Washington sentinel., 1853-11-05
Remarks of NJ. W.. Grand Master B. II
French.

At the Grand Visitation to Federal Lodge No.
i, on Tuesday epening, October IS, 1853.
Published by request Of the Lodge.
The Nj. w. Grand Master closed his address
to the Lodge as follows:
Within the past few weeks, my brethren,
your lodge has been visited by that potentate
to whom we must all sooner or later bow. The
King of Terrors has been among you, and, al
though he has selected one who had passed the
usual age allotted to man, it affords no assur-
ance that the next one who may be selected to
pass the dark valley may not be in the very
heyday Of his manhood and his strength. And
the words of warning, "be ye also ready are
equally applicable to him who has just entered
upon his manhood, as they are to him who
seems, to human eyes, to be tottering on the
very shores of the dark rolling river Of death.
Robert B. Boyd has departed from amongst
u.s. An honest, upright man, q Jealous and
sincere Christian, and an exemplary Freema-
son, has gone, full Of years, to his reward, and
as we all, trust, sincerely believe, his disen-
bodied spirit now exists in that grand convo-
cation on high where the Great Architect of
the universe presides.
happened to be absent when the mortal re-
mains Of our departed brother were deposited
in their last resting place on earth. Had not
i shouid most assuredly have accompanied
them to their final repose, and have performed
at his grave the usual ceremonies of our order.
am the more particular in saying this here,
for the reason that few years since, it may
have been within two years. brother Boyd was
sick, as he then thought, and as many Of us
thought, unto death. He sent for me, and
fastened to his bedside. He said:
Brother French, last nightI never expected
to see your face again. Thought was going;
/ thought of you and of my brethren, and l
blessed you all to-day feel better, and think
] may get out once more but the old man is
almost worn ont, and cannot last long, and
want you now to promise me that when die
you will see my remains placed in the earth by
my brethren"
/ replied that he might yet outlive me, and
aid in that kind Office toward my own remains
but solemnly promised that should survive
him, and be so situated as to render it in my
power, would see that the desire he had ex-
pressed was carried out.
He then drew my attention to framed ma
sonic diploma that hung on the wall of his
room, and remarked that next to his religion he
valued the institution of masonry, and that
when he was sick he always had that diploma
placed where he could see it, that he might be
reminded, in dying, that he was mason.
He expressed, in every word he uttered, the
most perfect resignation to the will of God, and
the utmost reliance upon the assurances of hap
piness hereafter which are promised in that
book of books to those who live life of purity
and virtue on earth.
| do not pretend to give all the language Of
that good old man. give his ideas and some
of the very words he uttered, and it seemed to
me, my brethren, that left him better and a
wiser man.
! was out of the city during his last sickness
and his death, and did not know, until saw
saw an account of his funeral, that he was even
sick. The last time ever saw him he was at
his post and in his usual health.
Well and truly does our burial service say
that the last Offices paid to the dead are only
useful as lectures to the living; from them we
are to derive instruction, and to consider every
solemnity Of the kind MS a summons to prepare
for our approaching dissolution"
Let us, then, my brethren, derive instruction
from this recent instance Of mortality in our
midst, and endeavor TO prepare ourselves to
meet our departed brother in brighter and n
better world than this.