Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

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290 GIIAND ELF.CT KNIGHT KADOSH.
INITIATION 291
the office which I have the honor to hold in this
Council, it is my duty as well as my privilege to address
you on this interesting occasion. Were the task self
imposed, I should consider that I was rendering myself
liable to the charge of temerity; #s it is, I appro,ach the
performance of it with diffidence, surrounded as I am
by so many bright and honored lights of our Hierarchy;
brothers who by their zeal, energy, intelligence and
well-directed researches, have shed additional lustre
upon our annals.
We will not now occupy your attention in the discussions
of when or where Masonry first beca~;e a
distinct organization, neither will we pause to answer
the cavil of those who insist that all of Masonry is contained
in the first three degrees; nor of those who are
pleased to call the higher degrees of Scotch Masonry
side degrees; ornamental degrees. Their argument is
the old one; that Masonry is unchangeable, and that
these degrees, not having been originally a part of the
system, cannot belong to it. They mistake progress for
change. When the spirit of God moved upon the faee of
the waters; when the Great Jehovah ordained the creation
o (the world; iyhen the first sun rose to greet with
its beams, the new morning and the august command
was uttered: “Let there be light,” the lips of deity
breathed Masonry into existence and it must live forever
more; for truth is eternal, and the principles of
truth are the foundation of Masonry.
Masonry is unehangeable, but it must of necessity in
the fulfillment of its mission keep paee with the advance
of civilization, the arts and sciences. It must lead and
not be lead by them. This is progress; it is not change.
Electricity is co-existent with matter. It is the same
now, and will be to the end of time, as it was at crea-
ton’s dawn.
To our forefathers it was a dread inspiring mysterious
agent of destruetion, and to this day it is comparatively
little understood. Your own peat philosopher,
the immortal Franklin, in the eighteenth century, first
disarmed it of its terrors, reduced it to subjection to thc
will of man, and opened a way for further investigation.
But it was reserved for our day to improve upon the
work that he inaugurated, when; Oh wondrous achievement
of science; it is become the medium of instant
communication between the most distant parts of the
globe. A simple wire, wrought out of the bowels of the
earth, carries with the velocity of imagination, invisible
messengers. The pulse beats of London, Paris and St.
Petersburg can be felt and counted on the shores of the
Atlantic.
And is the principle of eleetrieity changed? No, it is
not changed, but the arts and seiences have combined
to make it subservient to the wants of man.
What is Masonry? Is it not the pursuit of science;
the practice of virtue, and the teaching of those sublime
doctrines whieh tend to bind the whole family of men
in fraternal union?
If this definition is correct, if remains for us only to
proceed to make the applieation and to trace the means
we shall employ in aceomplishing its objeet. It is a
task that we should aH zealously undertake, as we shall
all be sharers in the glory and prosperity of our united
labors, if success attend our laudable efforts. I ask your
indulgence therefore, whilst I address myself to the
subject, which I shall briefly discuss under three heads.
The first, presenting general considerations of the
objects of our institution, will conduct our minds to a