from meriting any reproachful or contumelious treatment, deserves highly of the community; and that the ridicule and affected contempt which it has sometimes experienced can proceed only from ignorance or from arrogance; from those, in fine, whose opposition does it honour, whose censure is panegyric, and praise would be censure." ASSUREDLY then, my hearers, you will with me congratulate the members of Sr. PAUL'S lodge on the agreeable event of this day. RIGHT WORSHIPFUL MASTER, WORSHIPFul WARDENS, RESPECTED OFFICERS, AND BELOVED BRETHREN. ACCEPT my affectionate salutations; accept the felicitations of all the friends of masonry. We are pleased with your harmony and zeal, and rejoice in your establishment and prosperity. Your success is connected with the best interests of humanity. May the social virtues you cultivate and the heartfelt pleasures you experience in the lodge, be your companions through life! Their mild influence, their benignant spirit, will animate every scene of duty, alleviate every corrosion of care, heighten every sensation of joy, and in the hour of dissolution shed divine transport on your souls. LET all my brethren present be willing I should remind them that in vain do we attempt the vindication of our most excellent society, or the commendatory description of its purposes and requirements, if our conduct contradict our profession. Let us then be cautious to avoid all those improprieties and vices which might tarnish the lustre of our jewels, or diminish the credit of the craft. Masonry will rise to the zenith of its glory if our lives do justice to its noble principles, and the world see that our actions hold an uniform and entire correspondence with the incomparable tenets we profess. Thus we shall "obtain a good report of them that art without;" "and those who speak evil of us will be ashamed, seeing they falsely accuse our good conversation" and misrepresent our generous purpose. "For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." REMEMBER that we are THE ASSOCIATED FRIENDS OF HUMANITY; that our sacred union embraces in its philanthropy the amities of the gospel; and that charity in its kindest exercise and largest extent is our distinguishing characteristic. Others wear the warmth of summer in their face, and the coldness of winter in their heart; but a Mason's disposition should be mild as the breeze, open as the air, and genial as the sun; cheering and blessing all around him and his deeds pleasant as the clear shining after the rain; and refreshing as the dewy cloud in a harvest day.* MAY the assembly at large be convinced that prejudices against FREE MASONRY are ill founded, and that the Society is worthy of high encouragement and warm commendation. FINALLY; let us all pray that the privileges of equal right may be widely extended, and all men become free: that wars and contentions may be forever terminated: that peace and happiness may be the uninterrupted enjoyment of all mankind: and to GoD ascend the universal, united, unceasing ascription of love and joy and praise! * Isaiah xviii. 4. |