The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1908-12-11
Annual Lodoe Of Sorrow Held.

Annual Lodge OF Sorrow Held.
Three deaths in the Norfolk jurisdic.
tion of Elks during the past year,
bringing the list of absent brothers"
of the Norfolk lodge up to sixteen.
formed the basis of an eloquent and
thoughtful address by Rev. J. c. s.
Wells the chaplain, at the Elk Lodge
of Sorrow" held Sunday afternoon in
the Elk club rooms
The memorial services were largely
attended by members and friends of
the order. Tie services were pre-
sided over by j. b. Maylard, exalted
ruler, the beautiful and impressive
public ritual being used.
Special music was rendered by a
quartet consisting of X. Solomon, C.
c. Cow, H. o. Kiesau and L. b. Nicola
Rev. J. c. s. Wells, in delivering the
address of the afternoon, said:
Exalted Ruler brothers and friends.
A very ancient writer after enumerat-
ing the many vicissitudes of prosperity
and adversely, of society and solitude,
of love and of hate and many other
things that may enter into the makeup
of one short life, reaches the concl-
sion that because there is such an
endless variation and each lasts for so
short time that perhaps 1t might be
as well for man to do nothing, as for
him to enter the contest for things
which largely neutralize each other
and which at best are transient and
evanescent.
And then another thought comes to
the front and he takes an estimate
from different standpoint, and he sug-
gests that even transient things and
contradictory things may have a place,
when regarded as parts of a larger
whole-that as from wheels turning in
different directions in some great com
plicated machine, and yet fitting by
their cogs into one another, there may
be as resultant of direct motion from
their apparently contradictory forces,
so even the perpleXities and dark
things in human life may be parts of
a plan opening out into wider and
more far-reaching relations, and so
he comes to the conclusion that not
withstanding the limitations and vari-
ations of life, yet that God hath made
everything beautiful in His time, and
then declares as to mans life and des-
tiny that he has relations to things
that are permanent and lasting and
declares that God hath set eternity
the desire for immortal life--in his
heart.
This writer's conclusions find re-
sponse in all our hearts. We live in
world of change, but amid the
changes embraced in the larger whole,
there is a larger outlook that absorDs
the evanescent, and engulfs it in a sea
that is calm. We are subject to a vari-
atiOns along many lines, but within us
and working within these variations
there is a repressed, but immortal
consciousness that links us to an or
der of things, and to a realm of life,
that knows no vicissitude and fears mo
ultimate absorption or obliteration. We
have longings, however stihed, mis-
interpreted, or starved, that tell of
an immortal and enduring being, and
that foretell an eternal living.
The contrast between things pass
ing and meetable, and things positive
and determined ought to be most ap-
parent
Though we are parts of the material
WOIIu, vet WlIulH us Is lOuStu Il per
sonality that has nothing in common
with duration of time, or decay of ma
terial substance, The laws of physi-
cal growth which rule material things
have no application, and neither build
up nor tear down the spiritual force
the ego-that erects through the years
our mortal bodies. In, under, and
amidst the material atoms that come
and go as life expands there is that
which is eternal, and which is co-ordi-
nate with and similar to the eternal
force that upholds the material world.
Whatever befalls the hairs, which
grow gray, and the hands that become
wrinkled and palsied, and the heart
that gives irregular beating, and the
eye that becomes dim, | say, what
ever befalls these physical organs, yet
as the heather said 81 shall not die"
Deep within the clay, that is des-
tined to mould, there dwells an immor-
tai guest-a very spirit from God,
whose duration is as lasting as its
Maker.
Commonplace utterances," you say.
Yes, commonplace utterances, which
says two things, viz: that they are
lIuluS COnHlOl 10 us all, anu dlSO
truths which because they are common
and so universally believed have lost
their power to impress us, believing
which we yet go forward upon the
basis that they do not exist.
Take future life. How few there
are who disbelieve it, and yet how
few there are who live as if they
really believed in it. Take it out of
the generality and make it personal.
Ask yourself "Is it true of me? Am
| to live forever? Is there eternity in
my heart? Shall the that has CON
structed this piece of fieshy machinery
be continued when it gives up its
earthly work." If not, nothing should
take precedence over the making pro-
vision for body, Our motto should be
let us eat and drink, make friends, and
wife and home, and all the sanctites
of life, the side issues.
We are the only beings on this
earth that can think the thought or
sneak the word ptarnity All ptbar