Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Colonial
- ;• made by hinj from a conviction that such a course would tenet to advance the interests of the Craft , by inducing a laudable ambition among all its members to aspire to those high positions ; and he concluded by returning his warm acknowledgements to his retiring Grand Lodge Officers for the very efficient and satisfactory manner in which they had discharged the duties which had respectively devolved upon them , and by expressing his confidence that those recently installed would emulate their example . The Grand Lodge then closed in due form and with solemn prayer , and adjourned .
America
AMERICA
GRAND LODGE OF KENTUCKY . The following passages are extracted from the address of Bro . T . N . Wise , M . W . G . M ., delivered before the Grand Lodge of Kentucky , at its last annual communication . Brethren of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky , —A period of twelve months has elapsed since this body last convened . Mutation and vicissitude have been busy actors upon the intervening stage ; yet the beneficent laws of the universe , which hold suns and systems in equilibrium , continue to guide with unerring serenity
the progressive foot-prints of time . The Order which we represent has its foundation in the fundamental laws of nature , and its internal economy and practical operations are designed to be in unison with the vital principles by which it is animated . We imitate , at however great a distance , the fixedness and regularity of the universe ; and as the sun is the centre of a great system , around which its attending retinue of planets circle in beautiful harmony , so in peace and unanimity , in concord and brotherly love , the numerous subordinates to this Grand Masonic centre revolve without variableness or change .
It has fallen to our lot to be the contemporary of great states and great events . Change is written upon them all . Instability and evanescence are the ¦ " worm P the bud ; " they wither and pass away . Within a few short years we have beheld an ancient monarchy , of vast power and splendour , stricken down in a day , and a royal family , in whose veins flowed the blood of a hundred kings , miserably languishing in poverty and exile , and " none so poor to do them reverence . " Within a few years we have seen the military splendour and imperial grandeur of the first Napoleon exhumed and re-established in a day , by an exile without patronage or power .
Even now , at the time of this Grand Convocation , the golden sceptre of despotic power , ponderous with diamonds , jewels , and precious metals , which Great Britain has for a century and a half wielded over India , is turning to a deadly serpent in her grasp , and weaving its fatal coil around the military arm of the empire , whilst millions of enslaved people are aspiring to throw off her yoke , and reassert the ancient grandeur of their mysterious , wonderful , and romantic clime . Everywhere we behold how finite and perishable is the work of man , and how infinite and eternal is the wisdom of God . In the midst of this wreck of matter
and whirlpool of change there is one object which seems at least to partake of something like exemption from the prevailing infirmity . The Mason casts his eye along the vista of time , and from the crowning heights of observation surveys , in the dim glimpses of the past , the types , symbols , land-marks , and precepts of his order , fixed and immovable , remaining constant as the polar star . Like some
venerable patriarch of the Mosaic era , our Order stands an embodied intelligence silvered o ' er with years and embellished with honours . It moves along with the current of progress , a serene and beneficent object . To the magnanimity and wisdom of Nestor it combines the subtlety and caution of Ulysses , joined to the indomitable fortitude and undaunted valour of Achilles . It is indeed an amazing object of curiosity and wonder , veneration and love ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Colonial
- ;• made by hinj from a conviction that such a course would tenet to advance the interests of the Craft , by inducing a laudable ambition among all its members to aspire to those high positions ; and he concluded by returning his warm acknowledgements to his retiring Grand Lodge Officers for the very efficient and satisfactory manner in which they had discharged the duties which had respectively devolved upon them , and by expressing his confidence that those recently installed would emulate their example . The Grand Lodge then closed in due form and with solemn prayer , and adjourned .
America
AMERICA
GRAND LODGE OF KENTUCKY . The following passages are extracted from the address of Bro . T . N . Wise , M . W . G . M ., delivered before the Grand Lodge of Kentucky , at its last annual communication . Brethren of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky , —A period of twelve months has elapsed since this body last convened . Mutation and vicissitude have been busy actors upon the intervening stage ; yet the beneficent laws of the universe , which hold suns and systems in equilibrium , continue to guide with unerring serenity
the progressive foot-prints of time . The Order which we represent has its foundation in the fundamental laws of nature , and its internal economy and practical operations are designed to be in unison with the vital principles by which it is animated . We imitate , at however great a distance , the fixedness and regularity of the universe ; and as the sun is the centre of a great system , around which its attending retinue of planets circle in beautiful harmony , so in peace and unanimity , in concord and brotherly love , the numerous subordinates to this Grand Masonic centre revolve without variableness or change .
It has fallen to our lot to be the contemporary of great states and great events . Change is written upon them all . Instability and evanescence are the ¦ " worm P the bud ; " they wither and pass away . Within a few short years we have beheld an ancient monarchy , of vast power and splendour , stricken down in a day , and a royal family , in whose veins flowed the blood of a hundred kings , miserably languishing in poverty and exile , and " none so poor to do them reverence . " Within a few years we have seen the military splendour and imperial grandeur of the first Napoleon exhumed and re-established in a day , by an exile without patronage or power .
Even now , at the time of this Grand Convocation , the golden sceptre of despotic power , ponderous with diamonds , jewels , and precious metals , which Great Britain has for a century and a half wielded over India , is turning to a deadly serpent in her grasp , and weaving its fatal coil around the military arm of the empire , whilst millions of enslaved people are aspiring to throw off her yoke , and reassert the ancient grandeur of their mysterious , wonderful , and romantic clime . Everywhere we behold how finite and perishable is the work of man , and how infinite and eternal is the wisdom of God . In the midst of this wreck of matter
and whirlpool of change there is one object which seems at least to partake of something like exemption from the prevailing infirmity . The Mason casts his eye along the vista of time , and from the crowning heights of observation surveys , in the dim glimpses of the past , the types , symbols , land-marks , and precepts of his order , fixed and immovable , remaining constant as the polar star . Like some
venerable patriarch of the Mosaic era , our Order stands an embodied intelligence silvered o ' er with years and embellished with honours . It moves along with the current of progress , a serene and beneficent object . To the magnanimity and wisdom of Nestor it combines the subtlety and caution of Ulysses , joined to the indomitable fortitude and undaunted valour of Achilles . It is indeed an amazing object of curiosity and wonder , veneration and love ,