San Andreas independent., 1857-01-03

AHu, pIcluIcH, l. meet you mere tO-udy
gladly; | came to rejoice with you; |
came to give and receive fraternal greet
ing; [ came, with you to walk around our
Temple of Benevolence and Love want
to look at her towers, and examine her bull
warks. Come with me While / ramble
through her palaces and gaze upon her
beauties; | came to assist you to add an
other section to her majestic framework,
to dedicate another new inner court, among
her classic apartments, to throw around me
the signet of recognition. l came, breth-
rem, bearing on my hands and heart the
mark of an Odd Fellow; prepared, | trust,
to rejoice with you over the festivities of
this the anniversary of Odd Fellowship
among you.
The erection ofevery Temple devoted to
the principles of Fidelity, Love and Truth,
should be great cause of rejoicing, and
can never be regarded with the spirit of
indifference by the true friends of beneyo-
lence and philanthropy. In it we see the
very expansion of benevolence, the outgo-
ings of pure principles, the march of truth,
and the shining rays Of light and science.
This gift, prepared with SO much taste
and order by the members of this great
and growing brotherhood, is but another
tangible expression of our attachment and
devotedness to a cause we proudly love-
We do not to-day with the tongue of fiat
terry, point to this temple dressed in the
variegated paraphernalia of our time-hon-
ored Order, as the consummation of your
zeal in so good a cause. No, brethren,
but we would point out to our friends those
virtues and principles that underlie and
give vitality and tangibility to human ac-
ton, and request them to emulate us in
our work and labor of love.
| Neither do we appear here egotistically
to herald forth into the ears of the incred-
ulous, the achievments of Odd Fellowship.
She needs no advocate so weak and imper-
feet as your unworthy speaker, either to
confirm the doubling, or establish more
fully the faithful Odd Fellowship has
broke out upon the world like new-made
Sun; and from the effects of it's heat and
light, who doubts but that it shines?
We have said that the principles of
Odd Fellowship were eternal; which, of
course, is sufficient guarantee to ensure
its permanency. The world without often
asks inquiringly, "what is Odd Fellow
ship ?" and in what does its oddity con-
sist p "why so strangely odd in name ?"
Odd Fellowship says the thoughtless syco-
phant- -huneph! Odd Fellowship! Odd
Fellowship !-mutters the avaricious MI
ser as he clutches his time-worn treasures
and dies fool. Odd Fellowship Kisses
the ignorant prosecutor of every good
work who, with hand and heart equally soft
and pliable, measures others by his own
standard of morals. Odd Fellowship whis-
pers the superstitious and suspecting, and
a graveyard spectre fits along the path of
their highly wrought-up imaginations.-
And Odd Fellowship, with others, is made
up of darkness, creased polls and time
honored goats. But who are those dressed
in this strange paraphernalia to-day p
Doubtless, you think us odd indeed and
if you ever become better acquainted with
us, you will find us odd sure enough
And we glory in the fact of being odd;
and with our numerous oddities, you will
find us strangely odd, and quite an oddity
indeed, among the great mass of mankind
generally.
First: The principles, doctrines, and
teachings of our Order, are no graveyard
visionary, no wil-o-the-wisp fanaticism
they had an existence before the morning
stars sang together, or ere the sons of God
shouted for joy; ere the first pure spirit
blazed out in sublime lovelness in the i'm
mensity of space, the glorious principles
Of Odd Fellowship had an existence.
These principles sanctifed the curling
smoke from Aaron's altars; they journeyed
with Enoch; they foated in the Ark with
Noah; they tabernacled with pious Abra-
ham they were taught by that man of
sorrows, who was acquainted with grief
they ran in musical strain down the val
ley of Jehosephat; they cheered the strick-
en- heart of Lazerus, and scattered bread
to the perishing thousands in the wilder
ness; they have lived and breathed the
breath of life o'er the desolations of earth,
and have, in mercy, spanned our storm
riven world, the circling bow of promise.
Odd Fellowship, is the delineator, the
practical exponent of the best-trucst-
and most heaven-taught principles with
which fallen race was ever blessed
Second: Odd Fellowship is not religion;
it deals more with present ills than it con-
templates future glories it teaches COM
ponent part of what religion does, but does
not teach it all. It works in the ante
chambers of Gods Temple, but does not
offlciate In the Hottest of Holes! It inter-
feres with no mans religious opinions, let
them be what they may. Yet it does de-
mand, ere candidate pass its consecrated
threshold, he shall first believed in the cardi
nal doctrines, truths and precepts taught
In the Book of Life So that at anr time