Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1901-07-31

cause of God and humanity expose
our plans To the enemy? No; we will
in secret plot the ruin of all the en-
terprises of Satan and his cohorts.
When they expect us by day, we will
fall upon them by night. While they
arc 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 of Gideon" Secrecy of
plot and execution is wrong only
when the object and ends are nefari-
Gus. Every family is a secret society.
every business firm and every bank
ing and insurance institution. Those
men who have no capacity to keep "A
secret are unfit for positions of trust
anywhere. There are thousands of
men whose vital need is culturing a
capacity to keep "A secret. Men talk
too much, and women, too. There
is time to keep silence as well as a
! time to speak.
Although not belonging to any of
! the great secret societies about which
! there has been so much violent discus
sion, I have only words of praise for
those associations which have for
! their object the maintenance of right
against wrong or the reclamation of
inebriates or, like the score of mutual
benefit societies called by different
names, that provide temporary relief
for widows and orphans and for men
incapacitatcd by sickness or accident
| from earning livelihood. Had it not
been for the secret labor organization
in this country monopoly would long
ago have, under its ponderous wheels,
! ground the laboring classes into an
intolerable servitude. The men who
want the whole earth to themselves
would have got it before this had il
not been for the banding together of
| great secret organizations, and while
| we deplore many things that have
| been done by them, their eXi~ 'cnce is
| Il necessity and their Legitimate sphere
distinctly pointed out by the Provi-
! dence of God. Such organizations are
| trying to dismiss from their asso-
cation all me.lbers who are in favor
| of anarchy and social chaos. They
Will gradually cease anything like tyr
amy over their members and will
forbid violent interference with any
mans work, whether he belongs to
their union or is outside of il, and
will declare their disgust with any
such rule as that passed in England
| 10y the Manchester Bricklayers' assoc
citation, which says any man found
running or working beyond a regular
! speed shall be fined two shillings six
pence for the first offense, five shil-
lings for the second, ten shillings for
] hn ind l
be dealt with as the committee thinks
| proper.
There are secret societies in our col
leges that have letters of the Greek
alphabet for their nomenclature, and
! their members are at the very front
in scholarship and irreproachable in
morals, while there are others the
scene of carousal, and they gamble.
and they drink, and they graduate
! knowing a hundred times more about
sin than they do of geometry and
! SophOcles. In other words, secret so
cieties, like individuals, are good or
! bad, are the means of moral health or
| of temporal and eternal damnation. All
| good people recognize the vice of slam
! dering an individual but many do not
see the sin of slandering an organiza-
! ton. There are old secret societies in
| this and other countries some of them
centuries old, which have been wide
| ly denounced as immoral and damag-
ing in their influence. vet | have hun
| dreds of personal friends who belong
| to them-friends who are consecratcd
| to God, pillars in the church, faithful
in all relations of life, examples of
virtue and piety. They are the kind
/ OF friends whom / would have for nv
/ executors at the time of dccease, and
| they are the men whom / would have
/ carry me out to the last sleep when
| am dead. You cannot make me be-
/ lieve that they would belong to bad in
stitutions. They are the men who would
stamp on anything iniquitous, and /
would certainly rather take their teS-
/ tlmonY in regard TO such societies
/ than the testimony of those who. hav-
/ ing been sworn in as members. by their
assault upon them confess themselves
periurcrs
one of these secret societies gave
/ for the relief OF the sick in 1873. i'm
| this country, S1,49O,274. Some of
these societies have poured very
/ heaven OF sunshine and benediction
into the home Of suffering. Several
! OF them are founded on fidelity to
/ good citizenship and the Bible. I
have never taken one OF their de-
/ grees. They might give me the grip
q Thousand times and / would not
recognize IL. ] am ignorant OF their
| passwords. and ] must Judge entire
/ ly from the outside But Christ has
/ given ms rule by which we may
/ Judge not only all individuals. but ain
societies, secret and open. "By their
fruits We shall know them" Bad
societies make bad men Good eocic-
ties make good men 4 bad man will
not stay in q good society. 4 good
man will not stay i'm "a bad society.
Then try an secret societies DE- two
or three rules.