2-26-1926 INDEX TO VOL. XVIII. A. H. PAGE. PAGE. 206 Ancient History, Study of W. C. Car- Humility, Poetry... Address of M. W. P. G. M B. B French. A Masonic Flag.. Air Gaus... 231 Home, its Bliss, Jane M Jackson... ..... 233 1 Higher Life, Pas-ed to, Poetry, H M. R. 20 119 121 B. J. Courtesies, Masonic, B. Lumbert........ 236 Light, Masonic, Significance of........... 170 ............... 48 Landmarks 48 Landscape Paintings... M. Choice, Power of a Right.. 180 262 ... 271 200 230 163 Masonry, what do You Find in it, Ed.... 233 Masonic Disabilities................................................... 19 Masonic Chronicles.. 27 Mason y a Moral Power, Ed..... Masonic Enemies an Advantage......... Masonry, Beauties of... Masonry, Origin of. A. G Mackey.... 242 18 34 39 40 49 50 71 Masonry in Relation to Civil Authority.. 74 211 76 219 Masonry, Myst c Embellishment of...... 115 Forester, Rev. Dr., Reference to........ G. 196 Masonic Song, C. S Mackensie... Masonic Ode... 276 122 Grand Lodge of Michigan, Annual Com- Masonic Reproof..... ...... 179 63 Masonic Morals... N. .......... Secret Society Defined. 216 Study of Ancient History, W. Carpenter 218 Narmater, the Forest Maid, Poetry...... 19 Science, Victims of....... Sorrow, Lodges of..... 35 O. Scottish_Rite, Progress in Chicago, Ed.. 146 172 108 T. 137 228 ........ 33 The Ring my Father Wore, Poetry. ... 183. 28 153 ........... 164 192 255 284 273 280 236 Progress, Editorial.. 44 Pilgrims Replies, Poetry, W. L. Gardner. 80 Perjurers put to Shame.. W. 139 Purpose, Living to, Ed.. 187 Personal.... 191 Providence, Manifest.. 174 Progress of Knowledge Wadhams, A. S., Referred to........ 146. 194 Q. Y. Quakers Retaliation.... 130 York and Scottish Rite Compared...... 213 THE MYSTIC STAR. January--1873, ADDRESS. . We present the following extract of an address delivered by the late M. W. P. G. M. BENJAMIN BROWN FRENCH: "Freemasonry is an old institution. For hundreds of years tongues have been wagging and pens have been scratching in mighty efforts to enlighten the minds of men on this great subject. A Masonic Library counts its volumes by thousands, and every conceivable view of the duties, customs, laws, and general appertainings of the noble craft, may be found without much search in good, fair print, and it requires no grand lecturer to instruct the Brotherhood outside of the prescribed formula, which is, or should be familiar to us all. I have performed my full portion of this tongue service and pen service. I have, I fear, too often encroached on the old and able writers on Freemasonry, and, it may be, have sometimes given my listening brethren their ideas, believing them to be my own. I desire this evening to submit to your consideration something new, and it has been a matter of no small difficulty for me to choose a theme with the hope that it may be interesting. My own Masonic experiences and reminiscences present themselves, and taking all the risk of being subjected to the charge of egotism, I shall make them the subject of my present remarks. I am not only an old man, but also an old Mason. I have been considerably more than forty years a member of the Order, and almost from the day of my becoming a Master in 1825-6 to this, I have been in some capacity of workmanship in the Masonic har ness. I shall try to give some interest to the passing hour this evening by recounting some things that I have done, and some things that I have seen during those years of craftsmanship. A very considerable portion of my boyhood was passed in North Yarmouth (now Yarmouth), in the State of Maine. In the neigh1. VOL. XVIII-NO. I-JAN. 1873. borhood where I resided dwelt a ship captain, a generous, noblehearted man, and a leading Freemason. His children attended the academy with me, and were my friends and playmates. I became intimate with his family, and came to love him as if he had been a near relative of my own. He was stricken down with consumption and died, and I can asseverate that at least one sincere mourner followed his remains to the grave. He was buried with Masonic honors. It was the first Masonic funeral I ever witnessed, and it made an impression upon my young mind which time can never eradicate. The white gloves and aprons, the collars anu jewels, the rods of the Stewards, reverently crossed above the uncovered heads of the brethren at every turning, the procession with all its mystic pharaphernalia, the circle around the open grave, the symbolic broken chain of fraternal affection, the depositing of the white lamb-skin apron and the evergreen, the solemn words of the Worshipful Master, and the response of the surrounding brethren, the impression given of the grand honors, all, too, in honor of a man I had loved, and whose death I so sincerely mourned, had upon my feelings an effect which led me to form a resolution, standing at the side of that good man's grave, that when the first opportunity should present after I should reach man's estate, I would become a Freemason. There probably are not many, perhaps, there is not one in the audience, who cannot carry, his memory back to some occurrence of his younger life, simple and trifling in itself, that had a marked influence on all his following existence. It is almost wonderful to trace back events of a lifetime to some circumstance or perhaps accident that hardly excited a comment or even a thought at the time, but on which was hinged in some lives the most startling and soulstirring events. We are all the children of circumstances, and our lives hang continually upon a chance. To return to myself, the resolution formed by me, as just stated, was not forgotten. Still four years of my manhood had passed away before it was possible for me to fulfill it. At about the age of twenty-five I settled down in the practice of my profession in the Town of Sutton, in New Hampshire. In the adjoining town of New London, five miles from my residence, was King Solomon's Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. A good and worthy member of that Lodge resided next door to me, and I lost no time in making through him application to become a member of the Order. One month elapsed when I was duly accepted and made an entered apprentice Mason. Among the by-laws of that good old Lodge was one providing that if an apprentice made himself so absolutely perfect in the lecture of that degree in a single month, that he could arise in the Lodge Room, and repeat it, he should be immediately passed on. 1 |