p. 9 | Secret Societies by Ellen G. White

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

Secret Societies

By Ellen G. White

Their Influence Not Conducive to Spiritual Growth

(Continued)

MRS. E. G. WHITE

The soul is deceived when it trusts to worldly policy and human inventions instead of trusting in the Lord God of Israel. Can man find a better guide than the Lord Jesus? a better counselor in doubt and trial? a better defense in danger? To set aside the wisdom of God for human wisdom is a soul-destroying delusion. If you would see what man will do when he rejects the influence of the grace of God, look to that scene in the judgment hall, when the infuriated mob, headed by Jewish priests and elders, clamored for the life of the Son of God.

See the divine Sufferer standing by the side of Barabbas, and Pilate asking which he should release unto them. The hoarse cry, swelled by hundreds of passionate, Satan-inspired voices, is, “Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas!” And when Pilate asks what is to be done with Jesus, they cry, “Crucify him, crucify him!”

Human nature then is human nature now. When the divine remedy that would have saved and exalted human nature is despised, the same spirit still lives in the hearts of men, and we cannot trust to their guidance and maintain our loyalty to Christ.

Antichristian

These societies that are not controlled by the love and fear of God, will not be found true and upright toward man. Many of their transactions are contrary to justice and equity. He who is of too pure eyes to behold evil will not, can not, be a party to many things that take place in these associations. Your own conscience will bear witness to the truth of what I say. The talent and skill and inventive power with which God has endowed men are, in these associations, too often perverted to instruments of cruelty, of iniquity, of selfishness in practicing fraud upon their fellows. Of course all this is denied by the members of these bodies. But God looks beneath the pleasant, attractive appearance, to the secret, underlying motives and the real working of the association. While some of them claim to make the Word of God in a certain sense the basis of their organization, they depart far from the principles of righteousness. The vows imposed by some of these orders require the taking of human life when the secrets of the order are divulged. Members are also pledged, under certain circumstances, to clear the guilty from deserved punishment. Toward those who work against the order, they are required to pursue a course that is not at all in harmony with the law of God.

We cannot swerve from the truth, we cannot depart from right principles, without forsaking him who is our strength, our righteousness, and our sanctification. We should be firmly rooted in the conviction that whatever in any sense turns us aside from truth and justice in our association and partnership with men, cannot benefit us, and greatly dishonors God. Every species of deceit or conniving at sin is abhorrent to him. Fraud runs all through these secret associations, and none can be bound up with them and be free men before God and heaven. The moral nature is dragged down to that which God pronounces unjust, which is contrary to his will and his commandments.

One who professes to love God may in these associations be placed in positions which are called honorable, but in the eyes of God he is tarnishing his honor as a Christian, and separating farther and farther from the principles of righteousness and true holiness. He is perverting his powers, that have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. He is selling his soul for naught. In the revelation of his righteous judgments, God

will break up all these associations; and when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, there will be revealed the unchristlikeness of the whole confederacy. Those who choose to unite with these secret societies are paying homage to idols as senseless and as powerless to bless and save the soul as are the gods of the Hindus.

These societies offer some advantages which from a human point of view appear like great blessings, but not so when judged by the Lord’s measurement. Behind their apparent advantages are concealed satanic agencies. The larger the income drawn into the treasury, the more and deeper is the evil. The ungodly gain which has enriched these societies will, when traced out in all its bearings, be seen to be a curse. The words which Eliphaz spoke to Job are true in respect to these associations: “I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.” They are Satan’s traps, his net to entangle souls.

Very many things are sanctioned and upheld by the world when they are an offense to the Holy One of Israel. It was seemingly a small thing for Eve to depart from God’s specified restrictions and do the thing he told her not to do, and for Adam to follow her example; but that very thing was planned by the archdeceiver to destroy the souls of men by leading them to follow their own imaginations rather than the revealed will of God.

So in these associations principles are held that bring men under the deceptive power of Satan, leading away from safe paths into rebellion against God and disregard of his holy standard of righteousness. “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation,” is the oft-repeated injunction of our Saviour. Watch, watch, with diligence and care, lest Satan succeed in ensnaring the souls of those for whom Christ has paid the ransom money of his own blood.

We are Stewards of God

God calls upon you who would be his children to act as under the divine eye, to adopt the holy standard of righteousness. His justice and his truth are the principles that should be established in every soul. He who preserves his integrity toward God, will be upright toward man. No man who truly loves God, will, for the sake of a bribe of gold and silver, of honor, or any other earthly advantage, expose his soul to temptation. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Christians must sever every tie that binds them to these secret orders that are not under the control of God. They cannot be loyal to these organizations and loyal to God. Either the connection with these bodies must be severed, or you will assimilate more closely to them, and as the result will come to unite more fully with them, and will sever the ties that bind you to those who love and fear God. The Christian will abandon those things which are a hindrance to his spirituality, Better lose money, possessions, and life itself than to imperil the vital interests of the soul.

You who have connected yourselves with these secret societies are trusting in a staff that will be broken in pieces; you do not trust in the Lord God of Israel, diligently searching to know his will and to follow in his way. When you invest money in these organizations, you do so in the hope of making provision for the future. You have given them time and thought and labor and money, while the cause of Christ has been neglected. Every dollar paid into these organizations is as truly turned away from the cause of God as if sunk in the ocean. But was not this capital intrusted to you of God to use in his service, for the salvation of your fellow men? By investing it where it cannot honor God or benefit men, you are repeating the sin of the slothful servant who hid his Lord’s talent in the earth.

The Lord had intrusted to the unfaithful servant not a large capital, but only one talent. That one talent the man did not invest for the interest of God; he hid it in the earth, complaining that the Lord was a hard master, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed. The selfishness he manifested, and the complaints he made, as though God would require of him that which he had no right to claim, showed that he did not care to know God, or Jesus Christ, whom God had sent. Everything he possessed was the Lord’s own property, and was intrusted to him to use for God. When he said, “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth,” he acknowledged that the talent was from God.

And what saith the Lord?—“Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed.” Here he repeats the servant’s words, not acknowledging their truth, but showing what, even according to his own account, the servant ought to have done. The Lord virtually says: You made no effort to trade upon my intrusted capital, and to gain an increase to promote my glory in the earth. Thou oughtest “to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not [traded on his Lord’s goods] shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.”

To every soul to whom the light of truth has come is this lesson given. We should never forget that God has placed us on trial in this world, to determine our fitness for the future life. None can enter heaven whose characters are defiled by the foul blot of selfishness. Therefore God tests us here by committing to us temporal possessions, that our use of these may show whether we can be intrusted with eternal riches. It is only as the self-sacrificing life of Christ is reflected in our life that we can be in harmony with heaven, and be fitted to enter there.—Bible Students’ Library.

(To be concluded)