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diff --git a/13816-0.txt b/13816-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aebe582 --- /dev/null +++ b/13816-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4465 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13816 *** + +THE JERICHO ROAD + +by + +W. BION ADKINS + +Author of "Twelve Steps Toward Heaven," "The Anonymous Letter," etc. + +1901 + + + + + + + +Like the rivers, forever running yet never passed, like the winds +forever going yet never gone, so is Odd-Fellowship. + + + +DEDICATION + +WORTHY AND GENTLE BROTHERS + +I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK TO THEE, SINCERELY HOPING THAT IT WILL +AFFORD YOU MUCH PLEASURE AND BE THE MEANS OF INCITING YOU TO GREATER +EFFORT IN BEHALF OF OUR BELOVED ORDER. MAY THY YEARS BE MANY AND THEIR +SEASONS ALL GOLDEN AUTUMNS, RICH IN PURPLE CLUSTERS AND GARNERED +DELIGHTS. + + + + +PREFACE + +"I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written nothing +that I have not lived, and the story of this book is but a plaintive +refrain wrung from the over-burdened song of my life; while the tides +of feeling, winding down the lines, had their sources in as many broken +upheavals of my own heart." A book, like an implement, must be judged +by its adaptation to its special design, however unfit for any other +end. This volume is designed to help Odd-Fellows in their search for +the good things in life. There is need of something to break the spell +of indifference that oftentimes binds us, and to open glimpses of +better, sweeter, grander possibilities. Hence this volume, which is a +plea for that great fortune of man--his own nature. Bulwer says: +"Strive while improving your one talent to enrich your whole capital as +a man." The present work is designed to aid in securing the result thus +recommended. We send it forth, trusting that it will find its way into +the hands of every Odd-Fellow and every Odd-Fellow's friend and +neighbor, and that those who read it will gather from its pages lessons +which shall enable them to pluck thorns from their pathway and scatter +flowers instead. + +W. BION ADKINS. + +October 1, 1899. + + + + + TODAY'S DEMAND + + God give us men. A time like this demands + Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; + Men whom the lust of office does not kill; + Men who possess opinions and a will; + Men who have honor; + Men who will not lie, + Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog + In public duly and in private thinking. + For, while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, + Their large professions and their little deeds, + Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, + Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps. + God give us men! + + --Selected. + + + + TOMORROW'S FULFILLMENT + + * * In the long years liker must they grow; + The man be more of woman, she of man; + He gain in sweetness and in moral height, + Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; + She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care-- + Till at the last she set herself to man, + Like perfect music unto noble words; + And so these twain, upon the skirts of time, + Sit side by side, full summed in all their powers, + Self-reverent each and reverencing each. + Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm; + Then springs the crowning race of human kind. + + --Alfred Tennyson. + + + + +CONTENTS + +Objects and Purposes of Odd-Fellowship + +The Higher Life + +Pithy Points + +The Bible in Odd-Fellowship + +Brother Underwood's Dream + +The Imperial Virtue + +Quiet Hour Thoughts + +Love Supreme + +Gems of Beauty + +Husband and Father + +Odd-Fellowship and the Future + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + +On April 26, 1819, Thomas Wildey, the English carriage-spring maker, +together with John Welch, John Duncan, John Cheatham and Richard +Rushworth, instituted the first lodge of Odd-Fellows at the Seven Stars +Tavern in Baltimore, and it was given the name of Washington Lodge No. +1. From this feeble beginning has grown the immense organization of +today. The Odd-Fellows claim a venerable antiquity for their order, +the most common account of its origin ascribing it to the Jewish legend +under Titus, who, it is said, received from that Emperor the first +chapter, written on a golden tablet. The earliest mention made of the +lodge is in 1745, when one was organized in England. There were at +that time several lodges independent of each other, but in a few years +they formed a union. Toward the end of the century many of them were +broken up by state prosecutions, on suspicion that their purposes were +seditious. The name was changed from the Patriotic Order to that of +the Union Order of Odd-Fellows. In Manchester, England, in 1813, some +of the lodges seceded from the order, and formed the Independent Order +of Odd-Fellows. + +The order's first appearance in America was in 1819. The purposes of +the order were so changed by the founders here, that it is said to be +almost purely an American organization. It was based on the Manchester +Unity, which was really the parent institution. In 1842, this country +severed its connection with that of England. + +Lodges connected with either those of England or America are +established in all parts of the world. The real estate held by the +organization exceeds in value $20,000,000, and there is scarcely a town +in the country that has not its Odd-Fellows Building. The total +revenue of the order is nearly $10,000,000 per annum. Yearly relief +amounts to nearly $4,000,000 a year. + + + + + THE JERICHO ROAD + + "A traveler passed down the Jericho road, + He carried of cash a pretty fair load + (The savings of many a toilsome day), + On his Jericho home a mortgage to pay. + + "At a turn of the road, in a lonely place, + Two villainous men met him face to face. + 'Hands up!' they cried, and they beat him sore, + Then off to the desert his money they bore. + + "Soon a priest came by who had a fold; + He sheared his sheep of silver and gold. + He saw the man lie bruised and bare, + But he passed on by to his place of prayer. + + "Then a Levite, temple bound, drew nigh; + He saw the man, but let him lie, + And clad in silk, and filled with pride, + He passed him by on the other side. + + "Next on the way a Samaritan came + (To priest and Levite a hated name); + The wounded man he would not pass, + He tenderly placed him on his ass. + + "He took him to an inn hard by; + He dressed his wounds and bathed his eye; + He paid the landlord his full score; + If more was needed would pay him more. + + "Ah! many travel the Jericho way, + And many are robbed and beaten each day; + And many there be on the way in need, + Whom Priest or Levite never heed; + And who to fate would yield, alas! + If some Samaritan did not pass." + + + + +THE OBJECTS AND PURPOSES OF ODD-FELLOWSHIP + +We are taught that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to +dwell on the face of the earth," and when we say mutual relief and +assistance is a leading office in our affiliation, and that +Odd-Fellowship is systematically endeavoring to improve and elevate the +character of man, to imbue him with a proper conception of his +capabilities for good, to enlighten his mind, to enlarge the sphere of +his affections and to redeem him from the thralldom of ignorance and +prejudice, and teach him to recognize the fatherhood of God and the +brotherhood of men, we have epitomized the objects, purposes and basic +principles of our order. Odd-Fellowship is broad and comprehensive. +It is founded upon that eternal principle which teaches that all the +world is one family and all mankind are brothers. Unheralded and +unsung, it was born and went forth, a breath of love, a sweet song that +has filled thousands of hearts with joy and gladness. To the rich and +the poor, the old and the young, at all times, comes the rich, sweet +melody of this song of humanity to comfort and to cheer. For eighty +years the light of Odd-Fellowship has burned before the world, a beacon +to the lost, a comfort to the wanderer and a protection to the +thoughtless. Eighty years of work for humanity's sake; eighty years +devoted to teaching men to love mankind; eighty years of earnest labor, +consecrated by friendship, cemented with love and beautified by truth. +In ancient times men sought glory and renown in gladiatorial combat, +though the victor's laurel was wet with human blood. In modern times +men seek the plaudits of the world by achievements for human good, and +by striving to elevate and ennoble men. Looking back through nineteen +centuries we behold a cross, and on it the crucified Christ, with +nail-pierced hands, and wounded, bleeding side, but whose heart was so +full of love and pity that even in His dying agonies He had compassion +upon His persecutors, and cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they +know not what they do." + +That event was the dividing line between the ancient and the modern +era; between the rule of "brute force" and the "mild dominion of love +and charity." The mission of Odd-Fellowship, like that of the lowly +Nazarene, is to replace the rule of might with the gentle influence of +love, and to teach a universal fraternity in the family of man. To +meet and satisfy and better keep alive the nobler elements of man's +nature. Many orders have been instituted, but none can challenge +greater admiration from men, or deserve more blessings from heaven, +than the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. Looking back along the +pathway of the century behind us we behold the wrecks of many orders. +The morning of their life was beautiful and full of glorious promise, +but the evening came and they had perished. Rich costumes, impressive +ceremonies, beautiful degrees and magnificent effects, all lie buried +and forgotten. It was not because their founders lacked energy or +enthusiasm, not because their members were less susceptible to the +beauty and poetry of tradition and ceremony, but because success and +perpetuity come not from human effort, but are the outgrowth of a +life-giving principle. The sculptor fashions from the marble a form of +surpassing loveliness, its lines are those of grace and beauty. We +stand before it charmed, whispering our admiration, but the impression +on the heart is only passing. The poet sings of home, of mother and of +love; the meter may be faulty and the words may charm not, but the +sentiment is true and touches our hearts. The experience it recites is +common to humanity, and wherever its sweet tones are heard it softens +men's natures and makes them better, truer and nobler. Who among us +would be willing to exchange the influence of the immortal song "Home +Sweet Home," or be willing to forget the Christian's "Nearer My God to +Thee," for all the inanimate beauty of art? One charms the eye, the +other touches and calls to life the best and sweetest emotions of the +human heart. So it is with fraternal societies. Flashing swords, +glittering helmets, jeweled regalias and beautiful degrees may touch +the vanity and excite the admiration, but to win the heart we must +satisfy its longings, feed its hopes and lift it above the narrowness +and selfishness of its daily experience. Odd-Fellowship strives to +touch the heart and better feelings, rather than feed the vanity of man +or arouse his admiration for gorgeous displays. Its work is an +exemplification of the living, practical Christianity of today. In +almost every state in this fair land of ours can be found Odd-Fellows' +homes, within whose walls the orphan is no longer motherless. For each +and every little one within these homes, one million Odd-Fellows feel a +father's love and pledge a parent's care. + +Add to all this great work the little deeds of love, the little acts of +kindness that make life beautiful; add kind words of cheer and friendly +help and tender consolation, and add again the benefit of union, the +strength that comes from hearts united in God's work among mankind, and +you have caught a glimpse of the life-giving principle that has made +Odd-Fellowship one of the grandest fraternal and beneficiary +institutions the world has ever known. The work it has done can not be +fully estimated until the record is read in the bright light of +eternity. In that glad day the tears that have been wiped away will +become jewels in somebody's crown, and the sobs that have been hushed +will be heard again in hosannas of welcome. + +Onward! is the ringing, pregnant watchword of the world. The vast, +complicated, ponderous machinery of life is kept in motion by tireless +and irresistible forces. The multiform and magnificent affairs of men +and of nations are all impelled forward with an energy and a velocity +as wonderful as glorious to behold. + +Not retrogressive, but progressive--not enervating, but energizing--not +ephemeral, but substantial--not from bad to worse, but from the +imperfect to the consummate, are the characteristics by which are so +prominently distinguished the tidal waves of the world's progress today. + +Activity and achievement came with creation, and constitute an +inflexible, irrepealable law of the universe. In stir and push we have +light and life, but in idleness, and superstitious clinging to +fossilized ideas and bygones, we have demoralization, decay and death. + +Fortunately for the world, and agreeably with infinite design, man +plods his way in harmony with the law alluded to. Not all men, but the +great masses of them, wherever "The true light shineth," especially +when accompanied by rays and helps from one of the noblest and grandest +of confraternities our world has known, "The Independent Order of +Odd-Fellows." When the huge planet which we call our world had been +tossed into being from the furnace fires of Omnipotence, and the +maternal lullaby began to gather force on hill top and in valley, the +discovery was naturally enough made that association and co-operation +were preferable to isolation and unrelieved dependence; and from that +hour forward, this principle has been interwoven into the very +framework of human society. The purpose has been the elevation and +improvement of mankind. For, though the first product was pronounced +"good," it quickly degenerated; and there came an emphasized demand for +reform. + + +EARLY ORGANIZATIONS. + +Human isolation is an unnatural condition. It antagonizes the highest +and best interests of the world. Its influence is never beneficent, +but always and necessarily harmful. If the truest well being of the +universe, and the supremest glory of Jehovah could have been attained +by conditions of solitude, it is not impossible that the good +All-Father would have given to every man a continent, and so have made +him monarch of all he surveyed. + +Physically regarded, there is no limit to Omnipotent power. A +continent, and even a world, was therefore within the pale of divine +possibilities. Jehovah, however, is not only great, but he is the +Greatness of Goodness. High and holy ends were to be accomplished, and +happy purposes to be secured, by means of human instrumentalities, and +be jointly shared by Creator and creature. + +Among the earliest of Deific utterances, therefore, we have this: "It +is not good that man should be alone." I concede that, primarily, the +companionship of woman is here intended. But the declaration is not +only good in this, but equally so in other regards. A lifetime of +solitude with no incentives to action--nothing to draw out, exercise +and expand the latent powers of the soul--no interchange of thought--no +clashing of opinion--no towering resolves to stimulate--no difficulties +to surmount! What imagination so fertile that it could picture a more +hateful or intolerable Hades than would be such a condition of affairs? + +Hence, in the early days of the world's history we discern the +principle of association and co-operation, with plans and systems +embodying its practical application. Organizations came into being, +obedient to the summons of necessity. How well the various +organizations have wrought along the pathway of centuries, and how +great or small may have been the measure of their success, I am not +here to discuss, much less to determine. Each has done its work in its +own way, and pockets responsibility for results. Common courtesy and +candor suggest that each has been largely animated by highest and +worthiest of motives. + + +ODD-FELLOWSHIP, + +Reared upon the broad catholic principle of brotherhood, extending its +helpful hand from nation to nation, and from continent to continent, +linking its votaries together with the golden triple chain of +Friendship, Love and Truth, can afford to be friendly with each, and +have a kindly word for all societies that reach down after and raise up +a fallen brother, and if possible make him wiser, better and happier. +Should a like courtesy be extended to this order, while it would +certainly constitute a new departure, it would prove none the less +gratifying. But, from certain sources, the order has been the +recipient of a peculiar kind of consideration, so long that "the memory +of man scarce runneth to the contrary." Inflamed appeals and bristling +denunciations have gone out against it, "while great, swelling +words"--swollen with hatred, bigotry, prejudice and superstition--have +assailed it relentlessly and almost uninterruptedly. Mainly, these +assaults have been met with the terse and pointed invocation, "Father, +forgive them; they know not what they do." + +That this great and potent brotherhood may not, in all its parts and +jurisdictions, have so deported itself, and so carried forward its +work, as to be justly free from unfavorable criticism and merited +censure, is probably true. As with organizations, there is sometimes +too much haste displayed in gathering, and too little discrimination +exercised in selecting, the materials that are brought as component +parts of the great superstructure of Odd-Fellowship. Too much daubing +with untempered mortar--too great a desire for the exhibition of +numerical force, and the multiplication of lodges--too much regard for +the outward trappings and paraphernalia, and too little regard for the +internal qualities of those seeking membership in the fraternity. Such +deplorable departures, as well from the primary as the ultimate objects +had in view, are not fairly attributable to anything that may be +reasonably considered as an outgrowth of the order, but come despite +its constant teachings and warnings. Bad work they of course make, and +so at times and to a limited extent bring the fraternity under the ban +of popular displeasure, but shall the world predicate unfavorable +judgment upon a few and unfair tests? If so, and the principle +logically becomes general, pray who shall be appointed administrator of +the effects of other social and moral organizations, and even of the +church itself? For in these regards all offend, if offense it be. +When the principles of Odd-Fellowship are carefully studied it is +apparent to every candid mind that it is founded upon that eternal +principle which recognizes man as a constituent of one universal +brotherhood, and teaches him that as he came from the hand of a common +parent, he is in duty bound to cherish and protect his fellow-man. +Viewed in this light, Odd-Fellowship becomes one of the noblest +institutions organized by man in the world. If the beauty and grandeur +of universal brotherhood could be impressed upon the minds of all the +people, how very different from the past would the future history of +the world read. What a delightful place this old stone-ribbed earth +would be if men would look upon each other as brothers, members of one +common family; enjoying the many comforts of one home; trusting to the +guidance and protection of one Father--God. We are more nearly related +than we think. Running through all humanity there is a link of +relationship and a bond of sympathy that can not be exterminated. The +principle of brotherly love is so great and broad that all mankind +could unite in offices of human benefaction. Brother. Oh, how sacred +and how sweet when spoken by a true heart! Whether it be in the home +circle, lodge-room, or in some distant land, it sends the same soothing +thrill of joy to the heart. Let us pause just a moment to think of the +time and place when we first learned to call each other brother. Ah! +Methinks no Odd-Fellow will ever forget his first lesson. He will +always remember how quickly he was changed from the haughty disposition +manifested by that one of old, who, when he prayed, went to the public +square, or climbed to the house top, and thanked God that he was not +like other men, to the humble attitude of that one who stood afar off +and bowed his face in the dust, crying aloud, "O Lord! Be merciful +unto me a sinner." How very much like this ancient boaster are +thousands of the human family today. Sitting in high places, +surrounded by wealth and power, they see nothing beyond the narrow +circle in which they move. They are deaf to the low, sad wail of +sorrow that comes from some breaking heart. Seated by their own +comfortable fireside they give no thought to the lonely widow standing +outside in the cold. It distresses them not that the keen, wintry +blast sends its icy chill to the already broken heart. No thought, no +feeling, for this poor creature that must now fight the fierce battles +incident to human life, all alone. How sadly these tender duties to +suffering humanity are neglected when left to the cold charity of the +world. + +Odd-Fellowship seeks to lessen sorrow and suffering. It supplies +temporal wants; gives encouragement; aids and comforts those who are in +distress. In sickness we watch by their bedside and administer to +their wants. If death calls, Odd-Fellowship forsakes not its follower, +but hovers near, listening attentively to the last words and parting +instruction of the dying one. Brothers and friends, let me admonish +you to do all the good you can while in health and strength, for at +most life is short and we know not how soon the Angel of Death will +unfold his broad, shadowy wings over our path and call us to give an +account of our stewardship; then all that will remain of us on earth +will be the good or evil we have done. + +Odd-Fellowship is full of sacred teachings and sublime warnings. It +teaches us that we are in a world full of temptations, sin and sorrow. +We see the emblems of decay all around us. The strong man of today may +stand forth, nerved for toil, with all the bloom of health mantling +cheek and brow, seemingly as strong and vigorous as the mighty oak, and +yet tomorrow he will fade as the autumn leaf. Then he realizes how +foolish it is to be vain; thinks of the instability of wealth and +power, and the certain decay of all earthly greatness. Odd-Fellowship +teaches us that charity springs from the heart, is not puffed up, seeks +not its own. It makes us strong, and encourages us to push on through +life, even though we are beset on every side with toil, danger and +strife. Brothers, let nothing cause you to turn back or away from the +principles of our noble order. Cling closer and closer each day to +honesty and truth, and bear in mind that be the road ever so rough and +untraveled, narrow and dark, if you follow truth you will find light at +the end of the journey. + + +THE SECRESY OBJECTION. + +More common, perhaps, than any other filed against it has been the +objection that Odd-Fellowship does its work secretly, this objection +being not unfrequently urged by persons of candor and honest impulses. +"If," it is demanded, "the aims and purposes of the order be legitimate +and praiseworthy, why shroud them in mystery rather than give them the +broad sunlight of publicity." + +The objection is not new, nor is it urged with any increase of its +original force, whatever may be the fact in the matter of vehemence. +Answer might be made: The order does not choose to ascend to the house +tops for the purpose of heralding its affairs to the world. But that +answer would not be satisfactory, nor is any likely to be that may be +presented, now or hereafter. It is nevertheless true that there are +certain matters pertaining to the order and its works with which the +outside world has no sort of concern, even as with those very peculiar +secret societies, the individual, the family, the church and the state. +If other organizations prefer to resort to the newspapers, the pulpit, +the rostrum and other information conduits for the purpose of +advertising their wares, their greatness and their goodness, and the +vast amount of humanitarian work they are doing and purposing, such is +their unquestioned privilege. + +But if the preference of Odd-Fellowship be for quieter and less +obtrusive methods, pray who shall fairly contest its right of choice? + +And then it should be remembered that there are matters in which the +right hand is prohibited the privilege of interfering with the +prerogatives of the left, and the left with those of the right. Nor +should the fact be forgotten that there is Divine example, if not +precept, for the established "modus operandi" of the order. Upon a +certain occasion the Great Teacher had performed a very humble service +for one of his disciples who was sadly at loss for the why and the +wherefore, and the answer, received to his inquiry was: "What I do thou +knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." + +And in the grand hereafter, when the films of ignorance and the +warpings of prejudice and superstition shall have melted away under the +bright sunlight of Eternal Day, it is not impossible that our vexed, +inquisitive, worrying opponents may be permitted to look back over the +pathway this order has traversed, glance at the work that has been +wrought and peradventure discover how unreasonable, as well as +fruitless, has been the warfare they have been pleased to wage with +such persistent fury. A long time to wait, maybe, but then good things +do not come rapidly nor all at once. Meanwhile, to encourage them in +their waiting, their watching and their worrying, let them take this +lesson from the same Great Teacher: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, +and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh +or whither it goeth." Ah, no! it will not do, because you can not see +and comprehend all of everything, inside as well as outside, to +conclude that it must necessarily be bad. Adopt that theory, and you +not only fly in the face of reason, but bump your head against almost +everything in nature, in art and in science. + +Secrets! yes; they are within us and without us, above us and beneath +us and all about us, and "what are you going to do about it?" Well +might Israel's old and gifted poet king write: "We are fearfully and +wonderfully made," soul and body, the mortal and the immortal, the +material and the immaterial, strangely and mysteriously conjoined! +God's secret, this! Will you denounce Him and withdraw allegiance from +Him, for the reason that He fails to make clear to you a clear and +satisfying revelation? The same old singer said thousands of years +ago, "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth +His handiwork." And those heavens, with that firmament, are charged +and surcharged with mightiest and profoundest secrets. We seize the +telescope and "plunge into the vast profound overhead, intent upon +mastering the secrets of the revolving spheres." + +We travel from star to star, from system to system, until we reach yon +lonely star that appears to be performing the Guardian's task, upon the +verge of unmeasured and immeasurable space. We may descry and describe +the form and outlines of those heavenly bodies, detect their movements +and approximately determine their distances and dimensions. But what +more? Little that is satisfying. When they had a beginning, what +purposes they subserve in the sublime system of God's stupendous +universe, and when they shall have a consummation, we may not certainly +know. Secrets, these, and such "Secret things belong unto God." We +would like to know these secrets, but must wait; for there, "roll those +mighty worlds that gem the distant sky," as distantly and dismally as +when Chaldean and Egyptian astronomers and astrologers viewed their +movements three thousand years ago, rifled meanwhile of but few of +their well kept secrets. He that pencils the lily and paints the rose +and gives to every blade of grass its own bright drop of dew, has been +pleased to say: "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further." And there +is great unwisdom in setting up factious opposition to the fiat of +Omnipotence. Possess your souls in patience, O friends! wait, as we +must wait, before knowing all, or even knowing much. If you can not be +Odd-Fellows, you can at least be _men_, with an effort. + + +WHAT IS ODD-FELLOWSHIP? + +"But, sir," you demand, "can you tell us something more about +Odd-Fellowship, its purposes and its Work?" I can, a little. Come +with me, then, and we will look into the lodge. Ah! In the most +conspicuous place there stands an altar--upon it the open Bible, the +world's great word of Life and Light. Upon the principles enunciated +by that Book, largely rests the great superstructure of Odd-Fellowship. +The Bible is to the order what the sun is to the material universe--its +illuminator and vivifier, even as it also is the, guide to faith and +practice. A man may neglect his closet, his church, his Bible, but +when he enters the lodge he is bound to listen to the voice of his +Maker, as it thunders from His word; and while the lodge does by no +means lay claim to the possession of religious attributes, yet has it +been the means, by the constant use of the Bible, of turning many from +the ways of wrong-doing and sin, into paths of pleasantness and peace; +and by a unique system of symbolism and a comprehensive and practical +application of its sublime truths, the faith of the believer has been +strengthened, enlarged and rendered usefully active. + +Odd-Fellowship's plan of benefaction addresses itself to the physical +as well as the moral nature, and, reaching out from its immediate +subjects, permeates by natural affinity every sphere in which active +sympathy may be invoked. Its mission and its results are not only +active and substantial, but often so effective by its consequential or +indirect influence as to penetrate entire communities. In this +connection I will say Odd-Fellowship is not a religious organization. +Our work pertains particularly to this life, educating the heart of man +to practical beneficence, alleviating the sufferings of humanity and +elevating the character of man. Odd-Fellowship was not organized for +the purpose of ridding the world of all its sorrows, but to ameliorate +and to soften the suffering to which the human family is heir. It is +an association of men who have united themselves for the purpose of +smoothing the ragged edge of want, and extending to those who are bound +down by the iron bands of misfortune a helping hand. Odd-Fellowship +holds no affinity with the classifications or distinctions of society, +but dispenses charity to all alike. It does not array itself against +the church, nor presume to arrogate its functions, or to supervise its +teachings. Its lodges are not the council rooms of enmity to +religious, civil, moral or social organizations. Far otherwise; all +its oracles and instructions in relation to these grave subjects find +their warrant and authority in the divine law, under the inspiration of +which it proclaims the Golden Rule as the sublimest illustration of the +law of love. Odd-Fellowship keeps a close watch over its subjects, and +constantly impresses upon their minds the fact that their hearts must +not foster evil, the progenitor of crime, or hatred and vice, whose +evil consequences must continue to afflict mankind until the coming of +that time to which hope looks forward with ardent joy, when one law +shall bind all nations, tongues and kindred of the earth, and that law +will be the law of "_Universal Brotherhood_." Odd-Fellowship also +teaches us that we are never to judge a man by his outward appearance. +A man's form may be clothed with rags, his hands may be rough and hard, +his cheeks may be browned by the rays of summer's sun; yet underneath +all this there may be an honest heart. If so, we take him by the hand +and call him brother. Odd-Fellowship teaches equality; we must meet +upon one common level. The brother who lives in the rough log cabin +enjoys the same right and privileges as the monarch on his throne. We +live, we move and have our being, and are indebted for all things to +the One Great Ruler of the Universe--God. All persons are desirous of +being happy, and happiness is sought for in various ways. +Odd-Fellowship teaches that man is responsible for his own misery. I +believe that no mere misfortune can ever call for exceeding bitter +sorrow. As long as man preserves himself from contamination of that +which is evil and foul, he can not reach any very low depth of woe. By +his own act, by his own voluntary desertion of the true aim of life, +and by that alone, is it possible that a man should drink his cup of +misery to the dregs. The want of happiness, so prevalent, is thus the +natural consequence of the inherent blindness of men. By it they are +led to pursue eagerly the phantom of _wealth_, _rank_, power, etc., +white neglecting that which alone can satisfy the wants of the soul. +If men could really know what is their chief good, we should no longer +hear on every hand prayers offered up for those idle accoutrements of +life, which may indeed be enjoyed, but often bring only +dissatisfaction, and can be dispensed with without inconvenience to +mankind. + +Many persons say Odd-Fellowship is contrary to the teachings of the +Bible. The way such people read their Bible is just like the way that +the old monks thought hedgehogs ate grapes. They rolled themselves +over and over where the grapes lay on the ground. What fruit stuck to +their spines they carried off and ate. So your hedgehoggy readers roll +themselves over and over their Bibles and declare that whatever sticks +to their spines is Scripture and that nothing else is. But you can +only get the skins of the texts that way. If you want their juice you +must press them in cluster. Now the clustered texts about the human +heart insist as a body, not on any inherent corruption in all hearts, +but on the terrific distinction between the bad and the good ones. "A +good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that +which is good, and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth +forth that which is evil." + +"They on the rock are they which, in an honest and good heart, having +heard the word, kept it." + +"Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of +thine heart. The wicked have bent their bow that they may privily +shoot at him that is upright in heart." For all of us, the question is +not at all to ascertain how much or how little corruption there is in +human nature, but to ascertain whether, out of all the mass of that +nature, we are the sheep or the goat breed; whether we are people of +upright heart being shot at, or people of crooked heart doing the +shooting. + +And of all the texts bearing on the subject, this, which is a quite +simple and practical order, is the one you have chiefly to hold in +mind: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues +of life." + +The will of God respecting us is, that we shall live by each others +happiness and life; not by each others misery or death. + +Men help each other by their joy, not by their sorrow. There is but +one way in which man can ever help God--that is, by letting God help +him. + +A little boy, who had often heard his father pray for the poor, that +they might be clothed and fed, interrupted him one day by saying, +"Father, if you will give me the key to your corn crib and wheat bin, I +will answer some of your prayers." + +Ah! my friends, always keep in mind this truth, "One hour of justice is +worth seventy years of prayer." + +Call not this, then, a Godless institution, rioting in selfishness and +infidelity, as it has been denominated by certain super-excellent +Christians, who appear to have fully persuaded themselves that no good +can possibly come from such a Nazareth. For, with the constant and +unvarying light of the Holy Bible, that illuminated lexicon of the +sweet Beyond, and of the approaches thereto--that trusty talisman of +all hopeful hearts--that competent counselor of the wisest and the +best--that inspirer of joy and satisfaction born of no other book--that +precious presager of immortal life beyond the river--that divine guide +to faith and practice, can by no means fail in the ultimate working out +of its sublime purposes. + +In the ranks of Odd-Fellowship there are many of the truest, noblest, +sharpest and most holy men in the civilized world. None of these have +been able to make that "Godless and selfish" discovery. This brilliant +achievement is reserved for those favored mortals that never saw the +inside of an Odd-Fellow's lodge, and are entirely ignorant of its +character and practical workings. The order has increased largely in +wealth, power and influence. Large cities and towns, which formerly +paid little or no attention to us, now eagerly welcome us to their +hospitalities. + +Judges and governors vie with each other in doing us honor, and well +may we be proud of the position the order has attained. Just think of +it a moment: when you clasp hands with an Odd-Fellow here in your own +home, you are really clasping hands with one million men who have +obligated themselves to stay with you through every trial and +misfortune. Wonder no longer, then, at the growth and stability of +this great fraternity, or that its votaries cling to it with such +unshaken and unswerving fidelity. Ah! it is no light matter, no small +privilege, to be admitted to membership in such an organization--so +freeing one's self from the surgings of self-seeking and selfish +considerations--free from the trammels of prevailing prejudice and +passion--free from the false educational influences that warp the mind +and drive charity from the heart. + +Our order's emblem is the three links, + +FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND TRUTH. + +Friendship, love, truth--golden links these, that not only bind +together their obligated votaries, but that recognize and embrace, +because of worthiness and plighted faith, that behind the back as well +as face to face, have a defensive, kindly word and a brother's generous +deed; that, amid the upheavals of communities and the crumbling of +nations, systems and governments, swerve not from their course, and are +corralled by no arbitrary bounds, and that, whatever the dialect, the +nationality or the religion of men, read upon humanity's brow the +inscription written by the finger of infinite love--a man and a +brother, a woman and a sister. + +A faithful and true friend is a living treasure, estimable in +possession and deeply to be lamented when gone. Nothing is more common +than to talk of a friend; nothing more difficult than to find one; +nothing more rare than to improve by one as we ought. + +The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is +to be one. Such is friendship. Next in our golden chain is Love. +Love is the stepping stone to heaven. This principle teaches man his +capabilities for good, enlightens his mind, enlarges the sphere of his +affections and leads him to that true fraternal relation which was +designed by the Great Author of his existence. Love teaches us to be +self-sacrificing. For a bright instance of this we point you to Moses, +the great law-giver of the Jews. He turned his back on the splendors +of Pharaoh's court and chose rather to share the wretchedness of his +lowly people than serve as a king for their oppressors, finally dying +in sight of that inheritance, which, though denied to him, was given to +his ungrateful countrymen. How very bright on the pages of history +shine such acts of love and sacrifice. This principle belongs to no +one organization, party or sect. It can be made to bud and bloom as +well under the fierce rays of the torrid zone, midst the icebergs of +Greenland, or the everlasting snows of Caucasus. It always carries the +same smile, whether in the cabin or in the palace. Following in its +footsteps there is such a halo of glory, such a gentle influence, that +it gathers within its sacred realm antagonistic natures, controls the +elements of discord, stills the storm, soothes the spirit of passion, +and directs in harmony all of man's efforts to fraternize the world. +In this strangely selfish and uncertain world none are so affluent or +favorably circumstanced as not at some time and in some way to become +dependent. Oh! there are emphasized essentialities that are not +embraced among the commodities of the market, and in order to the +realization of which money possesses no purchasing power. To relieve +the pungent pinchings of penury with raiment, food and shelter, and so +send the sunshine of gladness to the poor and needy, is +something--indeed is much. But, ah! the delicate and intricate +mechanism of mind is out of gear, a secret sorrow swells and sways the +heart, and unitedly they cry: "Who will show us any good? Who remove +this rankling sorrow? What good Samaritan competent to the task of +affording relief to this dazed brain?" Oh! it is here that the trained +votaries of the triple brotherhood bring to bear their wondrous power. +If it be true "that one touch of nature makes the whole world kin," it +is equally true that the ties of brotherhood here would wield their +most potent influence, and of the true Odd-Fellow well may it be said, +"He hath a tear for pity, and a hand open as day for melting charity." + +TRUTH! crown jewel of the radiant sisterhood of queenly graces! She +can not be crushed to earth. The eternal years of God being hers, she, +no more than her author, can go down. Error may fling widely open his +arsenal gates of defilement and deceit, and seek so earnestly and +tirelessly the usurpation of her throne; but there she sits, as firmly +and gracefully as when the morning stars sang together and the sons of +God shouted for joy. Such is truth, the rarest of all human virtues. + +The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, as to +be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world, is in +possession of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course +of such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear +from the world and is sure of the approbation of heaven. While he who +is conscious of secret and dark designs, which, if known, would blast +him, is perpetually shrinking and dodging from public observation, and +is afraid of all around, and, much more, of all above him. Such a man +may indeed pursue his iniquitous plans steadily; he may waste himself +to a skeleton in the guilty pursuit, but it is impossible that he can +pursue them with the same health-inspiring confidence and exulting +alacrity with him who feels at every step that he is in pursuit of +honest ends by honest means. The clear, unclouded brow, the open +countenance, the brilliant eye, which can look an honest man +steadfastly, yet courteously, in the face, the healthfully beating +heart and the firm, elastic step, belong to him whose bosom is free +from guile, and who knows that all his motives and purposes are pure +and right. Why should such a man falter in his course? He may be +slandered, he may be deserted by the world, but he has that within him +which will keep him erect, and enable him to move onward in his course, +with his eyes fixed on heaven, which he knows will not desert him. + +Odd-Fellowship teaches its members to be men of honor. When I say +honest, I use it in its larger sense of discharging all your duties, +both public and private, both open and secret, with the most +scrupulous, heaven-attesting integrity; in that sense, farther, which +drives from the bosom all little, dark, crooked, sordid, debasing +considerations of self, and substitutes in their place a bolder, +loftier and nobler spirit, one that will dispose you to consider +yourselves as born not so much for yourselves as for your country and +your fellow-creatures, and which will lead you to act on every occasion +sincerely, justly, generously and magnanimously. There is a morality +on a larger scale, perfectly consistent with a just attention to your +own affairs, which it would be folly to neglect; a generous expansion, +a proud elevation and conscious greatness of character, which is the +best preparation for a decided course in every situation into which you +can be thrown; and it is to this high and noble tone of character that +I would have you to aspire. I would not have you to resemble those +weak and meagre streamlets, which lose their direction at every petty +impediment that presents itself, and stop and turn back, and creep +around, and search out every channel through which they may wind their +feeble and sickly course. Nor yet would I have you resemble the +headlong torrent that carries havoc in its mad career; but I would have +you like the ocean, that noblest emblem of majestic decision, which in +the calmest hour still heaves its resistless might of waters to the +shore, filling the heavens day and night with the echoes of its sublime +declaration of independence, and tossing and sporting on its bed with +an imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposition. It is +this depth and weight and power and purity of character that I would +have you resemble; and I would have you, like the waters of the ocean, +to become the purer by your own action. Men are sometimes ruined +because they aim not at virtue, but only at the reputation which it +brings. Odd-Fellowship teaches its members to be brave, honest and +diligent. If we have these attributes, victory must surely crown our +efforts. How often in the history of our country have men of humble +birth come forth in time of danger, and, nobly risking all, even to +death, or disgrace worse than death itself, stood between their country +and defeat, and built for themselves a glorious name. Nor, alas! is +the opposite case to this unknown. Some of America's proudest sons +have, by their own acts, sunk themselves into the inner-most depths of +infamy and vice. + + "Virtue alone is true nobility. + Oh, give me inborn worth! dare to be just, + Firm to your word and faithful to your trust." + +Knowledge is a mighty rock in a weary land, and to you, brothers, 'tis +permitted to smite this rock, and from it gushes fountains of living +waters, which form rivers of wisdom, flowing to the uttermost parts of +the earth, carrying the proper idea of life to the souls of men. The +river of science flows in a deep, straight course, searching out the +hidden mysteries, and demonstrating facts, while Truth builds her +defenses on its shores, and Love rears her fair palaces and calmly +enjoys the result of labor and research. History, with its broad +stream bringing knowledge down through the vanished centuries, +revealing many a lost art, which avails us much in these later days. +Mysteries which magicians have left behind them--secrets for ages +undusted--that we may read the records of the past. + +Experience builds citadels upon these heights. Flowing parallel to +history is the great, turbid stream of politics. Its crimson billows +cast wrecks upon the strand, and the moaning waves strangely blend the +tones of grand martial music with the discords of despair and +disappointment, for it is a treacherous tide. Along its winding shores +war builds her forts, and there are fields of carnage and blood, and +dark fortresses of envy, from which fly the poisoned shafts of malice, +falsehood and revenge, and there are many graves in which lie ambition, +glory and renown, with all their brilliant dreams. Opposite to this +from the rock of knowledge gush the sweet fountains of poetry and +music, singing on their way through fair, secluded dells, where there +are moss-covered rocks, clinging vines, fragrant flowers and ferns and +singing birds. In their shining waves of light are mirrored the azure +sky, golden sunshine and fleecy clouds, while youth, beauty, laughter +and joy stray along the verdant shores, keeping time to the music of +the merry spray and weaving garlands to crown their radiant brows. + +Not far from the rock of true knowledge flows a deep stream, calm, +clear and beautiful. Majestically it sweeps through stately forests, +extended plains and lofty mountains; and the fair cities of honesty, +temperance and truth are built upon its shores. This wonderful stream +is fed by the ever-living fountains of honor, morality, justice, mercy +and divine love. The music of its waves sends forth hymns of true +patriotism, love of country and of home; and the sweet songs of faith +and immortality float upward like strong, white wings, bearing the soul +away on pure melody above this world of longing and of hope, until it +rises to meet the world of glory and fulfillment. Upon these shores +faith, hope, charity and security have reared their white temples, +which shall ever represent a living institution, bearing on its banner +as a motto these beautiful words: + +FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND TRUTH. + +The stream which I have just described is the great river of +Odd-Fellowship, and flows into the vast ocean of eternal peace, and +such is the momentum and indestructibility of Odd-Fellowship, that, +like a great river fed from inexhaustible sources, men may come and men +may go, but it goes on forever and forever. + +Brothers, these are the streams flowing from the smitten rock whose +fountains you unseal. + +Standing at the mouth of the Columbia River, one can hear the ocean +waves moaning, surging, thundering forevermore. You can not stay the +rushing tides that come and go, ebb and flow, until time shall be no +more; and there the great river of the west, the mighty Columbia, +pouring her floods into that vast, boundless sea, so shall +Odd-Fellowship pour her deep, exhaustless stream into futurity, and all +the combined forces of opposition, ignorance and fear shall have no +power to stay the onward rushing, overwhelming flood. Wafted back to +us from the unexplored shore across that sea--softly whispering through +the rose marine spirit of the mist--intuitive knowledge reveals the +throne of the Grand Lodge above, from which flows the pure river of +life, on whose shores grow the trees of knowledge and of life immortal, +which bear no fruit of sin, but whose leaves are for the healing of +poor, suffering humanity. Brothers, build such a character as will +cause Christ and the angels to rejoice when they behold it. Then, when +life's work is done, when the blessed Master calls, you will not look +mournfully into the past, but will look eagerly into the mighty future +just opening before you. + +And as your life goes out amidst the rustling of an angel's wings--like +a summer sea asleep upon a sandy shore--you will not regret that you +practiced the principles laid down by our noble order, + +FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND TRUTH. + + + + +THE HIGHER LIFE + +Manhood, fully developed and symmetrically formed, through the various +stages of the world's history, has been the great conservative element +of society, and has been in high request. Some ages, however, have +seemed to make a larger demand for this element than others, and this +age of ours is one which yields to none of its predecessors in its call +for manliness of character--for men of the right stamp. The perils of +the times are imminent, and the demand for a high grade of intelligence +and great strength of moral principle never was stronger. New +developments of human genius and activity, are constantly arising, and +new dangers to the dearest interests of society are calling for +vigilance. This is neither a stagnant nor a tame and quiet age. It is +an age of activity, of enterprise, of speculation, of adventure, of +philosophizing and of both real and pseudo reforms. The age eminently +demands vigorous and mature manhood. Therefore, study, think, +investigate, learn. Remember, however, that it is not knowledge stored +up as intellectual fat which is of value, but that which is turned into +intellectual muscle. Out of dull and selfish seclusion go forth. +Regulate with care your basal endowments. Prove thy strength, and +render it sure. Deliver thy conceptions from narrowness, thy charity +from scrimpness, thy purposes from smallness. Deny thyself and take up +thy cross. Do and dare, love and suffer. So shalt thou build a +character that will abide all the tests which future years or ages may +bring. + +Bear constantly in mind that you are endlessly improvable. "It is for +God and for Omnipotency to do mighty things in a moment; but +degreeingly to grow to greatness is the course that He hath left for +man." To the conscious human self there belong possibilities of such +moment that no one can well study them without being either thrillingly +impressed or made to experience unusual emotions. The conclusion is, +therefore, unavoidable, that every soul can become great. By processes +of culture to which it is able to subject itself, it can perpetually +increase in wisdom, in strength, and in nobleness. + +The soul's chief capabilities may, for the sake of elucidation, be +represented as so many different rooms within itself, each of which can +be made to have a spaciousness equaled by no material amplitude ever +yet ascertained, and each of which, so long as it is kept in the +process of growth, is and will be susceptible of fresh furnishing. +These apartments of the minor man are too wonderful to admit being +depicted either by a writer's pen or by a painter's brush. Their most +distinguishing characteristics can, at best, only be indicated. Who +can tell how much knowledge can find place in them, or what volumes of +feeling they can contain? Who can declare the magnitude of the +grandest traits that, in them, can have freedom to thrive and bear +fruit? Who can estimate the length and breadth, the height and depth +of the loftiest inspirations or the noblest joys that, in them, can be +experienced? To give a full expression to the utmost intelligence, +potency, amiability, purity, meritoriousness and majesty that can +reside in the capability--rooms of a human soul--would be equivalent to +picturing the imaginable or to portraying the infinite, and to do +either the one or the other is impossible. One may be sadly +indifferent to the value of his soul's foremost capabilities, may +inadequately exercise them, and may secure to them merely a dwarf-like +compass; but there is never a time when they can not be made to +transcend the limits of development to which they have attained. Their +possessor can educate them forever. He can unceasingly add to their +roominess and resource. In all time to come he can cause them to +continue to exceed breadth after breadth. Oh, who can conceive how +great his mental being is able to become? Who can comprehend how +elevated a life it is possible for him to live? Who can be liable to +overrate the vastness of the destiny for which he was created? + +In the language of Hughes, "Our case is like that of a traveler on the +Alps, who should fancy that the top of the next hill must end his +journey because it terminates his prospect, but he no sooner arrives at +it, than he sees new ground and other hills beyond it, and continues to +travel on as before." The thought of the soul's improvability is well +adapted to quicken torpid virtue and to revive drooping aspirations. +It tends to scatter the gloom resulting from disappointed endeavors. +Let it but have a star-like clearness in the mind, and there will +spring from it an ever-new interest in life and being. + +We know that the paths of usefulness and affection must sometimes be +strewn with smitten leaves and faded bloom, and that the heart must +sometimes be chilled by harsh changes, even as the face of nature is +chilled by rude winds. We know that we are doomed to find thorns in +roses, and to suffer from "thorns in the flesh." We know that there +are for us hours when the sunshine without must be darkened by shadows +within; when we must be pierced by trials; when we must be humbled by +afflictions. Yet, so we but duly know our mental possibilities, how +much there is to animate us and to make us hopeful. Well may we go our +way, with a high ambition and with good cheer. Well may we prize, as a +stage of action, this old stone-ribbed earth, whereon we can behold the +beauty of emerald meadows and of blossoming plants, and can hear the +songs of russet-bosomed robins and the prattle of children, the voice +of the vernal breeze, and the sound of the summer rain. Oh, who that +ever muses on the soul's heirship to the divine, can wish he had never +been born? I am grateful for my existence. I rejoice that I have +place amid the bright-robed mysteries which surround me. I glory in +the shifting scenery of the seasons. No flaw do I find in the sun, the +moon, or the stars. No prayer have I to make that the grass which +grows at my feet may be fairer than it is, or that the mornings and +evenings may be more attractive. Let me know as I may, and feel as I +should, the truth that I am endlessly improvable, and I am assured that +the soul of the universe will somehow sweeten every bitter allotment +that falls to me, will "charm my pained steps over the burning marl" +which belongs to the course of probationary experience, and will assist +me joyfully to approximate the greatness of His own infinite and +tranquil character. It is bliss to feel that the soul is an +ever-enduring entity. Unlike the clouds and the snow-heaps, the fluids +and the liquids, the rocks and the metals--unlike all the generations +of living organisms--it neither wastes away nor loses its +distinctiveness. Nay, it outlasts every transmuting process, and, as a +self-identifying self, is endlessly living. + +If we reach the high plane of a perfect manhood, we must climb. "Come +up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter."--Rev., +iv, 1. In this mystical Revelation we behold the seer, John, dreaming +at the base of the celestial hill, and in his dream he hears a voice +commanding him to rise to the summit of the eternities, where, +standing, he shall behold all things that must be. This vision has an +infinite significance, in that no small part of the felicity associated +with the| idea of eternity is the thought that, with ample mind, we +shall perfectly understand the mighty plan and enterprise of God, and +know with perfect knowledge that which is dark and obscure now. But +not only has this truth to us an infinite significance; it has also a +temporal one, in that it tells us that there is an immediate +relationship between elevation of life, between high thinking, living +and doing, and the power to command the future. "Come up hither, and I +will show thee things which must be hereafter." That is, let us stand +high and we see far and wide, let us stand high and we see deep. +Elevation grants perspective and yields the possession of those years +not only that are, but that are not. Now, so understood, these words +have much inspiration, comfort and solace for all of us, for a very +large part of man's life is future. Indeed, the great regulative force +of every human spirit is not so much the present and the past--present +opportunity and past experience--as future ideality. The architectonic +principle of life is not the momentum that sweeps down to us from the +years that have been, but the ideal that lies deep in the years that +are yet to be. This is the mysterious, occult power that moulds, forms +and fashions our stature, and that is determining the greatness or the +littleness of our destiny. And not only is the future architectonic, +it is also an inspiration and refuge for our anxieties, defeats and +inadequacy, his incompetency, how little he has achieved, realizes his +inconsequence and insignificance, and he looks forward and sees triumph +in tomorrow; he beholds the summit of the hill, and says, "There I +shall stand victorious some future day." Today incomplete, tomorrow +complete; today imperfect, tomorrow perfect; today bound, tomorrow +emancipated; today humiliated, tomorrow crowned. Hence, the future is +man's refuge, hope and strength. And in a yet more profound sense does +the future exert a wonderful power over our lives, in that it holds for +us the inheritance undefiled and incorruptible, the patrimony of +eternity. And who can measure the influence of this belief over human +character? Blot it out, and what inspiration have we to struggle on? +If we are to perish as the beast of the field, wither like the grass, +and vanish like the transient cloud, man has no grand, sublime +impulsion in this life. But let him believe that he is the child of +God, that there is an immortal soul, not only in him, but an eternal +sphere awaiting him--let him believe that here he is but in the bud, +that these seventy years are but the seed time, and that infinite eons +lie before him for fruition and efflorescence, and you magnify his +spirit, enlarge his hope, and inspire him with a zeal to conquer and +achieve. + +But now there is a popular philosophy that tells us that man can only +know two points of time: that point of time through which he has +gone--the past, and that point of time in which he is now living--the +present. He may know experience and he may grasp opportunity, but he +can know nothing of futurity. The future is a riddle, an unexplored +continent, a _terra incognita_ into which no human eyes have ever pried +or ever may pry, sealed as it is by the counsel of God against the +curious vision of His children. And to some extent I think we all must +admit that this popular notion holds true. There are those to whom the +future must be a blank, who peer into it and behold nothing there. + +I have noticed that no great poem, no great religion, no great creation +of any kind, was ever written or conceived by people who lived in the +valleys, cramped by the hills. The hills narrow one's horizon, make +one insular, provincial, limited. And what is true of literature and +art is true also of life. The man of low ideals never vaticinates; the +man who is living down in the lower ranges of existence never +prophesies. The man with a low brow has always a limited perspective; +so, also, the man with a low heart or a low conscience. The sordid man +can never measure the consequences of his wealth. He may know that +tomorrow he will be as rich as he is today, or richer, but he can not +prognosticate what his riches will mean to him tomorrow--whether he +will find in them more or less felicity, whether they will be a +blessing or a burden. Neither has the base man, the immoral man, any +clear vision of futurity. He lives in doubts and fears, and is begirt +with clouds and confusion. He half fears that there is a law of God, +and half doubts it; half believes in retribution, and half doubts it; +half believes in moral cause and effect, and half doubts it. He sees, +with no certain sight, the inevitable penalty awaiting his wrong-doing, +else he would not and dare not sin. No man would sin, could he read +the future; no man would defy the Infinite, did he unerringly know that +God is a just God, and that He shall visit inevitable retribution upon +him who trangresses His holy law. The wicked man, like the sordid man +living in the low lands, never vaticinates, and can not, not by reason +of any want of talent or conscience, but by reason of want of altitude +of vision. But St. John does not tell us here that all men shall know +all things that must be; that all men have a sense of futurity. What +he does say is that there is an intimate and indissoluble relationship +between elevation and futurity; that only the man who stands upon the +altitudes can command the future; for only there, when he is at his +best, and when he is living on the summit of his soul, does he behold +the true and perfect action of the forces and the laws of the Eternal. +It is not "Stay down there and I will show thee things which must be +hereafter," but "Come up hither"--live, aspire, ascend into the +altitudes of mind; ascend into the altitudes of feeling; ascend into +the altitudes of conscience; live where God means you to live, and +then--"I will show thee things which must be hereafter." + +And now, if you will consult your own experience or meditate on +history, if you will scan the great things thought and the great things +done, and the great things wrought and the great things won by man, you +will see that they have been always wrought and won and done and +thought upon the heights. The Muses live upon Parnassus, the Deities +upon Olympus. Jehovah has his abiding place on Zion. David says, "I +look unto the hills, whence cometh my help." Not unto the meadows, or +the streams, or by the forests, or the cities, or the seas, but "unto +the hills, whence cometh my help." He looks high, and his high vision +grants him spiritual perspective. And Jesus speaks his great sermon, +not by the Jordan, but on the mount. He is transfigured on a mount, +crucified on a mount, and ascends to the right hand of His Father from +a mount. Everywhere the heights play a great part in the history of +human thought, feeling and faith. All great truth comes down; it does +not rise up. All great religion comes down; it does not rise up. It +is not the wilderness, nor the low lands, nor the level places, but +Mount Carmel, Mount Horeb, Mount Zion, the Mount of the Beatitudes and +the Mount of Transfiguration that are focal points of righteousness and +faith. And when you look at and reflect upon men--the great men, the +men who have moulded the world, who have made the massive contributions +to humanity, who have dealt the Titan strokes that have redeemed the +race from its servitudes and bestialities, who, like Atlas, have upheld +and lifted up the world; who, like Prometheus, have brought to man +precious gifts from Zeus, and so delivered him from the tyranny and +dominion of his ignorance, superstitions, fears and passions--you will +always find that they are men who have lived upon the lofty summits of +the Spirit, and therefore have been seers of the future and have seen +"those things which must be hereafter." + +Every high-minded man has always lived in the future. Take the +sovereign prophet of the ancient faith. The world about him is dark +and desolate; Israel's powers are at the ebb; the great faith that she +has inherited is degraded, sensualized, formalized, buried under a +debris of priestcraft, infidelity, idolatry and corruption; and yet +this prophet stands upon the hills and dreams--dreams against the +present, dreams through all the darkness environing him--and sees the +day when the faith of Israel shall be the faith of the world; when the +law of Israel shall dominate the conscience of the world; when the +Savior of Israel shall be the Savior of the world, and when the Jehovah +of Israel shall be the Jehovah of the world. Standing high, his soul +soaring, thinking lofty thoughts, he beholds Israel in glorious +perspective as the nation that shall lead man from bondage to liberty, +from darkness to light. Or think again of the life, the history, the +hope of Jesus, and behold in Him a perfect illustration of this truth; +this truth that there is an intimate relationship between high living +and high thinking, high doing, high willing and the vision of the +future. What right had Christ to hope at all? What right had He to +think of a Kingdom of God that was going steadily to conquer and take +possession of this earth? What right had He to think that His Gospel +would come to be the regnant gospel over the minds of men? What right +had He to think that His own beautiful spirit would prevail over the +perverse and rebellious will of society? What right had he to think +that the world would ever come to accept His marvelous beatitudes as +truth? What right had He to believe that the cross would ever be a +universal symbol of salvation? Judged from the near point of view, by +immediate results, by the facts that were right before His eyes, +history records no more conspicuous and terrible failure than the life +of Jesus. A Savior, and yet disbelieved in by the people; a Savior, +and yet scorned by the multitude; a Savior, and yet called a "wine +bibber" and a "glutton;" a Savior, and yet humiliated and degraded; a +Savior, and yet dying ignominiously upon the cross. Where is there any +ample redemption, any glorious assertion of the mind, in these sad, +gloomy, hopeless facts? And yet He said, "I, if I be lifted up, shall +draw all men unto Me." How did He dare make such a prophecy as that? +How did He dare arrogate to himself such a dominion as that? Why, +simply because, living in the altitudes, he had vision of things that +must be. He knew that He had righteousness in His heart, and that +righteousness must at last be established. He knew that His spirit was +a spirit of peace and good will towards men, and that peace and good +will towards men must ultimately prevail. He lived on the heights, and +He saw those things that were to be. And now, what is true of these +great men may be true of every one of us, according to the loftiness of +our living. Every one of us may command the future--may, in a measure, +prophesy and weigh the consequences, and calculate the issues of our +own life; and every one of us can live a far larger, fuller and richer +life, in the years that are to be than we can live in the past or in +the time that is now. + +And first, let me say to you that the man that lives upon the altitudes +of his spirit beholds with sure vision the issuance of his life in +triumph. We speak of life habitually as being a complicated and +intricate thing, and no doubt it is, upon its lower ranges. A man is +prosperous today, sweeping, with sails full set, before the breeze, his +bark leaping gladly, mounting buoyantly upon the waves; but no man can +tell what the morrow will bring forth to him. Prosperity is not a +matter of certitude, security or permanency. An ill wind comes, and +the vessel is swept to disaster; on the shoals or rocks, rushing to +destruction against some Scylla or swallowed up by some Charybdis. And +what is true of prosperity is true of power. Today a man is the idol +of the people, flattered, honored, extolled and crowned by them. They +gather round him and intoxicate him with their plaudits. He is the man +of the people, the great man of his day, but who can tell how long this +will rule enthroned? An unfortunate speech, an error of conduct, a +moment of indecision, a failure to appeal to the demagogic instincts of +the race, and he is ruthlessly bereaved of his honor and his glory +gone. The idols of yesterday are the broken statues of today; the +heroes of yesterday are the "have-beens" of today. So capricious, so +ephemeral, so mutable, so mercurial, so impermanent are the whims of +humanity, and so unstable its idolatries and adorations. + +And as the mighty fall, so the obscure rises. Names that were unknown +ten years ago are blazoned almost on the skies. The insignificant come +up and take the scepter in their hand. The poor man of a little while +ago is the rich merchant or the successful lawyer of today. This is +his hour, this the moment of his power. Strange, is it not? There +seems to be no method, no system in those lower planes of life. The +rich become poor and the poor rich, the strong weak and the weak +strong; the ruler becomes the ruled and the ruled the ruler; the master +becomes the servant and the servant the master. No order, no system, +no method anywhere in mundane things, and therefore no power of vision +and vaticination. + +But now in the higher things there is none of this impermanence and +instability. Everything is in order here. When man is living in the +fulness of his nature, when he is living on the heaven-kissing +pinnacles of his spirit, when his whole being is harmonious with the +great and glorious laws of God, his future is assured; it is bound to +be a great and beautiful success. No possibility of failure upon the +heights; every possibility of failure upon the level; every possibility +of disaster down there, but upon the peaks there can be no disaster, no +mistake, no accident, no dethronement; there must be inevitable and +unconditional achievement. Of course, I do not mean popular +achievement--achievement as men usually count achievement, or success +as men ordinarily rate success. So measured, every great man's life +has been a dismal failure. Paul's life was not a popular success, nor +was Isaiah's, nor was Augustine's, nor was Savanarola's, nor was +Socrates', nor was Christ's life a popular success. Measured by +terrestrial standards, measured by the low ideals of humanity, these +lives were all ignominious failures, every one of them; but measured by +the Divine standard, by the mind and will of God, they are triumphant +victories. + +And now I say that every man whose point of view is high, who is +standing upon the very highest reaches of his own being, seeking +sincerely to be true to all that is heroic and great in his +heaven-endowed nature, that man is bound to be, by the decree of the +Eternal, an ultimately successful man. He is bound, just so surely as +God's sun is bound to come tomorrow, he is bound to be crowned, not +only with a celestial but with a terrestrial success--success as God +measures success. He may feel pain; he may feel the slings and arrows +of outrageous fortune; he may experience neglect; he may contend +against a host of untoward circumstances; he may groan under the +pressure and weight of many woes; he may weep bitter, burning, scalding +tears of sorrow and grief, but still he must triumph, for God is just +and will crown with a perfect equity His faithful children. + +And so, my friends, the central truth that I deliver to you is this, +that life, life upon the summit of the soul, is the supreme, +resplendent luminary. Not argument, not philosophy, not the elaborate, +logical processes of the intellect, not the Bible, not the church, but +life; this is the great infallible interpreter. Live and ye shall see. +"Do my will," says Christ, "and ye shall know." Stand high and firm on +the summit of your soul and ye shall see the things that must be +hereafter--a victorious righteousness, a triumphant life, and the +redeemed hosts swathed and folded in the light of Him who is +everlasting, omnipotent and all-loving. + + + + +PITHY POINTS + +Brethren, be merciful in your judgment of others. + +Every temptation promptly resisted strengthens the will. + +There is a sad want of thoughtful mercy among us all. + +Every step we take on the ladder upwards helps to a higher. + +If we are true Odd-Fellows we will put away all bitterness and malice. + +Brothers, remember the moral harvest comes to all perfection; not one +grain is lost. + +As Odd-Fellows there are loads we can help others to carry, and thus +learn sympathy. + +The test of truthfulness is true dealing with ourselves when we do +wrong and true dealing with the brethren when they fall. + +It is a serious reflection that even our secret thoughts influence +those around us. + +The Brotherhood has a Father watching over it, "who is the same +yesterday, today and forever." + +Man alone is responsible for the eternal condition of his soul. We +make our own heaven or hell, not by the final act of life, but by life +itself. + +Truth supplies us with the only true and perfect standard by which to +test the value of things, and so corrects the one-sided, materialistic +standard of business. + +If an Odd-Fellow begins right I can not tell how many tears he may wipe +away, how many burdens he may lift, how many orphans he may comfort, +how many outcasts he may reclaim. + +Love edifies; that is, it builds up perfectly the whole man, secures an +entire and harmonious and proportionate development of his nature. It +does so by casting out the selfishness in man which always leads to a +diseased and one-sided growth of his nature. + +No two souls are endowed in an exactly similar way. And for the +difference of endowment there is a reason in the Divine mind, for each +soul in its generation has its appointed work to do, and is endowed +with suitable grace for its performance. + +We are not Odd-Fellows in the true sense unless we put away all +bitterness, malice and selfishness. Common sense of mankind is quite +right when it says a man's religion is not worth much if it does not +make him good. Have goodness first--out of goodness good works will +come. + +Every good work requires every good principle. A man with very +prominent and striking characteristics will always be a perfect man. A +perfect man has such harmonies that he scarcely has a characteristic. +To be fruitful in every good work you must have in your heart the germs +and seeds, the springs and sources of all Christian virtue. + +We are all greater dupes to our weakness than to the skill of others; +and the successes gained over us by the designing are usually nothing +more than the prey taken from those very snares we have laid ourselves. +One man falls by his ambition, another by his perfidy, a third by his +avarice, and a fourth by his lust; what are these but so many nets, +watched indeed by the fowler, but woven by the victim? + +Sorrow is not an accident--occurring now and then--it is the very woof +which is woven into the warp of life, and he who has not discerned the +divine sacredness of sorrow, and the profound meaning which is +concealed in pain, has yet to learn what life is. The cross manifested +as the necessity of the highest life alone interprets it. + +Equity--An eternal rule of right, implanted in the heart. What it asks +for itself it is willing to grant to others. It not only forbids us to +do wrong to the meanest of God's creatures, but it teaches us to +observe the golden rule, "All things whatsoever ye would that men +should do unto you, do you even so to them." There is no greater +injunction--no better rule to practice. + +Don't rely on friends--don't rely on the name of your ancestors. +Thousands have spent the prime of life in the vain hope of help from +those whom they called friends, and many thousands have starved because +they have rich fathers. Rely upon the good name which is made by your +own exertions, and know that better than the best friend you can have +is unquestionable determination, united with decision of character. + +How little is known of what is in the bosom of those around us! We +might explain many a coldness could we look into the heart concealed +from us; we should often pity where we hate, love when we curl the lip +with scorn and indignation. To judge without reserve of any human +action is a culpable temerity, of all our sins the most unfeeling and +frequent. + +How a common sorrow or calamity spans the widest social differences and +welds all, the rich and poor, in one common bond of sympathy, which, +begetting charity and all her train, softens the hardest heart and +banishes the sturdiest feeling of superiority! Over the lifeless body +of the departed, enemies and friend can weep together, and, burying +strife and differences with their common loss, feel a kinship which +unites them, and which all humanity shares. + +Don't be exacting.--An exacting temper is one against which to guard +both one's heart and the nature of those who are under our control and +influence. To give and to allow, to suffer and to bear, are the graces +more to the purpose of a noble life than cold, exacting selfishness, +which must have, let who will go without, which will not yield, let who +will break. It is a disastrous quality wherewith to go through the +world; for it receives as much pain as it inflicts, and creates the +discomfort it deprecates. + +Verily, good works constitute a refreshing stream in this world, +wherever they are found flowing. It is a pity that they are too often +like oriental torrents, "waters that fail" in times of greatest need. +When we meet the stream actually flowing and refreshing the land, we +trace it upward, in order to discover the fountain whence it springs. +Threading our way upward, guided by the river, we have found at length +the placid lake from which the river runs. Behind all genuine good +works and above them, love will, sooner or later, certainly be found. +It is never good alone; uniformly, in fact, and necessarily in the +nature of things, we find the two constituents existing as a complex +whole, "love and good works," the fountain and the flowing stream. + +Never give up old friends for new ones. Make new ones if you like, and +when you have learned that you can trust them, love them if you will, +but remember the old ones still. Do not forget they have been merry +with you in time of pleasure, and when sorrow came to you they sorrowed +also. No matter if they have gone down in social scale and you up; no +matter if poverty and misfortune have come to them while prosperity +came to you; are they any less true for that? Are not their hearts as +warm and tender if they do beat beneath homespun instead of velvet? +Yes, kind reader, they are as true, loving and tender; don't forget old +friends. + +Young men! Let the nobleness of your mind impel you to its +improvement; you are too strong to be defeated, save by yourselves. +Refuse to live merely to sleep and eat. Brutes can do this; but you +are men. Act the part of men. Prepare yourselves to endure toil. +Resolve to rise--you have but to resolve. Nothing can hinder your +success if you determine to succeed. Do not waste your time by wishing +and dreaming, but go earnestly to work. Let nothing discourage you. +If you have no books, borrow them; if you have no teachers, teach +yourself; if your early education has been neglected, by the greater +diligence repair the defect. Let not a craven heart or a love of ease +rob you of the inestimable benefit of self-culture. + +Have the courage to face a difficulty, lest it kick you harder than you +bargained for. Difficulties, like thieves, often disappear at a +glance. Have the courage to leave a convivial party at the proper hour +for doing so, however great the sacrifice; and to stay away from one +upon the slightest grounds for objection, however great the temptation +to go. Have the courage to do without that which you do not need, +however much you may admire it. Have the courage to speak your mind +when it is necessary that you should do so, and hold your tongue when +it is better you should be silent. Have the courage to speak to a poor +friend in a seedy coat, even in the street, and when a rich one is +nigh. The effort is less than many people take it to be, and the act +is worthy of a king. Have the courage to admit that you have been in +the wrong, and you will remove the fact in the mind of others, putting +a desirable impression in the place of an unfavorable one. Have the +courage to adhere to the first resolution when you can not change it +for a better, and abandon it at the eleventh hour upon conviction. + + + + +THE BIBLE IN ODD-FELLOWSHIP + +The Bible is a book for the understanding; but much more it is a book +for the spirit and for the heart. Many other kinds of learning are +found in the Bible. It is a manual of Eastern antiquities, a handbook +of political experiences, a collection of moral wisdom as applied to +personal conduct, a mine of poetry, a choice field for the study of +languages. The Bible is the book of God, and therefore it is the book +of the future, the book of hope. It pierces the veil between this and +another life, pointing us on to the realms of light. In sorrow, in +sin, and in death we may, if we will, find in the Holy Bible patience, +consolation and hope. The Bible opens the widest, freest outlook for +the mind into the eternal, enlarging a man's range of spiritual sight, +and enabling him to judge of all things in both worlds in their true +proportion. The Bible gets into life because it first came out of +life. It was born of life at its best. Its writers were the tallest +white angels literature has known. No other literature has five names +equal to these: Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul and John. These men and the +others wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The messages of the +Bible are the loftiest in the range of human thought. There have been +many magnificent periods like the age of Elizabeth, the time of the +Renaissance and the age of Victoria, but no other single century has +ever done anything equal to the production of the New Testament in the +first century. The Bible has a sound psychology. It seeks to +influence the whole man. It pours white light into the intellect. It +grapples with the great themes upon which thinkers stretch their minds. +John Fiske's three subjects are all familiar themes to the readers of +the Bible. Its style is incomparable in grandeur and variety. It +approaches the intellect with every form of literary style. It is the +supreme intellectual force in the life of the common people. It has +been teacher and school for the millions. The Puritans, for example, +used it as a poem, story book, history, law and philosophy. Out of it +New England was born. It has been the chief representative of the +English language at its best. Anglo-Saxon life and learning are +saturated with it. The literature of England and America is full of +the Bible. Shakespeare and Tennyson are specimens. Each of these +authors quote from nearly every book in the Bible, and each of them +refers to the Bible not less than five hundred times. Herbert Spencer +admits that it is the greatest educator. It is winning its place in +school and college. No education is complete without a knowledge of +this literature. It is the privilege of Odd-Fellowship to enthrone the +Bible in the lodge-room, and in the home. It teaches the intellectual +life from above and lifts it to the Bible's own level. + +Dean Stanley was visiting the great scholar, Ewald, in Dresden, and in +the course of the conversation, Ewald snatched up a copy of the New +Testament and said, in his impulsive and enthusiastic way, "In this +little book is contained all the wisdom of the world." There is a +sense in which this statement is not extravagant. The book contains +the highest and fullest revelation of truth the world has known. The +greatest themes man's mind can ponder are here presented. The most +profound problems with which the human intellect has ever grappled are +here discussed. We maintain that a mastery of the contents of this +book will in itself provide an intellectual discipline no other book +can give. Refinement of character, refinement of thought, refinement +of speech, all of the essential characteristics of the intellectual as +well as of the spiritual life, have been found in our own church from +the beginning, among those whose only advantages have been a personal +religious experience and the consequent love and continuous study of +God's word as well as among those who have had all the advantages of +the schools. No man need be afraid of exhausting the truth in the +Bible. No man can ever flatter himself that he has got beyond it. +Whatever his intellectual attainments may be, the Bible will still have +further message for him. + +There was a very suggestive spectacle on the streets of London one day, +just after Elizabeth had become England's Queen. As she was riding by +the little conduit at the upper end of Cheapside an old man came out of +it, carrying a scythe and bearing a pair of wings. He represented +Father Time coming out of his dark cave to greet the young Queen. He +led by the hand a young girl clad in flowing robes of white silk, and +she was his daughter, Truth. Truth held in her hands an English Bible, +on which was written "Verbum Veritatis," and which she presented to the +Queen. It was a pageant prepared for the occasion but suggestive for +this occasion as well. Truth is the daughter of Time. Our backs may +be bent and our hair may be gray before we can lead Bible truth forth +by the hand. We may be old before we know much; our intellectual life +may be matured in fullest measure and we still can know more; we must +grow a pair of wings before we know it all--even if we do then. + +The Bible is the conquering book. It has already dominated English +literature, so that almost the whole of its text from Genesis to +Revelation might, if all the copies of the Bible were suddenly lost +from the world, be restored in piecemeal fragments gathered out of the +books in which the Book has been quoted, Then, besides, there are the +Bible thoughts that have indirectly, we might almost say insidiously, +permeated the literature of Europe and America. More than that, the +Bible has been industriously for years securing its own translation +into hundreds of tongues and dialects of the globe. The Koran does not +take pains to translate itself, and, indeed, refuses to be translated; +but in contradistinction with such apathy of false faiths, the Bible +courts transcription into foreign tongues, loses nothing in the +process, but thereby gains for itself the homage of multitudes who, on +reading it for the first time, cry, "This is the book we long have +sought, that finds us out in the deepest recesses of our being and +satisfies the profoundest cravings of our souls." The Bible is the +comforting book. There is no volume like it for consolation. It is +the only sure and steady staff for pilgrim spirits to lean upon, and +the only book that is quoted at the bedside of the sick. It is a book +to wear next the heart in life, and upon which to pillow the head in +death. No other so-called "scriptures" of the world say the things +that the Bible says, or supply the hopes that its promises afford. The +Bible is not simply a book; it is The Book. It is the best book of any +kind that we have. We can not do without it, either here or hereafter. +There are many books in the world, but there is only one book. The +Bible is unique. It is in a class by itself. It seeks to control +everything, but it co-ordinates itself with nothing. It sets forth +imitable examples of character, but it is not itself imitable. No one +has ever written or ever will write a second Bible. The very phrase +which every one uses, "The Bible," signifies the uniqueness of this +book. It is a whole library in itself, and yet it is more than a +simple collection of books. There is a homogeneity and consistency to +the whole which lead us to speak of scripture as being a single story, +not many revelations. The Bible is the exhaustless book. It may +sometimes prove exhausting to its light-minded readers, but it never +exhausts itself. "It is the wonder of the Bible," observes Dr. Joseph +Parker, who has preached more than twenty-five volumes of sermons upon +scriptural subjects, "that you never get through it. You get through +all other books, but you never get through the Bible." On the basis of +a rationalistic criticism, this quality of exhaustlessness is really +inexplicable. And when we come to realize that, after all has been +said as to scrolls and tablets and styluses and human factors and +copyists, God wrote the Bible, we understand why it is that scripture +is so rich in treasures of wisdom. We see that we can not exhaust the +Bible because we can not exhaust God. The Bible wields an influence +that can not be estimated. The spoken word is powerful, the printed +word surpasses it. The one is temporal, the other is eternal; the one +is circumscribed, the other is unlimited. The spoken sermon of today +is forgotten tomorrow; the written word of thousands of years ago still +sways the masses of today. + +The whole civilized world bows down with reverence before the book of +all books, the Bible. The Roman sword, the Grecian palette and chisel, +have indeed rendered noble service to the cause of civilization, yet +even their proudest claims dwindle into insignificance when compared +with the benefits which the Bible has wrought. It has penetrated into +realms where the names of Greece and Rome have never resounded. It has +illumined empires and ennobled peoples, which Roman war and Grecian art +had left dark and barbarous. Where one man is charmed by the Odyssey, +tens and hundreds of thousands are delighted by the Pentateuch; where +one man is enthused by the Philippics of Demosthenes, millions are +enthused by the orations of Isaiah; where one man is inspired by the +valor of Horatious, tens of millions are inspired by the bravery of +David; where one man's life is ennobled by the art in the Parthenon, +scores of millions of lives are ennobled by the art in the sanctuary: +where one man's life is guided by the moral maxims of Marcus Aurelius, +hundreds of millions find their law of right and their rule for action +in the Bible. It is read in more than two hundred and fifty languages, +by four hundred millions of people living in every clime and zone of +the globe. It constitutes the only literature, the only code of law +and ethics, of many peoples and tribes. For thousands of years it has +gone hand in hand with civilization, has led the way towards the moral +and intellectual development of human kind, and despite the hatred of +its enemies and the still more dangerous misinterpretations of its +friends, its moral law still maintains its firm hold upon the hearts +and minds of the people, its power is still supreme for kindling a love +of right and duty, of justice and morality, within the hearts of the +overwhelming masses. Were it possible to annihilate the Bible, and +with it all the influence it has exercised, the pillars upon which +civilization rests would be knocked from under it, and, as if with one +thrust of the fatal knife, we would deal the death blow to our +morality, to our domestic happiness, to our commercial integrity, to +our peaceful relationships, to our educational and chart-table +institutions. + +There are wives and mothers, who stand with lacerated hearts at the +open grave and see the light of their life extinguished beneath the +cruel clods, and yet, they bear up bravely, resting their bent forms +and supporting their tottering feet on the staff of hope and trust +which the Bible affords. Take that solace from them, and you may soon +have occasion to bury the wife next to her husband, and the mother next +to her child. There are husbands who, when sitting lonely, dependent, +in the circle of their motherless, weeping children, find the good old +Book the only comforter; take it from them and you drive them to the +madhouse or to suicide. There are maidens grieving, pining, their +hearts broken, their lives blighted, their career irretrievably +blasted; take the solace from them which this book breathes into their +withered hearts, the solace that suffering innocence will be +recompensed, that a God of justice rules, take that solace from them +and you have taken all that makes life bearable. There are millions of +people pining in bondage, toiling in obscurity, suffering physically +and mentally for no crime of their own, sick and hungry, friendless and +hopeless; take the book from them that teaches them the lesson of +patient endurance, and you may write the word Finis, and close the +records of civilization forevermore. It is the one book that has a +balm for every wound, a comfort for every tear, a ray of light for +every darkness. + +Its language all people can understand, its spirit all minds can grasp, +its moral laws all people can obey, its truths appeal not only to the +lowly and simple, but also to the highest intellect, they win the +spontaneous approval, not only of the pious, but also of the most +skeptical. At a literary gathering at the house of the Baron von +Holbach, where the most celebrated atheists of the age used to +assemble, the gentlemen present were one day commenting on the absurd +and foolish things with which the Bible abounds. The French +encyclopedist, Diderat, a materialist himself, startled his friends by +his little speech: "But it is wonderful, gentlemen, it is wonderful. I +know of no man who can speak or write with such ability. I do not +believe that any of you could compose such narratives, or could have +laid down such sublime moral laws, so simple, yet so elevating, +exerting so wide an influence for good, and awakening such deep and +such reverential feelings, as does the Bible." Diderat spoke the +truth. Place the most celebrated systems of philosophies or the most +famous code of ethics, into the hands of the masses, and see whether +the subtleties of their learning, the elegance of their diction will +touch their hearts as deeply as does the Bible. All the genius and +learning of the ancient world, all the penetration of the profoundest +philosophers, have never been able to produce a book that was as widely +read, as voluminously commented on, as dearly loved, as this book, +neither have all the law-givers of all the lands, and of all ages, been +able to produce a code of law and ethics that was universally and as +implicitly followed as that of the law-giver, Moses. + +The Bible is an emblem of Odd-Fellowship, because it is the +Odd-Fellows' text-book. Here we get our doctrines for faith and our +rules for practice in all the relations of life. As Odd-Fellows, we +believe the Bible is the word of God, because in their enmity humanity +has never been able to destroy it or rob it of its power; nor have any +who reject it given us a book to take its place. The intellect and +culture of our day can not improve the teachings of Christ, nor set +before us a nobler ideal life. As Odd-Fellows, we believe in this +beautiful emblem, because our hearts attest its truth. We need not be +told that the landscape is beautiful, or that the song of birds is +sweet. When we see the one and hear the other, we know it. As the eye +discerns the beautiful, and the ear discerns sweet sounds, so the heart +of man discerns the divineness of the Bible teachings and sets its seal +to their truth. As Odd-Fellows, we believe in the scriptures, because +the experiences of all true believers, of whatever name, or age, or +country, prove it to be the "bread of life" and the "water of life" to +a needy and suffering world. Age by age the evidence of experience is +accumulating, and growing stronger, and for a soul to distrust the +revelations made unto it, and the divine leading of the human race, is +as though the eye should disbelieve in the sun shining at mid-day. We +recognize the Bible as a precious boon to man, the gift of the Great +Father above. It is a "light to our feet and a lamp to our path." It +is a compass whose never-failing needle directs us safely across the +desert sands of life, and through the dark labyrinths of an evil world, +and its precious promises gives us comfort while we bear the burdens +and endure the sorrows, pain and anguish incident to human life. + +Since our organization is founded on the Bible, we should, as +Odd-Fellows, become more conversant with it. Many evils creep into our +lodges that could be avoided if we used the Bible more in our talks for +the good of the order. Intemperance is an evil that does us much harm. +What does the Bible say in regard to it? Proverbs, xx, 1, says: "Wine +is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby +is not wise." Proverbs, xxi, 17: "He that loveth pleasure shall be a +poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich." Ah me! what +dead courage, what piles of bleached bones that was once the +concentration of all that was great and lofty and true. What +aspirations, ambitions, enterprise and resolutions--what genius, +integrity and all that belongs to true manhood--have been swept from +the tablets of time into oblivion by King Alcohol and his horrid half +brothers, the gambling hell and the brothel. + +A few years ago a noted wild-beast tamer gave a performance with his +pets in one of the leading theatres. He put his lions, tigers, +leopards and hyenas through their part of the entertainment, awing the +audience by his awful nerve and his control over them. As a closing +act to the performance, he was to introduce an enormous +boa-constrictor, thirty feet long. He had bought it when it was only +two days old, and for twenty years he handled it daily, so that it was +considered perfectly harmless and completely under his control. He had +seen it grow from a tiny reptile, which he often carried in his bosom, +into a fearful monster. The curtain rose upon an Indian woodland +scene. The wild, weird strains of an oriental band steal through the +trees. A rustling noise is heard, and a huge serpent is seen winding +its way through the undergrowth. It stops. Its head is erect. Its +bright eyes sparkle. Its whole body seems animated. A man emerges +from the heavy foliage. Their eyes meet. The serpent quails before +the man--man is victor. The serpent is under control of a master. +Under his guidance and direction it performs a series of fearful feats. +At a signal from the man it slowly approaches him and begins to coil +its heavy folds around him. Higher and higher do they rise, until man +and serpent seem blended into one. Its hideous head is reared above +the mass. The man gives a little scream, and the audience unite in a +thunderous burst of applause, but it freezes upon their lips. The +trainer's scream was a wail of death agony. Those cold, slimy folds +had embraced him for the last time. They crushed the life out of him, +and the horror-stricken audience heard bone after bone crack as those +powerful folds tightened upon him. Man's playful thing had become his +master. His slave for twenty years had now enslaved him. + +The following is a will left by a drunkard of Oswego, New York State: +"I leave to society a ruined character and a wretched example. I leave +to my parents as much sorrow as they can, in their feeble state, bear. +I leave to my brothers and sisters as much shame and mortification as I +could bring on them. I leave to my wife, a broken heart--a life of +shame. I leave to each of my children, poverty, ignorance, a low +character, and the remembrance that their father filled a drunkard's +grave." It behooves us as Odd-Fellows to ponder well the lessons +taught by our order. Unless the principles that are laid down are +fully carried out, we can never be Odd-Fellows in spirit and in truth. +Today is our opportunity; act now. Have you ever seen those marble +statues fashioned into a fountain, with the clear water flowing out +from the marble lips or the hand, on and on forever? The marble stands +there, passive, cold, making no effort to arrest the gliding water. So +it is that time flows through the hands of men, swift, never pausing +until it has run itself out, and the man seems petrified into a marble +sleep, not feeling what it is that is passing away forever. And the +destiny of nine men out of ten accomplishes itself before they realize +it slipping away from them, aimless, useless, until it is too late. +"Be such a man, live such a life, that if every man were such as you, +and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God's Paradise." + +Remember that no good the humblest of us has wrought ever dies. There +is one long, unerring memory in the universe, out of which nothing +dies. A chill autumn wind, blowing over a sterile plain, bore within +its arms a little seed, torn with ruthless force from its matrix on a +lofty tree, and dropped the seed upon the sand to perish. A bright +winged beetle, weary with flight and languid with the chilly air, +rested for a moment on the arid plain. The little seed dropped Aeolus +served to satisfy the hunger of the beetle, which presently winged its +flight to the margin of a swift running stream that had sprung from the +mountain side, and cleaving a bed through rocks of granite, went gaily +laughing upon its cheery way down to the ever rolling sea. Sipping a +drop of the crystal flood, the beetle crawled within a protecting +ledge, and, folding its wings, lay down to pleasant dreams. The Ice +King passed along and touched the insect in its sleep. Its mission was +fulfilled; but the conflict of the seasons continued until the white +destroyer melted in the breath of balmy spring. And then a sunbeam +sped to the chink wherein the body of the insect lay, and searching for +the little seed entombed, but not destroyed, invited it to "join the +Jubilee of returning life and hope." Under the soft wooing of the +peopled ray, the little seed began to swell with joy, tiny rootlets +were developed within the body of the protecting beetle, a minute stem +shot out of its gaping mouth, and lo! a mighty tree had been carried +from the desert, saved from the frosts of winter, nurtured and started +upon its mission of life and usefulness by an humble insect that had +perished with the flowers. The agent had passed away, but, building +better than he knew, the wide-spreading tree remained by the margin of +the life-giving stream, a shelter and a rest to the weary traveler upon +life's great highway through many fretful centuries. + +A child abandoned by its mother to perish in an Egyptian marsh may +become the instrument to deliver a nation from bondage, and an +unostentatious man, unknown to fortune and to fame, may become the +agent of a mighty work destined to benefit the human race as long as it +may last upon the earth. George Eliot says, "Our deeds are like +children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own +will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never; they have an +indestructible life, both in and out of our consciousness." + +No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree that +his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him he gives him +for mankind. The different degrees of consciousness are really what +make the different degrees of greatness in men. + +While Odd-Fellowship does not claim to be a religious institution, yet +so closely is it allied to Christianity that we deem it proper to +discuss these questions. I quote from Dr. Lyman Abbott's lecture on +"Christianity and Orientalism," as follows: "Religion as a thought has +four questions to answer: First, What is God? Second, What is man? +Third, What is the relation between God and man? Fourth, What is the +life which man is to live when he understands and enters into that +relation? There is no other question; there is nothing left. What is +God? What is man? And how are men to live when they have entered into +that relationship? Now, Christianity has its answer to each one of +those four questions. God--one true, righteous, loving, helpful Father +of the whole human race. God--love. And love, what is that? Such a +life as Jesus Christ lived on the earth. What is man? Man is in the +image of God. If he is not, if he fails in that, he fails being a man. +He is in the image of God, and not until he has come to be in the +image, of God will he be a man. What is a statue? I can see a nose, a +mouth, appearing out of the marble block. No, it is not a statue, it +is a half-done statue. Wait until the sculptor is through, then you +will see the statue. Not till God is done will you see a man, and you +never saw one except as you saw him in Jesus of Nazareth. And what is +the relation between this God and this man? It is the relationship of +the most intimate fellowship that the human soul can conceive; one life +dwelling in the other life, and filling the other life full of His own +fullness. You can not get any closer relationship to God than that. +When this fullness has been realized, when you and I have the fullness +of God in us, when God has finished, the man life will result. Just +such a life as Christ lived, with all the splendor of self-sacrifice, +with all the glory of service, with all the magnificent heroism, with +all the enduring patience." + + + + +BROTHER UNDERWOOD'S DREAM. + +Being invited some time since to deliver an address before a benevolent +institution, and being pressed amid the daily business cares which +surrounded, I was fearful I should not be able to command sufficient +time for preparation of the task. Returning home, I retired to my bed, +my thoughts still keeping themselves in active motion in their endeavor +to "think out" what I should say. In this state of mind I fell asleep, +and soon was in dreamland. I dreamed that death had taken place, and +as I approached the gates of the unseen world, I was met by an angel, +who kindly tendered his services in escorting me through the realms of +Heaven. Being a stranger there, I gladly and gracefully accepted his +kind invitation. Proceeding along the pearly streets, enraptured with +the beauties which surrounded me, I saw a multitude of people, the +number of whom figures fail to compute; but I noticed there were +dividing lines, and they were gathered in companies. Observing a +beautiful body of water in the distance, and a gathering of one company +by its banks, I inquired of my escort who they were. He replied they +were Baptists, and said "they always keep near the water's edge." Just +beyond was another company, which my faithful attendant informed me was +a Presbyterian band, and that their infant baptism views still clinging +to them was one of the causes of their "corralling" together. Just +then we heard loud and prolonged shouting and singing of the hymn +"Shall we gather at the river," and, pointing to the spot from whence +it came, near a beautiful stream not far off, the angel said: "Those +are the Methodists. They never cease shouting, and so loud are they at +times that they annoy the Episcopalians, whom you see on the opposite +side of the stream, in their discussion of the doctrine of apostolic +succession." Seeing still other gatherings farther on, I was anxious +to go thither and mingle with them; but my guide remonstrated, saying: +"You can see from this standpoint the representatives of all churches. +There, said he, are the Catholics and the Jews, the Universalists and +the Congregationalists, the Unitarians and the Moravians, all with +their varied 'creeds,' and if you go that way you will be surrounded by +them, each trying to prove that you got to Heaven through their +peculiar doctrine or faith." + +Turning to the right, we moved on, only to pass to more gorgeous and +beautiful apartments, where the streets were golden. Here I observed +another multitude, but it was one body. "This," said the angel, "is +the gathering of the various priests and pastors, rectors and rabbis, +and the ministers and the elders who are trying to unite on some common +ground upon which their congregations (which we had passed) might +stand, where there would be but 'One Lord, one faith, one baptism.'" +Gal., iv, 5. For, said the angel, until then, they go not up with +their churches and creeds to higher seats above, for "neither +circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision." Gal., v, 6. + +Proceeding on our way we approached a magnificent archway, over the +lintels of which was inscribed, "The Christian's Home in Glory." The +grandeur of this new apartment exceeded all the rest, a description of +which lies beyond the power of words, "For eye hath not seen, nor the +ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which +God hath prepared for them that love him." I Cor., ii, 9. This I found +to be the abode of the apostles, martyrs and Christians of all ages. +Here was Paul and Peter, and the prophets, the thief on the cross and +Bunyan, Lazarus and Baxter, Stephen and Father Abraham, Martha and Mary +and the widow who gave her two mites. Pausing, I beheld, with banners +above, an innumerable number "marching on," with Lincoln and Lovejoy, +Lyman, Beecher and John Brown in the advance, and on the banners was +inscribed, "These are they which came out of great tribulation." Rev., +viii, 14. The angel said: "That is the multitude of poor slaves from +the cotton fields of earth, doing homage to their deliverers." "They +shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat." Rev., vii, 16. Here I also found Watts +and Wesley singing, while Bliss (who had but lately been translated +from earth to heaven by way of Ashtabula bridge), catching the +inspiration, was setting the songs of Heaven to the music of earth. +Gazing on the many thrones and crowns, there were some of peculiar +brightness. I looked on one, and what was the inscription? Was it, I +was a Methodist? No. I was immersed? No. I was a Jew? No. But +rather this: "Because I delivered the poor that cried and fatherless, +and him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready +to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing with +joy." Job, xxix, 12, 14. And this was the crown of Job. And there was +another just beyond, and I read the inscription. Was it, I was a +Presbyterian? No. I prayed by quantity? No. I was a Universalist? +No. But "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is +this, to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to +keep himself unspotted from the world." James, i, 27. And while the +memory and name of Peabody, the philanthropist, is and shall be honored +and loved for ages to come in two hemispheres, his crown of glory in +heaven is second to none. But there was still another. It was worn by +one of queenly beauty, and she sat upon her throne; the splendor of her +robe and the brilliancy of her apparel dimmed my vision. I read her +inscription, set, as it was, in Heaven's choicest diamonds. Was it, I +was an Episcopalian? No. I was baptized? No. I was a Catholic? No. +But thus: "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and +ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye +clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came +unto me." Matt., xxv, 35, 36. And before her throne stood thousands +who had come up from the battle fields of the Crimea, and the widows +and orphans, the lame and the halt, the blind and the deaf from the +streets and alleys of London, and as they shouted their hallelujahs +before her, they carried banners on which were emblazoned these words: +"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matt., xxv, 40. And the crown of +Florence Nightingale glistens brightly in Heaven. Passing on, and +observing a large number of vacant thrones and crowns, I naturally +asked, for whom are these? The angel replied: "For the Christians of +earth; the managers of the 'homes' for the friendless, the widows and +the orphans, and those who, regardless of their respective church +creeds and doctrines, like their Master when he was on earth, go about +doing good." The angel vanished, and I awoke. + +MORAL.--Brethren, in our tenacity for church creeds, let us not fail in +the practice of a little daily Christianity. "Finally, brethren, if +there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things." +Gal., iv, 8. + + + + +THE IMPERIAL VIRTUE + + Though sophists may argue, or philosophers prate, + The evils of lying they can not mitigate. + Our God's law is truth! Who then dares justify + A falsehood? Remember, a lie is a lie! + Let this he our motto, in old age or youth: + "All lying is sinful, so, stick to the truth!" + +"Truth we accept as a cardinal virtue, and require its practice on the +part of all the votaries of Odd-Fellowship while traveling the rugged +journey of life in search of reward and rest." Truth is above all +things else, and every Odd-Fellow knows full well that his obligation +binds him to speak the truth. Remember a lie is never justifiable. It +does the person more harm than that he seeks to avoid by telling a +falsehood would do. "What is truth?" This question of Pilate is in +the air today. It is repeated on every side and in every department of +intellectual pursuit. It always pays to tell the truth under all +circumstances. Abraham came near bringing a whole nation into trouble +in lying about his wife. Be it said to the honor of President Grant, +that once a visitor called at the White House wishing to see him. The +door-keeper told the servant to tell the visitor the president was not +in. General Grant, who was very busy, heard what was said. He called +out, "Say no such thing. I don't lie myself, and won't allow anyone to +lie for me." Tell the truth always. "I said in my haste all men are +liars." Psalms, cxvi, 2. + +It was a very sweeping assertion that the Psalmist made, and one that +incriminates us all. He probably did not mean that all men were liars +in the sense that everybody always spoke untruthfully, but that the +great majority of people would, under certain stress of circumstances, +equivocate to suit the conditions of the occasion. If that was what he +meant, he uttered a sage truth when he said very hastily one day: "All +men are liars." Though a hasty utterance, facts seem to prove its +truthfulness. The greatest mischief-maker in the world today is the +liar. I honestly believe that lying causes more real anguish and +suffering than any other evil. It would be effort wasted to spend much +time in proof of this assertion of David's, so we will attempt to +classify briefly, that each of us may know where he belongs. First, +there is the deliberate lie. This species needs no particular +definition. All are acquainted with it, all have met it, some have +uttered it. You all know it when you see it; it is barefaced and +shameless; it reeks with the mire of falsity and is foul with the slime +of the pit infernal. This lie contains not an atom of truth, is +tinctured not with a grain of fact, but is a full-blooded, +thoroughbred, out and out lie. Then we have the campaign lie. A +large, open-faced fellow, loud-voiced and blatant; bold, daring and +sweeping; it claims everything, asserts everything, denies anything. + +During the campaign this lie is a factor. Men buy papers to read it, +and go miles to hear it. The campaign lie is the greatest worker in +the canvass for votes. He pats the workman on the back and promises to +fill his pail with sirloin steak and fresh salmon, when, if the other +man is elected, he will have to carry liver and codfish. He grasps the +merchant strongly by the hand and promises him larger sales and better +profits in case his party gets into power; he enters the magnate's +office and promises him increased dividends and no strikes; he promises +everything till after election, when he has no more promises to make. + +There is the polite lie, too. A very gentle affair this. A very +proper lie, clothed with the attire of an elegant etiquette and of +graceful form. It is never harsh and never rude, but smooth as oil, as +gentle as a zephyr. The number of polite lies that are told every day +are legion. It would be useless to attempt to classify them, worse +than useless to try to enumerate them. They are of all sizes, colors, +descriptions and shapes. They have much in common, but differ widely +in particular. No locality is destitute of this venerable and classic +falsehood. The ancients used it, the moderns still cling to it; the +poor find it handy, the rich could not keep house without it; it +abounds in every clime and thrives in every latitude. The polite +hostess says to the departing guest: "We have been delighted by your +visit; do us the favor to come again," when she sincerely hopes that +most any catastrophe may overtake her rather than another visit from +this same personage. There are the every-day expressions, 'Not at +home,' which the housemaid is instructed to give the caller; and a +score of other social lies which in truth deceive nobody, nine times +out of ten. Society would lose little and gain much if the polite lie +could be banished, and every man say what he thought and speak as he +felt. + +Another lie I will notice is the business lie. The business lie is a +very matter of fact lie. It sounds well. There are some genuine +bankrupt sales, of course; there are a few bona fide smoke, fire and +water mark-downs undoubtedly, but there are more advertised in a week +than there are failures and fires in a year. Good, staple merchandise +will usually bring its value, and he who advertises an unheard of +bargain has generally set a trap for the unwary. One class of goods in +the window marked a certain price, an inferior class on the bargain +counter at the same figure. You bargain for a piece of furniture at a +surprisingly low figure; when it is delivered you have every reason to +suppose that it is like what you bought in appearance alone. A roll of +cloth marked "all wool," it is half cotton, and the rest shoddy. The +business lie, though found so often, is never the friend of merchant or +purchaser. It is the foe of all honest transactions. Office, +salesroom and storehouse would be better without it; proprietor, clerk +and purchaser would thrive better if rid of it. + +The lie of gossip. If by some power, human or divine, the gossiping +tongue could be silenced and the tattling mouth effectually closed, +half of the evil of this world would already be stopped, and the other +would commence to languish for want of patronage. The lie of gossip is +the blackest of them all. The blackest of all the black horde, the +very worst of the whole evil troop; insinuating, sly and crafty, it +creeps around with a serpent's stealth, and carries beneath its tongue +the deadly poison of ten thousand adders. The venom can be extracted +from the cobra's fangs, but no power on earth can tame the tongue of an +unprincipled gossip. Some lies you can kill, but the lie of gossip is +imperishable. You may clip its wings, but its flight is unhindered; +you may cut off its head, but two will grow out in its place; you may +crush it to earth beneath the heel of denial. Let it alone and +possibly the dirty, contemptible, infamous thing will die; touch it not +and it may droop and languish; do not chase it and it may grow weak for +want of exercise. + +Oh, my dear reader, above all things, don't have your life a lie, your +career a falsehood. Be no hypocrite, live no lie, and the God of all +truth will see something in you to admire if you live truthfully and +honestly before all men. Truth is a sure pledge not impaired, a shield +never pierced, a flower that never dieth, a state that feareth no +fortune, and a port that yields no danger. We can not build a manly +character unless we are in possession of the imperial virtue, truth. +Ah! truth is the diamond for which the candid mind ever seeks. It is +the sanction of every appeal that is made for the good and the right. +It may be crushed to earth, it may be long in achieving victory, but it +is omnipotent and must triumph at last. Christ brought truth into the +world. Truth, then, is a personal, experimental and practical thing. +It is a thing of the heart, and not mere outward forms; a living +principle in the soul, influencing the mind, employing the affections, +guiding the will, and directing as well as enlightening the conscience. +It is a supreme, not a subordinate matter, demanding and obtaining the +throne of the soul-giving law to the whole character, and requiring the +whole man and all his conduct to be in subordination. Truth blends +with every occupation. It is noble and lofty, not abject, servile and +groveling; it communes with God, with holiness, with Heaven, with +eternity and infinity. Truth is a happy, and not a melancholy thing, +giving a peace that passeth understanding, and a joy that is +unspeakable and full of glory. And it is durable, not a transient +thing, passing with us through life, lying down with us on the pillow +of death, rising with us at the last day, and dwelling in our souls in +Heaven as the very element of eternal life. Such is truth, the +sublimest thing in our world, sent down to be our comforter and +ministering angel on earth. + +It is plainly God's intention, as in nature and in history, that our +human life should grow better and more joyous as it advances, and that +the best shall not be at the first, but shall wait until we are ready +for it. The highest and largest blessings can come to men only when +the men are fitted to hold and to use them. If you are going to give a +man a purse or a diamond you can thrust it into his hand in his youth, +or on the street, even when he is asleep; but if you would give to him +a great truth or virtue, if you would make him a noble character, you +must wait upon the man's growth, and be content if after many years you +see only a flash of what you would give him appearing. Step by step, +through all the gradations, we travel, and if faithful to truth, Christ +will make in us a perfect manhood, and of us a perfect society. His +gift is so great, vital and complex, that He can not bestow it all in +the beginning. He would make our life an increasingly joyous life, and +give us the best of its wine at the last of its feast. Christ would +have us always increasingly hopeful and joyous, and never of sad +countenance. All our faculties were designed to minister to our joy. +All the great world of life below is a happy world. The children of +the air and the water are all baptized into joy. Even the solitary +creatures that carry their narrow houses with them have their joys, +which are well known to their intimate acquaintances. So in the world +of adult man we find the joy of life disproportionate to condition and +faculty. In the faces of the men we meet on the streets we see many +scars and dark lines of storm and care; only seldom do the faces we +meet there wear the rainbow. Men are without joy because they have +violated the laws of nature, they have subordinated their manly powers, +reason and conscience to their animal instincts; they have lived by +wrong theories and wrong methods, and for unmanly ends, and thus have +exhausted the joy of life's banquet. + +A man can have deep and continuous joy only if his life is continuously +rational and progressively manly. He must put away childish things and +live for truth and right, for love and immortal virtue. If our hearts +sadden as our years increase and our thoughts widen, it is because +there has been a defect in our vision and a sophistry in the logic of +our conduct. If the growing corn comes only to the blade and to the +ear, and not to the full golden corn in the ear, we may be sure it is +because there has been something wrong in our gardening. Christ comes +into our wasting life to give us a new, a higher and a better joy; to +give us new truth, new faith, new arguments, new motives, new impulses +and new joys. Christ gives us the Heavenly Father, and thus lifts us +into the dignity and beatitude of a divine nature, relationship and +destiny. Man is a child of the skies, and can not find rest complete +and joy abiding in anything less or lower. Bearing now the image of +the earthly, we must go on to bear the image of the heavenly. To have +our manly joy ever increasing we must keep the heavenly in sight and +take our way from it. + +Christ brings us into the living alliance with forces and personalities +that are spiritual, and thus makes us strong to resist all animal +temptations and those impulses toward greed and wrong which, if +indulged, drain our life of its manly felicities. He would have us +lift our manly cups to God, and make their rims to touch the heavens. +Christ would have us to live for other's welfare and to know the joy of +duty and of sacrifice. It is the man who is living for wife, and +child, and neighbor, who has flung himself with all his might into the +carrying forward of some great cause that blesses his fellow-men, who +knows the true and increasing joy of the manly life. The happiest +woman in the world is the mother who is living for her child. It is in +working out the salvation of other people that we find the true joy of +our own. It is this joy that carries the martyr through his fiery +tasks with a song and a shout. To be able at the end of our days to +look up to God and say, "I have finished the work thou gavest me to +do," is to have the best wine at the last of our feast. We must have +joy; it is indispensable. It makes us healthy and strong and enables +us to be of some use in the world. It is so necessary to our best +becoming and doing that we must put away everything that increases it. +We must have the joy of truth and virtue, of duty and sacrifice, of +hope and love, which is the joy of the eternal life. Christ thus holds +out to us a joy that lasts, and one that satisfies forever. + +Jesus was no cynic, no ascetic, and no fanatic. He loved the great +outward world, and was the friend of all men. He was hated only by the +Pharisees, if to these He spoke sharply, His words to the children were +sweet as a mother's, and in His words about the birds and the flowers +you hear the tones of a lover. He loved the lakes of sweet Galilee, +her hills, her fields and her olive groves; and among them often took +His disciples apart to rest awhile. Adopt Christ's views of God; of +the future; Christianize your opinions, your character and your +conduct, and you will have manly joy even in the midst of sorrow. +Christ lived much in communion with God. He lived much out of doors, +in the fields and among trees, the birds and the flowers. + +We must come back to nature. Happy the man who owns a piece of ground +in the country and lives on it betimes, where he can hear the robins +singing their hymns and the winds chanting their litanies; where he can +see the sun rise and feel the hush of the hills; where the spirit that +is in the beautiful world can touch and bless him as it did the blessed +Christ. + +Brothers, I wish you great joy. Live in the constant sense of the +Heavenly Father's loving presence, and of nature's veracity and +friendly intention. Distrust all doctrines, all opinions and all ways +of living that destroy manly joyousness. Never lose sight of the fact +that a noble life is a truthful life. Truth is a trust. He who has +discovered any portion of useful truth has something in trust for +mankind. God is the author of truth, and when man seeks this imperial +virtue and acquires it, he is in possession of great power. + +This brings us to the final practical thought. This power must be +appropriated. The cable car that is unattached to the cable will make +no progress and stand still forever, even though the engines in the +power house glow with heat, and the cable, gliding along in the center +of the track not two feet away, is laden down with power. The cable +car must close its grappling iron and grip the cable before progress +can be made. It must come in contact with the power. An electric lamp +will swing dark and unlighted while all the other lamps about it send +forth enlightening rays, and all the dynamos in the world may be +revolving in the engine house, sending a surging current within a few +inches of the isolated lamp, and all in vain unless it come in contact +with the power. You must turn the switch and let the current flow in, +and then the lamp will itself shine and will illumine its surroundings +like the rest. So, in like manner, if we are to make progress in this +life, we must lay hold of the cable. We must come in contact with the +Divine. If we do not, the power of God is of no avail to us. If we +would be lights in the world, we must come in contact with the Divine +spirit, we must unbar the doors to our hearts and let the current of +divine power and love flow into our lives and illumine them. + +The great design of Odd-Fellowship is to improve the morals and manners +of men, to promote their interest, well being and happiness. Great +prudence is demanded in our daily life and conversation. We should be +actuated by a realizing sense of our position, and by example, action +and generous thought, recommend our cause to the consideration of +others. We should persevere for the attainment of every commendable +virtue, to raise the mind from the degrading haunts of intemperance and +folly; we should be distinguished for usefulness to society and the +community at large. A good Odd-Fellow must necessarily be an upright +and useful member of the community. The precepts inculcated are +calculated to stimulate to the faithful performance of every moral and +relative duty; and an individual who holds a standing with us, and is +careless and negligent of these things, is a reproach to the +Order--they wear the livery, and bow before the same shrine, but in the +heart and practice they belie their profession. Profanity, +intemperance and every species of immorality are rigidly +discountenanced. We have pledged ourselves to aid in diffusing the +principles of brotherly love throughout the world. We have assumed the +office of guarding the holy flame which burns on the altar of +benevolence, and we are bound to cherish its principles. That brother +is recreant to every honorable feeling who can trifle with the solemn +pledge he has taken. + +A duty we owe to the community is to cultivate the principle of virtue, +to lend holy serenity to the mind, and shed around a halo of light and +glory to direct the steps of others in virtue, to happiness and +greatness. The man who treads only in virtue's ways, when every act is +honest, acquires the confidence and friendship of others, thus +benefiting others, and thus benefiting the community, which, also, the +center of another circle, continues this influence to those that +surround it, purifying the thought, emboldening the idea and elevating +the man. How grand is the position Odd-Fellowship now occupies--a +world of honesty in a world of deceit, with a character strictly +virtuous and solely dependent upon its members for the perpetuity of +that character. + +It depends upon the brethren to be virtuous, upright, honest and +benevolent, thus sustaining in its purity the noble reputation it now +enjoys, which will continue a bright and shining star in the +constellation until time shall be no more, when it will be perpetuated +in the glorious light of eternity. Amid the wrecks of institutions and +powerful interests that were a short time since thought to be +impregnable against all assaults, the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows +still maintains its vantage ground, and bears its banners proudly up. +With its doors thrown so widely open to applicants for admission, +composed as it is of nearly every shade of thought or educational +influence, whether of sect or party, with all the infirmities incident +to human nature, modifying by their weakness its true purposes, or +retarding its advancement, its unity and moral force, its stability and +progress are truly wonderful. Its bond of cohesion, so frail and yet +so potent, is seemingly inexplicable. It is the recognition of the +principles of brotherhood and fraternity, and the practice of their +resultant virtues. To appreciate and practice is to attain strength. +We are weak and frail. Odd-Fellowship is strong, and its principles +are as eternal as the stars. The history of the past is little but a +record of the domination of physical force. The law of might was the +law of right. Violence and strife, outrages and wrong, have been for +ages the common heritage of the race. Man has been the sport and +victim of human passions, and notwithstanding the culture and the +progress of the race, the earth yet resounds with the tread of armed +combatants. Weary, sad-eyed toilers groan under the burden of war, +countless millions are squandered upon the maintenance of +non-producing, destructive hosts. + +Widows and orphans, nay, the very angels in heaven, if they are +permitted to look down upon us from their bright abodes in bliss, must +mourn over the sad result of man's semi-barbarism, and his worship of +the world's materialism. Long ere this mind should have been the +controlling force in all nations claiming to be civilized. Pure +intellect and its struggles, its aspirations for light and truth, +should have relegated to the regions of barbarism and darkness mere +animal contests. Not only so, but intellectual supremacy should have +been in its turn subordinated, or crowned by true spiritual life. "God +is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and +in truth." Man would occupy a higher and happier position than he at +present fills if he had earnestly co-operated with good agencies for +the unfolding and development of his better nature. + +The special mission of Odd-Fellowship is to incite and stimulate the +dormant moral energies to action, to rouse the lethargic, encourage the +timid, and to strengthen the aspirations for a nobler and a better +life. Reaching out its helpful hand to the needy and distressed upon +the one hand, and with the other battling with selfishness, intolerance +and vice--with all that dwarfs man's moral nature--it appeals to +something within us, to be earnest advocates of its principles, by +making them a living faith and illustrating its beneficent purposes. +If we make one man purer and better, and that man one's own self, we +have done something toward the betterment of the world. The voices of +the past and of the present all speak to us today. Men and brethren, +let us hearken unto them, and putting our trust in God, let us march +onward, side by side together, until the standards of our order are +planted upon the highest summit of achievement, and as their glorious +folds are illuminated by the Sun of Righteousness, may the simple yet +the sublime legend emblazoned thereon be seen and acknowledged by the +nations, as with uplifted eyes and reverent hearts they read, "God is +our Father, and we are all brothers." + + + + +QUIET HOUR THOUGHTS. + +Genuine love and sympathy are what wins the hearts of our fellows. + +A Christian ought always to wake up in the morning in a good humor. + +Remember that sorrow and pain soften the heart and sweeten the temper. + +The young man who sees no beauty in a flower will make a mean husband. + +If you love young people's work you will prove it by laboring and +sacrificing for it. + +Begin active work in your society at once, and do not fail to see that +each one has something to do. + +The fact that God gives any consideration to mere mites of humanity +scattered about the surface of this little world of ours is conclusive +proof of His infinity. + +What a blessing it is that we can not always do what we wish to do, or +have everything our own way. + +Many words are no more an indication of depth of feeling and heart than +are boiling bubbles in a frying pan. + +There are some people who would scorn to keep bad company, but who +think the worst kind of thoughts by the hour. + +Do not wait for somebody else to put your society on the roll of honor. +If you want a thing well done, do it yourself. + +If the very hairs of our head are numbered, then why should we not +consult the Father in regard to all our temporal affairs? + +How the heart of God must yearn for the record of lives devoted to +humanity. He asks no higher service of man than this. + +The truly great man is that one who is satisfied if he is doing to the +utmost limit of his capacity the thing which he has at hand. + +God would never make the mistake of helping any young man or young +woman who did not make every possible effort to help himself. + +Do not make the mistake of thinking you are the biggest man in your +society. Bigger men than you have died and have not been missed after +forty-eight hours. + +The girl who is caught by gold-headed canes, carried by heads with no +brains on the inside and only pasted hair on the outside, has a +pitiable future before her. + +No pain, no privation, no sacrifice endured for Christ is a loss, but +is rather a gain. Christ will not forget those who suffered for Him +when He comes to make up His jewels. + +Sunday manners are just like Sunday clothes; everybody can tell that +you put them on for the occasion only, and know that you are not used +to wearing them through the week. + +The devil led the Prodigal Son away from a good home into the gay +society of the world, and amused him with the pleasures of sin till he +got him down, then he fed him on husks. That is the way he works. + +A good many church members do not like to have it known how much they +give for missions. They remind us of the man who said, when asked +about the amount he gave, "What I give is nothing to nobody." + +The reason why some people do not want the preacher to preach on +personal sins, is because they are afraid he might say something +against them. + +When we see a man going to get water at his neighbor's well, we +naturally suppose his own is dry. So when we see a Christian seeking +the pleasures of the world, we suppose he no longer finds pleasure in +religion. + +To know which way a stream of water is flowing, you must not look at +the little eddy, but at the main current, and to know which way a life +is tending, you must not look at a single act, but at the whole trend +of the life. + +Satan likes to discourage people, to hinder them in the performance of +their Christian duties, but remember that Christ has said, "My grace is +sufficient for you." Go steadily forward in the line of duty and +success will crown your efforts. + +The light of a candle can not be seen very far in the light of a +noon-day sun, but at night it may be seen for a long distance and may +be a guiding star to some poor wanderer. And so, God sometimes darkens +our way that we may shine. + +The man who prays for the conversion of the heathen, and then spends a +great deal more for tobacco than he gives to missions, is certainly not +very consistent in his praying and giving. + +Thomas Hood once wrote to his wife: "I never was anything, dearest, +till I knew you; and I have been a better, happier, and more prosperous +man ever since. Lay by that truth in lavender, sweetest, and remind me +of it when I fail." + +"I believe one reason why such numerous instances of erudition occur +among the lower ranks is, that with the same powers of mind the poor +student is limited to a narrower circle for indulging his passion for +books, and must necessarily make himself master of the few he possesses +before he can acquire more."--_Walter Scott_. + +Christians should not forget that God uses human agency in the work of +salvation. The only reason that there are not more saved, is because +the people of God do not put themselves at his disposal for the work. +The Lord wants all to be saved, but they will not be saved until the +people of God are willing to let the Lord use them to bring the lost +unto Himself. + +Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise +or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those who +profit by the cheat distrust the deceiver; and the act by which +kindness was sought puts an end to confidence. + +The judges of the election can not tell the difference, when they are +counting the votes, between the one cast by the minister of the gospel +and the one cast by the saloon-keeper, when it has been cast for the +same party. Vote for principle rather than for party. + +"Let every man," said Sydney Smith, "be occupied in the highest +employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the +consciousness that he has done his best." If the highest employment is +not to be found in our avocations, let us seek it in our leisure. + +Beware of anger of the tongue; control the tongue. Beware of anger of +the mind; control the mind. Practice virtue with thy tongue and with +thy mind. By reflection, by restraint and control, a wise man can make +himself an island which no floods can overwhelm. He who conquers +himself is greater than he who in battle conquers a thousand men. He +who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with the fault-finders, and +free from passion with the passionate, him I call indeed a wise man. + +Brothers, keep posted in what your lodge is doing; knowing who is sick; +inquire if there is not some widow in need of help; some poor orphan +that should be clothed and provided with a home and sent to school. +Remember that the widow was your brother's wife, and the children your +brother's. Be a brother to the widow, and a kind uncle to your +brother's children. There is plenty of work for you, and you agreed to +do it. Cheer up the care-worn traveler on his pilgrimage--help the +weak and weary, the lonely and sad ones. Time is passing by, and we +have none too much of it in which to do our work. Remember that if we +expect to complete our labor, now is the time; soon all will be over +with us, and then all that we shall leave behind, by which to be +remembered, will be the good or evil we have done. If we have done +good it will be emblazoned on many hearts, and our names will be spoken +of with reverence and love; but if we have done evil, our names will be +blotted out of the memory of the good and true, and we despised. + + "How is't the sons of men are sad, + Oppressed with grief and care? + How is't that some of this world's goods, + Have such a scanty share? + Why should the orphan's piercing cry, + Assail so oft our ear, + And thousands find the world to be + All desolate and drear? + + "We do not solve the mystery + Of woes, the lot of man, + But in the lodge we all unite + To do the good we can. + 'Tis there we learn the pleasing task + To soothe the troubled breast, + To educate the orphan child, + And succor the distressed. + + "Our motto--Friendship, Love and Truth-- + These e'er shall be our guide, + Our aim shall be, of misery + To stop the running tide." + + We ask not what's a brother's faith, + What country gave him birth; + But open the door to every creed + And nation of the earth. + + Hail, Charity! Odd-Fellows all + Bow down before thy shrine; + They raise no altar, make no vow, + That is not wholly thine. + + + + +LOVE SUPREME. + +Love is the key to the human heart. If we want to have power with God +and man, we must cultivate love. It is love that burns truth into the +hearts of people. A man may be a good lawyer without love. There may +be a good surgeon without love. A man may be a good merchant without +love. But a man can not be a good Odd-Fellow or Christian without +love. I would rather have my heart full of love than be even a +prophet. If a man is full of love, Paul says, "he is greater than a +prophet." A wife would rather live in a cabin with the love of her +husband, than to live in a palace without it. If I love a man I will +not cheat him or slander him or envy him. I pity people who are +constantly looking out for slights. It is better to look on the bright +side rather than the dark side of life. Love will lead us to look on +the bright side. Some persons are always magnifying the faults of +others. They use a magnifying glass in this business. If you want +power with persons, speak as well as you can of them. Self-control is +a great thing. This comes and stays through love. How many dwarfs +there are in God's church now. They have not grown one inch +spiritually in twenty years. If our hearts are full of love, we are +bound to grow. Many other graces pass away, but love is eternal. The +most selfish man is the most miserable man. A man may be miserly with +his money, but no man can be miserly with love. Love creates love. +The more we love, the more we will be loved. Love must show itself. +Love demonstrates its presence by action. Our lives, after all, are +mere echoes. I speak harsh to a man, and he will speak harsh to me. +If a man has bad neighbors it his own fault. If a woman has bad +servants it is her own fault. If we make others happy we will be happy +ourselves. If you are not happy, go and buy all the poor people near +you a turkey for Christmas. "He that noticeth others shall be noticed +also himself." If you want to get your own soul above its own +troubles, go and do good to some unhappy soul. If we do this work, I +believe we will have to do it in this world. There will be no tears to +wipe away, or sorrows to assuage, or afflictions to remedy in the other +world. This work is for this world. It is a blessed work. It is the +best investment a man can make. It pays an hundred fold. Labors of +love demonstrate better than the church membership that we are in the +Master's service. This is the Master's business. Though my way +through life has often been through graveyards and through glooms, I +have loved and I have been loved, and I know that life is worth living. +Love is the fulfilling of the law; the end of the gospel commandment; +the bond of perfectness. Without it, whatever be our attainments, +professions or sacrifices, we are nothing. Love obliterates the +differences in education, wealth, station, religion, politics and +nationality. It is a promoter of peace and harmony; it cultivates the +social graces; it makes friends of strangers and brothers of +acquaintances; it softens the asperities of life; it worships at the +shrine of piety, and recognizes the omnipotence of God and the +immortality of man. It is religious not sectarian, patriotic but not +partisan. It glows by the fireside, radiant with perpetual joy. It +glorifies God in worship and in song. It blesses humanity in genial +mirth and human sympathies. It is a perennial fountain at which the +old may drink and grow strong. It is a daily benediction to its +devotees, and, like "a thing of beauty, is a joy forever." It stands +like the statue of liberty, a beacon light to the tempest-tossed and +wayfaring mariner and brother, pointing him the way to the haven of +refuge, to the right living and right doing. + +Oh love, thou mightiest gift of God; thou white-winged trust in Him who +doeth all things well; thou one light over His darkest providences, +lingering to cheer when all else has passed away, thy whisper upon the +dull ear of night. But alas! this world was made to break hearts in, +while love was sent from heaven to heal them. The precious balm, +though, is so scarce that many must die for want of it. Oh, the +might-have-been! What human soul has not sung that dirge? Verily, the +winds come, howling it by like an invisible band of mourners from the +grave of all things. Alas! is anything in this life real, or are we +indeed shadows, and this world altogether a shadowy land, while the +blackened skies above give us only glimpses of a far-off better home, +better friends and better love? Alas! Heaven's loudest complaint to +mortals is ever for lack of love. Even He who sitteth upon the throne +of thrones knoweth what it is to stretch out His arms in utter +desertion of no one to love Him, no one to seek Him, and no one to fear +Him--"no, not one." Then as we may best show our love to Him by loving +one another, is it not well that we commence loving those around us at +once? Ah! yes, and like the ambitious vine, do thou reach out all thy +tendril thoughts to what is nearest, the while aspiring to the oak or +the pine of the loftier trust, even the faith of Abraham that was +accounted unto him for righteousness. Would I had some new phrase for +love, some new figure for hope! How lonely and weary must that life be +without love, how tasteless all its joys, and how vacant every scene. +If we have the spirit of love we will live for others. Auguste Comte +inscribed on the first page of his work, "Politique Positive," wherein +he depicted in systematic form, life that had been forming itself +throughout human history, these words: "Order and progress--live for +others." The force of this thought is, in accord with Odd-Fellowship, +which teaches love of our kind, love of right, zeal for the good. + +Man's happiness consists in living as a social being, living for self +in order to more truly live for others. This is summed up in the word +humanity. But affection, as the true motor force of life, must have a +foundation, must stir us not only to the right things, but to the right +means; in other words, action must be guided by knowledge. Improvement +must be the aim of social life, as it is the incentive to individual +effort. It is not enough to desire the good, or to know how to achieve +it, we must labor for it. Associated effort gives the opportunity for +gaining grander results than centuries of divided activity. The +conception of humanity has grown nobler. The good of the vast human +whole is now acknowledged as the end of all social union. Humanity +embodies love; the object of our activity; the source of what we have; +the ruler of the life under whose span we work, and suffer and enjoy. + +All religions, all social systems worthy of the name, have sought to +regulate human nature and perfect the organization of society by +proclaiming as their principles the cultivation of some grand social +sentiments. Philosophers, moralists, preachers have united in saying: +"Base your life upon a noble feeling, if you are to live aright; base +the state upon a generous devotion of its members to some great ideal, +if it is to prosper and be strong." All have agreed that the +difference of life could only be harmonized by placing action under the +stimulus of high unselfish passion. Odd-Fellowship has grown strong +under this governing law. The banner it bears aloft proclaims +sentiments that are attractive to all the nations of the earth. We are +strong in as far as we truly interpret, for the good of humanity, this +elevated aim, this devotion to fraternal ends. + +Compte defines religion as consisting of three parts--a belief, a +worship, and a rule of life--of which all three are equal, and each as +necessary as any other. As is truly said, "Society can not be touched +without knowledge; and the knowledge of social organization of humanity +is a vast and perplexing science. The race, like every one of us, is +dependent on the laws of life, and the study of life is a mighty field +to master." Enthusiasm of humanity would be but shallow did it not +impel us to efforts to learn how to serve--demanding the best of +conduct, brain and heart. The power of Odd-Fellowship lies in its +fraternity. It goes forward with irresistible magnetism when its +fraternal principles are truly interpreted. It furnishes to men a +strong union, where general intelligence, by attrition, is increased; +it provides a high moral standard; its objective action is such as +touches the common heart of humanity; and by its grand co-operative +system it gives the finest means of securing those advantages that tend +to the securement of material comfort and mental and spiritual peace +and happiness. + +Drummond says: "Love is the greatest thing in the world." Read what +Paul says about it in I Cor., xiii: "Though I speak with the tongues of +men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or +a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and +understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all +faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am +nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though +I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me +nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love +vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up: Doth not behave itself unseemly; +Seeketh not her own. Is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil; +rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all +things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. +Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; +whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, +it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. +But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part +shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child; but when I +became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a +glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then +shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, +love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." + +The more I study Odd-Fellowship, the more I become convinced that I +have just crossed the threshold, and that new truths and sublime +lessons await me, of which I never dreamed. Brothers, there is hidden +treasure in our order for which we must dig. It must be brought to the +surface. We must know more of the beauties of this great organization +of ours. "The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his +Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children." "I +wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the +world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. +How infallibly it is remembered. How super-abundantly it pays itself +back--for there is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly +honorable, as love. Love is success. Love is happiness. Love is +life." "Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in +God. God is love. Therefore love." "Without distinction, without +calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, +where it is very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it +most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for +whom perhaps we each do least of all. There is a difference between +trying to please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance +of giving pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of +a truly loving spirit. I shall pass through this world but once. Any +good things that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human +being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I +shall not pass this way again. We can be Odd-Fellows only while we act +like honest men." + +Every Odd-Fellow ought to be a "gentleman." Do you know the meaning of +the word "gentleman"? "It means a gentleman--a man who does things +gently, with love. And that is the whole art and mystery of it. The +gentleman can not in the nature of things do an ungentle, an +ungentlemanly thing." "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." Life is +full of opportunities for learning love. Every man and woman every day +has a thousand of them. There is an eternal lesson for us all, "how +better we can love." What makes a good artist, a good sculptor, a good +musician? Practice. What makes a man a good man, a man of love? +Practice. Nothing else. If a man does not exercise his arm he +develops no biceps muscle; and if a man does not exercise his soul, he +acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength of character, no vigor of +moral fibre, nor beauty of spiritual growth. Love is not a thing of +enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression +of the whole round Christian character--the Christ-like nature in its +fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are +only to be built up by ceaseless practice. To love abundantly is to +live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever. We want to +live forever for the same reason that we want to live tomorrow. Why do +you want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some one who loves +you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and love back. +There is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and +are beloved. It is when a man has no one to love him that he commits +suicide. The reason why, in the nature of things, love should be the +supreme thing--because it is going to last; because in the nature of +things it is an eternal life. It is a thing that we are living now, +not that we get when we die; that we shall have a poor chance of +getting when we die unless we are living now. + +No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and grow old +alone, unloving and unloved. At any cost cultivate a loving nature. +Then you will find as you look back upon your life that the moments +when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in +a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all the +transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours +when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those around +about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have +entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost all the beautiful +things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that He has +planned for man; and yet as I look back I see standing out above all +the life that has gone, four or five short experiences when the love of +God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of +mine, and these seem to be the things which alone of all one's life +abide. Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other +good is visionary. But the acts of love which no man knows about, or +can ever know about--they fail not. + +Odd-Fellowship ought to grow. The kinship of the human race--how +beautiful a thought! Without mutual aid the race would perish. Think +of it. Throughout life you are dependent upon your fellow-man. Who +can live without a friend? When you have no money and no home, where, +brothers, will you find food and shelter? When low with fever, the +tongue parched, the brain wandering, who will give you water, bathe +your throbbing temples, and watch over you lest you die? See the old +man. The frosts of seventy winters have whitened his head; his eye is +dim; his limbs tremble; reason and memory fail; he is an infant again. +He goes down to the valley of the shadow of death. Who shall lead him +and comfort his weary soul? Who lay his body gently and reverently in +the grave, and sod it over with green grass? So with us all. A man +alone in the world, without a human being who cares whether he live or +die! Not a hand to touch, nor a voice to hear, nor a smile to receive! +Human affections forever sealed to him; no fireside; no home with +father, mother, brothers, sisters; no little children, no son to be +proud of; no daughters to caress; no "good night;" no "good morning." +Who could bear it? The sun could not warm such a man. The brightest +days and the greenest fields could not give him pleasure. Better chain +him on a rock in mid-ocean and leave him to the vultures, than thus rob +him of his kinship with the human race. + +This world is beautiful, and it is full of priceless sympathies. All +creation is glorious with melody. The morning stars, saith the Bible, +sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy when it was +made. The universe of stars, and suns, and planets and globes, swing +harmoniously through space. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground +without our Father's notice; not a soul yearns, or sorrows, or +rejoices, but He knoweth it. He hath made of one blood all nations of +men to dwell together on the face of the earth. We are bound to each +other by indissoluble ties. It is a law of nature that we must all +work for each other. Though ten thousand miles apart; though oceans +roll between us and continents divide us, we labor not for ourselves +alone. You plow the furrow in California and sow the wheat for your +brother in Louisiana, while he plants the cane and cotton for you. The +good Siberian is this day roaming over snows and ice, hunting the otter +and gathering furs, that you may be warm. Men are diving in the +Persian gulf for pearls to grace your wives and daughters. The +silkworm of India and China may have spun the threads of your dress, +the Frenchman may have woven it; the hardy mariner braved the seas to +bring it here. Truly, we are brothers. A common Father brought us all +into this world, and to a common Father we all go. Let us, then, help +one another, in money (if need be), in education, in sympathy. + +There is one feature of the order we desire to emphasize, and that is +its full sympathy with those that labor and toil. No reference would +do justice to the order that did not emphasize this fact. It is its +pride and glory. It is from this class its membership is chiefly +drawn. It was with this class it originated, the first lodge in the +United States having been organized by half a dozen humble mechanics; +Thomas Wildey, their leader, was a blacksmith. You see it had no +aristocratic origin, and its broad and catholic sympathy, its +popularity with this class is explained. They know its value, and have +seen its active charity and experienced its beneficence. A man who has +no sympathy with the humble and the lowly, a man of mean and narrow +heart, will find no congenial dwelling place in our lodges. The true +Odd-Fellow is a man of heart; his hand is open to every worthy appeal +of the needy, and he is honest and upright in his life. It enforces no +religious or political tests; in these every member is free; but it +does teach and urge its members to be grateful to their Creator and +loyal to their country. In conclusion, let me urge upon the living, +fidelity to the teachings of Odd-Fellowship. If these are respected it +will make you better citizens, better husbands, better fathers, better +men. It is a cultivation of the heart and the better feelings, and +expands our humanity. If you are poor, it will come to you, or your +family, sometimes as a benefaction. If you are rich, you can afford to +give, and with a good Odd-Fellow that is more blessed than to receive. + +I want to say here what I have often said in the lodge-room. I love +Odd-Fellowship, above all, for the heart there is in it. For its +display on the street and its pageantry I care but little. I shrink +from it rather than follow it. But its benevolence, its active +charity, and its mission of good will, I admire. When death's +unwelcome presence rests within our portals, and obedient to his call a +loved one has gone hence, we should give the mortal remains of the +departed brother a decent sepulture; fondly cherish the remembrance of +his virtues, and bury his frailties "beneath the clods which rest upon +his bosom." We should then direct our thoughts and cares to the +desolate home, where the widow, clad in the robes of grief, her heart +cords broken and bleeding, is weeping over earth's only idol, now lost +to earth forever. Then, too, should we extend the helping hand to the +fatherless children, and endeavor to so direct their steps that their +paths may be paths of usefulness and honor. These are the imperative +duties. But our ministrations of charity and benevolence should by no +means be confined exclusively within the pale of the order. This +crowded world, with its eager millions, maddened with ambition's +unquenchable fires, trampling under foot and well-nigh smothering each +other in the great rush of competitive strife, is full of poor +unfortunates, daily appealing for generous sympathy and assistance. + +Though not members, it may be, of our peculiar family, yet the poorest, +the humblest, the most wretched, is a human being--"the master-piece of +His handiwork"--and, as such, demands our aid and comfort as far as +practicable. Life has been compared to a river. Aye, and beneath its +murky waters lurk countless reefs and shoals. Many a beautiful bark, +sailing, seemingly, under the very star of hope, dashes upon them, and +is lost. All along its shores are scattered the wrecks of stranded +vessels, once laden with joyous hopes and brilliant prospects. +Odd-Fellowship renders the passage of this river safe by a bridge of +mystic form, + + "On one side is friendship planted-- + Truth upon the other shore; + Love, the arch that spans the current, + Bears each brother safely o'er." + +It should be the most pleasing duty of Odd-Fellows to point our +fellow-travelers to this beautiful and stately arch; to lead +thitherward their weary steps. Such would be assistance more permanent +than can be rendered by silver or gold. The time is certain to come +when every young man is thrown back upon himself--must leave the +tranquil security of the parental home, and seek a refuge among +strangers. When beyond the reach of family influence--beyond the reach +of that tender providence which so carefully guarded him from vice, and +soothed his griefs and sympathized with all his youthful aspirations +and pleasures--when this influence ceases to surround him, what will +continue its ministry of love? What will be to him father, mother, +brother, sister--home? Will society? No! Society to its deepest core +is selfish, corrupt, unnatural and unloving? Society will not, and can +not. He is in the great world--allurements and temptations are rife +around him--he is sick and in distress, and must suffer alone, with no +one to console him with a word of comfort, sympathy, or love; he has no +attention but such as money will purchase--he dies, and the cold eyes +of strangers only look upon the grave, if, indeed, a grave he has. +This is a life picture, and it is at this point the beauty and utility +of Odd-Fellowship is seen, for the order is a vast family circle, +spread throughout the community; always powerful and efficient to +preserve those who are brought within the sphere of its influence. He +who is a member of this fraternity may go where his father's counsel +and his mother's care can not reach him, but he can not go beyond the +reach of that larger family to which he belongs! Silently and +invisibly, yet with unslumbering assiduity, Odd-Fellowship watches over +him, and by its wise counsels, its tender sympathies and rational +restraints, saves him from the ways of vice. + +Mythic story tells us that the ancient gods invisibly and secretly +followed their favorites in all their wanderings, and when exposed to +danger, or threatened with destruction, would unveil themselves in +their awful beauty and power, and stand forth to preserve them from +harm or to avenge their wrongs. Odd-Fellowship realizes this myth of +the pagan gods; she surrounds all her children with her preserving +presence, and reveals herself always in the hour of peril, sickness or +distress. Nowhere in our country can a true Odd-Fellow feel himself +alone, friendless or forsaken. The invisible, but helpful arms of our +order surround him wherever he may be. And should he be overtaken by +illness or misfortune, be he in any part of the country, and never so +poor, he will, if he makes his wants known, receive as a right the +necessary assistance, and friends to watch over him with fraternal +solicitude. And should he fall a victim to disease, the brothers of +charity will be there to close his eyes, and with solemn, yet hopeful, +heaven-born rites, consign his body to the repose of the silent tomb. +Odd-Fellowship is an embodiment of family love and affection, and is +the only substitute for home influence, and the only green spot in the +dreary waste of life which binds these brothers to the tender practice +of every virtue--guides in prosperity and health, and as a ministering +angel bends over them with tenderest pity in their chamber of +suffering. True, there are sorrows which it can not reach--there are +griefs which it can not remove; notwithstanding, it still pursues its +way, imparts its healthful influence, and accomplishes its beautiful +and holy ministry of benevolence and charity. If it can not heal the +wounds of misfortune, it administers the balm of sympathy, friendship +and love. My dear reader, learn to give encouragement to those around +you. + +Everybody feels the need of encouragement, from the humblest artisan to +the king on his throne. We hear of the choice spirits who have been +the world's idols, how they came up through terrible trials alone and +almost unaided, setting aside obstacles that would have crushed others, +and fighting their way to the very pinnacle of fame. Aye! but great as +they were, they needed and received encouragement. In some part of +their poor home they saw the smile that spoke the hearty appreciation +of the genius, though, perhaps, the lips said nothing. Even West left +on record, "my mother's smile made me a painter." The encouragement of +a little child will send the blood more warmly to the heart, and even +the appreciation of a poor dumb brute is worth its gaining. Give +encouragement. Everybody needs it--men, women and even children. Oh! +how many a dear little heart has been chilled into ice when the coarse +laugh has greeted its rude hieroglyphics in the first attempt to +portray its ideal. The child sees warm visions of sunlight and beauty +in those uncouth angles. Whole minds of thought lie concealed under +those strange shapes. To the young mind's eye they are wonders, and +the tiny fingers have built monuments that deserve not to be thrown +down so rudely, when a smile that costs nothing would have left them +standing to be finished into finer shape and more classical proportions +in the years that are to come. You do a positive injury to the dullest +child when you reward his little efforts with contempt. It is a wrong +that can never be repaired, for the disheartment that strikes the happy +spirit, flushed with the consciousness of having achieved something new +and great, comes up in after time with the very same vividness at every +trivial disappointment. Give encouragement. You men of business, who +know so well what a good, hearty "go ahead," coupled with a frank, +merry face, will do in your own case--give encouragement to the young +beginner, who starts nervously at the bottom of the race, and who, +though he may put a bold outside on, quakes at the center of his being +with the dread that among so many competitors he shall always be left +in the rear. Hold out your hand to him as if you thought the world was +really large enough for two, and bid him God-speed. Tell him to come +to you if he feels the need of a friend to advise with him. Don't +emulate your sign in overshadowing him. Out upon these mean, cringing +souls who would grudge God's sunlight if it shone upon a piece of +merchandise as good as their own. They are poor, barren wretches, who +plow furrows only in their own cheeks, and plant wrinkles on their +brows. Above all things, if you have any tenderness or compassion, +encourage your pastor, your physician, and your editor. Suppose, once +in a while, they do, in expressing their own honest views, say +something that conflicts a little with your own starved or plethoric +notions. Suppose they do dare to tell you the truth sometimes in a way +that makes you cringe, and you say to yourself, "he has no business to +be personal," when the poor man never thought that his homely coats +would fit; don't grow cold, and cast sheep's eyes, and nudge somebody's +elbow in a corner, and whisper all around, and say complacently, "Yes, +Brother A. is a good man--but--" + +Those "buts" and "ifs" ought to be christened intellectual revolvers, +for they kill more reputations than any other two words in the English +language. We have known instances where pastors and editors and others +have felt weary of living, from having to encounter the spirit of +discouragement among their brethren; and oh! how many wives, husbands +and children, are dying deaths daily from this same prolific source of +suffering. Give encouragement, then, wherever and whenever you can, +and you will find that you have not lived in vain. If God blesses +those who offer but a cup of cold water in charity, how much more will +He regard the kind heart that has refreshed a weary spirit fainting by +the way. Death quickens recollections painfully. The grave can not +hide the white faces of those who sleep. The coffin and the green +mound are cruel magnets. They draw us farther than we would go. They +force us to remember. A man never sees so far into human life as when +he looks over a wife's or mother's grave. His eyes get wondrous clear +then, and he sees as never before what it is to love and to be loved; +what it is to injure the feelings of the loved. + +Let us deal gently with those around us. Remember every day a flower +is plucked from some sunny home; a breach made in some happy circle; a +jewel stolen from some treasury of love; each day from summer fields of +life some harvester disappears--yea, every hour some sentinel falls +from his post and is thrown from the ramparts of time into the surging +waters of eternity. Even as I write, the funeral of one who died +yesterday winds like a winter shadow along some silent street. Daily, +when we rise from the bivouac to stand at our posts, we miss some +brother soldier whose cheering cry in the sieges and struggles of the +past has been as fire from heaven upon our hearts. Each day some pearl +drops from the jeweled thread of friendship--some harp to which we have +listened has been hushed forever. Love, however, annihilates death +even; blots away all record of time and creates the world it lives in; +conjures back arms to embrace, lips to kiss, and eyes to smile, +whispers its own praises and breathes its own names of endearment. +Thus, love maketh the light to our dreams and planteth hope in the +midst of our sorrow. In darkness and in danger, too, love cometh to us +ever, ever, now warning, now chiding, now blessing, and always safely +guarding. Love lightens labor, shortens distance and quickens time. +Love teaches us to forgive, helps us to forget and whitens the memory +of all things. Love paints every hope, brightens every scene and +maketh beautiful whatsoever it shines on. Love is wisdom. Love is +high. Love is holy. Love is God. Love gloweth in the hearts of the +angels, wreathes the smiles on their brows and melts the kisses on +their lips. Love is the light of the beautiful beyond. + + + + +GEMS OF BEAUTY + +More hopeful than all wisdom is one draught of human pity that will not +forsake us. + +Laughing is one of the products of civilization. In the uncivilized +tribes laughter is entirely unknown. + +Let him who neglects to raise the fallen fear lest, when he falls, no +one will stretch out his hand to lift him up. + +Time is a species of wealth which it is impossible for us to hoard, but +which we may spend to good advantage. + +Character is the eternal temple that each one begins to rear, yet death +can only complete it. The finer the architecture, the more fit for the +indwelling of angels. + +It is only by labor that thought can be made healthy, and only by +thought that labor can be made happy; and the two can not be separated +with impunity.--_John Ruskin_. + +Don't moralize to a man who is on his back. Help him up, set him +firmly on his feet, and then give him advice and means. + +There is a pleasure in contemplating good; there is a greater pleasure +in receiving good; but the greatest pleasure of all is in doing good, +which comprehends the rest. + +Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning--an endeavor +to navigate a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have to run, but +without observation of the heavenly bodies. + +Most people keep too strong a hold of their personality to be able to +forget themselves in their subject; they carry an unacknowledged +self-consciousness along with them. If to be single-minded is to have +an undivided interest in things, they are not single-minded. + +Real affection is independent. A woman may passionately love a man who +does not care for her, and men have gone mad for the sake of women who +were indifferent to them. That affection which survives coldness or +even contempt on the part of the subject is a stronger proof of its +strength than jealousy, however well founded. + +To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals, and to have a +deference for others governs our manners. + +If you want to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want, +what you like, what respect people pay you, and what people think of +you. + +One great impediment to the rapid dissemination of new truths is that a +knowledge of them would convict many sage professors of having long +promulgated error. + +The leaves that give out the sweetest fragrance are those that are the +most cruelly crushed; so the hearts of those who have suffered most can +feel for others' woes. + +Each of us can so believe in humanity in general as to contribute to +that pressure which constantly levers up the race; can surround +ourselves with an atmosphere optimistic rather than the +contrary.--_Selected_. + +He who has more knowledge than good works is like a tree with many +branches and few roots, which the first wind throws on its face; while +he who does more than he says is like a tree with strong roots and few +branches, which all the winds can not uproot.--_Talmud_. + +If we waited until it was perfectly convenient, half of the good +actions of life would never be accomplished, and very few of its +successes. + +A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad +track, but one inch between wreck and smooth rolling prosperity. + +Prayer is the key of day and lock of the night; and we should every day +begin and end, bid ourselves good morrow and good night, with prayer. + +In order to love mankind, expect but little from them; in order to view +their faults without bitterness, pardon them. The wisest men have +always been the most indulgent. + +There are souls which fall from heaven like flowers, but ere the pure +and fresh buds can open they are trodden in the dust of the earth, and +lie soiled and crushed under the foul tread of some brutal hoof. + +Many of the men we calmly set down as failures may have been doing as +much as those who have made ten times as much noise in the world. A +great deal of the best work in the world is anonymous, if we do not +confine the term to writing. + +To a man of brave sentiments midnight is as bright as noonday, for the +illumination is within. + +That man who lives in vain lives worse than vain. He who lives to no +purpose lives to a bad purpose.--_Nevins_. + +Labor is the law of the world, and he who lives by other men's means is +of less value to the world than the buzzing, busy insect. + +Deep is the sea, and deep is hell, but pride runneth deeper; it is +coiled as a poisonous worm about the foundation of the soul.--_Tupper_. + +The integrity of the heart, when it is strengthened by reason, is the +principal source of justice and wit; an honest man thinks nearly always +justly. + +Be firm, but be not too hasty to decide; weigh well before you act, +but, having weighed, act promptly, and abide the result. This is the +test of judgment. + +Wit loses its respect with the good when seen in company with malice; +and to smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to +become a principal in the mischief. + +Success never did, never will come to that young man who knows +everything--in his own opinion. + +In love, as in everything else, truth is the strongest of all things, +and frankness is but another name for truth. + +Frequent disappointment teaches us to mistrust our own inclination, and +shrink even from vows our hearts may prompt. + +For children there is no leave-taking, for they acknowledge no past, +only the present, that to them is full of the future. + +To love, in order to be loved in return, is man, but to love for the +pure sake of loving, is almost the characteristic of an angel. + +Fond as a man is of sight-seeing, life is the great show for every +man--the show always wonderful and new to the thoughtful. + +The sweetest book in all the world, if properly read, is the Bible. +Its leaves are as fragrant as a bed of violets in full bloom. + +Pity gilds mortality with rays of immortal light, and through faith +enables its possessor to triumph over sin, sorrow, tribulation and +death. + +If we can not live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to +deserve happiness.--_Fichte_. + +Little by little fortunes are accumulated; little by little knowledge +is gained; little by little character and reputation are achieved. + +Don't rely for success upon empty praise. The swimmer upon the stream +of life must be able to keep afloat without the aid of bladders. + +Industry--In seeking a situation, remember that the right kind of men +are always in demand, and that industry and capacity rarely go +empty-handed. + +Frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean +to do on every occasion, and take it for granted that you mean to do +what is right. + +To be always intending to lead a new life, but never to find time to +set about it, is as if a man should put off eating from one day to +another till he is starved. + +A man loved by a beautiful and virtuous woman carries a talisman that +renders him invulnerable; every one feels that such a one's life has a +higher value than that of others. + +The great beauty of charity is privacy; there is a sweet force, even in +an anonymous penny. + +Every heart has its secret sorrows, and oftentimes we call a man cold +when he was only sad. + +A promise should be given with caution, and kept with care; it should +be made with the heart and kept with the head. + +"The mind of a young creature," says Berkely, "can not remain empty; if +you do not put into it that which is good, it will be sure to use even +that which is bad." + +We all see at sunset the beautiful colors streaming all over the +western sky, but no eyes can behold the hand that overturns the urns +whence these streams are poured. + +We often live under a cloud, and it is well for us that we should do +so. Uninterrupted sunshine would parch our hearts. We want shade and +rain to cool and refresh them. + +Poverty is very terrible to you, and kills the soul in you sometimes; +but it is the north wind that lashed men into vikings; it is the soft, +luscious south wind that lulls to lotus dreams. + +There is nothing so valuable, and yet so cheap, as civility; you can +almost buy land with it. + +It has been justly said nothing in man is so Godlike as doing good to +our fellows.--_Selected_. + +Contentment swells a mite into a talent, and makes even the poor richer +than the Indies.--_Addison_. + +Never was a sincere word utterly lost, never a magnanimity fell to the +ground; there is some heart always to greet and accept it unexpectedly. + +There are people who often talk of the humbleness of their origin, when +they are really ashamed of it, though vain of the talent which enabled +them to emerge from it. + +A witty old deacon put it thus: "Now, brethren, let us get up a supper +and eat ourselves rich. Buy your food, then give it to the church; +then go and buy it back again; then eat it up, and your church debt is +paid." + +Self-sacrifice is the essential mark of the Christian, and the absence +of it is sufficient at once to condemn the man who calls himself by +that name and yet has it not, and to declare that he has no right to +it.--_Bolton_. + +There are many comfortable people in the world, but to call any man +perfectly happy is an insult. + +Women often make light of ruin. Give them but the beloved objects, and +poverty is but a trifling sorrow to bear.--_Thackeray_, + +Independence is a name for what no man possesses; nothing in the +animate or inanimate world is more dependent than man. + +Wealth is to be used only as an instrument of action, not as the +representative of civil honors and moral excellence.--_Jane Porter_. + +There is nothing purer, nothing warmer than our first friendship, our +first love, our first striving after truth, our first feeling for +nature.--_Jean Paul Richter_. + +Shakespeare is as much out of the category of eminent authors as he is +out of the crowd. He is inconceivably wise; the others +conceivably.--_Representative Men_. + +A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. Neither do uninterrupted +prosperity and success qualify a man for usefulness and happiness. The +storms of adversity, like the storms of the ocean, arouse the faculties +and excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude of the voyager. + +It is not work that hurts men. It is the corrosion of uncertainty; it +is the anticipation of trouble; it is living in a state of painful +apprehension. Therefore we should endeavor to rise out of the +atmosphere of gloomy forebodings. The man who is lifted above fear and +its whole brood of mischief can go through twice as much trouble as a +man who is subject to its influence. + +He that looks out upon life from a sour or severe disposition, with +hard and stringent notions, is ill prepared to meet the experiences of +the world; but he who has the sweetness of hope, he who has an +imagination lit up with cheerfulness, he who has the sense of humor +which softens all things--he who has this atmosphere of the mind--has +made himself superior to accident. As the angel described by Milton, +who was smitten by the sword, and whose wounds healed as soon as the +sword was withdrawn, so ought man to be; and when he receives a spear +thrust in life, no sooner should the spear be withdrawn than his flesh +ought to "close and be itself again." + +A married man falling into misfortune is more apt to retrieve his +situation in the world than a single one, chiefly because his spirits +are soothed and retrieved by domestic endearments, and his self-respect +kept alive by finding that, although all abroad is darkness and +humiliation, yet there is a little world of love at home over which he +is monarch. + + + + +HUSBAND AND FATHER + +Miss Frances Power Cobb is right, and she is wrong, when she says: "It +is a woman, and only a woman--a woman all by herself, if she likes, and +without any man to help her--who can turn a house into a home." She is +unquestionably right in her judgment, that it is a woman who can, if +she will, turn a house into a home, but she is much in the wrong in her +assertion that it is a woman all by herself, without any man to help +her, who can effect such a beneficial transformation. Woman possesses +magical powers in the way of building up a home; but home naturally +implies the presence and protection of man--and it is man himself, if +he likes, and without any woman to help him, who can give that home a +semblance of that place where, as some people believe, the wicked +suffer after they have "shuffled off this mortal coil." The husband +can never make the home, but he can succeed most admirably, if so he +choose, to unmake it, to banish its happiness and comfort, to exile +from it its ministering angels of peace and content, to shatter woman's +sweet and blessed work to its very foundation. Let the wife +concentrate, all day long, all her care and ingenuity and love upon +building up her little paradise at home, let her hands be ever so busy +in strewing fresh flowers around the domestic hearth, let her heart be +ever so happy throughout the day in the discharge of her domestic +duties, let her countenance be ever so beaming in her sweet +anticipation of the happy smile of appreciation, of the kind word of +sympathy and encouragement, which shall be her reward when her husband +returns; and then see this star in her domestic firmament enter, +sulking and surly, blind to all that her busy hands have so lovingly +prepared, grim and gruff to her and the little ones, who have been +fitted up in their neatest and cleanest, in which to welcome their +father's return, and then see whether you can agree with Miss Cobb's +assertion "that it is a woman, and only a woman--a woman all by +herself, if she likes, and without any man to help her--who can turn a +house into a home." See how her heart sinks, how her voice, full of +mirth and glee and music before his coming, dies in her throat, how the +little ones, full of merriment all day long, tremblingly hide in the +corner, or withdraw from the room; see how the intrusion of this grim +spectre of malcontent shuts the door upon domestic peace and happiness, +and withers every pious resolve to make home the dearest, sweetest, +most contented and most sacred spot on earth, and then calculate how +long, under such disheartening surroundings, woman will be able all by +herself, and without any man to help her, to prevent her house from +becoming anything and everything except a home. + +While studying language, I observed that most of my mistakes in grammar +occurred in the feminine gender, and thinking over the cause of it, it +dawned upon me that, belonging to the masculine sex, I was in the habit +of thinking in that gender, and that my teachers were men, and that my +text-books and grammars had been written by men, and that the masculine +gender predominated so strongly in the exercises, that it was but +natural for me to make the greatest number of mistakes in the gender to +which the least attention had been given. When dealing with the social +and domestic question, the unbiased among us can not but observe a +similar failing. Many a serious mistake has been made by man when +speaking or writing concerning women, because our speakers and writers +and preachers and teachers belonged from the very beginning of +civilization, almost exclusively to the masculine sex, a sex which has +never tired in exalting itself at the expense of the weaker sex, in +emphasizing woman's inferiority to man, in asserting its rights, and in +complaining about its wrongs, and as woman did not write or speak for +herself, we have heard but little of her side of the story, know next +to nothing of her just rights and of her grievous wrongs, seldom dream +that she, too, has rights that must be respected, and suffers wrongs +that must be corrected. + +The universities, colleges and all great institutions of learning of +this and other lands refused, until quite recently, to recognize woman +as a human being possessing a mind in need of training, and therefore +excluded her from their privileges, and the order of Odd-Fellows +partook of the same spirit and excluded the better half of the human +race from its lodge-rooms. Man had ever been a selfish, conceited, +cowardly tyrant from the day in which our father Adam disgraced his sex +by taking without question the forbidden fruit; and, after eating it, +crying with selfish, pusillanimous cowardice: "The woman thou gavest to +be with me gave me of the tree and I did eat," and he has always sought +to make and keep woman an inferior, dependent, submissive slave. To +this end he has striven to keep her in ignorance, exclude her from all +the avenues of knowledge, and then, because she did not possess the +knowledge that he had forbidden her, proclaimed throughout the world +that she was mentally inferior to man, and in consequence unfit to be +admitted to the various institutions and associations in which men +sought to improve their minds. + +The object of Odd-Fellowship is to improve and elevate the character of +man, to enlighten his mind and enlarge the sphere of his affections, +and of course woman, as being mentally weak and naturally inferior to +man, was excluded from its sacred precincts. Now, however, things are +changed; nearly all educational institutions worthy of mention admit +women, and the Rebekah of today, emulating the Rebekah of old, will be +hand in hand with her brothers in all good works. She will accompany +him on his errands of mercy, watch beside the bedside of anguish, +foregoing pleasure to follow in the path of duty. + +I would have every man know--who has a wife--that "mutual benefit from +harmonious partnership work" is an axiom in as full a sense as "in +union there is strength." + +There are two sides to every question, and in this article I shall deal +with the woman's side. I want to present especially the wife's side of +the question to every Odd-Fellow, hoping that it will be of lasting +benefit in many ways. I know full well that only one accustomed to +deal with high and holy things, one whose glance is ever at sacred +things, one who, as it were, administers the treasures of the kingdom +of God, can fittingly touch this subject. It would be easy for me to +be a cheap wit, to rake up the old scandal of Mother Eve, to even +declaim with windy volubility that a woman betrayed the capital, that a +woman lost Mark Anthony the world and left old Troy in ashes. But far +be it from me! Rather would I assume a loftier mood; rather would I +strike a loftier note, and, with blind Homer, beg for an unwearied +tongue to chant the praise of woman. It is true Eve lost us Eden, but +in that garden of monotonous delight, had we been born there, we would +never have truly known what woman is. O, Felix Culpa! O, happy fault! +that has shown the world the mines of rich affection of woman's heart, +that else would never have been discovered. O, happy fault, that has +shown the world a wealth of woman's nature, her capability for love, +the radiance of her tenderness, her infinite pity, her unswerving +devotion, the solace of her presence in sickness and sorrow, the depth +and sweetness of her mercy. + +A river of pure delight flowed through paradise, but blind Adam never +saw it, never dreamed of it until the flaming sword cut him off +forever; but he has since drank of it, and so has every man who has +ever tasted the sacramental wine of woman's true affection. The seamy +side of life has been laid bare to me. Its sorrows and its anguishes +have I often witnessed, but into that pool of Bethesida of the world's +anguish, with healing do I see ever come an angel, a pitying woman. +The influence of wife and mother is ever near me; their faces are the +most lovely; their hearts the most tender of all in this world--my +mother and my wife. And for their sake, and for the sake of all the +mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, whom I daily meet doing good, I +long and I earnestly yearn for the eloquence and grace to half express +the thoughts that rise within me of what the world owes woman. + +To me every good woman is the fair fulfillment of dreamed delight. She +is the first at the cross and the last at the grave. All that is +highest and best in the world is nurtured and fed by the milk of her +nobility. The Christ of all greatness and hope was born of a woman. +The noble women of the world! O, would that the days of chivalry were +not past, that I might unsheath a lance in their name, for their glory! +But in our more prosaic days, what can I do but let the will suffice +for the deed, and say to the woman, "God bless you." I propose to let +her speak for herself today. I propose to accept her invitation to +accompany her through the various spheres of her domestic life, and see +whether she alone is responsible for that vice and crime and misfortune +which moralists and superintendents of penal and charity institutes +trace back to neglects at home; whether it is always the wife and +mother that is responsible for unhappiness in marriage and for the +increase of divorces; whether the husbands and fathers are always the +saints and martyrs, or whether they are not very, very often the root +of the whole evil themselves. + +We retrace our steps and begin with our observations of the husband and +father a few months prior to that solemn day, on which he plighted his +vows of protection and faithfulness, on which he took into his care and +trust a woman's life and happiness, on which he sacredly promised, in +the name of God, and in the presence of witnesses, to love her, to +honor and cherish her, to provide for her, to be faithful to her in all +his obligations as husband, in youth and in old age, in sunshine and in +darkness, in prosperity and in adversity. We make first his +acquaintance in the happy days of his courtship. He is burning with +love. He is the facsimile of Shakespeare's lover, "sighing like a +furnace." Her praises are on his lips always. He avows himself her +slave and worships her as a goddess. It is in her company alone that +he can find happiness. Whether at home or in society, he is always at +her side. Life is dreary where she is not. He wonders how he could +have lived so long, or how he could continue existence, without her. +How regular and how punctual he is in his calls, and how he scowls at +the clock for running away with time so fast! Not a wish does she +express, no matter how unreasonable and extravagant, but he eagerly +gratifies it. How numerous his little attentions and his kind +remembrances! How thoughtful of her birthday, and how lavish in floral +tributes and costly presents! How numerous and how lengthy his letters +when separated! How sweet their moonlight walks and talks! How bright +her future, which he maps out! How many the pledges which he breathes +forth between his ardent kisses; never a harsh word shall break on her +ear, never a wish of hers shall be ungratified, never a trouble shall +mar her happiness; such a love as his has never been before, and will +never be again; he only lives for her happiness; his affection will +never cool, he will be a lover all his life; their whole wedded life +will be one never-waning honeymoon. + +In the drama the plot usually ends with marriage. At the instant when +it is reached, when all obstacles are removed, the curtain falls, and +the young people have no further existence for us. But in the +practical world the play goes on. The curtain rises again, the same +personages reappear, only they frequently play different parts, and +what was before a comedy or a melo-drama often changes into a tragedy. +Sad and tearful scenes are often enacted by them. The misery and pain +are no longer inflicted by their former enemy, but by their own hands. +He, who prior to marriage overcame almost insurmountable obstacles to +make his lady fair his happy wife, now moves heaven and earth to make +that wife as miserable as possible. + +A number of years have passed since last we observed the lover. He is +husband and father now, but what a change these few years have wrought +in him! Forgotten are the lover's vows. She that once his goddess +was, is now his slave. The fulsome flatterer of former times has +degenerated into a chronic fault-finder. With the change of her name +has begun his change of treatment of her. Cast aside are the many +courtesies and expressions of endearment that marked his conduct to her +prior to marriage, and which were the thousand golden threads that day +by day throughout their courtship wove their hearts closely into one. +No bouquets and no costly gifts any more. The anniversary of her birth +and of their wedding day passes by unnoticed by him. His former +efforts to entertain her, to make himself agreeable to her, have +altogether ceased. Rarer, and ever rarer, become his parting and his +coming kiss, his "good-bye, dear," and his "good evening, darling." +Fewer and fewer become his words of praise. Irksome becomes the task +of staying at home. He, who once upon a time found life dreary where +she was not, who vowed that in her company alone he found happiness, +who could not await the evening that would bring him to her, who +declared that his affection would never cool, and their whole wedded +life would be one continuous honeymoon, now finds her company tedious, +her home unattractive. He looks upon his home as his boarding and +lodging-house, upon his wife as the kitchen scullion, or as the nurse +of his children, for which services he generally allows her so many +dollars a week. At the breakfast table his face is buried in the +morning paper. He rises without interchanging a word with wife and +child. Absent from home all day long, he is absent still, even when +home in the evening. No sooner has he swallowed his meal, when he +buries himself in the newspaper for the rest of the evening, or dozes +on the sofa till bedtime, or he has an important business engagement +down town, or some meeting to attend, or an important engagement brings +other husbands to his house, where they transact any amount of business +in the exchange of diamonds for hearts, and clubs for spades. + +All day long she has been toiling hard in her home, toiling with hand +and brain. She has been preacher and teacher, physician and druggist, +provider and manager, cook and laundress. The children had to be +attended to, purchases had to be made, the meals had to be provided, +the servants to be looked after, the house to be gotten in order; there +was mending and sewing and baking and cleaning and scrubbing and +scouring, which had to be done; there were the children's lessons, and +practicings that had to be looked after; there were the children's +ailments that had to be cured, and there were the hundred other things +the husband never dreams of, and which tax a woman's nerves and +strength as much, and often more, than his occupation taxes him. But +not a word of appreciation, not a look of sympathy and encouragement +from him, who never tired to sing her praises before they were married, +who vowed that never a harsh word should remotely break on her ear, +never a trouble should mar her happiness. On the contrary, he has no +end of faults to find, and she is doomed to listen to the same old +harangue on economy and saving. She has been saving and stinting until +she can save and stint no more. She has patched and mended and turned +and altered until she could patch and mend and alter no more, and still +the same complaints; the table costs too much, the dry goods store +bills are too long, the seamstress comes into the house too often, the +physician is consulted too much, and of such as these many more. Not a +word does he say about the expensive cigars he smokes, the wines he +drinks; about his frequent visits to the sample-room, and about the +liberality with which he treats his friends there; about the sumptuous +dinners he takes at noon in the down-town restaurant, while wife and +children content themselves at home with a frugal lunch; about the +money he loses at the card table, or in his bets on the games and races +and politics. And of the children he takes but little notice. He has +not seen them all day long, and he is too tired to be bothered with +them in the evening. He must have his rest and quiet. The mother +worried with them all day long, she may worry with them in the evening, +too. It is enough for him to supply her with the means wherewith to +care for their wants, further obligations he has none; these are a +mother's duties, but not a father's. + +They tell a story of a learned preacher who had isolated himself from +his children on account of his dislike to their noise. One day, while +taking a walk, he was attracted by the beauty and wonderful +intelligence of a little boy. Inquiring of the nurse whose child it +was, she answered, much astonished: "Your own, reverend sir, your own." +Judging from the attention that some fathers bestow on their children, +I am inclined to believe that this learned preacher has many an +imitator among his sex, for whom not even the inexcusable excuse of +absorption in studies can be set up. I have read of a business man, +who one day thanked God that a commercial crisis had thrown him into +bankruptcy. He said it afforded him an opportunity to stay at home for +awhile, and get acquainted with his own family, and that for the first +time he learned to know the true worth of his wife, and that he found +his children the sweetest and dearest creatures that ever lived, and +not for all the business of the world would he again deprive himself of +their sweet association. Prior to his misfortune, or rather good +fortune, his business had so absorbed him that he had altogether +forgotten that there were sacred claims at home that demanded his +interest and his service. + +Not all our orphaned children are in our orphan asylums, or under the +supervision of "The Orphans' Guardians." There are more of them at +home with their fathers and mothers, and especially among our +well-to-do families. There are children growing up who scarcely know +anything else of their father except that he is referred to during the +day by their mother when they are bad, as that dread personage who +would inflict a severe chastisement on them when he returns, or whose +presence silences their fun and makes their own absence agreeable. He +makes no effort to entertain them, takes no interest in their +pleasures, in their progress at school. He is simply their punisher, +but not their friend, and it is not at all surprising to see children +growing up with a conception of their father such as that little boy +had, who, when told by a minister of heaven, and of the meeting of the +departed there, asked: "And will father be there?" On being told that +"of course he would be there," he at once replied, "Then I don't want +to go." Occasionally wife and husband spend an evening out, or they +entertain company at home, and oh, what a transformation she observes +in him. In other people's homes, or when other people are present, his +stock of material for conversation is unlimited. Then and there he is +full of fun, bright and cheerful; when alone with his wife he has +scarcely a word to say; he moves about the house with the lofty +indifference of a lord, and with a heartless disregard of every member +of the household. At home he is cold and cross and boorish, in other +women's parlors he is polite and considerate and engaging. He has a +smile and a compliment for other women, none for his wife. If they +attend an evening reception, he brings his wife there, and he takes her +home; during the interval she has little, if any, of his company. She +may be shy, she may be a stranger, she may not be much accustomed to +society life, she may feel herself out of place in the gay assemblage, +she may be unentertained or bored or annoyed, it matters not to him as +long as he is having a good time with the boys, or is encircled by the +ladies fair, who unanimously think him the most gallant of men, +unrivaled in his wit and wisdom and conversational powers, and who +secretly sigh if but their husbands were like him. + +To such an extent is this wife-neglect carried on that a lady not long +ago made a wager that, in nine cases out of ten, she would distinguish +between married and unmarried couples. She won the wager. When asked +to explain her method of discrimination, she said: "When you see a +gentleman and a lady walking in silence side by side, it is a married +couple; when their conversation is continuous and animated, and +smile-and-laugh-provoking, they are single. When a gentleman sits next +to a lady in the theatre, and never keeps his opera glass away from the +boxes and galleries and stage, he is her husband; when his eyes rest +more on her than on the stage, it is her lover. When a lady, who sits +at the side of a gentleman, drops her glove, and she stoops to hunt it, +it is a married couple; if he stoops quickly to pick it up it is an +unmarried couple. When a lady plays, and a gentleman stands near her, +and does not turn for her the pages of the music book, it is her +husband; when you see his fingers in eager readiness to turn the leaf, +it is not her husband." + +There is in every true woman a spark of divinity, which glows in her +heart, and blazes into a most luminous light when a husband's love and +respect and sympathy and appreciation and encouragement fan that spark +into activity. But woe to the home where cruel hands quench that +flame. The sun is the heater and illuminator of our whole solar +system. The vast supplies which it sends forth daily must be +compensated, or else it would soon expend itself, and our world would +go to ruin. Nature, therefore, hurls millions of meteors every second +into the sun's fiery furnace to keep up the supply of heat and light. +The wife is the sun of the household. Her womanly attributes give the +light and warmth and happiness of the home to all who cluster around +her. But a wife's love and self-sacrifice for her home are not +infinite. They soon exhaust themselves, where love is unreturned, +where a husband is a tyrant, where self-sacrifice is unappreciated, +where faithful and prudent industry is accepted as a labor of duty, and +not as a labor of love, where she is simply regarded as his +housekeeper, and not as his devoted helpmate, where his presence alone +is sufficient to cast gloom and fear over the entire household. Woman +was made to bless mankind, but also to be blessed in return; to make +society better for forming a part thereof, but also to receive some +recognition for her work. + +Endurance is woman's prerogative. Suffering is her heirloom. +Disasters, which would crush the spirit of man, often turn her heart to +steel, and she performs deeds grand and heroic. Disheartened by +continuous neglect, she will make heroic efforts to throw her influence +all the more affectionately over her home. Wounded deeper and ever +deeper, she will toil on, hiding from the world the pangs of wounded +affection, "as the wounded dove will clasp its wings to its side and +cover and conceal the arrow that is preying on its vitals." But the +shafts of continuous neglect will pierce her heart at last--a husband's +continuous neglect extinguish, at last, the sacred flame upon the +domestic hearth. She, too, finds home irksome. She, too, learns to +find more pleasure abroad than in her home. She, too, thinks light of +liberties and indiscretions. The grown children learn to emulate their +parents' example, and seek their pleasures also abroad. The little +children are left to servants to finish the corruption begun by +parents. And so the home, the very spot designed by God to become the +chief school of human virtue, the seminary of social affections, the +keystone of the whole fabric of society, the germ-cell of civilization, +becomes a hotbed of corruption, and almost as often on account of a +husband's neglect and sins, as on account of a wife's ignorance or +frailties or failings. Our stock of advice to wives and mothers seems +inexhaustible. Almost every one of the stronger sex has his fling at +woman, and his remedy to offer, which, if immediately followed, will at +once eradicate unhappiness in marriage, decrease the number of +divorces, and lessen vice and crime in society. + +Might not a little advice be also profitable to man? Is there not room +for improvement in the stronger sex as well as in the weaker? Reform +in the one sex will be of little benefit unless there is reform in the +other sex as well. Our husbands and our fathers, too, need reforming, +and that reform must begin very early in their lives, before yet they +enter into marriage, before yet they enter upon the days of their +courtship. Our young men need curbing. Youthful precocity must be +checked. "_Cito maturum cito putridum_" says the Latin, "soon ripe, +soon rotten." We allow our young men, some of them exceedingly young, +too many liberties. We allow them to sow too many wild oats. If their +intention is some day to take unto their care and keeping a woman's +life and happiness, to pluck from out a comfortable and contented home, +and from the embrace of devoted parents, a pure and happy and trusting +young woman, who has never felt the wrench and shock of life's storms, +nor the cold shoulder of neglect, nor the gnawing tooth of want, then +let them see to it in time that they may bring to her a heart as pure +and mind as uncorrupted, and character as unpolluted as they expect +from her. + +The law of heredity, of transmission of ancestral poison, is as +operative in the male sex as in the female. A pure and healthy +offspring must be preceded by a pure and healthy parentage. A +rottening tree never produces luscious fruit. "Like begets like." An +enfeebled father means not only feebleness in the next generation, but +also perpetuated misery and vice and crime. Marriage is sacred and +necessary and obligatory, but not all marriages are so. There are some +marriages from which woman should recoil as much as she would from +death itself. Rather that death would woo her than a man--if I may be +permitted to honor him with that name--whose constitution is +undermined, whose strength is sapped, and whose marrow and blood are +poisoned. Rather an old maid than a profligate's nurse. Rather a life +of single blessedness than the housekeeper of a wreck of a husband. +Rather single and happy and stainless and conscience-free than a mother +of an unfortunate offspring, that have the sins of their father visited +upon them, and that shall one day curse their parents for having given +existence to them. Another remedy for unhappy marriages will be found +in the cessation, of the anxiety on the part of so many parents _to get +their daughters married off_. It is but natural that this constant +anxiety should make the daughter feel that she would like to lessen her +parents' dread, and cease being a trouble to them, especially when +there are younger sisters crowding fast upon her, and so she says +"Yes," even when the word almost chokes in her throat, even though she +knows in her heart that he is not her ideal, nor the man that will make +her happy. It is not true that any husband, who can support a wife, is +better than no husband. Marriage means more to a sensible woman than +an alliance with a husband for the sake of being clothed and fed and +housed. She has a heart and soul and mind that have their wants, and +if they be starved, unhappy marriage, if nothing worse, is the result. + +Mothers and fathers! Have you watched over your daughter from the day +of her birth; have you guarded her from infancy to girlhood, and from +girlhood to womanhood; have you suffered for her sake; have you +surrendered comforts and sacrificed pleasures for her sake; have you +toiled and stinted and saved for her sake; have you afforded her the +best education and all the pleasures and opportunities that your means +will allow, and all to wish yourselves rid of her; to think that any +husband, who can support your daughter--sometimes not even so much is +expected from him--no matter how old, how uncultured, how unsuitable to +her tastes and wants, is better than no husband? A father's personal +attention to the training of his children will in time reduce +materially unhappy marriages, and greatly lessen the miseries and vices +of society. He owes his children more than support and chastisement. +Society holds him responsible for their character. The duties of +training devolve upon the father as much as on the mother. A father's +wider experience and worldly wisdom prove valuable contributions to the +mother's simpler knowledge in the raising of their children. A +father's continuous absence, or neglects, or severity, or unkindness, +or heartlessness, has made more reprobates and scamps and criminals in +this world than all the failings of women combined. Think less of your +dignity and more of your duty. Rather that your child should love you +than fear you. You can maintain your authority and dignity by love and +gentleness as well as by frowns and threats and chastisements. You may +walk and talk and study and play with them, and yet have their full +respect. The great and warlike Agesilaus did not think it beneath him +to entertain his children during his leisure hours, to join them in all +their merry sports, and permit himself to crawl on his fours with his +little child upon his back. If you would raise good children let your +example at home be accordingly. As you will teach them so they will +act. If you are a devil they will scarcely be angels. Children are +keen observers. An old proverb says that a father is a looking-glass +by which children dress themselves. See to it, fathers, that the glass +be clean, so that your children's morals may be pure. + +A little more memory on the part of the husband will prove a powerful +remedy for the eradication of unhappy marriages and for the lessening +of divorces. She is the same woman after marriage that she was during +the days of your courtship, and a good deal better. Why so forgetful +of all the sacred vows and solemn pledges which you plighted then? Why +so constant then and so inconstant now? Why so affable and faithful +and loving and attentive then, and why so inattentive and bitter and +sullen and neglectful now? Why such a profuseness then in your +courtesies and smiles and flowers and gifts and kisses, and why such a +lack of them now? Is it because of wrinkles? Is it because of her +faded beauty? She has lost it in your service. She has come honestly +by her wrinkles. She got them in the sick-bed, in the kitchen, in the +nursery, by the bed of your sick children, by the grave of your child, +by painful night-watches and overtaxing day toils, by your harsh words, +and by your heartless treatment. This is all she has in return for her +beauty and youth and cheerful mind and happy disposition, which she +laid at your feet when you asked her to join her destiny with yours. A +little courtesy, a kind attention, a bouquet of flowers, a small token, +a word of appreciation and of encouragement is not much to you, but it +is a world to your wife. Your smile is all the reward she craves. Her +heart thirsts for it, and when given, its effect upon her soul is as +the refreshing dew upon the withered grass. It is a mistake to believe +that she can draw in her married life on your love-deposits during +courtship. If love is to prosper, the supply must be ever fresh. The +love of the past will never satisfy the need of the present. Love +constantly and carefully cultivated will increase its blessings as +fruit trees double their bearing under the hand of the gardener. It +will be killed, as will the fruit tree, if the gardener's hand grows +neglectful and noxious influences are permitted to impede its growth. +Let your wife be your helpmate and not your housekeeper. She shares +your sorrows, your defeats, let her also share your thoughts and plans. +Unbosom your thoughts to her. Lay open to her your heart and soul. +Trust her with your confidence, she trusts you with hers. The men who +succeed are those who make confidants of their wives. The marriages +that are happy are those where husbands and wives have no thoughts +apart. The children that are well raised are those that have had the +example of loving and confiding parents before them. Proud of your +confidence, she will labor to deserve it. She will study to please +you. In your prosperity she will be your delight; your stay and +comfort in your adversity. She will return your confidence and +affection in full measure. Gloom will vanish from the hearth, and +happiness will hold dominion within the home. "Her children will rise +up before her and call her happy; and her husband will sing aloud her +praises." + +Marriage is, perhaps, the only game of chance ever invented at which it +is possible for both players to lose. Too often, after many +sugar-coated words, and several premeditated misdeals on both sides, +one draws a blank and the other a booby. After patiently angling in +the matrimonial pool, one draws a sunfish and the other a minnow. One +expects to capture a demigod, who hits the earth only in high places, +but when she has thoroughly analyzed him, she finds nothing genuine, +only a wilted chrysanthemum and a pair of patent leather shoes, while +he in return expected to wed a wingless angel who would make his Edenic +bower one long drawn out sigh of aesthetic bliss. The result is very +often that he is tied to a slattern, who slouches around the house with +her hair in tins, a dime novel in her hand, with a temper like aqua +fortis and a voice like a cat fight--a voice that would make a cub wolf +climb a tree; a fashionable butterfly, whose heart is in her finery and +her feathers; who neglects her home to train with a lot of intellectual +birds; whose glory is small talk; who saves her sweetest smiles for +society and her ill temper for her family altar. If I were tied to +such a female as that, do you know what I would do? You don't, eh? +Well, neither do I. There was a time, we are told, when to be a Roman +was to be greater than to be a king; yet there came a time when to be a +Roman was to be a vassal or a slave. Change is the order of the +universe, and nothing stands. We must go forward, or we must go +backward. We must press on to grander heights, to greater glory, or +see the laurels already won turned to ashes upon our brow. We may +sometimes slip; shadows may obscure our paths; the boulders may bruise +our feet; there may be months of mourning and days of agony; but +however dark the night, hope, a poising eagle, will ever burn above the +unrisen tomorrow. Trials we may have, and tribulations sore, but I say +unto you, O, brothers mine, that while God reigns and the human family +endures, this nation, born of our father's blood, and sanctified by our +mother's tears, shall not pass away, and under heaven, for this great +boon, this great blessing, we'll be indebted to the women of +America--God bless them. Finally, brethren, be serious while I impart +this concluding lesson: "She--was--a--good--wife--to--me. A good wife, +God bless her!" The words were spoken in trembling accents over a +coffin-lid. The woman asleep there had borne the heat and burden of +life's long day, and no one had ever heard her murmur; her hand was +quick to reach out in helping grasp to those who fell by the wayside, +and her feet were swift on errands of mercy; the heart of her husband +had trusted in her; he had left her to long hours of solitude, while he +amused himself in scenes in which she had no part. When boon +companions deserted him, when fickle affection selfishly departed, when +pleasure palled, he went home and found her waiting for him. + + "Come from your long, long roving, + On life's sea so bleak and rough; + Come to me tender and loving, + And I shall be blest enough." + +That hath been her long song, always on her lips or in her heart. +Children had been born to them. She had reared them almost alone--they +were gone! Her hand had led them to the uttermost edge of the morning +that has no noon. Then she had comforted him, and sent him out strong +and whole-hearted while she stayed at home and--cried. What can a +woman do but cry and trust? Well, she is at rest now. But she could +not die until he had promised to "bear up," not fret, but to remember +how happy they had been. They? Yes, it was even so. + +It was an equal partnership, after all. +"She--was--a--good--wife--to--me." Oh, man! man! Why not have told +her so when her ears were not dulled by death? Why wait to say these +words over a coffin wherein lies a wasted, weary, gray-haired woman, +whose eyes have so long held that pathetic story of loss and suffering +and patient yearning, which so many women's eyes reveal to those who +weep? Why not have made the wilderness in her heart blossom like the +rose with the prodigality of your love? Now you would give worlds, +were they yours to give, to see the tears of joy your words would have +once caused, bejeweling the closed windows of her soul. It is too late. + + "We have careful thoughts for the stranger, + And smiles for the sometime guest, + But oft for own, + The bitter tone, + Though we love our own the best." + + + + +ODD-FELLOWSHIP AND THE FUTURE + +There is infinite and perennial fascination in the contemplation of the +future. The past is a fixed province, the finished result of an +ever-moving present. The future is the province of the poet, the +prophet and the seer. The past is adamant, the future is plastic clay. +The past is with God alone; the future is with God and man. We toil +for it; dream of it; look to it; and all seek so to + + * * * "Forecast the years, + As find in loss a gain to match, + Or reach a hand through time to catch + The far-off interest of tears." + +Let us consider the future as a field and Odd-Fellowship as a force. +The future is a field, billowing with the ripening harvest of golden +possibilities. It is as wide as the world, for the world is the field. +It comprises every zone and clime; every nation and tribe; every island +of the seas. Wherever we find one of our fellow-men in darkness and in +chains, there is our field. It is as long as from now to the coming of +Christ. A moment's survey of the field will convince us that the +greatest conquests are yet to be made. There is battle ahead, great +interests to be gained, great incentives to heroic effort. The times +call for men--broad-browed, clear-eyed, strong-hearted, swift-footed +men. Odd-Fellows, not behind you but before you, not in the past but +in the future, lies the widest and richest field of Odd-Fellowship's +possibility. Turn your faces, not toward the waning light of +yesterday, but toward the growing radiance of a better morning. The +force is commensurate with the field. The cry of every true Odd-Fellow +ought to be the cry that leaped from the heart of Isaiah when his lips +were touched with the coal from off the altar: "Here am I, Lord, send +me." Our order is no longer a puny and helpless infant, but a lusty +giant, panoplied in the armor of truth and clad in the strength of +perpetual youth. We have riches untold. We have institutions for the +care of the old, and the orphan, the equal of any of which the world +can boast. We have a grasp on the sympathy and confidence of the +masses which is immeasurable. We stand for principles that are the +incarnation of God's infinite thought and throbbing love. We are +equipped for conquest. What answer shall the force make to the cry +from the field? As loyal Odd-Fellows, let us take our answer from the +Great Commander. What answer did He make to a dying world? What did +he come to do? He came to lift fallen humanity. He came to bind up +the wounds of those who were bruised and bleeding. He came to speak +words of cheer and sympathy to hearts bowed in sorrow. He came to +break the chains of bondage and restore mankind to its former beauty +and greatness. Our mission is identical with His. Our work is +identical with His work. We are His representatives. Our highest +destiny is the working out of His purposes. The world with all its +boasted progress has not advanced beyond the need of a Savior. It is +the same at heart now as it was when the blessed feet of Christ trod +its hills and valleys. Men change, but man changes not. The same +problems are confronting us as confronted them. It may be trite, but +it is tremendously true, that our primary and ever-present duty is to +seek and save the lost. We are to win them to faith in high and noble +ends, and having won them to faith in our mission is not enough. They +are to be instructed, cultured, enlarged, inspired, ennobled, until man +looking in the face of man shall see the face of Christ shining +through. He is to be the accepted Lord and law-giver in every realm of +human thought and activity. He is to rule in the family. He is to +rule in business. He is to rule until the demon of hate, malice and +injustice has been throttled. He must rule in the affairs of state. +He must rule in society, until the watchers at the gate shall announce +to Him who sitteth upon the throne: "Thy kingdom has come and thy will +is done in earth as it is in heaven." Christ is the solution of man's +most difficult problems. He came to save men. How did He go about the +task? He gave himself. We can accomplish our task only as in burning +earnestness we give ourselves. What depth of humiliation, what +self-devotion, what unmeasured sacrifices, what unspeakable suffering, +what unfathomable anguish, what toil and anxiety, what love and pity, +what loneliness and sorrow, are crowded into those three words, "He +gave himself." + +If we as an order would give ourselves to the principles taught by our +institution, we could win the world in the next half century. If we +are to be truest to the future, we must stand by the side of the Great +Teacher and proclaim a complete and perfect truth. Our platform should +be neither broader nor narrower than His. If there is one truth in +revelation that we can not give its proper setting and due emphasis, +then we are not the keepers of God's truth. To my thinking, there are +no organizations formed by man that can appeal more confidently to the +Word of God for confirmation than the Odd-Fellows. We appeal to sane +reason and common sense. No organization can hold up a higher ideal of +individual freedom and worth. But there is a danger that we become +narrow, that we violate the maxims of sane reason and common sense, +that we lose the balance between individual prerogative and the claims +of a united brotherhood. We can not accomplish the aims of our order +by onesidedness. We are to become "all things to all men." We are not +to be prisms breaking up the rays of light and declaring that this or +that color is the most important. We as Odd-Fellows are to be lenses, +converging the rays and bringing them to a focus upon the hearts of men +as the white light of God's eternal truth. + +This is a practical age, and if we are to win we must demonstrate the +superiority of our faith and practice over that of other claimants, not +only in terms of the Written Word, but also in terms of manhood. +Odd-Fellowship is standing upon the golden dawn of a new morning. It +is to be a day of battle and conquest. It is truth blazoned upon the +page of history, that if we as Odd-Fellows are true to our standard, to +our possibilities and to our Maker, he will lay the suffering of a +throbbing world in our arms that we may lay it at the feet of Him who +died to redeem it. Let us cherish high hopes, noble aims, and lofty +ideals. Never since the world was peopled has mankind stood in such +anxious expectancy, awaiting the outcome of the immediate future, as in +these closing years of the nineteenth century. Men are wistfully +trying to peer through the portals of the year nineteen +hundred--marveling, as the effects and forces of applied science is +unfolded to our comprehension, and discovery moves on, each invention +leading in another, in stately procession; we, all the while rapt in +wonder, are straining in hope and fear to catch the coming word, and to +comprehend its import. Never was speculation so rife, never was the +field of human observation so unobstructed and expanded, nor the +ascertainment and sifting of facts so facile. Never were opinions more +diverse, nor was it ever so obviously important to detect and assert +the philosophical principle, in recognition and obedience to which the +laws of human government may be preserved and kept in view, and the +retrocession of mankind prevented. At no stage of history was it more +important to call to mind the great principle that government is a +means, and not an end, and is instituted to maintain those general +liberties which are essential for human happiness and progress. At +this time, Odd-Fellowship looks toward the future with longing eyes, +and its followers lift high their banner, on which is inscribed that +beautiful motto, "Friendship, Love and Truth." + +After all, what lives in this world? Is it thought pulsations alone or +deeds done? If thought alone, then the lowest thought coordinated in +the brain of man would live. Something must be combined with thought +in order to have a lasting effect. There must be thought and deeds and +sentiment. Sentiment must go to the very existence of the race. On +these forces may be built up structures that live and breathe a +benediction on all mankind. I ask you to cast your eye over the world +and note the permanency of such institutions as have come down to us, +and are alive, and such as we say will live. I venture your first +question will be: "What is the foundation on which they rest? Why, +through the slow, revolving years have these institutions lived and +thrived and grown? Have they lived on greed, or a desire for pelf or +power, or out of human desire for adulation and praise? Or have they +lived because of man's needs, and out of human wants?" If we probe to +the bottom we will find this the corner-stone of all laudable +ambitions, because man needs man, and needs help into a higher plane of +usefulness and activities. + +We find institutions coming down to us from a date which the memory of +man runs not to the contrary; indeed, some so old that the musty +volumes of the long ago reveal not their origin. But simply the need +of man for man would not entirely account for the duration of society +in its ancient form. There must be still other underlying principles. +There must be love and the acknowledgment of the brotherhood of man all +along the way of life, or the family would go to ruin, society would +dissolve, citizenship would not exist, states and principalities, +kingdoms and powers would exist only as an idea in the brain. There +would be no command to be our brother's keeper, no plighted vow that +"The Lord be between thee and me, and between my seed and thy seed +forever." Man would, as an individual, stand absolutely alone, like an +atom dropped from the abyssmal depths onto this earth of ours. The +little wild flower struggles through leafy mold, endures the +tempestuous blast of winter, that when spring comes it may bloom to +gladden the earth and scatter sweet incense all around. But without +the cementing influence that runs like a thread all through society, +man would not, could not, cast a sweet odor even on his own life, and +dying would leave no benediction on the lives of others. And here the +command comes, "Gather into thy quiver the lives and aspirations of +others, that fitted to thy bow they may go forth scattering blessings +by your help and by your kindly influence." So all great achievements +have been based on great fundamental principles, and each principle has +for its object the betterment of the conditions of mankind. + +Truth is said to be eternal. It was just as true at the dawn of +creation that the square described on the hypotenuse of a right-angle +triangle is equal to the square described on the other two sides, as it +was when Pythagoras enunciated the theorem. "Thou shall not kill," is +a law written by the Divine hand amid tempest and fire, but it stands. +"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," rings from the portals of +heaven through the gates of humanity and its command will not go +unheeded. They are all great fundamental truths. Do you observe that +they live? Give heed also to the fact that they stand for a better +condition among men, for more helpfulness and higher elevations. +Truths enunciated, whether old or new, that live, only have one +tendency, viz., to raise man to better conditions. Since the dawn of +creation there has been a constant tendency to arise from a lower to a +higher estate. Self-preservation, self-helps, self-culture have been +the trend of thought and action. And this has not been altogether an +effort in the individual for his own personal advancement, but for the +advancement of the race. Men have undergone sacrifices, humbled and +almost debased themselves, that the succeeding generation might live on +a higher plane, physically, morally and spiritually, than they +themselves enjoyed. I do not know of any act of humanity that calls +forth louder praise than to so act and speak and do as that humanity +shall not only catch the inspiration, but shall make material progress +on a better understanding of surrounding conditions. Odd-Fellowship, +in its essence, is no new institution. Its principles, practices and +precepts have existed from the beginning of the race. + +When Abraham stood with the churlish Lot on the line dividing the +plains and highlands and said, "I pray thee let there be no contention +between thee and me, if thou goest to the right hand I will go to the +left, or, if thou goest to the left hand I will go to the right," he +breathed the pure essence of unselfish devotion to the founder of a +race. The acts of kindness shown by the traveler as the caravan plods +its tortuous way across the sands of the desert; the mission of the +wise men from the east in search of a Redeemer, all show forth that +trait that you and I, my brother, try to emphasize while vowing +devotion to the triple links. I said a moment ago that Odd-Fellowship, +in its essence, was no new institution, and so it is not. As we know +it in reality we have simply crystalized its workings. Instead of +humanity, by its individual exertion, seeking to perform the task, we, +as an organized band, have taken up the subject. What was paramount +with individuals has become a living force with the multitude. What +was before an invitation to duty has now become a command. + +In seeking after friendship we do not court the beasts of the fields +and the fowls of the air as the hermit does, but we seek man; not man, +but men; not this little society or faction, but embrace all mankind in +the issue. If we seek for love it is not love for pelf or power, but +love for man and God. In truth we do not depend on the right conduct +of individuals, but accept truth as it is written in nature's open +book, emblazoned on the sky of hope that bends over us, and speaks in +all the higher attributes of life. Time was when the inclination of +men was to withdraw into clans. Ishmael stood in the desert by himself +with his hand against every man. His true descendant, the Arabian +sheik, draws his mantle about him, and surrounded by his little band +withdraws within his own circle, and woe betide him who attempts to +break through. But in this came no advancement, no progress. The +Ishmaelite of old is the same today. Wherever progress and advancement +has shown itself it is found that true regard for all mankind has been +the cardinal doctrine. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." +Soon a broad catholicity of ideas seizes the multitude and man no more +lives for himself than he lives for others. He who lives closest to +the true heart of humanity lives nearest to God. Show me a man who +lives for himself alone, and you will present almost a social outcast. +Society tolerates him no more. In all the plans and calculations of +life he is not numbered. + +For two thousand years the command has come stronger and stronger for a +closer unity on social lines and fraternal regard. Not to segregate +but to crystalize and raise the status. The conditions of our social +life are such that we can not live entirely to ourselves. The monk may +withdraw himself from the gaze of the world, the anchorite may seek a +hiding place in caves and dens, but they ignore entirely the demands of +society upon them. If I were the only person in the world there would +be no social problem. I would commune with myself and God and nature +about me, without reference to my surroundings. There would be no +social environment; no one to please, no one to whom I am indebted by +nature or acquired obligation, and so I would remain. But we do not +find the conditions to so exist. We must look squarely in the face the +facts as they are. On all sides we are surrounded by a multitude who +rightly make demands of us and which we can not ignore. If I were +alone, I would do as the patriarchs of old did, erect a little altar of +stone, rude and unsightly, and bow myself down before it and commune +with Deity. But here we find that different types of men have +different religious views, and different spiritual aspirations, and so +churches must be erected; and while all tend to the same end, each +hopes to reach it by a different route. I must respect all these +views. Only one can be my view, but my social surroundings are such +that all have rights which I am bound to yield some obedience to. + +Again, if I were alone there would be no need of law, because both good +and bad would be represented in my personality. There could be no +murder, no crime, no punishment; but with all the manifold people with +different tendencies, there must be law, or the social fabric would go +to pieces by the strong trampling on the weak. Hence I must stand with +reference to the law on the right side or the wrong side, and all +humanity regardful of each other's rights must line up on one side or +the other. In addition to our churchly ties and duties, we have family +duties, and there begins the first of duty, first of government, first +of obligations as citizens. And so I say we live in relation to those +who surround us, and we can not live unmindful of them. We are touched +by humanity everywhere, and walk elbow to elbow down the vale of life, +supporting or destroying, and whether our pilgrimage be long or short +we can not destroy the facts as they exist. + +It must be seen with only a hasty glance that with the varying +conditions of men, with their different mental dispositions, moral +ideas and social status, that a crying demand comes all the time for +some organization where men can unite on a common level--some place +where a divergence of political or moral views do not bar an entrance, +where the family ties remain sacred, and more sacred because of the +organization. It seems that men groped about for just such an +organization, and men's wants are necessities, and social and civil +status might be brought to a common level with all who might be brought +into the assembly. It is believed by Odd-Fellows that our organization +furnishes just this want. All the life that a man wants outside of his +spiritual life has its food here, and society and family and man's +relations to man have been helped by it. I state it without fear of +contradiction, that no order has been more potent for good than ours. +It has been the hand-maiden of civilization wherever it has established +itself; it has smoothed out the asperities of life for many, many +individuals; it has defended character, protected life and limb, and +stood as champion of all good between man and man and between God and +man. + +Every agency by which men are advanced, socially and morally, is an +agency that guides government and state and individual up to a higher +plane of development. Odd-Fellowship and Christianity go hand in hand. +There is not a tenet of the order in any department that is repugnant +to the highest development of Christianity. Indeed, it could not be +so, for any lesson that is drawn from the three pillars of our order, +Faith Hope and Charity, is a lesson pointing to the better life here +and hereafter. + +In the eighty years, last past, who can estimate the benign influence +of the lives and actions of men, yea, on their eternal destinies, of +the oft-repeated utterances pointing to the Fatherhood of God and the +brotherhood of man--a sermon that has been painted on the bow of God's +eternal promise since Paul stood on the Mars Hill and preached this +everlasting, unchangeable doctrine to the heathen world. When I think +that since 1830 there has been expended for the relief of the members +of this order and their families millions of dollars, in all right +undertakings, and know that many hearts have ceased to ache, many cold +feet covered, many a tear dried up, many a naked person clothed and +many a hungry mouth fed, it rejoices my heart. I know also that such +love could not spring from the hearts that were kindled by no spark of +the Divine, but the lesson comes to you and to me, my brother and my +sister, that he who opens not only the granary of earthly substance, +but opens also the portals of the heart, and lets the Divine spark +kindle into a blaze, will be thrice blessed in that day when the jewels +of the eternity are made up. I do not desire to convey the impression +that all our civilization is the outgrowth of Odd-Fellowship. We are +too much inclined on such occasions as these to become mutual +admiration societies and think that all the good things that we enjoy +could not have been possible if our particular order had not existed. +I do not wish to convey that impression. I only desire it to be +understood that this order has been helpful in all right undertakings, +and constantly endeavors to espouse the right and discard the wrong. +It does not take the place of the church or the Sunday school or the +prayer-meeting. It does not invade the pulpit, but only stands as an +auxiliary to all these institutions that touch the better side of our +natures. It inveighs against no religion or creed, and has no +religious belief other than that we are brothers; nor does it encroach +upon the domain of the politician. If Odd-Fellowship had more in it +than the social and restraining influence one meets and is subjected to +in the lodge-room, it would be sufficient inducement to organize and +perpetuate lodges. No true Odd-Fellow crosses the threshold of his +lodge-room but he feels he is treading on more sacred ground than the +busy marts of trade, or in the office or counting house; he feels that +he is coming home where dwells the purest principles of +humanity--friendship, love and truth. + +But there is more in the workings of this order than the social. Its +object is to touch humanity in all its phases. To rejoice with those +that rejoice, and weep with those that weep. It sustains the living +with friendship; causes man to stand firm in his integrity by the truth +it teaches, and embrace the whole world with charity. The three links +of friendship, love and truth mark the fuller and better development of +this life, reaches beyond the grave, reaches beyond the vision, extends +into the portals of the other and the better life. We may profess +friendship, but that is an empty profession; our membership in a lodge +is fruitless and our meetings produce no good results unless we have +charity. It is but a small part that we should perform our mystic +rights, typifying friendship, love and truth, but that we should so +live them and act them that the touch of a member is the touch of a +brother whose words sweeten the asperities of life and whose last +offering is a tribute at the grave. We may be rudely brought back to +the world with its pomp and show, its pageantry and vanity, by an +emblem of mortality presented to us, but should we not ever have the +spectre of mortality before our eyes? In the mad rush through life we +forget the kinship of man to man. We are too often forgetful that the +hand of a brother is reaching upward for succor. We forget that we are +mortal, and the heart grows cold; our sympathies extend only to those +around and nearest to us, forgetful that all mankind is our brother, +and that he is especially our brother and friend who has mercy. But in +this mad rush in life we are suddenly and almost rudely brought back to +a full realization of our mortality, our helplessness, our emptiness, +our nothingness, when we stand at the grave of our departed brother and +reflect that here lies one who was born and had ambitions and died as +we must die. His ambitions and hopes all went in the grave with him. +The little grassy mound and the little marble slab is all that remains +visible to tell us that he was our brother. Life would hardly be worth +living; its struggles would be disastrous, its triumphs vain, empty +bubbles, if the clods that fall upon the coffin and the sprig of +evergreen tell the whole story of an Odd-Fellow. No, the very fact +that we bury our departed brother teaches us that the grave is not the +end of all. Though our brother dies he shall live in our hearts, in +the flowers that we cast, in the precious memories that forever cluster +around the links, the heart and the hand, the altar and the hour glass. +When the supreme moment comes and the brother gathers his arrows into +his quiver and fades from sight into the grave, we know that he has +passed the portal into the land of the eternal, but the quiver and the +arrows will ever stand as the badge of friendship. The heart may cease +to beat, and the hand fall listless in death, yet the heart and hand +will ever be emblems of love, and denote that when the hand of an +Odd-Fellow is extended his heart goes with it. + +The good Odd-Fellow has constantly before his mind the book of books. +His first sight into a lodge-room catches sight of that divine missive +to man. It is his solace in life, and its precepts his consolation in +death. It ever stands to him as an exhaustless fountain of truth. On +these three cardinal principles he lives and dies, and in the constancy +of that life we venerate his memory and do him kindly offices. It is +the nature of a man to be communistic. It is only the anchorite that +withdraws himself from the societies of man and communes with himself +and his God. All right-thinking men desire and enjoy the society of +their kind and kindred spirits. You had as well lock the sane man in +the felon's cell as to doom him to live without the society of his +fellows. The family is the first and best society. Perhaps the church +is next, which is only the human family on a larger scale, fitting and +preparing the members for a community in that house not made by hands. +Next to my church I prize the secret organization to which I belong, +where the cardinal principles of our holy Christianity are taught. The +deathless friendship of David and Jonathan teaches me that though I may +live in the king's palace, be clothed in purple and fine linen every +day, be in the line of regal succession, yet I do not live to myself. + +I would herald broadcast that tenet of our order, "that we do for +others as we would have others do for us, and that if I find my brother +in distress, I must bind up his wounds, lift him from the quagmire of +despond and set him on his feet." If any lesson stands out boldly +before the mind of the Odd-Fellow it is truth. He finds it on his +banner wherever he goes. Friendship is ephemeral. It lasts only +through life. It may die, it will die. The grave ends it all. The +silent messenger that comes to king and peasant alike, and causes the +scepter of the monarch to be laid by the crook of the shepherd, ends +our friendship. Love comes from God. God is love. It touches us at +every point of our lives. From the cradle to the grave, every moment +of our lives we are the objects of love to some one, and we love in +turn. But human love must end. After life's fitful dream, the cares +and vanities, the vexations and pleasures of life have no terror or +concern for us, the love that thrilled our whole being will return to +the source from whence it came. But truth will never die. It is the +"imperial virtue." The heart may fail; it will fail, and the hand fall +listless by the side. The arrow will fall after being shot into the +air and never return, and the bow will be broken; the altar will be +thrown down; the sand, grain by grain, run through the hour-glass, and +the glass be shattered; the eye grow dim; the world roll up as a scroll +and pass away; the hills may crumble and the pyramids melt with fervent +heat; all the friendships will die and the love return to the Father +that begat it, but truth will stand. It is indeed the imperial and the +imperishable virtue. There, above the chaos and the confusion of time, +it will stand to warn men from the wrong, and beckon them to do right. + +Despite the glamor of the world that secret societies propagate a +secresy of men's actions at the expense of truth and justice, it can +not obtain in a lodge of this order. No man ever took upon himself the +vows and studied the underlying motives, and practiced the lessons of +the order, but he becomes a better citizen. If he has become a good +husband and father, he becomes better in his domestic relations. If he +has been charitable before, he becomes more so now. Men's weaknesses +he looks upon as human frailties, until time and sense teach him that +frailties have degenerated into positive perversity of character and +baseness of heart. He will condemn falsehood and hypocrisy wherever +found. + +The object of religious organizations is to make men better and fit +them for the life immortal. The object of government and its laws is +to make and protect good citizens and repress vice. The object of this +secret organization is to bind men more firmly together for mutual +protection, for help and sustenance, to look after their families, and +to be in a broad sense our brother's keeper. I would not be understood +as placing a secret organization in place of the church, or in the +place of a political government. By no means. Each has its own proper +and particular sphere of action. No one in its actions and endeavors +is inimical to the actions of the others. Each rests on its own +peculiar foundation, but all dovetail together, and all make a +harmonious whole. The man who is a good Christian is better by being a +good Odd-Fellow. If both a good Christian and a good Odd-Fellow, he +comes nearer being the typical citizen. If man reveres the law of this +order, he will have more devotion to his church, his home, his flag and +his country. I have no fault to find with those who do not believe in +uniting with a secret organization, but I do object to any man +inveighing against the objects and purposes, the ends and aims, of our +order when he knows nothing about it. I do not expect every man to +belong to my church, for men in their constitution and mental make-up +can not see alike theologically. But I do accord to every member of +every church the hope of getting to heaven if he lives up to the +teachings of this particular sect. I believe in justification by faith +and good works, but I have no use for a man who decries this doctrine +when he never exercised a particle of faith nor did a good deed in his +life. And so I would say to any one who thinks he stands on some lofty +pinnacle and scents danger to the family tie, or church, or state, or +society, because of the existence of secret orders, that he thinks and +talks of something he knows nothing about. If I should desire to draw +comparisons, I could say truthfully that during the last year this +order gave more in charity and benefits to its members in Illinois than +any religious denomination in the state. Look around your own +community and see if it be not so. Think of the widow with +tear-stained cheek, from whose door the wolf has been kept, because the +charitable hand of our order was upon her. Count the orphan children +of members of our order who have had shoes put on their feet, clothes +put on their backs and food in their mouths. Enumerate the sufferers +on beds of anguish, racked with pain and scorched with fever, who have +had the nightly vigil of Odd-Fellows to smooth their pillows, dampen +their parched lips and moisten their feverish brows. Watch the funeral +pageant with its long train of mourners, brothers, dropping the +evergreen in the grave, and doing the last sad offices, and then croak +no more that secret societies are baneful to our civilization. He who +thus sustains and soothes and encourages will be reckoned as twice +blessed in that day when the secrets of all hearts are disclosed, and +men are rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. + +"[*]Some years ago I stood out on the great plains this side of Denver. +To the north, the south and the east was one vast stretch of plains, +the eye interrupted only by the horizon. I turned and looked to the +west, and clearly outlined in the distance was the chain of the Rocky +Mountains--the backbone of the continent. There I saw Long's Peak, +Pike's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, as mighty sentinels--watch +towers--that had served as landmarks to many a weary traveler on the +Santa Fe trail. They stood as the manifestation of the might of an +Omnipotent Power. So I turn to the record made by this order in the +last eighty years, and find colossal sums of money--not hoarded, but +collected to relieve humanity, to educate the orphan, to bury the dead +and to befriend the widow. I see arising, as if by magic, asylums for +our needy. I see a great host, one million strong, advancing, shoulder +to shoulder, elbow touching elbow, all bent on deeds of mercy and acts +of love. Are not these also mighty sentinels erected amid this +surging, striving throng of humanity to serve to guide man in the road +to a higher and better life? These peaks of the Rockies may crumble +and pass away, but a force for good once set in motion never loses its +force. It is eternal. To beautify, to strengthen, to adorn and to +expand our order and more fully present its magnificence to the world, +we have the department of Patriarchs Militant. It depicts as gallant a +band as ever marched to the sound of martial music or deployed for +battle. As the knights under Richard Couer de Leon or Peter the Hermit +marched forth to rescue the Holy Sepulcher from the hand of the infidel +and guard its sacred entablatures, so will our chevaliers as bravely +guard our ritual, our mystic rights, our honor, the honor of our +mothers wives and sisters, as a sacred trust. + +"And so our order moves forward to greater conquests. In the past it +has worked marvels for humanity. May we not, for the future, predict +better and more highly wrought out achievements? Humanity has been +taken as it is and in the progress of refinement has been raised to a +higher standard. It is the hand-maiden of civilization that works +under even yoke for the best sides of humanity. While it does not +displace or attempt to displace the church, it aids. It has +friendship, love and truth as the three human graces, and clings to +faith, hope and charity as the Christian virtues. It is now like the +city that is set upon the hill. It can not be hid. Out upon a rocky +point of the ocean's shore at Minot's ledge is a great light-house, +erected by the fostering care of the government to protect the mariners +on the high seas. Its great light swings around, now flashing on the +land and now sending its rays far out across the billowy ocean. It is +a grateful act of a great government. Many a bewildered seaman has +caught its rays and sheared the prow of his ship further out to sea to +avoid the dangerous shoals. + +"So we, imitating the kind of example of the generous government, and +measuring our acts by the example of the blessed Master, have erected a +light-house here for the protection of humanity from its ills. Now it +shines on us as mortals hastening to a final consummation of things; +again it throws its beams out across the illimitable sea of hope, where +sooner or later we all may ride, and by the light here given we may +steer our bark into a haven of final rest. Today we are on the +tempestuous ocean of life. We who feel that we are on the deck, let us +throw the life-line and the life-preservers to him who is about to +sink. Let us make this order even a greater light-house than our +fathers ever dreamed of. It can be done, because it is so ordained. +What God in his good providence orders can be, will be accomplished. +With thankful hearts we have passed over more than three quarters of a +century of existence as an organization. We are speeding onward to the +century mark, and whether we remain to see its wonderful processes or +not, humanity will be here demanding just what we have done in the +past. Let us lay the work strong today and transmit it in higher +forms, so that the end of the century of our existence as an order +shall see better life, better hope and higher aspirations. Let the +Subordinates, Patriarchs, Rebekahs and Chevaliers all form a cordon +around the altar of our beloved order, where the fires shall never be +extinguished while friendship, love and truth endures, and faith, hope +and charity are necessities. + +"Grand as has been the record of Odd-Fellowship from 1819 to the +present, it is but the sunbeams from the birth of the day that will +develop grandly into a magnificence that shall combine all the charms +of the morning, the glare of the noontide, and the blaze of a sunset +splendor in an endless panorama of glory and grandeur. And if, with +such a picture before our eyes, painted by a faith founded upon the +achievements of eighty years, and our intimate knowledge of the vast +practical benevolence that begins at the cradle and ends only at the +gate of heaven, the Odd-Fellow is not dazzled by the sublimity of +Odd-Fellowship and awed into a reverence for its work and character, +there is a lamentable defect in his appreciation of the beautiful, and +an utter failure to read the joys and dignity and influence of a +properly developed and appreciative Odd-Fellow. Let it never be +forgotten that there is nothing groveling in Odd-Fellowship. Mutual +relief, it is true, is a leading office in our affiliation, but +Odd-Fellowship seeks to elevate the character of man, make him what God +intended him to be; and while such a helpful influence is extended to +each one of us who have chosen to come within its holy power, may we +endeavor to lift ourselves up to the high standard of the order of +which we are a part, faithfully discharging our duties to ourselves and +to the world; shedding its benign influence and hallowed inspiration +alike in the palace with its draped windows and velvet laden floors and +in the cottage nestling among the flowers of the humble dooryard; +glowing with the same peerless luster in halls of learning and in +workshop and factory; kissing with the same tender, holy touch the +rough hand that guides the implement of industry, and the soft hand +that guides the pen; making character the test of merit and the heart +the bond of friendship, and recognizing the equality and holy influence +of noble womanhood. Odd-Fellowship is the unerring, resplendent +guiding star to that grand development of human nature to which hope +looks forward with such ardent joy, when one law shall bind all +nations, tongues and kindred, and that law will be the law of universal +brotherhood." + + +[*]Extract from address delivered by Hon. E. G. Hogate. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13816 *** |