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most worshipful grand lodge - Louisiana State University

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40 SPECIAL COMMUNICATION OF THE GKAND LODGEderides the teachings of the Bible, is worse than an infidel, and isnot the friend of humanity.The moral influence that permeates the <strong>lodge</strong>, society, andhome of the Mason bears abundant fruit. Society is made betterby its teachings ; homes grow more sacred; prejudices disappear;sectarian walls of bitter hate, built mountain high, are dissolvedor dissolving ; benevolence, charity, fellowship, are substitutedfor inhumanity, indifference and enmity.Noiselessly the great work goes on. The reign of law, thesweet influences of peace, triumph over wrong; the standard ofmorality is elevated, human thought is broadened and deepened;the man is brought immediately into rapport with noble and inspiringideas ; these ideas permeate the fraternity, the home, society,and lead to purer and to higher aims. It brings individualscloser together, teaches trust, self-reliance and self-assertion ;it up-roots evil, wrong, selfishness, hate, and substitutes for thesepassions, love, compassion, benevolence, charity, forbearance.These moral forces extend from the <strong>lodge</strong> to the family, tosociety, to the human race.The great thing in human motives which gives to humanefforts the dew of the morning and the hallowed power of the evening,which elevates and perpetuates their memory, is their disinterestedness.When Cicero would praise a fellow-man with highencomium, he said of him : " He has planted a tree, of one berryof which he will never partake." The meaning, the underlyingthought of Cicero was, that whatever is done for the future hasthe attribute of this ennobling feeling.And so we dedicate, not alone with the forms and ceremoniesof our order, but with its disinterested spirit and purpose, thisbuilding to the future—to those who in all coming time shall, withhearts beating as do ours to-day, with the solemn and sacred aspirationsand principles of the Free and Accepted Masons of the<strong>State</strong> of <strong>Louisiana</strong>.As we go forward in the path of duty, let us not forget how

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