"Him thou loved, to them was known, And 'tis their's in life's dark hour, O'er the earth no more shall rove; Haste thee to thy power, sweet one, And Odd-Fellows' friendship prove." If you desire to learn more than this of the spirit of Odd-Fellowship, enter its consecrated halls, and there you will see the beautiful sentiment of the Psalmist exemplified-" Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity: it is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down on Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion." Love is intimately connected with friendship. This principle pervades the fellowship of our Order; it stimulates its zeal and lives in its opera tions, and blinds the rich and poor in one harmonious concord of affectionate brotherhood. Love prevents evil surmisings, wins the confidence of the suspicious, softens and melts the asperities and prejudices of the rugged and the obstinate, and gives consolation to the downcast. We have presented to us the true character of benevolence in the history of the good Samaritan, his "love was not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Our Saviour tells us to go and do likewise. Truth and Love are undying principles; they remain steadfast and eternal, when all the little interests and distinctions of earth have vanished away. They constitute the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which the mind of man must move and breathe to be happy. Pilate asked the great teacher, "What is truth?" and waited not for an answer. The answer to the question is found, however, in another place: "THY WORD IS TRUTH," emphatically the truth-truth adapted to the present condition of mankind in every variety of circumstance, in all the vicissitudes of life. When on the threshold of your initiation, before any of the mysteries of Odd-Fellowship were unfolded to your minds, what Book greeted your eyes, proffering to you its guidance and consolations, engaging to direct your feet into the paths of virtue, to encourage and strengthen you against the fierce assaults of temptation and vice, and to cheer you on in your pilgrimage? Was it not the Bible? the Book of sublime eternal truth! Truth is an all-powerful principle; where it lives and acts, it breaks and destroys the fetters of vice, dispels the darkness of ignorance, gives freedom and energy to the mind, expands the intellect and elevates the soul to the regions of its own purity and light. It creates a disgust to vice and inspires a love for virtue. Truth demands that man should be true to himself, in subduing his passions, controlling his feelings, cultivating his mind, and in pursuing his calling in life with diligence and industry. It also demands that he should be true to his fellow-man, in relieving his wants, in assuaging his griefs, and in administering comfort to the injured and the afflicted. "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." It requires that man should be true to his God, by serving him in spirit and in truth. Such then are the prominent principles of Odd-Fellowship. The practical design of the Order is to extend assistance to those who may need it. Universal benevolence is inculcated, yet its first duty is to attend to the claims of destitute brothers; to visit the sick, bury the dead, and, as far as practicable. to supply the necessities of the bereaved families of deceased brothers and educate their orphans. The following statistics from the annual report of the State G. Lodges to the Grand Lodge of the United States, for 1843, will exhibit the present condition of the Order in this country: Number of initiations, 8395; number of contributing members, 29,644; revenue of the subordinate Lodges, $172,703 96; number of brothers relieved, 4,462; number of widowed families relieved, 395: number of brothers buried, 184; amount paid for relief of brothers, $48,351 47; amount paid for relief of widowed families, 5,045 50; amount paid for education of orphans, $4,293 52; amount paid for burying the dead, $7646 32; total amount of relief, $66,677 17. The following extract from the annual report of the Trustees of the Orphan fund will, in some degree, exhibit the enterprizing benevolence of the Lodges in Natchez: "They have the pleasure to state, although this fund accumulates but slowly, yet, up to the present time, it has been found to be more than adequate to discharge the legitimate demands and purposes for which it was created. An increase of receipts in the same ratio above the expenditures, compared with the past year, will, in a few years to come, establish a fund quite respectable in amount and usefulness: a fund that will contribute much to ameliorate the condition of the destitute orphan, whose claims upon the benevolence of the Order in this city, under the present efficient arrangement, will be duly honored, and confer lasting benefits individually upon the recipients. "As the Trustees understand it, it was not the design of the Lodges to lavish their means upon a few, by expending a large amount to give an ornamental or accomplished education to any one; but rather, that all should share alike the benefits, doing the greatest amount of good, by extending to a greater number an education, embracing orthography, reading, writing, and arithmetic. At the same time using care that the or phans be placed under the charge of moral instructors, whose examples. would be copied by their pupils, and whose influence would admonish them to walk in the paths of rectitude and duty, and thereby accomplish all that would be necessary to make them respectable members of society and useful citizens. "This accomplished, Odd-Fellows seek no richer reward. What can yield the philanthropist a greater amount of happiness, or thrill his bosom with more joy, than to know that he has in the least degree contributed to assuage the grief, to sooth the sorrows of a disconsolate widowed mother? Or that he has been the happy instrument, whereby the tearful counte nance of the weeping orphan has been changed to one clothed in smiles, radiated by the joys bursting forth from the fullness of a heart in gratitude to a common benefactor? We claim no other reward." Brethren, let us live up to the principles of our Order, and we shall prove benefactors to mankind. Let us imbibe the spirit shadowed forth in our forms and ceremonies; let us be well acquainted with our principles and adhere to them: let us go forth into the world with fraternal sympathy, practising at all times the golden rule, "whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Since our last anniversary, two of our Order have departed this life: Brothers GEORGE PULLING and JOHN B. DIXON. Let this visitation of an inscrutable Providence admonish us that we are mortal, and teach us that we should perseveringly cherish the claims of Religion, that when called away from earth we may inherit its comforts and rewards-and be received to that "house not made with hands eternal in the heavens," where ALMIGHTY GOD, our Heavenly Father! Through a well directed tram of thy kind providence, we are again permitted to assemble ourselves together in this thy earthly temple, for the purpose of suitably offering up unto thee our devotions and grateful acknowledgments for that fostering care thou hast exercised over us since last we assembled to celebrate the anniversary of our beloved and heaven-favored institution. And that our assembling together at this time may not be in vain, we would humbly implore thee to aid us by the divine influence of thy Holy Spirit, that we may approach into thy presence with that becoming reverence and humility that should ever characterise those that profess to be governed by thy divine and holy precepts. And assist us now, we beseech thee, to gather in our wandering thoughts and cast far from us every thing that would have a tendency to withdraw our affections from thee who alone should be the object of our adoration, then shall we be enabled to lift up our hearts, with our voices towards thy holy temple, the place where thine honor dwelleth. We frankly acknowledge, Almighty God, that we have been undeserving the many blessings with which we have been favored from the earliest period of our existence up to the present moment, and especially since we have been endeavoring in our weakness to ameliorate the suffering condition of our fellow-creatures as a band of brothers. For notwithstanding thy fatherly goodness has been over us, we must acknowledge that, like lost sheep, we have wandered far from thy fold and said, by our repeated acts of rebellion, that we would not have thee for our shepherd. But yet in the midst of our rebellion and deserved wrath thou hast remembered us in much mercy; and we have great reason to praise thee, Most Holy Father, that we are privileged again, under circumstances so favorable, to as semble ourselves together for the purpose of celebrating another anniver sary of our beloved Order. And we beseech thee, Most Holy Father, now to lift upon us the light of thy countenance while we are in this thy earthly sanctuary for the purpose of offering some humble tribute of thanksgiving and of praise for the care that has been over us and the success that has attended our imperfect and feeble efforts to gladden the hearts, brighten the prospects and ameliorate the suffering condition of mankind. And we pray thee, Almighty God, to aid us by thy grace to go forward in this our labor and task of love-make it our chief delight at all times to endeavor to heal the afflicted and wounded spirit of the bereaved widow, to dry up the tears of the helpless and disconsolate orphan, and to administer the soothing balm to the sick and afflicted-continue to bless and smile upon us in all our laudable undertakings, direct us in all our councils and deliberations; for we are deeply conscious that without thy divine aid we are utterly incapable of discharging the high and responsible du ties devolving upon us members of this our beloved and ancient Order. And in vain will be all our efforts to carry on the blessed work of renovating our poor, sinful and disordered world by the universal spread of true and genuine benevolence, and blessing the afflicted inhabitants with moral health and peace, unless thy Almighty arm shall be stretched out in our behalf. Guide us, O Lord, that we may know and serve thee aright, and direct our actions according to thy divine and holy word, ever keeping in mind that golden rule laid down to us in the unerring standard of divine truth, of doing unto others as we would they should do unto us. Give us grace, we pray thee, that we may go forth in thy strength to meet the various enemies that surround us, and may we at all times strive to live up to our laudable professions and our various obligations as OddFellows and as Christians, that our light may shine forth and our good work become manifest to all around us. And we pray for the assistance of thy Holy Spirit to enable us to resist the dangerous temptations and bad examples of the world, the wrong impressions of our own hearts and tem. per, and the many snares of the adversary of our souls. And grant, Almighty God, that we may ever have a firm persuasion that all our peace of mind whilst we are travelling through this dark vale of tears, and our peace and permanent happiness in the world to come, must depend on our improvement in piety and all the duties of a christian life. And now, our Heavenly Father, we desire to raise unto thee a tribute of thanksgiving and of praise that ever our ears were saluted with the sweet and heartcheering sound of Odd-Fellowship in this our free and heaven-favored land-we rejoice that in the order of thy kind providence the feet of a few strangers from a far-off shore were directed to this part of thy moral heritage, and whose lives thou hast kindly lengthened out and spared, to propagate the true and heaven-born principles of our ancient and honorable Order-and we bless thee, O Lord, that the seed which has thus been sown has taken deep root and produced, and that thousands are now reaping a rich and an abundant harvest. Let the choicest of thy blessings rest upon the Fathers of our Order in these United States that yet survive; may their lives be a living comment on those principles they have so zealously inculcated on the minds of their brethren-comfort them with the sweets of gospel peace as they gently slide down the steeps of time, and as their hoary locks blossom for the silent tomb, may their never-dying spirits become ripe for a glorious inheritance amongst thy saints in light. We beseech thee, O Lord, to continue to bless and prosper our Order throughout the globe, and in a very especial manner remember in much mercy the several Lodges in this State-may each one be careful to adorn the profession that we have made, and endeavor to cultivate a spirit of harmony and christian forbearance-may we be rooted and grounded in love; keep far from our ranks every jarring passion. and may brotherly love prevail and every moral and social virtue bind and cement us together. We now commit ourselves with the interests of our institution into thy special care and keeping, praying thee to keep and preserve us from all evil, and guide us by thy counsel through all the journey of life; and finally, when the bond of " Friendship, Love and Truth," which binds our hearts together here below, shall be broken by the hand of death, and this earthly house of our tabernacle shall be dissolved, grant, O Lord, that we may have prepared for us on high a house not made with hands, eternally heaven, and thine shall be the praise; world without end. Amen. |