Address

Tho great Teacher has said : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and AA'ith all thy soul , and Avith all thy mind , and thy neighbour as thyself , " and this is the dogma AA-hich Masonry seeks to develope in its doctrine of brotherly

jove . The Mason , Avhcrever he lives , hoAA'ever distant may be his home , is still tho neighbour of every Mason . He forms one link in that great chain of affection which girdles the earth . He feels his close connection AA'ith the Order . He

kiioAVS hoAvever humble he may be , that he forms part and parcel of the mighty institution . He is a stone in the temple , and Avhether obscurely set in the foundation AA'all beneath the surface , or glittering like polished marble in the keystone of

some arch hi its topmast pinnacle , he is still a necessary ingredient of the edifice . He has his place , and his privilege , and his duty , and he has learned the lesson of love to all , because the lesson of love to

him has been learned in them by them all . If is the topmost round of the ladder AA-hich he has to climb . This brotherly loA'e is perhaps the most popular feature in the institution . It is tho one on Avhieh Masons most love to dAvelland it is the one to which it is

, undoubtedly indebted for much of the influence AA'hich it exerts over its disci ples . Men of large minds Avill naturally look to its scientific character—Avill engage in the stud y of its symbolism—Avill search out its history and trace Avith delight its connections

Ai'ith the organizations of antiquity . Men of deep faith will dwell on its religious teachings , Avill ponder on the lessons of the future , Avhich it so nobly inculcates , and love to search out its analogy to the dogmas of divine revelation . Men of

benevolent hearts will boast of its innumerable charities , of its ever-floAving fountain of relief for the destitute , and will think of we naked that it has clothed , of the hungry that it has fed , of the orphans' cries ™ at it has hushed , and of the AvidoAVs '

ears that it has dried . But all the wise , | he pious , and the benevolent will fondly tager over that feature of brotherly love , ™ ch they call ths keystone of its arch . . Ihey will rehearse the tale as old Ararnors tell of their well-fought fields ; of the "endl y recognitions betAveen strangers , infl the stran S ei' became , under them agio ] Mluence -0 f this principle , a Brother ; of

battles Avhere the SAVord of the foe has been arrested ; of the suffering Avhich has been alleviated ; of slripAvrecks AA'here life has been saved under circumstances Avhere but for Masonry it would have been lost ; of prison doors that have been opened ; of men defended in their utmost peril ; and

they vaunt AA'ith pardonable pride that this is the first-fruit of that tree of Brotherly love Avhose seed Avas SOAAII in the early hour of man ' s initiation , Ai'hen the mystical ladder Avas shoAvn , and he was told that faith and hope Avere great , but that love was greater than all .

All associations of human organization must , as incidental to the human nature out of AA'hich they are made , bring forth some friendly feeling in the members . Nay , more , { here are doubtless some AA'hich inculcate brotherly affection as a tenet to be observed . But it is Masonry alone

AA'hich begins to teach it Avith its earliest teaching ; that instils the lesson in every point of its instructions ; that nourishes it from its infancy to its later years ; builds its house upon such foundation that , ignoring all difference of religious faith , all

variety of tongues , all opposition of political creed , it erects an altar around Avhich all sects may kneel , and creates a language AA'hich all nations may speak , and does this only and purely that brotherly love may endure . And'the practical result of this teaching is better developed in Masonry than anything else . In the remote East , the

Christian finds no fellowship in his religion ; in the West the Mussulman has no Mecca toAvards AA'hich to turn ; the Brahmin is a solitary Avanderer when he leaves the banks of his sacred Ganges . But Masonry is evoryAA-here ; its tree , striking its roots deep into the soil of past ageshas

, groAvn up more tall and comely than the cedars of Lebanon , and its branches , spreading over the habitable earth , give a shade in every region , so that in every clime the Mason may find a home , and in every land a Brother .

And in this great country , destined as Ave hope for ever to be united and indivisible , may Ave not hope that our beloA'ed Order , armed AA'ith the panoply of truth , defying all the storms of open violence , and resisting all the attacks of insidious

imposture , may be perpetuated , and live and flourish even "from the easternmost H 2