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WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER 1822-1905

BIOGRAPHY

From Proceedings, Page 1873-364:

REV. WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER, A.M., BOSTON. Unitarian. 1855-1856, 1863-1867.

ALGER, WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE, clergyman and author, b. Freetown, Ms., Dec. 30, 1822. Camb. Theol. School, 1847. In that year he became minister of a Unitarian Society at Roxbury, and in 1855 exchanged for a similar charge in Boston. He now preaches at the Music Hall, Boston. He pub. A Symbolic History of the Cross of Christ, 1851; The Poetry of the East 1856. His chief work is A Critical History of the Doctrines of a Future Life, with a Complete Bibliography of the Subject, by Ezra Abbot, 1864. He also edited, with an introduction, in 1858, Studies of Christianity, by James Martineau.
— Drake's Biographies, 1872.

Bro. Alger was born at Freetown, Mass. He did not graduate at any college, but received the Honorary Degree of A.M. from Harvard University in 1850. He was initiated into Masonry in Washington Lodge, Roxbury, Mass., on the recommendation of that worthiest of men and of Masons, the late venerable Winslow Lewis, Senior; and has served as Chaplain in various branches of the Masonic Institution.
— History of Columbian Lodge, 1856.

The compiler would call the attention of the reader to the beautiful and impressive address of Brother Alger delivered at the funeral of Rev. Stephen Lovell, which will be found in connection with the notice of that Chaplain.

SPEECHES

ADDRESS ON WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 1853

From Moore's Freemason's Monthly, Vol. XII, No. 7, May 1853, p. 204:

BROTHER ALGER'S EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. [The Rev. Br. Alger having declined the invitation of the Grand Lodge of this Commonwealth to publish the eloquent Eulogy delivered before that body on the 22d February, on the life and character of Washington, has kindly permitted us to make the following elegant extract from his manuscript, it being the conclusion of the address]:

Brethren of the Mystic Circle!

Standing here by your kind favor to-night, I should not only speak of Washington as a model man and patriot, to a company of patriotic Americans, bnt also as a free and accepted Mason to an assembly of those who in this respect, too, are of bis own spiritual kith and kin. You will not expect me to close without a brief reference to bis relationship with our cherished Order.

Brethren of the holy Tie!—In Washinoton we behold a consistent embodiment of the Masonic rule of strict Morality. The integral purity and righteousnesss of his character and conduct afford a fair specimen of the genuine fruits of Masonry, wherever its influences are received and its instructions followed. Every member of this ancient, guiding Institution, is solemnly pledged to revere, love and obey every law of right, and to abjure, and keep himself unsullied from, every element of wrong. From first to last he is thickly surrounded by the most significant and impressive symbols, ever to remind him of his Masonic obligations to observe truth and holiness in all their aspects, and to refrain from falsehood and vice in every form. The garment of the consistent Mason is innocence; the measures of his motives and deeds are the square of virtue and the plumb of rectitude; his heart is'a vase still exhaling the incense of gratitude to heaven; the contents of his hand are charitable acts; the cardinal guardians of hia soul are prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude; his monitors are the winged hour glass of rapid frailty and the pointing sword of certain retribution and the spade fast by the narrow house; his encouragers are the emblematic ladder, the starry canopy, and the resurrection sprig; and he walks over the variegated carpet of life's vicissitudes spread on the level of time, as one who knows that the All-Seeing Eye is on him. If our word be doubted and the society we honor and love be yet suspected and traduced, we reply to every calumny by pointing to Washington, its worthy representative, and asking, is it possible that he would have remained to the day of his death in full communion with an Institution any of whose fundamental, or permitted usages, or tolerated results, were treasonous, or immoral, or perilous!

Brethren of the sacred Fellowship! In Washington's connection with our society we see a fine exemplification of the Masonic law of equal Fraternity. By the traditional essential rule of our body, from primeval times till now, just as by the great ordinance of unperverted nature, we are commanded to meet on the level of a common humanity, and open warm hearts and ready hands to each others distresses, and give love for love, eschewing all hate, envy and pride. On the threshold of our temple all titular distinctions fall off, and standing within it consecrated walls, on inherent merits alone, with equal rights and sympathies, but with strict subordination of offices, man meets as the free and affectionate brother of man, the merchant Croesus clasps in mystic grasp the toil-worn hand of the penniless laborer, and the peasant is pressed to the bosom of the prince. Often at evening did Washington descend from his elevation and on the floor boards of temporary Lodges, sit on terms of close friendship and perfect equality, side by side with the humblest soldier whose weary arms through the day the heavy musket had galled, and whose naked feet had tracked the flints and the snows with blood. All who enter the guarded enclosure of Freemasonry are taught by beautiful ceremonies and touching symbols to throw their arms and hearts wide open as very brothers indeed, to all who bear the typical word and sign to whatever race they belong, Hindoo or Saxon, and wherever they meet from the equator all round to the poles. Has not our Order in this particular, a magnificent and merciful mission yet to perform in a jarring and alienated world?

Brethren of the hidden Mysteries! In the initiation of Washington to the secrets of our Institution and Fraternity, we find an impressive illustration of the Masonic spirit of reverential humility. There is a religious awe about the entrance into the asylum of our traditions and secresy, as there is about the entrance into the invisible alluring scenes beyond the veils of time and mortality. Whoso would enter the privileged pale must come in modesty and stillness, and without pretensions. The glittering Sultan of Turkey, and the painted Indian of the Rocky Mountains must come in the same manner, with the same humble, submissive reverence. This fact is brought to our notice best by the occasion on which we are now met. One hundred years ago this night, haply at this very hour, the greatest man in the world, stripped of all insignia whereby he might be distinguished from the lowliest of his fellow-men, presented himself at the door of our sentinelled Order, and craved to be admitted to a knowledge and participation of its concealed benefits. Alone, in silence,in deep humility, he bowed before the ancient mystery and besought an entrance. The door opened, a friendly voice and hand guided him forward, the curtain which has for so many ages shrouded the secrets behind it from unworthy eyes, was lifted, and—he saw. In these ceremonies Masonry but copies the mysterious ordination, and follows the overawing spirit of all embosoming nature. Our initiation is only a miniature type, a feeble symbol of the true, the great initiation through which, and that upon impartial terms, every mortal, from the most gorgeous monarch to the most destitute slave, must, sooner or later, pass to immortality., When a fit applicant after the preliminary probation, kneels with fainting sense and pallid brow, before the veil of the unutterable unknown, and the last pulsations of his heart tap at the door of eternity, and he reverentially asks—as he cannot but do it with profoundest reverence—admission to partake in the secrets and benefits forever shrouded from the profane vision of sinful flesh, the infinite Master directs the call to be answered by Death, the speechless and solemn Steward of the Mysteries of the celestial Lodge. He comes, pushes the curtain aside, leads the awestruck initiate in, takes the blinding bandage of the body from his soul,—and straightway he receives light in the midst of that innumerable Fraternity of immortals over whom the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides.

Thns and thither, Brethren of the immortal Hope! has our Washington ascended from us. And every year as the nation goes up to mingle funereal rite and festi ve gratulation over his memory, among that vast company of congregated people appears a smaller and more intimate band, charged with fuller feeling, for they were bound to him by closer, dearer ties. They draw near the spot where his ashes sleep, and drop the branch of acacia upon his grave with a tear and a smile. They lift their eyes to heaven and say, "Glorious Brother, thither hast thou risen now, beyond all the interposing veils, to the innermost shrine of creation, and there we too shall come, and meet thee again!"

Alger papers at Harvard

Distinguished Brothers