FIFTEENTH MASONIC DISTRICT.

COUNTIES OF ULSTER AND GREENE.

Ark Lodge, No. 48, Coxsackie.

Methodist Episcopal Church. Address by Brother the Rev. Eugene Hill of the First Reformed Church. Topic, "Washington as a Mason." Address by Brother the Rev. O. D. Ramsay, pastor of the church. Topic, “Washington the Patriot."

Oasis Lodge, No. 119, Prattsville.

Reformed Church. The Rev. Charles Dixon, pastor, officiating, assisted by Brother the Rev. J. N. Lincoln, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rondout Lodge, No. 343, Rondout.

Church of the Holy Spirit. Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Burrows, rector, and chaplain of the Lodge.

TEXT:

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."-ECCLES. xii. 13, 14.

Brethren of the Mystic Tie. It affords me great pleasure to greet you, and to welcome you to this sacred place and to this special service. We meet here to-night under the authority of the Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York. We are here to commemorate the centenary of the death of George Washington, first President of the United States, and a distinguished Past Master of the band of Brothers who meet upon the level and part upon the square. Just one hundred years ago to-day, December 31, 1799, all the lodges in New York City, escorting the officers of the Grand Lodge, participated with the citizens in general in the solemn funeral procession held in commemoration of that illustrious Brother whose death occurred fifteen days before. The exercises were conducted, with appropriate memorial services, in St. Paul's Chapel. I consider it specially fitting that we are gathered here to-night in this Protestant Episcopal Church to recall the noble character of Washington, who was a faithful Christian man and a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His pew in Christ Church, Alexandria, Va., and the one he occupied in Christ Church, Philadelphia, are still preserved in affectionate remembrance and with scrupulous care.

Mr. Burrows then quoted the words of the Grand Master in his official and general communication to the lodges in reference to observing the centenary, and said:

It has been my privilege more than once to stand in front of the grated vault at Mount Vernon, Va., where his mortal remains repose in their stone

coffin. I have also looked out from the portico of his old home on the banks of the Potomac.

The rector quoted the words of President McKinley, spoken at Mount Vernon seventeen days ago, and said:

Brethren, it would be an unwarranted presumption if I should attempt to add anything to these eloquent words. The deep reverence, prayerful habit, and the devout reading of the Holy Scriptures formed the grand moral character of George Washington. Masons delight to honor his memory. There is another man held in even higher esteem by the members of our Craft. The words of my text to-night are probably the last recorded of all his many wise sayings. They are full of the deepest significance. Solomon, king of Israel, in Masonic traditions, stands preeminently conspicuous as the originator and founder of ancient Masonry, and its first Grand Master. Never was mortal man so richly endowed. His prayer for wisdom was answered beyond measure. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast thou asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I give thee a wise and understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days." (I. Kings, iii. 11-14.) Alas! He who was then superhumanly endowed with wisdom and power, and qualified to wield a mighty influence for good in the earth, utterly failed in attaining the high ideal of his young life. His reign of forty years exalted Jerusalem and Israel to the highest level of outward splendor. The reign of Solomon was the golden age of Jewish national life. The temple he built was the glory of Israel. It was the great meeting place of the tribes. It was the grand center of the worship of the one living and true God. The Seventy-second Psalm is a marvelously comprehensive prayer of David for his son and successor upon the throne. Solomon reached the height of power and outward grandeur, but ere long his unbridled passions produced moral turpitude, and his rapid descent was the terrible consequence. He knew the right, yet pursued the wrong. He preached righteousness and practiced wickedness. The Book of Ecclesiastes is the record of his own awful experience. It is the sad and gloomy summing up of a wasted life. It is the witness of his failure. His sun went down while it was yet day. We may picture him in his last days, looking back on the crooked paths of his life. The retrospect could be nothing but heart anguish, resulting from broken vows and shattered hopes. And yet we are not warranted in concluding that he has gone beyond the reach of the God of his early youth. He had sinned long and grievously, and with a high hand. Yet the mercy of God was not taken utterly away from him. The halo of the glory of departing days seems to have enfolded him. In that light he saw more clearly the sinfulness of his sins. We may believe that he saw, also, the way to return to God--prodigal though he had been-and that in penitence and faith he applied to the God grace for pardon and restoration of the divine favor. The text meets us in just such an experience. With the returning clearness of vision sometimes given to dying men, he gathers in the sum and substance of all true life and duty available for commendation by the holy God. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” A closer translation of the Hebrew is, This is the whole man.' The meaning is, to fear God; and to obey him constitutes man's whole body—the grand

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purpose of his creation. Any other course of conduct will mar and maim and destroy some quality, some power, without whose use and development the man will not be a whole, complete man. Communities mourn the wreck of some noble vessel, the destruction of some great building. But the saddest of all wrecks is that of man, endowed with almost limitless powers, wasting them or allowing them to go to waste, ruining both soul and body. Drummond said, "The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast capacity for God. It is like a curious chamber added to our being—a chamber with elastic and contractile walls, which can be expanded, with God as its guest, illimitably, but which without God shrinks and shrivels until every vestige of the divine is gone, and God's image is left without God's spirit. One cannot tell what is left without a soul; it is a shrunken, useless organ, a capacity sentenced to death by disuse, which droops as a withered hand by the side and cumbers nature. But this is not all:

"Tis not the whole of life to live,

Nor all of death to die."

"God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." There will be no escape from the bar of God's judgment.

Life as here lived, with all its motives, purposes, intentions, principles, and actions, will all be made manifest-laid bare in the light of God. Solomon, the wisest of men, emphasized this awful truth that it may influence to a better life. This is part of the divine revelation.

Freemasonry has passed through the furnace of great misrepresentation, vilification, hatred, and persecution. But it stands forth to-day strong in membership and strong in the high and noble character and intelligence of a majority of its adherents. It represents glorious truth enshrined in its pure and beautiful symbolism. It has survived the overturnings of the centuries, and has lived through the death of nations.

Upon its altars the Holy Bible lies open-the Great Light of Masonrythe inestimable gift of God to man. The Entered Apprentice is charged to study it as the unerring standard of truth and justice, and to regulate his life and actions by its divine precepts. It has been well said, and with Masonic authority, that Freemasonry takes all good men by the hand, and, in leading them to her, also points to the open Bible thereon, and urges upon each that he faithfully direct his steps through life by the Light he there shall find and as he there shall find it. So long as that sacred Light shines upon our altars, so long as it illuminates the pathway of the Craftsman by the golden rays of truth, so long, and no longer, can Freemasonry live and shed its beneficent influence upon mankind. Guard, then, that Book of sacred and immutable law as you would guard your very life. Defend it as you would the flag of your country. Live according to its divine teachings, with their everlasting assurance of a blessed immortality. It teaches us that there is a spiritual part within us which will survive the grave, and which will never die. May you, brethren, find rest and security in the protecting love of our Heavenly Father through the boundless ages of a neverending happiness! Amen, so mote it be.

Reading of Encyclical Letter of Grand Master, Bro. C. G. Coffin, W... M...

Address,

Anthem,

Hymn,

Benediction.

George Washington, The Man.

Bro. Rev. W. D. Ward.

Perlet.

'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord."

Choir.
"America.'

Kedemah Lodge, No. 693, Cairo.

Methodist Episcopal Church at Round Top. Brother the Rev. H. B. Chown, chaplain of the Lodge, officiating.

Social Friendship Lodge, No. 741, New Baltimore.

Methodist Episcopal Church. Prayer by Rev. John Smith, of the Baptist Church. Reading of Scripture by the Rev. J. O. Van Fleet, of the First Reformed Church. Sermon by Brother the Rev. J. H. Fyfer, pastor of the church and chaplain of the Lodge.

TOPIC.-LIFE AND CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

TEXT: "He being dead yet speaketh."—HEBREWS, xi. 4.

It is with no expectation of reaching the beginning of honor which the great and illustrious Washington deserves that I set myself to the task, imposed on me by your recent action, of speaking to you at this time.

Nevertheless I count it no mean privilege I have, of uttering any word which may give us a better knowledge of this great, noble, and godly man.

No better tribute can be bestowed to the worth and estimate of any man than this, that he being dead yet speaketh," if the influence of that life ariseth like the fragrance of choice flowers, constantly emitting an aroma the composition of which is the union of true manhood, ever characterized by loyal and heroic service for his country's blessing, and added to that an abiding trust in, and public acknowledgment of, the Great Author of every public and private good.

Such a man was George Washington, "Commander-in-chief of the Army" and first President of the United States.

"We cherish his memory," and, therefore, agreeable to the communication received from the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, are we met to observe with fitting exercise the centenary of a memorial service held in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, December 31, 1799. That we may be the better enabled to do this," and all duties, should we imitate the example of him who, before he began any, and especially the great and important undertakings imposed upon him by the action of his fellow men, invoked the aid of that Supreme Architect of the Universe," whose ability is equal to every necessity existing among men.

All necessary proof of the aforesaid we have, is taken from his first inaugural speech, when he said:

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe. who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benedictions may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government by themselves for these essential purposes. In tendering this homage, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow citizens less than either.

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States.

"Every step of advancement seems to have been distinguished by some 'token' of providential agency.

No narrow-minded man would have given assertion to anything like this. His greatness was never placed on dress parade! He shrinks from the personal exhibition of his abilities; but he never withdrew from the performance of any duty for individual or public welfare.

As a further evidence" of the continued reverence and abiding trust in the Beneficent Dispenser of all needful things, I invite your thought to a portion of that masterpiece of English diction, the opportune production of the time, known as his "Farewell Address." In that he said, "I am unconscious of intentional error; I am, nevertheless, too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend."

Also his dying words to Dr. Craik, when he said, "I die hard, doctor, but I am not afraid to die; my breath cannot last long "; and later those significant words, "Tis well," and entered into rest.

Washington and Lincoln, names associated together as Father and Saviour of this country-Presidents who heid the office of Chief Executive during the two most difficult and critical periods of our history. Washington assuming the duties and responsibilities of the high office, following the Revolutionary War, found the treasury empty, Indians hostile, pirates attacking our ships, and tyrannous Spain determined to prevent navigation in our great Mississippi River; "Honest Abe" through the Civil War. I