Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-01-19

ways with you. Report comes from one Of
the cities, Were the majority Of the inbabi-
tannts ate out Of work and dependent on
charity. YET last year they spent moro III that
city for rum than they did for clothing and
groceries.
Another warranty that my text will prove
true in the perpetual poverty Of the world Is
the wicked spirit OF improvidence A vast
number or people have such small incomes
that they cannot lay by in savings bank or
life insurance one cent year. 1t takes every
farthing they can earn to spread the table
and clothe the family and educate the chill
dren. and if you blame such people for i'm
providence you enact a cruelty. On such a
salary as many clerks and employees and
many ministers of religion live, and or such
wages as many wOrkmen receive, they can
not, III twenty years, lay up twenty cents.
But you know and | know many who have
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 poorhouse or on the
street. By the time the wife gets the
husband buried. she is in debt to the under
taker 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
send for me to come ana conduct the
Ohsequies and read over such carcass the
beautiful litugy. "BleSsei are the dead who
die i'll the Lord" for instead of that, [ will
turn over the leaves of the Bible to 1
Timothy v, 19, where it says ''If any pro-
vide not for his own. and especially for
those of his own house, he hath uenied the
faith, and i5 worse than an inf1del," or I will
turn TO Jeremiah xii, IL. where it says,
Gle shall be buried with the burial of an
ass. drawn and cast forth beyond the gates
of OfJerusalem.
I cannot imagine any more unfair or
mean9r thing than for man to get his sins
pardOned at the last minute, and then go to
heaven, and live in a mansion, and go riding
about in a golden chariot over the golden
streets. while his wife and children. whom
he might have provided for are begging for
cold vlctuals at the basement door of an
earthly city. 1t seems to me there ought to
be pOOrhOuse somewhere on the outskirts
OF heaven, where those guilty Of such i'm
providence should be kept for awhile on thin
soup and gristle instead of sitting down at
the King 8 banquet. 1t is said that the church
is divine institution, and believe it. Just
as certainly are the savings banks and the
life Insurance companies divine institutions.
AS out OF evil good often comes 50 out of the
doctrine of probabilities, calculated by Profess
SOr Hughes and Professor Pascal for games of
chance, came the calculations Of the prOba-
bilitieS of 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
Christ was born. Bored beyond endurance
for my signature to papers of all sorts, there
is one style of paper that [ always sign " ith
n feeling Of gladness and triumph, and that
is paper which the life insurance company
requires from the clergyman after a 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
it. [ 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 ~ 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 off, and
have signed. sealed and delivered to you
document that WILL in the case ct your sud
den departure, make for that lovely girl the
difference between q queen and a pauper.
L have known men who have had an in
come Of $4,000, $4,000, $4,000 a year, who did
not leave one farthng to the surviving
household. Now, that mans death is a de-
falcatiOn an outrage, a swindIe. He did not
die ; he abscOnded There are 100, 900 people
in America to-day a-hungered through the
sin OF lmprOVidencP. But, y say some, ''my
income is so small [ cannot afford to pay the
premium on a life insurance" Are y0usure
about that? If you are sure, then you have
a right to depend on the promise in Jeremiah
will preserve them alive, and let thy widows
trust i'll Me- But if you are able to. remem-
Der you have no right to ask God to do for
your household that which you can do for
them yourself.
For the benefit of those young men excuse
a practical personality. Beginning my lifes
work on the muniticent salary of $500 year
and Il parsonage, and when the call was
placed in my hands l did not know how in
the world would ever be able to spend that
amount of money, and | remember indulg-
ing in a devout wish that l might not be led
into worldiness and prodigaltty by such an
Overplus of resources, and at n time when
articles of food and clothing were higher
than they are now. | felt it a religious duty
to get my life insured, and l presented my
self at an Office of one of the great cOmpan-
les. and l stool pale and nervous lest the
medical examiner might have to declare
that [ hId consumption and heart
disease and a half dozen mortal all
ments, but when l got the document,
which have yet in full force. [ felt a sense
of manliness and confidence and quietude
and reinforcement, which is Il good thing
for any young man to have For the lack OF
that feeling there are thousands of men to-
day in Greenwood and Laurel Hill and
Mount Auburn who might as we'll have been
alive and we'll and supporting their families.
They got little sick and they were so wor-
ried about what would become oftheir house
holds in case of their demise that their
agtatiOns Overcame the skill of the physi-
clans, and they died for fear OF dying. |
have for many years been such an ardent
advocate of life insurance, and my sermon
on The Crime of Not 1nsuring" has been
so long used on both sides of the sea by
the chief life insurance companies that
some people have supposed that l received
monetary compensation for what l have said
and written. Not a penny l will give any
man 300 for every penny l have received
have said and written on the subject has re-
suited from the conviction that these insti-
tutiOns are benedictiOn to the human race.
But, alas, for the widespread improvidence
You are now in your charities helping to
support the families of men who had more
income than you now have, and you can de-
pend on the imprOvideuce of many for the
truth of my text in all times and in all
places, "Ye have the poor always with
you"
Another fact that you may depend upon for
perpetual poverty Is the incapacity of many
TO achieve a livelihood You can go through
any community and find good people with
more than usual mental caliber, VINO never
have been able to support themselves and
their households. They are n mystery to US
and we say, Il do not know what is the
matter of them. but there is a screw loose
somewhere" Some of these persons have
more brain than thousands who make a
splendid success. Some are too sanguine OF
temperament, and they see bargains where
there are none. A common minnow
is to them a gold fish, and quail fla
mingo. and blind mule on towpath Bu-
cephaluS. They buy when things are high
est and sell when things are lowest. Some
one tells them OF city lots out West. where
the foundation of the first house has not yet
been laid. They say. 'What an opportun-
ity J" and they put down the hard cash for
an crnamented deed for ten lots under
water. They hear of a new silver mine
opened in Nevada, and they say. "What Il
chance" and they take the little money
they have in the savings bank and pay
it out for as beautiful a certif
cate of mining stock as was ever printed,
and the onlything they will ever get out of
the investment is the aforesaid Illuminated
lithOgraph. They are always on the verge
of millionairedom and are sometimes worried
as to whom they shall bequearh their excess
of fortune. They invest in aerial machines
or new inventions in perpetual motion and