Page:Manual of the Lodge.pdf/198

Rh After the singing of the ode, the new Master calls the Lodge to order, and the Senior Warden is brought before him with the same ceremony as was used in his own case. No objection being made to his installation, the new Master administers the following obligation of office:

I, A. B., do solemnly promise that I will serve this Lodge as. . . . . . for the space of one year, from the festival of St. John the Evangelist to the one next ensuing, and will perform all the duties appertaining to that office, to the best of my abilities. So help me God.

The following charge is then rehearsed to him:

THE SENIOR WARDEN.

Brother C. D., you are appointed Senior Warden of this Lodge, and are now invested with the badge of your office.

The Level demonstrates that we are descended from the same stock, partake of the same nature, and share the same hope; and though distinctions among men are necessary to preserve subordination, yet no eminence of station should make us forget that we are brethren; for he who is placed on the lowest spoke of fortune's wheel, may be entitled to our regard; because a time will come, and the wisest knows not how soon, when all distinction, but that of goodness, shall cease; and death, the grand leveler of human greatness, reduce us to the same state.

Your regular attendance on our stated meetings is essentially necessary. In the absence of the Master, you are to govern this Lodge; in his presence, you