1.  Another serious objection to secret associations is the profanation by them of the oath of God.  We regard such profanation as the natural result of their secrecy.  When associations of men endeavor to keep secret their operations from generation to generation, they will not be willing to trust to the honor and honesty of their members.  A simple promise of secrecy will not be deemed sufficient.  Oaths or promises, with dreadful penalties, will very likely be required of all those who are admitted as members.  Secret societies may, perhaps, exist without such oaths and promises.  If the members of an association are few in number, or if the publication of its secrets would not be regarded as very injurious to its interests, perhaps a simple promise of secrecy will be regarded as sufficient; but whenever an association endeavors to secure a numerous membership, and regards a disclosure of its secrets as likely to damage its reputation or hinder its success, something more than a simple promise of secrecy will very likely be required at the initiation of members.  Accordingly, some secret associations, it is known, do employ awful sanctions in order to secure concealment.  Even when the members of a secret order claim that they are not bound to secrecy by oath, but only by a simple promise, it will, perhaps, be found on examination that that promise is, in reality, an oath.  An appeal to God or to heaven, whether made expressly or impliedly, in attestation of the truth of a promise or declaration, is an oath.  Such an appeal may not be regarded as an oath in our civil courts, the violator of which would incur the pains and penalties of perjury; yet certainly it is an oath according to the teachings of the Bible.  Our Savior teaches that to swear by the temple, is to swear by God who dwelleth therein; and that to swear by heaven, is to swear by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. (Matt. xx:  23.) We find, also, that the words, “As the Lord liveth,” is to be regarded as an oath.  King David is repeatedly said to have sworn, when he used this form of expression, in attestation of his sincerity. (1 Sam. xx:  3; 1 Kings i:  29.) An appeal to God, whether direct or indirect, in attestation of the truth of a declaration or promise, is an oath.  As we have already said, a secret association may exist without an oath.  But we are not sure that any does.  Odd-fellows have declared that they have no initiatory oath.  In the address published by the Grand Lodge of the United States, referred to before, the following declaration is made:  “No oath, as was once supposed, is administered to the candidate.” (App. to Proceedings of Grand Lodge, 1859, p. 10.) Yet Grosch, in his Odd-fellows’ Manual, speaks of an “appeal to heaven” in the initiation, at least, into one of the degrees. (P. 306.) Perhaps the contradiction arises from a difference of opinion in regard to what it takes to constitute an oath, or, perhaps, from the fact that an oath is required in initiations into some degrees, but not in others.  However this may be, we know that some secret societies have initiatory oaths, and that nearly all administer what, in the sight of God, is an oath, though they may not so view it themselves.  Nor do we see any reason to discredit the declaration of Grosch that the candidate “appeals to heaven.”