E. H. ADDINGTON

GRAND LODGE F. AND A. M. OF LOUISIANA,
OPENING ADDRESS.
M. W. BRO. JOHN S. THIBAUT, Grand Master of Louisiana.
Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana, Ladies and Gentlemen:
In the history of the human race no custom seems to bear the
marks of greater antiquity than that of celebrating by rejoicings and
special ceremonies suitable to the occasion or circumstance, the performance
of some great action, the accomplishment of some great
work, or the occurrence of an event which carries with it the association
of tenderest memories. The hieroglyphics of barbarous peoples,
the records and archives of higher civilizations stand as witnesses to
this custom. Is it not, therefore, eminently proper that, moved by
the sentiment of grateful remembrance, standing as it were, upon the
threshhold of one of the most important events in the life-history of
Louisiana Masonry, we should assemble here to-day to commemorate
in an appropriate manner the centenary of the auspicious day which
heralded into the world the Grand Lodge of Louisiana?
To-day completes the hundred years of its honorable and useful existence,
and it is indeeed a cause for rejoicing that in their fullness it
has lived to fulfill the most sanguine hopes of those who shaped it into
being. In our restrospect of its life, its honest endeavor, its practical
influence, are prominent before us for all that has tended to the peace,
harmony, well-being and happiness not only of the "Sons of Light,"
whose fealty she claims, but of the entire citizenship of the State.
It is a further cause for self-gratulation that we may with prophetic
vision look upon the celebration of this day as the harbinger of similar
celebrations in the days to come; for, an institution that has built its
foundations so 'securely in the permanency of the pure principles bf
Masonic Philosophy, must live, must and will be endowed with the perpetuity
of Masonry itself.
There is nothing that exists but what has a reason for being. When
the reason or necessity arises, the thing is born, and when the necessity
or reason ceases, the thing dies. It may be said with undeniable truth
> that neither Religion, Society, Government, nor Law fulfills the measurement
of man's needs, that the' Eeal appeals to him with less force
than the Ideal, and that his happiness is not complete unless he strives
and continues to strive for his Weal. Man's inner consciousness acquaints
him with a brotherhood which Society does not afford in its
completeness; with an association and mutual assistance greater than
that which is vouchsafed to him through government by law; with a
clearer conception of Truth than is portrayed by Religion; hence the