the soul, beyond the necessities and simplest satisfactions of our animal nature, are phenom- enal merely, what is it to pass from high estate to low estate, from splendour to plainness and from plainness to splendour, but just to change the slide in the magic lantern of life ; or to pass from picture to picture in a gallery of paintings, where each picture has its own peculiar value, and where the subject imports not, but the manner in which it is presented, and the meaning it conveys to thoughtful minds 1 To the soul, seated a^ 10 spectator in its quiet nook, all outward experience is like the acts in a play, and whether the scene shifts from the palace to the cottage or from the cottage to the palace, and whether they be princes or beggars that figure there, the same life, the same moral, and if we will, the same interest runs through all the parts and acts till "The last scene of all " That ands this strange eventful history." If you should dream of some rich gift that had been placed in your possession, and should awake and find it gone, you would not think of grieving for the loss, but would say, it was only a dream. Why not say the same of the gifts enjoyed in your waking hours, when snatch- ed from your possession ? Why not say of these too, it was a dream 1 Longer indeed, and more vivid than many others, but the difference consists only in degree — it was still but a dream. The Past is, in fact, nothing more. Consider these changes as teachers and prophets or- dained to teach anew, the doctrine of the soul, which is ever the same from age to age : that they who possess be as though they possessed not, knowing that the fash- ion of this world is constantly passing away. " If you look," says Bishop Taylor, " on the so much esteemed greatness of this world, — the brave palaces, renowned cities, large kingdoms, — you may compare them to those little houses of sand or dirt, made by chil- dren for their entertainment, which men stand by and laugh at, and oftentimes, if their parents or masters find that it hinders them from learning their lessons, they strike them down with their feet, and destroy that in a moment which hath cost the children much time and labour. So God useth to deal with those who, neglect- ing his service, employ themselves in scraping together, riches, enlarging their possessions, building of palaces, which he destroys as if they were little houses of dirt, 11 made by children* And certainly more children are they who set their hearts on the greatness of this short life 5 than those who busy themselves in walls of dirt." To bring our wants within our means, is no difficult task to those who have learned to distinguish between wants that are real and those that are imaginary. To live costs so little, that slenderer means than have fallen to the lot of most, would be sufficient to maintain us, did not each one carry with him, in his appetites and fancies, an expensive suite of retainers who also expect to be maintained, crying always, Give ! Give ! and never thinking it is enough. The claims of hunger are soon satisfied, but the gratification of the palate is an endless tax. What a vast array of means and contrivances,— what extent of commerce by sea and land, is called into requisition, to pamper this small portion of flesh. For the sustentation of Nature the products of one soil would abundantly suffice, but all soils and climes must contri- bute to feed the palate, and the circle of daily meals is not complete, till the ends of the earth have supplied the board. Yet is the tribute paid to the palate, insignificant comDared with the tax imposed by Vanity, — the most expensive and exacting of all our retainers ; which, ex- pensive as it is, few of us have courage to dismiss. Men are cheaply lodged and clothed, when comfort and de- cency provide the means and prescribe the cost. But we are not content to live as our own wants require, or even as our own fancy suggests, but we must live as others use and please. Calculate what would be the cost of your establishment, if no one but yourself were to become acquainted with its arrangements. All that you have expended upon it, over and above that, is a voluntary tax which you pay to your fellowmen. In that new and splendid attire which you have prepared with so much care and cost, you have consulted not so much your own LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 12 029 561 899 1 convenience, as others' eyes. Confess that a hundredth part of the sum it has cost you, would be quite adequate to all purposes of personal comfort, and that the remain- ing ninety-nine would be useless, if the community in which you live, were suddenly to become blind. Ninety nine parts, then, of all you expend on your person, are a tribute to others, and only a hundredth belongs to your- self. Doubtless, the eye should be consulted, and some regard should be had to principles of beauty, and the gratifications of taste, in the arrangements of life. Nor is luxury a crime when, after deducting all that is due to others, the means are fully equal to the indulgence. But the point to be first considered in every outlay, is not taste, but justice. Otherwise, luxury is fraud, and beauty a lie, nor can all the pomps of fashion and the splendors of art supply the charm which lies in the sim- ple grandeur of honest dealing. Since then, to live frugally, is the task which the times have assigned to us, let us accept the lesson and com- press our wants, and call in our desires, and walk humbly, and owe no man anything but love. And while due heed is given that the first part of this precept be fulfilled, let not the other be forgotten. If the present, as we have seen, is a period when the observance of the former is particularly binding, it is one in which the healing influ- ence of the other is particularly grateful. Let us not only abstain from burdening ourselves and others with new and needless obligations, but let us also endeavour to bear each others' burdens already incurred, and thus to lighten the load of doubt and debt which weighs so heavily on the general mind. So shall each contribute something to redeem the time, till God shall restore to j us the years which adversity hath laid waste, and the pressure of these days shall be remembered no more, for the plenty that is in the land^ Hi Hi m W iHl MB •-.-.'»',•'.- HUD HM^D9E sKwTvr* H MHMfll I ■*■■■ T ■■HhJ ■ fa ■ $; bhP&A HHH Ik H H I £ • 1 1 # 'ABB BBS mf&al ffltJ M w* II II 1 1 Hill I I II ii 029 561 899 1 Holline'er Corn.