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

women. with JugglerY that is truly
wonderful.
A man once applied to the legisla-
ture Of his State for change of name;
and when asking what name he
would have substituted for the one
be then bore, replied, that he was not
very particular-"any name would
suit him." he said, "that would be
good at the bankl" 1t appears that
the old name was utterly bankrupt
in credit, and hence the application
for one that would be received at
"current rates." But with name
never so respectable--if they had call
ed him George Washington or Horace
Greeley-tho man would have been
the same. A change of name would
not have been q change of character.
1t would not have made his word of
"par value" nor caused his simple
"promse to pay" to be converted in
to gold. And so if he had been a
good and honest man, any name that
might have been given him, even
though he might have been called q
thief and rogue, would have left him
a good and honest man still.
The name Odd Fellowship, odious
as it frat was because of the false
meaning people gave it, made to
stand in the general apprehension for
secret debauchery and impiety, did
not make the thing itself other than
practical embodiment of the hottest
principles, or an attempt on the part
of humble but right minded men to
realize through fraternal organiza-
ton the mutual helpfulness there is
in obedience to the great law: "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
And so the bad name-bad in the
popular Interpretation of ibid not
utterly crush the infant institution,
although for a long while it was quite
in the way of its growth, and when
1T began to walk about drew down
upon it the jeers and anathemas Of
men. When at last it could speak
for itself, then, as have already said,
the name became grandly significant,
and what of beauty and sweetness
and glory it had previously obscured
came at once into view. The old
prejudice could not endure the bright
ness of the display, and the tongue
of detraction and of unfavorable con-
jecturekwas dumb before it.
Ct said little way back that) in
the same way God makes nations, or
makcs world, he makes institutions;
that is, by stages of growth. They
are not at once put in their place,
and built up, and fashioned into COM
pIeteness. American Odd Fellow
ship has come to US through a series
of births. We find forms of it all
through the centuries, and bearing
many names. In all ages of the
world there have been fraternities
possessing many of its essential feat
ures, and having substantially the
same aims They have sheltered the
prosecuted, and befriended the dis
tressed, and protected the weak, and
furnished an asylum for the hunted
and outlawed victims of kingly and
priestly hate. But, for the beginning,
the earliest germ of Odd Fellowship
for that in which it is rooted. and
from which it derives authority
we 90 back to the interrogative as
sertion of the prophet: "Have we
not all one father ?" Had not the
truth of the Universal Fatherhood
Of God been affirmed, and affirmed
because it was truth. Odd Fellow
ship could not have been. There
would have been nothing for it to
grow from--no authority, no inspira-
| tion for it.
Now, to say that we all have one
Father is only an indirect way OF
saying that we are all brothers and
sisters. If the prophet had asserted
this in so many words, asserted it di-
rectly, it would perhaps have pro-
duced very little impression, and
may be it would have been denied.
He therefore states interrogatively
as a premise that which all would as
sent to, and in asserting to it would
also assent to the natural and logical
conclusion that we are ali brethren,
or children of one family. He does
not ask, notice, whether we all have
one Father, as though there was any
question or doubt concerning it; but
his words are equivalent to positive
assertion, or he the same as says,
Now, we all know that we all have
one Father, therefore, whatever the
distinctions that exists among us, or
however divided up we may be, or
whatever attitude we assume toward
each other, we are all and severally,
the high and the low, the rich and
the poor, the bond and the free, the
honored and the despised, of the one
household of Gcd."
| IL seems to me that more than any
thing else, more than any other truth,
this needs to be held up and pressed
home upon the heart, that we all
have one Father, and that man every
where is cur whatever his
color, his speech, bis condition, his
rank, a Brother--and that be he
heather in Africa, or heather in
America Sioux savage on our
western plains, or Caucasian savage
in our great cities; he is a brother
still We may hesitate to &C
knowledge this-we may refuse our
assent TO il; but still it is true, aud a
recognition Of the truth, or rather a
practical assent, is what is wanted
more than any thing else,-that
heather as a man may be, degraded
as a man may be, brutalized as be
may be, destitute of God and of hope
as be may be, be bears upon his soul
under al its deflements, beneath the
thick incrustations of sin and crime,
the features of our common humanl-
ty-the bruised and Scared image OF
a common Father.
1t ia quite easy To say-and It Is
what we are nearly al saying, ayes,
God is the Father of ali" AID yet we
l. L. kHk