Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-24
INSURANCE.
REV. DEWITT TAlMAGE ON THE
INSURANCE
Questionable Insurance in the Bible-The
First Insurance Company Bind
up the Wounds-You Are Too
Poor to Die.

| sermon delivered by Mr.. Talmage some
| years ago has been used by almost every life
| agent in the field as 4 canvassing document
| because it is pointed, clear-cut and conclu-
| sive, and was given to the public without
| the inspiration of selfish motives. Mr..
| Talmage carries insurance on his own life
| in different companies amounting to
| $50, 000-TEd.
Let him appoint officers over the land,
| and take up the fifth part of the land OF
Egypt in the seven plenteous years"
These We're the words OF Joseph, the
| president of the first life insurance COM
| pany that the world ever saw. Pharaoh
| had a dream that distracted him. He
thought he stood on the banks of the river
| Nile and saw coming up out OF the river
| seven fat. sleek, glossy cows, and they be-
| gan to browse in the thick grass. Nothing
| frightful about that. But after. them,
coming up out of the same river, he saw
and the worst looking COWS that had ever
| been seen in the land, and in the
| ferocity. of hunger they devoured
their seven fat predecessors. Phar-
aoh the king sent for Joseph to decipher
these midnight hieroglyphics. Joseph made
short work of it, and intimated: The
| seven fat cows that came out of the river
are seven years with plenty to eat; the
seven emaciated cows that followed them
are seven years with nothing to eat" now
said Joseph, 'let US take one-fifth of the
corn crop of the seven prosperous years,
and keep it as a provision for the seven
years in which there shall be no crop.
The king took the counsel and appointed
Joseph. because OF his integrity and public
spiritedness, as the president of the under
taking. The farmers paid one-tifth of their
income as premium. In all the towns and
cities of the land there We're branch houses.
This great Egyptian life insurance com
pany had millions of dollars as assets.
After while the dark days came. and the
whole nation would have starved if it had
not been for the provision they had made
for the future. But. now these suffering
families have nothing to do but go up and
collect the amount of their life policies. The
Bible puts it in one short phrase: In all
the land of Egypt there was bread" | say
this was the first life insurance company.
IL was divinely organized. 1t had in it all
the "tontine plan,'' of the preserved en-
dowment plan,'' and all the other good
plans. We are told that Rev. DR.. Anhate of
Lincolnshire, England, originated the first
life insurance company in 1893. No. 1t is
as old as the corn cribs of Egypt, and God
himself was the author and originator If
that were not so, Iwould not take your time
and mine in Sabbath discussion of this
subject.
But what does the Bible say in regard to
this subject,
If the Bible favors the institution, will
favor it; if the Bible denounces it, 1 will
denounce it. In addition to the forecast of
Joseph in the text, call to your attention
Paul'S comparison. Here Is one man who
through neglect fails to support his family
while he lives, or after his death. Here is
another man who abhors the Scripture, and
rejects God and Christ and everything good.
Which of these men is the worsta Well,
you say, the former Paul says the latter.
Paul saws that man who neglects to care
for his household is more obnoxious than
man who rejects the Scriptures.
Timothy, 9Th chapter and Sth verse: He
that provideth not for his own. and especi-
ally those of his own household, is worse
than an infidel" Life insurance companies
help most of US to provide for our families
after we are gone; but if we have the money
to pay the premiums and do not pay the
premiums, we have no right to expect
mercy at the hands of God in the Judgment.
After the certificate of death has been
made out and the thirty or the sixty days
have passed Heading companies now pay
claims on receipt of proofs of death.-Ed. |,
and the officer of a life insurance company
comes into the bereft household and pays
down the hard cash on an insurance policy,
that officer of the company is performing q
purely religious rite, according to the
Apostle James, who says: ''Pure religion
and undefied before God and the Father is
this: To visit the fatherless and widows in
their affection" and so on. The religion of
Christ proposes to take care of the temporal
wants of the people as well as the spiritual.
Just after the battle of Antietam there
was man found distributing religious
tracts, and q Christian merchant came up
to him and said, 'What are you distribut- |
ing tracts here for?'' There are 5000 men
out yonder who have not had their wounds |
bound up, and they are bleeding to death. |
You go and bind up their wounds and then |
distribute the tracts" I think that was |
good, healthy gospel. When Hezekiah was !
dying the injunction came to him, ''Set thy |
house in order, for thou shalt die, and not |
live.'' That injunction in our day would |
mean, ''NIake your will, settle up your ac-
counts, make things plain, don't deceive |
will never yield any corn, but chills and |
fever; don't leave for them notes that have
been outlawed, and second mortgages on |
property that will not pay the first: Set |
thy house in ORDER"
That is, fix up things so your going out of |
the world may make as little CONSERVATION |
as possible. See the lean cattle devouring |
the fat cattle, and in the time of plenty pre-
pare for the time of want.
The difficulty is, when men think of their
death they are apt to think of it only in con-
nection with their spiritual welfare, and |
not Of the devastation in the household
which will come because OF their emigra-
ton from it. 1t is meanly selfish for you
to be so absorbed in the heaven to which
you are going, that you forget what is to
become of your wife and children after you
are dead. You can go out of this world not
leaving them dollar, and yet die happily
# you could not provide for them; you can
trust them in the hands of the God
who owns all the harvests and the
nerds and the f1ocks; but If you could
pay the premium on policy and
neglected them, it is mean thing for you
20 go up TO heaven while they go into the
ooorhouse. You, lat death move into a
river front, and they move into
jwO rooms on the fourth story of tene-
nent house in back street. When they
Ire out at the elbows and the knees, the
hought of your splendid robe in heaven will |
lot keep them warm. The minister may
preach q splendid sermon over your re-
mains, and the quartette may sing like four
angels alighted in the organ loft; but your
ieath will be swindle. You had the
means to provide for the comfort of YOUR
household when you left it, and you wick
idly neglected SO to do.
''O,h says some one, Il have more faith |
han you: 1 believe, when l go out of this
world, the Lord will take care of my
amily." Yes, he will provide for them
10 to Blackwell's Island, go through all the
,oor-houses of the country, and l will
how you how often God provides for the |
neglected children of neglectful parents.
That is, He provides for them through
Ohio Ac fn, /