Editorial September 26, 1903 Issue

Paying our Debts

None will deny that all men should pay their debts, but someone may deny the application of this moral requirement on the ground that he does not owe any one.

Let us analyse this thought that we may see how nearly true it may be. There are undoubtedly many who wisely avoid the burden of financial obligation to others, but if compliance with the demands of justice in this single particular beget a sense of self-righteousness, he is surely accumulating debts which will some day have to be met.

The child's first obligation is to his parents; and it is surely a heavy one. Then comes the indebtedness to teachers and religious guides, to the friends of youth and of riper years, and to those who bear the burdens and responsibilities of public affairs, as some must,—a fact too often forgotten. In addition to these personal obligations we should constantly remember how much we owe to the cause of Truth, and prove our sincerity of purpose by speaking fearlessly for it when occasion offers, and living its teachings so consistently as to convince the world that it is Truth which inspires and governs us. In noble natures the sense of indebtedness to others ever increases with the unfolding perception of what has been undertaken and accomplished for them by those who have toiled to lift human thought above the clod. Few there are who see this subject in its true aspect until they themselves have suffered from the remissness of others; then with chastened hearts they ask themselves where they stand, and like Paul are ready to say "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise."

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