Fraternal organization

“ By a different road a degree of fraternal organization is being attained, through voluntary associations of workingmen, for mutual support as toward their employers, or for independent production or distribution. ”

“ Would not the opponents of the societies themselves cheerfully subscribe to such a doctrine? If they would not, they certainly do not come to the discussion in a fair spirit. If the college authorities dread the actions of the fraternities, as they seem to do, let them demand, when a fraternity seeks to extend its organization to their institution, that the promoters of the enterprise shall lay before them the object of the order as stated in their own constitution. ”

“ In addition there are about 100 local societies or chapters acting as independent units. Some of the older of these, such as Kappa Kappa Kappa at Dartmouth, I K A at Trinity, Phi Nu Theta at Wesleyan and Delta Psi at Vermont, are permanent in character, but the majority of them are purely temporary, designed to maintain an organization until the society becomes a chapter of one of the general fraternities. ”

“ The oldest truly American fraternity has grown greater, stronger and better in our Reservation and its present position fills with pride those who have assisted in its marvelous growth during the past Great Sun, and every member must rejoice in his affiliation with such a powerful thoroughly American organization. ”

“ The fraternities are aristocratic in that they are destructive to freedom of intercourse. The fraternal spirit is the great modern separator. It builds first a high wall between the Greeks and the barbarians, and then a maze of social distinctions between fraternity and fraternity. ”

“ Whereas one will search American cities in vain for the labour temples one discovers to-day in Europe from Belgium to Italy, one finds that the fraternal lodge generally occupies a site of dignity and importance. There were doubtless many excellent reasons for the strange proliferation of professional fraternity in the American city, but perhaps the strongest reason was the absence of any other kind of fraternity. ”

“ On the other hand, the immediate practical use of the fraternities to-day is that by their organization and their training in organizing power they can be trusted to put things through. One dean writes, “Unconsciously one often chooses a fraternity girl to do a necessary thing, knowing that she will see it through.” Several others, deans and presidents, say that the fraternities do valuable service in two ways: first, by making themselves responsible for the conduct of individual members of their societies who give trouble to the faculty ”

“ Definition of "Inner Mission."—The term was used to designate all the works of rescue which grew out of Christian faith and love in response to social need. Many voluntary fraternities had been formed, in different countries and in different branches of the church, to respond to the call of suffering. These free associations, without any outward union, had in common one foundation, faith that Christ is the Redeemer of the perishing, and one goal, to raise men out of sin, and free them from its consequences, by means of the gospel and the offer of fraternal kindness. ”

“ The members of the Church are all united by a fraternal bond. They are all brethren and sisters, no matter what their condition in life, no matter of what nationality. Indeed nationality is swallowed up in fraternity. They are no longer Jew or Gentile, English, German, Danish or American, they are all one in Christ Jesus. They are no more Catholics or Protestants, Dissenters or Episcopalians, but are baptized by one spirit into one body, and in all essential principles have one faith, and are joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. ”

“ With the orders of the Church and the Masonic fraternity in their mind, they conceived of the organization of a world-wide society, embracing at the same time investigations of a scientific character with a broad philosophical brotherhood connected by affiliated lodges. ”

“ Members join in the impressionable years of their youth; they retain for their organizations a peculiar loyalty and affection, and freely contribute with money and influence to their advancement.
Almost universally the members of any particular chapter (or part of them) live together in a lodge or chapter house. The men’s fraternities own hundreds of houses and rent as many more. The fraternities form a little aristocracy within the college community. ”

“ At least we may trust the Brotherhood will be given a good trial. But if it is to have a fair chance among us, the greatest care must be taken that it should develope as a properly lay movement; and while it receives all encouragement from the clergy, should not be taken up by them to be turned into a guild of 'church workers,' useful for purposes of parochial organization. ”

“ But if, while rejoicing in their own perfectly real fraternal unity, they are also practically guided by the love of furthering brotherhood amongst men in general; if they respect the loyalty of other men so far as they understand that loyalty; if they seek, not to sow discord amongst the brethren of our communities, but to be a city set on a hill, that not only cannot be hid, but is also a model for other cities--a centre for the spreading of the spirit of loyalty--then the members of such an essentially fruitful brotherhood are actually loyal to the cause of causes. ”

“ This attitude of indifferentism naturally led to the exchange of fraternal delegates with the Reformed and other Churches. It resulted in a cooperation of the General Synod with the Federal Council, the Home Missions Council, the Foreign Mission Conference, the International Sunday-school Association, the Sunday-school Council of Evangelical Denominations, the Inter-Church Federation, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the W.C.T.U., The Anti-Saloon League, etc. ”

“ Those who hold that every congregation, however small, is a complete church in itself, are quite unable to explain why the system of ecclesiastical organization should be thus circumscribed. The New Testament inculcates the unity of all the faithful, as well as the unity of particular societies; and the same principle of Christian brotherhood which prompts a number of individuals to meet together for religious fellowship, should also lead a number of congregations in the same locality to fraternize. ”

“ To the red man the creatures of the earth were kinsmen, but in a different form, as suited the Creator's purpose, and none might be destroyed without reason and sacrifice. Even the pharmaceutical plants of the forest were not taken without a thank offering and the planting of the seed in the hole from which the root or stem had been pulled.
This feeling of fraternity worked out in many other ways, as by the organization of numerous fraternities and societies, by the knitting of the clan system and by the ties of a complex social organization. ”

“ It must be confessed, however, that unescapable traditions and certain inexorable conditions of our brotherhood tend to a modification of the standards of truthfulness which have been set up in other quarters. Beyond doubt, our members should be as reliable in statement as our traditions and full enjoyment of fraternity membership will permit. ”

“ We say to the college faculties, use the fraternities instead of abusing them. The proclaimed objects of the societies cannot degrade, and we have shown that a tendency to depart to vicious practices may be checked by an appeal to the societies themselves. If all fails, expel the students, break up the chapter, and explain the circumstances to the fraternity authorities. ”

“ BASED on the foregoing principles, fraternal charity begets the family spirit—that spirit which forgets itself in thinking only of the common good; which makes particular give way to general interests; which forces oneself to live with all without exception, to live as all without singularity, and to live for all without self-seeking ”

“ I had learned a little of fraternities at school. They had not amounted to anything there; but I knew that college fraternities were different—were big, powerful organizations which could make or break a man's college career. My aunt had spoken to me of fraternities, too; she wanted me to join one which should give me—and her—a deal of social prestige. And I, hungering for new experiences and—as every boy does—for things that are mysterious and secretive, wanted, too, the distinction and glory of making a fraternity. It seemed to my freshman mind the most important thing upon the horizon. ”

“ Certain senior societies, of which the oldest is the Skull and Bones, which are inter-fraternity societies admitting freely members of the fraternities, are more prominent at Yale than the fraternities themselves. ”

“ If he has rightly learned the lessons of fraternity life he ought to be a better citizen, ready to work in harmony with men who are bent upon making the State an organized expression of wise and just principles. He ought to be fitted to be a better churchman, making that institution a worthy expression of the organized spirit of reverence toward God, of fellowship with men, and of helpfulness for all good causes. ”

“ Instead of fraternities causing a waste of money, they cultivate a spirit of economy, and their existence actually tends to lessen the sum total of college expenses. Their oaths, far from being immoral and profane, are necessary safeguards, and their discussions promote the formation of deliberate opinions instead of blind allegiance. We claim for the fraternities that they fill a necessary and important place in college life, and supply a lacking element in the student’s course, and that they are a help to their members, and a valuable and efficient aid to good college government. ”

“ It is the need for that association which lies at the root of the almost countless fraternities found in all our cities. In searching out names and mysterious forms for them all, men have gone clear over the border into what is both fantastic and foolish. The secrecy of these societies is not to be taken too seriously—as a rule it is mere dust thrown in the eyes of the uninitiated. The members laugh in their sleeves knowing how little the “secrets” amount to, but the organizations offer opportunity for social fellowship in a way to satisfy a wide-spread desire. ”

“ Of the latter class, one that has not been sufficiently praised by society, which finds so many occasions for censure and so few for eulogy, is the Brotherhood of Charity. And who compose this admirable congregation? Those, perhaps, who waste so much paper and phraseology in favor of humanity, philanthropy, and fraternity? No, not one of them condescends to enter this corporation, which is formed principally of the aristocracy of those places where it has been established. The truth is, that between theory and practice, as between saying and doing, there is a great space. ”

“ Has not a good man said, “Behold how good: and pleasant a thing it is for brothers to dwell together in unity”? The fraternities have become the exponents of the doctrine proclaimed in the Psalmist’s sentence. The fraternities are outside and foreign in no sense but in that they are not under the control of the college authorities. How many are the homesick students weary with study whom brothers encourage with kindly words to persevere! ”

“ My own life will be forever different by reason of the friendship of two upper class men in my university days. Such friendships are wholesome for both the younger and the older men.
The fraternity serves as a convenient basis for fellowship when a man visits another college or when alumni return to their alma mater. The house of one’s own fraternity is open to him, and affords opportunity for him to come into touch with the eager, throbbing life about him. ”

“ The fraternity, of whom it takes nine members to make a man, have naturally supposed that it would take nine saints to make one patron. It is clear, then, that it is not to one William, but to nine combined, that the guild address, or did in olden times address, their vows and acknowledgments ”

“ It is not easy to overestimate the valuable work which this Christian principle of human fraternity is thus doing at the present day. It is recognized in many ways so common that we cease to think of them as what they are—expressions of the common brotherhood of man. ”

“ But, besides these, there exist other considerations which lead friendship and fraternity to a higher degree among the members of the same religious Order. All in the novitiate have been cast in the same mould, or, rather, have imbibed the milk of knowledge and piety from the breasts of the same mother. All follow the same rules; all tend to the same end by the same means; all from morning to night, and during their whole lives, perform the same exercises, live under the same roof, work, sanctify themselves, suffer and rejoice together. ”

“ A college president recently said to me in substance: “I always think of the fraternity men as in a circle, hand in hand, facing outward; but of the women as turned the other way, worshiping at their own little shrine, with their backs to the winds of the world.” ”

“ The society has led a very prosperous life, and like the other local fraternities of New England has been a successful competitor of the chaptered fraternities. It built a hall in 1860, the first in Hanover, and measnres are now being taken for the erection of another and more pretentious building. ”

“ Besides all the above recreations, the Seminary girls had also their various secret organizations which furnished ample work for winter months. One of the most notable of these fraternities was called the D. N. A., signifying “Daughters of the New Alliance.”
A brief description of the sacred rites of this unique fraternity, on an interesting initiation, may not here be amiss. ”

“ The alumni of the fraternities are organized into clubs or associations having headquarters at centres of population. These organizations are somewhat loose, but nevertheless are capable of much exertion and influence should occasion arise.
The college fraternity system has no parallel among the students of colleges outside of America. ”