Information to the Household of Ruth.

M.P.V., General T. Morris Chester, said in 1878: "A modern invention, which is a decided improvement, was the organization, in 1857, of another branch, called the Household of Ruth, for the admission of ladies nearly related to Odd Fellows, to which only members who have attained the Fifth or Scarlet Degree are eligible. The blending of woman's sweetness with man's service has crystallized the order into an elysium. The conception which harmonizes the grace of woman with the strength of man in the performance of good works, embodies a grand and irresistible power. To witness our wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters going up to our lodges, initiated into our ancient mysteries, and imbued with the spirit of our mission, is a spectacle which Odd Fellows contemplate with mingled interest and admiration.

"There are two shrines at which enlightened men worship--God and woman. Bearing the image and likeness of our Creator, matrixed and tutored by a mother's love, our reverence and veneration become an enduring part of our nature. In despair, we appeal to Heaven for relief; and in distress, we welcome the celestial intervention of woman. Wisdom and good policy could not have engrafted a more durable element of strength and success, which has increased into one hundred and thirty Households, forming an important adjunct of our order. In her sympathizing and flexible ministrations she is the hope in sickness and the solace in death. A member honored with this degree is brightened in misfortune with hovering sisters of Ruth. If any of the visiting brethren who can say, "I am of that degree," should be afflicted in this strange city, special blessings would be invoked in the Household of Ruth, and ministrations of its congenial spirit would follow. Their soft hands would cool the fevered brow; their sweet voices would calm the anguished mind; their holy influence would infuse into the surroundings all the endearments of home, and if called upon to close the eyes in eternal slumber, they would solemnly and affectionately perform the last sad rites over the coffined remains.

"The faithful and beautiful sentiments of the daughter-in-law of Naomi are the sacred vows of every sister of Ruth, which she exemplifies in her intercourse with all who are contributing members of that degree. The character and purpose of the Household, emblazoned upon its banners and stamped upon the hearts of its members, are intended to perpetuate in the family of Odd Fellows the glorious principle that your brother shall be my brother, your sister shall be my sister, your God shall be my God, and nothing but death shall us part."

HISTORY OF RUTH, THE MOABITESS.

Rev. Thomas G. Beharrell, P. G. in Lodge No. 127, and P. H. P. in Encampment No. 51, and member of the G. L. and G. E. of Indiana, in giving an account of some of the Bible characters who have exemplified the principles of Odd Fellowship, thus speaks of

RUTH, THE MOABITESS:

It is supposed by some that Ruth was of royal blood, as the daughter of Eglon, king of the Moab; but this is mere conjecture. She was, however, a Moabitish damsel, who was married to Mahlon, the son of Elimelech and Naomi. In the history given of her in the book that bears her name, she appears splendidly endowed with all the virtues and charms of true womanhood. It may be that her tender affection and sympathy to Naomi and her sons, when bereft of the husband and father, her watching by the couch of pain and ministering to the suffering and dying Elimelech, was the groundwork for the undying affection that afterward existed between her and Naomi. And that may have been the reason why Naomi made the choice of her for a wife for her son. Ruth, it may be, attended the disconsolate and grief-stricken widow as she followed the remains of her husband to burial. Ah! and who knows but she returned with Naomi from the new-made grave to her desolate home, and poured words of comfort upon her sorrowing heart--lether know that though she was a stranger in a strange land, sadly bereft, yet she was not without friends. And no wonder if the feelings of Mahlon began to twine about the sympathizing heart of the tender and affectionate Moabitish damsel--even before the wound was healed, occasioned by the death of his father. His feelings ripened into thoughts of union, and soon the two were married. They entered upon life together with high hopes. Ruth was happy in the embrace and care of a noble husband, while Mahlon was well contented and pleased with the choice he had made, because of her many excellences.

But their day together was short. Little did they think, when their marriage contract was consummated, that the sun would so quickly go down--that one would be taken and the other left, alone to endure the storms of life. But so it was. Death came. Another new-formed grave appears, and Ruth is added to the list of widows. A few days afterward and Orpah, the sister-in-law of Ruth, was also left a widow.

It was a dark day for Naomi when her husband died; but, turning to her sons, she said to herself, "These my sons will be a stay to me in the decline of 000525life." And when they both married, she was comforted in the companionship and true affection of her daughters. But soon a darker day than ever threw its shade around her, for "her sons died also, both of them." She was a widow and childless.

Naomi, in her bereavement and sorrow, determined to return from the country of Moab to the land of Judah, and made known her determination to her two daughters-in-law. They arose to return with her, but had not proceeded far on the journey until Naomi touchingly addressed them. She called to mind her first bereavement and their kindness to her in it--their marriage to her sons, and their kindness to them--and now, said she, "Go return, each of you, to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with me and with the dead. The Lord grant that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of your husband." After this address, intended to be a parting admonition and blessing, the three widows lifted up their voices and wept. They felt, as dear friends alone can feel it, the keen sensations of the parting kiss and word. After a moment or two of reflection, they came to the conclusion that they would attend her to her own country and kindred. Naomi endeavored to dissuade them By telling them she had no more sons to give them for husbands-she had no estate, not even a cottage, however forlorn, to shelter them with, if even she arrived safely there; and, further, she did not know that any one of her former friends would take her by the hand and say unto her, Welcome, unfortunate woman, to thine own country and city. She then closed her address in the most touching and affectionate manner: "Nay, my daughters, it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord hath gone out against me."

The picture Naomi had given was so darkly shaded that Orpah concluded to return; but not so with Ruth. Whilst Orpah, reconciled to the separation, approached Naomi and kissed her, Ruth "clave unto her;" that is, she clung round her neck, and utterly refused to be parted. Naomi tried once again to persuade her, but she could not. Ruth was immovable in her affections. The tree of Pure Friendship was largely grown, and, like the giant oak, deeply rooted. She could part with Orpah, her sister, but she could not and would not be parted from her mother-in-law. Amid her tears and deep emotion, as she hung upon the neck of Naomi, she said: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried." She then confirmed this her purpose with an oath of great sanctity and importance among the daughters of Israel, namely, "The Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

The mind of Ruth was fully made up to leave her own land and friends and wealth (if she was heir to wealth) and the false gods that were worshiped by the idolatrous Moabites, and to share in all the storms and trials that might break and spend their fury upon Naomi, to whose interests she was so unflinchingly 000626devoted. Naomi clearly perceiving it, left off persuading her, and the two together began their journey to Bethlehem.

How disconsolate Naomi would have been had she been travelling alone, for she was leaving three graves of loved ones behind her in the land of Moab! Though she left Judah vigorous and happy, she was returning with a care-worn brow, furrowed cheeks, and sad visage. She had left with a family that might have been represented by a chain composed of four links; but three of them were broken. She was alone. No, not alone, either, for the affectionate Ruth was with her, and, with her pleasing person, winning manners, and kind actions and words, was cheering her as they passed along.

Day after day they traveled on, their affection all the while increasing, until finally they reached the city and entered its gates. These two women rented, it may be, an humble cottage, and, poorly as it was furnished, called it their home; while Ruth labored daily for her own support and the support of the mother. They had come to Bethlehem in the beginning of harvest. Ruth, addressing her mother-in-law, said, "Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find favor." By this, it may be, she simply meant--let me go out harvesting as a gleaner, and glean in whosoever field I may be allowed to go--or, if the owner of one field refuses me the privilege of gleaning there, then I will go to another, and continue till I find favor with some owner. And Naomi said unto her, "Go, my daughter." Accordingly she went.

Now it was her fortune, in her rambling as a gleaner, to be found in the harvest-field of Boaz. And as she was passing along from the city to that part of the field where his men were reaping, he saw her engaged in her work, and looked with a degree of interest upon her, wondering who she was. It may be that her modest bearing, her flushed cheeks, her dark, flowing locks, and her innocent soul, as it peered forth in her bright eyes from under the dark lashes, or her womanly compliments, was the cause of his fixed attention. When he came to the servant who had charge of the reapers he asked him, "Whose damsel is this?" On being answered that it was Moabitish damsel that came with Naomi from the country of Moab, Boaz was led to think of Elimelech, who was his kinsman, of Naomi, who had passed through dark providences, and of the two sons who died, leaving widows. Ah! and he thought of Ruth, who was gleaning in his field, and of her tender affection for her mother-in-law. And as he thus thought of her, tender feelings for her began to well up in his heart, and approaching her, he said: "Hearest thou not, my daughter? go not to glean in another field neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. I have given commandment to the young men that they shall not touch thee; and when thou art athirst, go and drink of that which the young men have drawn."

Ruth was much astonished at this expression of kindness to her, for she was a stranger to him who spake with her, and wonderingly she dared to ask why it was. The answer she received was a still stronger expression of feeling for her on the part of Boaz, and before the conversation closed between them at this 000727interview, he charged her at meal-time to cease her gleaning, and come up and eat with his reapers and maidens, and he himself 'reached her come up and eat his reapers and maidens, and he himself "reached her parched corn, and she did eat." A tender cord in his nature had been touched, and his feelings toward Ruth were of rapid growth. Before he left the reapers that day he charged them to allow her to glean among the sheaves as they lay bound, before the shocks were set up. And she gleaned until the evening, and went home to report to Naomi the adventures of the day, and show her the amount of her gleaning.

Ruth then learned that he in whose field she had been gleaning, and from whom she had received kindness, was a near kinsman of theirs. Naomi saw clearly the hand of the Lord in this matter, and rejoiced. She then encouraged Ruth to confine her labors all through harvest to the fields of Boaz. Ruth did so, and day after day, it may be, received expressions of kindness, and promptly reported them. When the harvest was ended, Ruth claimed, under the direction of Naomi, the protection and obligation of a kinsman of Boaz. He acknowledged the correctness of her claim, and gladly set himself about consummating what probably he had been meditating; for he had learned to love the modest, industrious, handsome, and affectionate Ruth. Soon she became his wife, and found in him a gentle and loving companion. She rested on the arm and bosom of a generous and noble man, and felt herself more than compensated for her sacrifices in leaving her native land and kindred, and in a strange country stooping to the service of a menial and performing hard labor for weeks as a gleaner, to support herself and her mother-in-law. Yes, she was more than compensated when she looked upon him who claimed her as his wife, and upon Naomi, now in possession of a home and plenty. especially did she feel joyful when afterward she, who had gleaned day after day, and laid her earnings in the lap of Naomi, was blessed with a son, and placed that upon the bosom of the aged widow that she might, in the possession of it, forget still more her past sorrows. That son became the grandfather of David, the king of Isreal.

0008

The Relation of Women to the Work of Life.The great traveler, Ledyard, truly says: "I have observed among all nations that the women . . . . are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. They do not hesitate, like man, to perform a hospitable or generous action; not haughty, nor arrogant, nor supercilious, but full of courtesy and fond of society; industrious, economical, ingenious; more liable, in general, to err than man, but, in general, also more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship to a woman, whether civilized or savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man, it has often been otherwise. Inn wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and to add to this virtue, so worthy the appellation of benevolence, these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner that, if I was dry, I drank the sweet draught, and, if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with a double relish."

The Degree of Rebekah, or Ladies' Degree

We now have the pleasure of giving the words of one of the most distinguished Odd Fellows in the world, on the relation of woman to the Order of Odd Fellows. Past Grand Master, John E. Chamberlain, speaking to the Daughters of Rebekah, says:

"Having united with our order, we would direct and stimulate you in the performance of the duties it enjoins by referring to illustrious examples in your own sex. And nobler specimens of humanity and true womanhood can nowhere be found, in past ages, than are named to us in the Book of books.

"Behold the hospitality of the modest and graceful Rebekah, readily ministering to the stranger and his thirsty, way-worn cattle. It was her characteristic when Isaac became her husband, as God had appointed; it remained hers when she was the aged mother of a family. Mark the confiding piety of the wife of Manoah, encouraging her husband to trust in God, and herself to hold converse with the angel which gave her promise of Samson. Also, the devotion of Hannah, dedicating her child Samuel unto God from his infancy. See, also, the zeal and courage of patriotism in Deborah, the widow, who was a bright star of hope in her country's trouble, and at whose word, it was said, "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." And the self-sacrificing love of countrymen, so like that of Moses, by whom was it better evinced than by the queenly Esther?-risking station, and life even, to save from massacre her father's people. The steadfast filial piety and devoted affection of Ruth fills one of the most beautiful biographical narrative of the Bible. How tender and how beautiful her language to her widowed and childless mother-in-law, Naomi: "Entreat me not to leave thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." Consider also the virgin prophetess Miriam, the sister, the almost mother, of Aaron and Moses. From the hour in which she watched over the latter, as he was rocked by the waters of the Nile, to the hour of her death, she proved herself a noble, high-minded, generous, brave, loving sister and woman. And thus, from Sarah, the wife of the friend of God and the mother of patriarchs, down to Martha and Mary, to the women who watched when the disciples fled, to Dorcas who cared for the poor, the history glows and brightens with woman's worth and loveliness. Before these, how the glory of Cleopatra and Aspasia, of Elizabeth of England, or Catherine of Russia, 'loses, discountenanced and like folly 001030shows.' We therefore hold up for your imitation the goodness of those whose modesty and worth, whose domestic and public virtues, prove them women indeed.

"For woman's work is to do good. Men need banding together to stimulate their better affections; but in woman, benevolence and humanity are spontaneous. In entering into closer union with our order, therefore, you need only follow, as before, the promptings of your ever-ready sympathies to perform its duties and fulfill obligations. In your families and neighborhoods, wherever misery can be relieved, want supplied, or sorrow consoled, there is the work of a daughter of Rebekah.

"And in return for the aid you bring us, we pledge duty and devotion to you. For at no time has woman been excluded from our cares and labors. Rather for her has our order been founded and improved. For wife and children, rather than for self, has the husband and the father given it his labors and his means. For them has the largest portion of our benefits been provided. When her partner in the household is laid on the bed of sickness, for her we pay the benefits. When she is weary with watching at his bedside, we send brethren to relieve her. When death removes him, we give her double what he is allowed when she is taken away. And when the widow's home is hers, with its loneliness and gloom, strong hands and warm hearts from a protection around her, to supply her wants and cherish her and hers, for the sake of him to whom they pledged a love,"Fading not when life has perished,Living still beyond the tomb."

"But now, more than ever, if possible, do we pledge our means, resources, and powers to promote your welfare and secure your interests.

"You learn, then, that our Odd Fellowship is a unity of hearts and purposes to resist the heartlessness and selfishness of the world around us. Having become one with us and of us in that fellowship, and assumed our obligations, we can better demonstrate to you that our greatest duty and highest aim is the promotion of a practical, loving fraternity of mankind. For the entire human race is but one family, not only physically but spiritually; not only theoretically, but really and truly. Each member, therefore, is bound to aid the rest. Our mission is not a narrow one. 'None of us liveth to himself.' We are created and placed here to labor for our fellow-men, to advance our age, elevate our country, and improve our race.

"With such teachings within our temple, leading to corresponding practices without, our order will withstand all the shocks of opposition and the changes of public opinion, and grow firmer and stronger in its moral power, until `the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds' changes our theater of action to one of repose, our labor to reward."