The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-05-05

in fifty-seven years, we marvel that
the wants, the necessities. and the
trials of mankind had net sooner
evoked and evolved this great
remedy for so many OF the ills of
life.
We claim for Odd fellowship that
tits the fruit ola progressive civiliza
ton, making man wiser, better, and
happier. We strive not for the
forms of religion, but inculcate and
practice religion inmotion-religion
applied to the felt needs of life, bas-
ed upon one central all governing
idea, the brotherhood of man and
fatherhood of God.
We do not shut out in cold seclus-
ion the noble women of our land
who beautify and dignity, and
make brighter and better our homes
and household affairs. But embrace
within the ministrations of our or
der's works and aims our wives
and daughters and give to them 3
degree through which they may
appropriately ask and demand all
the courtesy and assistance q christ
ian gentleman may bestow upon a
christian woman.
1t is the merited boast of our
Order that it is not above and be-
yond the wants and woes, the hopes
and fears, the Joys and griefs, the
failures and successes of our COM
mon, everyday humanity /; nor yet
beneath the highest type, or most
exalted plane of the purest, truest
christian civilization but uniting
in it's earnest work sand ministra-
tons of love, man and his ''better
halt" it distances all competition in
its near approach to the ideal fam
lily.
Far back in the earlier ages of the
written history of man, is embalm-
ed the name of q fair and beautiful
maiden, the peerless Rebekah, from
the memory of whose virtues this
branch of our Order derives it's
name. And we read further. how,
bidding adieu to friends and kind
red she went forth from Haron's
lovely vale to tread the journey of
life with, and cheer the heart of a
stranger.
While men have facetiously
termed themselves "the Lords of
Creation" history sacred and pro-
fame asserts, that whatever has
been pure, chaste and ennobling in
the upper and better strata of soci-
ETY., bears the impress of woman's
love and heroisn. ~
Whether we consider those whose
loveliness of character has mellow
ed the otherwise harsh and angular
tablets of sacred lore-such as Re-
bekah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth and
Miriam-or, in our own day. a
Florence Nightingale watching by
the dead and dying at SebsstOpol,
or Grace Darling and Ida Lewis,
with fair hands grasping the oars
and hearts Trusting in God, rescu-
ing perishing men from the.ruthless,
seething waves of the vastly deep
unalloyed devotion.
But why look we outside our
present gathering for model wo-
men ?-why seek them in the land
of the Orient ?-when the smiling
faces of our own beautiful Rebek-
abs greet US on every hand? Why
roam where Ovid wrote of love
''And taught the art IN flowing lines,
And gazed on dark-eyed Grecian girls,
Beneath sweet bowers of Bonded vines"
1t is said that distance lends en-
chantment to the view. But can il
be so to-day, Brothers, when we
behold before US this lovely and en-
chanting galaxy p
with eyes whose beams might shame night
or starlight CLEANS, they are so bright
Ia hos h NIns
| Its beauteOus treasure house might Close
From it's big benevolence and
large charities Odd Fellowship may
well be termed cOsmical but It is al.
so strictly American. Governed
by one supreme Grand Lodge
with it's many general jurisdictions
and 6,200 local lodges, where the
local work is done and local benefits
collected and distributed it as near.
IIy approaches the Executive, Leg.
islative and Judicial of this nation
as any order can. 1t is of Ameri.
can growth, and in this centennial
year we may we'll attempt to cast
| the horoscope of its future.
81 years ago to night it organized
with only five pioneers now i
numbers over half a million. TheI
confined to a city In Maryland
Now it has lodges and even Crane
Lodges for whom our ritual anC
ceremonies have had to betransla
ted.
The extent of its growth 1O(
years hence is but conjectural.
would inculcate this lesson: Ev
cry one, however humble, has al
| In nE al
and herself, exerts that infuenc,
and is responsible therefor. 1t il
said that little pebble thrown int
the ocean starts ripple, and tina
in turn is followed by its fellow
wave begets wave, ever enwsrG
land outward till it reaches the far
Their shore. So with us.-Our We
Try cogitations wake q something
more than echo in surrounding
mind and they move on with accel
Grated impetus, forging still othe
and distant links in that chain-Worl
of electric thought, which bind
man to man and man to God.
We live In deeds, not years; in thoughts
not breathS,
In feelings, not in figures on a dial
We should count time by heart-throbs.-
He most lives
Who blesses most, feels the noblest, act
the best.
Tied to no creed or ism, we glad
ly accept what is good in each, an,
seek to learn from each create,
thing, and TO look from the crea
ture to the Creator--The sturd
oak gives man an idea of strengt
and solidity and as he gszes upo
the lofty pine swaying in majesti
arcs as it bends, but yields not t
the surging winds, he forms som
just conceptions of sublimity an
awe. The sluggard we are told, i
reproved for his Incidence by The in
dustrious and .toilsome ant, Will
: the man void of sympathy and pa
rental affection, may learn from th
: hen, as she guards her little broo
from the casual mishaps of MONDAY
and at even-tide spreads abov
them her mantle of protection
Upon the painless desert, blisterin
in the rays of torid sun, in the RI
morseless bosom of the pestilenti:
simeon, in the pale shrOud man
ling the mighty Alps, and in sol