Despite the glamor of the world that secret societies propagate a secresy of men’s actions at the expense of truth and justice, it can not obtain in a lodge of this order.  No man ever took upon himself the vows and studied the underlying motives, and practiced the lessons of the order, but he becomes a better citizen.  If he has become a good husband and father, he becomes better in his domestic relations.  If he has been charitable before, he becomes more so now.  Men’s weaknesses he looks upon as human frailties, until time and sense teach him that frailties have degenerated into positive perversity of character and baseness of heart.  He will condemn falsehood and hypocrisy wherever found.

The object of religious organizations is to make men better and fit them for the life immortal.  The object of government and its laws is to make and protect good citizens and repress vice.  The object of this secret organization is to bind men more firmly together for mutual protection, for help and sustenance, to look after their families, and to be in a broad sense our brother’s keeper.  I would not be understood as placing a secret organization in place of the church, or in the place of a political government.  By no means.  Each has its own proper and particular sphere of action.  No one in its actions and endeavors is inimical to the actions of the others.  Each rests on its own peculiar foundation, but all dovetail together, and all make a harmonious whole.  The man who is a good Christian is better by being a good Odd-Fellow.  If both a good Christian and a good Odd-Fellow, he comes nearer being the typical citizen.  If man reveres the law of this order, he will have more devotion to his church, his home, his flag and his country.  I have no fault to find with those who do not believe in uniting with a secret organization, but I do object to any man inveighing against the objects and purposes, the ends and aims, of our order when he knows nothing about it.  I do not expect every man to belong to my church, for men in their constitution and mental make-up can not see alike theologically.  But I do accord to every member of every church the hope of getting to heaven if he lives up to the teachings of this particular sect.  I believe in justification by faith and good works, but I have no use for a man who decries this doctrine when he never exercised a particle of faith nor did a good deed in his life.  And so I would say to any one who thinks he stands on some lofty pinnacle and scents danger to the family tie, or church, or state, or society, because of the existence of secret orders, that he thinks and talks of something he knows nothing about.  If I should desire to draw comparisons, I could say truthfully that during the last year this order gave more in charity and benefits to its members in Illinois than any religious denomination in the state.  Look around your own community and see if it be not so.  Think of the widow with tear-stained cheek, from