WORTH REMEMBERING.

THE MASONIC REVIEW. - 1854

The G. H. P. of the Grand Chapter of Missouri, makes the
following remarks in his Annual Address to that Grand
Chapter, at its last annual session. They are worthy of
profound attention, and should be held in perpetual
remembrance.

"Companions, more than twenty-even years have passed
away since I was exalted to the Companionship of Royal
Arch Masons in the city of St. Louis. I have seen it in
prosperity - in all its trials, in all its persecutions, and in all its
difficulties, my confidence in its 'powers to do good,' in its
adaptation to the 'wants and necessities of social man,' has
never been shaken.

"I have heard it said, that in this enlightened age, in this day
of so much civilization and social refinement, in this age
when it has not only become fashionable, but popular, to
seek religious denominations, that Freemasonry, was no
longer needed, no longer useful or beneficial to man.

"My Companions, can this be so? I think I may safely
answer, 'it is not so!' There is not an enlightened Mason in
our Order who ever pretended that Freemasonry was equal
to revealed Religion, or that it could do away with man's
necessity for reliance and dependence upon the Religion of
the Prince of Peace, for his ultimate happiness. Such was
never its design or object. Let me quote the language of a
distinguished member of the Order:

" 'Masonry is the same in all ages and in all places; but
various circumstances give it diverse modes of operation,
that it may accommodate itself in its beneficial influences.
Here in our country the necessity far pecuniary aid must be
small. In a community of men accustomed to earn their
living, physical wants are easily supplied. But here, other
modes for evincing masonic charity present themselves.
Your public relations, your religions position, or your party
allegiance, bring you into antagonistic positions, and you are
in frequent danger of forgetting or disregarding the spirit of
the Order. Here then masonic charity is needed, and let me
invoke you to its exercise. Masonry was not intended to
make men of one religious creed, nor of one political party.
Its object is to enable those of opposite creeds, and
opposing parties, to discharge their duties to religious and
political associations without violating those proprieties
which belong to them as men. In the warmth of party
canvasses it is difficult for us to keep alive all our active
sympathies with men who are antagonistically active - we
may oppose them on the rostrum, we may defeat them at
the ballot box, without violating the duties of Masons: - but,
in our apposition, in our victory, we cannot, without violating
our solemn obligations as Masons, use terms of reproach,
and make charges of conduct which are unsustained by
established facts. If, at such a time, we cannot defend a
brother's character in his absence, we may at least with
gentlemanly forbearance avoid the gross attack, which I
need not tell you, has seldom operated politically favorable
to those who make it, while it tends to private injury of the
assailed.'

"Suppose thin feeling was generally to prevail throughout our
land, can any one doubt of its happy influence on social life?
How many bitter asperities of feeling, how many heart-
burnings would cease to be known, wherever this general
masonic charity should make its appearance. There is as
much necessity now as there ever was for the exercise of
the genuine principles of Freemasonry.

"Companions; the honor and utility of the Order depend upon
the conduct of its members. Let us by our conduct, our
private and our public walls, show ourselves worthy of the
Institution."

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