The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-03-26

Essay delivered by Charles Watson before Huntcrdon
County Pomona Grange, Jan. Esd, 1871
In speaking upon this subject, if you will
permit me, will use a text ; it shall be short
but expressive, viz -" Let brosherly love
continue" The text, as you will perceive is
on the subject of love- Now there are var
ious kinds of love in the world. The tender
passion Of the young of both sexes has fur
nished the theme of song and poetry, for
from the time of Lamech down to our own
days, and some time or other in the history
of every one of US perhaps, our hearts have
been stirred to their depth by this sublime
passion, and we have sighed or sung, gone in
to raptures, or trembled on the brink of black
despair as the object of our affection has
smiled or frowned upon u.s. has encouraged
our suit or treated us with GOODNESS Then
there is the love which is first called into ac-
ton, when, after the youthful couple have
been united in the happy bonds of matrimony,
for a time, their welded bliss receives its
browning benediction in the gift Of offspring,
when another little life is added to theirs,
and they are united by the golden link of pa
rental love ,-when the little babe is laid in its
mothers bosom, or folded to the fathers
throbing heart, then comes to the soul thrill
of happiness as only parents can know, and
the bond Of union which had long been strong
now becomes almost inseparable. Neither
need I speak of that tireless, unselfsh, and
ever increasing affection which mother con
tinues to develop towards her children as
they grow up to maturity-known as moth
er's love. Her son may be wilful he may be
vicious, may acquire habits that may shut
him off from the respectable among his fellow
men and even doom him to felon's cell, or
he may become tired of the restraints of
home and lightly esteem the affection of his
mother, he may wander of to foreign lands,
oceans and mountains may separate him from
her who gave him birth. He may even almost
forget her, but will he be forgotten? Nay !
Nay Every evening as she kneels to offer
her evening prayer, she will plead for the sin
full and prodigal far away, and every morning
as she opens the door she will be somehow
disappointed that he is not there and waiting
to be admitted She will stain her eyes as far
as she can follow the windngs of the road in
hopes that she may descry some sign of the
poor wanderer returning. Was there evcsIove
like this But not of this love would | speak
nor of the patriots love of country, nor of
any of the other loves well worthy OF our
thought, but of that described in the text as
" f3rotherly Love-" There was time in the
4 l. go 10
passion outside of the members of the family
circle of a mans own family was almost I'M
known; when it was the custom of the strong
to devour the weak--or at least to prey upon
them. In early ages, when men had not yet
been united and organized as nations, the
family was the only bond of union. and woe
to that man who had not surrounded himself
with numerous family, when he became old
and feeble. His property and his life were
considered a lawful prey by his more power
full neighbor who was ready to take the one
and appropriate the other, the first convent
of society, it will be easily seen that the ex-
ercise of this principle of brotherly love was
likely to be very rare indeed. But since that
rude patriarchal age, in which the only bond
of union was that Of the family, until the
present age in which we live there have been
many changes taking place in human society,
so that the family bond is by no means the
only one which now binds men together in
unity. 1t is not necessary for us now to trace
the causes which have led to these changes
1t will be sufficient for us to recognize the
fact, that men now existsin well compacted
national organizations, and that the inhabi-
tants of the whole world are now for the
most part attached to one or the other of the
strong or the weak governments that are now
recognized as bodies Of men united together
for mutual help and defence. But within
each Of those organized bodies of men, which
we call civil governments, there are lesser or
CARNATIONS, and especially among those which
are called representative forms of govern
ment, that is, where the people have voics
in the selection of their rulers--as in our owl
country. Among such people there are al
ways those who find themse Ives engaged il