Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-10-02
THE ANCIENT CRAFT.
RHETORICAL SKETCH OF rnE MAsONs.

HlSIOksCAL SKETCH OF the MASONS.
The Corner Stone Of the Union Chapel at
kPhrsra LAID With Masonic Core
monies-Mr. Hardy's Address.
The corner stone of Ephrata Union chapel
was laid at that place yesterday afternoon
with Masonic ceremony. Lodges Nos. 43
and AIS of this city assembled at their
lodge room yesterday morning and
marched to the West King street depot,
Major Jero Rohrer acting as marshal,
where q special train was in waiting to
convey them to Ephrata. At 2 O'Clock
the craft assembled and marched in pro
cession to the site of the new Building,
where the beautiful and impressive cere
mony of tho order was performed By the
following officers:
Grand Master-B. Frank Breneman.
Deputy Grand Master-Wm. N. Amer.
Senior Grand Warden-J. Gust. ZOOk.
Junior Grand Warden-Dr. George Il.
Welchans.
Grand Secretary-Hugh 8. Cara.
Grand Treasurer-B. Frank Eshleman.
Senior Grand Deacon-George Wilson.
Junior Grand DeacOn-JOhn G. Carter.
Grand Chaplain-Lucius Hardy.
Grand Stewards-Henry E. Carson, j.
L. Lyte. E. Dram Lyte.
Grand Marshal-Wm. A. Morton.
At the close of tho ceremonies Grand
Chaplain Hardy delivered the following
address:
My friends !: We nave in your presence,
just laid the corner stone of building to
be erected to the service Of God. The
various forms and rites are mysteries to
many of you, and to you they present
nothing but an empty form, but to tho
initiated each form is symbol and in the
act our minds are carried rapidly along
the centuries Each symbol is q volume.
We stand not in the present but in the
past-we are in an age where there are NO
books, and all knowledge was held by the
priests or the masters Ot eaoh trade, aud
was taught only by symbols. Each rite is
tho story of some Greek or Egyptian
mystery whose parallel has been woven
into the jewish religion, and SO into the
Christian. We see not the material
corn, wine and oil, but their representa-
tives, peace, plenty and prosperity. We
see tho wine that maketh glad the heart
of man, and the oil that maketh him of
cheerful countenance. The shape and pO-
sitiOn of this corner stone teaches moral
lesson to every Master Mason and none can
behold it either now or at any future
Gllu0 WltuOut luStIuCLlVOly SuAuAhS Va sAO
time when and place where he received
those first instructions on which he was to
build his future moral edifice instinct
lively then he looks over that edifice to
see if he has Obeyed those instructions, to
see if we arc preparing a house, not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens 1t Is
fitting that We should lay the corner stone
of this chapel, for Freemasonry has ever
been the handmaiden of the relig-
ions, and the erection Of temples
to the gods of the various relig-
ions, whether it were the religion Of
tho true God, or of the heathen deities, has
been her chief pleasure. OF the most
magnificent temples ever erected, which
was dedicated to the service of the Living
God and surprising all others in grandeur,
we need not speak, for you all know its
history. History tells us that rs early as
the Sth century B. G., tho craft built
many magnificent temples in Rome dedi-
Gated to the Sun. the Moon, Jupiter,
Saturn, Mars, to Faith, Fidelity and to
Janus, the god of peace. And it was the
custom of the Roman cOnquerOrs to build
q temple after each successful battle, dedi-
eating it to tho honor of the god whose
aid had been invoked during the bat
tie. The magnificent temples which
crowd ancient Italy were thus erected as
thank offerings. It was in one OF these
very temples of Masonic erection that st.
Paul preached his powerful sermon. The
Roman empire extended her cOnquests
and enlarged her territories to such great
extent, yet everywhere that the Romans
planted their standard the craft planted
theirs and began tho erection Of temples.
| The Romans pushed their eOnquests 80
far to the west that the continent could
not furnish more countries for them to
conquer, so they subdued the "islands of
the westernmost part. There too the
Masonic corporations followed and they
did moro to subdus tho Britons and to
bring them to accept the religions and
national peculiaritics of their cOnquerOrs
than the Romans themselves did. The
dignity and learning Of the craft and the
social intercourse between them and the
BritOns made the latter feel more kindly
toward the Romans. The erection of
palaces, castles, aqueducts and walls ele-
vated architecture to plano, second Only
to R0me itself, and made her craftsmen
SO famous that their services were ca: led
for wherever any great and magnificent
building was to DO erected either on the
continent of Europe or in the British
Isles. Christianity. too, from the first
hour of its introduction spread in Britiin,
and gave to the Masonic lodges the pacu-
liar characteristics which distinguished
them at this period. These Same military
roads, 80 immense in their extent, and
upon which chains and slavery had
been borne to people as free as
they were ignorant, served now
to carry to ouslaved humanity,
wearied of life. that new aud inspiring
liberty preached by Christ" Men now
travelled these roads. who, filled with the
Holy Ghost, believed it to be their mission
their journeyings knowledge of tho true
God and of his only Son. It is tradition
in the church that st. Paul himself
preached in these islands, bapsising. con-
tirming and ordaining. When alone these
missionary converts were subject to
bloody prosecutions in the towns through
which they passed, but were invariably
permitted to accompany unmolested the
Masonic corporations who now, sometimes
alone, sometimes in the retiuue of the RO-
man legiOns, were continually threading
the immense empire. Thus we see that
Masonry has been the handmaiden Of
religion and in measure the fOrerunner.
We have met here and laid the corner
stone of this chapel, and it gives US great
pleasure to think that We are doing as
Christians what our predecessors did
three thousand years ago for the heathen
doities. Our forms-as said before-may
seem like meaningless ceremOnials, but
man is 80 constituted that he requires
visible ceremonies to excite him to the
highest degree of worship.