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.”