Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-05
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY REV. W. 8.
COCHRAN, P. 3. C,
At Conservation Of the Grand Standard of
Sacramento Commandery on Last
Thursday Evening.

| Following is the address of Rev. W. S.
Cochran, P. E. c., of Vallejo, delivered at
the conservation of the Grand Stand ard of
Sacramento Commandery. No. 2. Knights
Templar, which took place at st. PAul's
Church in this city last Thursday evening:
Eminent Commander and Sir Knights
1 greet you on this high festival of the
Church-the anniversary of our Lords ascen.
sion, day ever to be commemorated with joy
and thanksgiving, because our Lord and Savior
upon this festal day assembled to the right
hand of God, there to make intercession for
US, there to present, as it were, before the
throne of the Father, His nail-torn hands and
feet and His pierced side. in token of the
atonement which be contaminated upon CAL
vary for the sins of the world. For more
than seven centuries this day has been re-
vered, honored and COMMUNICATED by
Knights Templar. Around the day ga hers
many sacred memories in the history of our
valiant and msgnanimous Order. Under va
ried circumstances the Templars have OBJ
served, with religious ceremonies, this great,
| joyful and glorious festival. The vaulted
cathedral and the humble church, with all
| their appropriate surroundings. have time
after time, as the festival of the ascension
rolled around, echoed with the prayers of the
| Templars; there were many Asceneiontides
when their prayers and oblations were offered,
not in the church, but on the tented field of
battle, where beneath their Bsauseants they
erected an altar and cross.
| Who are these Templars who, for nearly
| eight centuries, have observed the high fes-
tival of the Ascension with reverence and
holy worship? What military Order is this,
which, not only in cathedral and church, but
also ON the tented field of battle, kneel around
an altar, under the shadow of the cross, and
there worship their assembled Lord? 1t is an
| Order banded together not for the purpose of
mercenary benefits, but an Order founded on
| the Christian religion and the practice of
| Christian virtues an Order whose grand
characteristics are unsullied honor, unwearied
zeal in brothers cause, and unrestrained
mercy to vanquished foe; !" an Order which,
being founded especially on the religion of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, frequently
reminds us "of the great truth that we are
born to die and pictures US " that bitter cup
of death of which we must all sooner or later
partake;" teaches us that we are Fastening to
/, the hour when our weak and frail bodies will
cease to act or think, when vital energies will
be extinct and all our lowers of life will
cease their operations exhorts US rightfully
TO improve the remaining space of life, so
that when our bodies become cold and imam.
innate our disembodied spirits may soar aloft,
with our assembled Lord, to that realm where
dwells forever light and life eternal an Or.
der that believes in the incarnation and the
divinity of our dear Lord. and in the doc
trine of the Holy Trinity. The very corner
stone of our Knightly Order is the belief in
the divinity of Christ. Take that away
deny that our assembled Lord is very God, as
well as very man. and you had better burn
your rituals and tear the cross from that
grand standard which you have brought to
this holy temple to be consecrated not only
to the service of the innocent and the
helpless, but more particularly in de-
| tense of the Christian religion. De-
stroy our belief in the divinity of
our risen and assembled Lord, and our
vows become nought else than mockeries, our
ceremonies senseless mummeries, and the les
sons taught by our Ritual are nothing else
than decisions and lies. The symbols, the
notices, the banners, the ceremonies and the
ritual of our Order of the Temple, all teach
| the cardinal doctrines of the Christian re-
| ligion, that is, the inspiration Of the holy
scriptures the birth, life, death. resurrection
and ascension of the Great Captain of our
| salvation and q firm belief in the Holy
Trinity. These are the chief and indestructi-
BILE characteristics of the Order. and without
these, in spite of all sophistry and special
pleading, no Templarism can exist. If any
| Templar system admits to knighthood those
who reject the doctrine of the Trinity in
unity, or those who still adhere to the Mosaic
law alone, it has just as effectually laid aside
the principles of the Order as the society of
Orangemen would do ehould they open their
doors to Roman Catholics in fact, the in
slant that any part of the Order ceases to be
trinitariap, il also ceases to be true branch
of the Templars, and should be treated as
such.
Although the Order is founded upon the
Christian religion, it is in no sense rival Of
the church. Templars fully understand the
difference between divine and merely hui
man institution, and therefore the Order of
the Temple does not claim to do the church's
| work, nor does it make the lightest pretense
| to be able to save the souls of men, yet, in
accepting every doctrine of Gods holy word
and His historic church, it stands ever ready
to draw its sword in defense of the ancient
creeds of an undivided Christianity. Al
though pledged by our vows to draw our
swords in defense of the Christian religion,
yet we may never be called upon literally to
fulfill that vow, or to aid in capturing or
guarding any earthly shrine or disputed ter
ritory, yet should that time come when
Templars would be called upon to fulfill their
vows, l feel fully warranted in promising
that tens of thousands of Ternplars' swords
will rush from their scabbards in defense of
the principles of Christianity.
The relation of Knights Templar to the
cause of Christianity, and their. service
| in that holy cause, is in the
main, an unwritten history. There was
time when the eyes of every Knights
| Templar were turned longingly and lovingly
towards the Church, time where with CRATE
fal hearts they kneeled at her holy altar to
make their vows, receive her sacramento and
| her benedictions; time when to be
Knights Templar was synonymous to being a
strong Churchman, an ardent Christian and
regular and conscientious communicate. For
| long, long years the Order well and nobly per-
formed its vows of lifelong labor and duty in
the cause of Christianity; for centuries it
acted with and under the authority of the
Church, and was very part and parcel of it,
until in an evil hour Pope Clement V. and
Philip the Fair of France drove the Knightly
Order out of the Church into the world, an
| independent institution. Still the cause of
| the Christian Church has never ceased to be
the cause of every Knights Templar, and If
he is faithful he will esteem it privilege to
| tight for that Church, and, If needs be, like
our noble fraters on the blood-enriched soil of
Palestine, to die for it also.
The Order is no longer called upon to
guard Christian pilgrims through the danger
Gus defles and the rough and rugged noun
tain passes of Palestine there are no more
| teIuplcs anu Hoif ccPuACufeo w uoionu
churches no longer bristle with flashing and
determined swords-yet there are battles
which we as Templars are bound to fight. A
mighty and fierce battle lies just outside of
our Asylum-it is the contest of Faith against
Skepticism. If you are unwilling to engage
in this warfare, then, Sir Knights break up
your swords and tear up your cross-emblaz-
oned banner. Your obligations as Christian
soldiers, in these days of growing skepticism
and atheism, calls most beseechingly to you to
stand fast by your Cross. To all appearance
we are approaching struggle when religion
and free-thought will find themselves face to
face; when the battle will have to be fought,
not with our swords of steel, but with the
sword of the spirit, to the bitter end. Know
| ing the bitter warfare that is going on in our
very midst, there is now more reason than
ever that we should remain stanch to the
dogmas of our ancient faith and sternly repel
any attempts made to lower the standard of
our religious tests" In our daily life we, o.
| Kn;obto Tannnlar uaro nhioatad IN ;n