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within a single year. It has cheered the saddened heart of sorrow, by providing relief for the destitute widow and orphan; it has administered to the wants of needy brethren in our midst, and has provided for the stranger within our gates; and no application for assistance has been made to this Lodge that has not been responded to and granted. *

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It has led us to the grave of a departed brother, there to offer up the last sad rites of love and fraternal affection ere his body was committed to the narrow house appointed for all living. Delicacy forbids my entering into particulars or enlarging upon this point; but these things give us cheering evidence that there is a life and spirit in Free Masonry, which should cause our hearts to glow with honest pride and satisfaction.

And not only thus, but in our judgment and opinion of our brethren, and of all men, we should exercise a charitable disposition. Too often do we form unjust opinions of our fellows, and inflict unmerited censure upon them, because we do not comprehend the motives which govern them. Because others may not do just what we think they should do, that does not prove that they are wrong, for human nature is weak and fallible, and our judgment is very apt to err, so that we should be very careful how we condemn, lest we too may be condemned.

Let us, then, be kind and considerate, not only in our acts, but in our words and opinions. Let us remember, that until we shall have become much more nearly perfect than we now are, and until we can more correctly see through the acts of others, to the motives which prompted those acts, it behooves us to be slow in acting the parts of denouncers and judges. Let us, at all times, give broth

erly advice and admonition; but seldom, indeed, should we attempt to dictate or reprehend with severity.

An erring brother will much sooner be reclaimed and brought back to the path of virtue and duty, by gentle words and fraternal pleadings, than by the fulminations of the law or threats of punishment. Kindness can conquer where force would fail.

"Then gently scan your brother man,

Still gentler sister woman;

Though they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human.

One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it;
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.
Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us ;

He knows each chord-its various tone,
Each spring-its various bias ;·
Then at the balance let's be mute-

We never can adjust it;

What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted."

Many other subjects urge themselves, with strong claims, upon our attention, but time and space forbid their consideration now. Intemperance, Licentiousness' and Dishonesty, as well as other vices, of which some of the unworthy members of our Fraternity are guilty, require careful consideration; but it would render my remarks entirely too prolix and tedious were I to attempt to give them even a superficial notice at this time.

A few words upon a subject that is of great importance to us, and I shall have done: I refer to the very reprehensible practice, that is too generally indulged in, of talking of matters that occur in the Lodge in presence of, and to,

those who are not members of the Order. I do not mean to say that any are guilty of exposing the strictly and technically esoteric portions of our ritual and ceremonies; but all business transacted within a Lodge, should be held strictly secret. The seal of silence should be set upon our lips in regard to all that occurs within a lodge-room. Some of the brethren, and particularly the younger ones, are entirely too garrulous and communicative in regard to matters that occur in the Lodge. They talk too much and too freely of such things, and of matters, too, which they do not understand themselves, when they are in presence of the uninitiated profane, who-thus having their prurient curiosity excited, and gaining a partial knowledge of our doings-form incorrect, and sometimes injurious, opinions of the character and object of our Institution. Very much harm is done in this way, and the practice cannot be too much deprecated or too severely reprobated. The monitors, and various Masonic papers and magazines, set forth our principles, and the published transactions of our Grand Lodges make known all that is necessary to be known of our proceedings. To these all can have access, and beyond this the uninitiated have no right to know anything about us. We seek not the fulsome and meretricious applause of the public, and, therefore, we do not parade our acts or vaunt our charities. Our Institution is founded on the immutable principles of truth and justice, and we need no one to defend or panegyrize it. It has withstood the attacks of ignorance, bigotry and prejudice for ages, and it now stands, as it always will stand, firm and unshaken. Unlike those ephemeral societies and associations which are constantly springing up and making loud pretensions to worthiness, and which drag on a precarious and evanescent existence,

until they die out from pure debility and exhaustion, our Institution needs no trumpeters or fuglemen to sound its praises and boast of its merits. Masonry loves quiet and retirement, and she prefers to do her good deeds silently and unostentatiously.

There is nothing in Masonry, not the least word, of which we need to be in the slighest degree ashamed, and which would not triumphantly bear the strictest scrutiny of the most captious. But, for reasons satisfactory to ourselves, we choose to keep our rites and ceremonies and our general business transactions hidden and secret. And, therefore. those brethren are very censurable who incautiously make our Institution and its doings the subject of general conversation, when in the presence of those who have no right to know anything of our mysteries. This practice. should be discountenanced and checked, and the offenders brought to condign punishment. We should at all times, and particularly in the presence of the unenlightened profane and the enemies of our Order, practice those truly Masonic virtues, silence and circumspection. Our secrets should be safely locked up within the repository of faithful breasts, and he who willfully or thoughtlessly exposes them, is unworthy of a name and place among us.

And now, brethren, let us consider these things and lay them to heart. We have duties to perform which we cannot honorably refuse to do. Masonry requires nothing of us that will detract from our enjoyments, or mar`any of our rational pleasures. They who obey its precepts will find that all its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace. It requires nothing of us, that is impossible for us to do. It requires no service but that for which ample reward is offered. It only re

quires us to be good men, and to live in conformity with those principles, the observance of which will secure us. true joy and happiness.

We know our duty, and if we fail to do it, then are our professions false, and our lives are living lies. There is within each of us "a still small voice" that clearly points. out the path of duty, but its teachings are sadly neglected and disregarded. How much happier each and every one of us would be if we would do what we feel and know to be our duty, instead of making a compromise with conscience, to purchase the enjoyment of pleasures that pall upon the taste, and are followed by bitter remorse that more than counterbalances the pleasure. Those enjoyments that we gain at the cost of violation of moral principles and known duty, are unsatisfying and delusivethey are like dead-sea fruits, that tempt the eye, but turn to ashes on the lips." In order to possess ourselves of true and unalloyed happiness, we must necessarily be pure and virtuous, for there is a self-satisfaction, a heartapproval, that follows the performance of good acts and kind deeds, and is the constant attendant upon rectitude of intention, that far exceeds the pleasure derived from any other source.

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Let us, then, expand our hearts so as to embrace our fellow-men in the bonds of fraternal sympathy and love. Let us eschew the gross and sensual, and secure the good, the pure, the grand and the noble. In our intercourse with our fellow-men, let us be governed by the strictest honor and integrity. Let us follow virtue, and resist the siren song of sin, that would allure us to our ruin. We can secure true happiness here and hereafter, only by living pure and virtuous lives, and by obeying the laws of honesty and morality. Then let us steadily and firmly

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