The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1873-11-20
GRAFTON.

When Mem Etirs the emDer,
How sad the heart which would forget
But must the past remember!
GRAFTON.
Delivered by Hon. H. S. WinsIow. before
the Grand Comm andery of K. T. al
Des Moines, Oct. 23d, 1873.
Right Eminent Grand Comnaaa,.
der, Sir Knights, Ladies and Gentle
man: This bright array of talent,
wealth and beauty before me; this
grand pageant of Temple Masonry /;
the solemn words and impressiv e
ceremonies of our installation service.
all serve to remind US that we have
added another year of the pilgrimage
of life to the record of the past. Its
joys, sorrows, triumphs, defeats, sun
shine and clouds, live only in memo
ry. In very truth it is dead. Its
warfare is over. Be its example for
good or evil, it's influence upon the
future favorable or unfavorable, it is
gone beyond the chance of recall
Yet, through the mercies of kind
Providence, the warfare of life with
US is not ended, and can only end
when it shall be decreed that time
was, is, but shall be no more when
this mortal shall put on Immortality,
and we shall be called to render an
account to that Supreme Commander
from whom not the minutest act of
our lives are hidden.
Assembled in annual conclave, in
the capacity of knight Templar, it is
peculiarly appropriate that we
should, in that spirit of fraternity and
knightly courtesy which is a peculiar
characteristic of our Order, take
counsel together; retrospect the
past, and endeavor to forecast the
future. The world is our field and
humanity our subject, greater than
which never engaged the attention
of our race. From the remote and
almost inaccessible regions of antiq-
uity, buried beneath the rubbish of
ancient mythology and exaggeration,
there comes to us, mouldy with the
age of centuries, undoubted evidence
of the existence of various powerful
secret organizations, known to the
people Of those times as the "Mys.
teries." What connection, if any,
these societies may have with modern
Masonry, we do not stop to discuss
it is the tact alone to which we
direct our attention. Within the
sacred circle of these oath bound
institutions, the initiate was instruct.
en- in Theology, Philosophy, Ethics,
Science and Politics, of higher
order and of purer kind than that
known to the great mass, or common
people. They were, therefore, at
once the ministers of progress and
the conservators IF civilization.
Formed by the wisest of the age in
which they fiourished, naturally their
membership was composed of the
better sort. Through their agency
the doctrines entertained by them
were scattered broadcast over the
habitable globe, and found lodg.
ment throughout the then known
world. The barbarism of the time,
by constant attrition with the ad-
vanced dogmas thus promulgated,
became in some degree modified and
assimilated to that higher plane of
life and action which they taught
and to which they aspired. By and
through them society and humanity
was being shaped and moulded for
the "coming time," for nobler and
more advanced civilization. A con-
dition of mind was being attained
capable Of receiving and retaining
impressions of this new develop
ment, and a disposition was being
cultivated of acting upon and being
governed by the Impressions thus
received. The way was being pre-
pared in a natural manner, and in
obedience to natural law as unerring
as the God of nature who created it
and set it in motion.
Association and combination
among those who are in accord and
harmony upon certain great cardinal
questions, and who are moved to act
from like motives, is in response to
this great natural law everywhere
pervading human society. 1t is the
answer mind gives to mind, and is
essential to its full and complete en-
ioyment, as well as the accomplish
ment of any great and good work.
Isolation is the antipode of success
in life, in any of its varied depart
ments. Solitude dwarfs the man and
reduces him below the normal stand
ard of true manhood; dries up the
fountains of his nature, and saps the
great source of rational existence.
Without an interest in society, and
society an interest in him, man is
nothing: weary blank in the great
desert of time; fine piece of
mechanism, but useless and value
less a failure, absolute, total. For
this reason solitary confinement is
the most dreaded of punishments.
It's principle is founded in nature.
and in it's results confines itself to
the operation of natural laws. In
dividual existence at the best is but
partial and incomplete. Every one,
for the uses, powers and enjoyments
of life, is dependent upon a princi.
pie of reciprocity in society. The
examination of theories, the study of
the arts and sciences, may in some
degree supply the demand, but the
mind fed upon ideas alone famishes.
There is a void which can only be
filed, an aspiration which alone can
be satisfied, want which can only
be supplied, in and through the
agency of society. He who fights
this evident design Of nature, but
struggles against those sacred inhe.
rent ferces which compose our
humanity-does it in opposition to
"great common instincts, natural
affections and general necessities
as expressed in the broad speech OF
human passions and aspirations, in
public movements and impulses, vast
contagious emotions end symp athletic
thrills-that sublime common sense,
that common life which have organ.
lied themselves, chrystal-wise, in
domestic, social, political and relie.
ious institutions.
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