Page:Oration Delivered on the Centennial Day of Washington's Initiation into Masonry (1852).djvu/4

4 come as patriots, having a common heritage, a common birthright, and a common country, to commemorate a simple and humble transaction, which, one hundred years ago, identified the greatest and the best of men—the first of Generals and the purest of patriots, with the ancient and honorable order of Masons.

It is this simple transaction which, after the lapse of a hundred years, is commemorated by the Fraternity, for the first time that has collected this audience here, which I have the honor to address. For this are these banners, symbols, badges and regalia displayed; for this have the Sons of Masonry, mustering in their might, and numbers come up to this sanctuary, with pride in the thought, and gratitude in the recollection, that He, whose deeds and fame fill the world, and swells and spreads with the tide of time, became, on this day, one of themselves. And last, but first in importance, for this too, has beauty come forth; and by its every grace and charm, by the softening and subduing influence of its hallowed power, consecrates the memory, and bows before the shrine of.

That name, that is greater than all earthly names; that name at which despotism trembles, and fallen Liberty revives; that name which childhood, manhood and old age regards as almost divine, has called us together this day. And, in the spirit of peace, love and good will, we have come hither, leaving behind and banishing far hence, the harrassing toils and perplexing cares of the world, the scheming and calculating of the field, the counting-room and the shop; the rivalry, jealousy and strife of political and ecclesiastical conventions; let us sit down as under the eye and in the hands of Him with whom the universe is a point, and time and eternity a unit, and dwell upon the Past, the Present and the Future. And let our spirits commune, the while, together, upon this subject: let us ascertain from what and by whom, the past acquired its glory and its greatness; the present, its highest excellence and moral worth; and how and by what means the glory and greatness of the past, the moral excellence and worth of the present may be transmitted, untarnished and unimpaired, to the future.

I know not, my brethren and friends, a more appropriate and interesting subject on which to address you as Masons, as fellow-citizens, than this. And, in reference to the past, I carry you back but a hundred years.

A hundred years! As an ideal abstraction, how unimportant, and how transient! but in eventual realities how momentous, vast and grand! A hundred times, only, in that period, has this globe made its circuit round the sun; what tongue can tell or pen portray the weight of woes and sorrows, wrongs and suffering it has carried in unresisting silence; or, who can measure the tears, with which, during that period, it has been bedewed, and the blood with which it has been drenched.