The Penn's Grove record., 1901-08-02
DIR, TAHMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Secret societies-why Silence Is
Sometimes Best - Organizations That
Work For H~umaDity's Service Inc
True Tests For Secret Societies.

Work For H~umaDity's service - Ah'
True Tests For Secret Societies
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. CA practical ques.
ton which is asked in most houses and
for many years is here asked by DR.. Ial-
mage and answered; text, Proverbs XIV
0. HDiscover not a secret to another.
1t appears that in Solomon's time, as IN
all subsequent periods OF the world, therG
were people too much disposed to tell all
they knew. 1t was blab, blab, blab; ply
sicians revealing the case OF their pa
tients. lawyers exposing. the private al
fairs Of their clients, neighbors advertising
the faults of the next door resident, pre-
tending friends betraying condolences.
One-half of the trouble of every COM
munity comes from the fact that SO many
people have not capacity to keep thelr
mouths shut. When I hear something dis
paraging of you, my first duty Is not to
tell You, but if | tell you what somebody
has said against you and then go out and
tell everybody else what l told you, and
thew 90 out and tell others what l told
them that 1 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 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: d physlo'
logical suggestion that we ought to hear
n good deal more than we tell. Let us
Join a conspiracy that we will tell each
other all the good and nothing OF the III,
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 multitudinous associates IN
the matrimonial state kept him too well
informed as to what was going on in Jeru'
salem. They gathered up all the priyacles
and poured them into his ear, and his
family became a sorosis or female debat'
ing society Of 700, discussing day after day
ali 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 a secret diyulged am.
lies, churches, neighborhoods, nations,
fly apart. By the power of a secret kept
charlues, soeiaities, retormatory move.
ments and Christian enterprises may be
advanced. Men are gregarious-cattle in
herds, fish in schools, birds in flocks, men
in social circles. You may by the dis
charge of a gun scatter a flock of qualls
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
has 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
glazed, which the most agile sailor could
never climb. Others have a thousand
roots and a thousand branches. 1nnuln-
cradle tendrils climb their hearts and bios.
som all the way up, and the fowls OF
heaven sine 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 kindle their
mirth, some to advance their craft. So
every active community is divided into as,
sociatiohs of artists, of merchants, OF
bookbinders, of carpenters, Of masons, OF
plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumbers,
Do you cry out against it? Then you cry
out against a tendency divinely implanted
Your TRADES would accomplish no more
than if you should preach to a busy ant
hill a 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 it depends entirely on the
nature OF the object for which they meet,
Is it to pass the hours in r~evelry, wassail
blasphemy and obscene talk or to plot
trouble to the state or to debauch the in
nocent, then | say with an emphasis that
no man can mistake, "No!" 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 kindling Of a pure hearted soeiality
then | say with just as much emphasis
There is no need that we who plan fol
the conquest of right over wrong should
publish to all the world our intentions
The general of an army never sends to tn,
opposing troops. information of the com
ing attack. Shall We who AVE enlisted
in the cause of God and humanity EXPOSE
our plans to the enemy? No; we will il
secret plot the ruin of all the enterprise
OF Satan and his cohortsl 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 a 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
ciety, every business firm and every bank
ing and insurance institution.
Those men who have no capacity Il
keep a secret are unfit for positions o
trust anywhere; There are thousands Q
men whose vital need is culturing a capac
ity to keep a secret. Men talk too much
and women, too. There is a time to keel
silence as well as a time to speak.
Although not belonging to any of tn
great secret societies about which ther'
has been SO much violent discussion,
have only words of praise for those asso
Citations which have for their object tn
maintenance Of right against wrong or tn,
reclamation OF inebriates or, like the scor,
of mutual benefit societies called by diff
ferent names, that provide temporary re
lief for widows and orphans and for mel
lncapacitated by sickness or accident iron
earning a livelihood. Had it not been fo
the secret labor organizations in thi
country monopoly would long ago hav,
under its ponderous wheels ground tn,
laboring classes into an intolerable servi
tude, The men who want the whole eartl
to themselves would have got it beior,
this had it not been for the banding to
gether of great secret organizations. And
while we deplore many things that havl
been done by them, their existence is
necessity and their legitimate sphere dis
tlnctly pointed out by the providence 0
God. Such organizations are trying TO dis
miss from their associations all member
70 are in favor of anarchy and soeia
haos, They will gradually cease any
ing like tyranny over their members
and will forbid violent interference wit
any mans work, whether he belongs T.
their union or is outside Of it, and vii
declare their disgust with any such rul
as that passed in England by the Man
chester Brieklayers' Association, whicl
says any man found running or workin
beyond a regular speed shall be fined tw
shillings and sixpence for the first nifense
five shillings for the second, ten shilling
for the third, and if still persisting sha.
be dealt with as the committee think
proper.
There are old secret societies in this an
other countries, some of them e~enturie
old, which have been widely %denounee
ma immoral aud damagino in their inHI