him in affairs and habits not unfrequently injurious to the best
interests and state of the family.

_Fifthly. These orders are hostile to the heavenly-mindedness, the
spirituality of those who join them_. We speak from much testimony.
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed." The prudent man
foreseeth the evil, but the foolish pass on and are punished. This
voice of one is that of many concurring wise, faithful, and godly men,
viz.: "I am afraid of these secret societies; they have sucked the
spirituality out of all the members in our church who have joined
them." Young, promising Christians have often been blighted by them.
The fervor of piety, interest in the church and its work, interest in
Christ and his people, interest in God's Word and Spirit, all the
various elements of an earnest life of faith and heavenly-mindedness
have been blighted in these lodges. And in urging this, we appeal to
so many witnesses, and cover so wide a field of observation, as to
make it certain that this is not the exceptional but the ordinary
result.

_Sixthly. These orders tend to destroy Christian fellowship_. Let them
grow until a given church is broken into squads, each pledged to
secrets from the other, but bound within itself by special ties; give
to each its own weekly meeting, mysteries, rites, signs, grips,
pass-words; let each be sworn to provide for, protect, shield, and
love its own adherents above others, and is not "_church fellowship_"
annihilated? Can the Spirit of Christ flow freely from member to
member through such partitions? Is this "one body in Christ, and every
one members one of another?"

_Seventhly. These orders tend to subject the church to "the world" in