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

great secret societies about which there
mas been Do much violent discussion, I
nave only words Of praise for those asso-
clations which have for their object the
maintenance of right against wrong or
the exclamation of inebriates or, like the
score OF mutual benefit societies called by
different names, that provide temporary
relief for widows and orphans and for
men incapacitated by sickness or acct
dent from earning a livelihood. Had il
not been for the secret labor ~organiza-
tons in this country monopoly would
long ago have, under its ponderous
wheels, ground the laboring classes into
an intolerable servitude. The .nen who
want the whole earth to themselves
would have got it before this had it not
been for the banding together Of great
secret organizations, and while we de-
plore many things that have been done
by them, their existence is q necessity
and their legitimate sphere distinctly
pointed out by the providence Of God.
Such organizations are trying to dismiss
from their association all members who
are in favor of anarchy and social chaos.
They will gradually cease anything like
tyranny over their members and will for
bid violent interference with any mans
work, whether he belongs to their union
or Is outside Of it, and will declare their
disgust with any such rule as that passed
in England by the Manchester Brickiay-
ers' association, which says any man
found running or working beyond q regu-
lar speed shall be fined 2 shillings and
'sixpence for the first ~offense, 5 shillings
for the second, 10 shillings for the third
and if still persisting shall be dealt with
as the committee thinks proper.
There are secret societies in our col
leges that have letters of the Greek al
phabet for their nomenclature, and their
members are at the very front in scholar
ship and irreproachable in morals, while
there are others the scene of carousal,
and they gamble, and they drink, and
they graduate knowing q hundred times
more about sin than they DO Of geometry
and SOphocles. In other words, secret
societies, like individuals, are good or
bad, are the means Of moral health CT of
temporal and eternal damnation. All
good people recognize the vice Of SANDER
ing an individual, but many do not see
the sin Of slandering an organization.
There are old secret societies in this and
other countries, some of them centuries
old, which nave been widely denounced
as immoral and damaging in their influ-
euCc, YET Il uuNe uuuUT6US OIL peTSOudl
friends who belong to them-friends who
are consecrated to God, pillars in the
church, faithful in all relations of life,
examples of virtue and piety. They are
the kind of friends whom / would have
for my executors at the time of decease,
and they are the men whom l would
have carry me out to the last sleep when
/ am dead. You cannot make me believe
that they would belong to bad ~institu-
tons. They are the men who would
stamp on anything Ubiquitous, and 1
would certainly rather take their testi-
mony in regard to such societies than
the testimony of those who, having been
sworn in as mepbers, by their assault
upon them confess themselves perjurers.
One of these secret societies gave for
the relief of the sick in 1873, in this
country, S1,49O.274. Some of these So
cieties nave poured a very heaven of
sunshine and benediction into the home
of suffering. Several Of them are found
ed on fidelity to good citizenship and the
Bible. I have never taken one Of their
degrees. They might give me the grip a
thousand times Inc l would not recog-
nize it. / am ignorant of their pass
words, and / must judge entirely from
the outside. But Christ has given us a
rule by which we may judge not only all
individuals, but all societies, secret and
open. "By their fruits We shall know
them Bad societies make bad men.
Good societies make good men. A bad
man will not stay in a good society. A
good man will not stay in a bad society.
Then try all secret societies by two or
three rules.
influence on Home Life.
Test the first: Their influence on home,
If you have q home. That wife soon
loses her influence over her husband who
n%ervously and foolishly looks upon all
evening absence as an assault on domes-
ITCHY. How are the great enterprises Of
reform and art and literature and benef-
cence and public veal to be carried OF if
every man is to have his world bounded
on one side by his front doorstep and on
the other side by his back window, know
ing nothing higher than his own attic or
lower than his own cellar? That wife
who becomes jealous Of her husbands at
tention to art or literature or religion or
charity is breaking her own scepter Of
conjugal power l know an instance
where q wife thought that her husband
was giving too many nights to Christian
service. to charitable service, to prayer
meetings and TO religious conyocatlon.
She systematically decoyed him away
until now be attends no church, waits
upon no charitable institution and is On a
rapid way 10 destruction. his morals gone,
his money zone and. ] fear. his soul gone.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when
her husband consecrates evenings to the
service OF humanity and of God or any
thing eleva;ing. but let 10 man sacrifice
home life to secret society life, as many
do. / can point out to you a great many
names Of men who are guilty Of this sac
| rilege They are as genial as angels at
the society room and as ugly as sin at
home. They are generous On all subjects
Of wine suppers, yachts and fast horses,
But they are stipgy about the wives
| dresses and the children's shoes That
man has made that which might be a
healthful influence a usurper Of his afec-
tons and he has married it, and he is
guilty of moral bigamy. Under this proc
ess the wife. whatever her features, be-
comes uninteresting and homely. he be-
comes critical of her, does not like the
| dress, does not like the way she arranges