morning of their life was beautiful and full of glorious promise,
but the evening came and they had perished. Rich costumes, impressive
ceremonies, beautiful degrees and magnificent effects, all lie buried
and forgotten. It was not because their founders lacked energy or
enthusiasm, not because their members were less susceptible to the
beauty and poetry of tradition and ceremony, but because success and
perpetuity come not from human effort, but are the outgrowth of a
life-giving principle. The sculptor fashions from the marble a form of
surpassing loveliness, its lines are those of grace and beauty. We
stand before it charmed, whispering our admiration, but the impression
on the heart is only passing. The poet sings of home, of mother and of
love; the meter may be faulty and the words may charm not, but the
sentiment is true and touches our hearts. The experience it recites is
common to humanity, and wherever its sweet tones are heard it softens
men's natures and makes them better, truer and nobler. Who among us
would be willing to exchange the influence of the immortal song "Home
Sweet Home," or be willing to forget the Christian's "Nearer My God to
Thee," for all the inanimate beauty of art? One charms the eye, the
other touches and calls to life the best and sweetest emotions of the
human heart. So it is with fraternal societies. Flashing swords,
glittering helmets, jeweled regalias and beautiful degrees may touch
the vanity and excite the admiration, but to win the heart we must
satisfy its longings, feed its hopes and lift it above the narrowness
and selfishness of its daily experience. Odd-Fellowship strives to
touch the heart and better feelings, rather than feed the vanity of man
or arouse his admiration for gorgeous displays. Its work is an
exemplification of the living, practical Christianity of today. In
almost every state in this fair land of ours can be found Odd-Fellows'
homes, within whose walls the orphan is no longer motherless. For each
and every little one within these homes, one million Odd-Fellows feel a
father's love and pledge a parent's care.

Add to all this great work the little deeds of love, the little acts of
kindness that make life beautiful; add kind words of cheer and friendly
help and tender consolation, and add again the benefit of union, the
strength that comes from hearts united in God's work among mankind, and
you have caught a glimpse of the life-giving principle that