The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1880-01-03

such occasions by the Ancient Order of Free and
Accepted Masons is an old-time custom in Eng
land and America, and is not without its prece-
dents even in this country. If, then, the ceremony
which you have just witnessed, and which you
have graced with your presence and attention,
does not touch you as a novelty, 1t may possibly
suggest thoughts and inquiries about the prinei-
pies and foundations OF an Order which is so
prominently honOred in the aforesaid countries as
to be almost always selected, on occasions like
this, to lay the cornerstone with its own pecu-
liarly impressive ceremonies.
The association of persons for the purpose Of
mutual relief and of mutual improvement, for the
cultivation Of the moral and social virtues, for the
discovery and expansion of Truth-religious and
acknowledgements to have been a common char
acteristic of mankind in all ages and under all
stages of civilization the pages of history are
abundantly dotted with the records of such asso-
Citations. They had their own peculiar modes Of
admission, their own peculiar modes Of pursuing
their objects. Some worked in open day, under
flying banners and with the sound OF trumpets
others worked in secret, either forestalling or re-
Numbering the admonition of the Divine Master,
/" Let thine aims be in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly"
Among these associations and institutions of the
past, Free-masonry has a grand and an honorable
record. Without going back to the Deluge, the
Egyptian Pyramids, the Eleusinian Mysteries or
the College of Architects in Rome, Free-masonry,
as we know it and understand it, has a venerable
antiquity to repose its foundations upon, and of
right takes the precedence among similar insti-
buttons, whose objects are Brotherly Love, Relief
and Truth. Often misunderstood, sometimes
prosecuted in various countries, yet it has always
emerged from under the cloud with greater ~lustre,
and known how to vindicate it's fair name from the
aspersIons thrown upon it 30 that in our days,
wherever Liberty hourishes, there Free-masonry
IS not only tolerated but honored and sought after
by men of all ranks and all ~callings, from the
Imperial occupants Of European thrones to the
free-born sons of the quondam Polynesian savages.
You may pertinently ask, whence cometh this
remarkable vitality amidst the ever-changing
cycles of time? 1t is neither owing to unex-
pected favors from without, nor to successful in
trigues from within the Brotherhood. Free
masonry does not indulge in visionary schemes
for the amelioration and regeneration of mankind,
nor does it affect revolutionary methods for the
realization of those schemes. Its vitality and its
success are owing to the happy e~quipoise of its
principles with its practice. 1t is Conservative
in all essentials it is Tolerant and Liberal in
non-essentlals.
These essentials, without which no man can
legally become a Free Mason, or with any pro-
priety remain such, are Faith, Hope and Charity.
Faith in God, Hope of Immortality, and Charity
to all mankind.
We believe in God, one God, the Great Archi-
tect of the Universe, to whom we are responsible
for our actions, and without whose Grace no en-
terprise can permanently prosper. That faith is
IMPERATIVE before one can become a Free Mason.
As our Ill.,. Bro. Mackey expresses it, We
must first know and feel the universal Fatherhood
of God before we can rightly appreciate the uni
versal Brotherhood of Man." But while we are
believers, we are not theologians and we do not.
as Masons, cucumber our belief with the dicta
or dogmas of councils or creeds. To each brother
is left full and unquestioned liberty to think of
the God whom we all believe in, and to worship
Him, according as his reason and conscience
NAV prompt him. With q faith 80 simple yet SO
grand, and with a liberty SO perfect, there can be
no room for heresy or discord to disturb or sub
vert our organization.
The Hope of Immortality is another essential
Of Free-masonry, and indissolubly linked with
the former. Without it the man dies as the
beast dieth, and virtue has no stimulus and vice
has no fear. The soul that sees no light beyond
the grave whose sunset knows no sunrise of the
morrow whose present is the all in all, and who
knows not hope or dares not hope-that soul had
better not been born whate'er his lot
in life might been he never could have been
a Mason. A faith in God would be a barren
faith without the hope Of Immortality, and
life would be a waste of time, the grave a scene
Of desolation. How many a man has not deluded
himself with the idea that death squares his &C
counts on earth, and that, if there be a life here
after, it will open for him u~ntrammeled by the
presidents of this thus foolishly ignoring the
existence of a God and recklessly Drawing the
consequences of his own acts during this Lille. We
sincerely pity such men for their blindness and
:, Ia hut such are not the stuff of which Free
Masons are made. With US the hope of immor-
tality is a firm conviction OF the soul and not q
barely possible contingency. 1t quickens the
sense of our responsibility to God and to our
neighbor in times of prosperity, and consoles us
in adyersity. When enemies assail us, when for
tune forsakes US, when our best laid plans mis-
carry, when our virtues are ignored and our fall
lngs exaggerated, when those whom we loved
with our hearts hottest love-wife, children and
| frianda-drOn off in death and leave us a withereQ
tree in q desert land, what then sustains us in
the storm of life ? What makes us, courageously,
rather . bear the ills we know, than (cowardly)
fly to those We wot not Of? 1t is this hope OF
immortality ; this perfect trust in Him who gave
as well as took away our earthly blessings and
the consciousness that in another life a firm but
merciful hand will hold the balance in which our
merits and dement's will be weighed and that
there, beyond the curtain of the grave, the loved
and lost will greet our coming.
This hope of Immortality is probably rs old as
the human race. 1t has manifested itself under
various forms in all known nations OF the earth.
More or less clearly conceived OF, more or less logi-
cally reasoned out, it was either q smouldering
ember on ruined hearths, or a bright flame in
happier homes but it was always there.
Throughout what we call the ancient, classical,
pagan times, many q brave and loving heart found
consolation and hope in the sentiment which
Horace, the poet, so finely expressed in saying,
non omniS mortar. Il shall not wholly die.)
Chastened and purified by ages, that hope has
descended to us, and has become one of the es-
sentials of our Institution, You may be an en-
peror or you may be a beggar, but without this
hope you can not be a Free and Accepted Mason.
Such is the Free Mason's Faith and such is his
Hope of Immortality but these alone would be
but empty words and an arrant deluslon without
the third essential-Charity.
Charity is the last, but the greatest. lt Illus
trates a Free Mason's faith, and it hallows his
hope of immortality. The true Free Mason ia
ever duly sensible of his own shortcomings and
his need of charity and forhearance from others.
lie daily invokes the charity and forgiveness OF
the God in whom he trusts, and knows full well
that only as he shows mercy and charity to others,
will mercy and charity be shown to him. Let us
for a moment reflect on what that charity is
which is inculcated in our Lodges, and which it
is our duty.to practice out Of them. No mortal
man has in more terse and comprehensive terms
expressed what charity is than the great Apostle
when be said
''Charity sufereth long and is kind charity
envIeth not charity ~yaunteth not itself, is not
pulled up, .
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not
har own Is NOT easily prOvOked- thinketh no evil: