"PAY! PAY! PAY!!"

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1418, 20 October 1923, Page 3

"PAY ! PAY ! PAY !!"

When an old negro saw a camel for the first time in his life he gazed awhile at its absurd hump and absurder face, as it munched straw in the circus tent, and, turning away, declared, "They hain't no seen animal!" The next time you think you see a gift, the next time you fancy you have got something for nothing, you will d,o well to repeat the darky's remark, for "they sure hain't no sech thing." No mortal man ever got anything he did not pay for. If you do not pay

in one way you pay in another; if not by the labour of your hands, then by the misery of your tnind; if not in money, then in service; if not* in service, then in humiliation. The cheapest and most satisfactory way to get anything is to pay cash. Father Abraham, head of the Jewish race. was wise with the shrewdness of that keen-eyed people. When he was returning from an expedition in which he had overtaken and punished certain thieves that had been preying upon honest farmers, one of his neighbours met him and offered him a present. But Abraham was long-headed, and replied, "I have lifted up my hand to heaven and sworn that I will take nothing that is thine lest thou shouldst say I have made Abraham rich." No man is rich enough or poor enough to assume an obligation he is not able, glad and prepared to discharge in full. An unpaid obligation corrodes the self-respect, and loosens the cords of character. There is really no such thing as a gift. Everything must be paid for, drop for drop, ounce for ounce, somehow, some time. When you are threatened with a donation, legacy, or anything for which you are to pay nothing—run! When you see a man you envy, who has cars and diamonds, wonder within yourself how much they have cost him. Then go home, examine your own stores of health, mankind, love and clean conscience, and ask yourself, "Have I anything to sell?" For you must pay, pay, pay! Nothing is gratis. Not even Nature gives. Nature never cancels a debt. You may think y,ou have evaded her, but you are mistaken. No man was ever clever enough. Take your nights of dissipation; you may have alcoholic buzzing joys and all the other vivid pleasures of excess; Nature will sell you anything you ask; but may the Lord help y,ou when you come to settle up!

I sometimes think the entire credit system, at least as far as personal and household expenses arec oncerned, is the proud, peculiar invention of the Old Nick. How much downright suffering, family quarrels, lying, agony and general ruination has been caused by buying things without the instant, immediate pain ,of counting out the money for them! Put it down in your books: A benefactor is a nuisance. The rich uncle's name is Bane. The "angel" is an angel of darkness. The greatest curse to a church is the rich brother who pays all the deficits. Pay as you go; and if you can't pay, don't go. The man who gives honest employment to a hundred workers will sit higher up in heaven than the man who feeds a hundred beggars. For the begging business, whether for individuals or for institutions, is vicious.