Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-07-29
[la! !jj!t!t 2
Ssg@A@4@ SOl ~
.kS@2I1l0)G1]sIf
~EEt@HGg

PrbS XIV, 9, Discover not a secret to
anotheF."
1t appears that in SolOm0n's time, as
IN all subsequent periods of the world,
there were people too much disposed
TO tell all they knew. 1t was blab,
blab, blab; physicians revealing the
case of their patients, lawyers expos
ing the private affairs of their clients,
neighbors advertising the faults Of the
next door resident, pretended friends
betraying condolences.
One-haIf of the trouble Of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so
many pecp,e have not capacity to keep
their mot, shut. When l hear some
thing 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 1 told you, and they go out and
tell others what 1 told them that L told
you, and we all go out. some to hunt
up the originator OF the story and 9th
ers to hunt it down, we shall get the
whole community talking about what
you did do and what you did not do,
and there will be as many scalps taken
as though a band of Modocs had swept
upon d ESIplCSS NlIldS6 w hive lWO
ears, but only one tongue, Il physio-
logical suggestion that we ought to
hear n good deal more than we tell.
Let US join a conspiracy that we will
tell each other all the good and nothing
OF the i'll, and then there will not be
such awful need of sermons on Solo
mons words, Discover not a secret to
another"
Solomon had a very large domestic
circle. In his earlier days be had very
confused notions about mOnOgamy and
polygamy, and his multitudinouS asso-
ciates in the matrimonial state kept
him too we'll 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-
ployees, between rulers and subjects,
until Solomon. in my text, deplores
yolubility about affairs that do not be-
long to us and eXtols the virtue of Sc
cretiveness.
# The Power of a Secret.
By the power Of secret divulged
families, churches, neighborhoods, ma
tons, fly apart. BY the power of a Sc
cret kept great charities, socialities, re-
formatOry movements and Christian
enterprises may be advanced. Men are
gregariOus- cattle in herds, fish in
schools, birds in fOcks, men in social
circles. You may by the discharge of
a gun scatter a flock of quaiIs or by the
plunge Of an anchor send apart the
denizens of the sea, but they will gath
er themselves together again. If you
by some new power could break the
associations in which men now stand,
they would again adhere. God meant
It SO. He has gathered all the flowers
and shrubs into associations. You may
plant one forgetmenot or heartsease
alone away off upon the hillside, but it
viii soon hunt up some other forget
menot or heartsease. Plants love COM
pany. 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. like a ships mast ice
glazed, which the most agile sailor
could never climb. Others have q thou
sand roots and a thousand branches.
Innumerable tendrils climb their hearts
and blossom all the way up, and the
fowls of heaven sing in the branches.
In consequence of this tendency we
find men coming together in tribes, in
communities, in churches, in societies.
Some gather together to cultivate the
arts, some to plan for the welfare of
the state, some to discuss religious
themes, some TO kindle their mirth,
some to advance their craft. So every
active community is divided into assO-
Citations Of artists. of merchants, OF
bookbinders, of carpenters, of masOns,
OF plasterers, of shipWrights. of plumb
ers. Do you cry out against it? Then
you cry out against a tendency divine
Iy implanted. Your TRADES would &C
complish no more than if you should
preach to 4 busy ant hill long sermon
against secret societies.
Here we find the oft discussed cues
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. l answer that it depends en-
tirely on the nature of the object for
which they meet. Is it to pass the
hours in reveIry, wassail, blasphemy
and obscene talk or to plot trouble to
the state or to debauch the innocent,
then I say with an emphasis that no
man can mistake. Mo- But is the
object the defense Of the rights of any
class against oppression, the improve
ment of the mind. the enlargement Of
the heart, the advancement of art, the
defense of the government. the extir-
patton of crime or the kindling Of
pure hearted sociality, then l say with
INST rs much e1nrha sis ..NeSr'