Page:Manual of the Lodge.pdf/204

Rh No objection being made, the presiding Grand officer proceeds to administer to the newly elected officer the obligation for the faithful discharge of his duties, the brethren all respectfully standing. The new Grand Master then receives the following charge, and being invested with the ensigns of his dignity, in placed in the Oriental Chair.

CHARGE TO THE GRAND MASTER.

Let me congratulate you, Most Worshipful Sir, on the honor of being raised, from the level of equality, to the high station of presiding over all the and Lodges in the State of. . . . . . . . . ., and the Masonic jurisdiction thereof. We look up with confidence to a brother [whose age alone would entitle him to our respectful deference, but] whose person is endeared to us by that love of the fraternity which is sanctified by the experience of many revolving years. May the Father of light, of life, and of love invest you with his choicest gifts; may heavenly wisdom illumine your mind; may heavenly power give strength to your exertions; may heavenly goodness fill and enlarge your breast; may your feet rest upon the rock of justice; from your hands may streams of beneficence continually flow; and round your head may there bend a circle made splendid by the rays of honor; and late, very late in life, may you be transmitted from the fading honors of an earthly Lodge, to the mansions prepared for the faithful in another and a better world.

Let me congratulate you, the Grand officers, and other brethren, on the election of our [venerable]