Timeless advice from the Grand Lodge of Illinois IOOF in 1925.
Is Odd Fellowship Worth While?
We are living in a very advanced age. Our grandparents would be amazed at the advancement civilization has made in the past fifty years. The many modern inventions have had the effect of bringing the peoples of the four corners of the earth within speaking distance. Governments have changed. Modes of living have kept pace with the mechanical and scientific inventions until life presents an aspect never dreamed of by our immediate ancestors.
But with all the shifting changes; the inventions of the world’s geniuses and the research work of the laboratory, death, old age, misfortune, and disappointment have not been abolished. We cannot ward off old age. Children are still born helpless and must be cared for during the early years of their life, and in the event of the removal by death of their natural protectors, protection and care must be provided by others. Old age and death have not, and cannot be abolished.
As man has become more and more advanced in his civilization, there has developed in him a knowledge that a selfish life, though it may be rewarded with much of this world’s goods, is, after all, a narrow and useless life — a life but poorly lived.
Fraternity a Good Investment
Who can say: “I shall never need a friend.” Who can peer far enough into the future so as to be able to see and to avoid all the pitfalls of life? No matter how independent we may regard ourselves at this moment, we cannot say but we may need the very fraternal assistance we grudgingly give to others in the time of our strength and material prosperity.
A Tested Fraternity
Odd Fellowship has an unbroken record of usefulness running over two hundred years. In war or peace times; in the days of adversity as well as plenty, this great fraternity has gone steadily on VISITING the SICK, RELIEVING the DISTRESSED, BURYING the DEAD, and EDUCATING the ORPHAN. It seeks to improve and elevate the character of man. It teaches loyalty and obedience to constituted authority. It is a moral uplift in every community, and its influence is always found on the side of the church, the school, and the home.
The cause of Odd Fellowship is the cause of the ordinary individual and good citizen. The lodge room is designed to be the gathering place of good people seeking to make life on earth better and sweeter.
Lodge Meetings
In these busy days many members find it impossible to be regular in attendance at lodge meetings because of other urgent calls upon their time, but no one is so busy as to be unable to be a contributor through their annual dues. A Brother or Sister who, by reason of other duties, cannot render personal service to their lodge, can at least, help to carry on the work by contributing to the cause.
Odd Fellowship in any community, whether represented by a small or a large lodge, deserves the support of good members because of the work that it accomplishes in the community in which they live. If the local lodge is not all that it ought to be, that is not the fault of the Order, but the fault of substantial members of the community who have failed to take advantage of this mighty source for good.
Odd Fellowship expresses itself daily in mutual helpfulness. Its guiding principle is the Golden Rule. It brings encouragement to the discouraged, and assists the weary traveler on their journey along the pathway of life.
Yes, indeed, Odd Fellowship IS WORTH WHILE, for it plays an important part in our scheme of civilization, and good men cannot afford to overlook its manifold virtues.
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