Getting in Debt | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1876

Getting in Debt.

WHILE we can praise Christians of our acquaintance for their freedom from the sin of trafficking in intoxicating spirits, we feel sorry to say that the demoralization among them on the subject of going in debt, and a disregard of the obligations of right and duty in such cases, is most fearful. Many brethren in debt, brethren unable to pay the dues they owe their fellow-men, have no conscience in spending on foolish luxuries and in vain show and display, for themselves and their families, sums of money sufficient to relieve many of their pressed and needy creditors.

Whenever I have received another's money or possessions, with a promise to return or pay it, whatever of money I may possess, until it is paid, is rightfully his, not mine. When I spend that money without his consent, I spend his money not mine. The fact that I have it in my possession does not alter at all the morality of the case from what it would be if it were in his possession, and I were to take his money against his will and spend it for my own or for my family's benefit.

There is just as much moral dishonor and dishonesty in withholding from a man what is his, as in taking it from him in the first place. If I borrow his wagon or his horse to use a day, and then withhold it a week or a month against his wishes, I commit as great a moral crime as if I had taken it in the first place against his will. When I borrow money, or purchase property to be paid for at a certain time, and I withhold the pay for the purpose of using the money, or the value of the money, my act is of the same moral turpitude as though I had forcibly taken possession of my creditor's money in the first place against his will. When I am in debt then, and use the money rightly belonging to another to trade or to speculate on, to spend on myself or my family, I act morally just as though I took forcible possession of my creditor's money to supply my own family or myself with luxuries and comforts of life.

Brethren, our consciences, our morals need educating to a higher and purer standard of right on these subjects. The Christian religion calls for it, and because we do not practice a purer morality and higher standard of honesty, the Christian religion is reproached, and our fellow-men are driven from the church of God. * A Christian with a cultivated, tender conscience, with a nice sense of Christian integrity, will not retain the money or property of another for his own benefit. He will not spend in luxuries for himself or family what is justly another's.

Brethren, let us cultivate tender consciences, a true Christian sense of integrity, and act up to it. The religion of Christ will not then suffer reproach in our lives, and our fellow-men will be attracted by the beauty of holiness within the pale of God's redeeming mercy, that they may enjoy the blessing of salvation.—Gospel Advocate.