Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1885-05-16
Ascension Day.
The Knights Templar of
YanktOn Observe the
Occasion.
Address Of Rev. Dr.. c. P. Dorset at
Christ Church Thursday
Evening.

The following address was delivered
at Christ church, in this city, on the
evening of Ascension day, by Rev. G. p
Dorset; d. d. rector, to DeMolay Com.
mandary. Knights Templar and large
concourse Of other listeners:
Revelations, lst Chapter, 18Th Verse
am be that ii7eth aud was dead, spd
behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen,
Some of you will remember that last
year on the evening of Ascension day,
showed you that joy aud glory, both iu
this world and the next, are the result OF
sorrow aud penitence, Of which the
Saviour of the world, on whose religion
the valiant and msgnanimous order of
knights Iemplar Is founded, is our great
example, for He reigned not till he first
Illuminated Himself aud learned obedi.
ence BY the things which He suffered.
This year it seemed fitting and appropri-
ate both to the day and the occasion
which has called us together that I
should speak to you upon the cognate,
though somewhat more advanced SUBJ
jact, of Life out of DEATH" and of this,
our order itself. furnishes us in many
ways, q most lllustrious example.
Every associated order of men, now
existing, which Is worth preserving,
lives more or less in and derives lts in.
spiration from its own past, aud that
man, or order of men. that never hears
the voices of the crowned aud sceptred
dead. ruling men from their ashes and
their tombs. is sdrift like vessel on .
shoreless and unknown sea without help
or anchor, or compass or star. My
brothers, we do hear and obey the voices
OF the mighty dead; for there is no other
order or association of men in the known
world, the church of God only excepted,
with such mighty past from which to
draw its inspiration, to which to kneel
for instructions, as the order OF Free
Masons, under Its various forms oi
Blue Lodge, Chapter. Lodge OF Perfec.
ton and the various orders OF Knight.
hood. And everywhere, prevailing and
being manifested in one form or another
i'll the different Masonic bodies. is this
one grand idea that life comes out oi
death. Long ages ago the temple built
by Solomon and our ancient brethren
sank into iuin, when the Assyrian armies
sacked Jerusalem. The holy city is g
mass of novels covering under the do.
minion of Mohammedanlsm and the
holy land itself, once land flowing with
milk and honey, is now little better than
Q desert. Ihe kings of Egypt and
Assyrla, who were contemporaries of Sol.
omon are forgotten and their histories
are almost mythical fables. Tho ancient
orient, the cradle of the race and the
seat of learning, is shattered wreck
i6iooohinh on the eando of time Ths
wolf and the jackal howl among the
RUINS of Thebes and of Tyre, and the
sculptured images of the temples anG
palaces of Babylon and Ninevah are duf
from their ruins and carried into strange
lands. But out of this death the quie
and peaceful order of which tht
son of poor Phenician widow
was one of the grand masters, with th,
kings of Israel and Tyre, has continued
to increase in stature and influence, de
flying the angry waves OF time and th,
storms of the most bitter persecutio,
from the rulers Of the world, both popes
and kings.
Age has not weakened its wide found
atoms, nor shattered its columns, no
marred the beauty of its harmonlou.
proportions.
Where rude barbarians, in the time o
Solomon, peopled inhospitable howlins
wildernesses, IN France and Brituin, ant
in that new world, not known to Jew
Greek, or Egyptian, until the glories O
the orient had faded, and the shadow G
death had settled upon it and shroude
it's once fair face, that order has builde
} new temples, and teaches to its million
of initiates those lessons of peace, goo
will and federation, OF reliance in Go
and confidence in man, which it learne
when Hebrew and Giblemite worke
, side by side on the slopes of cedere
Lebanon, and the servant of -Jehova
and the Phenician worshipper of B.
sat with the humble artisan in counc
at Jerusalem. Thus out of the death (
the orient came the life of our order i
!, the west.
How it grew, or who foste,ed its il
! fancy we cannot now tell. It has bee
T too long in growing, that We or OF
{ fathers should remember.
Some of our legends sound like yer
, table histories. Perhaps the
! are, but it matters little whe
+ We have learned the principle
/ resurrection of life out of death, wheth,
. Khur- ON Abai or Jacques de Molay fir,
lay in mausoleum near which we NEE
, or whether the miscreants who slew hi
: we're fellow.crafts of the times
Solomon, or the tools of Clement?
1t may be long in coming, but so sur
{ ly as he or that which dies has With
. that which is worth preserving, so sure
= will new and better life come forth fro
the death.
ii The buried wheat must seem to die,
Long rottlng in the earth must lie,
Before its new shoots seek the air
IL Or new stalk can the new grain bear.
Within its close and silent cell
aI The dead worm must in darkness dwell,
Before the moth~pew born can be
The type of imM6rtality.
al No this poor body framed from dust
To earth's cold bosom We intrust:
Nor idly grieve to weep in vain
Il Since all the dead shall live again,
Ashee to ashes, earth to earth,
eI And dust to dust-but death is birth
Birth to q higher, better life
aI From eArths poor hour of care and strife
!, Let me speak to you for the momel
I in a parable Of the growth OF our orde
Many years ago, before the Norman co
queror stamped his mailed foot on Il
neck OF prostrste Saxon Englan
some wandering barbarians OF the co
I tinent, then unknown to the worl
in mere idleness, with hand or fox
covered an acorn with . little earth, al