tress, and merit in misery, without pity? Who could behold without tears, the desolate and forlorn estate of a widow, who, in early life, having been brought up in the bosom of a tender mother, without knowing care, and without tasting of necessity, was not befitted for adversity; whose soul was pure as innocence, and full of honor; whose mind had been brightened by erudition, under an indulgent father; whose youth, untutored in the school of sorrows, had been flattered with the prospect of days of prosperity and plenty; one, who at length, by the cruel adversity of winds and seas, with her dying husband, is wrecked in total destruction and beggary; driven by ill fortune, from peace and plenty; and from the bed of ease, changes her lot to the dank dunghil, for the relief of her weariness and pain; grown meagre with necessity, and sick with woe; at her bosom hanging her famished infant, draining off the dregs of parental life, for sustenance; bestowed from maternal love-yielding existence to support the babe. Hard-hearted covetousness, and proud titles, can you behold such an object, dry eyed? Can avarice grasp the mite which should sustain such virtue? Can high life lift its supercilious brow above such scenes in human life; above such miseries sustained by a fellow-creature? If perchance the voice of the unfortunate and wretched widow is heard in complainings, when wearying patience and relaxing resignation breathes a sigh, whilst modesty forbids her supplication; is not the groan, the sigh, more pathetic to your ear, you rich ones, than all the flattering petitions of a cringing knave, who touches your vanity, and tickles your follies; extorting from your very weaknesses, the prostituted portion of charity. Perhaps the fatal hour is at hand, when consolation is required, to close the last moments of this unfortunate one's life: can the man absorbed in pleasure roll his chariot wheels beyond the scene of sorrow, without compassion, and without pity see the last convulsion, and the deadly gaze, which paint misery upon the features of an expiring saint! If angels weep in heaven, they weep for such: if they can know contempt, they feel it for the wealthy, who bestow not of their superfluities, and snatch not from their vices what would gladden souls sank in the woes of worldly adversity. The eyes of cherubims view with delight the exercise of such benevolence as forms the character of the good Samaritan: saints touch their golden lyres to hymn humanity's fair history in realms of bliss; anu ap probation shines upon the countenance divine of omnipresence, when a man is found in the exercise of virtue. What should that human wretch be called, who, with premeditated cruelty and avarice, devises mischief, whilst he is conscious of his neighbour's honesty; whilst he sees him industriously, day by day, laboring with sweaty brow and weary limbs, toiling with cheerfulness for bread, on whose exerted labor, an affectionate and virtuous wife and healthy children, crowding his narrow hearth with naked feet, depend for sustenance; whilst he perceives him, with integrity more than human, taking scrupulously his own, and wronging no man for his hunger or his wants; whilst he sees him, with fatigued sinews, lengthen out the toil of industry, from morn to night, with unremitting ardour, singing to elude repining, and smoothing his anxieties and pain with hope, that he shall reward his weariness by the overflowings of his wife's cheerful heart, and with the smiles of his feeding infants? What must he be who knows such a man, and, by his craft or avarice, extorts unjust demands, and brings him into beggary? What must he be, who sees such a man deprived, by fire or water, of all his substance, the habitation of his infants lost, and nothing left, but nakedness and tears-and seeing this, affords the sufferer no relief? Surely in nature, few such wretches do exist! but if such be, it is not vain presumption to proclaim, that, like accursed Cain, they are distinguished as the outcast of God's mercies, and are left on earth to live a life of punishment. The objects of true charity, are merit and virtue in distress; persons who are 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 labors they subsisted; orphans in tender years left naked to the world. What are the claims of such, on the hand of charity, when you compare them to the miscreants who infest the doors of every dwelling with their importunities: wretches wandering from their homes, shewing their distortions and their sores, to prompt compassion: with which ill-gotten gains, in concert with thieves and vagabonds, they revel away the hours of night, which conceals their iniquities and vices. Charity, when misapplied, loses her titles; and, instead of being adorned with the dress of virtue, assumes the insignificance, the bells and feathers of folly. In the course of the lecture, a selection of the following texts of scripture are introduced, and ought to be explained, viz: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.-Gen. c. 49, v. 10. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel.)-Gen. c. 49, v. 24. And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.-Josh. c. 24, v. 24. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.-Josh. c. 24, v. 25. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.-Josh. c. 24, v. 26. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be, therefore, a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.-Josh. c. 24, v. 27. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.-Psalm c. 118, v. 22. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Gon, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.-Isa. c. 28, v. 16. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone, of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.— Isa. c. 8, v. 14. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.-Eze. c. 36, v. 26. Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east, and it was shut. Eze. c. 44, v. 1. It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. -Eze. c. 44, v. 3. And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee, concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.-Eze. c. 44, v. 5. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?-Mat. c. 21, v. 42. And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected, is become the head of the corner.Mark c. 12, v. 10. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?-Luke c. 20, v. 17. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.-Acts c. 4, v. 11. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.-Rev. c. 2, v. 17. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.-Rev. c. 3, v. 13. The working tools of a mark master are the chisel and mallet. The chisel morally demonstrates the advantages of discipline and education. The mind, like the diamond, in its original state, is rude and unpolished; but, as the effect of the chisel on the external coat soon presents to view the latent beauties of the diamond, so education discovers the latent virtues of the mind, and draws them forth to range the large field of matter and space, to display the summit of human knowledge, our duty to God and to man. The mallet morally teaches us to correct irregularities, and to reduce man to a proper level; so that, by quiet deportment, he may, in the school of discipline, learn to be content. What the mallet is to the workman, enlightened reason is to the passions: it curbs ambition, it depresses envy; it moderates anger, and it encourages good dispositions; whence arises, among good masons, that comely order, "Which nothing earthly gives, or can destroy- Charge to be delivered when a Candidate is advanced to the Fourth Degree. BROTHER-I Congratulate you on having been thought worthy of being promoted to this honorable degree of masonry. Permit me to impress it on your mind, that your assiduity should ever be commensurate with your duties, which become more and more extensive as you advance in masonry. The situation to which you are now promoted will draw upon you not only the scrutinizing eyes of the world at large, but those also of your brethren, on whom this degree of masonry has not been conferred: all will be justified in expecting your conduct and behaviour to be such as may with safety be imitated. In the honorable character of mark master mason, it is more particularly your duty to endeavor to let your conduct in the lodge, and among your brethren, be such as may stand the test of the Grand Overseer's square, that you may not, like the unfinished and imperfect work of the negligent and unfaithful of former times, be rejected and thrown aside, as unfit for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. While such is your conduct, should misfortunes assail you, should friends forsake you, should envy traduce your good name, and malice persecute you; yet may you have confidence, that among mark master masons, you will find friends who will administer relief to your distresses, and comfort in your afflictions; ever bearing in mind, as a consolation under all the frowns of fortune, and as an encouragement to hope for better prospects, that the stone which the builders rejected, (possessing merits to them unknown) became the chief stone of the corner. The following passages of Holy Writ, serve, in an eminent manner, to elucidate this degree. Exodus, xxii. 26.-If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge; thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down." Deuteronomy, xxiv, 6.-"No man shall take the nether or the upper mill-stone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge." |