SERMON

ON

SECRETISM,

BY

REV. R. THEO, CROSS,

DELIVERED IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, HAMILTON, N. Y., SABBATH. MAY., 30th, 1875.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS:

EZRA A. COOK, PUBLISHER.

Secretism, Unorganized and Organized.

[A Sermon Preached by Rev. R. T. Cross, May 30, 1875, in the Congregational Church, Hamilton, N. Y. Published by request.]

"And this is the condemnati n that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." John, iii: 19-21.

The word "secretism" is not found in Webster. It has recently been brought into prominent use, if not into existence, by the opponents of secret orders to express what they believe to be a perverted secrecy, especially in its tendency to organization. Secretism is always wrong; secrecy is not always wrong. All secretism is secrecy, but not all secrecy is secretism-just as all murder is killing but not all killing is murder. Secretism is the opposite extreme to gossip and tale-bearing. The golden mean lies between the two. The gossiper and talebearer tells those things which ought not to be known, or which if known will do no good; the secretist refuses to tell those things which ought to be known by others, or which, if known, will do no harm. Secretism is the opposite of that cordial, free, open-hearted fraukness which ought to exist between us and our fellow men.

Secrecy is sometimes right. We all ought to be cautious about what we say to others. I do not expect a member of my family to go and tell everybody he meets everything that is said and done in the family. But my family would not be an acceptable and agreeable family in the neighborhood if all its members were everlastingly silent about family affairs, and it would be a natural object of suspicion if all its members were known to be under oath not to tell any thing about its affairs. It is not necessary or prudent to tell everybody all about our business affairs, yet men naturally suspect those who never tell anything about their business. Doctors are not expected to tell everybody what ails everybody else. Ministers are obliged to listen to a great deal about the faults and sins of others, but there would soon be trouble in the church and community if they told to others all that they heard about others. In times of war there must, for the time being, be some secrecy about the movement of armies, But in all these cases the secrecy concerns something which others have no right to know, or which will do no good, or from which harm will come if known. Sometimes it is right for us to promise, not to take an oath, not to say: "I hope to drop dead," or any such thing, but simply to promise on our honor to keep a secret

a longer or shorter time, though it is not right to make such a promise beforehand unless we know what the nature of the secret is. On the other hand, secrecy becomes secretism when it concerns things that ought to be known by others, the knowing of which will do good or prevent evil; also when it concerns things which it is natural for men to inquire about and know, according to that frank confidence which should prevail among men and that interest which they naturally and rightly take in one another's affairs. We all like frankness when it goes with a good-natured kindness, and we all dislike the opposite. Why should any person, man or woman, be auxious to conceal his age, unless, for some purpose or other, he wishes to to deceive others in the matter? Why should men be so anxious to conceal the amount of their property or the profits of their business? We can easily see what the reason is when men are liv. ing far beyond their means and wish to give the impression that they are worth much more than they are, or when they are liv. ing far below their means and wish to make people believe that they are worth much less than they are, or when they have made or are making their money in a way which will not stand the test of exposure. But a man who has no such bad motive ought not to be so secret about his property. When a natural and proper curiosity about such things is not gratified there is sure to be suspicion and exaggeration.

If I make a discovery that is going to benefit humanity I have no right to keep it secret. If any secret society has, as we all know that they have not, any knowledge not possessed by the world at large, or any principles beneficial to humanity, they have no right to be so secret with them and withhold, them from the very persons who most need them. So we ought not to keep secret any evil or wrong-doing or sin that ought to be known, the knowing of which is necessary to the highest welfare of the family, the community, the school or the State. And yet these are the very things that secretism tries to hide by throwing around them its veil of darkness. Men love dark. ness whenever their deeds are evil. The thief, the burglar, the seducer, the murderer, the counterfeiter, the traitor, is necessarily a secretist, and so is he who shares the secrets of a law. breaker.

If I know that a person is going to commit a crime against you to-night, or that he did commit one against you last night it is my duty and no possible obligation can make it otherwise, to let you and the officers of the law know it, that you may be on your guard, and that, for the sake of the public good, the offender may be brought to justice. All admit the truth of this as applied to murder, burglary, and such things. Why should not the same principle apply in lesser offenses? There is a common feeling among students that it is dishonorable to report to the proper authorities the misdeeds of their fellow students. It is dishonorable when it is done simply for the sake of currying favor with the authorities, or for the sake of getting their fellow students into trouble, But when it is done for the

common good of the school, then it is right and duty. If I see a fellow student trampling under foot a law the observance of which is necessary for the good of the school, a proper regard for the common good, which includes my own good, makes it my duty to let the proper authorities know of it. In an experience of several years as a teacher, with many hundred young men, I have invariably found that the most faithful, law-abiding, diligent, Christian young men were the ones most ready to let me know of any wrong doing that was endangering the the welfare of the school; while the most reckless, law-breaking young men, who seemed to have not a particle of true honor, were the ones who had most to say about its being dishonorable to inform the teacher of wrong doing. And the same is true of those who break the laws of the State. There are, it seems to me, two causes for secretism. One is a desire to cover up evil. "Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest." The presumption is against those who cover up their doings from their fellow men, and it rests upon them to prove that they have good reason for their secrecy. The other cause of secretism is the charm there is in it to human nature; and this cause accounts for those cases where persons use secretism without an evil object in view. Somehow there is a charm to poor human nature in knowing. or making believe that we know, something which others do not, even though it be a thing of no earthly consequence. You have all heard little children say, with an air of very conscious superiority and importance, "I know something that you don't.” Men and women are only children of a larger growth, and how often we see them acting, if not saying, “I know something that you don't."

But thus far I have been speaking of unorganized secretism, secretism as it lies around loose in individuals. I shall be touching only the hem of the garment of my subject if I make no mention of organized secretism, which I believe to be far more dangerous to society and religion than unorganized secretism, just as any evil is more dangerous when organized, when those who practice it are banded together for its support. I have studied the subject and opposed the evil too long, young as I am, not to know what it is that I am opposing and what risk I run' It brings me into opposition to the views and practices of some of my Christian friends, an opposition which endangers, though it need not destroy, Christian fellowship; while I run the risk of being assailed by others with a kind of argument, or want of argument, to which one cannot well reply, because it comes from the dark and goes back to the dark. But I oppose this evil because, after much thought and study and prayer, I have come to believe very strongly that organized secretism is one of the great enemies and obstacles to our Republican form of government and the pure Gospel of Christ. We find then in our country a large number of secret organizations; hardly a village without one or more of them. They