The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-04-01


The officers of the various lodges
then marched in procession around
the hall, with the emblems of their
Offices; after which the consecration
prayer was offered by the Grand
Chaplain y. I. Diixon.j An ode was
then sung by the choir, accompanied
on the organ by Prof. Plntti. The
public grand honors" of the order
were then given. The benediction
was pronounced, after which tile
Rev. j. j.. Reynolds was introduced,
who delivered on interesting and in
structive address, in substance as
follows:
The speaker began by remarking
that when the fraternity laid the
corner stone of the new State House.
twelve years ago, he took occasion,
in the address delivered at that time,
to say that the edifice begun at
period of peace and prosperity
would, ere it's completion, be the
witness Of civil war and its terrible
consequences. The eanticipated storm
had burst upon the State; and the
unfinished house now stands amid
the ruins Of our fair city, sad but
suggestive symbol of subjugated
commonwealth. During the progress
of that unhappy sectional strife,
Masonry asserted its beneficent sway,
softening the asperities of war,
throwing the shield of its protection
over the wounded and vanquished
on the field of battle, relieving the
wants Of the captive; and when the
last battle had been fought, it was
the first to stretch forth, over the red
sea of fraternal blood, the hand of
Cancellation and sympathy.
In the fire-storm which swept away
our beautiful city, the halls of the
fraternity had perished; but, like
their ancient brethren at Jerusalem,
they clung to the ashes and black
ened remnants Of their homes and
affairs, and although oppressed and
sad. they girded themselves for the
work of rearing q shrine for the
jewels of the order and temple for
the celebration of its mysteries and
by the good hand of God upon them
they had come, this day, to dedicate
their hall to its appropriate uses.
In past ages, architecture embo-
died national ideas. India and
Egypt expressed their conceptions of
the grand aud the mysterious;
Greece enshrined the beautiful;
Gothic architecture symbolized the
sentiments Of religion and the aspi-
rations OF piety. Nothing of the
kind appears now, and the only sig
nificance of the hall then dedicated
consisted in the purposes it was
designed to subserve. The Masons
of Columbia were only raising up
their fallen altar, relighting its ex-
tinguished fires, and thus maintain
ing the succession which connected
them with the venerable founders of
the institution.
The origin and early history of
Masonry is only dimly discovered
amid the haze which envelopes the
primitive annals of our race. All
efforts to connect it with the ancient
heathen mysteries, with Greek or
Roman brotherhoods and clubs, or
with Anglo-Saxon guilds, have
proved unsuccessful. They mistook
partial resemblance for identity of
origin. All institutions framed by
men, and for similar ends, must
possess many features in common.
The affinities, which have been de-
tected between Masonry and other
institutions, are to be ascribed to the
fact that they are all alike the pro-
ducts of the human mind in its
strivings after common end.
There is no connection between
Masonry and the ancient forms of
polytheism and sidol-worship, the
alteration of the Heavenly bodies.
On the contrary, in its emphatic
recognition of one God, the supreme
architect of the universe, it has been
the champion of theism. Associated