Bri^ bam Yowiig; on jLit'e Insurance!
This great prophet of the Latter- Day Saints is opposed to life insurance on polygamical prin- ciples. In one of his late discourses in the Tab- ernacle, he gave vent to his saintly feelings in the following strain : " Brethren, I am down on life insurance. It is the invention of the same evil one who tempted Eve with an apple in the Garden of Eden. Ho promised to. give woman the upper hand of her husband and life insurance does the same. A life- insurance agent has more brass than a dozen Yankee clock- peddlers. One had the impudence to ask me to take out a pohcy for the benefit of my wives and children, and be- fore I could recover my breath he commenced to draw up an application, and I verily believe would have filled it out if he could have crowded in the names. Now I a3kyou, brethren, what would most likely become of your Prophet if insurance on his life were effected to the amount of $ 5,000 for each wife ?. I have only thirty, and that would make the chances thirty to one that I should enter the realms of glory be- fore the end of the year. As a father in Israel, I have the gospel privilege of sealing the daugh- ters thereof, but I have no wish that they should seal my fate. I am ready to ascend to my seat on high, but I do not want to be sent up in an insurance balloon. The wives of the faithful are too much tempted already, and how could they resist this ingenious device of the Gentiles. Touch not, taste not, handle not, my brethren. Let the Gentile insure his life in the biggest sum for his wife, and when she is a widow, let one of our apostles make love to her and bring her on this side of Jordan. I want no life com- panies in Utah of which I am not the presiding spirit. Life insurance makes the wife independ- ent of the husband. She feels that, if she should by accident drop some strychnine in hiB gruel, she has something to fall back upon to keep her children from want. Women should " be kept under. They should trust in the Lord, and not in life insurance. If they have a bad husband and an insurance policy on his life, they are always secretly praying for his death, and, if their prayers are not answered readily, they hurry up his predestination. Beware of hfe insurance. It is Satan in disguise. Turn your back on it, shut your ears against it, flee from it as if from a pestilence, for verily it would bring rebellion and death into the land of Mormon."
