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class of the vessel, and to the station to which she is bound, and to nothing
else. The notion that a missionary or other pious enterprise carries any
immunity from danger has never been entertained by insurance
companies.
To proceed with our inquiry, whether enterprises on behalf of pious
people succeed better than others when they are entrusted to profane
hands, we may ask - Is a bank or other commercial undertaking more
secure when devout men are among its shareholders - or when the funds
of pious people, or charities, or of religious bodies are deposited in its
keeping, or when its proceedings are opened with prayer, as was the case
with the disastrous Royal British Bank? It is impossible to say yes. There
are far too many sad experiences of the contrary.
If prayerful habits had influence on temporal success, it is very
probable, as we must again repeat, that insurance offices, of at least some
descriptions, would long ago have discovered and made allowance for it.
It would be most unwise, from a business point of view, to allow the
devout, supposing their greater longevity even probable, to obtain
annuities at the same low rates as the profane. Before insurance offices
accept a life, they make confidential inquiries into the antecedents of the
applicant. But such a question has never been heard of as, “Does he
habitually use family prayers and private devotions?” Insurance offices,
so wakeful to sanatory influences, absolutely ignore prayer as one of
them. The same is true for insurances of all descriptions, as those
connected with fire, ships, lightning, hail, accidental death and cattle
sickness. How is it possible to explain why Quakers, who are most devout
and most shrewd men of business, have ignored these considerations,
except on the ground that they do not really believe in what they and
others freely assert about the efficacy of prayer? It was at one time
considered an act of mistrust in an over-ruling Providence to put lightning
conductors on churches; for it was said that God would surely take care of
his own. But Arago's collection of the accidents from lightning showed
they were sorely needed; and now lightning conductors are universal.
Other kinds of accidents befall churches, equally with other buildings of
the same class; such as architectural flaws, resulting in great expenses for
repair, fires, earthquakes, and avalanches.
The cogency of all these arguments is materially increased by the
recollection that many items of ancient faith have been successively
abandoned by the Christian world to the domain of recognized
superstition. It is not two centuries ago, long subsequent to the days of
