The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1921-05-19


another to their fathers house where
all the Brothers are equally at home;
when an outsider gives words of
welcome in greeting, and in the name
of all our citizens, Knights, Free
masons and all others, assures you
that we are glad to have you here,
you may rely upon those words as
expressing the sentiments of our
hearts rather than merely obeying
the mandates of duty.
However, why any words at allq
Usually speaker is supposed to i'm
part information to his hearers, to
inform them of that which they
otherwise might not know, to en-
tighten them concerning something
of which, but for him, they might
remain in ignorance. But where, in
good old Mt. Sterling this morning
every face smiles you welcome and
every hand clasp thrills you with
good cheer, where every fluttering
flag and waving leaf and nodding
blossom gives you glad good morn
ing, where the air is fragrant with
the perfume of good fellowship and
the breeze is redolent of the sweet
SAVIOR of Brotherly kindness, where
every door stands wide open to every
visitor why words of welcome?
1t seems to me that if some be-
ing from another world, foreign TO
our language and to all things so
familiar to us, should alight in Mt.
Sterling this morning, he could not
fail to sense that pleasureable
things are going forward that we are
cordially welcoming you, that you
are glad to be here and that we are
all having a happy time together.
To your great Order, / am but a
spectator upon the outside, viewing
and admiring the external beauty
and symmetry of a structure of
whose interior | can know but little;
as if wanderer should stand
charmed with his first view of the
Alhambra or the Tai Mahal, mel
lowed and glorified in the soft radi-
ance shed by the moon of those
genial climes in which they stand.
fie might know nothing of its in
terror beauties, its internal uses, its
adaptability to any other service
than to stand as a monument to
beauty; yet he might have a deeper
appreciation of that beauty and
draw from it a nobier Inspiration
than many who daily walk its courts
and are familiar with all its halls.
So | stand today, ignorant of
those wonderful lessons which your
rites and ceremonies engrave so in
delibly on the hearts of your vota-
ries; not acquainted with the pro-
cesses by which, time out of mind,
Freemasonry has so moulded the
characters of her loyal sons as that
she has become in fact no less than
in name an "Ancient and Honorable
Order" so known and honored by all
men. But, at the same time, | stand
before her barred and bowed, in low
ing admiration of her as manifested
in her present day craftsmen and
deeds, and in the history Of her ben
evidences and charities.
You do not want this morning a
lecture on the history of Knights
Templar or Freemasons, and if you
did you would choose some other
person than myself to deliver il; you
do not care to hear this morning any
instruction in the principles of your
venerable cult, else you would have
appointed one of your own members
to give it; yet | cannot forbear TO
advert here TO your "0ld Charges"
so instinct with high. noble and holy
sentiments; TO the progressive
growth of this Order of Freemasonry
rs a Speculative body from those
organizations of operative Masons
whose genius planned and whose in
'ustrv reared the glorious medieval
English cathedrals: to the Premier /,