Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1873-01-18

52, A. +. q a. NJ, for the ensuing
Year. F '.-f
OrYIcEoY SECRETARY, OF TANNEHILL
LoDGE, No,.52, A. F. & A.. M. 7
DALLAS, TsxAs, Jan. All, 1878. }
Bro. RoBr. SEAY-
/ have the honor accommodating to
YOU the following resolution of Tannebill
Lodge, No. 81, A. F. &sA. NJ, adopted at
it's stated communication December 9Th,
1872.
"Resolped-That the thanks Of this
Lodge be returned 10 Bro. Robt. b. Seay,
for his very able and elegant address de-
hvered to-day upon the occasion OF the
Installation Of the officers Of this Lodge
And that q copy Of his address be re-
quested for publication"
1t therefore affords mo great pleasure
in behalf Of the Lodge-to hereby request
of you copy of said address.
Yours fraternally,
RICHARD MORGAN,
secty. Tanehill Lodge, No. 81, A.. F. q
A. NJ.
Bro. RIcn'D MORGAN, SEcr'nY, &C.;
With many thanks to the Brethren for
the compliment paid me, herewith fur
nish copy of the address.
Fraternally yours,
RoBT. B. SEAY.
Worshintui Master, and Brethren, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
Another Masonic year, freighted with
all it's incidents Of good and evil, all its
incidents that bring sor row to the weary
heart, or lift IL with exulling joy, has been
added to the long succession gone before.
"The year has gone, and with it, many
glorious throng of happy dreams"
We have met, and, at the sound OF the
Masters gavel stand in due form in the
vestibule of the new year,-the old officers
to lay down their jewels, and their tasks
of labor and of love, and the new ones 10
take them up and bear them on through
the untried future. l, n rough asher, rude
from the quarry, and hardly fit to be used
in our beauteous building, young Crafts
man, scarcely acquainted with the proper
use Of our working tools, approach dis
trustfully to the task before me, more es-
pecially when I SEQ around me Masonic
columns, Tuscan in strength and endu-
rance, yet Corinthean in Masonic polish
and adornment. When remember, how
ever, that you oil abound in charity to
fellow-man, and moro particularly to
brother, l cheerfully begin the task as
signed me.
But before commencing, before the call
from refreshment to labor sounds, let us
rest here for few moments, and gaze
back ut those things which have gone be-
fore. 1t is pleasant when we are worn
and fretted with the tells of everyday life
10 turn from them, and live for awhile
amid circumstances, and people, unreal,
yet beautiful, born Of the imagination, or
bI ought forward from the almost forgot
ten past. 'Tis pleasant to sit for time
in quiet meditation, while memory, with
it's long procession of precious dead,
throngs every avenue of thought, and with
its shadowy host thickly peoples the inner
chambers of the heart
In looking around, discern many fa-
ces that greeted me, when | first stood IN
your midst twelve months ago, stranger
in strange land. Nearly all our officers
then newly installed) and many of our
members are present but there is one va
cant chair. One face is missing, one form
has fallen, one voice is heard no more.
Death, the fell destroyer Of our race, has
been in our midst, aud taken our beloved
Master from the kingly chair, wherein,
through love we placed him, and carried
him to the judgment bar Of God. The
grim monster ''laid his pallid hand upon
the strong man, and the naughty form is
fallen, and the flashing eye is dim" The
brightest star that ever glittered in the
constellation Of our young and prosperous
city, like the phiad, loveliest of her train,
has shot from his glorious sphere, and is
lost from our human sight forever. He of
the eagle eye and silver tongue, who was
wont 10 WELD our inmost thoughts with
seeming magic power, has gone to his ST.
lent tomb. No more, brethren, will we,
with Masonic reverence, salute him in the
East, or with ready hands, and willing
hearts, work to the sound of his gavel ;
bullet us hope that the Grand Master on
high, IS kind to him as he was to us, has
given him "white stone" and in that
stone magic word written, which no man
knoweth saving he that received it, and
which will pass him to Lodge "not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens"
1t affords q melancholy pleasure to pay
o passing tribute to the memory of loved
ones who have gone before but We must
turn from this theme, and address our
selves TO the task before US.
II win be my object to-day, to answer
in as brief o manner as possible, the
quaint question Of D.Quincey, "What do
Masons do 2 and what do they do 1t for =
In other words, what is masonry? and
what its objects2 Weak as am, II mis-
take not, can strengthen the faith of the
| wavering, and convince the candid hearer
that it is the hand maid of CHRISTIANITY
the fore-runner OF the CHURCH, the grand
| est human, m oral institution ever allowed
in the economy of Good to be established
upon the earth; and that its destiny ha'
been shaped by the hands Of the 0mnipe
tent for purposes Of his own. God has
and as ever had use for Masonry ever
from its very incipiency.
One of the most indubitable proofs Of
its truth and it's favor in the eyes Of tn,
| Almighty is the fact that II has weatheret
the storms of Time; and although its vo
taries have been ground beneath the hce
Of the oppressor in both Church and State
to-day its influence is broader and IL
numbers greater than at any time sinc'
its origin.
| Truth crushed to earth win rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
But error, wounded writhes in pain,
And dies amid its worshippers.'
Some of our order claim that Free Ma
sorry has existed from the first formation
of man; that its principles, its symbols
and its words gladdened the happy heart
of sinless paradise, and sat upon tn
speaking lips Of young and pure enter
tsinment when human life first brighten
ed into existence. But the majority of u
believe that the principles ofMasonry hav'
existed from the time "God said let Their
be light, and there was light" when tn
morning stars first sang together, and th,
sons Of God shouted for joy, but thes
principles were not organized in their pres
ent form until the building Of the fra
temple at Jerusalem. Be this as it ma,
there is no ether human institution nov
in existence that can date back to the tim
when Masonry was first established. En-
pires, monsrchies, theocrscies, and aris
tccracies have crumbled to the earth, an
upon their ruins, myrisds Of like institu
tions, in panoramic succession, hay
arisen, fourisbed, and passed away
Babylon, the queen OF all nations, hs