The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-08-14

not only all individuals, but all societies,
secret and open. "By their fruits ye shall
know them" Bad societies make bad
| men. Good societies make good men: A
bad man will not stay in good society;
Then try all secret societies by two os
three rules.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when hes
husband consecrates evenings to the serv'
ice of humanity and of God or anything
life to secret society life, as many do. !
can point out to you q great many names
of men who are guilty of this sacrilege.
They are as genial as angels al the society
rooms and aa ugly as sin at home. They
are generous on all subjects of wine sup
pers, yachts and fine horses, but they are
stingy about their wives dresses and the
children's shoes. That man has made that
which might be healthful influence q
usurper of bis affections, and he has mar
ried it, and ,he is guilty of moral bigamy.
Under this process the wife, whatever her
homely. He becomes critical of her, does
not like the dress. does not like the way
she arranges her hair, is amazed that he
ever was 80 unromantic as to offer her
hand and heart.
There are secret societies where member
ship always involves domestic shipwreck.
Tell me that a man has joined certain
kind and tell me nothing more about him
for ten years, and will write his history
if he be. still alive The man is wine
guzzler, his wife broken hearted or pre-.
maturely old, his fortune gone and his
home mere name in the directory.
Here are siE secular, nights in the week.
"What shall do with them?" says the
father and the husband. "I will give four
of these nights to the improvement and
entertainment Of my family, either at
home or in good neighborhood. I will de,
vote one to charitable institutions. I will
devote one to my lodge" I congratulate
you. Here is man who says, "Out Of the
six secular nights of the week I will de-
vote five. to lodges and clubs and assccia:
win spend in scowling like March ssusIi,
| wishing I was out spending it as have
spent the other fve." That mans obitu.
ary is written. Not one out of 10000 that
ever get so far on the wrong road ever
stops. Gradually his health viii fail
through late hours, and through too much
stimulants he will be frst-rate prey for
erysipelas and rheumatism Of. the heart.
The doctor coming in will at q glance see
it is not only present disease he must
fight, but years Of fast living. The cier.
gyman for the sake Of the feelings of tho
in religious generalities. The men who
got his yacht in the eternal raj fdds will
not be at the obsequies. They have press.
ing engagements that day. They will send
| flowers to the coffin, will send their wives
to utter words of sympathy, but they viii
have engagements elsewhere. They never
come.
Bring me mallet and chisel and I will
cut that pan's epitaph. "Blsssed ss d,Ja are 2
YOU say, chat would not be appropriate"
"Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his?" NO."
YOU say. chat would not be appropriate"
Then give me the mallet and the chisel
and I will cut an honest epitaph, "Here
lies the victim of dissipating associa-
tions!'
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your secular
occupation. can understand how through
such an institution man can reach COM
nercial success. know some men have
through such channel. If the secret So
ciety has advantaged You in an honorable
calling it is a good one. But has your
credit failed? Are bargain makers now
more anxious how they trust you with q
bale of goods? Have the men whose
names were down in the commercial
agency Al before they entered the society
been going down since in commercial
standing? Then look out.
You and every day know Of CONNER
cial establishments going to ruin through
bers, their fortune beaten to death with
ball players bat or cut amidships with the
front PROV of the regatta or going down
under the swift hoofs of the fast horses
or drowned in the large potations Of cog
nae Monongahela. The secret society was
the Loeb Earn. Their business was the
Vile de Havre. They struck, and the
Vile de Havre went under!
The third test by which you may know
whether the society to which you belong
is good or bad is this: What is its effect
on your s""', of moral and religious obi
CATION? \ ", if should take the names
them on roll, and then I should lay that
roll back of this organ, and hundred
years from now some one should take that
roll and call it from A to z, there would
not one of you answer say that any So
ciety that makes me forget that fact is
bad society.
Which would you rather have in your
hand when you come to die-a pack of
cards or a Bible? Which would you
rather have pressed to your lips in the
closing moment-the cup of Belshazzarean
wassail or the chalice of Christian COM
munion2 Whom would you rather have
for your pallbearers-the elders of a
Christian church or the companions whose
conversation was full of slang and inuen-
do? Whom would you rather have for
your eternal companions-those men who
spend their evenings betting, gambling,
fal 1a cfo
or your little child. that bright girl whom
the Lord took? Oh, you would not have
been away so much nights, would you, If
you had known she was going away 80
soon? Dear me, your house has never
been the same place since. Your wife
has never frightened up; she has never
got over it: she never will get over it.
How long the evenings are with no one to
put to bed and no one to whom to tell
the beautiful Bible stories! What pity
it is that you cannot spend more even
that SORROW! You can meyer drown that
grief in the wine cup. You can never
break away from the little arms that
used to be flung around your neck when
she used to say, "Papa, do stay with me
to-night-do stay with me tonight" You
will never be able to wipe away from
YOUR. lips the dying kiss of your little girl.
The fascination of bad secret society is
so great that sometimes man has turned
his back on his home when his child was
dying of scarlet fever. He went away.
Before he got back at midnight the eyes
had been closed, the undertaken had done
his work, and the wife, worn out with
three weeks watching. lay unconscious
in the next room. Then the returned
father comes up stairs, and he sees the
cradle gone. and he says, "What is the
matter" On the judgment day he will
find out what was the matter.
Oh, man astray, God help you! I am
going to make a very stout rope. You
know that sometimes a ropemaker will
take very small threads and wind them to-
gether until after awhile they become