Special thanks to George Helmer FPS

MASONIC HONORS TO THE DEAD.

Freemasons' Monthly Magazine 1860.

The custom of paying a parting tribute of respect to the Dead
derives from a deep-seated and most natural feeling in the
human heart, and hence we find it to have existed in every
nation, ancient or modern, civilized  or uncivilized; - among
the South sea islanders and wild North American Indians, no
less than the old world Hindoos, Assyrians, Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans:  with the Hebrews under their ancient
theocratic institutions as well as with the Christians of
modern times. The rites and customs connected with such
funeral celebrations have been, of course, as widely
different, as the national character of the nations among
which they were adopted, but the one common principle was
at the root of all, the desire to gratify the feelings of the
survivors' hearts by some farewell tokens of affection and
respect offered to the memory of the departed. We find the
record of such observances sanctioned by the precedents of
the earliest Scripture history, in which we read of Joseph and
his brothers, on the decease of Jacob their father, carrying
up the body for burial to Hebron and stopping "at the
threshing-floor of Atad, beyond Jordan, and there mourning
with a great and very sore lamentation: so that the
inhabitants of the land, when they saw the mourning, said,
this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians." In the prophet
Jeremiah, again, to pass over many other instances and
allusions, we find references to the same observances,
including the employment of the "mourning women,"
corresponding to the preficoe of the Romans and the
"keepers" of Celtic funerals.

"Give ear! call the mourning-women, that they come,
And to the skilful women send, that they come;
Let them hasten, and lift up the lamentation over us,
That our eyes may run with tears,
And our eyelids may flow with water."

The same scene, thus referred to by the ancient Hebrew
prophet, may be seen by the traveller daily enacted in
modern Syria and Egypt. In all time and in every land, under
whatever different phases, the human heart, with its sorrows
and its joys, is still the same, and even those who can with
difficulty obtain the means of supporting their own life, will
sacrifice even their daily sustenance to do honor to their
dead ones. And when, in a community or a nation, some one
has been called away, who, by virtue, valor, patriotism or
other noble qualities, has towered preeminently above his
fellows, the private and more modest marks of mourning
accorded to all in common, extend and rise to a wider and
loftier sphere, and country and citizens unite with kinsmen in
lamenting the loss, and lauding the merits of the great or
good departed. In ancient Greece the custom of eulogizing
the memory of the illustrious dead was established at a very
early period, as we learn from the Homeric Poems, and was
adopted, as a wise and just institution, by her most illustrious
orators and statesmen. Nor can we imagine any greater or
more exciting stimulus, that could have been afforded to the
valour of her warriors, than the glowing panegyrics of a
PERICLES, pronounced over the tombs of those who had
fallen in defence of their Fatherland. Few, if any, of the
funeral orations of later times can be compared with that
eloquent and heart-stirring eulogium delivered by that
accomplished orator over the "first-slain" of his countrymen
in the Peloponnesian war. How beautiful and powerful is
even the condensed substance of the close of that
memorable address !

"My task then is nearly done, yet it may be added that these
glorious and beautiful lives have been crowned by a most
glorious and honorable death. Enjoying and enjoyed, as had
been their life, it never tempted them to seek by unworthy
fear to prolong it. To repel their country's enemies was
dearer to them than the fairest prospect which added years
could offer them; and, having gained this, they were content
to die, and their last field witnessed their brightest glory,
undimmed by a single thought of weakness! Let us follow
their example, contemplating our country's greatness, till our
hearts and minds are fully inspired with a deep sense and an
enduring Love of it. This is the just fruit of virtues, such as
theirs whom we are now lamenting! They, when they could
give their country nothing else, gave her their own lives; and
their meet return is an enduring monument in every heart, in
every land, forever!" A noble tribute to the noble dead, and
powerful exhortation to the living, and time has shown it to
have been no less prophetic, for, after the lapse of more
than two thousand years; an English poet, himself the
champion of fallen Greece, thug truthfully addresses her-

"Bear witness Greece, thy living page,
Attest it, many a deathless age!
Thy heroes, 'mid the general doom,
That swept the column from the tomb,
A mightier monument command,
The mountains of their native land!"

This custom then of paying a proper tribute of respect and
affection to all the dead, and of offering, by funeral orations
and other appropriate means, a more public and marked
honor to the memory of those who had in their lives pre-
eminently distinguished themselves, is, as we have said, no
less sanctioned by the precedents of history in every age
and land, than the sense of right and justice implanted in the
human soul. It emanates at once from the heart of humanity.
We shall, therefore, not be wrong in applying it to a point of
Masonry, to which many circumstances have combined of
late to draw our attention in a more than ordinary degree,
and respecting which we know that many of our Brethren are
feeling not a little anxiety and uneasiness. MASONRY, we
need hardly say, in its path of wide-spread benevolence, is
confined to no age or land. It is the fortress and support of
charity, virtue and truth, of Humanity at large, in every age
and land; and its practice, like its principles, should ever be
in strict unison with those DIVINE PRINCIPLES, from which
HUMANITY derives its loftiest and hoIiest inspirations. As
each nation, of ancient or of modern times, has had its own
peculiar modes of giving vent to the sorrow of the living, and
of showing respect to the dead, so the RITUAL of our world-
wide Brotherhood has established a certain form for the
funeral ceremonies of each departed Brother; and to us it
appears a matter of no light moment - but, on the contrary,
one of imperative duty - that, whenever it is possible, the
order of that Ritual should be compiled with. That every
Mason, however humble his position or unknown his name,
provided he had through life been true to his vows and the
principles of our Order, should in death receive from his
Brethren a Brother's meed of mourning and respect. There is
no want of charity in distinctly stating that only for him who
has thus been a true Mason in life, can this honor be ,justly
claimed or expected. The instances happily are few, but yet
they do occasionally arise, in which those initiated into our
honorable craft have proved false, in character and conduct,
to all those high and virtuous principles which it is the
essential object of Masonry to maintain. If, by such deviation
from his vows, he, who was once a brother, has incurred the
penalty of expulsion, he has lost all claim to funeral honors
awarded to the true Mason. And yet, we have learned with
deep regret that a case has not long since occurred in a
neighboring State, in which this wise and wholesome rule
has been entirely and flagrantly disregarded, even the
highest Masonic honors having been paid to the memory of
one, who, at the time of his death, was under the sentence
of expulsion, and whose whole life had reflected disgrace,
instead of dignity, upon our Brotherhood! We feel bound to
protest in the most earnest terms against such a misuse and
degradation of Masonic honors as this. However it may have
originated in a feeling of generous charity towards the dead,
it is no less a violation of the fundamental principles of
Masonry, and is calculated to inflict great injury upon our
Order in the eyes of the uninitiated; while even among
ourselves, one of the greatest incentives to perseverance in
the path of duty and of fidelity to Masonic obligations is
removed, when the violator of those obligations is thus seen
by his Brethren to be honored on a par with the most faithful
observer of them. This, we know, is an extreme and
extraordinary case, such as, we trust and hope, may never
occur again.

But there is another species of indiscriminate conferring of
the highest funeral honors of very frequent occurrence, and
against which, though of course in a less urgent tone, we
must also protest. Let every true Mason we repeat, receive
at the hands of his Brethren the regular tribute of funeral
respect laid down by our Ritual, but, as has ever been the
case in the history of the human race, let high and
extraordinary honors be reserved for such Masons as have,
like the Heroes of Ancient Greece, or the Fathers of
American Freedom, distinguished themselves in life
preeminently above their fellows in the practical virtues of
Masonry;- for those who, by truth, virtue, honor and honesty,
and, above all, by that true charity and generosity of heart,
which is the brightest jewel in the Masonic crown, have (in
the words of the Grecian orator) 'erected for themselves an
enduring monument in every heart, in every land, forever!'

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