The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-07-05
AN ABLE ADDRESS
Delivered BY Rev. John Kirby, Formerly Of
this City.
On st. Johns Day. At stockton. Cali
foruia.

On St. Johns Day. At stockton. Cali
j The following mastcFly address, de
iivered by Rev. John Kirby. formerly
of this city, at Stockton. California, on
! st. Johns Day. is taken from the Daily
Independents OF that place and furnished
US by Mr.. ]. K. Tyler. of this city. Il
viii be read with inter, st by the many
friends and admirers of Mr. Kirby in
Emporia:
Brethren OF The Ancient Order of Free and
a accepted 0zsons:
I We convene here to-day TO eommem-
crate, as is our Custom, tue birth of st.
John the Baptist. who. tradition teaches,
was a patron of our order We enter
swith diffidence upon the discussion of
q character so unique and so far above
the level of ordinary men. His intro
duction to society. like that of his auti-
type Elijah, was abrupt and unexpected.
! In those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
and saying, repent, ye, for the kingdom
ksf Heaven is at hand.'n He came neither
eating nor drinking with other men, but
| in harmony with his lonely, severe char
acser, abode in deserts, and preferred it
to the peopled city. His brOnzed coun
tenan6e. unshorn locks, leathern grille
and mantle of cancels hair, supplement
ed by voice of indignation and
scorn," as remarked by an eloquent
writer. "margined him Off from the tim
i'd conventional teachers of his time, and
betokened a man of natural grandeur
and masculine force, one schoOled into
herOism in the wilderness, and whose
character retained traces of the struggle
through which victory had been
achieved" He came into society pre-
pared to cope with its evils and do his
best 70 make it better, and nothing that
he found there could either deter him
from duty or turn him from his purpose.
None, even among the brotherhood of
prophets, spoke with more rugged elo.
quence or fulfilled his mission with
more uncompromising integrity. He
Febuked kings with q courage that even
a crusader might have coveted, and en-
forced religion with an earnestness that
every priest would do well to emulate.
"What went Ye out into the wilderness to
see ?" said the Savior. ga reed shaken
with the wind ?" A man without
strength and stability. who would bend
before every
BREATH OF POPULAR PREJUDICE
As the frail reeds on the banks of the
Jordan bend before the breezes that
sweepOver the valley and howl above
the crest of Lebanon. "But what went |
We out into the wilderness to see? A
man Clothed in soft raImrnt? One hay
ing the worlds manners and II courtly |
insincerity But what went We out into !
the wilderness to see? 4 prophet? Yea, |
/ say unto you and more than prophet, |
for among them that are born OF women |
there hath not arisen greater than |
John the Baptist" His ministry marked |
q new era in his country's history. His |
age, says the historian, was one of trans |
ition, uncertainty and doubt. The
growth of general corruption had cul- |
minated in the wreck of sacred instItu- |
lions. Atheism of belief had been fol |
lowed, as 1t always IS, by the depreciation |
of morals. The world itself had grown |
old and the dotage of its paganism had
marked hideous excuses. Its very |
wickedness had become portentious and
prophetid of change, and there was q /
general belief that old things were
about 10 pass away and all things be-
come new. At an epoch so troubled |
and restless John appeared, not to In
augurate new system or reconstruct |
the shattered harmonies of Judaism, but |
to destroy false foundations and clay |
his axe to the root of every tree that |
brought not forth good fruit" His |
message was reformation, and right
earnestly and eloquently did he utter it, |
and fora time with q success ast0nish-
ing even To himself, fes persons of all |
classes and conditions in life fiocked to |
this wayfarer of the wilderness to ask |
what they must do. He stood there like
one commissioned to give laws to the |
race, the stern reprover and rebuker of q |
world. So deep were his convictions of |
the hollowness of his age and so urgent |
the need of reformation, that he came |
forth from his desert home resolved |
that what he could not express in words |
he would in things, that symbols should |
his sayings, that his diet |
and dress should rebuke the voluUtu- |
business of his age. and that the very |
waters of the Jordan should speak the |
pation's need of spiritual cleansing. |
This free
child OF THE WILDERNESS,
Familiar with the sights and sounds Of
nature, whose rugged, passionate, I'M
tanned spirit gazed with a kind of COM
upon the stars of midnight,
found a congenial home amid mountain
soIitudes, upon highest hills and
in deepest valleys" He was a real hero
one of the grandest characters in the |
Bible, and greatest of all the herald mes
sengers of heaven. We cannot contem-
plate him without becoming enthusiastic 1
in our eulogY. 1t the teaching of ira i
ditions is true, that such q man was q |
patron of our order, then there must be
something intrinslcally excellent in our
system 20 command the sanction of such /
a soul:
First. The antiquity of Masonry Is
worthy of our thoughts like the pYra-
mids which stand colossal on the Lybian
desert-around whose base past ages are /
gathered. Masonry treasures within its
heart the secrets of q remote past. 1t
comes down to us from ages anterior TO
history and cOeVal with Civilizations
the Nile came down upon old Egypt aud
enriched its plains, although its origin
was hidden In mystery and the cause OF
its annual foundations unknown. The
philosophy and spiritual mysteries of /
masonry belong to an age OF symbols. |
Ii was manlfestly formulated before /
hieroglyphical science had given place
to letters. And although the erection of
Solomon's Temple, one thousand years
before Christ, indicates the origin of
operative Masonry. the temple itself was /
probably "the creation of what was then /
a mysterious and ancient order.n The |
coming of Tyrian artisans, at the re- l
quest of King Solomon, headed by Hi |
ram, the widows son." OF whom the |
Scriptures speak, saying that he was a /
man "filled with wisdom and under /
standing" and again that he was-skiil- |
full to work Ia gold and silver, in brass, |
in iron, in stone and in timbef in pur- |
pie, in blue, and IN fine lii.ea, and in |
crimson also to grave any manner OF |
craving. and to find out every device
that shall be put TO hina.' Q Chr, 2 ch,
IA verse. These Tyrian builders incor-
porated into the then existing order.
THIS OPERATIVE ART.
Henceforth it existed as an ''art with
a SCIENCE having both practical and
Speculative character. until in 1877 of
of the Christian era, when the world had
become sufficiently enlightened, opera
tive Masonry was RELOCATED to thoes out
side of the craft, and speculative Mason
~ alone was retained within the circle
of the order, and now cur system has in
It ''the terms and language Of q mechaR-
ical profession, with the abstruse teach
ings of profound philosophy" OF rs il
has been further defined, at is science
of mortality, yelled in allegoFY and IL
Illustrated by symbols" Masonry, like
every genuine force In human society,
has embodied itself In deeds and LEFT be-
hind it monuments of power. What
hand it had in the erection of the
princely structures Of Greece snd
Rome, whose ruins are still the
study of our time, we know not, but il
IL CERTAIN that the great cathedral and