ECONOMY OF TIME AND EXPENSES



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 in a state. Finding no one else
to do it, the lady herself bravely met the difficulty, and persevered
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.