“Paying of debts is, next to the grace of God, the best means in the world to deliver you from a thousand temptations to sin and vanity. Pay your debts, and you will not have wherewithal to purchase a costly toy or a pernicious pleasure; pay your debts, and you will not have what to lose to a gamester. In short, pay your debts and you will of necessity abstain from many indulgences that war against the spirit, bring you into captivity to sin, and cannot fail to end in your utter destruction, both of soul and body.”
Patrick Delany (1686-1768) Irish Theologian, as recounted in Days Collacon (New York: International Printing and Publishing Office, 1884) 166.