Special thanks to George Helmer FPS

BEAUTIFUL EXTRACT.

THE MASONIC REVIEW - 1853

 From the message of the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge
of Virginia, at its last annual communication.

"Brethren, a solemn duty has again devolved upon me. This
mournful drapery suspended around this Hall tells the sad
tale, that Death, that fell destroyer, during our vacation has
not been idle; it tells us that the good, the wise, the Rulers in
this our Israel are fast fleeting away. The insatiable Tomb
has drawn within its ponderous vortex and silent resting
place, alike the old, the young, the virtuous and the upright
Mason from our very midst; those to whom all the Masonic
virtues were objects of ambition, and those upon whose
heads honors had been accumulated by the voice of their
Brethren, and which had been so gracefully and beautifully
worn.

If I should now direct that a Roll of the Craft be called, amidst
many responses of those around me, would be felt that
shuddering silence so deep, so ominous of departure. When
amidst the lists of those whom you have delighted to honor,
and who have presided over this Body with so much dignity
and propriety, are galled the names of our Past Grand
Masters WILLIAM MITCHELL, Jr., and my immediate
predecessor JAMES POINTS, Silence, Darkness, Death are
the response:- they are gone, their cheering voices are no
longer heard; their noble example, their precepts, their
experience obtained in a long and consistent Masonic life,
alone remain to us.

They have sped to the Spirit Land. They will mingle with us
no more on Earth forever. The little mound of earth so oft
bedewed by the tears of the widow and the orphan: The
monumental marble, cold and silent as the head it covers,
tells the sad tale of death. But we seek them not there. That
little Sprig of Cassia which we find blooming at its head,
teaches us to look with the eye of faith beyond the portals of
the grave, that effulgent clime where light and joy radiate
from the glorious throne of God, where the spirits of just men
pale perfect, clothed with ineffable bliss, continually utter
their anthems of love and praise.

Brethren, what lessons of wisdom do we derive from these
frequent admonitions; what are our feelings when year after
year, nay, day by day, are taken from our immediate circle
those near and dear to us, those whom we love and cherish,
and whose lightest sigh of pain causes us distress and
anguish, when they are thus called upon to pay the last great
debt of nature, leaving us to mourn, and feeling as though
our very heart strings are giving way when they are taken
from our eight. Do we remember that we too must die, that it
will be left to others to pay those tokens of respect and love
to our memories that a deserving life merits, and that
perhaps when least expected or desired:- Standing now as
monuments of the everlasting Father's love and mercy, are
we profiting by his teachings, and so living that when death
is called upon to strike with his uplifted dart we may have the
happy consolation that we shall inherit those joys, and meet
with those we cherished on earth, and with a world of
beautified spins, worship around that throne prepared for all
by a God of mercy. Let us put off at once our indifference of
death and its consequences, and prepare to meet it as wise,
reflecting and accountable beings."

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