That workers should shun debt as they would leprosy, is a principle we have all heard repeated often. But in this day of "fast living" and "high living," are we really shunning debt as we would shun leprosy? One can buy almost anything he desires today on the installment plan, provided he has enough money to make a small initial payment. Nearly all piano companies sell their product on the installment plan. The same is true of automobiles, radios, washing machines, electric refrigerators, etc., as well as household furniture and even wearing apparel.
After all has been said that can be said in favor of the installment plan, it must be recognized that in the end the plan is disappointing. The monthly payment plan makes it very easy for any one receiving a regular salary to get in debt by making purchases that are beyond his means. If a worker has saved $150 with which to buy a piano, it would seem far wiser to buy the best instrument he can obtain for that amount than to buy a $650 instrument, paying only $150 down on it, and mortgaging his monthly pay check to the extent of perhaps $25 a month for the next year and a half. Or if a worker has saved $250 to invest in an automobile, and feels that he absolutely must have a motor vehicle, would it not be wiser to buy the best used car that $250 will pay for, rather than to use it as the initial payment on a $1,250 car, with the remaining thousand to be paid at the rate of $25 a month for three years?
The writer believes that the way really to enjoy the use of things is to know they are paid for in full before we begin to use them. Many a worker has found himself in a perplexing situation financially because of making purchases before he was really able to pay for them. The pay-as-you-go plan is, after all, the only one that is safe and satisfying. The man who pays his bills when they are presented, is usually prepared to take the lead in supporting home needs as well as in making offerings to missions.
With the reduction in laborers' wages, emphasis is given to the need of so curtailing our expenditures that we shall live within our income. Leprosy usually brings death. Indebtedness has killed many a worker in God's cause. Nothing will discourage a man more quickly than to find himself hopelessly involved financially.
With careful management, the average worker in God's cause should be able to obtain the absolute necessities of life today, and pay his bills as he goes.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
