Part 5 (1/2)
Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those who profit by the cheat distrust the deceiver; and the act by which kindness was sought puts an end to confidence.
The judges of the election can not tell the difference, when they are counting the votes, between the one cast by the minister of the gospel and the one cast by the saloon-keeper, when it has been cast for the same party. Vote for principle rather than for party.
”Let every man,” said Sydney Smith, ”be occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.” If the highest employment is not to be found in our avocations, let us seek it in our leisure.
Beware of anger of the tongue; control the tongue. Beware of anger of the mind; control the mind. Practice virtue with thy tongue and with thy mind. By reflection, by restraint and control, a wise man can make himself an island which no floods can overwhelm. He who conquers himself is greater than he who in battle conquers a thousand men. He who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with the fault-finders, and free from pa.s.sion with the pa.s.sionate, him I call indeed a wise man.
Brothers, keep posted in what your lodge is doing; knowing who is sick; inquire if there is not some widow in need of help; some poor orphan that should be clothed and provided with a home and sent to school.
Remember that the widow was your brother's wife, and the children your brother's. Be a brother to the widow, and a kind uncle to your brother's children. There is plenty of work for you, and you agreed to do it. Cheer up the care-worn traveler on his pilgrimage--help the weak and weary, the lonely and sad ones. Time is pa.s.sing by, and we have none too much of it in which to do our work. Remember that if we expect to complete our labor, now is the time; soon all will be over with us, and then all that we shall leave behind, by which to be remembered, will be the good or evil we have done. If we have done good it will be emblazoned on many hearts, and our names will be spoken of with reverence and love; but if we have done evil, our names will be blotted out of the memory of the good and true, and we despised.
”How is't the sons of men are sad, Oppressed with grief and care?
How is't that some of this world's goods, Have such a scanty share?
Why should the orphan's piercing cry, a.s.sail so oft our ear, And thousands find the world to be All desolate and drear?
”We do not solve the mystery Of woes, the lot of man, But in the lodge we all unite To do the good we can.
'Tis there we learn the pleasing task To soothe the troubled breast, To educate the orphan child, And succor the distressed.
”Our motto--Friends.h.i.+p, Love and Truth-- These e'er shall be our guide, Our aim shall be, of misery To stop the running tide.”
We ask not what's a brother's faith, What country gave him birth; But open the door to every creed And nation of the earth.
Hail, Charity! Odd-Fellows all Bow down before thy shrine; They raise no altar, make no vow, That is not wholly thine.
LOVE SUPREME.
Love is the key to the human heart. If we want to have power with G.o.d and man, we must cultivate love. It is love that burns truth into the hearts of people. A man may be a good lawyer without love. There may be a good surgeon without love. A man may be a good merchant without love. But a man can not be a good Odd-Fellow or Christian without love. I would rather have my heart full of love than be even a prophet. If a man is full of love, Paul says, ”he is greater than a prophet.” A wife would rather live in a cabin with the love of her husband, than to live in a palace without it. If I love a man I will not cheat him or slander him or envy him. I pity people who are constantly looking out for slights. It is better to look on the bright side rather than the dark side of life. Love will lead us to look on the bright side. Some persons are always magnifying the faults of others. They use a magnifying gla.s.s in this business. If you want power with persons, speak as well as you can of them. Self-control is a great thing. This comes and stays through love. How many dwarfs there are in G.o.d's church now. They have not grown one inch spiritually in twenty years. If our hearts are full of love, we are bound to grow. Many other graces pa.s.s away, but love is eternal. The most selfish man is the most miserable man. A man may be miserly with his money, but no man can be miserly with love. Love creates love.
The more we love, the more we will be loved. Love must show itself.
Love demonstrates its presence by action. Our lives, after all, are mere echoes. I speak harsh to a man, and he will speak harsh to me.
If a man has bad neighbors it his own fault. If a woman has bad servants it is her own fault. If we make others happy we will be happy ourselves. If you are not happy, go and buy all the poor people near you a turkey for Christmas. ”He that noticeth others shall be noticed also himself.” If you want to get your own soul above its own troubles, go and do good to some unhappy soul. If we do this work, I believe we will have to do it in this world. There will be no tears to wipe away, or sorrows to a.s.suage, or afflictions to remedy in the other world. This work is for this world. It is a blessed work. It is the best investment a man can make. It pays an hundred fold. Labors of love demonstrate better than the church members.h.i.+p that we are in the Master's service. This is the Master's business. Though my way through life has often been through graveyards and through glooms, I have loved and I have been loved, and I know that life is worth living.
Love is the fulfilling of the law; the end of the gospel commandment; the bond of perfectness. Without it, whatever be our attainments, professions or sacrifices, we are nothing. Love obliterates the differences in education, wealth, station, religion, politics and nationality. It is a promoter of peace and harmony; it cultivates the social graces; it makes friends of strangers and brothers of acquaintances; it softens the asperities of life; it wors.h.i.+ps at the shrine of piety, and recognizes the omnipotence of G.o.d and the immortality of man. It is religious not sectarian, patriotic but not partisan. It glows by the fireside, radiant with perpetual joy. It glorifies G.o.d in wors.h.i.+p and in song. It blesses humanity in genial mirth and human sympathies. It is a perennial fountain at which the old may drink and grow strong. It is a daily benediction to its devotees, and, like ”a thing of beauty, is a joy forever.” It stands like the statue of liberty, a beacon light to the tempest-tossed and wayfaring mariner and brother, pointing him the way to the haven of refuge, to the right living and right doing.
Oh love, thou mightiest gift of G.o.d; thou white-winged trust in Him who doeth all things well; thou one light over His darkest providences, lingering to cheer when all else has pa.s.sed away, thy whisper upon the dull ear of night. But alas! this world was made to break hearts in, while love was sent from heaven to heal them. The precious balm, though, is so scarce that many must die for want of it. Oh, the might-have-been! What human soul has not sung that dirge? Verily, the winds come, howling it by like an invisible band of mourners from the grave of all things. Alas! is anything in this life real, or are we indeed shadows, and this world altogether a shadowy land, while the blackened skies above give us only glimpses of a far-off better home, better friends and better love? Alas! Heaven's loudest complaint to mortals is ever for lack of love. Even He who sitteth upon the throne of thrones knoweth what it is to stretch out His arms in utter desertion of no one to love Him, no one to seek Him, and no one to fear Him--”no, not one.” Then as we may best show our love to Him by loving one another, is it not well that we commence loving those around us at once? Ah! yes, and like the ambitious vine, do thou reach out all thy tendril thoughts to what is nearest, the while aspiring to the oak or the pine of the loftier trust, even the faith of Abraham that was accounted unto him for righteousness. Would I had some new phrase for love, some new figure for hope! How lonely and weary must that life be without love, how tasteless all its joys, and how vacant every scene.
If we have the spirit of love we will live for others. Auguste Comte inscribed on the first page of his work, ”Politique Positive,” wherein he depicted in systematic form, life that had been forming itself throughout human history, these words: ”Order and progress--live for others.” The force of this thought is, in accord with Odd-Fellows.h.i.+p, which teaches love of our kind, love of right, zeal for the good.
Man's happiness consists in living as a social being, living for self in order to more truly live for others. This is summed up in the word humanity. But affection, as the true motor force of life, must have a foundation, must stir us not only to the right things, but to the right means; in other words, action must be guided by knowledge. Improvement must be the aim of social life, as it is the incentive to individual effort. It is not enough to desire the good, or to know how to achieve it, we must labor for it. a.s.sociated effort gives the opportunity for gaining grander results than centuries of divided activity. The conception of humanity has grown n.o.bler. The good of the vast human whole is now acknowledged as the end of all social union. Humanity embodies love; the object of our activity; the source of what we have; the ruler of the life under whose span we work, and suffer and enjoy.
All religions, all social systems worthy of the name, have sought to regulate human nature and perfect the organization of society by proclaiming as their principles the cultivation of some grand social sentiments. Philosophers, moralists, preachers have united in saying: ”Base your life upon a n.o.ble feeling, if you are to live aright; base the state upon a generous devotion of its members to some great ideal, if it is to prosper and be strong.” All have agreed that the difference of life could only be harmonized by placing action under the stimulus of high unselfish pa.s.sion. Odd-Fellows.h.i.+p has grown strong under this governing law. The banner it bears aloft proclaims sentiments that are attractive to all the nations of the earth. We are strong in as far as we truly interpret, for the good of humanity, this elevated aim, this devotion to fraternal ends.
Compte defines religion as consisting of three parts--a belief, a wors.h.i.+p, and a rule of life--of which all three are equal, and each as necessary as any other. As is truly said, ”Society can not be touched without knowledge; and the knowledge of social organization of humanity is a vast and perplexing science. The race, like every one of us, is dependent on the laws of life, and the study of life is a mighty field to master.” Enthusiasm of humanity would be but shallow did it not impel us to efforts to learn how to serve--demanding the best of conduct, brain and heart. The power of Odd-Fellows.h.i.+p lies in its fraternity. It goes forward with irresistible magnetism when its fraternal principles are truly interpreted. It furnishes to men a strong union, where general intelligence, by attrition, is increased; it provides a high moral standard; its objective action is such as touches the common heart of humanity; and by its grand co-operative system it gives the finest means of securing those advantages that tend to the securement of material comfort and mental and spiritual peace and happiness.
Drummond says: ”Love is the greatest thing in the world.” Read what Paul says about it in I Cor., xiii: ”Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding bra.s.s, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up: Doth not behave itself unseemly; Seeketh not her own. Is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a gla.s.s, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”
The more I study Odd-Fellows.h.i.+p, the more I become convinced that I have just crossed the threshold, and that new truths and sublime lessons await me, of which I never dreamed. Brothers, there is hidden treasure in our order for which we must dig. It must be brought to the surface. We must know more of the beauties of this great organization of ours. ”The greatest thing,” says some one, ”a man can do for his Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.” ”I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts.
How infallibly it is remembered. How super-abundantly it pays itself back--for there is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as love. Love is success. Love is happiness. Love is life.” ”Where love is, G.o.d is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in G.o.d. G.o.d is love. Therefore love.” ”Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit. I shall pa.s.s through this world but once. Any good things that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pa.s.s this way again. We can be Odd-Fellows only while we act like honest men.”