The Penn's Grove record., 1901-08-02
Advertisements

ant of their passwords, 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 we shall
know them" Bad societies make bad
men. Good societies make good men. A
bad man will not stay in a good society.
Then try all secret societies by two or
three rules. :
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 hong
life to secret society life, as many do. l
can point out to you a great many names
of men who are guilty Of this sacrilege.
They are as genial as angels at the society
rooms and as ugly az sin at home. They
are generous on all subjects Of wine sups
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 d healthful influence q
usurper of his affections, and he has mar
ried it, and he is guilty of moral bigamy.
Under this process the wife, whatever hep
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.
| SIM hNS Wv hOliiE6tl1 Dh1P"tNNA
Tell me that q 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 or. pre-
maturely old, his fortune gone and his
home a mere name in the directory.
Here are six secular nights in the week.
what shall I do with them?' says the
father and the husband. II will give four
of these nights to the improvement aud
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, "0ut of the
six secular nights of the week | will de-
vote five to lodges and clubs and ~associa.
tions and one to the home, which night l
will spend in scowling like a March squall.
wishing ! was out spending it as l have
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.
TIL doctor coming in will at a glance see
it is not only present disease he must
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 generalities. The men who
got his yacht in the eternal 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.
Bring me mallet and chisel and I will
cut that mans epitaph. BLESSED are
the dead who die in the Lord?" No
you say, that would not be appropriate"
| 9 - -. H. Al, l4e4l ~E H. r,rk+.1,,. 3
and let my last end be like his?" No
YOU say. chat would not be appropriate"
Then give me the mallet and the chisel
and | will cut an honest epitaph, Here
lies the victim of dissipating a%ssocia-
%tions." -
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right or
occupation. ] can understand how through
such an institution a man can reach COM
mercial success. / know some men have
| formed their best business relations
| through such a channel. If the secret So
ciety has advantaged you in an honorable
credit failed? Are bargain makers now.
more anxious how they trust you with a
bale of goods? Have the men whose
names were down in the commercial
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 excesses of one or two mem
bers, their fortune beaten to death with
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
the Loeb Earn. Their business was the
Vile de Havre. They struck, and the
Vile de Havre went underi
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
/, CATION? Now, if / should take the names
Of all the people in this audience and put
them on a roll, and then I should lay that
roll back of this organ, and a hundred
years from now some one should take that
roll and call it from A to 2, there would
ciety that makes me forget that fact is q
bad society.
Which would you rather have in your
hand when you come to die-a pack Of
cards or a Bible? Which would you
| 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 a
Christian church or the companions whose
conversation was full of slang and inuen-
do? Whom would you rather have for
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, Won would not have
been away so much nights, would you, If
you had known she was going away SO
soon? Dear me, your house has never
been 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 t9
put TO bed and no one to whom to tell
the beautiful Bible %storiesi What a pity
it is that you cannot spend more even
ings 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 a bad secret society is
so great that sometimes a 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 eyes
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
natter" On the Judgment day he will
find out what was the matter.
Oh, man astray, God help you! ] an
going to make a very stout rope. You
know that sometimes a ropemaker will
take very small threads and wind them to-
gether 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 laughter,
a thread of light, a thread of music, a
thread of banqueting, a thread of congrat-
ulation-and | twist them together, and /
have one strand, Then / take a thread OF
the hour of the first advent in your house,
a thread of the darkness that preceded,
and a thread of the light that followed,
and a thread of the beautiful scarf that
little child used to wear when she bound
cd out at eventide to greet you, and then
a thread of the beautiful dress in which
you laid her way for the resurrection,
and then l twist all these threads to,
gether and l have another strand. Then
7 .aIo a tbraad - tha .oa,lot yobo - n