The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-04-29
|. 0. 0. F. men TO CELEBRATE
gath Anniversary
THE BIG AFFAIR WILL BE CELE.
BRATED TONIGHT IN THEIR
HALL ON MAIN STREET.

DRAFTED IONlGHI IN THElR
HALL ON MAIN STREET.
The Annual Services for the Homes
dale Order Was Held in Grace !
Episcopal Church Sunday Evening
and Rev. Whitaker Preached.
The members of Freedom Lodge, !
l. o. o. F., No. 1888, will celebrate
their ninety-fourth anniversary this |
evening in their rooms in the Inde- !
pendent building at a banquet from
six to eight o'clock. The banquet
will be followed by a special musi- |
cal program. The anniversary COM
mittee comprising Messrs. j. A. Bo-
die, NJ. E. Simons, G. G. Gray, R. ].
Miller and A. G. Lindsay have COM
pleted arrangements for one of the
most elaborate occasions in the his
tory of the Honesdale order. Sun
day evening Rev. A. l.. Whitaker of
the Grace Episcopal church, preach
ed an eloquent sermon especially for
the Odd Fellows of Honesdale. The
members of the local order attended
in a body. The occasion was the an
nual services of the Honesdale lodge.
Rev. Whitaker said in part:
"To the Odd Fellows of Honesdale
and Wayne county and any visiting
members we give most hearty well
come. Many if not most of you are
faithful members of various Chris
tian congregations. All of you by
the very foundation principles of
your order are in hearty sympathy
with the objects for which the
Church of Jesus Christ stands. So
we are not in welcoming you here
tonight, extending the hand of recon-
citation to those that are estranged,
but looking into the faces of broth
ers whose interests are identical with
our own, whose earnestness is unmis-
taxable, whose power is for good is
as evident as your willingness to use
it. Let me speak to you briefly to-
night of the sort of loyalty we men
owe to our common Master, Jesus
Christ, and of the value to the place
where we live of such loyalty Most
of us were present the other evening
at the formal opening of the Gurney
Electric Elevator Works. 1t was an
inspiring sight-that building so
perfectly appointed, that so thor
oughly organized and trained force
of men, and the townspeople gather
ed to show their good will. Such
gatherings of our citizens are dis
tinctly contributory to the moral and
spiritual health of the town. Are
you surprised to hear me use those
adjectives moral and "spiritual?"
in connection with a meeting of our
citizens in place of business to Of
fer our congratulations to the man
ayers of that business? But do feel
that the very being together in one
wit n -
| good was significant for the moral
and spiritual health of our town.
You ask whether a certain town
is good place in which to live and
one of the things which you will not
neglect but which you will consider
of the utmost importance is Just that
the spirit of the place. I wish to
speak tonight of the need, if there is
| to be in town the very best and
most helpful moral and spiritual at
mosphere, of fine manly loyalty to
the principles and to the Person of
Jesus Christ
| Let me take a text which will
serve to crystalize our thought.
Jesus said, Follow Me- He said
that to the rich young ruler He
said it to poor men like the fisher
men on the Sea of Galilee. He said
it to men whose lives were pure and
to men whose lives had been unholy.
He said it to men who had given
their spiritual instincts a chance and
to men who had stifled every better
thought.
THAT Follow Me- of Jesus Christ
is direct personal appeal to the
men of to-day-to all sorts of men,
to every man. Let no man say, that
sort of thing is not in my line. /
have to make living, and that is all
that l have time to attend to. And
besides l am not that sort of a man.
Let the good men do that work. !
am bad one, and could not help. ]
should only hinder" Mathew was
precisely that sort of a man. You
can't mention a man in this town
who was more sordid, more bent on
getting possession of the almighty
shekel and not at all particular how
he got it. He had no public spirit
not a particle. He was all for Mat
thew, and for no one else. He was
out for Matthew's good and for nc
ones else's. He was one of the most
unlikely men in all Palestine to take
after Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was no one-sided
anaemic, visionary and impractical
sort of a man. He was very rea,
and very everyday, with a message
of good for the higher life for the
men He met day by day. The blood
reached to His brain and it expanded
and warmed His great heart. L
made Him enough of a man to bt
willing to die for a good cause. Take
your heroes who have under the ex
citement, it may have been, of the
moment, been ready to go to the
stake or the gallows for their native
land or for human freedom. Jesus
Christ was the Prince of them all
And He has been given to men al
the One great divinely raised-up spir
itual Leader. Men need Leadership
in the spiritual field. 1t is the hard
est field, in some respects, of all t
till. 1t is the most universally neces
sary for it means the highest de