Year: 1871

The brotherhood of man is no
merely poetical idea-no Utopian
dream. Itis-if there be one upon
the wide field of human expert
ence-a noble verify. AS the
fountain gushes forth its waters, or
the sun expands its beams, so heart
answers to heart in the humanilies
and social reciprocities Of life.
This grand spotaneity of our be-
ing is ennobling to our race. Self
ishness is its great antagonism.


While human want and human
beneficence alike conspire to
stretch out our hand to the needy,
and institute US the almoners of
health and healing to the bruised
body and bleeding heart of hu.
manity, selfishness, with cynic
sneers, repels offices so divine.


It is as true in fact as truthful
in poetry that God never made an
independent. A chain of mutual
dependence unites the whole fami.
ly of the fallen. In whatever sit
uation men are placed they are
still in great measure the same.
They are exposed to similar dam
gers and misfortunes; they have
neither the wisdom to forsee nor
the power to prevent the reverses
incident to human history. They
hang in a perpetual suspense be-
tween hope and fear, sickness and
death, plenty and want.


This conscious dependence is
the primal cause of association.
Social man presents an interesting
study. We speak not of uncivil-
lied man, but of an enlightened
and refined individual of the race.
Let such an one walk alone his ad-
venturous path on earth, and, like
the astronomical bodies which wan
der in the field of space, his way
shall be unmarked by benefit and
unblessed by Heaven.


But tell that misguided spirit
that he is one of great brother
hood-bid him cast about him for
his high destiny as social being,
and a change like new creation
will pass upon his affections. The
wants of the needy and the vail
of him that is ready to perish will
break upon the repose Of his soul
like the voice of Heaven. Earth
brightens before him as a field of
restoring mercy, and Gods beau,i
full daylight becomes the lamp of
his feet in the path of human du.
ties.


Selfishness has paralyzed the
arm and chilled the heart Of many
a noble purpose; but sympathy
that divine philosophy of the heart
has been the parent and its OBJ
pcrtunities of good the birth-time
of our sweetest thoughts and deep.
est feelings.


But the more general affinities of
society do not fully support the
wants of our social being. The
great social heart is athirst for
a more intimate companionship.
Hence the origin Of association in
the fraternal aspects of our own
'ancient and honorable society,""


The almoner Of Masonic bounty
is not to ask with what family of
earth's fallen children the claimant
is numbered. Whether he starvcs
in the SHOWS Of the north or burns
upon the sands of Africa-wheth-
er ewalks with the bright-browed
Cauca sian or languishes under the
tropics-if be be a man he may
wear the signet which makes the
world his home and the Mason
his brother; for Masonry is the
brotherhood Of man.


1t is thus that national bounda-
ries may not circumscribe tho
generosity of our society. The
storms OF this world may not drive
a Mason 10 a strangers coast nor
its cupidity seal the ear and close
the hand Of q brother to his crv
Of want. 1t is true that stronger
than mortal might has bound him,
but the world is still his home and
man his brother, and through these
offices which lend a moral beauty
to this relation he, the miserable
and the stranger, may yet see a
glory IN life's sunlight and fra
GRANGE in the flowers of a hitherto
desolate world.


Speculative Masonry is the work
of moral architects, and the appli
ances of our labor suggest the vo-
cabulary of Our art. The temple
it builds is moral structure, and
the Mason is the artisan Of a work
sublimely high and morally glori.
Gus. As society we build a tenn,
pie for every virtue and a prison
for every vice. Gathering our ma
terials from the face Of society
about us, we labor to mould them
into moral and social symmetry,
according to the pattern Of the
great designer.


The literature Of Masonry is ira
dltlonal. ltis emphatically story
OF the oiden time, and, with the
wisest of all times, the Mason re
veres those truths in the science Of
his fraternity which have reach ed
him by oral tradition. In this tho
Mason is not peculiar. Not only
the primitive tribes of the race
the simple children of Nature
but the depositaries of q divine
wisdom-the Jews-regard the
collated tradition Of their fathers
with the profoundest reverence
Their celebrated Talmud, the ador-
alton alike of the literary antigua.
rian and Biblical scholar, is the