The Yale expositor., 1901-08-02

Washington, July 2S.-A practical
question which Is asked in most
houses, and for many years, is here
asked by DR.. Talmage 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 were people too much dis
posed TO tell an they knew. 1t was
blab, blab. blab; physicians revealing
the case of their patients, lawyers eX-
posing The private affairs of their eli
ents, neighbors advertising the faults
of the next door resident, pretended
friends betraying condolences.
One-half Of the trouble of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so
many people have not the capacity to
keep their mouths shut. When l hear
something disparaging Of you, my first
duty is not to tell you, but if l tell you
what somebody has said against you
and then go out and tell everybody
else what / told you, and they go out
and tell others what tod 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 shall
get the whole community talking
about what you did not do and there
will be as many sealps taken as though
band Of Modocs had swept upon a
helpless village. We have two ears,
but only one tongue, physiological
suggestion that we ought to hear
good deal more than we tell. Let us
join conspiracy that we will tell each
other all the good and nothing of the
Ill, aud then there will not be such
awful need of sermons on Solomons
words, Discover not a secret to an
other"
Solomon had a very large domestic
circle. In his earlier days he had very
confused notions about monogamy and
polygamy. and his multitudinous asso-
ciates in the matrimonial state kept
him too well informed as to what was
going on in Jerusalem. They gathered
up all the privacies and poured them
Into his ear, and his family became a
sorosis or female debating society Of
700 discussing day after day all the
difficulties between husbands and
wives. between employers and en-
ployes, between rulers and subjects.
until Solomon, in my text, deplores
Volubility about affairs that do not
belong TO us and extols the virtue Of
-seeretiveness.
Outbrar chlngs OF Sympathy.
You sometimes see a man with no
-outbranchings of sympathy. His ma
ture is cold and hard, like a ships
mast ice glazed. which the most agile
sailor could never climb. Others have
n thousand roots and a thousand
branches. Innumerabe tendrils climb
their hearts and blossom all the way
up. and the fowls Of heaven sing in the
branches. In consequence of this ten
dency we find men coming together in
tribes, in communities, in churches, in
societies. Some gather together to Gull
tivate the arts. some to plan for the
welfare of the state. some to discuss
religious themes, some to kindle their
imirth, some to advance their craft.
so every active community is divided
into associations of artists, of mer-
chants, of bookbinders. of carpenters,
of masons, of plasterers, of ship
wrights. of plumbers. Do you cry out
against it? Then you cry out against
a tendency diviney implanted. Your
Trades would accomplish no more than
AZ you should preach to a busy ant
hill a long sermon against secret So
cieties.
Here we find the Oft discussed ques-
ton whether associations that do their
work with closed doors and admit their
members by passwords and greet each
other with a secret grip are right or
wrong answer that it depends en-
trely on the nature OF the object for
which they meet. Is it to pass the
hours in revelry, wassail. blasphemy
and obscene talk or to plot trouble to
che state or to debauch the innocent
then / say. with an emphasis that nc
man can mistake. No! But is the
object the defense OF the rights of any
class against oppression. the improve
ment OF the mind, the enlargement oil
the heart, the advancement of art, the
defense of the government, the extir.
patton of crime or the klndling of 6
pure hearted socialty. then say. with
Just as much emphasis, Yes!
Secret Societies.
There are secret societies in our col.
. 1eges that have letters of the Greek al.
phabet for their nomenclature and
their members are at the very front in
scholarship and irreproachable in NOR.
ais, while there are others the scene
of carousal. and they gamble, and they
drink, and they graduate knowing 9
hundred times more about sin thar
they do of geometry and Sophocles
In other words. secret societies, like
individuals. are good or bad, are the
means of moral health or of tempora
and eternal damnation. All good peo
pie recognize the vice of slandering al
Individual, but many do not see the sir