The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-04-01

Damon Lodge No. l3, will meet
tomorrow night Ranks to confer and
applications to consider.
Let every officer be at his post, and
as many members present as can at
teEd.
SECRET SOCIETIES HAVE STOOD THE TEST
OF AGES.
Cline proves all things" By this
test we, who are friends and members
of secret societies, are willing that
they shall he tried. by this trial he
who "spake as never man spake''
taught the multitudes who gathered
on the plains and mountain sides,
by the rivers and on the shores OF
the lakes of Judea, listening to his
words of wisdom as he advised them,
to prove eli things whether they were
true or false, human or divine, the
trial by long life, permanency. And
so now we challenge those who find
fault, who criticise, who denounce
secret societies as immoral and unholy
in their tendencies, and We say to
them if they be not of God, for good
why is it that through all the years o1
persecution and of trial by fire and
sword, by scourging aad torturlngs
By burnings and death, they have moi
been ever lastingly destroyed and
blotted out of existence? why is il
that since the days of Zoroaster,2 ,00(
B, c; these secret societies have lived
aud hourished? true, their votaries
were driven flom their homes, anc
were forced to flee to the mountains
and dens and caves OF the earth, but
they came forth after each period O.
persecution only to take 6rmer hole
on the hearts of men.
I think we may find that one grea
cause for the establishment OF secre
societies among men was and is the
inherent belief in q higher power
than man, the spiritual striving for {
higher and purer life. So we fine
the ancient secret societies were
formed for moral and religious train
ing; such were the "Ancient Myster
les" whose object was. by their in
itiations, to cultivate purer worship
than the popular one. Each of those
organizations or bodies, whethe
gathered about Pythagoras, or Plato
found a God to worship; not one o
their own class, not fashioned b.
human hands, but one who to then
was King OF Kings and Lord o
Lords. a faith in a God, whom the,
believed to be endowed will
omniscience, omnipotence and omni
presence, was the central point in al
their universe of thought and desire
Such were the schools societies o
the old philosopers. Antedatins tb
the Jewish religion, the supreme be
ing that was made the central igur
in the teaching of Zoroaster was iden
tical with the Jewish idea or con
ception of Jehovah.
He is called "Creator of the earthl
and spiritual life, the Lord of th
whole universe, at whose hands ar
all the creatures" They taught tha
"He is wisdom and intellect; the ligh
itself and the source of light; the re
warder of the virtuous, and the pun
isher of the wicked" These societie
long before Judaism had its brit
taught the idea of a future life ane
the Immortality of the soul. Her
too was first taught the doctrine o
the resurrection Of the body and al
eternal existence in heaven or bel
The heaven was called the "hous
of hymns, because the angels san!
hymns there" In these beliefs hav
all the secret societies of what W
have termed first class been formed
from their earliest advent until th
present time.
In these beliefs which to-day ar
the beliefs of the entire Christian
world, is found our first answer t
the question why secret societies hsv'
lived and do live, spite of the perse
cutions that have come upon them
1t is the God in man that makes ant
gives life. As it has been in the past
as to their life aud growth,so it vii
be in the future, only that they vii
cone into greater and broader fields
aud the light that lights their path
way will grow more aud more unit
it comes to the perfect day of spirit
uul light and knowledge.
Not only have these societies made
the belief in divine Creator-God-
one cf the chief stones il the build
ing, from tie earliest time in thei,
existence have they believed in th'
brotherhood of malone common
family, with rights and powers, iu
uerent in each, aud which should b.
respected by each and all.
Ibis was and is a doctrine that ha
been difficult to establish in its broad
est and fullest sense among men
While to-day admit it to be the prop
er basis on which all society should
rest, yet the history of everyday life
in this the closing OF the nineteentl
century, as in the early ages, points
to man inhumanity toward his fel
low, and wrong and oppression sit il
high places. Some there have alway!
been who have respected the right!
of others; some who, long before the
Christian era tried to practice them
selves and inculcate in others the
practice of the great commandment
sWhosoever ye would that lner
should do unto you, do ye even SC
| to them