Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-06-18

0lueT dSSlSCdut IMAM MS armour Dear
er. And when he saw young David
attack that big giant. of whom the
whole army of Israel was afraid, and
STAY him his soul leapt out Of his
body and found itself with the soul of
David.
Friendship is, therefore, a mutual
liking, esteem, and regard based on
mutual worth. If you want to have
good friends you must make yourself
worthy OF them. True and lasting
friendship exists only between souls
of kindred sympathies and worth, be-
tween a Damon and a Pythias, a Jo-
nathan and a David, and it can only
be retained by mutual worth. He
that hath friends must show himself
friendly" There are persons who al
make friends but cannot keep them.
They are too selfish. They form
friendships for what there is in them
for themselves. True friendship does
not ask, what can | get out of my
friend for myself, but rather, what can
| do for my friend. True friendship
cannot live in the atmosphere of sell
fishness, and / should judge that in an
Order like yours nothing would kill
a member so quickly and effectually
as the opinion that he was In it for
what he can get out of it,, and not for
what he could put into it. So some
people join the church for what they
can get out of it, not to help the
church save souls. HE that has
friends must show himself friendly.
Words are true, HE that would be
greatest among you let him be the SER
want of ALL"
The aim and object of your Order
is the cultivation and exercise of
friendship. This is a high and noble
aim, 1t is right in line with the work
of the church of Jesus Christ. She is
to proclaim peace on earth and good
will to men," she is to make of all
men, every where friends of God and
friends of each other. Your object Is
more circumscribed, in that you seek
your membership from certain classes
only, and, In that you only seek to
make them friends of each other. You
do not especially seek to make them
friends of God. Yet yours lis a~high
aim. Any institution that honestly
seeks to Danish selishness and hate
from among men, and seeks to culti-
vate and exercise true friendship, be-
nevolence and charity, deserves kind
consideration and treatment. 1t is
seeking to make the world better by
displacing selfishness by mutual kind
ness and h~elpfulness.
1t is selfshness, or which is the
same thing, under a different name,
sin, which causes the 'inhumanity of
man to man, which makes the count
less millions mourn" The one great
need of the world to-day is to get men
everywhere to realize that they are all
children of heavenly father and,
consequently, brothers, and to get
them to treat their heavenly father
and brothers as father and brothers
should be treated. If the love and
friendship of Jesus, our elder brother,
were only manifested everywhere and
by everyone, it would solve our polit-
ical and social and financial troubles.
But selfshness actuates man in his
dealings with his fellow man instead
of love and friendship. Each one does
not esteem others more highly than
| himself, but he esteems himself more
highly than all others, and is ready to
| build up self at the expense and often
ruin of others.
l believe the so-called fraternal Or
ders have done much to Danish this
devilish selfishness from among men.
! believe your Order has done much
towards this. / know it is sometimes
said that the benevolence of these
fraternal orders is selfish ~benevolence,
that it bargains to get back as much
as it gives, and, therefore, is not truly
benevolence.
But these Orders undoubtedly do
much benevolent work for which they
get no return in dollars and cents.
But even if this were not the case, and
if the benevolent feature were entirely
eliminated, the very fact that so many
men band themselves together to cul-
tivate friendship, and to treat each
other as friends, signifies much for the
welfare of humanity. l wish the
whole world was one great big frater-
nal order, of which Jesus, the Christ,
was the Grand Master, and every man,
oma and child an active member.
l think these orders are doing much
to bring about a better, a more
%brotherly feeling among men. i will,
not, therefore, antagonize them, for l
think the much good that they have
done, and are doing, is inspired by
our heavenly Father and our elder