The love of money is the root of all evil. Nevertheless, money in a civilized country is a necessity. How to make it is one of the great questions, and how to spend it aright is one of the great difficulties.

Money is power. It is power, if we use it aright, it overpowers us if we use it badly or even carelessly. It is a great mistake to want to make your money too quickly, and a still greater mistake to think that you are likely to do so. Money that is the result of honest labour will, if rightly used, be a blessing to you and yours.

1st. How to make it. By honest labour, honestly done. You have chosen your trade or occupation—let your money be honestly earned therein, and look more to the quality of your work than to the quantity of your money. You have a right when you have learnt your trade to a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, but be sure that the word fair governs both the work and the wage—the fair work must be done before the fair wage can be rightly claimed. There is far too much scamping work in the present day, working simply for money and not for any interest in the work itself. Money should not be a man’s test of success, but the perfectness of his work. Men used once to work for love of their art, and so long as the picture was painted or the sculpture wrought, they cared little for the money they were to gain by it, or the hardship of their lives, but now men paint for what the public will pay for, and write and work not from their hearts but for their pockets. And with high and low, not success but money is the moving power—not how can I can make it more perfect, but what can I get for it. A man who will leave a piece of work, or a clerk who will leave a few minutes writing only because the clock has struck the hour, is little better than a money-making machine. Work done in such a spirit did not give us men like Wren or Stephenson. Read their lives and you will see what I mean. If your work is thoroughly and honestly done, you have a right to your own price for it, if you can find a purchaser. You have a right to sell your labour at your own price, but the master has an equal right to buy or to refuse. Combinations and unions of working men are perfectly right, if they unite for their own advantage, and for protection against oppression, and strikes may, though in very rare cases, be a painful necessity. It must be borne in mind that there can be no fixed standard of wages. Wages must vary with the state of the markets. Men must be ready to accept lower wages when trade is dull, they must bear their share of the depression as well as the masters, and the true principle is for men and masters, or if you like the expression better, capital and labour to go hand in hand. The success or ruin of the one is the success or ruin of the other. There are of course cases of grasping masters who will endeavour to grind their workmen, and there are cases of worthless and obstinate workmen, who look only to themselves and the present moment, but both ought to be and might be very rare exceptions, if the good and true men on both sides would come to the front.

2nd. How to spend the money. Remember that you are God’s steward, and will have to account for the use of this bounty. Give your tithe to God first. The tenth part of your profits, whether reckoned weekly or yearly, should be given to God in some way or other, and those who do it will find themselves blessed in earthly things, whilst they are laying up a treasure in heaven. God’s tithe paid, how is the rest of your income to be spent? 1st. Necessary expenses, i.e., food, clothing, &c. 2nd. Useful expenditure, i.e., learning, books, &c. 3rd. Recreation and minor luxuries.

Pay your way as you go, and never run into debt. Debt is next door neighbour to theft. Two things I would impress upon you, first, that where the need is you should repay your parents care by helping them. England is disgraced by the number of old people who are left to the care of the parish by children who ought to be thankful to be allowed to support them. Secondly, that it is your duty to make provision for the future, so that the workhouse may not even enter into your calculations, as a possible refuge in old age for you and yours. This can be done by regular savings, even though very small, and by insuring your life. Post office and other savings’ banks, will help you in the former, and various insurance offices offer special facilities by weekly and monthly payments for the latter.