PRACTICE OF THE DISCIPLES.
The conditions in the very early church were not such as to make
prominent the sin of usury. Many of the disciples were very poor and
from the humblest walks of life. I Cor. 1:27-28: "But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are
despised, hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring
to nought things that are."
The practice of the disciples was, however, in entire harmony with the
teachings of Moses and the Master, and in accord with the prohibition
of usury. Later, in the time of the apostolic fathers when the church
came face to face with this sin, there was but one voice and that in
the denunciation, for the fathers were unanimous in its condemnation.
(1) The first disciples did not loan, but gave to their needy
brethren. The early converts held their property so subject to a
general call that some have thought they had a community of goods.
Acts 2:44, 45: "And all that believed were together, and had all
things common; * * * and sold their possessions and goods, and parted
them to all men, as every man had need."
It is evident they did not assist their brethren with "loans," but
with gifts; much less did they take the opportunity to secure increase
on loans.
The suffering poor were their especial care. They gave of their
poverty for the relief of the suffering. Many called by the Spirit
were in want, and many came to want through the severe persecutions to
which they were subjected. This was especially true of the converts in
Jerusalem. For these large collections were received from the churches
in Macedonia and in Corinth.
They were commanded to care for the needy of their own house. I Tim.
5:8: "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of
his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an
infidel." Paul, in giving directions to Timothy, as to the care of
their poor, requires aid to be given to "widows indeed," those who
have no children; but those who have children or nephews are to look
to them and be supported by them, and if any person refuses to care
for his widowed mother or grandmother or dependent aunt, "he hath
denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."
(2) They were diligent in business. They provided things honest in the
sight of all men.
Paul set the example during his itinerate ministry by working at his
trade to secure his support and his dictum has been accepted as both
divine and human wisdom ever since. "If any will not work neither
shall he eat."
Diligence was enjoined for self-support, and that others might be
helped. Eph. 4:28: "Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let
him labor, working with his hands, the things which is good, that he
may have to give to him that needeth." The effort was first by labor
to be independent and then also to come to the relief of the feeble,
the sick, the poor, and the needy. That a man could honestly secure a
livelihood without productive labor was foreign to their way of
thinking. If any did not work he did not deserve a living, nor was he
an honest man. No one was at liberty to be idle. Productive effort
must not be relaxed. There was no retiring for the enjoyment of a
competency.
There was no thought of such a provision to free them from the effort
for the daily bread. The surplus product was given for the aid of
others, to those who had claims of kinship first, then to all who had
need.
The instant a man failed to produce he began to consume. There is no
hint anywhere that it entered any of their minds that they could stop
production and live in ease from the increase of what they had
produced and the supply grow no less; that the meal and oil should not
fail, but be handed down unimpaired to their children.
(3) Covetousness was hated and denounced and classed with the most
flagrant violations of the moral law.
Covetousness is an inordinate regard for wealth of any kind. This may
be shown in the greed of seeking it, without proper regard for the
rights of others; or in parsimony or stinginess in holding it, when
there are rightful claims upon it.
James 5:1-6: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments
are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them
shall be witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were
fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
"Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them
which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.
"Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have
nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and
killed the just, and he doth not resist you."
Covetousness may also be shown in undue respect for wealth when in the
hands of others. This is reproved in James 2:1-7. "My brethren, have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a
gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come also a poor man in vile
raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing,
and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor
man, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then
partial in yourselves, and become the judges of evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this
world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised
them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men
oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they
blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called?"
Covetousness was a secret sin often indulged when the outward forms of
righteousness were observed. Usurers were the open representatives of
flagrant covetousness in all the ages. Usury was not named among them
as becometh saints.
(4) The early disciples kept out of debt. The early Christians were
not borrowers. In both dispensations borrowing was only resorted to in
hard necessity. The borrower was second to the beggar. The borrowing
was but for a short time, and the loan was returned as soon as
absolute wants were supplied.
The doctrine and practice of the early church was to owe no man
anything. Rom. 13:8: "Owe no man anything, but to love one another:
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."
Indebtedness was to be avoided as compromising the faith in the eyes
of others and detrimental to the development of grace in the
disciples.
This was the direct command of Paul. This commandment required the
payment of all honest obligations. The Christian then as now who
failed to acknowledge his obligations and meet them in full as he was
able was wanting in the spirit of righteousness and unfaithful to his
own convictions of right and duty.
The payment of a debt was the return in full of the loan received.
Any Christian conscience at that time would have been satisfied with
the settlement approved and commanded by Nehemiah. The debt was fully
discharged when payments equaled the loan by whatever name those
payments were called.
This text also required that they keep out of debt. By no distortion
of the text can it be made to mean less. Chalmers on this passage
comments as follows: "But though to press the duty of our text in the
extreme and rigorous sense of it--yet I would fain aspire towards the
full and practical establishment of it, so that the habit might become
at length universal, not only paying all debts, but even by making
conscience never to contract, and therefore never to owe any. For
although this might never be reached, it is well it should be looked
at, nay moved forward to, as a sort of optimism, every approximation
to which were a distinct step in advance, both for the moral and
economic good of society. For, first, in the world of trade, one can
not be insensible to the dire mischief that ensues from the spirit
often so rampant, of an excessive and unwarrantable speculation--so as
to make it the most desirable of all consummations that the system of
credit should at length give way, and what has been termed the
ready-money system, the system of immediate payments in every
commercial transaction, should be substituted in its place. The
adventurer who, in the walks of merchandise, trades beyond his means
is often actuated by a passion as intense, and we fear too, as
criminal, as is the gamester, who in the haunts of fashionable
dissipation, stakes beyond his fortune. But it is not the injury
alone, which the ambition that precipitates him into such deep and
desperate hazards, brings upon his own character, neither is it the
ruin that the splendid bankruptcy in which it terminates brings upon
his own family.
These are not the only evils which we deprecate--for over and above
these there is a far heavier disaster, a consequence in the train of
such proceedings, of greatly wider and more malignant operation still,
on the habit and condition of the working classes, gathered in
hundreds around the mushroom establishment, and then thrown adrift
among the other wrecks of its overthrow, in utter helplessness and
destitution on society. This frenzy of men hasting to be rich, like
fever in the body natural, is a truly sore distemper in the body
politic. No doubt they are also sufferers themselves, piercing their
own hearts through with many sorrows; but it is the contemplation of
this suffering in masses, which the sons and daughters of industry in
humble life so often earn at their hands, that has ever led me to rank
them among the chief pests and disturbers of a commonwealth."
To this may be added an extract from "Short Instructions for Early
Masses by the Paulist Fathers." "The fact of the matter is, dear
brethren, that there is too much laxity of conscience among our people
on this question of contracting debts, of borrowing money, of running
up bills with little or no hope of ever paying them. We have all of us
no doubt come across people who consider themselves quite religious
who owe money to their neighbors for years, and never make an effort
to pay what they owe or even to offer an excuse for their negligence
in such important matters.
There are some professional debtors who think the world owes them a
living, and who spend a good part of their time figuring out how much
they can get out of the land and from those who dwell thereon. To have
to pay rent is their greatest grievance, and after being trusted for a
few months, they find it much cheaper to move to other quarters than
to pay what they owe.
Then there are others who must dress extravagantly, no matter what it
costs, and in consequence have nothing left to pay for the things
they eat or drink. Do they on this account deny themselves any of the
good things of this life? Not at all; on the contrary, every business
man will tell you the same story--these people want the best and are
the most exacting in their demands.
Now, I repeat, there is too much laxity about contracting debts and
too little conscience about the necessity of paying for what we use.
St. Paul's warning should ring in the ears of every debtor: "Owe no
man anything." It will not do for such people to come to confession
and say they contracted debts and are not able to pay what they owe.
Confession will not relieve them of their obligation, and they must
begin at once and make an effort to lessen the debts they owe in the
past and learn a lesson in economy and strive against contracting new
burdens. This will help us to clear off the old ones.
It is not edifying, nor is it conducive to good fellowship, nor does
it help to make our religion better known and better loved, to find
people, dressed in the finest, coming Sunday after Sunday to mass
while they are heavily in debt to their grocer or butcher or landlord,
who may be in the very same pew with them. This is certain, it
convinces such men in business that the debtor's religion is not very
sincere.
In a word, brethren, it is far better to live in less pretentious
dwellings, dress more soberly and eat more sparingly than to owe any
man anything. Pay what thou owest, and then you may walk honestly
among all men."
Freedom from debt is necessary to the independence of the man who does
right and answers only to God. Struggle as he may the man is not free
who is under obligations to others. He is hindered in his conduct; he
is not always conscious of it, but nevertheless there is a real
binding or fettering of his actions. It influences his gifts, for what
he holds is not his own and the owner may criticize his benevolence.
An easy conscience and sound sleep is the portion of the man who is
under no obligations to another. He looks the whole world in the face,
who owes no man a cent.
He is free from distracting business relations with his brethren and
brotherly love may abound. The exhortation of Paul is in connection
with brotherly love, and of all external relations, debt hinders the
free flow of sympathy among brethren.
The early disciples endeavored to avoid all debt. Much less did they
pay a premium for the privilege. They only borrowed in hard necessity;
but borrowing on usury to make a profit by it was as repellant to the
Christian conscience then as complicity with theft or fraud. It marked
a man as anxious to share in unrighteous gain. His own conscience
placed him among those who are discontented with their lawful estate
and guilty of that covetousness which is idolatry. I Tim. 6:6-11:
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And
having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that
will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For
the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted
after, they have erred in the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and
follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness."