they cannot pay. Others, who do not repudiate
openly their obligations, put off paying indefinitely for futile
reasons: hard times, that last forever; ships coming in, whose fate is
yet unlearned; windfalls from rich relatives that are not yet born,
etc.; and from delay to delay they become not only less able, but less
willing, to settle their accounts. Sometimes you meet a fellow anxious
to square himself for the total amount; half his assets is negotiable,
the other half is gall. He threatens you with the alternative of half
or none; he wants you to accept his impudence at the same figures at
which he himself values it. And this schemer usually succeeds in his
endeavor.

Others there are who protest their determination to pay up, even to the
last cent; their dun-bills are always kept in sight, lest they forget
their obligations; they treasure these bills, as one treasures a thing
of immense value. But they live beyond their means and income, purchase
pleasure and luxury, refuse to curtail frivolous expenses and
extravagant outlay. And in the meantime their debts remain in status
quo, unredeemed and less and less redeemable, their determination holds
good, apparently; and the creditor breaks commandments looking on and
hoping.

Some do violence to their thinking faculty by trying to find
justification, somehow, for not paying their debts. The creditor is
dead, they say; or he has plenty and can well afford to be generous. An
attempt is often made at establishing a case of occult compensation,
its only merit being its ingenuity, worthy of a better cause. All such
lame excuses argue a deeper perversity of will, a malice well-nigh
incurable; but they do not satisfy justice, because they are not
founded on truth.

A debt has a character of sacredness, like all moral obligations; more
sacred than many other moral obligations, because this quality is taken
directly from the eternal prototype of justice, which is God. You
cannot wilfully repudiate it therefore without repudiating God. You
must respect it as you respect Him. Your sins and your debts will
follow you before the throne of God. God alone is concerned with your
sins; but with your debts a third party is concerned. And if God may
easily waive His claims against you as a sinner, a sterner necessity
may influence His judgment of you as a debtor, through respect for the
inviolable rights of that third party who does not forgive so readily.

THE END.