Lincoln shook his head and looked grave.
“Why not?”
“Shouldn’t like to do that.” His face became still more serious.
“Any particular objection?”
“It looks like running in the face of Providence. I should feel as if I were signing my death warrant.”
“That’s a strange notion.”
“It’s just as I feel. I’ve thought about it a number of times. But it seems to me that life is too serious a thing to be placed on a common level with a house or a ship. In putting a money-value upon his earthly existence, it seems to me that the Divine Being would be outraged, and visit the mercenary offender with death as a judgment.”
“You have a strange idea of the Divine Being,” said I, evincing surprise in turn. “In getting your life insured, would you purpose evil to your neighbor?”
“No; but rather good. I would seek, in doing so, not only to keep my wife and children from becoming a burden upon others, but to secure to them those worldly advantages so necessary to the healthy development of mind and body.”
“And do you think a merciful God would visit you, vindictively, for acting with such an unselfish purpose in your mind? How strange must be your notion of Him who is represented to us as being in his very nature love! Now, we know that love seeks to impart a blessing to all—not a curse.”