Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-14

The grand lodge at about $3.50 o'clock was
called off until o'clock in the evening.
| EeehinD Session.
| At the evening session upon the lodges
having called to labor, Rev. Chaplain G. 81.
Davis, Grand Orator delivered most beau
tiful and impressive Grafton. The following
extracts therefrom will be found of interest
and we'll worth perusal:
FREE MASONRY.
The origin of Free Masonry is shrsuded in
| obscurity and doubt, and we make no ambi-
tious attempt to trace its history or to discern
its lineage in the clouded teachings and princi-
pies of ancient mysteries. We have nothing
| in it's written or unwritten laws which reveals
| to us the small beginnings Of the brotherhood
which has assumed SO great and universal pro-
portions. Even our traditions reaching back
into the dim and far eff ages of the world, fail
| to satisfy our curious and enquirIng minds.
Uncertain, however, as is the origin of Free
Masonry, we know it to be very ancient.
| 1t has grown venerable with
the lapse of centuries, while its principles,
holy and heaven-born have added strength and
| vitality with each succeeding period of time.
| There have been other systems which seemed
| to be more permanent; there have been con-
| federations and governments which seemed to
| be bound by indissoluble ties of power and of
interest, but one after another they have been
| crowded out of the line as the great world
moved on. Time and decay have wasted
and destroyed much that seemed imperiLhable.
| Empires have been born, have lived and have
| died. Dynasties have arisen, have reigned and
| have been forgotten. Arts have been lost and
races have become extinct.
| The enlightenment and civilization of men
| have been buried beneath the ruins of those
monuments where now the traveller sees writ
| ten ONLY the sad story of the frsilty and folly
of human hopes and aspirations.
''The tower that long had stood the crash of
| thunder and the warning winds,
| Shook by the slow but sure destroyer time,
Now hangs in doubtful ruin DER its base.
| And flinty pyramids and walls of brass
Descend; the Babylonian spires are sunk,
| Achaia, Rome and Egypt moulder down!
Time shakes the stable tyranny of thrones,
| And tottering empires crush by their own
weight"
| And yet Free Masonry, which
has witnessed the rise and tall of en-
pires and nations, the wreck of other human
| institution, and the monuments of genius,
| lives-and lives, not in the weakness of old
| age, but in the growing vigor of beautiful
manhood. And we cannot but ask the ques-
| ton, "Why does she live? To what is due this
strange vitality which invi,orates and reinvig-
crates her veins though she had drank
from -, the W. fountain tain of oav mmo5ts
| such questions by entering the circle of her
| brotherhood, and learning the truths upon
which she has builded.
| She recognizes the existence and the power
| OF an overruling Providence. She teaches her
| children that they are responsible beings
| whose work is to be tried by an unerring square
| Just and all-seeing Master. At the very
| threshold of her temple her votaries are
taught to invoke the blessing of Him who
| who fills that temple with his presence. She
en- Joins them to subdue the passions and
vices by temperance, fortitude and
| justice. She places Gods Book upon
| the altar, as the trestleboard of the Su-
preme Architect, where our work is all laid
| down for u.s. to be squared by virtue, land cir
| cumscribed by Gods will. She conducts us
to that ladder Of faith and hupe and charity,
| and sets before US the measure of our practical
| duty, without which faith is dead and hope a
delusion--without which the name of mason is
| baub bic. In short, she teaches brotherly love,
relief and truth-that men are brothers-that
| they should be ever ready to go out of their
| way to aid the needy--that they
are to remember each others
| welfare in Their prayers to Deity, that they are
to maintain their fraternal integrity, that they
are to whisper good counsel in each others ears,
fellowship, not in anger, and scorn, and vio-
| lence, but to raise the falling.
1t is because free masonry has been the sym
bolc custodian of such truths that abe has de-
| fed SO long the assaults of men and time. 1t is
because she enshrines and symbolizes the great
vital truths of revelation, that God has pre-
| served her for her great and good work.
1t is upon this rock that she has
builded and it is to Gods
truth, and not to her own universally and
power that she owes her presmanence.
It is well that we should dwell upon
this foundation stone of our order. We live in
times of social, political and religious restless
ness when men are prone to turn away from
the old faith and 20 follow after the strange
deities of speculation and of so-called philo-
sophy And has it ever occurred to you that
modern skepticism would rob Free Ma
sonry of her brightest jewels? Would destroy
the very foundation upon which she has build
ed? Take from her altar that book which is
given to the Mason as the rule and guide of his
faith erase from her ritual the lesson of rev.
erence for, and dependence upon, the great
II am" forget that he who presides in this
chair as we'll as he who stands for the first
time in the northeast corner, is to bow with
lowiy humility before the deity, and what have
yon left? An empty name, but not a living
soul.
If you love this institution, if you would see
it develop with yet grander proportions, if you
would have it go onward and upward in its
work of love- and charity, and mercy, then re-
member that the first of your great lights is
Gods word.
At the conclusion of the grand orators
address. the grand lodge was called off until