Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-08-09

| proper.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when her
husband consecrates evenings to the serv-
ice of humanity and of God or anything
elevating, but let no man sacrifice home
life to secret society life, as many do. |
can point out to you great many names
of men who are guilty of this sacriege.
They are as genial as angels at the society
rooms and as 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 a
usurper of his affections, and he has mar
ried it, and he is guilty Of moral bigamy.
| Under this process the wife, whatever her
features, becomes uninteresting and
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 SO 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 a 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 a wine
guzzler, his wife broken hearted OF. pre-
maturely old, his fortune. gone and his
| home mere name in the directory.
Here are six secular nights in the week.
"What shall / do with them?" says the
father and the husband. 81 will give four
of these nights to the improvement and
entertainment Of my family, either at
home or in good neighborhood. / will de.
vote one to charitable institutions. | will
devote one to my lodge" l congratulate
you. Here is a man who says, "Out Of the
six secular nights of the week / will de-
| vote five to lodges and clubs and associa-
| tons and one to the home, which night I
will spend in scowling like March squall,
spent the other FIVE" That mans obitu.
airy is written. Not one out of 10000 that
ever get so far on the wrong road ever
stops. Gradually his health will fail
through late hours, and through too much
stimulants he will be first-rate prey for
erysipelas and rheumatism of the heart.
The doctor coming in will at glance see
fight but years of fast living. The cler-
gyman for the sake of the feelings of the
family on the funeral day will only talk
in religious generalitics. The men who
got his yacht in the thermal rapids 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 will
have engagements elsewhere. They never
come.
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your secular
occupation. I can understand how through
such an institution a man can reach COM
merial success. / know some men have
formed their best business relations
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
down tho nin1
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
the social excuses of one or two men,
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 rotations 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 sense of moral and religious obi
gation?. Now, if should take the names
of all the people in this audience and put
them on roll, and then I should lay that
wi OdCh VI ILLS organ, ana n nunQreQ
years from now some one should take that
roll and call it from A to 2, 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 hand when you S,, come to die-a pack of
rather have pressed to your lips in the
closing moment-the cup of Belshazzarean
wassail or the chalice Of Christian com.
munion! Whom would you rather have
for your pallbearers-the elders of q
Christian church or the companions whose
don WbN was wash fY ro Of slang and nusn
your eternal companions-those men who
spend. their evenings betting, gambling,
swearing, carousing and telling vile stories
or your little child. that bright girl whom
the Lord took? Oh, you would not HAYS
been away so much nights, would you, If
you had known she was going away so
soon! Dear me, your house has never
peen 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
inngs at home in trying to help her bear
that sorrow! You can never 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 Ia
| 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 ewes
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
matterr On the Judgment day he will
find out what was the matter.
On, man astray, God help you! I am
| going to make very stout rope. You
know that sometimes a ropemaker will
take very small threads and wind them to-
gsether until after awhile they become a
ship cable. And am going to take some
very small, delicate threads and wind
them together until they make a very
stout rope. ! will take all the memories
of the marriage day-a thread of lauehter
a thread of light, thread of music. a
thread of banqueting, thread of conerat-
| rria 49, A..