privilege, to be admitted to membership in such an organization--so
freeing one's self from the surgings of self-seeking and selfish
considerations--free from the trammels of prevailing prejudice and
passion--free from the false educational influences that warp the mind
and drive charity from the heart.

Our order's emblem is the three links,

FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND TRUTH.

Friendship, love, truth--golden links these, that not only bind
together their obligated votaries, but that recognize and embrace,
because of worthiness and plighted faith, that behind the back as well
as face to face, have a defensive, kindly word and a brother's generous
deed; that, amid the upheavals of communities and the crumbling of
nations, systems and governments, swerve not from their course, and are
corralled by no arbitrary bounds, and that, whatever the dialect, the
nationality or the religion of men, read upon humanity's brow the
inscription written by the finger of infinite love--a man and a
brother, a woman and a sister.

A faithful and true friend is a living treasure, estimable in
possession and deeply to be lamented when gone. Nothing is more common
than to talk of a friend; nothing more difficult than to find one;
nothing more rare than to improve by one as we ought.

The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is
to be one. Such is friendship. Next in our golden chain is Love.
Love is the stepping stone to heaven. This principle teaches man his
capabilities for good, enlightens his mind, enlarges the sphere of his