I believe the Ladies now

their dignity, virtue, and moral worth. present will encourage the members of the Order here; and as time rolls on, and it becomes formidable, on the return of its anniversary each year, beauty's smile shall assure Odd Fellows that they have the approval of WOMAN. Your sanction shall aid and encourage the Brethren in the inculcation of the principles which form a great par of your very nature, and your approval shall cause them to go on to greater triumphs over all that would debase, and maintain such character as God will own and bless.

Our Lodge allows of nothing obnoxious to pure religion and sublime morality; and our secrecy will be approved of when we inform you, that it is only a means whereby we distinguish a Brother from others, and that this is necessary for the preservation and perpetuity of our Order.

Many a fond wife has found reason to bless our Institution, and many sisters and maidens have seen that their fathers and husbands, and brothers and lovers, have been improved in heart and life by their association with an Odd Fellow's Lodge. Many have reformed in their habits, and many have been saved from temptation's power, and made fit companions for her, in whose tongue is the law of kindness, and whose smile renders life a blessing. Ladies residing where the Order is fully known, although not of the Order, are for the Order; and while they are for it, Odd Fellows shall never fail.

My Brethren, but a short time has elapsed since you first planted a Lodge in your favored Province. You now number TIRES Lodges, and some hundreds of members. You have also a Grand Lodge organized: henceforth it has the entire jurisdiction in all Canada. I congratulate you on the success that has crowned your efforts. I rejoice with you at your prosperity. With such members-cherishing such holy principles, Odd Fellowship will prove a blessing to your community-to your country. You will maintain the purity of the Institution, and hand it down unsullied to generations to come..

Do not think the duties all devolve upon your officers. Let each one feel that on his conduct the fair fabric rests; and then will Odd Fellowship not suffer in the house of its professed votaries. You have already attained a high distinction. Guard your Lodges and yourselves, for be assured that the fall of the Order-if fall it shouldwould be great.

It is said of Napoleon, that previous to the battle of the Pyramids, he said to his soldiers-" Forty centuries are looking down upon you from the tops of the Pyramids." He thereby designed to excite a spirit f martial glory in the minds of those whose trade was bloodwhose hosannahs were the groans of the orphan and widow-whose trophies were cities sacked and virgins violated.

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Could the though that the spirits of the illustrious dead were gazing upon them-that by-gone centuries were bending their dusky forms over those time-marked monuments of art, kindle a glow of martial glory in their bosoms. What must be your emotions, when we re

flect that unborn generations, children of want and penury, will look up to us for deliverance, and support, and blessings.

Let the French warrior in his panoply of mail, boast of "thrones as toys, and crowns as play-things." His power was taken, and he has gone; but the ambition that inspires, and the results of your labors, shall transcend even his proud boast, and gather a wreath for your brow, compared with which

"The laurels that a Cæsar won were weeds."

Go on, then, my Brethren, strong in the indestructible principles of Odd Fellowship, and you shall infuse the spirit of our Institution all abroad,—you shall have the co-operation of brethren good and true from all quarters of the globe, and you shall see the benign influences spreading, altars rising, and you shall know that our principles prevail in the east; that they are spreading from the rockbound coast of the Atlantic, all over the plains, and valleys, and hills of this northern country, flowing like the waters of some long pentup river when loosed in their might, away to

"The continuous woods,

Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,

Save his own dashing."

Cherish and guard well the principle! Forms may change, but the principle is eternal; and wherever the flag that floats on the proud St. Lawrence is unfurled, may you be known as Odd Fellowsfaithful and true.

Then shall the influence you exert be most salutary; then shall you rear monuments of pure benevolence which shall be more lasting than the age-defying Pyramids; and when the haughty pillars and cloud-capt towers reared by hands shall fall into ruins, these shall not crumble, for their material is immortal.

You have holy voices inciting you,-"It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing;" and we hear one as from the high and lofty cliffs of redemption, saying—

"Be not weary in well-doing."

Go on, Brethren, and that spirit which drowns nations in war, or convulses them in the throes of death, shall disappear-convolving clouds of darkness shall flee away, yet, from the valleys and the tall mountain peaks shall the light of Friendship, Love, and Truth, be seen: and when the last note of the vibrating pendulum of time shall have died away, then shall the moral Temple of Odd Fellowship stand firm and immutable, resplendent in beauty and immortal grandeur, approved by the Grand Master Supreme.

A TRUE SENTIMENT.-As well might a butcher cry at every stroke of his knife Live,' as for one man to drink the health of another, while in the very act of destroying it. We wish every moderate drinker would ponder on this when he is again tempted to partake of the poisonous bowl.-Rainbow.

Written for the Gavel.

SYMPATHY,

BY J. BATCHELLOR, F. G.

THERE is implanted in the bosom of every human being a feeling to mitigate and bind up the drooping spirit of the children of sorrow and misfortune; while it enters the affections with a mournful joy and cheerfulness to assuage their troubles. How holy and sublime is this soothing and powerful feeling, when kindred friends, who are traveling through this dark and gloomy world, would joyfully partake of each other's sorrow. This was the silken chain, of sympathetic feeling of "Friendship, Love and Truth," that bound the holy affections of those primitive Odd Fellows, Jonathan and David, and cemented their souls in that holy and indissoluble bond of union which existed between them ever afterwards through the journey of life.

On the stage of human existence how varied and numerous are the ties which bind us together, and which have a tendency to bring into lively activity those high and exalted emotions of our finer feelings, which can weep at another's woe. It is this that throws over the character of man such soft and mellow rays of light, and encircles it with such bright and resplendent beams of glory.

It is this holy feeling of sympathy and benevolence, possessed in a high degree, which has caused here and there an individual to leave their beloved home, and go out into the high-ways and by ways, in quest of objects of misery and suffering. Through their instrumentality sympathy spreads her mild and heavenly influence over every heart-her soft hand wipes the scalding tear from the eye of deep and burning affliction, and pours the balm of joy and consolation into the wounded and bleeding heart. The lonely widow finds a friend -the forsaken orphan a kind protector, and the fatigued, distressed and persecuted, find succor and assistance.

When man is oppressed by sickness, care and meagre want-when he has sunk exhausted and helpless on the couch of anguish and distress, when nothing but gloomy forebodings occupy his distracted mind, how renovating is the sweet voice of sympathy, who like mercy's meek angel, hovers around his sick bed with untiring solicitude, and with almost supernatural kindness and love smooth down the pillow of sickness and death.

It is the full and free enjoyment of the sympathetic feelings, that sheds a bright and cheerful lustre over our rugged pathway through this transitory world. It is this which binds the human family together as with a triple chain of adamant. If it was not for this, chaotic darkness would reign with undismayed sway over this, now fair and beautiful world. Human governments with all their wisdom would crumble to the dust, and the social and domestic associations, which have been formed and created for man's happiness and enjoy

ment, would be broken into a thousand fragments! If man in all his dignity and grandeur-he who was formed by the plastic hand of God himself, and by him pronounced but a little lower than the angels of heaven, had not been created and endowed with those high moral and social feelings-those kindly affections which knit heart to heart, this world with all its splendid allurements, would have been bleak and sterile indeed to him!

I have said that this feeling was implanted in the bosom of every human being. It is so. But in some it is suffered to lay dormant, and its latent energies seem to be ice-bound by the gross passions of their nature. In others it is cultivated to its highest perfection, and its beauties brought out, in bold relief, in all their pristine glory and splendor.

What is more plasing and lovely to behold than a man possessing in an eminent degree the character of loving kindness and sympathy? He may not be invested in all the haughty pride and glory of the blood stained victorious hero; yet he is clothed and adorned in all the beauty of holiness-with all the cardinal virtues which grace humanity. The light and beauty of his glorious countenance, is made still more resplendent by the holy exhibitions of those warm gushing emotions of his soul which freely flow forth, like the smooth still deep waters of the mighty river in its onward course, when brought in close contact with human suffering and woe.

When billow after billow comes booming up in mountain height, of misfortune, misery and distress, and seem ready to overwhelm us in grief and dispair,-when the howlings of the dark midnight passions, in all their fury, are raging in wild and fearful commotion about us, then it is that we look around us for some place where we can retire in safety, from the buffetings of an ever changing worldfrom the peltings of the pitiless storm.

And where shall we go to escape the troubles and cares of an unfeeling world, and at the same time enjoy in an unbounded measure the holy sweets of sympathy, of Friendship, Love and Truth? We say emphatically, join that benevolent institution, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, for beneath her broad spread branches the weary pilgrim and sojourner may rest secure from the storms, blight and milldew of the world, while through her thick, green and beautiful foliage the poisoned arrows of want and misery cannot reach us, while we remain faithful to our trust.

Hudson, Feb., 1845.

Ir is in the middle classes of society, that all the finest feelings, and the most amiable propensities of our nature, do principally flourish and abound for the good opinion of our fellow-men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue. The privations of poverty render us too cold and callous, and the privileges of property, too arrogant and consequential to feel; the first, places us beneath the in-. fluence of opinion-the second, above it.-Odd Fellow.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

TO THE PATRONS OF THE GAVEL.

THE present number completes a half year of the publication of the Gavel, and we trust we shall be indulged in some thoughts to which the fact gives rise.

In a review of this period of our existence, we find much cause for congratulation. Our publication was an experiment, and the experiment was a hazardous one; those older in years and better in capacity had ventured in fairer fields, and had failed; while others who were still laboring were receiving any thing but an encouraging reward. The commencemert of an Odd Fellows' periodical seemed, as a matter of course, to be a premonitory of its death; for while all admitted the propriety and usefulness of such a work, and wished it well, but few were disposed or willing to carry their wishes further than words. In full view of all these difficulties, with alternate hopes and fears, the experiment was made, and "The Gavel," with many misgivings as to its fate, was sent forth upon its mission. The result has been better than our hopes, and shamed our fears. Friends have sprung up around us on every side, and substantial evidences of their approbation have been freely extended. Much of this approbation, we are constrained to believe, has been dictated by personal friendship, but more, we are persuaded, has resulted from a devotion to the objects we have endeavored to advance, and an attachment to the institution we advocate. For the former, we must be insensible to any emotion, did it not meet an acknowledgement and a return; and for the latter, we should be unworthy to hold a connection with our Order could we refuse to appreciate or esteem it. To all, then, who have favored us with their patronage, our thanks are tendered,-not the less acceptable, we hope, because proffered in the name of a brotherhood among whose watchwords is that of "Truth."

But, gratified as we are with our success, we are not content to exchange greetings merely as between publisher and reader. There is occasion for general not less than individual rejoicing. Our Order, within the last six months, has been eminently prosperous. Where it was established, it has taken deeper root and gathered greater strength; while in many places where it was known but in name, it has been planted and thrown out its beneficent influences. Many who were its opponents, or unacquainted with its purposes and labors, are now among its most useful members and ardent supporters; and it seems to be fast hurrying on to its ultimate destiny, when its organ