English

ROYAL MASTER .

We can predict, from day to day,
Some things will meet us on our way;
But who, of all that draw life's breath,
Can shadow what is after death?;

When spring awakes, we look for flowers,
And leafy boughs and genial bowers;
The flowery spring rewards our faith —
What shall we look for after death?

When autumn spreads its sober skies,
With open lap we wait the prize;
We catch the showering fruits beneath —
For us what fruitage after death?

ROYAL ARCH .

O weary hearts, so worn and desolate!
Torn from their native land, from ruined homes,
From desecrated shrines. O, hapless fate!
Better the solitude of Judah's tombs
Than all that Judah's foeman can bestow;
In the far land, where tuneless waters flow,
Along the sad Euphrates, as they sigh,
" Jerusalem! " " Jerusalem! " they cry,
" When we forget thee, city of our love,
May He forget, whose city is above;
And when we fail to speak thy matchless fame,

MOST EXCELLENT MASTER .

Prostrate before the Lord,
We praise and bless His name,
That He doth condescend to own
The temple that we frame.

No winter's piercing blast,
No summer's scorching flame,
Has daunted us; and prostrate here,
We praise and bless His name.

From lofty Lebanon
These sacred cedars came;
We dedicate them to Thy cause,

THE PAST MASTER .

O! raised to Oriental chair,
With royal honors crowned,
High grace and dignity to bear,
As in the days renowned!
With firmness guide the ruling hand,
Nor Gavel fall in vain;
And kindness soften the command,
And law the vice restrain.

The open Word delight to read —
That T RESTLE B OARD of Heaven —
And see that every Mason heed

THE MARK MASTER .

God trusts to each a portion of his plan,
And doth for honest labor wages giye;
Wisdom and time he granteth every man,
And will not idleness and sloth forgive;
The week is waning fast — art thou prepared,
O Laborer, for the Overseer's reward?

Hast thou been waiting in the market here,
Because no man hath hired thee? rise and go!
The sun on the meridian doth appear,

THE MASTER MASON .

O, Death, thy hand is weighty on the breast
Of him who lies within thy grasp;
No power can raise the captive from his rest,
When thy strong hand doth clasp!

The tears of broken spirits fall in vain;
Their sighs are wasted o'er the grave;
Thou laugh'st to scorn the funereal strain,
For " there is none to save. "

From age to age mankind hath owned thy sway,

THE FELLOWCRAFT .

This Lodge of Five from Tyre came,
Their leader one of matchless fame;
All through the toiling seasons seven,
Their time upon the work was given.

This Lodge of Five from Joppa's shore
To Sion's hill have journeyed o'er;
The quarry's inmost crypt have traced,
Whence many a stone the wall has graced.

This Lodge of Five have reared the shaft
That on the eastward hails the Craft;
And well they ken each mystic line
That sanctifies the great Design .

THE ENTERED APPRENTICE .

Where two or three assemble round,
In work the Lord approves,
His spirit with the group is found,
It is the place He loves;
Be now all hearts to friendship given,
For we, the Sons OF Light , are seven .

Bring here the Gavel and the Gauge ,
Those implements renowned;
And from each conscience disengage
The faults that there are found;
Be now afar each folly driven,

THREE !

The drama ends, — the dead cast off their shrouds,
And, all erect, in solemn awe await
The Message; earth in every ear attends,
And Heaven is hushed while the Grand Master speaks.

'Tis not for man to look within the skies;
Let pen prophetic all these words record:
" I saw the dead, both small and great, arise,
And stand before the judgment seat of God; —

" I saw the grave deliver up its dead;

TWO !

Now 'neath the heaving hillocks life descends;
Now bone to bone conjoins, the sinews knit;
The coursing blood its vermeil brightness lends;
The heart in rapture hastes again to beat;
Death and the worm are vanquished, and the grave,
Stripped of its horrors, seemeth but a bed
Where tired ones come and sweet reposings have,
And rise and go when eastern skies are red.