San Andreas independent., 1857-01-03

nay,-ln the nlgner or lower, richer OF
poorer walks of life; it aims dart at all
the assumed forms of iniquity, in the
Church and out of the Church, ,-conserv.
atlve-yet severe, and Woe -betide the gull.
ty, upon whom the trembling shaft of Jus.
tice falls.
Impiety and worthlessness under the
cover of religious pretences, find no safe
retreat within the bosom of Odd Fellow.
ship. The base hypoerite with his studied
clrcumspection and macadamized gravity
his hollow groans and treacherous smiles,
the Christian churl, whose god is his
interests, living for himself and to himself
the poor lukewarm Leodocian hanger-on-
to the skirts of benevolent societies, whose
conscience is dead in iniquity and sin
whose feelings are Injured to death-like
sleep of inactivity, will find nothing con-
genial to their contemplate worthlessness
within the sacred pale of Odd Fellowship!
The soulless biggot who haunts his fellow
beings with the bitterness and ferocitv of a
fend-and when his heartless unkind-
ness has murdered him-would assure him
self he is right by scenting the smoke of
his torment forever and ever! The igno-
rantly prejudiced and self-secure, rolling
IN all the denominations of iniquity, with
whom improvement has no future tense,
bandaged and fettered slaves who willingly
swear by their chains that they are free
The vile and rotten-souled slanderers who
glory in intellectual massacre, and the
murderers of character, who live only on
the offal Of regulations they destroy, whose
touch is contamination, and their contact
death; who, whereverthey exist, are curse
and nuisance; whose influence is pestif-
erous as the grave and as loathsome as the
breath of hell The excessive worshippers
of Bacchus, the practical, ,systemized drunk
ard, who has exchanged the glory of man
and bartered away the rights and hopes of
Heaven for the rights and functions of a
beast! The licentious and debauched who
would pluck every flower from the tree of
life-whose burning passion would rob vir-
tue of the best lienage of beauty, and sap
with shocking temerity the hopes and joys
of every family circle The man whose
passions for play would stake the thrones
of eternity upon the cast of die-who,
unmoved by the tears and intreaties of her
who bore him, the wife of his bosom and
the children of his own life, continues to
indulge his heated passion until the infu-
rated reprobate from God and friends,
would table his game upon the tomb of his
father, or shuttle for infamy upon the
threshold of hell
A Against all these and similar vices, Odd
Fellowship has-is now, and will forever
continue towage a warof utter extermina-
ton. And no man who is not-cannot
and will not be cured of any of these vices,
never will become an active, energetic and
successful Odd Fellow. Odd Fellowship
has by some been regarded as merely a
benevolent society-having nothing else
in view but merely the relief of it's mem
bers when necessity requires To do this,
is one of the glories of this great brother
hood; to visit the sick, feed the hungry,
bury the dead, comfort, protect and pro-
vide for the widow and orphan of brethren
who have been worthy members of the
Order, is one of the peculiar beauties of
this great association. But besides these
it does more. Odd Fellows, acting upon
proper principles, receive no man into the
Lodge unless they have good grounds for
believing that he, by becoming an Odd
Fellow will become better man. And
the scrutiny of Odd Fellowship, assures
us that men are not always to be taken for
what to the casual observer they appear to
be. Men of rough and uncouth exteriors
do have many times good warm hearts
within. If he be true man he only
needs the various applications and instru-
mental ties possessed by Odd Fellowship,
TO square-plumb-and fit him pol
shed stone prepared to take his place in
she great Temple devoted to the plans and
purposes of our beloved Order
As time and education are required for
,he child to attain the stature of man,
50 is time, perseverance and assiduity,
required on the part of all who de-
sire to make proficiency in knowledge of
.he working objects and mysteries Of this
simple and at the same time complex
Rising progressively, step
after step-we leave the darkness and
loubt with which we were first enveloped,
when for the first time stranger we passed
INTO the outer court of our Order Step
ping again upon the threshold of the
Lodge Room, new light breaks in upon us
still, another ray brighter than
he last. And SO on higher, and still
higher upward progressing onward we go,
until reaching the climax-the highest
court, the inner circle, the sanctum sane
.orum, we will be strangely different from
men generally if We do not find ourselves
.purer in our thoughts, happier in our
ives and more thankful to that God who is
,he fountain of all good enjoyed.
Odd Fellowship does not now. never has