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EDWARD AUGUSTUS HORTON, 1843-1931

EdwardHorton1931.jpg

MEMORIAL

FROM PROCEEDINGS, 1931

From Proceedings, Page 1931-79:

Brother Horton was born in Springfield, Mass., September 28, 1843, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. B. A. Bensley, in Toronto, Ontario, April 15, 1931. When he was sixteen his family moved. to Chicago where he continued the education he had commenced in the Springfield Schools. The caII to arms in 1861 summoned him from his books and he enlisted in the navy. He served throughout the war and took part in many engagements.

After the war was over he resumed his studies in preparation for the Unitarian Ministry in Chicago University and then at Meadville Theological School from which he graduated in 1868. These studies were later continued in Germany at Brunswick and Heidelberg. His first pastorate of nine years was at Leominster, then after a short retirement enforced by illness, came three years at the old "Ship Church" in Hingham, and then at the Second Church in Boston, when ilI health again compelled his resignation.

He could not be idle for long, however, and soon took up denominational work as Director of the Unitarian Sunday School Association and Executive Secretary of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches. His activity and influence in denominational circles were so great that Phillips Brooks called him "the Unitarian Bishop." The last twenty years of the nineteenth century was a great period in the Boston pulpit, and among the very distinguished churchmen of that time Brother Horton was a recognized leader.

In 1903 he was made Chaplain of the Massachusetts Senate. He served in that capacity for twenty-five years and on his retirement received tokens of honor and appreciation beyond any that had ever been given to any of his predecessors. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1880 and that of Doctor of Divinity from Tufts College in 1919. He was the author of many volumes of religious literature and numerous hymns and poems.

From the first organization of the Grand Army of the Republic he was active in its work, being for a time State Chaplain and long the Chaplain of Edward W. Kinsley Post of Boston. He was Chaplain of the First Battalion of Massachusetts Cavalry for four years, and for another four years Chaplain of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, and for many years was Chaplain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. For many years he was President of the Boston Common Society and was always vigilant in opposition to any effort to encroach upon the Common.

Brother Horton's chief service to Masonry was in Grand Lodge. He became a member of the The Lodge of Eleusis March 16, 1893, and was appointed Grand Chaplain the same year, serving continuously for the remainder of his life. So long as his strength permitted he was a regular attendant at Grand Lodge, and his fervent and inspiring prayers will long be remembered by those who were privileged to hear them.

He was a member of the Scottish Rite Bodies in Boston and was given the thirty-third degree and Honorary Membership in the Supreme Council in 1907.

Although Brother Horton never after his youth was vigorous in health, he was granted a long life of service and leadership. Full of years and honors, he has gone to his reward, followed by the loving memories of a host of friends and admirers.

FROM COUNCIL OF DELIBERATION, 1931

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From Proceedings of the Massachusetts Council of Deliberation AASR NMJ 1931, Page 51:

Illustrious Brother Horton was one of the best-known ministers of the Unitarian denomination, was Chaplain of the State Senate of Massachusetts for twenty-five years and Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for thirty-nine years.Picturesque in appearance, he was recognized as one of the most eloquent orators of the Commonwealth.

Born in Springfield, September 28, 1843, of old New England lineage, his father was William Marshall Horton and his mother Ann Leonard Horton. When the Civil War broke out, he was in school in Chicago and, though but eighteen years old, enlisted in the navy, serving in the South Atlantic Squadron under Commodores Perry and Dahlgren in several sharp engagements and on the Seneca which assisted in the blockade ofCharleston. He also participated in the attacks on Forts Sumter andWagner and in the destruction of the privateer Nashville.

Following the Civil War he determined to study for the ministry, beginning at the University of Chicago and graduating from the Theo�logical School at Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1868. He began his career as a clergyman at the Unitarian Church in Leominster, Massachusetts, where he remained for seven years, until 1875. There he married Miss Josephine A. Rand, the daughter of Nathaniel and Ruth A. Rand of Lancaster.

Between 1881 and 1885 he studied in Germany, after which followed a period of illness, caused by his overwork. Then he became the pastor of the Unitarian Church in Hingham, Massachusetts, and in May, 1890, was called to the Second Unitarian Church of Boston, of which he was minister until 1892 when ill health compelled his resignation.

Having given up parish work, Dr. Horton took up new work at the Unitarian Building in Boston as Director of Unitarian Sunday Schools and remained President of the organization in charge of that work until 1910. For many years he was Executive Secretary and President of the governing board of the Benevolent Fraternity and Secretary of the Committee on Fellowship of Ministers for the Unitarian denomination, as well as trustee of Westford and Derby Academies.

Dr. Horton became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at its organization, serving for some time as State Chaplain and for many years as Chaplain of the Edward W. Kingsley Post of Boston. For two years he was Chaplain of the First Battalion of Cavalry and then for four years of the First Heavy Artillery of the Massachusetts Militia.On February 16, 1903 he was made Chaplain of ./the MassachusettsSenate. When he resigned twenty-five years later, the Senate unanimously made him the first Chaplain Emeritus in the history of the Common wealth. He was also Minister Emeritus of the Second Unitarian Church of Boston, as well as for many years Chaplain of the Ancient and Honor�able Artillery Company.

He was made a Mason in the Lodge of Eleusis of Boston on January 19 1893 and a member of that Lodge on March 10 of the same year. He took his degrees in the Scottish Rite Bodies in Boston in December 1906, and in February 1907 and was coronated an Honorary Member of the Supreme Council, 33°, for the Northern Jurisdiction, on September 17, 1907.

In 1880, the University of Michigan made him a Master of Arts, while in 1919 Tufts College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.

As an author, he wrote many religious volumes and numerous hymns and poems. Of recent years he resided at the Hotel Bellevue in Boston, though recently failing health kept him from many of his accustomed activities.

On April 15, 1931 he died suddenly in Toronto, Canada at the home of his only child, Mrs. B. A. Bensley, whose husband is a professor at McGill University. His wife predeceased him by many years.

His was a full life, rich in attainments. Its ample fruitage sprang from the fertile soil of high ideals, inspired by faith, lofty, broad and deep; For years he bore a marked resemblance to Sir Henry Irving. The slight, graceful figure, the face with its strong features crowned with a bush of snow-white hair contributed toward marking him as a unique personality.Who that knew him is ever likely to forget him?We rejoice in the recollection of his character — cheerful friendliness, never-failing sense of humor, intense patriotism and hearty enthusiasm for all noble enterprises.

Now that he is gone, he bequeaths to us a fragrant memory and we look back upon him as the incarnation of oratory, religious education, benevolence, fraternity, patriotism and sheer goodness.

Melvin M. Johnson, 33°
Frank B. Lawler, 32°
Curtis Chipman, 32°

SPEECHES

AT THE DEDICATION OF BOSTON TEMPLE, JUNE 1898

From Proceedings, Page 1898-64:

MOST WORSHIPFUL GRAND MASTER, BRETHREN: It is everywhere fitting that we should have commingled with our ritual these participating scenes, the hum of the pavement, betokening the prosperity, of our beloved city, out of which civilization weaves a symphony, a marching music of progress. Here are gathered in ample fringe the citizens who are regarding our exercises with sympathetic interest. What does this all mean? Is it a mere symbol, tinkling and of no effect? or are we gathered here, environed by ideas, crowned by majestic principles and thinking of something which will uplift our little hearts to the reigning glory of this day? Truly so. Where the Pyramids are raised amid the rustling dust of Sahara they speak to us in the handclasp of the brotherhood; aye, from India's opulent slope there come greetings to-day to America, and from that ancient past there comes the ever fresh, encouraging voice telling us to be true to that past, and to give to the future ample restocking and refilling of the significance of Freemasonry. We intend to do it.

We are not possessors of that Corner-stone. We are not the successful owners of the building to be. It will stand, crowned with consummate perfection, indicating that we of the Freemasons are simply stewards, custodians for the public, makers of a fireside for humanity, bringers of olive branches for every outstretched hand, for those who are down-trodden and oppressed. We are to put up this glorious addition to the edifices of Boston not because — you have voiced it, sir {turning to the Grand Master} —not because we want selfish enjoyment, but that we may be a larger, nobler power for everything that is good in this Commonwealth. We intend to make it, the bubbling, free-giving source of better citizenship, casting higher influences into the home, standing more loyally by the public school system, and pledging ourselves, individuals and Order, to stand by that flag that waves before my eyes now — to stand by it in true and loyal affection. AVe Freemasons are not isolated and bound in upon ourselves. AVe pour out allegiance, love and gratitude for all that that emblem represents.

Now, why is it? You will understand, sir, {turning to the Grand Master}, and the Brethren will quickly catch the situation,— that it would take a 50-horse lung man to talk here very long. This is not the time for any elaborate address. I might inflict such an effort upon you somewhere else, and it may be that you will have to suffer it somewhere else, but at this moment you shall escape. But let me, if you will be patient for a few minutes, —you, gathered here in the windows and about this circle of brotherhood, — tell you why we prize this Fraternity, why our hearts leap up for joy at its watchword and ritual. It is because — for one reason — we are born, every boy and girl in this city, North End, Back Bay, South End, what you will, geographically, every one is born into a world that they do not understand. The stars shine, the ocean moans, the great world whirls in its mighty force, cradles are rocked and graves are dug, — what does the world need? What does that sky signify? Freemasonry says this : There has been an Architect divine, making this world not a mass of forces to down you, to trample on you, but a home lighted up with intelligence, filled with beauty and radiant with a power that is not only majestic, but loving. Freemasonry says that the universe has a divine mind. We propose to interpret it so that the humblest individual may understand that he is not an orphan in this great universe, but that he is under the protection and guidance of a divine love.

There is a second reason why we cherish all this. The older the world grows, the more divided it is. Different nationalities, classes, social distinctions, privileges and pursuits exist until some of you no doubt are saying frequently, "Hands are against me, the strong are trampling on the weak; where am I that I have no rights in this world?" Freemasonry writes "Brotherhood" over the Arch of its Temple. Freemasonry says, no matter how a man is clad, no matter where he was reared, if he has the genuine stuff in him he is a man for all that. Freemasonry strikes off false fetters, annihilates arbitrary distinctions, and the humblest mortal gets the same welcome within our bounds as do people who are rich or learned. That is why — one reason — we appreciate Freemasonry; we help the United States of America, through all our Orders, to bring together all sorts and conditions of people, and to make them joyously, cooperatively one.

There is another reason, if you can bear a little more. You are individuals, you have your power and place as men and. women, — all of us, but when we pass off this stage, then what? Do we live just for this hour, for what we are individually? I do not, for one; my Brethren do not think that way, and therefore we want arks, arks floating on the turbulent stream of time, carrying on from century to century all the worldly gain of liberty, of justice, of human rights, of religion, and these Brethren of mine here are all willing to subordinate themselves; to bow their heads and say, "We too have individual lives, but the Order of Freemasonry is greater than, any one Brother therein." So when we pass on, it would be a source of delight to us to be able to say that we moulded together and made over and preserved all that was nearest and truest to the welfare of humanity.

May I add one more reason? You, Most Worshipful Grand Master, touched on that, as you did touch many chords that I am now reiterating. He, {referring to the Grand Master}, is the head source of all our wisdom. I look through you — I do not know you all, but I know that there is not one of you but deserves another chance in another world. We all crave and cry for existence beyond the grave, and Freemasonry says, with prophetic finger, never turn down that mortal, but do him the greatest good. All our work, all our discourse, all our building, is transfigured and made glorious by visions of the imperishable; and by dreams, aye, precious dreams, we outlive the day-dreams and convictions in regard to life beyond.

So, to release you, Freemasonry—we say it because the centuries say it; we say it because eternal truths say it — Freemasonry is progressive; it takes in the young; it keeps up to the marching music of that which is best and noblest. Freemasonry is patriotic; it loves the flag. In that Cornerstone are the papers of to-day. They tell about war, and they tell a good many things that are not so. {Laughter.} They tell the belligerency of cannon's roar, and sword flash and musket death, but right in the midst of this inevitable campaign of a higher civilization we group ourselves here to-day for peace; we assert to the community that we stand for peace. Freemasonry is permanent. It is not for to-day. It goes on, generation after generation, one Corner-stone succeeding another. And so may it be, Brethren; so may it be, friends gathered here, that while we, in our feeble way, fashion a temple made with hands, putting into it not only architectural form and beauty, but love, companionship, brotherhood, rectitude, and character, may we also think of the time to come when the great temple of the spirit shall be completed, and happy, emancipated humanity enter therein and sing together the song of those who know in thought and deed that they are the children of God.

AT THE CENTENARY OF BETHESDA LODGE, MARCH 1919

From Proceedings, Page 1919-13:

Most Worshipful and Brethren:

I am repaid for coming here, just to hear that beautiful, tuneful hymn sung, where men and women join as you have today in winged melody. It touches me, that particular song ("America, the Beautiful") more than almost any other similar.

I have for my text two words, and I trust you will remember those, even if you forget the sermon,— "Go Forward." Having some experience in preaching, I have now a habit of picking short texts, so that at least something may be remembered.

In Exodus, chapter 14, the fifteenth verse, there are contained these words: ". . . Go forward."

The honor of speaking here today I deeply appreciate. Memory cuts a quick path to your seventy-fifth anniversary, when I had the privilege of joining you, and the sunshine of that occasion has often come to me to cheer my plodding way. To be remembered now, after twenty-five years, is a distinct honor. I congratulate you on what you have achieved. It shines. Tour activities have gone into the common good, not only of this community, but in the radiating places where members have gone out from this community.

Specifically, I congratulate you on your having the Grand Master with you. We honor him, we nearest to him. We highly estimate his talents; we love him, and he is a great leader among us. So it is pleasant for me to be associated with him. But there is a special reason for congratulation, that he is to follow me, to offset my defects, and by his eloquence to make up for my lack of eloquence. I have often said to him and to others that he ought to be a preacher. I have urged him into pulpits occasionally. So here he is now, and we must ordain him when he gets through with us officially.

We Masons are holding this anniversary not for ourselves alone, but for this community also. The application of my text will come after we have briefly reviewed one hundred years of America's wonderful growth. We shall find this text shining and fraught with significance; with an inspiration of the most cheering and fitting spirit for Bethesda Lodge.

First, as a preliminary, I seize this opportunity which you have given me to impress the unmeasured value of notable anniversaries; to recall the inspiring past, to derive strength, to lift men higher, to prophesy the future, and to mould by suggestions the destinies of mankind. America has done some things well in this direction, but America is young. That is why I mention this phase. America is new, impatient to go on, and too often forgets that we are heirs of history and fulfillers of a notable past. Every temple, every memorial, every shrine is a lofty emblem of America's grand past. Such shining tributes illuminate our ideals, kindle our gratitude, and arouse us to progress.

Lest you think I am speaking in vague generalities, I will give you a sample of what I mean, only twenty-four hours old. The Vermont Press Association voted yesterday to erect a memorial to Horace Greeley at East Poultney, where that famous editor began his wonderful newspaper career. There you have a concrete instance picked right up by the wayside of life. It is a mighty fine thing that people should remember Horace Greeley at this time, flashing a revelation of a noble spirit into every-day life. A people grateful and wise never find it too late to honor remarkable characters; to mark their birthplaces and the spots of famous associations. Sad grows the condition of that country where the present obliterates the past. The greatness and goodness of today spring from the greatness and goodness of yesterday.

The scholastic, calm historian approaches such a duty as we have today detached from his theme. He is purely a judge and reporter, but you and I are personally involved in such a subject as this before us. I am obliged to confess that I have lived seventy-five of your hundred years. I, like you of shorter length of years, have dealt with the past in a working way; mingling in the world's affairs, taking sides on great issues, laboring with heart and mind for the success of many matters which a historian looks upon with placid curiosity and impersonal attention. We have lived, fought, suffered, crusaded through momentous eras. Therefore, we gather today with a most vital interest; not to be satisfied by commonplaces, or meaningless words; or dry statistics. May I stir your minds to the remembrance of your great past, for this Lodge, as I have intimated, has been a part of America's progress for a century.

We sometimes say, "Such a man or woman lives in the past," and we commonly mean when we say it that he or she is always looking backward. "The old times were the best. But there is a true and necessary and inspiring way of living in the past which is quite different. We must take the past with us; surround ourselves with a throng of witnesses, as the Scripture says, who cheer us on in the good fight for every good cause. In times of war and peace alike, life is a battle. The Christian makes radiant activity his highest condition. Ease smothers the spirit of any society. Glorious is the future of any organization which looks backward in order the surer and better to go forward.

Two great characters had much to do with shaping America, one hundred years ago, Washington and Lafayette, both Freemasons. Most significant is that expression, now familiar and which will be a classic, given time, which was spoken by our brother, General Pershing, one of the first of our two millions who went over,— "Lafayette, we are here." To pay the great debt, to renew Freedom's battle, to unite the new and the old democracy.

What did those two notable Freemasons say about Freemasonry? Said Washington, "The grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of mankind." Said Lafayette, "Freemasonry is an order whose leading star is philanthropy and whose principles inculcate an increasing devotion to the cause of virtue and morality. Happiness of mankind and philanthropy! Yes, such are the aims of our world-wide Order. How those simple words grow to boundless meaning as we trace the history of our Order for a hundred years in America!

The "pursuit of happiness" is what the Declaration of Independence says. True happiness naturally involves virtue, morality, a clear conscience, and a joy in the brotherhood of man. It means the climbing toward ideals and the attainment of character and civilization. There were about ten million population in America at your beginning. There are now fully one hundred million. George Washington had been dead only about twenty years when this lodge was founded, but in that time the little nation had come to realize what a great leader he had been. It takes time for these things. He had his critics, but his example towered then in commanding influence. The people recalled that their first President had been a Freemason, and they credited to that source much of Washington's firm yet benignant spirit, and traced to our Order much of the sovereign character he manifested. Calm, strong, patient, wise; in rectitude unsullied, in administrative genius foremost, a patriot unsurpassed, it is but truth to claim that Freemasonry helped to lay the corner-stone of our country, as so often it has fulfilled that duty for the foundation of churches, libraries, cathedrals, and monuments.

Bethesda Lodge began its valuable career in the opening of the great century of expansion," as it has been called; in the "wonderful century," as it has been called: the nineteenth.

I come not here to boast. I come not here to claim by comparison what should not be said. Freemasonry is only one source of human prosperity and progress. Understand me, throughout this whole discourse I am seeking only the honest fraternal truth; the historical interpretation; the plaiu teaching for our own good and the kindling of gratitude.

What did a king once say? Ruler and sovereign over his people, he said, "The prosperity of Freemasonry as a means of strengthening our relation to the spirit of true brotherly love is one of the dearest wishes of my heart, and I hope it will be fulfilled, by the help of the great Architect of the Universe." You can see he was a Mason. Who said that? The King of Denmark. In similar language spoke King Edward of England, who was our Grand Master in the British Empire, and our beloved Brother. Would to heaven such sentiments had filled the heart of another ruler, whose autocratic spirit and that of his associates has entailed unmeasured havoc, death, and savagery, not only for his own people, but for the whole world, in our own day.

When I think of the contributions your particular body has made to character and citizenship and to Christianity during all this century past, the measure of their quality and quantity, their manifold diversity, their value to the-sources of common wealth, prosperity, and progress cannot be told. Let us be grateful for the faith and hope of the charter members who founded this Lodge, looking in vision across the intervening years.

I am fond of your name, Bethesda: a healing pool at Jerusalem's gate, where Jesus walked and the miracle occurred ; the life-giving place; the place of restoration and renewal and reconstruction and inspiration. The name was a happy, fit choice. In 1819 the struggles of Revolutionary times had deepened life into new channels. America needed self-control, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, for her master builders. The republic was rising, growing in form. Men needed association and conference as to the best use of their inestimable new freedom and their well-won privileges. Especially did the name Bethesda express the idea of personal power; healthy, strong citizenship, clear-eyed, dominating the work of the young democracy. If I were to symbolize its five porches—and I suppose you are all versed in this, and I don't doubt the Grand Master could explain this a great deal better than I can—I might do it in this way. The pool of Bethesda had five porches, and when I indulge my symbolic imagination (of which I have a large supply) I have often thought of the five porches of Bethesda in this way: Knowledge, leading to enlightenment; Goodwill, creating brotherly confidence, making justice by laws and by personal adjustment; Aspiration; Friendship; Faith, blossoming into Optimism. That makes a round character, typical of America and of Freemasonry.

There is a duplication, as perhaps you know, of your name by another Lodge, which is a very rare thing in our jurisdiction. This, however, happens to be a Lodge in Chile, so it won't trouble you. You should take it as a great compliment. Moreover, recollect that there is strong need of healing pools and cooling streams in that region. Let us hope that the waters of Bethesda Lodge, symbolically speaking, may cleanse and cool South America from some of its political fevers.

There were four great words being uttered by Americans when your Lodge was founded. On these things I can only briefly touch. The first was freedom. Men were muttering and shouting, "Freedom! "Freedom!" Freemasonry defined that idea, for by itself freedom may run off into license, or into inertia and bondage. Freemasonry transformed that word into law-abiding, God-fearing, self respecting citizenship.

The second word was justice. Today we may think these words are threadbare, but then they were fresh with the bloom of newness among the people. Our Order in all its Lodges sought to establish government, justice, legal rights, and personal fair play; sought to make generosity and charity and goodwill definite and strong and permanent by demanding justice everywhere; justice first and then much else. The third word was opportunity. The shores whispered it in the waves and the forests spoke it; opportunity away from the old world. We make Freemasonry the open door, and keep it open for poor and rich, for all the people; expanding industry by honoring labor; by praising the earnest worker wherever we find him.

Religious liberty was the fourth word: freedom to worship God. Our spirit has been not simply toleration, which was good in its day, but our principles allow for respect and admiration of those who, sincerely, devotedly, may differ in methods from ourselves. Freedom to worship God according to our own consciences we have not only conceded, but demanded and encouraged.

In 1819, there were two great sources of guidance, which were sought by our ancestors with wonderful devotion: the Bible and the Constitution. A Supreme Court judge, within a few weeks has said, "The two documents which concern us the most we read the least, the Bible and the Constitution." America needs these sailing-charts of life more than ever today.

The three key-words to citizenship, as I look at it, are reason, reverence, and righteousness; the three R's of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Reason, and therefore common-sense; reverence, loyalty, esteem and gratitude for the ideals and sacrifices of our fathers; righteousness, which means justice and fair play and square dealing with all the world.

One hundred years! A century! It covers the decades in which our country grew from weakness to power; from an Atlantic seaboard to a continent; from local influence to world power. A space of development, full of wonders of science, glorious in art and literature, and witnessing the enthronement of Washington and Lincoln as wonderful personalities and great leaders in humanity's far-flung onward march. To crown all this is the worldwide war just closing. A century in which America has followed a special path from the western world to rescue Europe; a young republic becoming the saviour of ancient nations; a democracy victor over autocracy. Now at last we see our country standing in her place among men. Never shall the seas divide her from the world's great need again.

Forward, then, and onward, upward, Toward the grander day, All the nations climbing with us, One great, glad fraternity. We now turn from the inspiration of the past to the prophecy and prospects of the still grander future. We turn, in other words, from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, where we stand upon the threshold. The twentieth century has some very pressing, attention-calling questions. Let me put them in my own language, and you can translate them as you will.

First, how to harmonize capital and labor. I answer quickly (you see the rapidity with which I must march), "Wise laws." But that is not enough. The State House may fill books with new statutes. The great question is, "What are the people thinking T What is the public sentiment? Will they back up laws?" Yes, make wise laws to lead the way, but to effect this reconciliation (for there is a chasm) there must be the spirit that will settle this great question, for unless we settle it like men it will grow worse instead of better. You tell me it is difficult. I know it, but difficult or not it has got to be faced. Capital and labor have one interest. They need each other; they are partners. Oh, for the time to come speedily when both shall see with the same eyes how their destiny coalesces! You young men have the twentieth century before you.

I have talked about how to harmonize capital and labor. The next thing is to mobilize citizenship in morals and intelligence. The people will have to express themselves. Mobilize citizenship so that the citizenship ideal and the individual action make combination. If all these great discussions and decisions are to go on strong and convincing, the church, the public library, and the school—all these, must contribute to the production of Americanism; more in the next twenty-five years than ever before if we want to carry things upward.

How to energize politics into statesmanship; a perpetual question, complicated with personal ambitions, provincial and topographical. The common good has a hard struggle to emerge. Governor Guild used to talk about this often. "Ladies and gentlemen," he would say, "will you please take the word 'politics' with me and carry it up to where it belongs?"

What did he mean? The dictionary says, "Politics is the science of government." That is correct. Because politics are debased and made small, that does not alter the substantial heart and soul of the science of government. Statesmanship, we concede, is the flower, the consummate fruit, of politics; there can be a statesmanship in vision, in largeness of thought; in clearness of judgment, holding the popular scales. Now, of all times, we want to carry politics, whether they belong to the commonwealth or the nation, up into the transfiguring region of ideals. Another great question that is before you is how to standardize democracy; how to produce in this country the kind of democracy that will serve the world around; to standardize the laws by actual results, and so arrange that they will serve in any country. That is what they are trying to do in Paris at the Peace Conference, only they don't put it just that way. If you want some person to follow, take Abraham Lincoln, who said, "Whenever I read the Declaration of Independence and get inspiration from it for my work, I always think of it as big enough to take in all humanity." That is statesmanship.

I want to touch upon one topic which is only one out of a myriad special paths by which I could go: the recognition of individuals. That is what Freemasonry cherishes. Out of the many progressive tendencies of the nineteenth century, there was one which Freemasonry always taught, namely, the recognition and development of the individual man and woman. That is our cardinal principle in the furnace fires of history. We are trying to smelt out and refine the golden qualities of the individual, which we want for democracy. You can have automatons and slaves in autocracies, but you must have live individuals, intelligent and earnest, in a democracy.

Do you know just what the nineteenth century has done in this direction t Let us not forget these things by familiarity. Individuals are no longer regarded as the property of other individuals. It required a great Civil War, it required an Abraham Lincoln, to accomplish these results in the world. When this lodge was founded there were about two million slaves in this country. Just before the war for the Union there were about four million. George Washington — ah, there was the Freemason spirit! — directed in his will that all his slaves should be set free. The spirit of our Order naturally was for the abolition of slavery. Allow me to remark that Abraham Lincoln was a mighty good Freemason, although he did not have that name.

The tendency grew also in the nineteenth century to recognize the rights of childhood; its natural claims to skilful care, good education, and treatment of love and sympathy.

Great attention also began to be paid to old age, in measures manifold. The air today is full of suggestions from the last century about this: pensions; homes; scientific means of prolonging life, and home loyalty.

In the next place, the sphere of woman has been enlarged. Her power and her place in a democracy have been better recognized. Whatever position you take on woman's suffrage, you will agree that this statement is correct. The influence of woman as a moulder of citizenship, a creator of happy homes, a co-worker with man, a builder of Christian commonwealths, has been more and more apparent.

I am told that wives often view our Order with distrust, because there are secrets belonging to it that their husbands do not permit them to know. I have found little serious conjugal trouble on this account, but if there are any here who have, let me read the old-fashioned words of a historian. Perhaps he belonged to this Lodge; I don't know. He is an old-fashioned writer, and he uses old-fashioned language. He says:

"The good Mason in his family is high without severity; condescending, without meanness. His commands are gentle; indeed his wishes are commands, for all are equally ready to make him happy. To his wife, he is a tender husband, not a usurping lord. To his children, he is a kind and providential father; not a domineering tyrant. To his servants, he is both friend and employer. His home, whether a cottage or a palace is, while he is present, the habitation of peace. When there, he leaves it with reluctance. When absent, his return is expected with great avidity."

That sounds pretty good. If all this were generally known and believed, and if we Masons lived up to it, the first question a young lady would ask a young man proposing marriage would be, "Are you a Mason? If so . . . yes."

An author of prominence gives a chapter in his recent book to a phrase that he has coined, and evidently thinks is very good — The sacrificial social mind. This is to be the panacea for all the evils of selfishness that prevail in the world. It sounds good, but after all Christianity has been saying exactly the same thing all along. Democracy accents it from Plymouth Bock down. Freemasonry proclaims it. The human soul made brotherly, self-sacrificing, sympathetic, that is your "sacrificial social mind." Correct me afterwards if I am not right, but our Brotherhood does not use the phrase "melting pot," referring to our nation and commonwealth. We believe in keeping variety and distinctiveness in a healthy way, giving scope to personal differences, but leading up to an American type of citizenship, many in one, without obliterating the best features of individuals. That is the brotherhood which is set forth in the parables of Jesus and understood by Freemasons.

This is the day of the average man. He is coming into his larger rights. Down the ages he has been enslaved, robbed of his just privileges, and made the burden-bearer of the powerful. Sometimes, in despair, with blind fury, he has risen, burning, killing, and devastating society, as in the French Revolution. The average man made his home in the new world and created a republic, dedicated to liberty and fraternity. Today, the average man goes forth to rescue imperiled democracy for the world; to overturn tyranny, and to make a permanent place in the brotherhood of nations.

There is a worldwide movement called Christian civilization. What is it ? It is democracy Christianized. It is the best in Christian education, religion, and science, made triumphant by the sacrifice of free peoples. I say "Christianized democracy," not "socialized democracy." As one respected lecturer said yesterday, socialized democracy means a good deal, good or bad, but Christianized democracy is different. It has the needful religious element. Socialism may mean a great many things, but Christianity, as its Author proclaimed it, is high-minded democracy; the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, with Christ the master builder and leader.

Americanism can win the world, and seeks to do it. It has a heart of religious zeal; an ideal of righteous peace and patriotism as broad as humanity, as high as Heaven's mercy. America (and you are a part of it), is dealing with centuries and working along lines of patient, optimistic, Divine leadings.

So Washington and Lincoln were builders, and that great character, Theodore Roosevelt, so often misunderstood, was a toiler majestic for the great era of peace, good will, justice, And law-abiding freedom.

Remember that every Lodge is a power-house, radiating through the whole community uplifting influences. It is a brotherhood centre. It is a university of the higher education where symbolic ideals are inculcated and history is illuminated. I call it a higher education. Every Lodge is a university. Every Lodge is a preparedness headquarters. What is the best preparedness for America? Intelligence, conscience, valiant manhood and womanhood.

I need not dilate upon the fact that Freemasonry carries the banner of optimism. We are all optimists; optimists believing in America. Every American is cradled by the mother spirit of hope and faith. America's wonderful history, joined to the freedom-loving past of old England, gives highest title to uplift, to faith in human progress. The world-wide gaze at this moment, as you and I are conferring together, beholds America presenting to all nations hopes — hopes well denned, hopes of a federated world of men, with peace and goodwill embodied in international laws.

America! Thy Victorious shrine,
In peace and war, with hopes divine,—
Hope for a homeland, free and fair;
Hope of real justice everywhere;
Hope of a federated world;
Hope of old battleflags all furled;
Hope for the nobler heart and mind;
Hope for the progress of mankind.
Our fathers laid foundations deep,
Be ours the joy their faith to keep.
Look back, O country mine, and see
How gracious God has been to Thee!
Look forward, greater things there be
For us and for humanity.


Distinguished Brothers