Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-27

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the widow.o @
While thus claiming prime attention /
TO the practical benefits for suffering |
man, we do not underrate the import
anee of mutual training, since we'll /
balanced mind and adequately-taught !
understanding is necessary 10 proper |
discharge of life's duties.
Never, doubtless, since the day dawn OF
learning has there been q time when the |
merit of intellect was unreWaTded-
never the hour when its intrinsic worth /
ala not claim and receive its merited |
tribute of respect; and in this universal
difference to mind and its improve |
ment. Odd-Fellows are not the last to
i0in. We acknowledge the beautiful
character of the human intelfect-its at |
tainments we admire; its cultivation we
commend. Coming as it does from
God. we recognize it scinullation OF
the power that gave creation being, and
like its great author, powerful too III Its
nature. With wonder we behold its
splendid achievements, when entering
undaunted natures great archana 1t
lifts the veil from off the face of her
mysteries, paints the character OF
God in all his works, and IN
the mouth of mute masters
places a song of praise. Discomfort
with themes of earth and passions OF
men, it mounts the ladder OF calculation
to claim kindred with the stars, and
binding the laws OF nature, 8 slaves 10
its bidding, snatches the lightning from
the palace of the storm and drives him
post.boy round the world. In the diviD-
ity of its powers it turns from those
lofty nights where philosophy grows
I. ,,t,AicnOx-aFod worlds and
with the humble butterfly, which sips
the sweetness of the evening flower,
holds sweet communion. But when it
comes to contemplate itself, mysterious,
unknown, the microscope of reason fails
to expose the intricate adjustments OF
its own formation, and unable to explain
away the mysteries which cluster around
| its nature, lost in wonder to behold it.
self, to some superior Being turns,
and brings its every energy TO praise
the power which spoke it into being.
Thus has the mind, the reason, the
| intellect of man, by voluntary graft
| fieation afforded to its own innate de-
sires, been brought to worship its God
and acknowledge the power of Its Gre
ator. How much more should We ad-
mire, nurture and encourage that moral
part of mans nature, "made in the
| image of its Maker" that it might
freely worship, love and do his holy
will. To enhance the beauty and inn
prove the character OF the moral man is
| the mission of our order; to pay hu-
man tribute of respect to mans great
nature, " hich constitutes his tran
script of his Gods. To create which,
while he spake worlds into being by the
breath of his power, measuring the
waters in the hollow of his hands, and
melting out the heavens with span,
weighing the mountains in scales and
the hills in a balance, who sitteth upon
the orbit of the earth, stretching out the
heavens like a curtain, and spread
ing them out like a tent to dwell
in. Even he-I Am that 1 An
/ when he came to constitute this won
derful being, the moral nature of man
kind, away in the bosom of past eter-
nity, held a council with himself. In
his own image, and after his own like
ness, made he him.
! Odd-Fellowship, then, is moral in
stitution, claiming TO afford assistance
to her children in the discharge of their
duties to themselves, their fellow-msn
and their God; claiming that the culti-
vation of the moral power adds luster
anu SuDAlllllN " lllC VA
1 mind, painting with tints OF beauty the
pictures of human life, and making hu-
| manity tolerable. For, without the in
fiuence ofmorality, the attainments OF
| mind are but ieebergs on the ocean of
4 life-grand, magnificent, but cold and
forbidding. 1t is, therefore, the part of
men to watch with vestal vigilance the
| fires on the altaTs of the soul, and to
nurture with care the finer in
stincts of their being. Asso-
ciated together as Odd-Fellows, with
our hearts bound by the tri-linked
chain; especially does it behoove US,
] brothers, to cultivate that nobler part of
our nature-that moral excellence which
alone can enable us to perform our
| worldwide mission to our fellOw-man,
and fit us for Immortality. The will has
been called "the queen of the soul" but
| queens, like subjects, can be ruled, and
| habit, that great architect of mans for
tune, marks out for that queen her
course. 1t should therefore be, and |
fondly hope is, our aim to guard well the
portals of our characteristic rule well
| those habits which so certainly mould
our lives, remembering that our lives
should be the reflections of the principles
of the beloved order; as We honor our
selves we honor her; as'we disgrace our
selves we disgrace her-that our charac-
ters are the criterion of hers.
In guiding the tenor of our ways,
shaping the ends OF our existence, fit
ting ourselves for the discharge of
life's responsibilities, and for the culti-
walton OF those beauties of character
| with which human nature is blessed,
kind heaven has not left US without a
guide. The bible, that book of books,
| ill remains, and while the principles of
Odd Fellowship forbid prescribed mode
of interpreting its sacred truths, we
claim it a revelation from God to man,
and mans only safe chart along the
coasts of time. Coming from above, and
bearing the original tinge of heavens
own language, unimpaired through the
roll of time and revolution of empires,
we hail this priceless treasure. In the
crucible of ages, the mythology of the
uiad, has been consumed-the truth OF
Heroditus has Perished-the fables of
Ovid and the merits of the Coran have
died away-book after book on philOsO-
ply and science have been lost in the
general wreck; bat forth from that fiery
| furnace the blessed bible comes, not
even with the smell of fire on
its God-guarded leaves-not a truth
i erased-not promise lost or a beauty
gone; with pages bedewed with the elo-
quenee of love, and glittering in God
like grandeur. Infidelity has spent CEN
turies of toll attempting TO prove the
bible, that pillar of fire and of cloud to
Gods chosen people, a simple phenom-
enon of life's wilderness, but in every
night of trouble that has darkened our
earth, high overhead it rises, and heav-
onward holds its course in front of Is
raelis armies, guiding slowly but surely
that mighty host to that Canaan of fu-
ture promise, that land of light and
rest. Then let US follow in its brilliant
path, to do the bidding of our God. Let
us walk in the noontide of its teachings,
while it glitters like the sun in the gal
y axy. Let it be the polar star of our ex-
n istence, a companion in prosperity, q So
lace in trouble, and to its precepts let all
our energies bend. 1t is the fount
lof God Almighty's love, whence
:. rich blessings forever flow, and in
sorrows darkest hour, if we would drop
tears Of reparation on the silent grave
of buried one, and read the workings
of God in his rule of the universe-read
the teachings of the evergreen we lay
in his tomb, let US read the bible. The
boasting infidel plants his foot on the
grave OF his former friend, and with an
acquired misanthropic stoicism that
would chill the heart of fiend, cries,
"Death is an eternal sleeps" but the
blessed bible wrests from the ashes of
the slumbering dead this hbelous epi-
taph-brands its propagator with false
, hood, and pointing man Through ma
ture up TO natures God" paints the
scenes of future bliss, and bids him
read his own eternal destiny. The in