Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-08-08
SECRET SOCIETIES.
JR. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON
Declares That rlanv Secret Organi.
zafiOns Do Valuable Benevolent
Work.
ICopYriRht 1901.

copyright 1oo1.l
WASHINGTON, D. Ca practical ques-
ton which is asked in most houses and
for many years is here asked by DR.. Tai
mage and answered; text, Proverbs XIV,
8, Discover not secret to another"
1t appears that in Solomon's time, as in
all subsequent periods of the world there
they knew. 1t was blab, blab, blab; ply
slclans revealing the case. of their pa
tients, lawyers exposing the private af-
fairs of their clients, neighbors advertising
the faults of the next door resident, pre-
tending friends betraying condolences.
One-hah of the trouble of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut. When 1 hear something dis
paraging of you, my first duty is not to
tell you, but if l tell you what somebody
has said against you and then 90 out and
tell everybody else what l told you, ard
they go out and tell others what | 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
about what you do and what you did not
do, and there will be as many scalps
= taken as though band of Modocs had
swept upon helpless village. We have
two cars, but only one tongue, physio
logical suggestion that we ought to hear
Join conspiracy that we will tell each
other, all the good and nothing of the i'll,
and then there viii 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 poly
gamy, and his muititudinOus associates in
the matrimonial state kept him too we'll
informed as to what was gong on III Jcru-
salem They gathered up all the privacies
and poured them into his ear, and his
family became a sorosis or female debat
ing society of 700, discussing day after day
all the difficulties between husbands and
wives, between employers and employees
between rulers and subjects, until Solo
mon, in my text, dcplores volubility about
affairs that do not belong to US and extols
the virtue o. secrctiveness.
BY the power OF secret dIvulged fam
dies, churches, neighborhoods, nations,
lily apart. By the power Of a secret kept
charities, soclalIties, reformatory move
ments and Christian enterprises may be
advanced, Men are gregarious-c in
herds, FISH IN schools, birds in focks, men
an social circles. You may by the dis
charge of gun scatter flock of quails
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-
cations IN which men now stand, they
would again adhere God meant it so. He
has gathered all the flowers and shrubs
!nto associations. You may plant one
1Orget-mc-nOt or heartscase 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
cold and hard, Ike a ships mast ice
glazed, which the most agile sailor could
never climb. Others have thousand
roots and thousand branches Innum-
cradle tendrlls climb their hearts and bios
som all the way up, and the fowls of
heaven sing IN the branches. In conse-
quence of this tendency we find men COM
ang together IN tribes, in communities, in
churches, IN societies. Some gather to-
gether to cultivate the arts, some to plan
tor the welfare Of the state, some to dis
cuss religious themes, some to kindle their
mlrth, some to advance their craft So
every active community is divided into as
soclatlons OF artists, of merchants, of
bookblnders, of carpenters, of masons, of
Plasterers, Of shipwrights, of plumbers
DO you cry out against it? Then Won crv
out against tendency divinely implanted.
1our TRADES would accomplish no more
THAN II you should preach to busy ant
NIL long sermon against secret societies,
Here we find the oft-discussed question
"nS'hSf ASSOCIATIONS that Go 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 1t to pass the hours in revelry, wassail,
oIasPhhemy and obscene talk or, to plot
trouble to the state or to debauch the in.
nocent, then l say with an emphasis that
no man can mistake, Mop But ia the
object the defense of the rights of any
cIasS against oppression, the Improvement
or the mind, the enlargement of the heart,
the advancement of art, the defense of
the 6overnment, the extirpation of crime
or the kndling of pure hearted socialitv,
then | say with just as much emphasis,
"Yes' A''''i'
There is no need that we who plan for
the conquest of right over wrong should
publish to all the world our in{ent;ons
The general of an army never sends to the
opposing troops Information of the com
ing attack. Snail we who have enlisted
IN the cause Of God and humanity expose
our plans to the enemy? No; we will in
Sf'Iet plot the ruin Of all the enterprises
ga satan ana his cohorts! When they
ttAPect US by day, we will fall upon them
by night While they are strenethening
their lett wing we will fall on their right,
by plan OF battle formed in secret con
cIave we will come suddenly upon them,
crying, -, The sword of the Lord and of
IS wrong only when the object and ends
are nelarlon3 Every family is secret So
cIety, every business firm and every bank
thg and insurance institution.
nose men who have no capacity to
t tgeP secret are ,,, unfit for positions of
trust anywhere. There are thousands of
men whose vital need is culturing capac-
lty TO keep secret, Men talk too much
and women, too. There is a time to Keen
silence as well as time to speak.
IL. Aitthough not belonging to any of the
great secret societies about which there
has been SO much violent discussion. I
nave only words of praise for those asso.
cations which have for their object the
maintenance Of right against wrong or the
l pt OF inebriates or, like the score
mutual beneht societies called by diff
,eTent names, that provide temporary re-
ne1 to- widows and orphans and for men
.n'apacltated by sickness or accident from
earning livelihood. Had it not been for
the secret labor organizations in this
country monopoly would long ago have
pnder Its ponderous wheels ground the
iahorlng classes into an mtolerable servi-
tude; 1he men who want the whole earth
to themselves would have got it before
tins had 1t not been for the banding to-
gether OF great secret organizations. And. |
while we depiore many things that nav.
been done by them, their existence is a
necessity and their legitimate sphere dis
tlnctIy pointed out by the providence of |
God. Such organizations are trying to dis |
miss from their associations all members |
who are in favor of anarchy and social |
chaos. They will gradually cease any
thing like tyranny over their members, |
and will forbid 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 Man
chester Bricklayers' Association, which |
says any man found running or working |
beyond a regular speed shall be fined two |
shillings and sixpence for the first offense |
t1ve shlIhngs tor the second, ten shtInngs |
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 alpha |
bet for their nomenclature, and their |
members are at the very front in scholar |
IL. ,..I IL, = |