has made
Odd-Fellowship one of the grandest fraternal and beneficiary
institutions the world has ever known. The work it has done can not be
fully estimated until the record is read in the bright light of
eternity. In that glad day the tears that have been wiped away will
become jewels in somebody's crown, and the sobs that have been hushed
will be heard again in hosannas of welcome.

Onward! is the ringing, pregnant watchword of the world. The vast,
complicated, ponderous machinery of life is kept in motion by tireless
and irresistible forces. The multiform and magnificent affairs of men
and of nations are all impelled forward with an energy and a velocity
as wonderful as glorious to behold.

Not retrogressive, but progressive--not enervating, but energizing--not
ephemeral, but substantial--not from bad to worse, but from the
imperfect to the consummate, are the characteristics by which are so
prominently distinguished the tidal waves of the world's progress today.

Activity and achievement came with creation, and constitute an
inflexible, irrepealable law of the universe. In stir and push we have
light and life, but in idleness, and superstitious clinging to
fossilized ideas and bygones, we have demoralization, decay and death.

Fortunately for the world, and agreeably with infinite design, man
plods his way in harmony with the law alluded to. Not all men, but the
great masses of them, wherever "The true light shineth," especially
when accompanied by rays and helps from one of the noblest and grandest
of confraternities our world has known, "The Independent Order of
Odd-Fellows." When the huge planet which we call our world had been
tossed into being from the furnace fires of Omnipotence, and the
maternal lullaby began to gather force on hill top and in valley, the
discovery was naturally enough made that association and co-operation
were preferable to isolation and unrelieved dependence; and from that
hour forward, this principle has been interwoven into the very
framework of human society. The purpose has been the elevation and
improvement of mankind. For, though the first product was pronounced
"good," it quickly degenerated; and there came an emphasized demand for
reform.

EARLY ORGANIZATIONS.

Human isolation is an unnatural condition. It antagonizes the highest
and best interests of the world. Its influence is never beneficent,
but always and necessarily harmful. If the truest well being of