The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-09-06
DR.TALuAdR'ss ERnoN
The Eminent Dlvlne's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject Secret sooietiea-why Silence II
Sometimes best - Organization That
Work For uumanity's Service The
True Tests For Secret Societies.
ICopyrlght lmLl

lCopyright laOi.l
WASHINGTON, d. CA practical ques-
ton which is asked in most houses and
for many years is here asked by Dr. Tai
mage and answered; text, Proverbs XIV,
o. Discover not a secret to another"
II appears that in Solomon's time, az IN
all subsequent periods OF the world, there
were people too much disposed TO tell all
they knew. 1t was blab, blab, blab; ply
sieians revealing the case Of their pa.
tents, lawyers exposing the private at
fairs OF their clients, ncighbors advertising
the faults Of the next door resident, pre-
tending friends betraying condolences.
One-hat OF the trouble Of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut When / hear something dis
paraging of you, my first duty is not to
tell you, but il tell you what somebody
has said against you and then 60 out and
tell everybody else what l told you, and
they 90 out and tell others what l told
them that / told you, and we all 60 out,
some to hunt up the originator Of the
story and others TO hunt it down, we
shall get the whole community talking
about what you do and what you did not
do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though a band of Modocs had
swept upon a helpless village. We have
two ears, but only one tongue, a physio-
logical suggestion that we ought to hear
good deal more than we tell. Let us
join a conspiracy that we will tell each
other all the good and nothing of the i'll,
and then there will not be such awful need
Of sermons on Solomon's words, Discover
not a secret to another"
Solomon had a very large domestic cir
Gle. In his earlier days he had very con-
fused notions about monogamy and poly
gamY, and his mutitudiuous associates in
the matrimonial state kept him too well
informed as to what was going on in Jeru-
salem. They gathered up all the privacies
and poured them into his ear, and his
family became a sorosis or female debat-
ing society Of 200, discussing day after day
all the difficulties between husbands and
wives, between employers and employees,
between rulers and subjects, until Solo
mon, in my text, deplores volubility about
affairs that do not belong to us and extols
the virtue Of secretiveness.
By the power Of Il secret divulged fam
lies, churches, neighborhoods, nations,
fl, apart. By the power of a secret kept
chauues, soeialities, reformatory move
ments and Christian enterprises may be
! advanced. Men are gregarious-cattle in
herds, fish in schools, birds in focks, men
in social circles. You may by the dis
| charge of a gun scatter flock of quails
| or by the plunge of an anchor send apart
! the denizens of the sea, but they will
! gather themselves together again. If you
! by some new power could break the asso-.
Citations in which men now stand, they
! would again adhere. God meant it so. He
! Las gathered all the flowers and shrubs
into associations. You may plant one
forget-me-not or heartsease alone away
| off upon the hillside, but it will soon
hunt up some other forget-me-not or
heartsease. Plants love company. You
will find them talking to each other in
the dew.
You sometimes see a man with no out
branchings of sympathy. His nature is
cold and hard, like a ships mast ice
glazed, which the most agile sailor could
never climb. Others have a thousand
roots and thousand branches. Innum-
cradle tendrils climb their hearts and bios
som all the way up, and the fowls of
heaven sing in the branches. In conse-
quence of this tendency we find men COM
ing together IN tribes, in communities, IN
churches, In societies. Some gather to.
gether to cultivate the arts, some to plan
for the welfare of the state, some to dis
cuss religious themes, some to kindlA their
mlrth, some to advance their craft. So
every active community is divided into as
sociations of artists, of merchants, of
bookblnders, of carpenters, of masons, of
plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumbers.
DO you cry out against it? Then YOU crv
out against a tendency divinely implanted.
our TRADES would accomplish no more
than if you should preach to busy ant
hill long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-discussed question
whether associations that do their work
with closed doors and admit their mem
bers by passwords and greet each other
with secret grip are right or wrong.
answer that it depends entirely on the
nature of the object for which they meet,
ls 1T to pass the hours in revelry, wassail,
blasphemy and obscene talk or to plot
trouble to the state or to debauch the in
nocent, then l say with an emphasis that
no man can mistake, MOP But is the
object the defense of the rights of any
class against oppression, the Improvement
OF the mind, the enlargement of the heart
the advancement of art, the defense OF
the Government, the extirpation of crime
or the kndling Of a pure hearted socialitv
then say with just as much emphasis
eyes"
There is no need that we who plan fo1
the conquest of right over wrong should
publish to all the world our intentions
The general Of an army never sends to the
opposing troops information of the com
ing attack. Shall we who have enlisted
In the cause of God and humanity expose
our plans TO the enemy! No; we will II
, secret plot the ruin of all the enterprises
OF Satan and his cohorts! When they
expect US by day, we will fall upon then
by night. While they are Strengthening
= their left wing we will fall on their right.
By plan of battle formed in secret con
clave we will come suddenly upon them
crying, The sword of the Lord and o
Gideon!" Secrecy of plot and execution
is wrong only when the object and end
are nefariOus. Every family is a secret SO
: elety, every business firm and every bank
ing and insurance institution.
Those men who have no capacity t
] keep a secret are unfit for positions O
e trust anywhere. There are thousands O
p men whose vital need is culturing a capat