Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-02-27

TuNE-PaIermo.
To Heavens high Architect all praise,
All gratitude be given,
Who degned the human soul to raise
By secrets sprung from Heaven.
Now swells the Choir in solemn tone,
And lowering Angels Join;
Religion looks delighted down
When votares press the shrine.
Blest be the place thither repair
The true and pious train;
Devotion wakes her anthem there,
And Heaven accepts the strain.
DIR. EMPIE's PRAYER AT THE MONUMENT.
An eloquent prayer was pronounced by DR..
Empie, Chaplain, as follows:
Great Parent of the Universe our Father in
Heaven, the Sod in whom we live, and move
and have our being, we (he Masonic Fraterni.
ties and the thousands of others assembled here
on this interesting occasion) desire, at the be-
ginning of tour work. to look up 10 Thee, "t e
great Architect of the Universe" upon whom we
depend for all things, and who at "the Author
of every good and perfect gift God OF our Fa-
theirs, as under the protection and guidance of
thy good Providence, this country was discover
ed and settled, and our independence ultimately
acheved-and as in the "tmes that tried mems
SOULS, our nation always sought and obtained
thy blessings, so we beseech thee noV. for
Jesus sake, to look down graciously upon us
Forgive our sins, hear our prayers smile upon
our efforts, and both accept and bless the works
of our hands.
We would not assemble o God, and grant that
we may not have assembled, merely to do hon.
or 10 the great and good-but also to dc
homage to that overruling Providence thai
has shaped our happy destny-not merely to
raise a monument of gratitude 10 man, but ALEC
to raise our monument of gratitude 10 thee, G
thou divine Author of all good, and to endeavor
suitably TO recolect and profit by the numerous
and thrilling associations of this day and this
occasion.
In dsproof of the reproach that "Republics
know not how to be grateful } ord let the
structure here TO be erected, be al once not only
a token of honor and gratitude to him who was
''irst in war; first in peace and first in the hearts
of his countrymen," but also public and ma
tonal monument of thanksgiving, reared by
grateful hearts to Him whose good providence
reared up the man, who, in the tear oil God, and
under Heaven, like another Moses, led our ar
mics and our people to victory, to independence,
and 10 those countless civil and religious bes.
sings, by which, in this favored land, we are SO
highly distinguished Great Ruler of Worlds
and Ruler of Hearts, in whose hands are the
destinles of nations, by the influence of Thy
blessed word and spirit, cause deep sense Of
national and of individual thankfuness to per
wade every heart.
Make us all duly sensible of Thy great goodness
and our great obligations. We laud and praise
Thy name for raisingup, in our greatest need, the
man, the patriot, the hero, the unostentatlous
christian whom we have this day assembled to
honor We thank Thee for that determined and
self-sacriiicng spirit OF unity and OF freedom
which pervaded our country; for the thunder OF
that native eloquence the breath of freedon)
which then shook the continent; for the voice of
that wisdom and patriotism which guided our
councils and we thank Thee that our own cher
ished native State, Virginia, stood foremost in
the cause of liberty. We give glory to Thy
name, o God, for that invisible hand that girded
our great leader for the confct-that guided and
guarded him through the successive stages of our
Revoluto lary struggle; that he was one of those
chosen ones who habitualy bent his knee in
homage and in prayer, and that through Thy
grace ''this was his armour, this the salvation of
his country" We would ascribe it TO the good
Providence of our God, that the life of our Wash
ington was new era in the history of govern
ment and of man-that thou did'st raise him up
in this Western hemisphere for the purpose of
making him instrumental in establishing the true
principles OF civil and religious liberty, which
are essential to social happiness and social pros
perty, and which, since then, have been gradu-
ally pervading the civilized world; and we thank
Thee 0 Lord, that after conflict which "shook
the pillars of distant throne' thou hast pleased
to order that our nation, and her great Comman-
der, should stand as the admiration OF the world
We bless thy name, 0 our Father in Heaven, for
establishing here model government, for the
nations of the earth to copy-for giving here an
impulse to the human mnd In opposition to the
baiefu influence and dominion of civil and reli-
gous tyranny, and in favor of enlie htened and
we'll regulated freedom-an impulse that has
ever since. through thy good providence, Lord.
been gradually winning IFS way among the ma
tons of the earth. Oh God through the influ-
ence of thy grace, spread speedily thy own
blessed Gospel together with its genial spirit of
chastened freedom, over the whole e lobe, that
these civil and religious blessings, the offspring
and product of ting blessed religion. may become
the inheritance OF the whole world, And O, Di-
vine Parent, for thy dear Sons sake, produce in
US gratitude that shall not evaporate with an
acknowledg ment of the lips but that shall habit.
ually influence our own hearts and conduct, and
those of the hole nation.
Lord, help us all to profit by thy Provdential
dispensatons. May this day and this Monu-
ment ever serve to recall the patriotism, the viz
tues, the self sacrificing and plous example of
our Washington Here, o Lord, and in The as
sociations of this day, may statesmen learn the
duties of patriotic devotion, OF disnterestedness,
of superiority to the corrupting influence of
party sprit-here may they lean conciliatory
disposition. and willingness to compromise and
make sacrifices for the public good. Here, too,
from the associations OF this day, and from the
dying legacy of Washington himself. help us all,
O God, together with all our fellow countrymen,
to learn and remember the important lesson he
taught us, that "relgon and morality are indis-
pensably necessary to the private and public
happiness of nation" And o Divine Master
and Judge, dispose us especially, who are the
Masonic brethren of Washington, and about to
perform these last ceremonies to the memory OF
our most cherished and distinguished BROTHER
dispose us all, to be emuous to initiate his eX-
ample Oul Grand Master in Heaven, help us
at all times to act agreeably to the principles OF