The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-12-08
Memorial Address
Given In Honor of
Departed Brothers

departed Brothers
The following address was giver
In the tabernacle Sunday by Jess
Hawley of Boise in honor of the de.
parted Elks:
1t is on Memorial Day that the
Elks sit in public session to at once
do honor to their dead brothers and
to the living principals of the order
Il Recollection is the dominating
tone Of Elkdom heard strong and
clear thruout the land today.
Every Elk worthy of the name
finds his way to the shrine OF
memory, there to place wreath OF
sentiment in remembrance of his
absent brothers.
Go where you will, under Ameri-
cas- flag, and you will find this our
common Memorial Day observed by
all true Elks. -
Amid the tropical beauty of
Panama, under the midnight sun Of
far Alaska, and in that pleasant land
where the sacred tones of the softyl
tolling mission bells mingle with the
sound of the surging waves as they
wash the California coast, or under
the shadow of the towering noun
tains of the great northwest, or
where the freezing spray of the
northern Atlantic strikes the rocky,
barren coast of Maine, go where you
will land the spirit of this day has
settled in restful calm and peace
upon your brothers and friends of
their dead.
Usually another speaker arises at
these exercises to voice your sorrow
for the dead whose vacant chairs
stand in your temple, but your lodge
has no chill placed around it's heart
by the icy presence of death and as
lodge no sorrow of parting has yet
entered the circle of brotherhood
No man may pass the portal of a
lodge of the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks unless he be-
lieves and processes that there is
God. No man who does believe in
God is ever further questioned as to
faith or creed.
The Order of Elks does not assert
that every man who denies the ex-
istence of a Supreme Being is unfit
to sit in It's councils. It does, how
ever, say that he to whom the light
Of Divinity is invisible-the light |
that comes from the wonderful |
miracles of growth, bloom and decay
In the realm of nature; from the i'm
unchanging course of the
stars and planets in the heavens;
from the harmony sssof action and
power, systematized control Of all |
natural forces-that such a man, to |
whom this light is a darkness, can
not be trusted to continue in SYM
pathy with an organization which |
believes that the virtues selected as
It's principles proceed from some
Divine source.
The Elks do not say, nor pretend
hat they are capable Of saying which
'eligion Is true, which creed Is false.
They have chosen world-old princi-
,les of ethics and morals which dis
lgree with the teachings Of no faith.
Ind on these have founded the order.
Denying efficacy as a substitute
or religion; claiming no man from
lis church or tenent,s this order is
lot the rival of any belief, sect or
reed. No man stultifies his own re-
igious professions by becoming an
elk, he remains Protestant, a Jew,
Catholic, follower of no religion
md no place of honor in the lodge
Dom is denied him.
Tho rvs{x, nj, Mas % o1~L,,oA
specially worthy of our practice, are
3rotherly Love, Justice, Charity and
This order does not proclaim that
me who believes or acts upon these
principles is entitled to an eternal
eward. 1t claims no right to in
erpret how or in what manner God
las revealed his wishes and COM
hands to men. 1t stands mute, rev.
rent and silent in the presence of
hose who Claim such holy powers
nd rights. 1t respects them all and
My wishes that its loyal sons live
rue to the faith or creed that they
II
When man becomes a member,
hese certain virtues are recon-
lended to him as worthy of adop-
lon as rules for his daily life. Il
First comes: II
Brotherly Love-A quality of feel !
lg which inspires man to happiness
hen Joy attends his fellow; to !
when calamity overtakes I
i'm or pain racks his sickened body; G
, pity when sombre death has en- :
eloped his loved ones In the cold, !
ark shadow Of it's awful veil. II
Continued on page four lc
~ p e. O.. MEETING . q