Part III.

RELATED AND SUBSIDIARY ORGANIZATIONS.
e 3
149
A. M. (MIDLIGAN, Formerly ‘Pastor of Eighth Street Re- form Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg,
Thou King eternal, immortal and invisible! The only wise God, our Savior! Thou art the sovereign of uni- versal nature, the only true object of our best and holiest affections. We render Thee hearty thanks for that kind providence which has preserved us during the past week, protecting us from the perils and dangers of this life, and for permitting us now to assemble in Thy name for the transaction of business.
We humbly beseech Thee, our Heavenly Father, to preside over our assembly, to breathe into our hearts the spirit of love and of a sound mind; and may each and all be governed by an anxious desire to advance Thy glory and ameliorate the condition of mankind. —
Let Thy blessing rest upon our Order, upon all the lodges, grand and subordinate, belonging to our entire family of brothers. Let friendship, love and truth prevail until the last tear of distress be wiped away, and the Lodge below be absolved by the glory and grandeur of the Grand Lodge above. This we ask in humble dependence upon, and in most solemn adora- tion of Thy One mysterious and glorious Name. Amen. —Grand Lodge Prayer.
This prayer is adopted for use in Odd Fellow lodges. It teaches Odd Fellows to hope for heaven without repentance or faith in Jesus —The Author.
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full_— John 16.
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; eri AeP LE BR oT.
Among modern secret societies Oddfellowship has a prominent place by reason of its numbers . and influence. Next to Freemasonry it is prob- ably most important. We shall in this chapter speak of its likeness to the greater order, and of the points in which it differs from it. It may be well to consider the latter subject first.
Oddfellowship differs from Masonry in re- spect to the classes of men who unite with it. Both these lodges are English in origin, but
Freemasonry though having mechanic societies
as a basis, from the beginning courted the aris- tocracy, and has for years had the Prince of Wales, now Edward VII, as its Grand Master. The result has been that it has become aristo- cratic in its membership, while Oddfellowship, starting also among the wage-earning classes, has never made progress in that direction. Crossing the ocean the same difference in membership is apparent. In the United States Freemasons are of the professional and mercantile occupations, while Oddfellows are more largely mechanics,
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day laborers and farmers. Of course, there are exceptions, we speak only of the rule. It is also to’ be remembered that many men, espe- cially those who seek for office, belong to both.
A second difference between the two orders is found in the dress of the candidate for ini- tiation. In the first, second and third degrees of masonry the candidate is stripped to shirt and drawers. He is blindfolded and has a cable- tow or small rope around his neck, arm or body, by which he is led about. In Oddfellowship the candidate is blinded and has a chain about his neck, but he is not stripped of his clothing as is the Mason.
A third difference is found in the phrasing and penalties of the obligations. | Masonry fairly revels in “I promise and swear,’ “so help me God.” From first to last these solemn words are iterated by the officers of the orders who have no right human or divine to administer any oath whatsoever. In the lesser order these words never occur, but the initiate says, “I sincerely promise,” or words to the same effect. In Odd- fellowship no penalty for violation of the oath or obligation is named, while it would be diffi- cult to name a mutilation of the body which Ma- sonry does not require its devotee to invoke in case of infidelity. His tongue is to be torn out,
Modern Secret Societies. 155
his throat cut, his heart and vitals torn out, his bowels are to be burned to ashes, the top of his skull smitten off, his head smitten off, he is to be crucified and his body cut open from his chin downward while insects and worms torment him, ete., etc. If there were no other proof that Sa- tan devised Masonry except what is found in its penalties, that would be quite sufficient.
It is to be noted, however, that while the word “swear” is omitted in Oddfellowship and while the bloody penalties of Masonry are not used, the substance of the oath is present, and when there is no purpose to gain by denying that the order is oathbound, Oddfellows speak of their obliga- tions as oaths.
Another difference between the two orders is that in Masonry there is no established plan for the relief of the suffering members of the order, while in Oddfellowship each member knows ex- actly what to expect. He receives so many dol- lars as sick benefit and his family receive such and such aid in case of his death. It is true that Masons are sworn to aid and assist poor, penni-~ less brethren, their widows and orphans where- soever dispersed around the globe, etc., but this is a general and indefinite provision. The poor Mason may get something or nothing from his lodge, but the Oddfellow if square on the books
156 Modern Secret Societies.
receives help. The stories of lodge cruelty and dishonor which come to us concerning both these orders are sad to read, but the theory is as stated.
If dues are not paid before the time when the need occurs in either order there is no obligation to assist resting upon the lodges. The quality of their mercy is strained and cannot fall upon one who has not paid up before he comes into distress. Instances have occurred where the Odd- fellow had mailed his dues before sickness or death, but before the lodge received the remit- tance sickness or death came, to be followed by a refusal of the benefits needed.
It is not needful to dwell longer on these varia- tions, which are merely incidental, and we pass now to a study of those elements in Oddfellow- ship which are common to that organization and Freemasonry.
Both orders originated in taverns and were given to drinking, smoking, singing of rude songs and the like. As days have passed and the or- ders increased in numbers and means they have both ceased to meet in public houses, and the indecencies which marred the earlier gatherings have been modified, or ceased altogether. It is still true that after the lodge is closed or before it is open the common lodge room is not the place for a Christian, or even a gentleman, and a mo-
Modern Secret Societics. 157
tion to exclude liquor sellers from membership in Oddfellow lodges was recently negatived by a decided majority, while no such proposition has, so far as we know, ever been made in a Masonic body.
The curse of drunkenness, as connected with both orders now, is connected with the resorts which are frequented at late hours of the night, when members have passed out of the halls and have not gone to their homes. These dissipations are justly mentioned in this connection because, but for the secret order, its members would be as a rule at home or would be in the company of wives and children at the time when now they enter these houses that stand hard by the gate of hell.
A second similarity in the two orders is found in the fact that"both are secret. It is sometimes said by persons who have not learned to think before they speak that families, churches and leg- islatures, are also secret societies. One does not require great intellectual ability to see that all legitimate organizations in civilized society are open. Who ever heard of a home to which per- sons were admitted only after promising to con- ceal what they saw and heard in that home? Who ever heard of such a church or of such a legislature? The answer is, Nobody.
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The transactions of homes, churches, legisla- tures and other lawful bodies are known to the world. Unless they come to shame and crime no one would give a penny to have them re- vealed or concealed. But when one enters an Oddfellow or Masonic lodge he is obligated at every step to conceal forever what is said and done from all persons except members of the orders. He may not tell his wife, his child, or his friend. In other words, these are secret so- cieties.
In the third place, they both shut out the large majority of the human race. In general, it may be said that they admit only white—men—of age —but not too old—who are well—and able to pay. One who will reflect a moment will see that at least nine-tenths of the human race are excluded by this arrangement. It also appears that per- sons shut out are not refused admission because of any fault on their part. They are excluded because they are women, children, poor, maimed or in some unfortunate situation.
Yet both these lodges prate of charity and uni- versal brotherhood! It is difficult to understand how men can be so stupid or brazen as to use either of these words in connection with such orders. Most persons cannot enter them at all.
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Those who do enter must pay before they come in and as long as they remain. If one ceases to pay he has no rights except by sufferance. Odd- fellowship gives reports which show that it pays in sick and death benefits only one-third the money it draws from the laboring men who belong to it, while Masonry seems to give annually the profits on a dance which is an occasion for drunk- enness and attendant evils. Yet these orders call themselves benevolent and say that they are to bring in the universal brotherhood of man.
When one considers the matter this appears to be the case. They are hostile to divisions base. on religious convictions. They shut out all the special features of every religion except their own. They insist that there shall be no prefer- ence for the Christian over the pagan. But they shut the door in the face of the black man, in the face of women, in the face of children, in the face of all who cannot pay. “What a systematic and perpetual hypocrisy this is and how clearly it reveals the enmity which these lodges bear to the Savior of the world. They are entirely will- ing to be sectarian as regards those whom they exclude, but they will not exclude anyone because he hates or ignores Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus is the only one who cared for all men, and charity
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and universal brotherhood are impossible until men accept this universal Savior whom lodgism
despises and rejects.
BAPTER Ti.
It is sometimes objected to us that we pass by the poor and constitutionally enfeebled who most need our benefits; whereas, if our pretensions of ameliorat- ing human poverty and suffering were genuine, we would admit the crippled, deformed, diseased, and indi- gent, instead of excluding even the healthy poor by re- quiring of them pecuniary fees and contributions be- yond their ability to pay
ficaae * * * * * *
That we require the poorest applicant to contribute as much as the wealthiest is true, as it is a matter of necessity. Equality in payments is essential not only to equality in benefits but also in feelings. * * * Hence, we pay the rich member, when sick, the same amount per week that we pay to our poorer brethren, * * * His relief comes not * * * fromiienevor a few individuals, but from all, himself included —Grosh’s Manual, pages 63, 64.
Why then prate of Friendship, Love and Truth? Why read Scripture and say prayers in an insurance company paying sick, life and accident risks?—The Author.
And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all.
For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had—Luke 21.
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Crean TER Dy,
Another characteristic which is common to Ma- sonry and Oddfellowship is that each is hostile to civil government. All legitimate government rests upon publicity. Laws must be published. Accusations and trials must be public. Taxation must be public. Each citizen has a right to know that he is dealt with fairly as regards his fellow citizens. There is no page in human history more dark and bloody than that which records the transaction of secret despotisms. “Turn on the light” is in epitome the cry of the oppressed and persecuted of all ages.
But these orders have secret meetings, secret obligations, and secret modes of recognition. A judge on the bench, a witness in the box, a jury- man in the panel, the sheriff in the office all may be sworn brothers to the prisoner at the bar. In that case who would be insane enough to suppose that he would be dealt with as would one who did not have these relations in such influential positions! If this judge, witness, juryman or sheriff were his blood brother the danger would
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be less, for men would know it and they would feel the public scrutiny. But the lodgeman is unknown. He gives his wink, word, grip or sign to his lodge brother and they do what they do in the dark.
‘No great jurist has ever affirmed, so far as the writer is informed, that secret societies car safely exist under a free government. Certainly the ablest American jurists and statemen have de- clared that secretism and freedom are incompat- ible. English statesmen and jurists would no doubt have done the same had the question been submitted. to them. The manner in which the murderers of William Morgan in New York and Ellen Slade in Illinois were protected speaks in thunder tones on this subject and- echoes the -words of Wendell Phillips, “Secret Societies should be prohibited by law.”
A fifth likeness is found in the religious char- acter of the two orders. They are both relig- ious and are both pagan religions; they are great systems of idolatry existing in Christian lands. The proofs of this position are numerous and overwhelming. Each requires the candidate to ~ avow belief in a God. That is a religious act and has no necessary connection with an order which is social or for insurance. Each has its altar, and an altar is a place where men meet
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God in sacrifice or praise. No business house or political party as such has an altar.
Fach of these societies has a religious ritual, a ceremonial. Prayers, lectures, songs and the like are woven together for the recitation of members at their meetings. Each professes to teach men to live moral and upright lives. Masonry does this; Oddfellowship does it, and the members say that if they live as well as the orders require they will live as well as they ought. Both pro- fess that their members dying go to heaven be- cause of their lodge relations. These facts and others which might be enumerated establish the religious character of these lodges beyond perad- venture.
But the whole world is religious and most of its religions are a damage to those who practice them: “No religion except the Christian ever pro- duced one holy life.” Pagan faiths which by reason of ignorance or ill will have excluded Je- sus Christ, have always made their devotees par- tial, untruthful, dishonest and impure. That Ma- sonry and Oddfellowship are in the list of pagan religions no one can deny. They both exclude, in one way or another, the only Savior of the world. They have altars, but they are Christless eltars. They put the Christian’s Bible on their altars, but they do not allow him to utter his Sa-
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vior’s name in some degrees or to obey his com- mands in any of them. They do not require him to confess or forsake his sins. They require him to pay and swear, and pay and swear, or promise, and if he “obey” and “pay” and “conceal” he is a good and law-abiding lodgeman though he may be in every particular a child of the devil. Yet when he dies they declare that he has gone to heaven and thus encourage others also to live and die denying Jesus Christ, who alone died for the sin of the world. In their teaching of salva- tion by ceremonies and works, their sacrilegious use of the word of God, and their toleration of all forms of sin, these orders prove themselves parts of the great system of idolatry which from the beginning until now has degraded and ruined our race.
Still farther these two orders resemble one an- other in that they rely upon false pretenses to secure acceptance and favor. Wendell Phillips said, “A secret society is not needful for any good purpose and may be used for any bad one whatever.” But every order or institution must give an excuse for its existence, it must pretend a reason when there is none. Why should an order which really desires to teach “faith in God, hope of immortality and charity to all’*mankind” or “friendship, love and truth” hide itself behind
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closed doors and obligate men never to tell out- siders how this beneficent work was to be done. li the purpose of the orders were to advance the political fortunes of their aspiring members, or to protect their criminal members from punish- ment, or to secure unfair advantages to their members in professions ‘and trades, one could then understand why they should be secret.
But, as already said, when there is no real rea- son one must be manufactured. Hence the claim that Masonry originated with King Solomon, that Adam was the first Oddfellow, that these orders have certain knowledge or certain modes of com- municating knowledge which other persons do not possess, that they desire to know God or promote the well being of men. When one comes to ex- amine any one of these claims it fades away into falsehood. The reason why men join lodges is to secure some temporal advantage, and the reason why Satan wants them to do so is that he may secure their worship and their souls. A world constructed on the basis of Masonry and Oddfellowship would not have the name of Jesus in, it anywhere. Does not this one fact show where the lodge originated and whither it leads?
_ We do not think it needful to rehearse the cere- monies of Oddfellowship. They are modeled after Masonry, but are in some respects less ob-
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jectionable. As in the older orders, there are attempts to frighten and thus test the candidate, so in the younger. The initiate is caused to look at a skeleton and to be hustled blindfold over a rough road on the way to the tent of Abraham. In the revised ritual the warning is repeatedly inserted that “no rough usage is allowed.” This shows what has been customary and probably does not hinder those who wish to have fun at the expense of the candidate from getting it. The longer one studies the system the more clearlv does it appear that Oddfellowship is part and parcel of the great movement to root out Chris- tianity from the world. That wicked men shouid be attracted to such an organization is not strang2, but that men who profess to know Jesus Christ as a personal Savior and the Holy Ghost as teacher should be able to tolerate it, is passing strange. One would suppose that the experience of Charles G. Finney in Masonry would be that of every believer when betrayed into Oddfellow- ship. Mr. Finney says, “As soon as I was con- verted I loathed the lodge.” It is true that mul- titudes quietly withdraw, but we should hope and pray that they and others with them may openly and in Christian fashion forsake the enemies of our Savior and adhere to Him alone.
This open renunciation is needful if the one
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who withdraws does not wish his example to be continually leading men into the order. Odd- fellowship, like other lodges, is kept up by the good character of members who go to its meet- ings seldom or never and is ruled by men of baser sort who have leisure to learn rituals and who enjoy the ceremonies and titles and other ad- vantages of lodge rule, It is also required by the seceder himself as a protection to his conscience and character. Men are greatly tempted to slip back into these idolatrous organizations if they have silently withdrawn from them. In some hour of stress they go down into Egypt for help; they cease to trust God and so reap loss to them- selves while they imperil the souls of others. The Christian who has been deceived into Odd- fellowship is iike the same man in any other lodge. His duty and his interest alike require ‘from him an open and positive separation from evil. If he remains a silent seceder he does not warn men of the trap where his own foot was caught, he does not honor Christ and His Church as he should, he is in danger of returning to the old snare when occasion invites ; an open separa- tion is the path of safety and Christian usefulness,
WILSON T. HOGUE, Bishop of Free Methodist Church.
Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: ~ Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,| peace, long suffcring, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.— Gal., 5 :19-23.
I also promise that I will not reveal any of ‘the private work of this Order to anyone not entitled to know the same; and that in all things I will yield a cheerful obedience to all the laws, rules and usages of this Order.
I also promise that I will not knowingly wrong a member of this Order, or see one wronged; and that I will do all in my power to promote the good of this Order and to advance the cause of temperance.
You having already taken our obligation, do solemnly promise to keep the same inviolate and never to reveal the words, signs, grip, signals or other private work of this degree to anyone except in a lawful manner.— Good Templar Obligations.
“I do not speak for my husband; he speaks for him- self; ‘but as for me, I think secret societies are suck-
ing the life-blood out of every decent thing in this country.’—Mrs. John B. Gough.
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GAP TE R:.1.T I:
Christianity is alive and being alive produces life, It is itself the work of Jésus, who is the “life” as well as the “light,” “the bread” and the giver of “the water of life.” All pagan religions are themselves dead and conduct their adherents to moral and spiritual putrefaction. Industrially, socially, commercially and intellectually, Christ is the light of the world. In Him is life, the life is the light of men.
Being alive Christianity produces progress, while outside of its influence all is stagnation. It is One of the peculiarities of pagan faiths when brought into contact with the Christian to adopt its practical advantages while rejecting that which has secured them. Thus, when sending capable young Chinamen to this country for education it is said that their government directs them to study everything American except the American reli- gion,
In like manner lodgism, which has never pro- duced any moral advance, adopts the truths which Christianity has taught and fought through to
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success, while it rejects the Christianity which alone has made them the heritage of man. For example, when intemperance was _ universal, lodges were occasions for drinking debauches. When Christian teaching had made drunkenness unpopular, lodges began to shut it out and lodge- men to harness the convictions of Christians to the car of secretism to drag it into popular favor. Just so lodgemen use patriotism to help lodgism. They pretend that lodgism is to help patriotism ; but all men know that secretism has never been the parent of that or any other virtue. The love of country is not promoted by signs, grips, lec- tures in secret, or altars from which the Son of God is shut away. It is when praying men who love God and home and native land have created a body of patriotic feeling some men who watt offices or pensions come along and establish a lodge avowing that love of country is its object, and thus coax men who do not need the help of a secret society to join one.
It is also characteristic of secretism that those who get up these secret orders make an effort to convince those whom they ask to unite with them that they are not secret. They say: This is a society for promoting temperance, patriotism, brotherly kindness, etc., and when the man says: “Why is it then secret?” they reply: “Oh, it is
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not a secret order. We have a grip or sign ot something to keep our meetings private, but this is not a secret order.” Then when the man comes up to join the first thing he is asked to do is to make a deistic profession of faith and the second to promise to keep secret'the proceedings of the order. i
The temperance orders, so called, are the Sons of Temperance, The Good Templars, The Knights of Honor and Temperance, etc. Their avowed object is to save men from the curse of drink. They adopt the secrecy, the regalia, and the cere- monies of the older lodges and profess that they do this in order to save men from the appetite for liquor. It would be useless to say that these temperance lodges have never done any. good. It is quite evident, however, that if they have: done helpful acts they have not accomplished them because of their lodgism. There is nothing in secrecy, regalia and ceremonies to save the souls of men and this is the help the man tempted or enslaved by drink needs. We firmly believe these orders have made more drunkards than they have. rescued, but as this is a matter to be determined by count, not by opinion, we simply state our conviction and pass on. Me
Temperance is a Christian virtue. To secure: it for men is one of the very things for which
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Jesus died. Wherever the Church exists in any- thing like purity this excellence and all others are taught and practiced. It is the avowed pur- pose of all false religions to secure moral gains and future safety, ignoring Jesus or His work.
Good Templarism does not shut out the name of Jesus. Though He is not named in the creed of the order He is several times mentioned in the ritual. But there is no claim on the part of well-informed members of these temperance lodges that they are Christian organizations. Faith in Jesus is not a condition of admission, nor do those who join promise to obey His com- mands. They agree to keep free from complicity with the liquor business, to conceal the ceremonies of the order and not to injure members of the order. This is treated as a great matter and over and again the officials say “Remember your vow,” “Remember your obligation.”
And this scanty program is mingled with prayers, songs, scripture readings and lectures, so that the impression is produced on simple-minded people that if they are faithful members of this order they will be pleasing to God and sure of heaven. Many of them openly say this and more act as if they thought it. Of course, in every such case the church of Jesus loses those who should be loyal and helpful members of it.
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That other immoralities far worse than drunk- enness often result from the lodge associations is a commonplace to those who have thought and observed. When the writer was lecturing in Vineland, New Jersey, a young lady, the right- hand supporter of the Worthy Chief Templar, expressed the opinion that I ought to be hanged and that every person who had aided to arrange the meetings also should be killed. Within a year she swore that that same Worthy Chief Templar, a married man, was father of her child. In another case a traveling man said to another drummer that he ought to join one of these tem- perance orders. Being asked why, he replied that when he staid in a town where there was one of these orders, he having the password at- tended and went home with some girl.
That many sincere persons have peen members of such orders is undoubtedly true. That such persons dislike the secrecy, the ceremonies and the regalia we know; that a large majority of the members are careless and irreverent we fully believe ; that the orders do evil as all other lodges do we think necessarily true from the character of the societies. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
Years ago I drove from Worcester to Old Boylston, Massachusetts, to see John B. Gough.
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He was absent, but Mrs. Gough was at home. I said to her that I had come that I might learn Mr. Gough’s opinion respecting secret temper- ance lodges. She replied that she never spoke for her husband, but that if I wished to know her opinion she would give it freely. On being told that this would be a favor she said: “I think se- cret societies are sucking the life blood out of every decent thing there is in this country.” Continuing she declared that in her judgment the temperance lodges were among the worst enemies the temperance cause could have; that they attracted loose, vain, worthless persons and shut out the sober and reliable people upon whom any worthy cause must rely for success.
I do not profess to qucte her exact words, for it is years since I heard them, but I do not mis- represent her thought. The transient character of these lodges lessens the evil they do, but multi- tudes are infected with the virus of secretism, or evil companionships; multitudes are alienated from the church and are caught by the tinsel and ceremonies of lodgism so that the Savior who died for us is robbed of the souls he purchased by the bloody sweat of the garden and the agonies of the cross,
’
The candidate is hurried to the anteroom, the Sir Knights crying out as he passes: “Away with him! Execute him! He must die!” making great confusion.
I will be true to all Sir Knights of the Order, and will forever keep and conceal all the secrets, signs, passwords, grips and other private work of the Order, and that I will not, under any circumstances, make them known to, anyone in the world, or suffer others to do
so, if in my power to prevent it. * * *
Binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my left arm cut off above the elbow (the Sir Knight on the left draws battle-ax across candidates’s left arm), so that I would forever be unable to prove myself a Knight of the Maccabees. So help me the Most High and keep me steadfast in the same until death.—IJnitiation of a Knight of the Maccabees.
I will not repeat outside of the Court room any transaction whatsoever, which may take place therein, which, by the regulations of the Order, should be kept secret, unless I am duly authorized to do so by the constituted authorities of the Order. Should I from any cause cease to be a member of the Order, my obli- gation of secrecy shall remain in full force —Jnitiation - cf the United Order of the Foresters.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.—Phil. 4.
180
Pear TER TV.
In the preceding chapter we have spoken of the fact that Satan has sought to yoke all virtues to the car of secretism. Knowing how despic- able secrecy in itself is and how naturally it lends itself to vice and crime, he has sought to dignify it and make it acceptable to good men and women by pretending a worthy motive for it. The re- sult has been that millions of well-intentioned people have been drawn into lodges for the sake of the alleged object only to find in the end that they were cheated of Hig object and made slaves of their orders.
There is no feeling more honorable than the one which leads a man to wish that his wife and children may be free from the bite and sting of extreme poverty in case of his death or disability. God approves this feeling and curnmends those who make provision for their households. He shows His approval also in the success which He gives to men who are industrious and economical. Such men seldom come to want themselves or leave their families to suffer.
wt
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It was obvious when the principle of life insur- ance had become established that lodgism would seize upon it to popularize secret society methods. That has been done and hundreds of insurance orders have been organized, have taxed their members for a few years and then died, while scores of them still exist, some tottering to their fall and all of them destined to extinction. While they last, most of them have men elected to read prayers, have solemn lectures given, and along | with this have the initiations in order that they may have fun at the expense of the men they invite to join.
About these lodges several things rnay be said, and first, they belong to the family of secret so- cieties. Men who unite with and enjoy them are likely to unite with others. They certainly have no right to condemn them for all the essen- tials of the older orders are in these insurance fraternities. They are usually weak copies of the old lodges organized, officered and ruled by members of them.
Second, as insurance bodies they are failures. The expenses of some of them are absurdly large. It is said that one Massachusetts traternal lodge paid its chaplain seven thousand five hundred dollars per year. His duty being to open the Grand Lodge with prayer. As this body met
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once in two years a grocer’s clerk at a salary of fifteen dollars per week received fifteen thousand dollars for reading a prayer from a card at one meeting of the order.
Of course, such management would wind up an insurance fraternity very-quickly. Most of these associations are more carefully conducted and some of them last twenty-five to thirty years. The foundation principle is not sound, however, and the time must come when the liabilities will be great and the income so small that collapse will be inevitable.
Men in the societies are accustomed to say that they get a cheap insurance. In a sense this is true; but it may be said, first, that cheapness is not always a commendation, and, second, that taking the system as a whole it is fearfully ex- pensive. If the money which has been paid in to fraternal lodges during the last thirty years had been paid in premiums to some reputable life insurance company it would have given tens of thousands of men a substantial provision for the future who now have nothing but the recollection of foolish or wicked ceremonies and Christless prayers for the taxes they have paid.
Another important consideration is the effect which these secret orders have on the character of their members. Take for example the items
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of industry and economy. Will a man who be- longs to one of these orders be as industrious and economical as the same man would probably be if he had no such connection? Of course, none can know what any individual will do under given circumstances until he is tried. It is ob- vious, however, that one who joins an order to secure sick and death benefits will lack one strong motive to manly conduct which another man has. .
One of the crying evils of our time is that men live out their income each day and have no reserve for investment or a time of trial. The result of this imprudence is that multitudes who might accumulate a competence never do so and that other multitudes come to actual want. As a protection against such a tragedy some sort of life insurance might be justified, but it were a thousandfold better that men should save and in- vest than that they should be compelled to get sick or die in order to secure a part or the whole of their savings. I knew a man who received a good salary, had only two in his family, and yet belonged to several of these insurance orders. When, after fifteen years he lost a position, be- fore he had been out a month he had applied to two of the lodges for relief. For some reason he shortly after drank carbolic acid and died.
Modern Secret Societies. 185
Another fact which has to do with the ques- tion, is that insurance lodges have a relation to the crimes of murder and suicide. It is true that all life insurance is liable to the same ob- jection, but that does not avoid the difficulty. It is a misfortune that any one should ever have a money interest in the death of another. When it is the case that one has such an interest the temptation to murder on the one hand an/ suicide on the other springs into being. Along with these comes another, viz., the temptation to buy a corpse and attempt to defraud the order. Those familiar with the history of the Modern Wood- men will remember the facts unearthed bv Dr. P. L. McKinnie, respecting the founder and head of the order. He seemed to invent dead men in order to realize on their bodies.
We have not spoken of the persons killed in initiations, but in the insurance orders, as in all lodges, the candidates are in many instances put to death in one way or another. The rule in all initiations is to humiliate, badger and hurt the candidates to afford sport for the men who look
on. There are persons who enjoy such things
and they find their way in our time into lodges. We do not know whether those who cause these deaths are usually drunk or not. It may be that they are excited or confused, but whatever the
186 Modern Secret Societies.
reason the so-called fraternal orders by use of the “spanker,” the “goat,” the electric chair or some other device are frequently killiag the men whom they coax to join.
But we must bring this painful chapter to a close. Every one must sympathize with the mo- tive which has led so many thousands of our fel- low citizens to unite with these orders. Every- one must be indignant at the outrages which are inflicted on men, who, blindfold and helpless, trust themselves to orders claiming to be benevo- lent and fraternal. Everyone must see that finan- cially all orders of this type are doomed to early death. “The Golden Lion,’ “The Iron Hall,” “The Foresters” and “The Home Forum” are chance names out of a list of hundreds. Every Christian man knows that so far as these orders promise salvation to their members they are parts of that great anti-Christian, pagan religious world in which Satan is worshiped as God and the souls of men are ruined—forever.
HE INDUSTRIAL ORDERS.
Almighty Maker of the Universe and giver of every good to mankind, we return heartfelt thanks to Thee that we are permitted again to assemble here. Be with all connected with our Order, and aid us in ex- tending its benefits in all parts of our land. Be with all otders and associations having for their object the advancement of education, and the moral welfare and happiness of mankind. Amen.
At the head and foot of the coffin stand two masked persons in long -black robes, and on the right side of the coffin stands the chaplain in a long white robe, also masked. As the hoodwinks are removed they each point with forefinger at the skeleton, when the Chaplain exclaims: “Behold the secret doom!”
Those brothers for self-protection, and in strict com- pliance with their obligation, were forced to turn upon him the sword of Justice. He fell from the high po- sition to which they had exalted him; his shafts of enmity were turned, his babbling tongue was forever silenced.. He met a traitor’s doom. Behold! Beware! —Initiation of the United Sons of Industry.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: f will strengthen thee; yea, I will
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.—/sa, 41.
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race TER: “Vv.
Ievery honest man must have a deep sympathy for the wage worker. In olden time the rough,
_ hare work of the world was done by slaves and
the overseers were the masters and rulers. The progress of the Christian religion has caused the abolition of slavery and has put in its stead the wage system. All men who do not inherit wealth begin life as wage earners of some sort; those who are ungifted or unfortunate remain wage earners until death. As slavery gave way to rewarded toil, so the returns and the conditions of employed labor have improved with the prog- ress of Christianity. It was in a time when slavery was practically universal that the Holy Spirit said: “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.” If that had al- ways been done there would never have been the
_ strained relations between capital and labor which
now exist. ;
But it was not done. Child labor, labor of
women, rates of wages, hours of work, forms of
payment, housing of wage earners, the personal 189
190 Modern Secret Societies.
safety of men toiling for other men, all these topics suggest the hard and tear-stained road by which our industrial system has reached its pres- ent stage of development. ;
It is sad to say, but I fear true, that improve- ments in all these particulars have seldom been voluntarily made by the employing class. Not- able and honorable exceptions there are, but as a whole I think we must admit that society has generally been forced to compel the advances which have been made. The creation of air shafts in mines and the adoption of self-coupling devices for railway cars are illustrations of this fact, which will readily occur.
Under such circumstances what were wage earners to do? It was evident that they must combine. If not they would fall one by one, unpitied victims of their hard and ill-requited toil ; nay, more and worse, they must see wives and children starve and die while they themselves were starving. They combined and no man of heart and conscience can blame them for doing so.
They united in secret organizations. It seemed to them that in this way alone could their leaders _ be protected from the vengeance of those in- terested in the abuses which the wage earners wished to have removed. There was a measure of reason in this.. The brute force of capital
Modern Secret Societies. Ig!
would have crushed men who should openly have assumed leadership. There was in fact a state of war, and secrecy and obedience are indispens- able conditions of effective fighting.
Victories have been gained by these organiza- tions. The hours of daily labor have been re- duced from eighteen, sixteen, fourteen and twelve to ten and eight. Wages have increased from six pence and twelve pence to a minimum of a dollar per day. Tens of thousands of women have been shut out of mines and iron works and millions of children from mines and mills. Life-saving devices have been adopted and sanitation of shop dwellings and factories has been improved.
‘Much has been won, Though much remains to win.”
But we are in the twentieth century. The light which Christ brought into the world shines to-day on the path of the wage earner, as well as on the way of his more favored brother. Does the wage earner still require organization? Undoubtedly he does and will. His social interests demand this and his economic condition also requires it. Wage earning orders are with us and for some reason or other they are largely secret. This seems to us needless, unfortunate and dangerous.
It seems unnecessary because secrecy is now
192 Modern Sccret Societies.
a hindrance rather than a help to the lawful ends which such bodies propose. To meet one another socially, to accumulate a fund for the relief of suffering, to establish reading rooms and co-operative enterprises for mutual advantages, all these ends are served by publicity. And in the case where a strike is the desperate remedy for more serious ills, if the public are to sustain the wage earners they need to know at the begin- ing, as fully as possible, the real merits of the case. The heart of society knows how to feel for suffering. The wrongs of men and the mis- eries of women and children appeal to men when they know of them. It is a great pity when a good cause, which would awaken sympathy, is hindered from it by secrecy.
A secretly organized strike in our day usually irritates the public. The mass of men know nothing about the merits of the struggle, but do know that they are inconvenienced. The suspi- cion instantly arises that the walking delegate is abroad in the land; that the strike is in his interest and the people are accordingly indiffer- ent. There are probably few cases of actual op- pression on the part of capital which would not be remedied under the pressure of public senti- ment and legal enactment if a full, frank state- ment were presented to the people by a body of .
Modern Secret Societies. 193
real laborers. In cases it would require time, but it would be done.
Another mistake which labor organizations, some of them, have made, is to imitate the re- ligious customs of the older lodges. Constructed as these industrial orders often are, by Masons and Oddfellows, it was natural that prayers and lectures and readings should be put in to satisfy the religious nature of man. Made as they are, for all sorts of men, Christian and non-Chris- tian, it was also natural that the religious exer- cises should be Christless, i. e., Satanict Men who in any order pray Christless prayers pray to the devil and receive him into their hearts.
A third fact is that just as the older orders play with death, pretending that men are killed or leading them to expect to be killed, so some in- dustrial orders teach that the’ one who violates his obligations to the order is in danger of being murdered. In one lodge initiation there are three tableaux. In the first a member is seen surrounded by brethren armed to defend him. In the second, one who has broken his lodge oath is seen lying on the floor, while his comrades are killing him. In the third the traitor to the order is seen in his coffin and the lecturer tells the candidate to learn from these representa- tions his own fate if he is not true to the lodge.
194 Modern Secret Societies.
This is a clear, explicit education for murder. _
A fourth objection to these orders as carried on at the present time is the way in which they treat those who do not choose to unite with them. “Rat” and “scab” are the names by which they designate free, law-abiding citizens, who do not choose to be controlled by the secret order. Of course, men who will call their fellows by such insulting names will assault and maim or’ kill them if they dare.
It is a matter of common observation that whenever a strike is ordered and a building pick- eted, non-union men who may choose to labor are, if possible, prevented by force. It is also well known that the assaults are usually made by three, four or five to one, from behind, in the dusk or dark. It is difficult or impossible to think of a cowardly element which could enter into the transaction which is absent.
As a final word, we would say that when a man has abandoned his free will and passed the con- trol of his conscience over to a lodge no one but God can tell to what depths he may descend. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was simply a fraternal association for entirely legitimate pur- poses so far as its declarations went, but it was a secret society. When temptation came to use it for murder it did such deadly work that before
~ ae
Modern Sccret Societies. 195
they were through twenty-two of their number were hanged on. the gallows by the State of
Pennsylvania.
The Masons who murdered William Morgan were before they became Masons as good men as there were in Western New York. ‘They were ministers, farmers, merchants and officers of the law. Yet they committed murder, perjury and all related offenses needful to carry out their plans. When a man gives himself over to the commands of a secret order neither he nor any other man can tell what he will do. When Satan entered into Judas Iscariot he sold his Master, the Son of God, for fifteen dollars in silver.
As already said, every honest man must sym- pathize with wage workers. The toil is hard, the pay is small, and they see the luxuries of those for whom they labor. Organization has done much and is to do more. It is entirely legitimate, nay, it is inevitable. But it should be open and free, like the gospel of our Lord. There is no lawful end to be attained by threatening mem- bers with death or killing those who for any reason choose to remain outside.
When the wage workers are thus united in a Christian manner they will be unconquerable in any righteous effort they may make, for many
196 Modern Secret Societies.
capitalists will favor their cause, and those who do not will be overwhelmed by public sentiment and the power of Almighty God.
Persons desiring an intelligent view of this subject should catefully note and remember that the men of 1861-1865, who periled lives on fields of battle for home and native land, did not learn to love their country in posts, camps or lodges. They were, and it is one of their, proudest boasts that they were a citizen soldiery. They went from farm and shop, from office and desk, from mill and forge, to march and fight, if need be to die, for fatherland.
The orders which have been invented were not the spontaneous impulse of these busy workingmen. Am- bitious politicians, pension attorneys and the like be- came the active men in the organization. Of course, multitudes of true and brave men are in the orders now, but they were patriots before the lodges were born.
But even now a minority of the old soldiers are in
“these societies and the badge of honor is the service in the army, not the membership in the order. If the good men who are connected with it would stand to= gether they could strike out secrecy, change the burial service and make it so that all old soldiers could unite in its work—The Author.
Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. —Joshua 14.
i98
iA. ER VU.
Much that has been said in the preceding chap- ter is of weight here. It is natural and right that men who have served in an army through a great and righteous war should be interested: in one another. Although the Nation should make, and in our country has made, abundant pro; vision for all financial needs of those who have served in her armies, so far as war injuries are concerned, still, the ties of friendship which were formed on weary marches and welded in the fires of battle call for memory and tears. It is self- evident that such memories and emotions must find expression.
It will be observed that we are speaking of the Grand Army of the Republic. Patriotic lodges, so-called, formed of persons who have never per- formed any particular patriotic duty are not in- ~ cluded in the preceding remark. Their members are not united by past services, since they have never rendered any, but by vanity and greed, the two great motives which lead men into secret combinations. The claim that a lodge can be a
199
200 Modern Secret Societies.
school of patriotism is a mere pretense, as all know. The hundreds of thousands of men who enlisted from patriotic motives in the great American war did not learn love of country by grips and signs. They learned it by prayers at the knees of mothers, by honest toil on farms and in shops, by sacred associations in church and school, by communion with the flowers and the stars, the rivers and forests, the mountains and plains of their native land. These are the sources of patriotic resolve and high endeavor.
But though the social instincts which lead to the patriotic lodges on the part of those who have served together in arms for fatherland are natural, legitimate and eternal, these do not have any relation to secrecy nor furnish a justification for it. “Secrecy,” as Wendell Phillips said, “is not needful for any good purpose and may be used for any evil one whatsoever.” Old soldiers like to meet to talk over their campaigns.. It is quite right that they do so; but why should they swear not to reveal what is said? They wish to be kind to the widows and orphans of com- rades ; this is a duty; but why should this require an obligation to concealment? They wish to re- lieve the needs of comrades who suffer; this probably is seldom required, in view of the sol-
diers’ homes and the pensions paid by govern- .
= a
Modern Secret Societies. 201
ment, but in case it should be, what is there in relief of poverty to call for a promise of secrecy?
It is evident, as said in a former chapter, that the secrecy is not intended to help patriotism, but patriotism is yoked to the car of secretism to popularize what is essentially suspicious and evil.
It is greatly to be desired that members of the Grand Army of the Republic and other orders which profess patriotism as an object should see this and positively refuse to allow their good names and the great cause which they served to be tangled up with lodgism. Secrecy is the nat- ural impulse of shame and crime. Why should good men who enlisted to fight a treason which was hatched in secret conclaves permit themselves to be obligated to conceal acts which are honor- able?
Another remark which might be made here is that these patriotic lodges, like almost all others, have their altars and their religious ceremonies. We do not need to repeat the argument on this subject, but all Christians in these orders every time they look at the altar with the Bible upon it should remember that an altar in their day is an instrument of idolatry. In the Jewish dis- pensation the altar points to Christ, the lamb - slain from the foundation of the world. At last
202 Modern Secret Societies.
He came and men wrought their cruel will with Him until in expiring agony He cried: “It is finished.” Since that day every altar is the badge of a pagan faith.
These orders, however, to make assurance sure, follow the altar with a funeral service in which they teach that members of their lodges, dying in good standing, go at once to the Grand Lodge above. The words vary, but the intent remains the same, and it is to teach that men may die and go to heaven, some of whom are profane, drunken, licentious and dishonest. Of course, this gives the lie direct to the entire body of Christian doctrine. If the Bible is true, men who die in sin unrepentant do not go to heaven. We do not say that persons-conducting funeral sery- ices should injure the feelings of survivors by commenting on the lives of those who have made shipwreck, but they have no right to give the lie to God’s Word, and any one who teaches that unrepentant sinners go to heaven does that.
Of course, the Christian members of these or- ders do not like these altars and ceremonies. They do not make up the rituals. These are constructed by the Masons and Oddfellows who invent and manage the subsidiary fraternities. The Christians do not attend these orders very
Modern Sccret Societies. 203
much, One of them recently said to me: “I have no interest in going to the Post, sitting there in clouds of tobacco smoke and listening to off-color stories told by old bummers.” © This language is strong, but it is not mine. It ex- pressed the feeling of a man who served through years of hard campaigning for the Union.
But though Christian men do not want these altars or the anti-Christian ceremonies which are invented, nevertheless, so long as they retain membership in these orders they are silent part- ners in altar and falsehoods told in the ritual. When the Christian man takes part in a service which declares that a man who does not know God or care for Jesus Christ or repent of sin, goes to heaven at death, he becomes responsible for the ruin of the souls of men who believe what is said. But one may say, what shall an old soldier who has a kindly feeling for his com- rades do?
His duty is obvious. He should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. He cannot benefit his comrades or his country by being false to God. He should insist first that the secrecy should be abolished. As an honor- able man who lives in the open, intending to in- jure no man, he should refuse to unite with an
204 Modern Secret Societies.
order which binds him to conceal the secret work of a society which includes within its member- ship all sorts of men, good and bad.
He should also require the removal of the altar and the abolition of all religious ceremonies which are not Christian in character. He should declare for no religion at all or the Christian religion. A Christian is not under obligation to support heathenism under the name of patriotism, and he should refuse to do so.
But if he should do this, would he not be de- prived of association. with his fellow veterans? Not at all, for the secret lodges have never in- cluded a majority of the soldiers of the Union. They do not now. Remaining free from the secret system he will have more company than he could have if he went into it. Still further, if it were not so, and if he should actually be deprived of some pleasant companionships be- cause of his zeal for the honor of his Lord and Savior, would not that be a sacrifice which he could well make? Would it not be better to be outside with the approval of Jesus than to be inside without it?
The members of the Grand Army of the Re- public have special reason for courage in asking for the abolition of secrecy and these pagan rit-
Modern Secret Societies. 205
uals in that the ritual has already been so com- pletely changed. As originally made it required the old soldier being initiated to come in blind- fold, to kneel before the coffin, and on having the hoodwink removed to see mien standing be- fore him with muskets leveled as if to shoot him. In this condition he heard the words: “What is the doom of a traitor?” and the reply, “Death.”
The old soldiers refused to be dragged into the Grand Army through this bloody gate. They left it alone until skillful Masonic politicians who wished to use it to advance their political for- tunes threw out this ceremony and modified the ritual otherwise. Why should not the worthy men who are in the Grand Army insist now that secrecy be dropped and that the religious cere- monies be made Christian, or also cut out of the book. We firmly believe that this might be done. The legitimate demands of the social na- tures of all soldiers would then be met and many thousands who will not take obligations of secrecy could then unite in an open soldiers’ society with their comrades in arms.
Mutual improvement, social companionship, and, in the rare cases where it was needed, finan- cial assistance could be attained in this way, while the members would be free from secret oaths
206 Modern Sccret Societies.
and idolatrous religious ceremonies. All the iegitimate purposes would be secured, and most, or all the dangers would be avoided.
»
FRATERNITIES.
While reading this proof a brother calls me up to ask if I know of a place near at hand where a young man on the verge of delirium tremens can be safely treated.
This young man, at sixteen years of age, went to a State University, where he joined a secret fraternity and was initiated into the vices which are native to such organizations.
Wrecked in character, mother dead, father an atheist and a bankrupt, though very wealthy when the frater- nity elected his boy, the young man enlisted in the army and went to the Philippines.
Just home, money gone, on the verge of delirium tremens, meditating suicide, the poor fellow, twenty- four years of age, remembered that his old friend lived in Wheaton, Ili., and at the end of a fifteen days’ de- bauch rang the bell at my friend’s door.
He was cared for tenderly and the question was, where can he be helped up to the place from which he fell when eight years ago he united with that College fraternity—The Author.
I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one—1 Jolin 2.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.—Matt, 1,
SA PTE R -V.LT.
In a saloon keepers’ convention held in In- dianapolis, one of the speakers said to the au- dience that they should be diligent to extend their trade among the young: “Nickels spent on the boys,” he remarked, “will bring back dollars from the men.”
This is not a new thought, but it is one of the first importance and bears on the cause of right- eousness as well as that of evil. Lodgism being a satanic movement, has thoroughly availed itself of this principle and still seeks to extend its operation. Not only do lodgemen seek to harness all virtues to secretism, the cover of all villainy, but they appeal to the curiosity, the vanity, and the ambition of boys as they do to those of men to secure recruits for their orders. They spend “nickels on the young” that they may break down the frankness and fairness of young manhood and thus secure dollars from sly, secretive men who will not rely upon God and themselves, but seek help to get on from those whose secret brothers they are.
209
210 Modern Secret Societies.
When the Society of Jesus began building back- fires against the Protestant Reformation, one of the first things it did was to train teachers and secure possession of the schools. They did their work well and the first serious check which advancing religious liberty received, came from this corruption of the young manhood of. Eu- rope.
The future is in the keeping of the young. Whether we will or no, age shuts us out from direct control of affairs. But the young are in the hands of the present, and we can make them what we will. Thus we may perpetuate ourselves and by the training of youth extend our influence to the bounds of time.
Bismarck is reported to have said that of university students, one-third died of dissipa- tion, one-third of overwork and that the third remaining ruled Europe. Statistics in our own land indicate the substantial truth of his esti- mate of the importance of college training. Dif- ferent examinations conduct to the conclusion that one-half of one per cent of our young men secure a college training and that this one-half of one per cent furnish at least fifty per cent of the leaders of thought. The college man’s chances of effective work are two hundred times
Modern Sceret Socictics. 211
greater than those of his brother, who does not go to college.
This being the case, it is seen at a glance how important it is that our colleges be enlisted on the side of righteousness, and one who has observed the skill with which Satan manages his forces in the great war of evil against good, will not be surprised at the attention he devotes to edu- cational institutions. The one who corrupts the colleges poisons the fountains out of which ages and nations must drink.
This being true, it was obvious that secret so- cieties would be crowded into our colleges and schools. Being essentially evil it was also ob- vious that they must grow worse with age and increase of power. It was also obvious, that since there was no good reason to be assigned why young men in college should isolate them- selves from their fellows by secret obligations, some reasons must be invented, and it has always been the case that first or last a secret society carries on its work in such a way as to make secrecy needful.
The college fraternities have not usually taken on the religious character that outside lodges ‘as- sume. The objections to them, are: First, that they are secret; second, that they promote clan- nishness ; third, that they produce and maintain
j
212 Modern Sccret Societies.
hoodlum conduct; fourth, that they tend to pro- duce and conceal immoral living, and, fifth, that they, by their foolish and drunken initiations cause physical injuries, frequently ending in death.
As we have already spoken of the essential evil of secretism we may dismiss it with a word. Jesus spoke openly to the world. He commanded his followers to do the same. Even irreligious men who are powerful and worthy men disdain secretiveness. They are not sly and under- handed—but open, frank and above-board. Hon- orable youth is proverbially so. It requires an education of evil sort to make a young man wish to conceal things. Honor from the beginning until now loves the light.
That secret societies in colleges tend to clan- nishness is self-evident, and is proved by the whole history of such societies. Men associated in lodges, occupied in giving winks, grips and signs to one another and in boasting of the frater- nities to which they belong necessarily grow nar- row in their sympathies. The only reason why they have not been far more seriously injured than they have, is because the young men who belong to them usually leave them as soon as they get through college.
If it be replied that men must have some close
OC,
Modern Secret Societies. 213
personal associates, we reply, certainly. And these associates should be selected on the basis of character, not on that of membership in a lodge. There is danger of narrowness growing out of open legitimate, Christian associations. The Republican or Democrat, the Methodist or Presbyterian, the white man or the black is each in danger of losing something of breadth and charity in the particular circles to which he be- longs.
But how unspeakably is this danger increased in secret societies when the basis of union is never excellence of character, interest in some great cause, or other valuable asset of manhood or so- ciety, but always money or showy gifts which do not touch the deeper things of life.
The hoodlumism of our greater schools is one of the mysteries of our day. Why young men should wish to disturb peaceable people and in- jure the property of those who have done them no harm is a very difficult question. But why college faculties, made up of educated gentlemen, should tolerate the presence of those who organize and carry out these raids and rushes is yet more difficult. If we make the folly of youth a par- tial explanation, shall we add avarice and cow- ardice to complete it?
Whatever we may say or think on this subject,
214 Modern Secret Societies.
that fraternities are frequently the root out of which lawlessness and disorder grow, is affirmed by teachers and is probable to start with. Why does a young man want a secret society if he intends to act like a gentleman? What gentle- man wishes others to conceal his words and acts? Secrecy naturally lends itself to shame and crime.
There are three vices to which college men are specially tempted. Naming them in the order of their deadly effects upon character I suppose most educators would call them licentiousness, drunk- enness and gambling. If competitive athletics continue to increase, gambling may rise above drunkenness, may perhaps even pass licentious- ness, but I think that at present the order above given will stand.
Now, when a young man, away from home, laughed at by lepers if he keeps the purity of his young manhood, is tempted to any or all of these man-eating vices, what effect will a secret society membership have upon him? Of course, he may maintain his integrity. Many men do. But in the soul battle which he fights where will the fact that he belongs to a college lodge throw its influence? Will it not often be the make weight which will incline the scales to evil and send the soul rushing over the precipice of sin which would
Modern Secret Socictics. 215
have walked safely if it had not learned the ways of secretism? We do not think any man who has had extended experience as a teacher can doubt what the truth respecting this matter is.
Of course, the fact-that the chapter houses are in a way secret all the time makes them convenient to lawless and base young men as places for de- bauches. It is reported that some of these chap- ter houses in a state university last year became simple brothels.
The injuries to life and limb which attend the initiation are less serious than the moral wrecks, but are nevertheless of weight. Three men have now been killed by one secret society at Cornell. Mr Rustin of Omaha was killed by the D. K. E. at Yale. Mr. Lawrence died at Chicago Univer- sity a day or two after initiation into the same society. Mr. Garrison was nearly killed at Har- vard, Little matters like broken legs or arms do not usually get into the papers.
One of my own students who went to Cornell for engineering work, said that it was a wonder to him that the drunken “Greeks” did not kill all the men they were initiating, so brutal was the performance.
Tt is a sad fact that some men of mature years and high character lend their aid to these centers of evil in our colleges. They are at times led into
|
216 Modern Secret Societies.
the fraternity rooms, made honorary members and then used as decoy ducks to draw in ignorant young men who may be made fools of in initiation and knaves of afterward in case they survive it. Christian men and women should raise a protest against such abominations that would result in
their abolition by the college faculties responsible for them.
j
W OF FART THIRD,
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.—Dan., 1:8.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the King, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.—Dan., 3:16-18.
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
—Psalm, 37:25.
Casting all your care upon Him: for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.—I Peter, 5 :7-8.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on
the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory—Col. 3.
218
CALA? TE Re VEEL
We have in this section reviewed a few of the hundreds of secret lodges which are bidding for the money, time and souls of our dear American people. But though we have mentioned a few only, we have, we think, covered the ground on which practically all stand. So far as we can understand all are substantially the same as Free- masonry, which mothers and rules them all.
There are variations in names, forms of initia- tion, special obligations, regalia and professed purposes, but all obligate to secrecy and obe- dience, all have secret places of meeting and secret modes of recognition, all, not-excepting the Mollie McGuires, and the Ku Klux Klan, profess some good object and yet most of them are stained with human blood.
Oddfellowship has never, so far as I am in- formed, murdered a seceding member. It is more honorable than many other orders in that it makes a contract to pay certain reliefs under certain circumstances. It also actually pays about one-third of what it takes from the labor
219
220 Modern Secret Societies.
of its members in benefits. But its religious character, its hazing initiations and the fact that it is secret make it unworthy of Christians, gentlemen or patriots.
The pretense of charity, which this order, in common with many others, sets up, is proven false by its very constitution. It shuts out all the needy and all those likely to become needy. It admits women only to its female lodge and amuses them with the idea of belonging to the order while they get up its suppers and heip at its festivals.
But the expenses, the hostility to good govern- ment and the drunken dances of this order are not the great objection to it.
The decisive fact is that Oddfellowship, while pretending to be founded on the Bible, puts Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, out of its very prayers and then professes to send its members to heaven when they die.
“And now he quits our weary train, And marches o’er the heavenly heights ; But we shall walk with him again, And share his rest and his delights.”
This is the language of a funeral ode pre- pared by a minister to be used at the burial of Oddfellows, most of whom make no profession
a
Modern Secret Societies. 221
of the Christian faith. What possible fellow- ship with such an order can a Christian have?
The temperance, patriotic, industrial, insurance and college lodges may be mentioned together. They each exhibit the cunning of Satan in at- taching virtues which have been taught by Christianity alone to the car of secretism to drag it into popularity. There has never been a pure, cultivated, happy home life anywhere in this world outside the influence of the Christian re- ligion.
There has never been an enlightened and healthful patriotism except where justice and love as set forth in the Word of God have been taught to and received by the people. Labor has never been respected and fairly paid out- side the influence of our holy religion. Yet these orders which carry on their whole work in open defiance of the law of God, declare it to be their purpose to foster these virtues that never take root except in Christian soil.
Beginning thus with a false pretense to attract those who naturally abhor secret societies, they go on to all evil deeds which the character of their members incline them to. Members of in- dustrial orders at times slander, maim or kill those who interfere with their plans. Submit- ting themselves to a secret despotism they under-
222 Modern Sccret Societies.
take to murder American citizens who do not choose to accept the same authority.
Members of insurance lodges repeat Christless prayers, sing Christless odes and express the con- fident expectation that they are on the way to heaven and this under the title of an Jnsurance Society. Unless we heard and saw these things before our very eyes it weuld seem impossible that they should be true.
The idea that secrecy is needful to any patriotic purpose is equally absurd. Of the many Chris- tian gentlemen connected with secret -orders for the promotion of love of country none of them learned to love his homeland in a lodge. Many of them I know object to the secrecy and the altar
while they love their comrades and the cause for
which they freely offered their lives.
Is it not time that such men, honest and faithful, should unite to demand the abolition of secrecy and the altar as conditions of their re- maining in the society? The coffin and the mus- kets leveled at the breast of a union soldier were taken out of the ritual because good men would not endure them. Why not also demand that the altar and all Masonic paraphernalia be re- moved, and that the obligation to conceal be stricken out.
As remarked in the several preceding chapters,
- Modern Secret Societies. 223
one must deeply sympathize with the avowed purposes of all these orders. -But it is impossible to see why they should be made secret, Christless churches. It is easy to understand why “Knights of the Golden Circle’ or members of the “Ku Klux Klan” should wish to work in the dark, but why our neighbors whom we respect, and whose purposes we approve, should seek to hide behind tiled doors, passwords and sentries is not so easy.
When our Lord comes all such substitutes for the church which He founded will be swept away by the consuming fire. May we not hope that before that day comes all Christian men will abandon these dark orders which profess to save: the souls of men and yet deny the Savior of the world?
Ww. G. MOOREHEAD, { Professor in United Presbyterian Theo- | logical Seminary.
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