The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-08-02
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE az THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject secret societies-why silence IL
Sometimes best - Organizations That
Work for Humanity's Service - The
True Tests For secret Societies.
Icopyrishs iel.l


mage and answered; text. Proverbs XIV,
Q, Discover not a secret 20 another.
Ii appears that IN Solomoa's time, as IN
all subsequent periods of the world, there
were people too much disposed 20 tell all
they knew. 1t was blab. blab, blab; ply
sicians revealing the case OF their pa
tients, lawyers exposing the private al
fairs OF their clients. nelghbors advertising
the faults OF the next door resident, pre-
tending friends betrayins condolences.
One-half of the trouble of every COM
munity comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity 10 keep their
mouths shut. When hear something dis
paraging of you, my first duty Is not to
tell you, but II | tell you what somebody
tell everybody else what i told you, aad
they go out and tell others what l told
them that / told you. and we all go out.
some 10 hunt up the originator of the
story and Others TO hunt il down, we
shall get the whole community talking
about what you DO and what you did not
do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though a, band of Modocs had
swept upon a helpless village. We have
two ears, but only one tongue, a physio-
logical suggestion that we ought to hear
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 So.omon's words, Discover
not a secret % another
Solomon had a very large domestic cir
Gle. In his earlier days he had very con-
fused notions about monogamy and poly
gamy and his multitudinous associates IN
the matrimonial state kept him too well
informed as to what was going on IN Jeru-
salem. They gathered up all the privacies
and poured them into his ear, and his
family became sorosis or female debat-
ing society..f 200, discussing day after day
all the difficulties between husbands and
wives, between employers and employees,
between rulers and subjects, until Solo
mon, in my text deplores volubllity about
affairs that do not belong to US and extols
the virtue of secretiveness.
By the power OF a secret dlvulged fam
lies, churches, neighborhoods, nations,
fly apart BY the power of a secret kept
charities, sociaiities, reformatory move
ments and Christian enterprises may be
advanced. Men are gregarious-cattle in
herds, fish in schools, birds in hocks, men
in social circles. You may by the dis
charge of gun scatter flock of quails
or by the plunge of an anchor send apart
the denizens of the sea, but they will
gather themselves together again. III you
by some new power could break the asso-
Citations in which men now stand, they
would again adhere. God meant 1t So He
has gathered all the flowers and shrubs
into associations. You may plant one
forget-me-no: or heartsease alone away
off upon the hillside, but it will soon
hunt up some other forget-me-not or
heartsease. Plants love company. You
will find them talking to each other in
the dew.
You sometimes see man with no out
branchinss of sympathy. His nature is
cold and hard, like a ships mast ice
glazed, which the most agile sailor could
never climb Others have thousand
roots and a thousand branches. Innum.
srable tendrils climb their hearts and bios
som all the way up, and the fowls OF
heaven sing In the branches. In conse-
quence of this tendency we find men com
ing together In tribes, In communities, IN
churches, in societies. Some gather to.
gether to cultivate the arts, some To plan
for the welfare of the state, some TO dis
cuss religious themes, some TO klndle their
mirth, some TO advance their craft. So
every active community is divided into as
sociations OF artists, of merchants, of
bookbinders, OF carpenters, OF masons, OF
plasterers, of shipwrights, OF plumbers.
Do you cry out against It? Then you cry
out against tendency divinely implanted
Your TRADES would accomplish no more
than if you should preach TO a busy ant
hill a long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-discussed question
whether associations that do their work
with closed doors and admit their mem
bers by passwords and greet each other
with secret grip are right or wrong.
answer that 10 depends entirely on the
nature OF the object for which they meet
Is 1t to pass the hours in revelry, wassail
blasphemy and obscene talk or to plot
trouble to the state or to debauch the in
nocent, then / say with an emphasis that
s.1r =. A
object the defense of the rights OF any
class against oppression, the Improvement
OF the mind, the enlargement of the heart
the Advancement OF art, the defense OF
the Government, the extlTpation OF crime
or the kindling of pure hearted sociality
then say with just as much emphasis,
Yes"
There is no need that we who plan for
the conquest of right over wrong should
publish to all the world our intentions
The general of an army never sends 20 the
opposing troops information of the com
ing attack. Snail we who have enlisted
IN the cause OF God and humanity expose
our plans to the enemy? No; We will in
secret plot the rUin OF all the enterprises
OF Satan and his cohortsl When they
expect us by day, we will fall upon them
by night. While they are strengthening
Their left wing We will fall on their right.
ciave we Will come suddenly upon them
crying, The sword Of the Lord and OF
GIdeon!' Secrecy OF plot and execution
- wrong only when the object and ends
are nefarlous. EVER family ls "A secret so.
ciety, every business firm and every bank.
ing and insurance institution.
Those men who have no capacity 70
Keep secret are UNIT for positions Of
trust anywhere. There are thousands OF
men whose vital need il culturing a capac.
ity TO keep secret. Men talk too much
and women, too. There j. a time TO keep
silence as well as a time 20 speak
Although not belonging 20 any OF the
great secret societies about which there
has been so much violent discussion.
have only words of praise for those asso
Citations 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 dif-
ierent names, that provide temporary re
lief Tor widows and orphans and for men
incapacitated by sickness or accident from
earrsng a livelihood. Had il not been for
the secret labor organizations in this
country monopoly would long ago have
under Its ponderous wheels ground the
hboring classes into an IntoleraDle servi-
tude. The men who want the whole earth
10 themselves would have got II before
this had II not been for the banding TO.
gether Of great secret organizations And,
while we deplore many things that have
been done by them, their existence is a
necessity and their legitimate sphere dis
tInctly pointed out by the providence Of
God. Such organizations are trying 70 dis
miss from their associations all members
who are IN favor OF anarchy and social
chaos. They will gradually cease any
thing like tyranny over their members.
and will forbid violent interference with
any mans work, whether he belol~s 20
their union or IL outside of u, and viii
declare their disgust with any such rule
as that PASSED in England by the Man
chester Bricklaycrs' Association. which