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SECRET SOCIETIES:
A DISCUSSION OF THEIR CHARACTER AND
CLAIMS,
BY
REV. DAVID MACDILL,
JONATHAN BLANCHARD, D. D.,
AND
EDWARD BEECHER, D. D.
'Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.'
--EPH. v: 11.
CONTENTS.
I. SECRET
SOCIETIES: A TREATISE by Rev. D. MacDill
CHAPTER I. Their Antiquity.
CHAPTER II. Their Secrecy.
CHAPTER III. Oaths And Promises.
CHAPTER IV.Profaneness.
CHAPTER V. Their Exclusiveness.
CHAPTER VI. False Claims.
CONCLUSION.
II. SHALL CHRISTIANS JOIN SECRET SOCIETIES? by
Jonathan Blanchard, D. D.
Shall Christians Join Secret Societies?
Supposing it to be Innocent, Will It Pay?
Is it Obligatory?
Is it Right?
III. REPORT TO CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ILLINOIS. by Edward
Beecher, D. D.
CHAPTER I. The moral character of secrecy.
CHAPTER II. Associations or combinations involving secrecy.
CHAPTER III. Religious rites and worship in societies or
organizations, open or secret.
1. Secret
associations are of very ancient origin. They existed among
the ancient Egyptians, Hindoos, Grecians, Romans, and
probably among nearly all the pagan nations of antiquity.
This fact, however is neither proof of their utility nor of
their harmlessness. Slavery, despotism, cruelty, drunken
falsehood, and all sorts of sins and crimes have been
practiced from time immemorial, but are none the less to be
reprobated on that account.
2. The
facts that these associations had no existence among the
Israelites, who, alone of all the ancient nations, enjoyed
the light of Divine revelation, and that they originated and
flourished among the heathen, who were vain in their
imaginations; whose foolish heart was darkened, and whom God
gave up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts
(Rom. i: 21-24), is a presumptive proof that their nature
and tendency are evil. We do not claim that all the
institutions among God's ancient people were right and good;
nor that every institution among the heathen was sinful and
injurious; still, that which was so popular among those whom
the Bible declares to have been filled with all
unrighteousness; that which was so pleasing to men whom God
had given over to a reprobate mind and to vile affections
(Rom. i: 26-28); that which made a part of the worship which
the ignorant heathen offered up to their unclean gods, and
which was unknown among God's chosen people, is certainly a
thing to be viewed with suspicion. A thing of so bad origin
and so bad accompaniments we should be very slow to approve.
The fact that many good men see no evil in secret societies,
and that many good men have been and are members of them, is
more than counterbalanced by the fact that many good men
very decidedly disapprove of them, and that, from time
immemorial, men of vile affections and reprobate minds, men
whose inclinations and consciences were perverted by
heathenish ignorance and error, and by a corrupt and
abominable religion, have been very fond of them.
3.
Doubtless the authors and conductors of the ancient
mysteries made high pretensions, just as do the modern
advocates of secret societies. Perhaps the original design
of the ancient mysteries was to civilize mankind and promote
religion; that is, pagan superstition. But whatever may have
been the design of the authors of them, it is certain
that they became schools of superstition and vice. Their
pernicious character and influence were so manifest that the
ancient Christian writers almost universally exclaimed
against them. (Leland's Chr. Rev., p. 223.) Bishop
Warburton, who, in his "Divine Legation," maintains that the
ancient mysteries were originally pure, declares that they
"became abominably abused, and that in Cicero's time the
terms mysteries and abominations were almost synonymous."
The cause of their corruption, this eminent writer declares
to be the secrecy with which they were performed. He
says: "We can assign no surer cause of the horrid abuses and
corruptions of the mysteries than the season in which
they were represented, and the profound silence in which
they were buried. Night gave opportunity to wicked men to
attempt evil actions, and the secrecy encouragement to
repeat them." (Leland's Chr. Rev., p. 194.) It seems to have
been of these ancient secret associations that the inspired
Apostle said, "It is a shame even to speak of those
things which are done in secret." (Eph. v: 12.)
4. In view
of these facts, the antiquity of secret societies is no
argument in their favor; yet it is no uncommon thing to find
their members tracing their origin back to the heathenish
mysteries of the ancient Egyptians, Hindoos, or Grecians.
(See Webb's Freemason's Monitor, p. 39.) Since the ancient
mysteries were so impure and abominable, those who boast of
their affinity with them must be classed with them of whom
the Apostle says, "Their glory is in their shame"
(Phil, iii: 19.)
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