The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-07-30

N-~NN'C " d secret 10 dQOC0-
err"
1t 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. 1t was bIab, blab,
blab; physicians revealing the case of
their patients, lawyers exposing the pri-
Vate affairs of their clients, neighbors adj
yertIslng the faults of the next door resi-
dent. pretended friends betraying conf
dences.
One-half of the trouble of every COM
-munlty comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut. When L hear something
dlsparaging Of you, my first duty is not
to tell you, but if l tell you what some
body has said against you and then 60
out and tell everybody else what l told
you, and they go 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 did do and what you did
not do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though a band of Modocs had
swept upon n helpless village. We have
two ears, but only one tongue, a physi-
illogical suggestion that we ought to hear
a 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 q very large domestic cir
Gle. In his earlier days he had very con-
fused notions about monOgamy and po-
lygamy, 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
privaciess and poured them into his ear,
n his family became n sorosis or fe-
male debating society of 100, 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
cretiyeness.
By the power of a secret divulged fam-
lilies, churches, neighborhoods, nations,
fly apart. By the power of a secret kept
great charities, socialities, reformatory
movements and Christian enterprises
may be advanced. Men are gregarious-
cattle in herds, fish in schools, birds in
flocks, men in social circles. You may
ny tue ulScldTSS Ol Il gun ScdCter q uOch
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 the
flowers and shrubs into associations. You
may plant one forgetmenot or heartsease
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.
Outbranchings 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 a thousand
roots and a thousand branches. Innu-
merable tendrils climb their hearts and
blossom all the way up, and the fowls of
heaven sing in the branches. In conse-
Quence OF this tendency we find men
coming together in tribes, in communi-
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 carpenters, Of masons,
OF plasterers. OF shipwrights, Of plumb
ers. Do you cry out against it? Then
you cry out against a tendency divinely
implanted. Your TRADES would accom-
plish no more than il you should preach
to q busy ant hill q 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 a secret grip are right or wrong. !
answer that il depends entirely on the
nature OF the object for which they meet.
Is it to pass the hours in revelry, was
sail, ~blasphemy and obscene talk or to
plot trouble TO the state or to debauch
= the innocent, then ! say, with an empha-
y sis that no man can mistake, No! 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 heart, the advancement Of art, the
defense Of the government, the extirpa-
ton Of crime or the kindling OF a pure
hearted sociality, then | say, with just as
much emphasis, Yes.
4uSE6 Is III AeSu I41oI VIC WAN PAoA VI
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
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 will fall upon
them by night. While they are strength
ening their left wing we will fall or their
7 right. By a plan of battle formed in Sc
cret conclave we will come suddenly upon
them crying, The sword of the Lord and
of Gideon" Secrecy Of plot and execu-
ton is wrong only when the object and
ends are nefarious. Every family Is a
society, every business firm and
every banking and insurance institution.
Those men who have no capacity to keep
a secret are unfit for positions Of trust
anywhere. There are thousands Of men
whose vital need is culturing a capacity