ing one's own wealth.

"You can not have your cake and eat it. If you do not eat it, you have
your cake, but not a cake and a half. Not a cake and a quarter
tomorrow, dunce, however abstinent you may be, only the cake you have,
if the mice do not eat it in the night."--Ruskin.

The usual illustration is that of Jacob. He practiced abstinence in
refraining from eating the bowl of pottage and giving it to his
hungry brother. The reward of his abstinence was his brother's
birthright.

If I do not take my soup now it is a great favor to have it preserved
for me and served later, not cold and stale, but fresh and hot. If I
deny myself now, for any cause, I can ask no more than that my meal
shall be served, perfectly, later. This was all that Jacob could in
justice demand of Esau.

It should be remembered, that because Jacob took Esau's birthright, as
a reward of his abstinence, he was accounted a robber, was compelled
to flee from his home, and not for twenty years see his father's face;
that the consciousness of this sin and of the merited vengeance of the
brother, whom he thereby defrauded and whom he thought was on his
track, caused that night of struggle when he could not let the angel
go, until he had his promise of deliverance.

Abstinence, to be benevolent, must be an act of personal loving
self-sacrifice for another. Benevolent abstinence is its own reward
and asks no more. Abstinence in hope of gain, denying himself while
another is using his wealth, cannot be regarded as an act of
benevolence, but of a selfish grovelling greed; more gratified to see
his wealth increase than to himself enjoy its use. That is the spirit
of the miser and receives the contempt of all right thinking people.

That the political economists are right in their analysis of the
common thought of usury; that risk, time and abstinence are the
elements of its basis in the popular mind, may not be denied, but if
these are in fact the elements, then usury has no standing in equity
and must be condemned by every enlightened conscience.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

USURY IN HISTORY.

It would require volumes to fully present the history of usury. A very
brief summary must suffice in this place. Yet this synopsis may serve
as a guide to those who may wish to pursue the investigation further
and who have access to any considerable library of general and
ecclesiastical history.

The exacting of usury has always been more or less practiced, and