The Caddo Herald
February 29, 1924
Tribute to the Memory of Our Departed Friend,
Brother W. F. Dodd
My friends, I come to you today from Caddo Lodge No. 3, A. F. and A. M. to offer a tribute to our late friend and brother, W. F. Dodd.
In our hall where we meet together often, there is a Charter draped in mourning and a familiar voice is still, a footstep that was often heard, no more. The one that we so often went to for counsel and good cheer is absent and in our midst there is a vacant chair.
Our hearts are sad and we weep with those that weep. It may not be manly to shed these tears, but over this we have no control; our hearts are bleeding through our eyes.
When the bright rays of sunlight disappear over the western horizon and the creeping darkness approaches us from the east, when the world is at rest in peaceful slumber, then, in the dear dreary mid-night hour we lie awake upon our couch with a feverish brow and an aching heart feeling the sting of sorrow as it pierces our hearts like an arrow and causes us to moan with grief over the loss of our beloved, departed brother.
We cannot understand why we are punished so. The Great God of love never makes a mistake: He has called and Brother Dodd has answered. It may be that God needed him in Heaven more than we needed him on earth. If so, who can say nay?
Brother Dodd has moved out of his earthly house and has gone to live in his spiritual house, not made with hands- eternal in the heavens. We know that he is so much happier where he is today, yet we are made to grieve, for we miss him so much. Sometimes as we sit, think, and ponder, we are made to feel his presence, and I am sometimes inclined to believe that Brother Dodd is still in Caddo in spirit.
This I do know, he has lived a life here below that the influence thereof will live on and on thru the ages.
I do not know what more I can say than this for anyone: he was a Christian Gentleman. We have been closely associated with Brother Dodd for a number of years and we always found him arrayed against that which was wrong and fighting with all his might for that which was good and pure; sacrifcing his money and time; exercising his power and ability to make the world a better place in which to live, and to advance God’s Cause and do His Divine Will on earth.
Dear friends and relatives, let me say to you that it is impossible for anyone to live the life that Brother Dodd lived and then suffer after death. If the Bible is true, and we know it is, we will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. No one will ever suffer for doing right.
It is a sweet consolation to those he left behind that he died without much pain and that he was prepared to go.
In conclusion I want to admonish all present today that we should resolve to live a clean, pure, Christian life on earth and then when the cold hand of death is lain on our worn and tired bodies our spirits can go sweeping through space and be welcomed in the Portals of Heaven by our late friend and brother, William Frances Dodd.
Caddo Lodge No. 3
A.F. & A. M.
By J. A. Amyett, sec.
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