Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-12-03
HOLINESS IN GRIEF
Theme of EuIogy Delivered by
Robert Rexdaie at Elks Me-
mortal i'm Moline
AT CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Lodges of Two Cities Join in Tribute
to Dead Of Order-Thomas Ben
ton Camp Gives Address.

Congregational church in Moline, the
members of the Rock Island and Mo
line lodges of Elks joined in the annual
memorial service for departed mem
bers of the order Eulogies were deliv.
cred by Robert Rexdale of this city
and Thomas Benton Camp of Mon
mouth, a member of the Monmouth
lodge and editor of the Monmouth Re
view. Mr.. Camp in his address gave a
defense of the principles of the order,
and spoke at length on the teachings
and ritual of the B. p o. E Mr. Rex
dale theme was THE Holiness of
Grief and his address was an able
one. About 60 members of Rock Is
land lodge were in attendance. and
many of the friends of the members
from this city were present. The
church was thronged.
The Holiness of Grief.
In his address, Mr.. Rexdale spoke as
follows:
Sorrow for the dead is holy at all
times. 1t is the perennial flower of
remembrance, growing alike in sum-
mer's heat and winters cold. whise
bloom and fragrance survive the chill
December of the tomb. And holy
should be its meaning unto us who
mourn for those whose watchwords in
life were charity. justice, brotherly
love and fidelity. 1t is to honor their
memory that we gather in this lodge of
sorrow, TO invoke the divine blessing
upon those so near and dear to them.
to live again our little hours of soul
communion with the dead, and TO lay
upon their graves the acacia and the
myrtle as our symbols of grief and i'm
mortality.
Il esteem it a sacred privilege that
the message | bring TO YOU, upon this
Memorial Sunday, can be spoken in
this holy place, in this house dedicated
TO the everything God. and which
stands as a symbol of that house not
made with hands, eternal in the heay-
ems: for We come here today in the
name of a great brotherhood, with our
hearts attuned to the pulse-beat of hui
mainly, and we are conscious of the !
words of the gentle Christ. spoken here |
on earth, Love ye one another
The Quick and the Dead.
Upon occasions like this, when we
gather as Elks to pay tribute to our
absent brothers-absent, because they |
no longer hear the reverberatinS !
strokes of the 18th hour-it is fitting |
that We speak of the living as well as
of the dead. 1t is well that We look |
into our own hearts and ask ourselves
if we are worthy opponents of those |
sublime principles committed to our
keeping
Are we measuring up to that stand |
ard of manhood by which every Elk
must be judged before the Great Exalt- |
er Ruler on high? Have we kept the
faith? Are we true to the solemn OBJ
legations taken at our affairs? Have
we needed the cry of distress? Have
we visited the sick and comforted the
sorrOwing? Do we indeed write the
faults of our brothers upon the sands
and their virtues upon the tablets of
love and memory?
IF we, the living, are mindful of
these things, then may we come to re-
gard ourselves as fit company for the
dead, whose voices today are mingled |
with the choir invisible, and, annihila-
ting time and space, the spiritual man
may hold communion with them in that |
unseen land, to which they have fol- |
lowed the shadow cloaked from head |
to foot, who keeps the keys of all the |
creeds.'
Ben Adhem and the Angel.
Those unfamiliar with the tenets of |
our brotherhood have asked what is |
our creed. The answer to this Ques- |
tion must ever be the same.
''Elkdom breaches no creed, and i'm
poses upon it's votaries no form of re-
Iigious faith, but simply asks belief in
Supreme Being, the maker and ruler |
of the universe. Its affairs are sacred |
to love of God and love of humanity. |
Its mystic rites shed refulgent beauty |
over the destiny of human kind and !
teach the great lesson that to live in |
life worth the living.
But, in my own way, have come to |
regard the story of Ben Adhem and |
the Angel, as we find it in Leigh |
Hunts beautiful spoem. as containing |
the essential things in what might be
termed the creed of an Elk; and surely |
its lesson is one of humility, and rev.
erence, and deep, abiding faith in the
ultimate destiny of the human soul
"Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe in
crease).
Awoke one night from a deep dream
of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his
room,
Making it rich and like a lily in
bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold
Exceeding peace had made Ben Ad- Ii
hem bold, |;
And to the presence in the room he
said, Ii
What writest thou? The vision rails $
ed its head. IL
And, with look made of all sweet "
accord, III