FUNERAL GRAND LODGE.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1858, 16 December 1874, Page 2

FUNERAL GRAND LODGE.

Freemasons may be interested in learning that a Funeral Grand Lodge was held in Edinburgh on Monday, October 19, in memory of the late Earl of Dalhousie, R.W. Past Grand Master, and of the late Lord James Charles Plantagenet Murray, B.W. Deputy Grand Master, S.C. Th« Freemasons' Hall was too small to accommodate the numbers present. In anticipation of this, the Mime" Hall had been secured, which was suitably fitted up far the occasion.Jbeing appropriately draped; -the Grand .Master's ~thron« - -being placed on the platform, the ornaments covered with crape. No. less than 141 lodges were represented at the ceremony, and the number "of brethren present was rather over 1000. The services on the roccttsioniwereof a mosif solemn character, rendered doubly effective by music from the organ and the services pf an efficient choir. The anthem of Luther, " Frail man, how like a meteor's blaze," which was sung at the funeral lodge held in 1788 in honor of St. Clair of Rosslyn, last hereditary Grand Master of Scotland, was included in the programme of musical services. The funeral orations were delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gray and the Rev. V. G. Faithfull, Grand Chaplains, respectively. Dr. Gray, in the course of his* address, said:-—" Whatever were the secrets'of Freemasonry, its leading principles and objects were patent to all the world, and these they, as Masons, were neither ashamed nor afraid to acknowledge. They believed in God. as the Architect of the Universe, and they worshipped Him as the hearer of prayer. They did not believe that the clay was the potter, that the matter was the maker, • that the atoms'•■were-the architect of the world. In regaid to their objects, who did not know that the cause of Masonry was the cause of loyalty and of concord ? With them charity in both its meanings was a;* duty. In fact, Freemasonry was but another name for benevolence and brotherhood. With them men were hot regarded as brethren because they belonged to the same rank in life With themselves, or were members of the same church, or inhabited the same country. Freemasons were a body of men, and all alike were brothers, whether they were rich or poor, whatever church they went to, in whatever land they dwelt. But if, in spite of these notorious facts, men and bodies of mem would still misjudge them, they could point to such masons as the one they had lost, strengthening with the years of his wisdom the ties that bound him to the brotherhood, and ask those who thought theirs a dangerous society, 'If such men are the enemies of religion and order, and virtue, where are we to look for their friends ? '•" (For the above we are indebted to the Scotsman of October I7tb, 1874.)