should have relegated to the regions of barbarism and darkness mere animal contests.  Not only so, but intellectual supremacy should have been in its turn subordinated, or crowned by true spiritual life.  “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  Man would occupy a higher and happier position than he at present fills if he had earnestly co-operated with good agencies for the unfolding and development of his better nature.

The special mission of Odd-Fellowship is to incite and stimulate the dormant moral energies to action, to rouse the lethargic, encourage the timid, and to strengthen the aspirations for a nobler and a better life.  Reaching out its helpful hand to the needy and distressed upon the one hand, and with the other battling with selfishness, intolerance and vice—­with all that dwarfs man’s moral nature—­it appeals to something within us, to be earnest advocates of its principles, by making them a living faith and illustrating its beneficent purposes.  If we make one man purer and better, and that man one’s own self, we have done something toward the betterment of the world.  The voices of the past and of the present all speak to us today.  Men and brethren, let us hearken unto them, and putting our trust in God, let us march onward, side by side together, until the standards of our order are planted upon the highest summit of achievement, and as their glorious folds are illuminated by the Sun of Righteousness, may the simple yet the sublime legend emblazoned thereon be seen and acknowledged by the nations, as with uplifted eyes and reverent hearts they read, “God is our Father, and we are all brothers.”

QUIET HOUR THOUGHTS.

Genuine love and sympathy are what wins the hearts of our fellows.

A Christian ought always to wake up in the morning in a good humor.

Remember that sorrow and pain soften the heart and sweeten the temper.

The young man who sees no beauty in a flower will make a mean husband.

If you love young people’s work you will prove it by laboring and sacrificing for it.

Begin active work in your society at once, and do not fail to see that each one has something to do.

The fact that God gives any consideration to mere mites of humanity scattered about the surface of this little world of ours is conclusive proof of His infinity.

What a blessing it is that we can not always do what we wish to do, or have everything our own way.

Many words are no more an indication of depth of feeling and heart than are boiling bubbles in a frying pan.

There are some people who would scorn to keep bad company, but who think the worst kind of thoughts by the hour.

Do not wait for somebody else to put your society on the roll of honor.  If you want a thing well done, do it yourself.

If the very hairs of our head are numbered, then why should we not consult the Father in regard to all our temporal affairs?