Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-01-19

| charity, yet last year tHey Sponl liOIo III tua
city for rum than they did for clothing an
groceries.
Another warranty that my text will prov
true in the perpetual poverty OF the world
the wicked spirit of improvidence A vas
number Or people have such small income
that they cannot lay by in savings bank o
life insurance one cent year. 1t takes ever.
farthing they can earn to spread the tabl
and clothe the family and educate the chill
dren. and if you blame such people for i'm
providence you enact cruelty. On such
salary az many clerks and employees anr
many ministers OF religion live. and on srcl
wages as many workmen receive, they can
not. in twenty years, ley up twenty cents
But you know and ! know many who hav'
competent incomes, and could provide some
what for the future, who live up to every
dollar, and when they die their chill
dren go TO the poorbouse or on The
street. By the time the wife gets the
husband buried. she is in debt to the under
! taSer and gravedigger for that which she
can never pay. While the man lived he had
his wine parties and fairly stunk with
tobacco, and then expired, leaving his family
upon the charities of tho world. Do not
| SEMI Tor me to come and conduct the
! obseques and read over such carcass the
beautiful litugy. "Bessel are the dead who
die in the Lord for, instead of that. | will
turn over tho leaves of the Bible to
Timothy ", Is, where it says eff any pro-
| vide not for his own. and especially for
| those OF his own house, be hath denied ,he
faith, and is worse than an infidel," or will
turn to Jeremiah xii. 10. where it says.
He shall be buried with the burial OF an
ass. drawn and cast forth beyond the gates
of Jerusalem"
cannot imagine any more unfair or
meaner thing than for man to get his sins
pardoned at the last minute, and then 90 TO
heaven, and live in q mansion, and 90 riding
about in golden chariot over the golden
streets, while his wife and children whom
he might have provided for, are begging for
cold victuals at the basement door of an
earthly city. 1t seems to me there ought 70
be poorhouss somewhere on the outskirts
oil heaven, where those guilty of such inn
providence should be kept for awhile on thin
soup and gristle instead of sitting down at
the Kings banquet. 1t issaid that the church
is divine institution, and believe if. Just
as certainly are the savings banks and the
lie insurance companies divine Institutions
AS out of evil good often comes so out of the
doctrine OF probabilities, calculated by Profess
sor Hughes and Professor Pascalfor games of
chance, came the calculations of the proba-
biIItles oil human life as used by life insur-
ance companies. and no business on earth is
more stable or honorable. and no migHtier
mercy for the human race has been born since
Christmas born. Bored beyond endurance
for my signature to papers of all sorts, there
Is one style of paper that always sign with
feeling OF gladness and triumph, and that
is paper which the life insurance company
requires from the clergyman after decease
In his congregation, in order to the payment
OF the policy to the bereft household. | al
ways write my name then SO they can read
1t. | cannot help but say to myself
GOOD for that man to have looked
after his wife and children after
earthly departure. May he have one of the
best seats in heaven ~ Young man! The
day before or the day after you get married,
go to life insurance company of established
reputation and get the medical examiner to
put the stethoscope to your lungs and his ear
close up to your heart with your vest of, and
have signed, sealed and delivered to you a
document that will, in the case of your sud
den departure, make for that lovely girl the
difference between a queen and parper
have known men who have had an in
come Of $3000 $4,000, 5000 year, who did
not leave one fartn.Lg to the surviving
household. Now, that mans death is de-
an outrage, swindle. He did not
die he absconded There are 100, 900 people
in America to-day a-hungered through the
sin OF improydence. "But,' say some. Hmy
income is so small cannot afford to pay the
premium on life insurance. Are YOU sure
about that? Ii you are sure, then you have
4 right to depend on the promise in jeremiah
xix II, leave thy fathesless children,
will preserve them alive and let thy widows
rust in Me- But il you are able to, remem-
Der you have no right to ask God to do for
'our household that which you can do for |
hem Yourself
For the benefit of those young men excuse
practical personality. Beginning my life's
work on the munificent salary of $500 year
md a parsonage, and when the cali was
placed in my hands did not know how in
he world would ever be able to spend that
ng in devout wish that 1 might not be led
nto worldliness and prodigality by such an
'verplus of resources, and at a time whenI
rtices of food and clothing were higher
han they are now, felt 1t religious duty
o get my life insured, and 1 presented my
elf at an office OF one OF the great compan-
rs, and | stood pale and nervous lest the
medical examiner might have to declare
hat | had consumption and heart
issass and half dozen mortal all
nents. but when l got the document,
VulcU L nave YET Ill Iull IOTce, I6lU a SS-lSb
f manliness and confidence and quietude
nd re- enforcement, which is a good thing
or any young man to have. For the lack OF
hat feeling there are thousands of men to-
ay in Greenwood and Laurel Hill and
Iount Auburn who might as we'll have been
live and we'll and supporting their families.
hey got a little sick, and they were SO wor-
led about what would become oftheir house
olis in case of their demise that their
citations overcame the skill of the physi-
ians, and they died for fear of dying. |
ave for many years been such an ardent
dvocate Of life insurance, and my sermon
n 1.-THE Crime of Not Insuring" has been
, long used on both sides of the sea by
le chief life insurance companies that
,me people have supposed that | received
monetary compensation for what have said
nd written. Not penny. l will give any
ian 800 for every penny | have received
ON any life insurance company. What I
ave said and written on the subject has re-
Ilted from the conviction that these insti-
itions arc benediction to the human race
ut, alas, for the widespread improvidence
GU are now in your charities helping to
Ipport the families of men who had more
lcome than you now have and you can de-
end on the improvidence of many for the
nth of my text in all times and in all
aces, eye have the poor always with
ou." b
Another fact that you may depend upon for
arpetual poverty is the incapacity of many
achieve livelihood. You can go through
ny community and find good people with
ore than usual mental calibsr, who never
ave been able to support themselves and :
leir households. They are mystery TO US,
nd we say, 81 do not know what is the
after of them, hut there is a screw loose
,mewhere." Some of these persons have
ore brain than thousands who make
,londid ctooacc Soma nra foo canOiiua of |