The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-05-06
THE RELATION OF A CHRIS
TIAN TO SECULAR SOCIE-
TIES.

The following is portion of the re-
marks of Rev. 1. Bergstrom upon
''The Relation of a Christian to Secu
lar Societies and to the World at
Large" text, John It. 15, made at
the Baptist church Sunday, May, 1st:
The maintaining of christian
character and high standard of
christian living does not necessitate
the keeping aloOf from secular socie-
ties.
l have already mentioned the mo-
naStic tendencies Of some who insist
that christian cannot mingle with
the world. My text is squarely
against such notion, and so are all
those passages of scripture quoted IN
support of the narrow view of life, if
rightly understood. l will mention
one or two: IL Cor. GA, BE We not
unequally Joined together with I'M
believers. If we read further we
find that the apostle warned against
partaking in the unrighteousness idol
airy and devilish deeds of darkness and
not against the good which we might
help our fellowmen to perform.
Another very commonly quoted
UCAU 10 Lpu. O.1I, Anu nave uO lei
lowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them"
The deeds of darkness these people
believe to be synonymous with any
thing that is secret. This is a great
mistake, for the apostle plainly de-
scribes what the unfruitful works of
darkness are, and also in the same
chapter he gives us to understand
what are the fruits of the light,
namely: goodness, righteousness and
truth.
Christ said: Shy their fruits We
shall know them," and this is true
safeguard in regard to the society we
choose to say that society perpe-
trateS deeds of darkness because it has
secrets, or that all mysteries are deeds
Of darkness would be preposterous,
for we read, "Great is the mystery of
Goodness" and hence according to
that rule, Goodness must be CLASH
fed as deeds of darkness.
In Cor. Al the apostle says, "We
are the stewards of the mysteries of
God," and Jesus himself said, sit is
given to you to know the mysteries
Of the Kingdom, but to those outside
l speak in parallels"
So we see that religion has it's mys-
teries and we know that every fam
lily has it's secrets or ought to have,
and woe to the family that does not
place the seal of secrecy upon the
things said and done in the family
circle.
The scriptures never warn chris
tian from uniting with anyone in do
ing good, not even with a so-called
secret society, but it is ever full of
warning against partaking in any
and everything that is wrong or which
can in anywise hinder his usefulness
or development into christian graces.
Nor is it right to judge society by the
life of unfaithful members. There
are such in every organization. Some
Judge the rose by its beauty and fra
GRANGE, others by its thorns. What
is the meaning of these uniforms, re-
galias and tokens in the House of
God this morning?
They signify, as | have it, that the
order here represented believes in the
friendship extended by christians in
and out of the church; that they be-
lieve in God the Father who is love
and whose love we rejoice in, and
while this assembly represents many
creeds, the order still believes in a
unity of truth as contained in Gods
word, allowing each individual free
dom to interpret it without restraint
from others. These three links,
friendship, love and truth are the fun
damental principles of the order
Seventy-three years ago last week,
the first Odd Fellow lodge in the
country was organized at Baltimore,
since then the order has covered the
land and now counts over 100000
members in the United States, and
its history has been marked with
faithfulness to it's lofty principles.
During this time over "a million dol
lars have been paid out to aid the
sick and comfort the bereaved, and
educate the orphans; but not only
toward its own members has this or
der been liberal, but has always had
an open hand of charity extended
toward the whole world and that
hand has never been empty.
When the great famine was devas-
ting unfortunate Ireland, the 0. f.
of America were the first to send re-
lief. A ship loaded with clothing
and provisions crossed the Atlantic
and it's sails unfurled to the breeze
were the white-winged messengers of
love and charity.
Another instance is well remem-
bered, namely, the disastrous fire
which destroyed Chicago. At that
time your order donated S131 900,
more money than was given by any
other society.
By coming here to-day you demon
strate that there is no misunderstanding
or contention between the church and
societies of your kind. Each has its own
work to do, and hence its own organiza-
ton.
The churches are organized to minister
to mans spiritual welfare, and the frater-
nal societies to mans temporal wants.
Each has its own sphere of work, and
true follower of Christ may be eminently
useful in both.
While the christian is to keep himself
unspotted from the world and pray to be
kept from evil, he must delight to bid
Godspeed to those whose very aim is to
visit the sick, to bury the dead. to assist
the fatherless and widows in their Attic
ton
Hence extend to you my hand of fellow
ship in all good work and invoke the di-
vine blessing to rest on you and your
families, and in order that you may real
ize the fullness of your ideal and have
power to live unselfsh lives, l direct you