which is evil and foul, he can not reach any very low depth of woe. By
his own act, by his own voluntary desertion of the true aim of life,
and by that alone, is it possible that a man should drink his cup of
misery to the dregs. The want of happiness, so prevalent, is thus the
natural consequence of the inherent blindness of men. By it they are
led to pursue eagerly the phantom of _wealth_, _rank_, power, etc.,
white neglecting that which alone can satisfy the wants of the soul.
If men could really know what is their chief good, we should no longer
hear on every hand prayers offered up for those idle accoutrements of
life, which may indeed be enjoyed, but often bring only
dissatisfaction, and can be dispensed with without inconvenience to
mankind.

Many persons say Odd-Fellowship is contrary to the teachings of the
Bible. The way such people read their Bible is just like the way that
the old monks thought hedgehogs ate grapes. They rolled themselves
over and over where the grapes lay on the ground. What fruit stuck to
their spines they carried off and ate. So your hedgehoggy readers roll
themselves over and over their Bibles and declare that whatever sticks
to their spines is Scripture and that nothing else is. But you can
only get the skins of the texts that way. If you want their juice you
must press them in cluster. Now the clustered texts about the human
heart insist as a body, not on any inherent corruption in all hearts,
but on the terrific distinction between the bad and the good ones. "A
good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that
which is good, and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth
forth that which is evil."

"They on the rock are they which, in an honest and good heart, having
heard the word, kept it."