Insurance. 345 



when I die. In case of my death soon, my wife and children (all 

 full grown) could get along well and live about as we do now. 

 Truly, I would not care to have them make $10,000 or $20,000 

 by my death. The best way to go through this world is to enjoy 

 yourself all you can, and help others to do the same, each day, as 

 you go along. Provide reasonably for the future, but just as 

 reasonably for the comfort of wife and children from day to day, 

 as far as possible. I pity the man who scrimps his family and 

 himself through life, to pile up an estate for heirs to quarrel over, 

 and likely be a curse to them, when a part of it could have done 

 so much to make life more truly enjoyable to his loved ones while 

 he was with them. 



I have heard good men quote a passage from Christ's sermon 

 on the mount, as if it prohibited life insurance : ' ' Take no 

 thought for the morrow." Does any one think Christ meant that 

 to be taken literally as. translated in our Bible ? If so, who 

 inspired Paul when he said : " If any provide not for his own, he 

 is worse than an infidel." Christ certainly meant no more than 

 that we should not be overanxious about the future should not 

 worry. If there is anything that will make a man easy about the 

 future, it is reasonable provision for his loved ones. Once, when 

 the writer lay just at death's door, threatened for days with lock- 

 jaw (our good physician has since told me it was a wonder his 

 hair did not turn white under the terrible strain, and I knew the 

 danger just as well as he, and the fearful doses he was giving me 

 as a last resort) the life insurance policy was worth more to him 

 every hour than he had ever paid . It was nearly all that stood 

 between his dear ones and want. Would that you could know 

 how it helped me, although suifering to the very limit of human 

 endurance. I^ife insurance is one of the greatest and grandest 

 institutions of our civilization. It has helped wipe away the tears 

 from thousands of helpless eyes, and cheered many a strong man 

 on his dying bed. It has smoothed an untold number of path- 

 ways that otherwise would have been terrible to tread ; but, my 

 friends, let us make it our servant, and not our master. 



I might speak of insuring the lives of our farm animals ; but 

 I do not take any stock in that kind of insurance. The risk is so 

 little, and the loss when it conies is so small that, as a rule, we 

 hardly need to provide against it. Good shelter and feed and pure 

 water and watchful care and kind treatment will insure the lives 

 of our animals sufficiently. 



An accident insurance policy might be wise under certain 

 circumstances for a farmer, where the income must stop where his 

 arm failed and means were very limited. Still, I think it is very 

 seldom it would pay. Serious accidents do not often occur, and 

 light ones will hardly stop our energetic farmers. I think neigh- 

 bors may be relied on in such a case to help one out, if he needs 

 it. The writer was unable to do his regular work for a whole 



