[6] It should be a serious question with a child of God, ere he avails himself of an assurance company, whether in the matter of fire or life, "Am I hereby distrusting God? or am I seeking by human agency to counteract divine visitations?" There is something sadly anomalous in a Christian's insuring his life. He professes to be _dead_, and that Christ is his _life_; why then talk of insuring his life? But many will say, "We cannot bring Christianity into such things." I ask, Where are we to leave it? Is Christianity a convenient sort of garment, which we put on on Lord's day, and at the close of that day take it off, fold it carefully up, and lay it on the shelf till the following Lord's day? It is too often thus. People have two characters; and what is this but the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy? Insurance offices are all very well for the men of this world, who should certainly avail themselves of them, inasmuch as every thing around and within is so uncertain. But to the child of God _all is sure_. God has insured his life forever, and hence he should regard insurance offices as so many depots of unbelief. "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully." What sin is there in being a successful agriculturist or merchant? If God bless a man's labor, should he not rejoice? Truly so; but mark the moral progress of a covetous heart. "He thought _within himself_." He did not think in the presence of God,--he did not think under the mighty influences of the eternal world; no, "he thought within himself"--within the narrow compass of his selfish heart. Such was his range; and therefore we need not marvel at his practical conclusion. "What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?" What! Was there no way of using his resources with a view to God's future? Alas! no. Man has a future (or thinks he has) on which he counts, and for which he makes provision; but self is the only object which figures in that future,--self, whether in my own person or that of my wife or child, which is morally the same thing.