Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-05-07

Of those who labor for US, or driv,
the guilty from US and into deeper
crime.
A story is told of a priest who
hired a poor man to do job of work
of some kind, for which he was t.
pay him shilling. When the work
was done it was found fault with
and sixpence was offered in pay.
ment. The workman declined tC
receive it, insisting upon the full
amount of his hire. After consider
able banter the priest made him this
proposition that in addition to the
payment of a sixpence he would
teach him the Lords Prayer. TIC
this the man after some hesitation
and a few words of remonstrance
agreed. The six-pence was paid, and
then the two knelt down together to
pray. "Now," said the priest, repeat
after me; "Our Father" "Stop,
said the man "do you mean your
Father and my Father ?" eyes, yes
said the priest "come, 60 on,-'Our
Father who art /" Hold on" said
the man,-"do you really mean to
say that God is the father of both OF
us-that he is yours's and mine
alike ?" "Certainly | do" was the
reply. "Then," said the man, "you
must be a great rascal to cheat your
brother out of sixpence !"
In the light of this homely parable
we may see what "great rascaIs" we
all are,-not that we have cheated o
brother ont of sixpenoe, or out OF
a penny even, but that to many peo-
pie and in many ways we have been
unbrotherly, and while praying, "Our
Father" and meaning every body's
Father, we have been guilty of shut
ting a great many of his children,
our brothers and sisters, out of our
hearts, and Of laundering after them
our condemnation when they have
fallen. To DO poor is certainly no
crime. To fall from the high moral
tiles that once adorned the life, may
be misfortune. And whene al in
dividual amid warnings, entreaties.
and all holy influences, has gone
recklessIy forward to infamy even
then we are not to cast off utterly,
and pour vials of wrath on the ex-
posed head with no mingling of mer-
cy. Yet we do it. We forget that
be is brother. We forget that by
q change of circumstances, by some
little slip, or some slight push when
we are off our watch. we may fall as
he fell And so we set to work to
crush him down beneath the weight
of our Indignation, and we smite him
with revenge until we,have made him
the thing we took him to be. No, |
will not say that, for be is brother
still, even though we may have help
ed to drive him down SO low that we
cannot reach him
UNIVERSAL FATHERHooD- U UNIVERSAL
BRoTHERHooD:-th propositions are
fundamental in Odd Fellowship. And
so when the prophet tree thousand
years ago asked the question Have
we not all one Father? he asserted
the very creed of this Order; and
ever since, sometimes in one form
and then in another, attempts have
been made to realize in societies,
fraternites, institutions, but always
orudely, the divine idea, the Friend
ship, Love, and Truth, wrapped up
in the prophets words. OF these
attempts, and the partial successes
attending them, American Odd Eel
lowship has been born. 1t comes to
us, as | have said, through series
of births and [ think we need not
hesitate to say that, as q practical
assertion of the doctrines which torn
it's creed, or an attempt to actualize
the highest ideal of human society
when love shall be the law, it has
never been exceeded AS many have
been led to suppose, and as many
persist in believing, it is not mere
speculative theory, not a creature OF
tinsel and ornament, of signs, pass
words and grips, not even a protec-
tive and beneficial institution mere
ly ; but is a working force, an instru-
ment of achievement, employed in
lengthening the chain of fraternal
utilization, whose golden links as we
trust shall one day bind in amity and
peace all the nations, kindreds and
families of the earth. 1t does not
shut itself up IN lodge rooms, and in
terest itself only in the good and well
fare of its own members. Benevo lence
and Charity ars not simply notices
which it hangs upon the walls of its
temples. Its field is the world,
where are monstrous forms of eel
fshness and greed and dishonest and
fraud and oppression-where are d.
visions, and hates, and strifes, and
vices, and woes of every kind-and
to remove these, to pull down divis-
ion walls, to level unnatural distinc-
tons, to unbind letters and chains, to
lift off heavy burdens, to be the de-
Tense of the weak, to wipe away
toars, and to make the law Of Uni
versal Brotherhood of binding force
and effect, is its grand work.
Fifty five years ago Washington
Lodge No. l. was instituted in the
city of baltimore. 1t would be pleas
ant for me, if l bad the tine, to trace
with you, from this beginning,
through the intervening years, the
path Of American Odd Fellowship
to show you how that it has kept
abreast of the march of the age, has
grown as the country has grown, has
Y Welcomed any new light that has
come into the world, and has all the
while been equipping itself for the
occupancy of broader fields, and for
a grander progress in the years to
come. II will be sufficient. however,
to call your attention to the fact, that
since the organization of that fret
lodge fifty i've years ago, Odd Eel
lowship has gathered into its fold not
less than one million of memb ers ;
and its revenue may be set down as
not less than fifty million dollars.
For tho relief of the sick, the burial