a profound secret, yet it is generally known that our institution establishes a fund for charity, and provides resources for the unfortunate; and that it superadds to the common law of our nature, and the express injunctions of religion, another reason for the exercise of benevolence, and another motive to the bestowment of generosity. And you, my brethren, have often felt with what engaging and persuasive emphasis the importance of brotherly love, relief, and truth, are inculcated in our lectures. The first renders us affectionate, the second generous, the third just. To brotherly kindness is added charity; and both are crowned with fidelity, and secured with justice. Our excellent book of Constitutions has asserted." what I am sure your own hearts witness, that, "to afford succor to the distressed, to divide our bread with the industrious poor, and to put the misguided traveller into the way, are duties of the Craft, suitable to its dignity and expressive of its usefulness. But, though a Mason is never to shut his ear unkindly against the complaints of any of the human race, yet, when a brother is oppressed or suffers, he is in a more peculiar manner called upon to open his whole soul in love and compassion to him, and to relieve him, without prejudice, according to his capacity." The present occasion, which reminds you of the benevolent purposes of our association, prompts you to inquire if any brother be waxen poor through misfortune, or fallen into decay through sickness, that you may repair his losses or relieve his distress? If any stranger or sojourner from a foreign land need the welcome of your hospitality, or the assistance of your bounty, that he may live with you? If the desolate widow of some deceased member be in necessitous circumstances, or his helpless orphans require protection or maintenance? These are the tender inquiries of the day. Here are the channels opened for the current of your affection, and the bestowment of your charity. Here your compassion may operate without restraint, and your benefactions be applied in the worthiest manner. You may have the pleasing reflection that you supply the necessities of Chapter i., section 3. those who are allied to you by the most endearing ties, and discharge one of the characteristic duties of the masonic institution. Wherefore, my brethren, do you carry corn, wine, and oil in your processions, but to remind you that, in the pilgrimage of human life, you are to impart a portion of your bread to feed the hungry, to send a cup of your wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil of your consolation into the wounds which sickness hath made in the bodies or affliction rent in the hearts of your fellow travellers? Hasten, then, to perform these affectionate services: and "thus fulfil the whole law of love!" "The blessing of those who are ready to perish will come upon you,' accompanied with the approbation and followed by the reward of the Divine Philanthropist. "Then, in that awful day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, the gazing multitude who have curiously inquired our secret, shall be astonished to know that the greatest deep of masonic secrecy was the unpublished act of doing good!" The memorials of your beneficence will prove your passport to the blissful seats of eternity! You will be received to that glorious society where there will be no necessitous objects to excite compassion; but where your bounty to such on earth will meet a liberal recompense, and the divine principle of charity forever remain a sacred band to unite us to one another, and to the God of love, who is the spring of immortal joy! "Rev. Jethro Inwood's Sermons, p. 247. DISCOURSE V.1 HE that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Great High Priest of our profession hath promised: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name, written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.—REV. ii., 17. THIS sublime promise has a peculiar significance to those who have been admitted within the vail of the masonic temple. With that caution which becomes me in addressing a mixed audience, I will take the liberty of explaining the passage, for the purpose of pointing out those motives which it suggests to a patient perseverance in the ways of well doing. Though this chapter of the Apocalypse, and the one preceding, be particularly addressed to the churches of Asia, yet the threatenings and the promises they contain are introduced with a solemnity which bespeaks them intended for the caution and encouragement of Christians in general, in all succeeding ages, so long as the vices they reprove and the virtues they commend shall be found in the world. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." These inconceivable glories are described to us in a way conformable to our narrow intellects. Were spiritual and heavenly joys represented as they really are, and defined by their own proper names and qualities, we should be utterly unable 1 Before a Chapter of Royal-Arch Masons. to comprehend them, and, therefore, very incompetent judges of their value. In condescension, therefore, to our limited faculties, such metaphors are used in the Holy Scriptures in revealing to us "the hidden mysteries" of the future life, as are within the comprehension of the human mind, and, in some sort, accommodated to the feelings and wishes of the human heart. Among these is the promise of our text, which I shall now proceed to explain. Without quoting the various conjectures of commentators and critics into its meaning, all of which I shall take the liberty to reject, as contradictory or inapplicable, I shall at once state what I conceive to be the import of the passage. I. The first part of the promise has undoubtedly a reference to that miraculous provision made for the children of Israel in the wilderness, by the immediate hand of God. The "hidden manna" alludes to that sample of this bread which was laid up before the Lord in the ark of the covenant: and by it is intended "that meat which endureth unto everlasting life," that spiritual food with which the soul shall be amply supplied in the heavenly state, where all its refined desires shall be fully gratified. "Lord evermore give us this bread!" When the labourers shall be called from work to refreshment, and the Grand Master shall close the earthly lodge to open upon the first step of eternity, may we be admitted to the privilege and raised to the honour of eating and drinking with him at his table; and be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple!5 II. The other clause of the verse we are considering, relates to a particular custom among the ancients, with which they commenced and perpetuated a refined friendship. For this purpose the contracting parties took a small piece of bone, ivory, or stone, and dividing it into equal and similar parts, one of the persons wrote his name upon one of these, and his friend upon the other; and they made a mutual exchange. This little ticket, Compare Exod. xv., 33. Heb. ix., 4. Luke xxii., 30. Psal. lxv., 4. or "keep-sake," was retained as a sacred pledge and remembrancer of an attachment the most sacred and inviolable, entire and permanent, that could be formed. Including the word, sign, and token of an endeared fraternity, it was the means of ascertaining the object of the heart's affections after many years' absence, and of securing for him a welcome to the privileges, and a share in the endearments of hospitality and love. Of course the token was carefully preserved. Though, in itself considered, of smallest worth; yet, as the memorial of a highly esteemed friend, as it renewed those kind emotions of which he was the object, and called up a history on which the heart delighted to dwell, its value became inestimable. And lest some one else should take the advantage of it, the possessor kept it with great privacy, and cautiously concealed from every one the name or mark engraved upon it. Supposing our text to relate to this custom, what a delightful train of ideas does it suggest! In a spiritual sense, the promise is to this effect, that the man of triumphant virtue shall be rewarded by the favour and friendship of his Divine Redeemer. This truly pleasing assurance is also given or implied in several other passages of the New Testament, "not in the language of mere affirmation only, but in a great variety of figurative, animated expressions, so as to convey to the imagination as well as to the reason and jugdment, the liveliest and deepest impressions of its truth and import." Here we perceive the affections of the heart directed to the scene of their noblest exercise; and the virtues of the Christian character ripening for a sphere of exalted bliss. And here we are assured that, in another and better world, the true follower of Jesus shall be admitted to a friendship, the pledges and the privileges, the satisfactions and the glories of which, can be felt, understood, and realized only by the honored and highly favored receiver. To use the words of Doctor Young, on a similar subject:"Is not this almost too much for human modesty to mention, for human frailty to credit; and oh! is it not far too much for human gratitude to leave unproclaimed, Consult John xv., 1, 2; xxii., 30. Rom. viii., 29. 2 Cor. iii., 18; xii., 17. Rev. iii., 20; xix., 9 |