Connecticut western news., 1901-08-01
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WASHINGTON, July 2S.-A practical question which Is asked in most houses and for many years is here asked by Dr. Talmage and answered; text, Prov erbs xxv, 9, 'Discover not a secret to another"
 It appears that in Solomon's time, as in all subsequent periods of the world, there were people too much disposed to tell all they knew. It 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-half of the trouble of every com munity comes from the fact that so many people have not capacity to keep their mouths shut. When I hear some thing disparaging of you, my first duty Is not to tell you, but if I 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 told them that told you, and we all go out. some to hunt up the originator of the story and oth-
 
 whole community talking about what you did do and what you did not do, and there will be as many scalps taken as though 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 a good deal more than we tell. Let us join 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 secret to another" ....
 Solomon had very large domestic circle. In his earlier days he had very confused notions about monogamy and polygamy, and his multitudinous asso- ciates in the matrimonial state kept him too well 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 sorosis or female debating society of TOO. discussing day after day all the difficulties between husbands and wives, between employers and em- ployees, between rulers and subjects, until Solomon, in my text, deplores volubility about affairs that do not be long to us and extols the virtue of se- cretiveness.
 The Power of n Secret.
 By the power of a secret divulged families, churches, neighborhoods, na- tions, fly apart. By the power of se- 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 fiocks, men in social circles. You may by the discharge of a gun scatter flock of quails or by the plunge of an anchor send apart the denizens of the sea, but they will gath CT themselves together again. If you by some new power could break the associations 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 forgetmenot or heartsease alone away off upon the hillside, but 1t will 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 man with no out branchings of sympathy. His nature is cold and hard, like ships mast ice glazed. which the most agile sailor could never climb. Others have thou sand roots and 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- ciations of artists, of merchants, of bookbinders, of carpenters, of masons, of plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumb CTS. Do you cry out against it? Then you cry out against a tendency divine ly implanted. Your tirades would ac- complish no more than if you should preach to a busy ant hill long sermon against secret societies.
 Here we find the oft discussed ques- ton whether associations that do their work with closed doors and admit their members by passwords and greet each other with secret grip are right or wrong. I answer that it depends en- tirely on the nature of the object for which they meet. Is 1t to pass the hours in revelry, wassail, blasphemy
 DIoA l., %., the state or to debauch the innocent, then I say with an emphasis that no man can mistake, "No" 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 a pure hearted sociality, then I say with just as much emphasis, "Yes"
 Silence Sometimes Best.
 There is no need that we who plan for the conquest of right over wrong should publish to all the world our in- tentions. The general of an army nev- CT sends to the opposing troops infor- mation of the coming attack. Shall we who have enlisted ill the cause of God and humanity expos~ our plans to the enemy? No; we will In secret plot the ruin of all the enterprises of satan and his cohorts! 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. By 8 plan of battle formed in secret conclaye we will come suddenly upon them, cry. ing. The sword of the Lord and of Gidconw Secrecy of plot and execu tion is wrong only when the object and ends are nefarious. Every family is n secret society, every business firm and every banking and insurance in stitution. Those men who have no ca pa..ity to keep a secret are unfit for DO