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fidelity and honor! Then, when the events of time shall be ended, and the retributions of eternity begin, when the morning stars shall again sing together and the sons of God shout for joy, ye shall join the animating chorus and share the glorious triumph. Ye shall be deemed worthy to enter the doors of the celestial Temple, to be adorned with jewels beautified with immortality, and advanced to glories incomparably more resplendent than any here below.

SO MOTE IT BE '

A CHARGE.

IN submission to the appointment, and in compliance with the request of the venerable officers and beloved brethren of this Grand Lodge, I rise to give the customary Masonic Charge. To make apologies now, would be ineffectual. And to intreat indulgence in behalf of what it is expected I should enforce by authority, would but diminish the dignity of the precepts to be inculcated, and weaken the influence of the caution to be impressed. I cannot doubt the candor of the liberal; and need not fear the censure of the prejudiced. It will suffice if this respected audience be but convinced, from my honest development of the character and simple statement of the duties of Freemasonry, that the principles upon which the Institution is founded are salutary, and that the morals it enjoins are pure.

To give to these principles and these morals their proper force, recollect, my beloved brethren, that I stand in the place, and speak by the authority of that Divine Mason whose anniversary you celebrate. On this occasion you are to regard me as his representative. To his counsels you are invited to listen. "The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe." As the herald, commissioned to awaken attention to the glories of the brightest scene that ever dawned upon the earth, he calls for the reformation of those prejudices which preclude acknowledgment of the doctrines of heavenly truth, and those corruptions which prevent diffusion of the system of unbounded love.

Let your minds be open to conviction. Examine with

1 Delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. June 24th, A.L. 5795.

the utmost freedom. Be willing to adopt what you find to be excellent; and in the best of causes be the warmest of advocates.

The duties of piety claim your first and chiefest attention. Their sacred spirit should sanctify, pervade, and influence all your thoughts and actions, ennoble all your pursuits, and be both the beginning and the end of whatever deserves the name of wisdom.

Demonstrate by devout reverence, and habitual goodness, your homage, fidelity and love to the Almighty Architect. Ever act as under the inspection of that "Eye which seeth in secret." Neglect not to implore the assistance of the Deity in your building; work by His perfect plans and consecrate the edifice you finish to his glory and praise.

Weigh well the powers of simple piety!

Make it the key-stone in your arch of virtue;
And it will keep that graceful fabric firm,

Though all the storms of fortune burst upon it.

Forget not that you have professed yourselves" members of the great temple of the universe, ready to obey the laws of the Grand Master of all, in whose presence you seek to be approved."

Next cultivate and exercise the principles of generous philanthropy and munificent benevolence. Your liberalities and affection must not be limited to kindred and neighbors; nor circumscribed within the narrow confines of self-interest or personal obligation; but, uniformly directed to the general welfare, must be dilated into an exercise wide and extensive as human kind. "You must assuredly know that in all the bonds by which we are united; in all the lectures we receive; and in all the exercises by which we endeavor either to amuse, instruct, or benefit each other; strict justice and universal charity form the principle, the sentiment, and the labor of the Free and Accepted Mason."2

In the endeared and sublime friendship you have formed, you are to consider, more especially, the interests of a brother as inseparable from your own. And your's is the sweet satisfaction of alliance with those, to whose bosoms you may confide the most important and secret thoughts,

Inwood's sermons.

without distrust or fear; and in whose hearts you may always be sure to find an unfailing willingness to be interested for you, to solace your griefs, calm your inquietudes, relieve your necessities and lighten the burden of your labors. Every member of this society is happy in the enjoyment of that reciprocal confidence and esteem which amply provides for the mutual interchange of affectionate services and assistance.

Reverence the laws, and conform to the usages of our venerable constitution. Discountenance every deviation from its principles, and carefully avoid any innovation in its long established practices. In retaining their primeval simplicity, you approach nearest to their original purity, and best answer their original intent.

These are some of your leading duties. Such is the excelling nature of our Institution; which, as it honors itself by its lessons, so may we honor it by our virtues. Let us on all occasions support its dignity and maintain its credit. May our whole conduct prove our conviction of its excellency, and bear evidence to its happy effect. Proceed, brethren, with firmness in the lucid path pointed out for your steps.

Be the animating spirit of our association the incitement to your noblest employment, and the enlivener of your most exalted delights!

Still may your bosoms glow with the ardor of kindness, and still possess the unsuspecting security and undiminished tenderness of friendliness and love!

Suffer no consideration to induce you to act unworthy the respectable character you bear. But ever display the discretion, the virtue, the dignity and harmony, which become you as the sons of reason, the disciples of wisdom, and the brethren of humanity! Thus will your conduct lend distinguished lustre to your profession, and contradict the scoffs of those who contemptuously overlook or studiously depreciate in a Mason even the most eminent instances of merit.

O ye, whom curiosity, or the pursuit of amusement hath drawn into this assembly. Would to God that such smiles of good humor as suffuse your cheeks, and such beams of joy as irradiate your eyes, glowed on the cheeks and brightened in the eyes, of every son and daughter of Adam! And that all might, like you, participate the

happiness which results from the privileges of freedom, is refined by knowledge, and perfected in the reign of virtue and peace!

But consent to look abroad into the world. It may interrupt, indeed, for one painful moment, the cheerful flow of your spirits: But it will teach you some most important lessons. See the members of a most extensive family engaging in perpetual contests. Man, who ought to be the friend, the brother, becomes the enemy of man. The lust of power and domination, every mean propensity, every turbulent passion, excites variance and leads to outrage. The crimson standard of war is erected. Nations furiously press around it. And the most populous and flourishing countries exhibit the most sanguinary scenes of desolation. You shudder at the painful view. You tremble for the distresses of mankind, and anxiously inquire, What can mitigate the sufferings these occasion? What project for reconciliation can be devised? Who will communicate a plan, easy to be adopted and effectual in its exercise, which will restore its rights to violated nature, and its supremacy to depressed humanity: which will banish entirely every unsocial passion, and establish perpetually universal peace? With what animated pleasure would we listen to the proposal which promised such desirable effects! How would we all rejoice in its ready adoption and general diffusion!

Assuredly, then, you will observe with pleasure the increasing progress of Masonry. At least you will not withhold you encouragement from an institution which has the most manifest tendency to annihilate all party spirit, to conciliate all private opinions, and by the sweet and powerful attractions of love to draw into one harmonious fraternity men of all nations and all opinions. Who can remain unmoved and cold at the idea of the manifold good that may and will be effected by such an institution! What generous citizen will hesitate at making it his duty and joy to contribute what he can to the accomplishment of such delightful hopes!

Let us all join in the fervent wish for success to all such motives as enforce, and all such societies as encourage philanthropy and virtue. And may the whole brotherhood of mankind be united in the harmony of love, and blessed with the tranquillity of peace!

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