s of immorality are rigidly
discountenanced. We have pledged ourselves to aid in diffusing the
principles of brotherly love throughout the world. We have assumed the
office of guarding the holy flame which burns on the altar of
benevolence, and we are bound to cherish its principles. That brother
is recreant to every honorable feeling who can trifle with the solemn
pledge he has taken.

A duty we owe to the community is to cultivate the principle of virtue,
to lend holy serenity to the mind, and shed around a halo of light and
glory to direct the steps of others in virtue, to happiness and
greatness. The man who treads only in virtue's ways, when every act is
honest, acquires the confidence and friendship of others, thus
benefiting others, and thus benefiting the community, which, also, the
center of another circle, continues this influence to those that
surround it, purifying the thought, emboldening the idea and elevating
the man. How grand is the position Odd-Fellowship now occupies--a
world of honesty in a world of deceit, with a character strictly
virtuous and solely dependent upon its members for the perpetuity of
that character.

It depends upon the brethren to be virtuous, upright, honest and
benevolent, thus sustaining in its purity the noble reputation it now
enjoys, which will continue a bright and shining star in the
constellation until time shall be no more, when it will be perpetuated
in the glorious light of eternity. Amid the wrecks of institutions and
powerful interests that were a short time since thought to be
impregnable against all assaults, the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows
still maintains its vantage ground, and bears its banners proudly up.
With its doors thrown so widely open to applicants for admission,
composed as it is of nearly every shade of thought or educational
influence, whether of sect or party, with all the infirmities incident
to human nature, modifying by their weakness its true purposes, or
retarding its advancement, its unity and moral force, its stability and
progress are truly wonderful. Its bond of cohesion, so frail and yet
so potent, is seemingly inexplicable. It is the recognition of the
principles of brotherhood and fraternity, and the practice of their
resultant virtues. To appreciate and practice is to attain strength.
We are weak and frail. Odd-Fellowship is strong, and its principles
are as eternal as the stars. The history of the past is little but a
r