The Jericho Road

The Jericho Road

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Jericho Road, by W. Bion Adkins
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Title: The Jericho Road
Author: W. Bion Adkins
Release Date: October 20, 2004 [eBook #13816]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JERICHO ROAD***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

THE JERICHO ROAD
by
W. BION ADKINS
Author of "Twelve Steps Toward Heaven," "The Anonymous Letter," etc.
1901

Like the rivers, forever running yet never passed, like the winds forever going yet never gone, so is Odd-Fellowship.

DEDICATION
WORTHY AND GENTLE BROTHERS
I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK TO THEE, SINCERELY HOPING THAT IT WILL AFFORD YOU MUCH PLEASURE AND BE THE MEANS OF INCITING YOU TO GREATER EFFORT IN BEHALF OF OUR BELOVED ORDER. MAY THY YEARS BE MANY AND THEIR SEASONS ALL GOLDEN AUTUMNS, RICH IN PURPLE CLUSTERS AND GARNERED DELIGHTS.

PREFACE
"I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written nothing that I have not lived, and the story of this book is but a plaintive refrain wrung from the over-burdened song of my life; while the tides of feeling, winding down the lines, had their sources in as many broken upheavals of my own heart." A book, like an implement, must be judged by its adaptation to its special design, however unfit for any other end. This volume is designed to help Odd-Fellows in their search for the good things in life. There is need of something to break the spell of indifference that oftentimes binds us, and to open glimpses of better, sweeter, grander possibilities. Hence this volume, which is a plea for that great fortune of man--his own nature. Bulwer says: "Strive while improving your one talent to enrich your whole capital as a man." The present work is designed to aid in securing the result thus recommended. We send it forth, trusting that it will find its way into the hands of every Odd-Fellow and every Odd-Fellow's friend and neighbor, and that those who read it will gather from its pages lessons which shall enable them to pluck thorns from their pathway and scatter flowers instead.
W. BION ADKINS.
October 1, 1899.

TODAY'S DEMAND
God give us men. A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; Men who will not lie, Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duly and in private thinking. For, while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps. God give us men!
--Selected.

TOMORROW'S FULFILLMENT
* * In the long years liker must they grow; The man be more of woman, she of man; He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care-- Till at the last she set herself to man, Like perfect music unto noble words; And so these twain, upon the skirts of time, Sit side by side, full summed in all their powers, Self-reverent each and reverencing each. Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm; Then springs the crowning race of human kind.
--Alfred Tennyson.

CONTENTS
Objects and Purposes of Odd-Fellowship
The Higher Life
Pithy Points
The Bible in Odd-Fellowship
Brother Underwood's Dream
The Imperial Virtue
Quiet Hour Thoughts
Love Supreme
Gems of Beauty
Husband and Father
Odd-Fellowship and the Future

INTRODUCTORY
On April 26, 1819, Thomas Wildey, the English carriage-spring maker, together with John Welch, John Duncan, John Cheatham and Richard Rushworth, instituted the first lodge of Odd-Fellows at the Seven Stars Tavern in Baltimore, and it was given the name of Washington Lodge No. 1. From this feeble beginning has grown the immense organization of today. The Odd-Fellows claim a venerable antiquity for their order, the most common account of its origin ascribing it to the Jewish legend under Titus, who, it is said, received from that Emperor the first chapter, written on a golden tablet. The earliest mention made of the lodge is in 1745, when one was organized in England. There were at that time several lodges independent of each other, but in a few years they formed a union. Toward the end of the century many of them were broken up by state prosecutions, on suspicion that their purposes were seditious. The name was changed from the Patriotic Order to that of the Union Order of Odd-Fellows. In Manchester, England, in 1813, some of the lodges seceded from the order, and formed the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows.
The order's first appearance in America was in 1819. The purposes