Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-07-31

y1A ashcd in most houses. and for
9ZS many years. is here asked by Df.
Talmage and answered; text. Proverbs
XIV, o, Discover not secret e, anoth-
err
1t appears that in Solomon's timeJ as
in all subsequent periods of the world.
there were people too much disposed to
tell all they knew. 1t was blab, blab,
blab physicians revealing the case Of
aheir patients, lawyers exposing the pri-
yate affairs Of their clients, neighbors ad-
yertising the faults of the next door resi-
dent. pretended friends betraying conf
dences.
0ne-half 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
dispara ging of you, my first duty Is not
TO I YOU, but If | tell you what some
boo. has said against you and then go
ont and tell everybody else what told
you, and they 90 out and tell Others what
l told them that told you, and we all go
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 did do and what you did
not do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though band of Modes had
swept upon helpless village. We have
two ears, but only one tongue physi-
illogical suggestion that we ought to hear
a good deal more than we tell Let us
join conspiracy that we viii tell each
otler 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 very large domestic cir
Gle. In his earlier days he had very con-
fused notions about monogamy and po-
Iygamy, and his multitudinous associates
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 sorosis or fe-
male debating society of roo, discussing
day after day all the difficulties between
husbands and wives. between employers
and employees. between rulers and sub
jects, until Solomon, in my text, de-
plores volubility about affairs that do not
belong to us and extols the virtue of Sc
eretiyeness.
BY the power Of a secret divulged fam
lilies, churches. neighborhoods, nations, fly
dpdTts 10y AIT pOAeI VI SttEtI Atpl
great charities socialities. reformatory
movements and Christian enterprises
MAJ be advanced. Men are gregarious-
cattle in herds, fish in schools, birds in
aocks. men in social circles. You may
by the discharge of gun scatter a flock
of quails or by the plunge of the anchor
send apart the denizens Of the sea. buc
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 the
flowers and shrubs into associations. You
may plant one forgetmenot or heaFtsease
alone, away off upon the hillside, but it
will soon hunt up some other forgetme-
not or heartsease. Plants love company.
You will find them talking to each other
in the dew.
0utbranchings of Sympathy.
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 thousand
roots and a thousand branches. Innum-
cradle tendrils climb their hearts and
blossom all the way UP, and the fowls Of
heaven sing in the branches. In conse
guence of this tendency we find men
coming together in tribes. in commune
ties. in churches, in societies. Some gath
er together to cultivate the arts, some to
plan for the welfare of the State, some to
discuss religious themes, some to kindle
their mirth, some to advance their craft
So every active community is divided
into associations of artists, of merchants
of bookbinders. of rpenters, of masons
OF plasterers, of sLipwrights, OF plumb
ers. Do you cry out against it? Then
you cry out against tendency divinely
implanted YOU TRADES would accom-
plish no more man if YOU should preach
to busy ant lill long sermon against
secret societies.
Here we find he 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
Is it t. pass the hours in reYelry, was
sail, blasphemy and obi cene talk or 10
plot trouble to the State or to debauch
the innocent, then | say, with an empha.
sis that no man can mistaks. Ne! But is
the object the defense of the rights Of
any class against oppression, the i'm
provement of the mind the enlargement
of the qeart. the Advancement Of art. the
defense Of the government. the extirpa-
ton OF crime or the kindling Of Il pure
hearted sociality then | say. with just as
much mFhasis, Yes.
There is no need that we who plan for
tee conquest of right over wrong should
publish to MI the world cur intentions.
1he general OF an army never sends to
tae opposing troops information of the
coming attack. Shall we who have en-
listed in the cause Of God and humanity
expose our plans to the enemy? No: we
will in secret plot the ruin of all the en-
terprises Of satan and his cohorts When
they expect us by day. We viii fall upon
them by night. While they are strength
ening their left wing we will fall on their
right. By plan OF ban * formed in Sc
eret conelaye we will con suddenly upon
them crying, THE swor7 OF the Lord and
of Gideon Secrecy OF plot and execu-
tion is wrong only when the object and
ends are nefarions. Every ia ally is q
secret society. every business irm and
egery banking and insurance nsfitHtipn.
These men uho have no capacity 10 keep
> secret are uniit for positions Of trust
anywhere There are thousands cf men
whose vital need is cnlt1ring capacity
to keep a secret. Men talk TOO much. and
women. too. There is j time to keep 81
ience as wei as a time 10 speak.
Although not belonging 10 amy Of the
great secret societies ahtdt which there