Milford chronicle., 1901-08-02

found running or working beyond regu-
lar speed shall be fined ? shillings and
sixpence for the first offense, shillings
for the second, 10 shillings 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 al
phabet for their nomenclature, and their
members are at the very front in scholar
ship 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
societies, 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 SANDER
ing an individual, but many do not see
the sin Of slandering an organization.
There are old secret societies in this and
other countries, some of them centuries
old, which have been widely denounced
as immoral and damaging in their inhu-
ence, yet | have hundreds of personal
friends who belong to them-friends who
are consecrated 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 my executors at the time Of decease,
and they are the men whom / would
have carry me out to the last sleep when
/ am dead. You cannot make me believe
that they would belong to bad institu-
tions. They are the men who would
stamp on anything Ubiquitous, and l
would certainly rather take their testi-
mOny in regard to such societies than
the testimony of those who, having been
sworn in as members, by their assault
upon them confess themselves perjurers.
One of these secret societies gave for
the relief Of the sick in 1873, in this
country, S1,490,274. Some of these so
cieties have poured a very heaven Of
sunshine and benedictiOn into the home
of suffering. Several Of them are found
ed on fidelity to good citizenship and the
Bible. have never taken one of their
degrees. They might give me the grip
thousand times and l would not recOg-
nize it. l am ignorant of their pass
words, and ! must judge entirely from
the outside. But Christ has given us a
rule by which we may judge 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 a good society. A
good man will not stay in a bad society.
Then try all secret societies by two or
three rules.
Influence on Home Life.
Test the first: Their influence on home,
IL you have a home. That wife soon
loses her influence over her husband who
nervously and foolishly looks upon all
evening absence as an assault on domes-
ITCHY. How are the great enterprises of
reform and art and literature and benefi-
cence and public veal to be carried on if
every man is to have his world bounded
on one side by his front doorstep and on
the other side by his back window, know
ing nothing higher than his own attic or
lower than his own cellar? That wife
who becomes jealous Of her husbands at
tention to art or literature or religion or
charity is breaking her own scepter OF
| conjugal power. / know an instance
where a wife thought that her husband
was giving too many nights to Christian
service, to charitable service, to prayer
| She systematically decoyed him away
/ until now ne attends no church, waits
| upon no charitable institution and is on a
rapid way TO destruction, his morals gone,
| his money gone and fear. his soul gone.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when
| her husband consecrates evenings to the
service of humanity and of God or any
thing elevating, but let no man sacrifice
/ e, g.
do. ! can point out to you a great many
names of men who are guilty Of this sac
rilege. They are as genial &c angels at
the society room and as ugly as sin at
home. They are generous on all subjects
of wine suppers, yachts and fast horses
but they are stingy about the wives
dresses and the children's shoes. That
man has made that which might be q
healthful influence usurper Of his affec
tiOns, and he has married it, and he is
guilty OF moral bigamy. Under this proc
ess the wife, whatever her features, be
comes embarrassing and hOmely. He be
comes critical of her, does not like thC
dress, does not like the way she arrangei
her hair, is amazed that he ever was 81
unromantic as to offer her hand anC
heart. There are secret societies wher'
membership always involves domestic
shipwreck. Tell me that a man has join
ed a certain kind and tell me nothing
more about him for ten years. and | will
write his history if he be still alive. Tn
man is a wine guZZler, his wife broker
hearted or prematurely old, his forum
gone and his home a mere name in tn
directory.
Here are six secular nights in the week
'What shall do with themY" says tn
father and the husband. II will Civ
four Of these nights to the improvement
and entertainment of my family, eithe
at home or in good neighborhood. ! wi
devote one to charitable institutions.
will devote one to my lodge" | congrat
ulate you. Here is a man who says
"Out of the six secular nights of tn
week l will devote FIVE to lodges an
clubs and associations and one to tn
home, which night | will spend in scow
/ Ing Lille a March squat. wishing l wa
out spending it as ] have spent the OthG
, FIVE" That mans obituary is writer
) Not one out Of ten thousand that eve
get so far on the wrong road ever stop
q Gradually his health will fail thrOug
3 late hours, and through too much stiml
lants he will be first rate prey for er,
r sipelas and rheumatism of the heart.
i Evils of Bad Associations.
i The doctor coming. in will at CLAN,
o see it is not only present disease he mu
e fight, but years of fast living. The Gle
+ gyman, for the sake of the feelings of Il
y family, on the funeral day will only ia
e in religious generalities. The men WI
/ got his yacht in the eternal rapids W
Il not be at the obsequies. They ha
Il pressing engagements that day. Tn
/ will send flowers to the coffin, will sci
It their wives to utter words of sympath
E but they will have engagements els
u where. They never come. Bring l
ID mallet and chisel, and l will cut th
i, mans epitaph, BLESSED are the dead W
ID die in the LordY" NO" you say, 9Th
a would not be appropriate" Let me {
ID the death of the righteous and let my Ii
H. end be like his?' NO" you say, ''tI
p would not be appropriate" Then 81
ST me the mallet and the chisel, and l v
IN cut an honest epitaph, Here lies the v
" tim of dissipating associationsr'
~ Another test by which you can
Sc whether your secret society is right
wrong is the effect it has on your secu
no occupation. can understand
re ! fhrOuph such an institufion man {