D. Green of Chelsea, Mass., Charles G. Finney —

of Oberlin, Nathaniel Colver of Chicago, and Elder Bernard of New York, are examples. These men were Christians, men of pure lives and men of integrity of character. In any court of justice their testimony would have been ac- cepted without question.
In the case of others this remarkable fact has been observed, viz., that while they were godless and wicked men they were members of lodges, but when they were converted and became holy men they came out from the secret orders and bore testimony against them. Col. Clarke, founder
of the Pacific Garden Mission, who was a Knight
Templar and had drank the cup of double dam- nation from a human skull, was of this class. He said to a public audience, met in the Baptist Church, in Wheaton, Illinois, that the lodge was no place for a Christian man.
It is further to be noted that the testimony of these excellent men is strengthened by the fact that they testify to their own follies and sins. They acknowledge the revelations of these orders which are printed to be correct. They say that the ceremonies and obligations are set forth in the rituals as they received them. They say that they themselves went through the de- grading rites, listened to the Christless prayers
Modern Sccret Socictics. 2AT
and swore the wicked oaths of these lodges. The testimony of good men to such facts is very weighty.
It is also a very important consideration that these witnesses give this testimony not only with no hope of reward but with the certainty of loss. The lodges have always persecuted those who withdraw from them, just as Cain killed Abel. The reason is the same. The lodge altars are Cain’s altars and the false worship always has persecuted the true. Idolatry always leads to murder. Slander, business hostility and per- sonal violence have been and are the only weapons of defence which secret orders possess. These they use most freely against the godly men who having been entrapped by them have broken their bonds and claimed their liberty.
It is strange but true that some persons de- clare that the testimony of a man who has united with a lodge cannot be received concerning it when he for conscience’ sake comes out of it. ‘This is equivalent to saying that one cannot re- pent of lodgism and become a trustworthy man. The Bible does not teach any such hopeless doc- trine. Men can repent of all sin and become holy men, if only they do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Herod could have repented of his rash oath and kept his hands clean from the blood of
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242 Modern Secret Societies.
John. The men who swore that they would kili Paul were under no obligation to become mur- derers. Just so men who have sworn the bloody oaths of Masonry and the similar oaths of other orders are guilty until they break them. They cannot be believed until they break them. How can men who acknowledge themselves bound to conceal facts be believed when they speak of them? Instead of its being true that seceders cannot be believed when they speak of the inner workings of lodges, it is the fact that they are the only ones who can be believed. They alone are free to speak the truth.
It is also to be remarked that the testimony of these men, who for conscience’ sake have left the secret orders, is supported and confirmed by their written work. Take the ritual as pre- pared by the seceder and a manual of the written work as prepared for lodge use, and it is plain to see that the one fits the other perfectly. The great wonder is that persons who wish to keep the ceremonies secret should print so much of them for public distribution.
It is also a fact that adhering members of the orders frequently buy the revelations of seceders that they may more cheaply and quickly prepare themselves for their shares in the lodge exercises. This is particularly true of the Masons and Odd-
Modern Secret Societies. 243
fellows, who have bought full rituals by thou- sands to help themselves in the silly and wicked ceremonies of their orders.
And finally we may say that while some igno- rant and unprincipled members_of secret orders deny the revelations, men who have reputations for truth and integrity long ago ceased to do this. Wherever honest members of the larger lodges can be found, they themselves testify that the revelations of seceders are correct. The cry of “Merjurer,”’ “unfit to be believed,” etc., etc., which a few years ago was so freely raised, is now seldom heard and is never heard from men of good character. A man who says that seceders are not truthful in their revelations mav be safely set down at once, as a man whose word is not good. It is possible for a man to repent of the sin of lodgism and when one does so and gives his testimony concerning it, he is to be believed if he is a worthy man, and only such men are accustomed to brave the storms of hatred which follow a secession from a secret order. As Presi- dent Finney says, “It is a sin to take a lodge oath. This sin cannot be forgiven until it is repented. It is not truly repented until it is confessed,”
J. GROEN, Pastor of Christian Reform (Holland) Church.
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.—Ps., 118:8, 9.
Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my
salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.—Part of Psalm 62.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom is no help. His breath goeth forth, he re- turneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. * * * The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the father- less and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth
upside down.—Part of Psalm 146.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no want to them that fear him—Psa. 34.
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‘ Pre TR IL,
In the charge to the Entered Apprentice he is told that “the greatest and best men of all ages” have encouraged and promoted Masonry. As other lodges copy this mother of secret societies in other respects, so they do in this also; and every young member is regaled with stories of the smart, rich, popular men, who have been members of the lodge which happens to be in question. ‘This is particularly true of the student lodges which haze and afterwards kill in their initiations.
Respecting this claim two or three things may be said. First, it is difficult to prove or disprove it. Standards of greatness differ. Some per- sons would consider a man of wealth great, irre- spective of the methods by which he may have acquired his possessions. The same persons would ‘consider a successful politician a great man, even though he secured place and power by bribery, fraud or collusion with law-breakers. Persons using other standards would esteem these
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248 Modern Secret Societies.
same persons base and ignoble or criminal, as the case might be.
In the second place, such an argument has a suspicious look. If an organization is righteous and beneficent why seek to prove that certain per- sons have been connected with it? Why not show its excellent character at once? We do not seek to show that merchandising and mechanic employments are praiseworthy because certain persons have engaged in these pursuits. We hold that their character as contributors to the welfare of society is their ample justification. We do not hold that the church is a good institution because a number of professed Christians have been good people. We believe in our religion be- cause of its essential character and even if not one person fully exemplified its teachings we should still believe in it and struggle toward the lofty example it puts before us. Just so, lodges might be good if all lodge men were evil and might be evil if all lodge men were good.
The third remark suggested by this argument is that in the case of Masonry it is easy to show that it is not true. Since Masonry came into ex- istence and made a history for itself, the greatest and best men have not encouraged and promoted it. It should be remembered that this secret or- der is more important in the United States than
re
Modern Secret Societies. 249
anywhere else in the world. In Europe it is not known among the common people as here, and the aristocrats who have patronized it have not been renowned for their virtues.
In this country the wisest and best men have not been active members of this or similar or- ganizations. Washington joined when a young man, but for the last thirty years of his life had almost nothing to do with the order. William H. Seward, Daniel Webster, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Salmon P. Chase and a host of such men were active opponents of secretism. The great Lincoln and the Silent Soldier of the Republic were not members of secret societies.
The great merchants, the great scholars, the great preachers, the great evangelists, the great philanthropists of our country have never been known as lodge people. Where they have spoken on the subject they have condemned the principle of secret association just as Jesus did.
The greatest of our evangelists were undoubt- edly Finney and Moody. The first was a seced- ing Mason and the second was always hostile to lodgism.. Mr. Moody said to give out the truth on this subject and if men on that account left the churches to let them go. “God,” said he, “will fill their places with better men, and when they are converted they will return.” President Fin-
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250 Modern Secret Societies.
ney said: “It is a sin to take Masonic oaths. This sin cannot be forgiven until it is repented. It is not repented until the oaths are renounced.” John Quincy Adams denounced the bloody oaths of Masonry and James Madison, another Presi- dent! of the United States, also publicly protested against them.
After William Morgan was murdered by the Freemasons of New York forty-five thousand Masons left the lodges. Rob Morris says most of them never returned. Never since that day has secretism had the standing with reputable people in this country which it had before. There seems to have been an instinctive feeling in hon- orable men who love their homes, especially when they have been Christians, that they had neither time nor taste for orders which felt it needful to conceal their work from the public.
Fourth, it is obvious to even a careless ob- server that such a statement cannot be true. Great men love fair play. They instinctively shrink from all secret, underhand advantages. Yet this is professed as the great recommendation of the lodge system. “Join our society and then you will secure certain favors” is the universal proposition of lodge men; but great and strong men ask a “fair field and no favors.” One who
ima nN a i ee a
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is looking for favors advertises himself as a weak if not a wicked man.
Still further, strong and good men are always marked by large sympathies. They want every- body to get on. As Murphy. used to say, “they want to cut the pie so it will go round.” It is the mark of a low and selfish nature to conceal what might be of advantage to others that we may monopolize good things ourselves. The greatest of men declaring the rule of His life said: “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister.” Every great and good man in some tweasure drinks in this spirit and this is not the spirit of secret associations.
Still further, the initiations involve so much that is disgraceful and wicked that it is blas- phemous to say that good men approve of them. In almost all lodges candidates are stripped, blinded, tied, chained, scared, at times whipped, pounded and killed. Masonry, College Frater- nities, the Orange Lodge, the Woodmen, the Elks, the Foresters all have recently killed innocent persons in their initiations. Whether the members have all been drunk, the hearts or brains of the candidates have been weak or some other thing has caused these untimely deaths we do not know. It is sufficient that they oc- curred and with no adequate reason.
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252 Modern Secret Socicties.
Now, does anyone affirm that these orders, with their coffins, and mock killings and burials, with their spikes and. bowls of quicksilver and other means of scaring men who have been lured into them by the lying pretenses which all lodges use, does anyone wish to say that these things are approved by good men? It is a self-evident falsehood. Good men are courteous and kind, they do not wish to see their neighbors embar- rassed, mortified, humiliated or injured, yet these are the staple of lodge initiations.
Men are made ridiculous to afford sport for low-grade intellects and base hearts. It often turns out that they are “butchered to make a lodge holiday.” Jesus. is kept out with wives and children. The Bible is sacrilegiously abused to serve the purposes of some order. Good men and wicked men are yoked in close and lifelong fellowship. Solemn prayers and hymns are read and sung by godless persons and then we are asked to believe that persons who enjoy and approve of such proceedings are among our greatest and best men. No one who knows what lodges are and what the words great and good mean can believe such a statement if he tries.
Lt ata a We pal
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus. that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abra- ham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tor- mented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of
torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses
and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.—Luke. 16 :19-31.
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CEoAe TE ROLY.
It has already been remarked that lodges do a certain part of their work openly, and that these public occasions are one means of knowing what the orders actually are. If they do.not teach all, they teach something. Among these public exhibitions are the funerals of deceased members. The orders come out in their regalia, march to the house or church or hall; perform their cere- monies, if permitted, and then conclude at the grave. If there is money enough in the estate of the departed, carriages are hired and bands of music used to add eclat to the occasion. ‘When all is over the bills are sent in and the heirs have an opportunity to pay for a display which is often exceedingly distasteful to them and which is toler- ated only at the urgent request of the lodge.
The lodge is not always shameless enough to send in the bills for their celebration but in re- peated instances this has been done. | Where there is too much self-respect among lodge mem- bers for this crowning iniquity the other parts
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of the program are carried out. Let us examine this part of the secret society system briefly.
And first it seems obvious that the design of the whole proceeding is not to glorify God or to do good to men but to magnify and recom- mend the pagan religion of the order. The bur- ial service is made up of portions of scripture, various philosophical reflections and hymms which, when read and sung in a solemn tone cause one who does not understand Christianity to think it just like the services of a Christian church.
An effort to bring in a large number of lodge men is at times made. These persons, often strangers to the deceased, are put in the center of the church, his friends and neighbors being crowded into the sides of the house or out of doors. The whole proceeding is in accordance with the loud-sounding titles, “Grand,” “Tllus- trious,” “Noble,” “Most Grand,” “Sir Knights,” etc., ete., with which grocers’ clerks and preachers solemnly address one another. So far as one can determine from appearances the burial of a lodge man is like an installation, or a cornerstone laying, simply a bit of advertising for the order.
But more serious than this pretense is the religious teaching of the ceremony. The form is the same for all persons, and whether the de-
Modern Secret Societies. 267
ceased died of delirium tremens or as a Christian
should, makes no difference. There is no exal-
tation of the law of God, no lifting up of Jesus Christ, no warning to men who are ignoring God or living in open sin. On the contrary, there is an explicit or implicit affirmation that the one who has passed on has gone to heaven, or the Grand Lodge above, as they usually call it, and this not because he repented and believed in Jesus but because he belonged to this lodge. Profane, unclean, avaricious, untruthful, unrepentant sin- ners are heing buried with these rites from one end of the land to the other.
Another most important fact in this connection is that the lodges always get some minister of the gospel to takepart in this awful transaction if possible, as they like to go in uniform once a year to some church and have some preacher encourage them in their godless living, so they are very glad if they can secure some such per- son to give them hope in an unrepentant, un- christian dying. Of course, the minister who, to
_ secure favor, does such works as these above de-
scribed, cuts the ground from under his own feet and that of his church. But his great crime is that he thus denies the gospel he is sworn to preach and gives hope not to those who repent
and believe on Jesus Christ but to those who do
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258 Modern Secret Societies.
neither. He may make a little money or a few friends, but he destroys the souls of men and proclaims that the law he preaches on the sub- ject is a lie, a scarecrow set up in the field of human life, powerless to help or harm.
It, is sometimes said that it would be unchris- tion and injurious to speak in a plain way about the lives of godless men on funeral occasions. {t is said that thus to wound the feelings of friends would dishonor the church; no doubt there is truth in this statement. The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle. But it is one thing not to utter a truth which might seem harsh and a very different one to utter a lie which must be injurious and may be fatal to the soul.
It would be easy to compose a funeral service. which should speak of the brevity of human life, the universal sinfulness which has marred the world, the sacrifice of Jesus by which sinful men are caused to become righteous before God, but * the service which should do these things becomes an occasion of vanity, pride and comfort to men who make no confession of Jesus Christ and will certainly be lost unless they repent.
The most fearful fact concerning these lodge burials is that men who profess to be Christians take part in them with wicked men, both alike -
Modern Sceret Societies. 259
expressing the hope that they will meet other wicked men who are dead, in heaven. The Bible clearly teaches that some men are saved and oth- ers lost. It in this way seeks to bring men to faith in Jesus, repentance for sin and holy living.
The lodges rival the church. The lodge men do not as a rule belong to it or care for it. At the same time the lodges like to get ministers and church members into their number and to have all, good and bad, Christian and unbeliever, stand about the grave of a wicked man, singing, praying and talking about meeting him in heaven or the grand lodge or camp, or encampment, or something eise, above.
The only defence which Christian lodge men make against this charge is that ministers at times do the same. ‘This is true. Ministers are not all converted men and many who draw salar- ies from Christian congregations are Unitarians, Universalists or infidels. But the fact that some preachers tell lies on- funeral occasions is not a justification of an order which is built upon the lie they tell.
' God says: “These shall go away into everlast- | ing punishment but the righteous irto life eter- nal.” According to the Bible there are two sorts of people, good and bad, on the way to two _ places, heaven and hell. If this is true, then lodge
260 Modern Secret Socicties.
burials are a lying insult to God and a peril to men. They help to ruin the souls that die by promising peace and safety even while destruc- tion is rushing upon them. God grant that no professed Christian who reads these words may. by sharing in such services, bring the blood of lost men upon his soul.
rn :
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire—Rev., 20:14, 15.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, 1 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world—Mait., 28 :18-20.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth —Acts, 1:8.
Then they that gladly received his word were bap- tized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stead- fastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.—Acts, 2:41-43-
And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?—Matt. 26.
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