Lodges Of Sorrow.

brink the thorns and briers of despair and dread , and plant in their stead the beautiful flowers of Hope , and Trust and Love . It would rend from the sculptured monuments which cover the dead , the grim and ghastly images of woe , and fix in their place the symbols of a Hope

that burns mora and more bright through the ages , and of a Love which is as perpetual as eternity ! It would quiet our fears , and bring to our bosoms a calm aud enduring faith in the Invisible , and an imperishable trust in the Grand Master and Father of the world . It would so

quicken our faith that it could penetrate the vail of eternity , and see the generations of the wise and good , who have glorified the past , re-youthed , and clothed wifch forms of immortal beauty , and renewing and continuing the sweet communion which commenced in this world .

Unfortunately , our age is not an age of profound and positive faith . There is far more of worldliness , more dread of death , and less of heroic firmness and hopeful confidence at its approach , than in the earlier times . Our rude but earnest and truth-loving fathers , although pagans ,

seemed to know none of those fears which now so much disturb us . The future life presented itself to their minds in the most definite shape , and they welcomed the idea with a most profound conviction of its truth . They even died with tranquillity , and with manly fortitude descended

to the repose of the grave . In their battles they fought with desperate valour , for they dreaded not to wander among the mysteries of eternity . Some of the ancient nations even rejoiced at the funerals of their friends ; for they believed thafc the palace of the gods would be opened to

triumphant virtue , aud that , after the revolutions of ages , they would meet again in the everlasting mansions of light . " I am transported , " said an ancient sage , " with the bare namo of eternity ! for what will ba the joy of the soul when released from the fetters of clay , and it draws nearer

to the Father of the world . " " I am filled with hope , 0 Judges , " said the virtuous Socrates , when doomed unjustly to a felon ' s death— " I am filled with hope , lt has happened fortunately for me that I am sentenced to die . Death transports us to regions inhabited by those who

have departed from life . Can such a change of scene appear a small privilege to you ? Or can you esteem it a slight advantage that I may hold discourse with Orpheus , Homer and Hesiod ? Indeed , if it were possible , I could

wish to die often , to enjoy the circle I have mentioned . With what a glow of delight I shonld make the acquaintance of Palamedes , of Ajax , and others whose throats have felt tho knife of iniquitous judgment !"

So with the old Hebrews wc find tho same contempt of death—tho same noblo confidence and sublime faith at its

• approach . They were wont to speak of the grave as a ] place of repose , " where the wicked cease from troubling , and the weary aro at rest . " Aud when a Jew yielded np "the spirit , and was laid by his friends in tho tomb , they did nofc speak of him as dead , hut they said , " fie is

gathered to his fathers . " Death was called a sloop , mil no dark forebodings or childish fears gloomed over the hour of its approach . "Yea , " says the greatest of the Hebrew

poets—tho illustrious father of the greatest Masonic light or antiquity— " though I walk through tho valley of fcho shadow of death , I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me . "

Dnring the first ages of tho Christian church , too , aud "even down to a very late period , we see tho same heroic fortitude aud earnest faith . Funeral rites and emblems , and the religious observances regarding the dead ) wore beautiful , hopeful , tranquilizing to tho mind , and soothing

¦ to -the sorrowing heart . They presented tho future life to 'the thought in a most definite and tangible form—made it 'a real and palpable facfc , nofc a thing of shadow and mista world where tho lost would ba found , where hearts which

had been separated here by death would be reunited , to be divided no more , and where tho soul would find and embrace those ideals of good , of truth and love , so ardently worshi pped ancl fruitlessly sought on earth .

In this respect " Sorrow " Lodges" would bo found eminentl y useful for , while they would call us to the contemplation of the " coffin / ' and the " grave , " and the mortality which they represent , they would also display that divine branch , the heavenly " Acacia , " " the emblem of

the immortal part of man , " and which teaches thafc when the cold winter of death shall have passed , and the Tfr * nmmev ' Smovn of the resurrection appears , the Son ot Rig hteousness shall descend , and send forth his angels TO collect our ransomed dust ; then , if we are found

Lodges Of Sorrow.

worthy , we shall , by his password , enter the celestial Lodge above , where tho Supreme Architect of the Universe himself presides . " It is usual , when Sorrow Lodges are held , to decorate the room , nofc only wifch mourning weeds , but with

wreaths of foliage and flowers—Nature ' s glorious types of Truth , Love and Immortality—and thus death itself is made radiant with beauty , and the odour of the grave is lost in the immortal fragrance of tho ever-blooming Acacia . And thus we learn to thrust aside our old and dreary views

of death , and associate it with what is lovely aud beautiful . " Cover me with flowers , and let me die to the sound of music , " was the dying exclamatiosi of an illustrious Mason , who had knelt , before oar mystic alt ir in company with Franklin and Voltaire .

The grand truth connected with the Masonic n * to of tho Acacia-branch is rapidly extending . A few years ago , except now and then on a Masonic tomb , a cheerful emblem , representing death or the grave , was never met with .

Nothing could possibly exceed the dreary and desolate aspect of many of our older burial-grounds . They seem to have been selected with exclusive reference to their

barrenness and solitariness , as if our only object was to bury the dead from our sight , and forget them as soon as possible . There was nothing inviting or agreeable about them . Cold , melancholy and sad , with their terrific emblems—death's heads , skeletons , cross-bones and doleful

epitaphs—they were objects of dread to all , of love and reverence to none . Frightened children ran faster as they passed , and even grown men , at times , would turn away their eyes , as if half afraid that some awful vision would rise before them .

It is gratifying , however , to know that a great change is now taking place in regard to par sepulchral rites and our places of burial . The rural cemeteries that are now becoming so numerous , and which are daily springing up in all parts of our country—selected with so much care ,

arranged with so much taste , and embellished with the mosfc beautiful creations of art and nature—show that we are approaching an age of faith . They indicate that men think more of a future life , and cherish with a tender solicitude the memory of their departed friends . Emblems of hope , and

trust , and love , invest every grave . Flowers in endless variety , and of surpassing beauty , stand as sentinels round every tomb , as if guarding the repose of the loved one that sleeps within . The wavering acacia , glorious with Masonic memories—the mysterious pine , whose wondrous

murmurs , never ceasing , resound like a perpetual song- — tho fir-tree , thc type of unwavering confidence , and the drooping elm and weeping willow , emblems of a tender grief and everlasting sympathy—adorn theso places sacred to tho dead . Thus , on every returning spring , each swelling

bud and opening flower will seem to declare that the night of death is past , " and beauty immortal awakes from the tomb . Thus every wind which softly breathes through the green foliage , and fans the verdant coverings of the dead , sounds as tbe voice of God or tho archangel ' s tramp ,

commanding the dead to rise . Thus every grave becomes an altar , consecrated by tears and sighs and holy affections , and the flowers that bloom thereon are the offerings which an unforgetting love presents to the cherished being who slumbers below .

The tranquil beauty which reigns m these places takes away half the fear of death . And if thero be a spot in the world where , without a fe * r or regret , one could lay himself down in the sleep of death , it is in one of these modern cemeteries , where the released spirit would unite

itself with thafc spirit of beauty which seems to have enshrined itself in every flower and every tree , and where the everlasting song of nature , the mysterious hymn of the winds and trees , distant reverberations of that mighty canticle which ascendeth for over before the eternal throne ,

would swell around his grave for ever ! Sceptics and utilitarians may scoff at our pious endeavours to embellish our sepulchres , aud denounce as futile or superstitious the care and sympathy with which we surround the graves of

fche loved and lost ; but they can only excite our pity . For he who has no faith in fche invisible , nor reverence for departed virtue , nor affection for his departed friends , is an object most pitiful to behold .

" Why do we deck the « e graves wifch flowerB P And hast thou ever lost a friend , Nor sought tbat with thy f nture hours Remembrance fond should closely blend ?