The Richmond Indiana palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1854-1855, 1855-01-05
MORAL MASONRY.

-, 3ral Masonry has pictures the proudest and
- 'blime on the canvass Of the worlds his
III! - might | sketch them Might I thrill
NJ .odience with the symbolic lectures of
al al, ~ h.f,:sa Might throw aside the veil
of the inner tempe H9hfiig Niah VISION the glorles
hearing the seraphIc -rmouies of TN. y -
not made with hands, typ~ in the beautii e
lines that our great Grand Meter has drawn upon
the magnificent pile that is destined 10 survive the
"Wreck Of matter and the crush f Worlds!
Never-neyer-until my tongue shall glow
with the fires Of the upper Shechinah, and the
Grand Master of Eternity shall take the finger of
silence and secresy from my lip, may | show to
assembled world the emotions that have rolled
their grandeurs over my soul as the curtains of
the lodge rose upon the great moral pictures Of all
time
Human nature is grand in ruins! The
soul Is temple of angelic and supe erhuman pro-
portions. Age cannot bronze 1t over with its
years. Death cannot dim the outlines of sub
Unity and beauty. Forever shall its proportions
swell upon the eve of the spiritual world develop
ing more fully, while the young eternity sweeps
towards the approachable goal of endless being,
the majesty of its powers and the splendor of its
moral achievments
| leave untouched the vast picture of the cru
sades- pass the age of chiyalry. | take a has
ty leave OF the great age of improvement and ac-
ton, each of which the sun of Masonry shines
with undying effulgence and glory.
| fllter this part of my subj lect-the moral
dignity of Masonry. am full of its intense beau
ty, ravished wits inefable brllliancy The broad,
wide and holy pictures of its glory cluster my
heated spirit, and | seem to seize of the
grandest representations that ever hung out
banner of Illuminated stars on the outer wall of
heaven. Like the wings of an angel. half seen
and then Withdrawn, 1t is gone-its harmonies
die away my ear, and its cloudy and far-reach-
ing splendors die to the eye of my imag gnation,
ike faint pencings of twilight on the tablets of
the west.
Oh, how Masonry has suffered scorn, contume-
ly and reproach, and the fagot and the rack, and
the chill, countless years of the dungeon gloom
What fiery trial has Masonry passed through of
late years throug hout the worldi The demon
that would drag up to the iron bed of Procrustes
all mankind, to cut them shorter if they We're too
long, to stretch them with cruel tenter- hooks
II they Were too short-thls maddening impulse
sas 9sn dashed asalns the foundations Of the
GUS sea; but the serenc rock has beaten back the
surges How oft were the lodges suppressed
their charters taken away-yet all the oaths and
inquisitions of the enemies of our order could not
worm out our secret or make the fraternity recre
ant 10 their principles. Their attitude not
auiike Tie man who undertook to destroy the mas
slve diamond by dashing 1t to pieces-but found
that every scattered fragment was.equally perfect
and in itself fortune.
Break up the lodges and scatter the members
from Nova Zemba to Peru, and still each Ma
sonic bosom would be lodge in tself--still would
it hold in its sacred deposit the nviolable myste
riesi
Companions of the Order! Knights Templars
Royal Arch, Past, Mark and Master Masons,
Fellow Craftsmen and Apprentices. thousands Of
Tour most honorel members have heard already
he call Of the Grand Master above. They have
.ntered, We trust, through the gates Of the city
hey are before the throne-.hey are wearing the
incture Of Heavenly Masonry. and are attending
the instructions Of the Great l AN.
We shall soon follow them-oue after another
We will 60 the way Of all the living You will
leave your places in the Lodge and others will
fill up your ranks. The procession will be form
ed-t will walk silently and sadly TO the grave
yard There you viii be laid by brothers hands
gently and softly with the silent dead. The sol
emn service will be pronounced over your coffin
the sprig Of cassia will fail lightly on your cold
remains, significant Of your rising the last great
d1y
| cannot raise my hand or voice to address. TO
initiate, to install, to admonish brother, with
out remembering that Jesus Christ is the Chief
Cornerstone of Free and Accepted Masonry and
the keystone of the topmost arch.
lcok around 10 read your thoughts Infdel-
lty IS Lot here You will therefore sustain me
when say, in God name, through the son of
HIS lovt We will this day consecrate ourselves TO
the SACRED and sublime principles of our order,
tlll each nember of the fraternity become a tenn
pie sacred 10 virtue and the unsullied elements OF
goodness. This, brethren, IS TO be Masons in
deed, bringing up not evil report to the disgrace
of our order-that when we receive the sum
mons from tie Grand Lodge above, we may has
ten with g,ajness, clothed in the regalia Of the
skies, 70 mee.our brethren in the Holy of Holes
to go out no more forever
There is signal known only to the fraternity
at which the breath of every Mason is hu she'd
and deep silence pervades the Lodge: SO, when
God rises in the magnificent temple of the Uni
verse and stretches forth His hands, sleeping mil
lions viii start from their graves and they stand
before linn a multitude no number
There we shall meet our dead again and give
them signals Of our immortal love,
Again the same my ysterious vision comes boom
Ing across the sea OF imagination, as before but
more palpable and dsupet L is too big pic
tare for my soul-g-e' must grasp t,-while nv
ear trembles with strange music, and nv eve be
holds beings of terrible beauty standing before
me, aud takes in the flashing of banners Of an in
numberabls multitude.
see the Christian Masonic procession as 1t
marches through this to the upper world-.hou-
sands upon thousands. Millions upon millions
Have lAe Crusaders come again. that thev direct
all their hopes 70 the Ess and travel toward the
Holy Land See. they viii not go back the way
Of the procession goes onward STILL aud rises high
above the pinacles Of eartl.
l see the hierarehes Of soul and intellect, the
S3vereigns of the order, the Knights Of the Sun
Of the Rel Cross. Of the Brazen Trumpet. and OF