More common, perhaps, than any other filed against it has been the
objection that Odd-Fellowship does its work secretly, this objection
being not unfrequently urged by persons of candor and honest impulses.
"If," it is demanded, "the aims and purposes of the order be legitimate
and praiseworthy, why shroud them in mystery rather than give them the
broad sunlight of publicity."
The objection is not new, nor is it urged with any increase of its
original force, whatever may be the fact in the matter of vehemence.
Answer might be made: The order does not choose to ascend to the house
tops for the purpose of heralding its affairs to the world. But that
answer would not be satisfactory, nor is any likely to be that may be
presented, now or hereafter. It is nevertheless true that there are
certain matters pertaining to the order and its works with which the
outside world has no sort of concern, even as with those very peculiar
secret societies, the individual, the family, the church and the state.
If other organizations prefer to resort to the newspapers, the pulpit,
the rostrum and other information conduits for the purpose of
advertising their wares, their greatness and their goodness, and the
vast amount of humanitarian work they are doing and purposing, such is
their unquestioned privilege.
But if the preference of Odd-Fellowship be for quieter and less
obtrusive methods, pray who shall fairly contest its right of choice?
And then it should be remembered that there are matters in which the
right hand is prohibited the privilege of interfering with the
prerogatives of the left, and the left with those of the right. Nor
should the fact be forgotten that there is Divine example, if not
precept, for the established "modus operandi" of the order. Upon a
certain occasion the Great Teacher had performed a very humble service
for one of his disciples who was sadly at loss for the why and the
wherefore, and the answer, received to his inquiry was: "What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."
And in the grand hereafter, when the films of ignorance and the
warpings of prejudice and superstition shall have melted away under the
bright sunlight of Eternal Day, it is not impossible that our vexed,
inquisitive, worrying opponents may be permitted to look back over the
pathway this order has traversed, glance at the work that has been
wrought and peradventure discover how unreasonable, as well as
fruitless, has been the warfare they have been pleased to wage with
such persistent fury. A long time to wait, maybe, but then good things
do not come rapidly nor all at once. Meanwhile, to encourage them in
their waiting, their watching and their worrying, let them take this
lesson from the same Great Teacher: "The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh
or whither it goeth." Ah, no! it will not do, because you can not see
and comprehend all of everything, inside as well as outside, to
conclude that it must necessarily be bad. Adopt that theory, and you
not only fly in the face of reason, but bump your head against almost
everything in nature, in art and in science.
Secrets! yes; they are within us and without us, above us and beneath
us and all about us, and "what are you going to do about it?" Well
might Israel's old and gifted poet king write: "We are fearfully and
wonderfully made," soul and body, the mortal and the immortal, the
material and the immaterial, strangely and mysteriously conjoined!
God's secret, this! Will you denounce Him and withdraw allegiance from
Him, for the reason that He fails to make clear to you a clear and
satisfying revelation? The same old singer said thousands of years
ago, "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth
His handiwork." And those heavens, with that firmament, are charged
and surcharged with mightiest and profoundest secrets. We seize the
telescope and "plunge into the vast profound overhead, intent upon
mastering the secrets of the revolving spheres."
We travel from star to star, from system to system, until we reach yon
lonely star that appears to be performing the Guardian's task, upon the
verge of unmeasured and immeasurable space. We may descry and describe
the form and outlines of those heavenly bodies, detect their movements
and approximately determine their distances and dimensions. But what
more? Little that is satisfying. When they had a beginning, what
purposes they subserve in the sublime system of God's stupendous
universe, and when they shall have a consummation, we may not certainly
know. Secrets, these, and such "Secret things belong unto God." We
would like to know these secrets, but must wait; for there, "roll those
mighty worlds that gem the distant sky," as distantly and dismally as
when Chaldean and Egyptian astronomers and astrologers viewed their
movements three thousand years ago, rifled meanwhile of but few of
their well kept secrets. He that pencils the lily and paints the rose
and gives to every blade of grass its own bright drop of dew, has been
pleased to say: "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further." And there
is great unwisdom in setting up factious opposition to the fiat of
Omnipotence. Possess your souls in patience, O friends! wait, as we
must wait, before knowing all, or even knowing much. If you can not be
Odd-Fellows, you can at least be _men_, with an effort.