The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-02
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
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and for many years. is here asked by Dr. Talmage and answered.; text, Prov' erbs XIV. g, Discover not secret to another"
 It appears that in Solomon's time, as in all subsequent periods of the world, there were people too much disposed to tell all they knew. It was blab, piap. blab; physicians revealing the case of their patients, lawyers exposing the pri- vate affairs of their clients, neighbors advertising the faults of the next door resident pretended friends betraying condolences.
 One-hal of the trouble of every com munity comes from the fact that so many people have not capacity 10 keep their moutS.-.hut When l hear some thing disparaging of you, my hrst duty is not to tell you. but if tell you what somebody has said against you an l then go out and tell everybody eis', what I told you. and they go out and tell others what told them that told / you, and we all go out, some to hunt up the originator of the story and the others to hunt it down, we shall get the whole community talking about what you did do and what you did not do, and there will be as many scalps taken as though a band of Modocs nad swept upon helpless village. We have two ears. but only one tongue. physi.' ological suggestion that we ought tc' hear a good deal more than we tell. Let us join a conspiracy that we will tell each other all the gsod and noth- ing of the i'll. and then there will no: be such awful need of sermons on Solo- mons words. Discover not a secret to another"
 Solomon had very large domestic circle. In his earlier days he had very a polygamy, and his multitudinous as- sociates in the matrimonial state kept him too well informed as to what was going on in Jerusalem. They gathered up all the privacies and poured them into his ear. and his family became q. soross or female debating society or 700. discussing day after day all tns difficulties between husbands and wiveh and between employer and employees between rulers and subjects, until Sole mon. in my text, deplores volubilitl about affairs that do not belong to us. and extols the virtue of secretiveness.
 By the power of a secret divuiged families. churches. neighborhoods. na- tions. fly apart. By the power of se- cret kept great charities, socialitles, reformatory movements and Christian enterprises may be advanced. Men are gregarious-cattle in herds, fish in
 
 circles. You may by the discharge of a gun scatter a flock of quails or by the plunge of the anchor send apart the denizens of the sea, but they will gather themselves together again. If you by some new power could break the associations in which men now stand. they would again adhere. God meant it so. He has gathered all ths flowers and shrubs into associa tions, far raf- mt n 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.
 outbranchings of Sympathy.
 You sometimes see a man with no outbranchings of sympathy. His na- ture is cold and hard, like a ships mast ice glazed, which the most agile sailor could never climb. Others have a thousand roots and thousani branches. Innumerable tendrils climb their hearts and blossoms all the way up and the fowls of heaven sing in the branches. In consequence of this ter- dency we find men coming together 1T. tribes. in communities. in churches, ir societies. Som- gather together to cul" tivate the arts, some to plan for thu welfare of the State, some to discuss religious themes, some to klndle tneir mirth. some to advance their craft. SO every active community is divided Tn to associations of artists. of merchants. of bookbnders, of carpenters. of ma sons, of plasterers. of shipwrights, O. plumbers. Do you cry out against 1t! Then you cry out against tendency diyinely implanted. Your tirades woul accomplish no more than if you shoul preach to a busy ant hill long ser mon against secret societies.
 Here we find the oft-discussed ques tion whether associations that do their work with closed doors and admit their members by passwords and greet each other with a secret grip are right or wrong I answer that 1t depends en" tirely on the nature of the object for which they meet Is it to pass the hours in revelry, wassail blasphemy and obscene talk or to plot trouble u the State or to debauch the innocent. then I say with emphasis that no maH can mistake. No! But is the object the defense of the rights of any claas against oppression. the improvement of the heart. the advancement of art, the defense of the government. the extir patton of crime. or the kindling of ! pure hearted sociality. then I saJ. with just as much emphasis. Yes.
 There is no need that we who plan for the conquest or rlSht over wrong should publish to all the world ol { intentions. The general of an army never sends to the opposing troops ir' formation of the coming attack. Shall we who have enlisted in the cause oi God and humanity expose our plans tc the enemy? No; we will in secret plot the ruin of all the enterprises of satan and his cohorts. When they expect u1 by day. we will fall upon them by night. By plan of battle formed in secret concla-Sr we will come suddenl,' upon them crying. "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon" Secrecy of plot and execution is wrong only when the obiect and ends are nGfarious. Every family is a secret society. every busl- ness firm and every banking and in. surance institution. Those men wht, have no capacity to keep a secret art unfit for positions of trust anywhere There are thousands of men whose vital need is culturing a capacity tE keen a secret. Men talk too much and women too. There Is a time c. keen silence as well as time to speak.
 Although not belonging to any of th'' great secret societies about which the:a has been so much violent discussion. have only words of praise for those as. sociations which have for their obteC' the maintenance of right against wronG or the reclamation of inebriates O.: like the score of mutual benefit soCie ties called by different names, that pro. vide tempOrarv relief for widows and