Secret Societies
541
Christ will never lead His followers to take upon themselves vows
that will unite them with men who have no connection with God,
who are not under the controlling influence of His Holy Spirit. The
only correct standard of character is the holy law of God, and it is
impossible for those who make that law the rule of life to unite in
confidence and cordial brotherhood with those who turn the truth of
God into a lie, and regard the authority of God as a thing of nought.
Between the worldly man and the one who is faithfully serving
God, there is a great gulf fixed. Upon the most momentous subjects,—
God and truth and eternity,—their thoughts and sympathies and feel-
ings are not in harmony. One class is ripening as wheat for the garner
of God, the other as tares for the fires of destruction. How can there
be unity of purpose or action between them? “Know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” “No man can serve
two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love other; or else he
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon.”—Should Christians Be Members of Secret Societies? pp.
3-10. (1892).
Clear-cut Separation—In the evening I met Brother _____ and
told him I had something for him from the Lord. He said, “Why not
let me have it now?” I was quite weak, but he lived in _____, ten miles
[621]
from the school building which was to be my home. So I arose and
read to him fifty pages of letter pages, in reference to the office, and
also particular ones working in the office. [
Reference is made to a
communication from which the preceding article is drawn.
]
I spoke ... plainly and in clear lines in reference to his past work
and what a loss it had been to the office. His connection with Free
Masonry had absorbed his time and blunted his spiritual perception.
His mind, his thoughts, had been upon this body, this association; and
there were infidels, winebibbers, and every class. And he was bound
up with these secret organizations. There was only one thing he could
do—sever his connection with them and be wholly on the Lord’s side;
for he could not possibly serve God and mammon.
He said, “I receive the testimony; I shall heed its instruction.”—
Manuscript 17, 1892
.
Brother _____ was in a perilous condition, like a man about to lose
his balance and fall over a precipice. I knew what nice work it is to