The ceremonies of this day, together with the duties of my office, call upon me to exhort the Brethren thus assembled to a due exertion of the principles of Masonry.
Fully to comprehend our profession is the most certain means of performing our duty. In forming the society of Free and Accepted Masons, which is at once religious and civil, the utmost attention has been given to the honor of God.
In those times, when Freemasonry had its rise, the minds of men were possessed of allegories, emblems, and mystic devices, in which peculiar sciences, manners, and maxims were wrapped up: this was a project arising in the earliest ages; the Egyptian priests secreted the mysteries of their religion from the vulgar eye, by symbols and hieroglyphics, comprehensible only to those of their own order. The priests of Rome and Greece practiced other subtleties, by which the powers of divination were unveiled; and their oracles were intelligible alone to their brethren, who expounded them to the people. Those examples were readily adopted for the purpose of concealing the mysteries of Masonry.
We do not regard ourselves as a society of men, arising from mere architects and builders; but as men professing themselves servants of the Great Architect of the World; and assuming symbols expressive of our being devoted to the service of the true God. Men had experienced that from religion all civil ties and obligations were compacted, and that thence proceeded the only bonds which could unite mankind in social intercourse. Hence it was that our originals, the founders of this society, laid the corner-stone of the erection on the bosom of religion.
As a society professing ourselves servants of the Deity, the lodge in which we assemble, when revealed, presents a representation of the world - the Great Architect hath spread over the earth the illuminated canopy of heaven-such as the veil wherewith Solomon covered the temple at Jerusalem of blue, of crimson, and purple; and such is the covering of the lodge. As an emblem of God's power, his goodness, his omnipresence and eternity, the lodge is adorned with the image of the sun; which he ordained to rise from the east and open the day, to call forth the people of the earth to their worship, and to their exercise in the walks of virtue.
Remembering the wonders in the beginning, we wear the figures of the sun and moon; thence implying, that we claim the auspicious countenance of Heaven on our virtuous deeds; and, as true Masons, stand redeemed from darkness, and are become the sons of light-acknowledging in our profession our reverence and adoration to Him who gave light into his works; and by our practice showing that we carry our emblems into real life, as the children of light, by turning our backs on works of darkness, obscenity and drunkenness, hatred and malice, Satan and his dominions; preferring charity, benevolence, temperance, chastity and brotherly love, as that acceptable service on which the Great Master of all, from his beatitude, looks down with approbation.
The same divine hand (pouring forth gifts of benevolence) which hath blest us with the sights of his glory in the heavens, bath also spread the earth with a beauteous carpet - he hath wrought it, as it were, in Mosaic work; and that he might still add beauty to the earth, he hath skirted and bordered it with the wavy ocean.
As the steps of man tread incessantly in the various and uncertain incidents of life, as our days are checkered with innumerable events, and our passage through this existence is attended with a variety of circumstances, so is the lodge furnished with Mosaic work, to remind us of the precarious-ness of our state on earth; - today our feet tread in prosperity, tomorrow we totter on the uneven paths of weakness, temptation, and adversity; - whilst this emblem is before us, we are instructed to boast of nothing, to have compassion, and to give aid to those in distress; to walk uprightly, and with humility.
The emblem of Prudence is placed in the centre of the lodge, and is the first and most exalted object there: ever to be present to the eye of the Mason, that his heart may be attentive to her dictates, and steadfast in her laws; for Prudence is the rule of all the virtues. Prudence is the channel where self-approbation flows for ever. Fortitude, Temperance, and Justice, are enfolded in her girdle. She leads us forth to worthy actions, and, as a blazing star, enlightens us through the doubtfulness and darkness of this world.
We Masons profess the principle of Fortitude, by which, in the midst of pressing evils, we are enabled always to do that which is agreeable to the dictates of right reason.
We profess the spirit of Temperance, as being a moderating, or restraining of our affections and passions; especially in sobriety and chastity. We regard temperance under the various definitions of moralists, as constituting honesty, decency, and bashfulness; and in its potential parts, instituting meekness, clemency, and modesty.
We profess Justice, as dictating to us to do right to all, and to yield to every man whatsoever belongeth to him.
We put on white raiment as a type of Innocence that apparel which truly implies the innocency of the heart is a badge more honorable than ever was devised by kings - the Roman Eagle, with all the orders of knighthood, are much inferior; they may be prostituted by the caprice of princes, but innocence is innate, and cannot be adopted.
That Innocence should be the professed principle of a Mason occasions no astonishment, when we consider that the discovery of the Deity whom we serve leads us to the knowledge of those maxims wherewith he may be well pleased; - the very idea of a God is succeeded by the belief that he can approve of nothing that is evil; - and when first our predecessors professed themselves servants of the Architect of the World, as an indispensable duty they professed innocency, and put on white raiment as a type and characteristic of their conviction, and of their being devoted to his will.
Our jewels, or ornaments, imply that we try our affections by justice, and our actions by truth, as the square tries the workmanship of the mechanic.
That we regard our mortal state, whether it is dignified by titles or not, whether it be opulent or indigent, as being of one nature in the beginning, and of one rank in its close - in sensations, passions, and pleasures, in infirmities, maladies, and wants, all mankind are on a parallel; - Nature there hath given us no superiorities - so we profess to hold our estimates of our brother, when his calamities call for our counsel or our aid. Virtue gives us the equality - the works of charity are indiscriminate, and benevolence acts upon the level. The emblem of these sentiments is another of the jewels of our society.
To walk uprightly before heaven and before men is the duty of a Mason: to try his actions by the rule, as the builder raises his column by the plane and perpendicular, the Mason should stand approved by the jewel which he wears.
Geometry is the trial of the craftsmen - a science through whose power it is given to man to discover the order of the heavenly bodies, their revolutions, and their stations - to define the wisdom of the Great Architect of the Creation - to prove the mightiness of his works, and the greatness of his love.
The importance of secrecy amongst us is, that we may not be deceived in the disposition of our charities - that we may not be betrayed in the tenderness of our benevolence, and others usurp the portion which is prepared for those of our own family.
To betray the watch-word, which would keep the enemy from the walls of our citadel, so as to open our strongholds to robbers and deceivers, is as great a moral crime, as to show the common thief the weaknesses and secret places of our neighbor's dwelling, that he may pillage their treasures nay, it is greater, for it is like aiding the sacrilegious robber to ransack the holy places, and steal the sacred vessels devoted to the most solemn rites of religion; - it is snatching from the divine hand of Charity the balm which she holds forth to heal the distresses of her children-the cordial cup of consolation, which she offers to the lip of calamity, and the sustenance her fainting infants should receive from the bosom of her celestial love.
As this, then, is the importance of a Mason's secrecy, wherefore should the world wonder, that the most profligate tongue which ever had expression hath not revealed it; - the sport is too deadly to afford diversion even to the most abandoned; - it was mentioned by divine lips as a criminality not in nature; "What man is there of you, whom if his son ask for bread, will give him a stone? or if he ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?" Then can there be a Mason so iniquitous amongst Masons as to conduct the thief to steal from his sick brother the medicine that should restore his health, the balsam which should close his wounds - the clothing which should shield his trembling limbs from the severity of the winter-the drink which should moisten his lips-the bread which should save his soul alive?
Our society is graced with Charity, the true objects of which are Merit and Virtue in distress; persons who are become incapable of extricating themselves from misfortunes which have overtaken them in old age - industrious men, from inevitable accidents and acts of providence, rushed into ruin - widows left survivors of their husbands, by whose labor they subsisted - orphans in tender years left naked to an adverse world.
Hard-hearted covetousness and proud titles, can ye behold such objects with dry eyes? He whose bosom is locked up against compassion is a barbarian!
But Charity when misapplied loses her titles, and instead of being adorned with the dress of virtue, assumes the insignificance of folly; - when charity is bestowed beyond a man's ability, and to the detriment of his family, it becomes a sacrifice to superstition or ostentation, and like incense to idols, is disapproved in heaven.
We are united by brotherly love, the most material parts of which amongst us are mutual good offices, and speaking well of each other to the world; - most especially, it is expected of every member of this fraternity, that he should not traduce his brother. Calumny and slander are most detestable crimes against society; nothing can be viler than to speak ill of any one behind his back; it is like the villainy of an assassin, who has not virtue enough to give his adversary the means of self-defense, but, lurking in darkness, stabs him whilst he is unarmed and unsuspicious of an enemy.
To give a man his just and due character is so easy a duty, that it is not possible for a benevolent disposition to avoid it; it is a degree of common justice which honesty itself prompts one to: it is not enough that we refrain from slanders but it is required of Masons that they speak graciously and with affection, withholding nothing that can be uttered to a brother's praise, or his good name, with truth. What a pleasure doth it give the heart-feeling benevolent dispositions to give praise where due: there is a selfish joy in good-speaking, as self-approbation succeeds it; besides, the breast of a man feels enlarged, whilst he utters the praise due to his neighbor; and he experiences all the finest sense of his love, whilst he moves others to love him.
The neutral disposition, frigid and reserved, neither speak good nor evil; but the man tasting brotherly love is warm to commend: it is an easy and cheap means of bestowing good gifts, and working good works; for by a just praise to industry, you recommend the industrious man to those to whom he might never have been known; and thereby enlarge his credit and his trade: by a just commendation of merit, you may open the paths of advancement, through those whose power might never have been petitioned - by a proper praise of genius and art, you may rouse the attention of those patrons, to whom the greatest merits might have remained undiscovered - it is a degree of justice which every man has a right to from his brother, that his virtues be not concealed.
To shroud the imperfections of our friend, and cloak his infirmities, is Christian and charitable, and consequently befitting a Mason: even the truth should not be told at all times; for where we cannot approve, we should pity in silence. What pleasure or profit can there arise by exposing the errors of a brother? To exhort him is virtuous, to revile him is inhuman, to set him out as an object of ridicule is infernal.
From hence we must necessarily determine that the duty of a good Mason leads him to work the works of benevolence; and his heart is touched with joy whilst he acts within her precepts. Let us, therefore, be steadfast and immovable in our ordinances, that we be proved to have a tongue of good report.
In the ceremonies of the day, we commemorate the mighty work of the Creator in the beginning, when the foundations of this world, of times and seasons, were established. The placing the first stone of the intended erection takes its import from the emblematical tenor of the work, and not from our labor as mechanics - it did not require the hands of a Free and Accepted Mason to place it firmer on its basis than a stone-cutter or a builder. - But in this work we appear as servants of the Divinity, supplicating for his approbation, and for prosperity to the undertaking; remembering the corner-stone of that building on which the salvation of the world was founded; remembering the mighty works of the Deity, when he suspended the planets in their stations, and founded the axis of the earth.
In such a work, it may not be esteemed profane to use the apostle's words to the Corinthians, - "According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation," since my duty this day is a commemoration of the might, majesty, and benevolence of the Great Master of all, whose temple is the universe, the pillers of whose work are Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty; for his wisdom is infinite, his strength is in omnipotence, and beauty stands forth, in all his creation, in symmetry and order. He hath stretched forth the heavens as a canopy, and the earth he hath planted as his footstool; he crowns his temples with the stars, as with a diadem; and in his hand he holdeth forth the power and the glory; the sun and moon are messengers of his will to worlds unnumbered, and all his laws are concord.
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