XIX.
ECONOMY OF TIME AND
EXPENSES.
THE value of time, and our obligation to spend every hour for some
useful end, are what few minds properly realize. And those who have the
highest sense of their obligations in this respect, sometimes greatly
misjudge in their estimate of what are useful and proper modes of
employing time. This arises from limited views of the importance of some
pursuits, which they would deem frivolous and useless, but which are in
reality necessary to preserve the health of body and mind and those
social affections which it is very important to cherish.
Christianity teaches that, for all the time afforded us, we must
give account to God; and that we have no right to waste a single hour.
But time which is spent in rest or amusement is often as usefully
employed as if it were devoted to labor or devotion. In employing our
time, we are to make suitable allowance for sleep, for preparing and
taking food, for securing the means of a livelihood, for intellectual
improvement, for exercise and amusement, for social enjoyments, and for
benevolent and religious duties. And it is the
right apportionment of time, to
these various duties, which constitutes its true economy.
In deciding respecting the rectitude of our pursuits, we are bound
to aim at some practical good, as the ultimate object. With every duty
of this life, our benevolent Creator has connected some species of
enjoyment, to draw us to perform it. Thus, the palate is gratified, by
performing the duty of
nourishing our bodies; the principle of curiosity is gratified in
pursuing useful knowledge; the desire of approbation is gratified, when
we perform general social duties; and every other duty has an alluring
enjoyment connected with it. But the great mistake of mankind has
consisted in seeking the pleasures connected with these duties, as the
sole aim, without reference to the main end that should be held in view,
and to which the enjoyment should be made subservient. Thus, men gratify
the palate, without reference to the question whether the body is
properly nourished: and follow after knowledge, without inquiring
whether it ministers to good or evil; and seek amusement without
reference to results.
In gratifying the implanted desires of our nature, we are bound so
to restrain ourselves, by reason and conscience, as always to seek the
main objects of existence--the highest good of ourselves and others; and
never to sacrifice this for the mere gratification of our desires. We
are to gratify appetite, just so far as is consistent with health and
usefulness; and the desire for knowledge, just so far as will enable us
to do most good by our influence and efforts; and no farther. We are to
seek social intercourse, to that extent which will best promote domestic
enjoyment and kindly feelings among neighbors and friends; and we are to
pursue exercise and amusement, only so far as will best sustain the
vigor of body and mind.
The laws of the Supreme Ruler, when he became the civil as well as
the religious Head of the Jewish theocracy, furnish an example which it
would be well for all attentively to consider, when forming plans for
the apportionment of time and property. To properly estimate this
example, it must be borne in mind, that the main object of God was, to
set an example of the temporal rewards that follow obedience to the laws
of the Creator, and at the same time to prepare religious teachers to
extend the true religion to the whole race of man.
Before Christ came, the Jews were not required to go forth to other
nations as teachers of religion, nor were the Jewish nation led to
obedience by motives of a life to come. To them God was revealed, both
as a father and a civil ruler, and obedience to laws relating solely to
this life was all that was required. So low were they in the scale of
civilization and mental development, that a system which confined them
to one spot, as an agricultural people, and prevented their growing very
rich, or having extensive commerce with other nations, was indispensable
to prevent their relapsing into the low idolatries and vices of the
nations around them, while temporal rewards and penalties were more
effective than those of a life to come.
The proportion of time and property, which every Jew was required to
devote to intellectual, benevolent, and religious purposes, was as
follows:
In regard to property, they were required to give one tenth of all
their yearly income to support the Levites, the priests, and the
religious service. Next, they were required to give the first-fruits of
all their corn, wine, oil, and fruits, and the first-born of all their
cattle, for the Lord's treasury, to be employed for the priests, the
widow, the fatherless, and the stranger. The first-born, also, of their
children, were the Lord's, and were to be redeemed by a specified sum,
paid into the sacred treasury. Besides this, they were required to bring
a free-will offering to God, every time they went up to the three great
yearly festivals. In addition to this, regular yearly sacrifices of
cattle and fowls were required of each family, and occasional sacrifices
for certain sins or ceremonial impurities. In reaping their fields, they
were required to leave unreaped, for the poor, the corners; not to glean
their fields, oliveyards, or vineyards; and, if a sheaf was left by
mistake, they were not to return for it but leave it for the poor.
One twelfth of the people were set apart, having no landed
property, to be priests and teachers; and the other tribes were required
to support them liberally.
In regard to the time taken from secular pursuits, for the support
of education and religion, an equally liberal amount was demanded. In
the first place, one seventh part of their time was taken for the weekly
sabbath, when no kind of work was to be done. Then the whole nation were
required to meet at the appointed place three times a year, which,
including their journeys and stay there, occupied eight weeks, or
another seventh part of their time. Then the sabbatical year, when no
agricultural labor was to be done, took another seventh of their time
from their regular pursuits, as they were an agricultural people. This
was the amount of time and property demanded by God, simply to sustain
education, religion, and morality within the bounds of one nation.
It was promised to this nation and fulfilled by constant miraculous
interpositions, that in this life, obedience to God's laws should secure
health, peace, prosperity, and long life; while for disobedience was
threatened war, pestilence, famine, and all temporal evils. These
promises were constantly verified, and in the day of Solomon, when this
nation was most obedient, the whole world was moved with wonder at its
wealth and prosperity. But up to this time, no attempt was made by God
to govern the Israelites by the rewards and penalties of the world to
come.
But "when the fullness of time had come," and the race of man was
prepared to receive higher responsibilities, Jesus Christ came and
"brought life and immortality to light" with a clearness never before
revealed. At the same time was revealed the fatherhood of God, not to
the Jews alone, but to the whole human race, and the consequent
brotherhood of man; and these revelations in many respects changed the
whole standard of duty and obligation.
Christ came as "God manifest in the flesh," to set an example of
self-sacrificing love, in rescuing the whole
family of man from the dangers of the unseen world, and also to teach
and train his disciples through all time to follow his example. And
those who conform the most consistently to his teachings and example
will aim at a standard of labor and self-denial far beyond that demanded
of the Jews.
It is not always that men understand the economy of Providence, in
that unequal distribution of property which, even under the most perfect
form of government, will always exist. Many, looking at the present
state of things, imagine that the rich, if they acted in strict
conformity to the law of benevolence, would share all their property
with their suffering fellow-men. But such do not take into account the
inspired declaration that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth," or, in other words, life is made
valuable, not by great possessions, but by such a character as prepares
a man to enjoy what he holds. God perceives that human character can be
most improved by that kind of discipline which exists when there is
something valuable to be gained by industrious efforts. This stimulus to
industry could never exist in a community where all are just alike, as
it does in a state of society where every man sees possessed by others
enjoyments which he desires and may secure by effort and industry. So,
in a community where all are alike as to property, there would be no
chance to gain that noblest of all attainments, a habit of self-denying
benevolence which toils for the good of others, and takes from one's own
store to increase the enjoyments of another.
Instead, then, of the stagnation, both of industry and of
benevolence, which would follow the universal and equable distribution
of property, some men, by superior advantages of birth, or intellect, or
patronage, come into possession of a great amount of capital. With these
means they are enabled, by study, reading, and travel, to secure
expansion of mind and just views of the relative advantages
of moral, intellectual, and physical enjoyments. At the same time,
Christianity imposes obligations corresponding with the increase of
advantages and means. The rich are not at liberty to spend their
treasures chiefly for themselves. Their wealth is given, by God, to be
employed for the best good of mankind; and their intellectual advantages
are designed, primarily, to enable them to judge correctly in employing
their means most wisely for the general good.
Now, suppose a man of wealth inherits ten thousand acres of real
estate; it is not his duty to divide it among his poor neighbors and
tenants. If he took this course, it is probable that most of them would
spend all in thriftless waste and indolence, or in mere physical
enjoyments. Instead, then, of thus putting his capital out of his hands,
he is bound to retain and so to employ it as to raise his family and his
neighbors to such a state of virtue and intelligence that they can
secure far more, by their own efforts and industry, than he, by dividing
his capital, could bestow upon them.
In this view of the subject, it is manifest that the unequal
distribution of property is no evil. The great difficulty is, that so
large a portion of those who hold much capital, instead of using their
various advantages for the greatest good of those around them, employ
them for mere selfish indulgences; thus inflicting as much mischief on
themselves as results to others from their culpable neglect. A great
portion of the rich seem to be acting on the principle that the more God
bestows on them the less are they under obligation to practice any
self-denial in fulfilling his benevolent plan of raising our race to
intelligence and virtue.
But there are cheering examples of the contrary spirit and
prejudice, some of which will be here recorded to influence and
encourage others.
A lady of great wealth, high position, and elegant culture, in one
of our large cities, hired and furnished a house adjacent to her own,
and, securing the aid of another
benevolent and cultivated woman, took twelve orphan girls, of different
ages, and educated them under their joint care. Not only time and money
were given, but love and labor, just as if these were their own
children; and as fast as one was provided for, another was taken.
In another city, a young lady with property of her own hired a house
and made it a home for homeless and unprotected women, who paid board
when they could earn it, and found a refuge when out of employment.
In another city, the wife of one of its richest merchants, living in
princely style, took two young girls from the certain road to ruin among
the vicious poor. She boarded them with a respectable farmer, and sent
them to school, and every week went out, not only to supervise them, but
to aid in training them to habits of neatness, industry, and obedience,
just as if they were her own children. Next, she hired a large house
near the most degraded part of the city, furnished it neatly and with
all suitable conveniences to work, and then rented to those among the
most degraded whom she could bring to conform to a few simple rules of
decency, industry, and benevolence--one of these rules being that they
should pay her the rent every Saturday night. To this motley gathering
she became chief counselor and friend, quieted their brawls, taught them
to aid each other in trouble or sickness, and strove to introduce among
them that law of patient love and kindness, illustrated by her own
example. The young girls in this tenement she assembled every Saturday
at her own house--taught them to sing, heard them recite their
Sunday-school lessons, to be sure these were properly learned; taught
them to make and mend their own clothing, trimmed their bonnets, and
took charge of their Sunday dress, that it might always be in order. Of
course, such benevolence drew a stream of ignorance and misery to her
door; and so successful was her labor that she hired a second house, and
managed it on the same plan. One hot day in August, a friend found her
combing the head of a poor, ungainly, foreign girl. She had persuaded a
friend to take her from compassion, and she was returned because her
head was in such a state. Finding no one else to do it, the lady herself
bravely met the difficulty, and perservered in this daily ministry till
the evil was remedied, and the poor girl thus secured a comfortable home
and wages.
A young lady of wealth and position, with great musical culture and
taste, found among the poor two young girls with fine voices and great
musical talent. Gaining her parents' consent, the young lady took one of
them home, trained her in music, and saw that her school education was
secured, so that when expensive masters and instruments were needed the
girl herself earned the money required, as a governess in a family of
wealthy friends. Then she aided the sister; and, as the result, one of
them is married happily to a man of great wealth, and the other is
receiving a large income as a popular musical artist.
Another young girl, educated as a fine musician by her wealthy
parents, at the age of sixteen was afflicted with weak eyes and a heart
complaint. She strove to solace herself by benevolent ministries. By
teaching music to children of wealthy friends she earned the means to
relieve and instruct the suffering, ignorant, and poor.
These examples may suffice to show that, even among the most
wealthy, abundant modes of self-denying benevolence may be found where
there is a heart to seek them.
There is no direction in which a true Christian economy of time and
money is more conspicuous than in the style of living adopted in the
family state.
Those who build stately mansions, and lay out extensive grounds, and
multiply the elegancies of life, to be enjoyed by themselves and a
select few, "have their reward" in the enjoyments that end in this life.
But those who with equal means adopt a style that enables them largely
to devote time and wealth to the elevation and improvement of their
fellow-men, are laying up never-failing treasures in heaven.
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