FALSE CLAIMS.
1. Another very serious objection to secret societies is that they set
up false claims. No doubt a secret association may exist without doing
so, but the setting up of false claims is the legitimate result and
the usual accompaniment of secrecy. The object of secrecy is
deception. When a man endeavors to conceal his business affairs, it is
with the design of taking advantage of the ignorance of others.
Napoleon once remarked, "The secret of majesty is mystery." This keen
observer knew that the false claims of royalty would become
contemptible but for the deception which kings and queens practice on
mankind. We have quoted above from a book, the reliability of which
will not be called in question, to show that the design of secrecy, on
the part of Masons, is to take advantage of "a weakness in human
nature," and to invest with a charm things which, if generally known,
"would sink into disregard." So, also, "the aid of the mysterious" is
resorted to by Odd-fellows to render their "meetings attractive," and
to "stimulate applications for membership." (Proceedings of Grand
Lodge, 1859, App., p. 10.) It will scarcely be disputed that such is
the design of the concealment practiced by secret associations in
general. It is thus shown that secrecy is the result of an
unwillingness to rely upon real merit and the sober judgment of
mankind for success, and of a desire, on the part of associations
practicing it, to pass for what they are not. Hence, the design of
secrecy involves hypocrisy, or something very much like it.
2. But, whatever may be the _design_ of secrecy, secret associations
do set up false claims. They all, or almost all, claim to be
charitable institutions. This is the frequent boast of Masons and
Odd-fellows. Moore, in his "Constitutions," declares that "charity and
hospitality are the distinguishing characteristics" of Masonry. (P.
71.) In the charge to a "Master Mason," at his initiation, it is
declared that "Masonic charity is as broad as the mantle of heaven and
co-extensive with the boundaries of the world." (Masonic
Constitutions, published by the Grand Lodge of Ohio, p. 80.) "The
Right Worthy Grand Representative," Boylston, in his oration delivered
in New York, April 26, 1859, declared that Odd-fellowship is "most
generally known and commended by its charities." (Proceedings of Grand
Lodge, 1859, App., p. 6.) Such is the style in which secret
associations glorify themselves. Such boasting, however, is not good.
It is contrary to the command of our Savior: "Therefore, when thou
doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory of men." The boasting of secret associations about their
charities is precisely what our Savior not only forbids, but also
declares to be characteristic of hypocrites. And such boasting is,
indeed, generally vain. When a man boasts of any thing, whether of his
wealth, pedigree, bravery, wisdom, or honesty, there is good reason to
suspect that his claims are not well founded. Hence, the very boasting
of secret associations about their benevolence and charities is
presumptive evidence that their claims to the reputation of being
charitable institutions are hypocritical and false.
3. In the first place, "the benefits" are confined to their own
members. The excuse for secrecy, in some instances, is that it is
necessary in order that aid may not be obtained by persons who are not
members. In the "charge" delivered to a Master Mason at his
initiation, he is enjoined to exercise benevolence toward "every true
and worthy brother of the Order." In Boylston's address which we have
already quoted from several times, "the well-earned glory of
Odd-fellows" is declared to consist in this: that "no _worthy
Odd-fellow_ has ever sought aid and been refused." (Proceedings of
Grand Lodge, 1859, App., p. 9.) It is provided in the Constitution of
Odd-fellows, Good-fellows, etc., that aid shall be given to members
under certain circumstances; but it will be in vain to search in them
for any regulation providing for relief to any but members and their
families. The provision found in the constitution or by-laws of almost
every secret association that members "in arrears for dues" shall not
be entitled to "benefits," plainly shows that their vaunted "charity"
is restricted to their own members. This would not be so bad were it
not for the fact that they carefully exclude from membership all who
need aid or are likely to need aid. The Masons, according to their
Constitutions, must not receive as a member any man who is not
"physically perfect." The constitutions of other secret orders exclude
all who are diseased or infirm in body, or who have no means of
support. They exclude the blind, the lame, the maimed, the diseased,
the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and all who are wretchedly
poor or can not support themselves, and they cut off all such persons,
together with their own members who "are in arrears," from the
"benefits." Yet they talk about the universal brotherhood of men, and
claim for themselves the possession of universal benevolence!
4. Still further: The relief afforded to members is not to be regarded
as a charity. The amount granted in all cases is the same. The
constitutions of most secret associations that give aid to members
provide that three dollars a week shall be given in case of sickness,
and thirty dollars in case of death. The amount given does not
correspond to the condition of the recipient. The rich and the poor
fare alike. The member "in arrears" is not entitled to any aid. It is
only the _worthy brother_ who is entitled to aid, and in order to be a
worthy brother a member must punctually pay his "dues." Hence, the
amount bestowed in case of the sickness or death of a member is to be
regarded as a debt. The "Druids," in their Constitution, expressly
declare that the aid given to sick members is not to be regarded in
any other light than as the payment of a _debt_. "All money paid by
the grove for the relief of sick members shall not be considered as
charity, but as the just due of the sick." (Art. 2, Sec. 7.) Boylston,
in his oration, though boasting of the "charities" of Odd-fellowship,
declares that they do not wound or insult the pride of the receiver,
for the reason "that the relief extended is not of grace, but of
right." (Proceedings of Grand Lodge, 1859, Appendix, p. 6.) Grosch, in
his Odd-fellows' Manual, in justifying equality in dues and in
benefits, says: "He who did not pay an equivalent would feel degraded
at receiving benefits--would feel that they were not his just due, but
alms." (P. 66.) It is, hence, seen that the aid bestowed by secret
societies is no more a gift of charity than the dividends of a bank or
of a railroad company. The stockholders are entitled to their share of
the profits; so members of secret societies are entitled to a certain
share of the funds to which they have contributed. We say nothing for
or against the propriety of this arrangement, in itself considered.
Persons have, perhaps, a right to form themselves into a mutual
insurance company, to bargain with one another that they will aid each
other in case of sickness or want; that in case of the death of any of
the members, their families shall be provided for by the surviving
members; that only the members who continue to pay into the common
fund a certain sum monthly or quarterly shall receive such aid; that
no money shall be paid out of the common fund for the benefit of any
who are not members, or of their families; and that all diseased and
infirm persons, and very poor people, such as "have no visible means
of support," and are likely to need pecuniary aid, shall be excluded
from the company and from its benefits. Perhaps men have a right to
form themselves into an association with such regulations; perhaps
they have a right to leave "an unworthy brother" (a member who fails
to pay his "quarterly dues") and his family to the charities of
"ignorant and prejudiced" people who will not join secret societies;
and in case of the death of such a member, to leave his poor
heart-broken widow to beg of the same "ignorant and prejudiced"
outsiders enough of money to bury his dead body decently; _but they
have no right to call themselves a charitable association_. It is
probable that many Masons, Odd-fellows, Good-fellows, etc., are kind
to "unworthy brethren," and to the poor in general; but if so, they
are better than the associations of which they are members. Bankers
and money-brokers, no doubt, sometimes show kindness to the poor, but
it does not hence follow that banks and money-shaving establishments
are charitable institutions. Neither does it follow that secret
societies are charitable because their members, in case of sickness or
death, are entitled to a certain portion of the funds which they
themselves have contributed as initiation fees and quarterly dues,
while those who are in real want can not even become members. What
charity is there in persons pledging themselves to aid each other in
sickness or other misfortune, and to let widows and orphans, the lame
and the diseased, and the wretchedly poor, perish with hunger and
cold? It may not be improper for A, B, and C to promise that they will
take care of each other in sickness, and that in case of the death of
one of them his dead body shall be buried by the survivors. It may,
also, not be improper for a man to get his life or his property
insured. Insurance companies have done much good. Many a man has been
saved from pecuniary ruin by getting his property insured, and many a
man has secured a competence for his wife and children by getting his
life insured. Individuals and families have probably been oftener
saved from worldly ruin by insurance companies than by secret
societies. The association of A, B, and C may do some good. They have
a right to agree to aid one another. They may, perhaps, have a right
to say that D, E, and F, who are very poor, or are enfeebled by
disease, shall not join them, and shall not be aided by them; but they
have no right to represent their exclusive, selfish association as a
charitable one. Such a representation would be false, and the
wickedness of making it wholly inexcusable. We do not blame
Odd-fellows, Good-fellows, Druids, or any other association for acting
as mutual insurance companies. We do not blame them for agreeing that
they will take care of each other or of each other's families. We are
not now blaming them for excluding from their associations and from
"the benefits" disbursed by them, the blind, the lame, the diseased,
and the very poor who have no means of support, though this feature of
such associations does seem very repulsive. We are not now condemning
them for casting off all those who do not pay their "dues," those who
become very poor and can not as well as the rich who will not, and for
cutting off all such persons from all "benefits of whatsoever kind,"
though such treatment does seem to us selfish, cruel, and mean; we do
not now arraign them for any of these things, however ungenerous,
exclusive, and selfish they appear to us, but we do say that any
association which thus practices, and professes, and calls itself a
charitable one is a cheat and a sham. Those secret societies which
glorify themselves on account of their charities and universal
brotherhood and benevolence, can be acquitted of willful deceit and
falsehood only on the ground that they are blinded by prejudice or
ignorance, or both.
The pretentious character of secret associations appears, also, in
their claims to be the possessors and disseminators of knowledge and
morality. Their members seem to think a man can scarcely be good and
intelligent without being "initiated." Webb delares [sic] "Masonry is
a progressive science. * * Masonry includes within its circle almost
every branch of polite learning." (Monitor, p. 53.) "Masonry is not
only the most ancient, but the most moral institution that ever
subsisted." (Monitor, p. 39.) Grosch, in his Manual, speaking of the
shining sun as an emblem, says: "So Odd-fellowship is dispersing the
mists from the advancing member's mind, and revealing things as they
are; so, also, it is enlightening the world," etc. (Manual, p. 120.)
The extravagance find absurdity of these claims must be evident to
every prejudicial mind. It may be said, indeed, the above declarations
express the opinions only of individuals, and that associations can
not justly be charged with the errors of their members. We maintain,
however, that secret societies are responsible for the vain boasting
of their members. They claim that their members are a chosen board, a
select few, who, by virtue of their association, are superior to the
rest of mankind. Their processions and parades, their regalia and
emblems, and their high-sounding titles are evidently designed to
impress the minds of their own members and of outsiders with ideas of
their excellence and grandeur. Their high-sounding titles have already
been adverted to as involving the sin of profaneness; but they serve
equally well to illustrate the pretentious character of the
associations which employ them. Almost every officer among the Masons
has some great title. There is the Grand Tyler, Grand Steward, Grand
Treasurer, Grand Secretary, Grand Chaplain, and Grand Master. The
Lodge itself is _grand_, and, of course, every thing and every body
connected with it are _grand_. The treasurer, though his duty be
merely to count and hold a little vile trash called money, is grand;
almost every officer is a grand man.
These titles, however, do not give an adequate idea of the _grandeur_
to which "sublime" Masonry ascends. They have their Right Worshipful
Deputy Grand Master, their Right Worshipful Grand Treasurer [sic], Most
Worshipful Grand Master, Most Eminent Grand Commander, Thrice
Illustrious Grand Puissant, Most Excellent Grand High Priest, etc.
(Constitution [sic] of Grand Lodge of Ohio, Art. 5., Webb's Monitor,
pp. 187, 219, 284.) Other associations employ similar titles; indeed,
Masonry, as the oldest association, seems to have been copied after by
the rest. The Odd-fellows have almost the same parades, shows, and
titles as the Masons. They have their aprons, ribbons, rosettes, and
drawn swords; and they endeavor, by these and other clap-trap means,
to recommend their association as a grand affair. They, too, have
their Right Worthy Grand Lodge, Most Worthy Grand Master, Right Worthy
Grand Secretary, Right Worthy Grand Treasurer, Right Worthy Grand
Chaplain, etc.
We think it strange that men of sense should employ such titles. They
would be ridiculous even applied to the greatest and best man that
ever lived. They are more ridiculous than the bombastic titles given
to civil officers in barbarous countries. The Sublime Porte of Turkey
is outdone in this respect by secret associations in the United
States.
6. The absurdity of these high-sounding titles and other puerilities
is further seen from the character of those who compose the
associations which employ them. They boast that they receive as
members almost all sorts of men except atheists; that men of every
religious sect and every nation meet in their lodges as loving
brethren, and on a perfect equality; that they welcome the Jew, the
Arab, the Chinaman, the American savage, the infidel, and the
Christian, provided they be sound in body and be able to support
themselves; yet the officers elected by the lodges or squads of such
persons, Jews, Arabs, Chinamen, savages, infidels and Christians,
become Most Eminent Grand Commanders, Thrice Illustrious Puissants,
etc. Yea, since brotherhood and _equality_ characterize these
associations, the Jew, the Arab, the Chinaman, and the infidel are
eligible to any office, and may become Most Worshipful Grand
Commanders and Most Excellent Grand High Priests.
All this is calculated to produce laughter and contempt; but such is
not the design. The design of those who make use of these grand titles
and other clap-trap things is to recommend their associations as an
excellent and grand affair. The design itself, and the means employed
for its accomplishment, must, certainly, be condemned by every
unprejudiced Christian [sic] mind.
CONCLUSION.
We have thus briefly stated the objectionable features of what are
generally called secret societies. It is mainly to their secrecy,
oaths, and promises, their profanation of holy things, their
exclusiveness and their setting up of false claims, to which we
object. These are the things objected to in the foregoing treatise. We
have written without any feeling of unkindness, and we trust, also,
without prejudice. We had intended to urge additional considerations
to show the evil nature and tendency of secret societies; but we have
been restrained by the fear of swelling our treatise beyond a proper
size.
* * * * *
SHALL CHRISTIANS JOIN SECRET SOCIETIES?
* * * * *
SHALL CHRISTIANS JOIN SECRET SOCIETIES?
"With charity for all and with malice toward none," we bring this
question to all those who would serve Christ. We mean by "secret
societies" not literary, scientific, or college associations, which
merely use privacy as a screen against intrusion, but those affiliated
and centralized "orders" spreading over the land, professing
mysteries, practicing secret rites, binding by oaths, admitting by
signs and pass-words, solemnly pledging their members to mutual
protection, and commonly constructed in "degrees," each higher one
imposing fresh fees, oaths, and obligations, and swearing the
initiated to secrecy even from lower "degrees" in the same Order.
Shall Christians join societies of this kind?
SUPPOSING IT TO BE INNOCENT, WILL IT PAY?
_First_. They consume time and money. Have you considered how much?
How many evenings, and whole nights, and parts of days? How many
dollars in fees, dues, fines, expenses, and diminished proceeds from
broken days? Will it pay? Can you not lay out this amount of time and
money more profitably?--a plain man's question. They propose helping
you to "friends," "business," in "moral reform," in "sickness, death,
and bereavement;" but can you not get as much of such good in ways
pointed out to you by Christ, your best and wisest friend?--ways which
will yield you more of personal cultivation, spiritual good, earthly
profit, social and domestic happiness, and openings for usefulness. If
so, these orders are unprofitable, and _will not pay_.
_Secondly_. They furnish inferior security for investments. As _mutual
insurance societies_, they are irresponsible, and more liable to
corruption, _just because they are secret_. Do they make "reports" to
the public or the Legislature? Do they make any adequate "report" to
the mass even of their own members? Millions and millions are known to
have gone into the treasury of a single one of these organizations. No
dividends are declared, no expenditures published. _Where_ is the
money? Were it not safer to invest the same amount in companies where
every proceeding is open to public eye and public judgment? Would you
not, then, be safer? If so, _it will not pay_ to join these orders.
IS IT OBLIGATORY?
_First. Charity_ has no need of them. They are not truly charitable
institutions. "Mutual insurance societies" they may be, though of an
inferior sort, as we have seen; but that does not elevate them into
_charitable_ institutions. To bestow on your widow and orphans, your
sickness, and funeral some pittance, or the whole of what you paid
during health and life, is not _benevolence_.
But, further, it is well to ask, in determining how greatly _charity_
depends on them, how broadly they go forth among the poor outside
their membership. During the anti-masonic excitement of 1826-1830 some
two thousand lodges suspended. The resultant suffering was less,
perhaps, than what would follow the suspension of a single soup
association, any winter, in some city. Blot out the whole, and how
small the injury to the charities of the country!
The Church of Christ is commanded to "do good unto _all_ men"--"to
remember the poor." It is engaged in this work. It blows no
trumpet--it does not parade its charities; but it shrinks from
comparison with no one of these orders, nor with all of them combined.
_Christians_ need not to go into them to preserve _charity_ alive, or
to find the best ways of exercising their own.
_Secondly. Morality_ does not depend on them. We need say nothing of
"what is done of them in secret." But, looking at what is open to all,
we ask, What _work_ are they doing worthy of so much organization, and
expense, and time to reclaim the fallen, to banish vice, and to save
its victim? We have heard them refusing him admission or cutting him
off, but we have not heard of any considerable aid which they have
given to public or private morality. And, further, do we not find them
narrowing the circle of obligation, substituting attachment and duty
to an order for love and obligations to mankind? _Membership_ in a
lodge, _not character_, is held to make one "worthy," opening the way
to favor and society. But can all this be done without sensibly
weakening the fundamental supports of morality, without lessening its
broad requirements?
_Thirdly. Patriotism_ has no need of them. They tend to destroy
citizenship, to exalt love of an order above the love of country. The
boast during the late rebellion was sometimes heard that their
members, owing to the oaths of mutual protection, were safer among the
rebels than other captives. Was the converse true? Were rebels, being
Freemasons, safe or safer against restraint and due punishment when,
falling captive to those of their order? How far does all this extend?
To courts and suits at law? Are criminals as safe or safer before
judge and jury of their order? Have rebellion and vice found greater
security here? This boast is confession--confession that the ties of
an order are stronger and more felt than is consistent with a proper
love of country. Is justice thus to be imperiled? Are securities of
property and rights thus to be imperiled? Must we beggar ourselves by
paying fees and dues to one another of these orders, now becoming more
plentiful every decade, to make sure of standing on equal footing and
impartiality with others, in the courts and elsewhere, and imagine
that all this is helpful to patriotism or even consistent with it?
_Fourthly. Religion_ has no need of them. "The church is the pillar
and ground of the truth." "The gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." The preaching of Christ and him crucified is and must continue to
be the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. _Religion_,
then, has no need of these secret orders.
We come now to this: Neither charity, morality, patriotism, nor
religion imposes obligations on us to join them. _It will not pay_ was
our first fact. We have now reached this other, that _no consideration
of duty_ requires it. But,
IS IT RIGHT?
_First. Christ, our Master, neither instituted nor countenanced these
orders_. Reviewing his whole earthly ministry, he said (John xviii:
20): "I spake openly to the world;" and "in secret have I said
nothing." By this double affirmation he strongly suggested his
preference for _open, unsecret_ ways and proceedings.
_Secondly. In those rites, proceedings, and regalia which do appear,
these orders are frivolous_, belittling, and unworthy of respect. If
the revealed are such, what must the unrevealed be?
_Thirdly. These orders stand convicted of deceit and falsehood_. They
profess secrets and mysteries worth buying. Hundreds of high-minded
men, of irreproachable character and integrity, who have, therefore,
"renounced these hidden things of dishonesty," testify over their own
signatures, that their secrets are but signs, pass-words, ceremonies,
etc., covering nothing but emptiness and vanity.
_Fourthly. These orders are unfriendly to domestic happiness and
well-being_, breaking in upon the sacred confidence and unity of
husband and wife, pledging him to conceal from her the proceedings of
perhaps fifty nights yearly, thus often sowing seeds of distrust,
filling his breast with what must not be divulged to her, involving
him in affairs and habits not unfrequently injurious to the best
interests and state of the family.
_Fifthly. These orders are hostile to the heavenly-mindedness, the
spirituality of those who join them_. We speak from much testimony.
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed." The prudent man
foreseeth the evil, but the foolish pass on and are punished. This
voice of one is that of many concurring wise, faithful, and godly men,
viz.: "I am afraid of these secret societies; they have sucked the
spirituality out of all the members in our church who have joined
them." Young, promising Christians have often been blighted by them.
The fervor of piety, interest in the church and its work, interest in
Christ and his people, interest in God's Word and Spirit, all the
various elements of an earnest life of faith and heavenly-mindedness
have been blighted in these lodges. And in urging this, we appeal to
so many witnesses, and cover so wide a field of observation, as to
make it certain that this is not the exceptional but the ordinary
result.
_Sixthly. These orders tend to destroy Christian fellowship_. Let them
grow until a given church is broken into squads, each pledged to
secrets from the other, but bound within itself by special ties; give
to each its own weekly meeting, mysteries, rites, signs, grips,
pass-words; let each be sworn to provide for, protect, shield, and
love its own adherents above others, and is not "_church fellowship_"
annihilated? Can the Spirit of Christ flow freely from member to
member through such partitions? Is this "one body in Christ, and every
one members one of another?"
_Seventhly. These orders tend to subject the church to "the world" in
some of its dearest interests_. For example: When a few leading
members join a neighboring lodge, and make vows to the "strange"
brotherhood, how easy for that lodge to interfere secretly but
controllingly in its discipline of members, or in its selection or
dismission of a pastor! These suggestions are not merely imaginary.
Subjection of the church, in this way, to the cunning craftiness of
evil and designing men is no mere dream.
_Eighthly. These orders dishonor Christ_. Those claims which he makes
for himself are disallowed. He is required to disappear or find a
place amidst other objects for worship. There is a _necessity_,
because these orders are designed for adherents of all religions. Were
they on the footing of an insurance company or a merchants' exchange,
or any similar body, this fact would not be so. But they profess to
include religion among their elements, and its services, in whole or
in part, among their ceremonies. They have prayers and solemn
religious rites. And in these _Christ is dishonored_. His exclusive
claims are disallowed or ignored, and this not by accident, but of set
purpose. Out of twenty-three forms of prayer in the "New Masonic
Trestle-Board," (Boston edition, 1850,) only one even alludes to him,
and that one in a non-committal way. These secret orders are under
bonds not to honor Christ as he claims, lest the Jew, or the Deist, or
the Mohammedan, all of whom they seek to enroll in equal membership,
should be offended. When the higher "degrees" of Masonry allude to
Christ and Christianity, it is but as one amidst many equals. We
repeat it: Did these orders stand on the same footing with mercantile
or other bodies in this matter, this objection might go for nothing;
but they do not. Unlike them, they profess to have religious services.
Indeed, they often boast of their religiousness, and avow their full
equality in this with the church of God itself! Yet, if you join them,
their "constitutions" prohibit you acknowledging, in their boasted
religious services, what Christ, your Lord, not only claims for
himself, but commands you to give unto him: that glory which is due to
his holy name. Are they, then, not _Anti-christ_ in this thing? And
can you, without sin, consent to it, or uphold institutions which
forbid you and others, in religious services, to honor him as your God
and Savior, and which thus place him on the same level with Zoroaster,
Confucius, or Mohammed?
_Ninthly. These orders--the things now alleged being true--impede the
cause and kingdom of God, and are, therefore, hostile to the largest,
best, and deepest interests of mankind_. Recognizing this, churches,
conferences, associations, synods, and many eminently godly men,
living and dead, have put forth their solemn testimony against them.
Great lawyers, like Samuel Dexter; great patriots and statesmen, like
Adams, and Webster, and Everett; great communities, like the American
people from 1826 to 1830, have united to declare them not only "wrong
in their very principles," but "noxious to mankind." But many
Christians, rising higher and standing on "a more sure word of
prophecy," have discovered in them the enemies of the Gospel and of
the cross of Christ. Following him, their great exemplar in
philanthropy as in godliness, who did nothing in secret, they refuse
to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, choosing
rather to reprove them.
Shall Christians join secret societies?
Will it pay? Are they under obligation to do so? Fellow-disciple,
brother man, have you doubt on these questions? If it will not pay; if
you are under no obligation to do it; if you have any doubt of its
rightfulness, it is most assuredly your duty to refuse any connection
with them.
We have no wish to press our reasoning beyond just limits. We have
sought to avoid extreme statements. We now ask you whether, in the
light of what has been brought to view, the weight of argument is not
against your joining these orders and lending them aid? Even should
you be able to stand up against their tendency to lower your personal
piety and injure your Christian character, have we not here one of
those cases where many brothers are offended or made weak? The Lord
Jesus has said, "Whoso offends one of these little [or weak] ones, it
were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and
he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Will you, then, however
safe yourself, be the means, by your example, of bringing weaker
brethren into such dangers? "We, then, that are strong ought to bear
the burdens of the weak, and not please ourselves." "It is good
neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any thing whereby
thy brother stumbleth or is offended [caused to sin] or is made weak."
These words are not ours; they are God's.
Christian disciple, decide this question of secret societies with
candor, with solemn prayer, and with a purpose to please God.
* * * * *
A PAPER ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF ILLINOIS OF
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES, AT THEIR MEETING IN OTTAWA, 1866.
* * * * *
The topics committed to us involve the following points:
1. The moral character of secrecy. Is it an element of an invariable
moral character? and, if so, what? and, if not, what are the
decisive criteria of its character?
2. Associations or combinations involving secrecy. Are they of
necessity right or wrong? If not, what are the decisive criteria?
3. Religious rites and worship in societies or organizations, open
or secret. Are any kind allowable? and, if so, what?
I. Secrecy, Its character.
A presumption against secrecy arises from the known fact that
evil-doers of all kinds resort to secrecy. This is for two reasons:
(1.) To avoid opposition and retribution; and, (2,) to avoid exposure
to disgrace. The adulterer seeks secrecy; so do the thief and the
counterfeiter; so do conspirators for evil ends.
Secrecy, whenever resorted to for evil ends, is wrong. But may it not
be resorted to for good ends? and is it not recognized as often wise
and right in the Word of God? We answer in the affirmative. There is a
certain degree of reserve, or secrecy, that should invest every
individual. Our whole range of thought and feeling ought not to be
promiscuously made known. There is a degree of secrecy necessary in
the order, social intercourse, and discipline of the family. There is
secrecy needed in dealing with faults and sins. Christ adopts this
principle in his discipline. He says, "Tell him his fault between him
and thee alone. If he repents, conceal it." There are confidential
communications for important ends, or for council.
Concealment may be used as a defense against enemies, as in the case
of the spies of Joshua, or the messengers of David, or when Elisha hid
himself by the brook Oherith, by God's order. So God hides the good in
his secret place and under his wings.
Secrecy is opposed to ostentation and love of human applause. Hence,
alms and prayer are to be in secret. God also resorts to secrecy in an
eminent degree. He hides himself. He dwells in thick darkness. It is
his glory to conceal his designs. In part, this is inevitable by
reason of his greatness; in part, he resorts to it of set purpose.
It is a special honor and blessing of the good that he discloses his
secrets to them.
Secrecy, then, is not of necessity wrong. Its character depends upon
the ends for which it is used, and the circumstances and spirit in
which it is used. There is a secrecy of wisdom, love, and justice, as
well as a secrecy of selfish, malevolent, and evil deeds.
II. Secret societies.
Of these there may be two degrees.
1. Where not only the proceedings of the society are secret, but even
the existence of such a society is concealed.
2. Where the existence is avowed, and the signs and proceedings only
are secret.
In associations, secrecy may be resorted to in both these ways for
evil ends. Men may combine in associated societies to prey on the
community, and the existence of such societies be hidden.
Counterfeiters, horse-thieves, burglars, may thus associate for wrong,
in the deepest secrecy.
So, too, secret associations whose existence is avowed may combine for
selfish ends, and in derogation of the common rights of the social
system. They may defend their members, to the injury of justice, in
our courts. They may interfere with the management of churches and
societies. They may bring an influence of intimidation to bear on
public men. They may disseminate false principles of religion and
morals. They may co-operate for political ends, and to effect
revolutions.
And yet it is no less true that, in certain circumstances, secret
societies of both kinds may be resorted to for good ends.
Secret societies may be rightfully resorted to for common council and
united action, in the fear of God and with prayer, in a very dangerous
state of the body politic, to resist incumbent evils, and the
existence of such societies not be disclosed, if the state of the case
would thus give them greater power for good. So, as a defense against
known disloyal secret organizations, secret loyal leagues were
rightfully resorted to as a means of united and concentrated action
against organized disloyalty. And if, in resisting moral evils,
secrecy gives power and advantage in devising measures to resist vice
and crime, it is not sinful to resort to it.
All boards of trust generally have secret sessions, and legislative
bodies resort to secret sessions rightfully, if the state of affairs
demands it. It will be seen that secrecy is justified and demanded by
peculiar circumstances or obvious ends to be gained. The reason of the
case, therefore, is against secrecy, and in favor of open action,
where no such justification can be made out. It is the nature of truth
and right to be open. All things tend to it. There is nothing covered
or concealed that shall not finally be proclaimed.
On the other hand, if secrecy is resorted to without reason; if it is
made the basis of false pretences; if it assumes the existence of
something that is not, then it is not defensible. If it involves a
profession of information to be communicated, and influences for good
to be exerted, that do not exist, then it is a species of intellectual
swindling which admits of no defense. The sciences and arts, the Bible
and nature, are open to all. So is the book of history. What new
science, or art, or history, or religion is there for secret societies
to disclose?
III. Religious rites or worship in societies, open or secret--are any
allowable? and, if so, what?
In order to answer this question, we need to consider certain
fundamental and vital principles of Christianity.
1. All men, as depraved and guilty, need regeneration and pardon
through the intervention of Christ.
2. There is access to the true God only through Christ: "I am the
way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but
through me."
3. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; but he
that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also."
All Christian churches are based on these truths, and the center and
culmination of their worship is this recognition of Christ in the
Sacrament as the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.
Christ, too, is the center of the worship of heaven.
Hence, if Christians associate with others in worship, it can rightly
be only on the ground that the worship centers in Christ, and
acknowledges him as Lord, to the glory of the Father.
Hence, if, for the sake of extending an organization, men are admitted
of all religions--Pagans, Mohammedans, Deists, Jews--and if, for the
sake of accommodating them with a common ground of union, Christ is
ignored, and the God of nature or of creation is professedly
worshiped, and morality inculcated solely on natural grounds, then
such worship is not accepted by the real God and Father of the
universe, for he looks on it as involving the rejection and dishonor,
nay, the renewed crucifixion of his Son. As to Christ, he tolerates no
neutrality. He who is not for him is against him. These principles do
not involve the question of secrecy. They hold true of all societies,
open or secret.
If, on such anti-Christian grounds, prayers are framed, rites
established, and chaplains appointed, ignoring Christ and his
intercession, God regards it as a mockery and an insult to himself and
his church. In it is revealed the hatred of Satan to Christ. By it
Christ is dethroned and Satan exalted.
These principles do not exclude worship and prayer from societies. In
any societies, true worship in the name of Christ will be accepted.
Let us now apply these principles to the societies of Free Masonry,
the modern mother of secret societies. Concerning these we hold it to
be plain:
That they have neither science nor art to impart as a reward of
membership. The time was when there was a society, or societies, of
working masons, coming down from the old Roman empire, and extending
through the middle ages. These were societies of great power, and
wrought great works. The cathedrals of the middle ages were each
erected by such a corporation, and attest their skill and energy.
But these corporations of working masons have passed away, and Masonry
is now, even in profession, only theoretical, and in fact, so far as
this art is concerned, is not even this. It does not teach the theory
of architecture. The transition took place in 1717, after a period of
decline in the lodges of working masons. All pretences to a history
back of this, or to any connection with Solomon or Hiram, are mere
false pretences and delusion for effect. No art is taught and no
science is communicated by the system.
Practical ends, then, alone remain; and, in fact, the founders of the
system avowed "brotherly love, relief, and truth" as these ends. The
cultivation of social intercourse is also avowed as an end by
defenders of the system. But such ends as these furnish no good
reasons for secrecy; nor is secrecy favorable to a wise and economical
use of the income of such bodies for purposes of benevolence. An open
and public acknowledgment of receipts and expenditures is needed as a
safeguard against a dishonest and wasteful expenditure of funds.
Nor is this all. The secrecy of the order, taken in connection with
the principle of hierarchal concentration, and with the administration
of extra-judicial oaths of obedience and secrecy, renders it, as a
system, liable to great abuses in the perversion of justice, in the
overriding of national law, and the claims of patriotism.
But the most serious view of the case lies in the fact that it
professes to rest on a religious basis, and to have religious temples,
yet is avowedly based on a platform that ignores Christ and
Christianity as supreme and essential to true allegiance to the real
God of the universe. Its worship, therefore, taken as a system, is in
rivalry to and in derogation of Christ and Christianity.
And, as a matter of fact, this and similar systems are by many
regarded as a substitute for the church, or as superior to it.
Moreover, devotion to them absorbs time and interest due to the
church, and paralyzes Christians by association with worldly men, and
by the malignant power of the spirit of the world.
This system, and those who imitate its hierarchal and centralizing
organization, also give power to those hierarchal principles and
systems against which Congregationalism has ever protested as
corrupting and enslaving the church.
The system also cultivates a love of swelling titles, and of gaudy
decorations and display in dress, that are hostile to the genius of
our Constitution, and to true republican and Christian dignity and
simplicity.
From this system other organizations have borrowed much, and some do
not essentially differ from it in practical working.
Other organizations, however, for the ends of temperance reform, have
adopted modes of organization, display in dress, and secret signs for
the purposes of recognition and defense. The ends and proceedings of
these temperance societies are so well known that it is often denied
that they are secret societies; yet they do, avowedly for purposes of
defense, resort to secrecy, and have imitated modes of dress and
organization found in Masonry. And members of Masonic lodges declare
that they involve, in fact, all the principles of Masonic
organizations, and rely on them ultimately leading to their own order.
While we recognize the true devotion of the members of these societies
to the cause of temperance, and acknowledge and commend their active
efforts to resist the progress of one of the greatest evils of the
age, we yet can not concede the wisdom or desirableness of a resort to
principles and modes of action which tend to create a current toward
other secret organizations not aiming at their ends, nor actuated by
their spirit of temperance reform.
In conclusion, we respectfully present the Association the following
principles foradoption [sic]:
_Resolved_, 1. That in dealing with secret organizations, this
Association recognizes the need of a careful statement of principles
and a wise discrimination of things that differ.
2. That there are some legitimate concealments of an organized
character--such as the privacies of the family and business firms,
the temporary concealment of public negotiations at critical stages,
the occasional withdrawal of scandals which could only disturb and
demoralize communities, and the secrecy of military combinations;
nor are we prepared totally to condemn all private plans and
arrangements between good and true citizens, in great emergencies,
to resist the machinations of the wicked.
3. That organizations whose whole object and general method are well
understood, and are known to be laudable and moral--such as
associations for purely literary or reformatory purposes--are not to
be sweepingly condemned by reason of a thin veil of secrecy covering
their precise methods of procedure; yet we deem that outer veil of
secrecy to be unwise and undesirable, inasmuch as it holds out
needless temptations to deeds of darkness, and gives unnecessary
countenance to other and unlawful combinations; and, whenever the
act of membership involves an _unconditional_ oath or promise of
submission, adhesion, and concealment, under all circumstnces [sic],
that compact is a grave moral wrong.
4. That there are certain other wide-spread organizations--such as
Freemasonry--which, we suppose, are in their nature hostile to good
citizenship and true religion, because they exact initiatory oaths
of blind compliance and concealment incompatible with the claims of
equal justice toward man and a good conscience toward God; because
they may easily, and sometimes have actually, become combinations
against the due process of law and government; because, while
claiming a religious character, they, in their rituals, deliberately
withhold all recognition of Christ as their only Savior, and of
Christianity as the only true religion; because, while they are, in
fact, nothing but restricted partnerships or companies for mutual
insurance and protection, they ostentatiously parade this
characterless engagement as a substitute for brotherly love and true
benevolence; because they bring good men in confidential relations
to bad men; and because, while in theory, they supplant the church
of Christ, they do also, in fact, largely tend to withdraw the
sympathy and active zeal of professing Christians from their
respective churches. Against all connections with such associations
we earnestly advise the members of our churches, and exhort them,
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."