Entry 54

All questions connected with the sanctity and inviolability of human life are covered by the sixth commandment, and all dangers and duties that arise in connection with the preservation of personal purity are searched out by the breadth and inwardness of the seventh: and then in the ethical development and excellent order of the Decalogue comes the eighth commandment securing and consecrating each man’s property and possessions. The divine law here sets a hedge about every man, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side. Second only to the commandments protecting life and honour comes the commandment which covers all matters connected with the earning, saving, spending, inheriting and bequeathing of money and property. The eighth commandment enters a quite new field of human life, but this commandment is not less broad, or less deep, or less spiritual than those that have gone before it, as we shall soon see.

All a man’s possessions, go back to the beginning of them, go down to the bottom of them, will always be found to represent so much self-denial, labour, industry. Obscure as may be the origin, history, and growth of this or that particular estate, yet it must in its beginning have been due to some man’s obedience to the Creator’s law of labour and reward. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” This is the original charter of the right of property. But the world is old in our day, and the primitive conditions of personal labour and direct reward are somewhat overlaid and correspondingly obscured. And fundamental and rigorous as the law of labour is, there are nowadays many other ways in which men come into the possession of property. If each man among us held only what he had himself earned and made, the world’s wealth would be incalculably less than it is, and what there would be of it would be very differently distributed. Even in the house of Israel, much nearer as human life then was to its original foundations, the ultimate ground of all personal property and family wealth was not so much that it was the fruit of personal exertion as that it was the direct donation of their covenant God. Jehovah, who had made earth and sea, could enrich or impoverish, could give or withhold as seemed to Him good. And this gracious, and, so to say, supernatural ground of Israel’s possessions penetrated all the economy of domestic, ecclesiastical, and political finance. Still, there was room left in the theocratic and patriarchal system of the Hebrews for the free and full play of those laws of labour and reward on which the Creator had constructed human society on the earth; so much so, that we find principles and rules and illustrations in the Old Testament that are wisely applicable to all varieties of human life in all its modern developments and relationships.

Uses

1. “These things are linked and as it were chained one to another; we labour to eat, and we eat to live, and we live to do good, and the good which we do is as seed sown with reference unto a future harvest” (Hooker).

2. Industry is one of the prime virtues of human life upon the earth: work is both a necessity and a virtue in man. But hard work is seldom divorced from its due and proper fruits: labour is lightened and sweetened by the hope of its proper wages. And well-directed and successful labour enriches the labourer in more and better ways than in the mere accumulation of his wages, or in the collection and possession of riches. For the possession of this world’s good things enlarges and ennobles the possessor’s whole life. Human existence on the earth becomes a better and more desirable thing when hard work has once had its proper reward, and a man has been put in possession of the garnered fruits of his past diligence and industry. Enlarging possessions expand and enrich a man’s earthly existence: according to their amount they increase his power for good: they multiply his opportunities, and they help to make his earthly existence sheltered, and refined, and full of manifold means of good-doing and delight.

3. Akin to the habit of industry is the sister habit of frugality and forethought. And this virtuous habit cannot be commenced too soon. Even children should be exercised in little ways of frugality and self-denial. They should be taught to spare something off playthings and sweetmeats, which, when sufficiently accumulated, would purchase a piece of dress for themselves, or a birthday present for father or mother, sister or brother. The immediate object of such youthful frugality is of less importance than the formation of the virtuous and fruitful habit.

   Then again, every young man on the expiry of his apprenticeship should open an account with a savings bank. If his wages are as yet small, then perforce his savings will be small also: but at their smallest they will grow, and he will grow alongside of them in carefulness, temperance, frugality, and forethought. And then, when the time comes that he takes up a house of his own, he will not need to lie down on a borrowed bed, or eat his meals out of a dish he is in debt for. All men should honourably save something against a rainy day. If these and suchlike “minor moralities” are despised, then the chances are that other people will have to pay for it. There are other ways of robbing our neighbours besides garrotting them in the dark: and the worst and most barefaced thieves a man ever meets with are usually those of his own reckless and improvident household. This commandment also is exceeding broad.

4. “Of great riches,” says Lord Bacon, “there is no real use, except it be in the distribution. There is a custody of them; or there is a power of dole and donation of them; or a fame of them; but beyond distribution there is no solid use of them to their owner. Seek not therefore,” adds the essayist, “proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.” And accordingly, in all systems of morals—Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian—liberality is esteemed among the noblest of the virtues. “Property,” says Aristotle, in the fourth book of his Ethics, “is evidently a thing to be used. The very essence of property is its use, and liberality is that quality or virtue which enables us to make the best use of property. . . . However, as all virtues have a noble end in view, mere giving freely is not enough to constitute liberality. Special regard must be had to three conditions: A noble motive, due consideration of the occasion and amount of the gift, and cheerfulness on the part of the giver. The absence of any of these conditions destroys the liberality of the gift.” “Munificence,” the same master in morals tells us, “differs from liberality in the largeness of the sums in which it deals. Its general character is magnitude. There is a sort of scientific skill implied in munificence. The occasion must be worthy of the expenditure, and the expenditure worthy of the occasion. There must also be a desire after what is noble. There is a grandeur of manner which imparts a special lustre to the acts of a munificent man. We pass now,” he continues, “to the occasions which are fitting for the display of munificence. And we notice, first, the service of religion, and next the great public and patriotic services. To these cases we may add great and rare occasions in private life, such as a wedding, works of public and general interest, entertaining strangers, making and returning presents; or, again, the furnishing and ornaments of one’s house; and, generally, permanent rather than perishable objects. There is a greatness in any work that is perfect of its kind, even in toy presents to children. Even in the smallest matters the munificent man will act munificently.” But while munificence is possible to only a very few men, liberality, on the other hand, is open to all. For liberality is in the mind and in the manner more than in the amount. “If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

   “Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
   For loan oft loseth both itself and friend,
   And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”

Questions

1. The real truth is, the equitable man is superior to the just man. . . . The just and equitable man are each good, but the equitable man is the best (Nic. Eth. v. 10). Law enforced to strictness sometimes becomes the severest injustice (Terence). Cp. Courts of justice and Courts of equity. Explain and illustrate.
2. Study and verify the following:—The love of justice is among the rarest of all good qualities; the love of it with full and commanding strength. I would almost dare to say there are five generous men for one just man. . . . The passions will often ally themselves with generosity, but they always tend to divert from justice (Mr. Gladstone’s Encomium on Lord Aberdeen).
3. Study the magnificent passage in the first book of Paradise Lost, commencing Mammon led them on.
4. See By-Ends’ cases of conscience in the Pilgrim’s Progress.