In August 1829, Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to pay for the publishing of The Book of Mormon assuming he would be able to pay the debt soon after it was published. He attempted to earn enough money to pay the debt to avoid having to sell property but was unsuccessful. In 1830, The Lord told him the following after commanding him not to covet his own property and to give a portion of it freely:
“Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer. Release thyself from bondage.” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:35)
In the end, the only way he could pay the debt, and release himself from bondage, was to sell some of his property, which he did.
Debt is bondage.
J. Rueben Clark, Jr., in 1937, set forth the principles of the newly organized, and member-centered, Church welfare program. One of those stated principles is “Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.”
The next year he, J. Rueben Clark, Jr., spoke about interest. “Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. … Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”
In 1973, Ezra Taft Benson taught “…no man is truly free who is in financial bondage.” He then quoted Benjamin Franklin who said “Think what you do when you run in debt. You give to another power over your liberty.”
Free yourself from bondage as soon as you can and regain your liberty.
