MEMORIAL SERVICES LODGE OF (REMEMBRANCE) SORROW

OPENING OF THE LODGE

MASTER - (Rises, raps***) Bro. Senior Warden, for what purpose are we assembled?

SENIOR WARDEN - (Crosses arms and bows) To honor the memory of our brother (those brethren) whom death hath taken from us; to contemplate our own approaching dissolution; and, by the remembrance of immortality, to raise our souls above the consideration of this transitory existence.

MASTER - Bro. Junior Warden, what sentiments should inspire the souls of Masons on occasions like the present?

JUNIOR WARDEN - (Crosses arms and bows) Calm sorrow for the absence of our brethren who have gone before us, earnest solicitude for our eternal welfare, and a firm faith and reliance upon the wisdom and goodness of the Great Architect of the Universe.

MASTER - Brethren, commending these sentiments to your earnest consideration, and invoking your assistance in the solemn ceremonies about to take place, declare this Lodge of (Remembrance Sorrow) opened.

CHAPLAIN (Goes to West side of Altar facing East kneels and offers)

PRAYER

Grand Architect of the Universe, in whose holy sight centuries are but as days, to whose omniscience the past and the future are but as one eternal present, look down upon Thy children, who still tremble of the future: look down, we beseech Thee, from Thy glorious and eternal day into the dark night of our error and presumption, and suffer a ray of Thy divine light to penetrate into our hearts, that in them may awaken and bloom the certainty of life, reliance upon Thy promises, and assurance of a place at Thy right hand. Amen.

BRETHREN - So mote it be. (Master seats Lodge)

MUSIC

MASTER - (Rises) Brethren, in the midst of life we are in death, and the wisest cannot know what a day may bring forth. We live but to see those we love passing away into the silent land.

Think of our brother (those brethren) who, but a few days since was (were) among us in all the pride and power of life; bring to our minds the remembrance of his (their) wisdom, his (their) strength and his (their) beauty, and the reflection that to this complexion had he have (they) come at last. Think of yourselves; thus will you be when the lamp of your brief existence has burned out. Think how soon death, for you, will be a reality. Man's life is like a flower, which blooms today and tomorrow is faded, cast aside, and trodden under foot. Most of us, my brethren, are fast approaching or have already passed the meridian of life; our sun is setting in the West and Oh! how much more swift is the passage of our declining years than when we started upon the journey, and believed - as the young are apt to believe - that the roseate hues of the rising sun of our existence were always to be continued.

When we look back upon the happy days of our childhood, when the drawing intellect first began to exercise its powers of thought, it seems but as yesterday, and that, by a simple effort of the will, we could put aside pure manhood, and seek again the loving caresses of a mother or be happy in the possession of a bauble; and could we now realize the idea that our last hour had come, our whole earthly life would appear but as the space of time from yesterday until today. Centuries upon centuries have rolled away behind us: before us stretches out an eternity of years to come, and on the narrow boundary between the past and the present flickers the puny taper we term our life. The cradle speaks to us of remembrance: the coffin of hope, of a blessed trust in a never ending existence beyond the gloomy portal of the tomb.

When God sends his messenger to us with the final summons, let us look upon it as an act of mercy to prevent many calamities of a longer life, and lay down our hands softly and pass into the sleep that knows no waking. For this at least man gets by death that his calamities are not immortal. To bear grief honorably, temperately, and to die nobly, are the duties of a good man and true mason. (Sits down)

MUSIC

CHAPLAIN - (Standing in his place, reads the following passages)

Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not.

He Passeth on also, but I perceive him not, behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him?

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. Seeing his days are determined the number of his months is with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; turn from him that he may rest, till he shall accomplish his day.

For there is hope of a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. But man death and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens shall be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep.

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. (Sits down)

An interval of silence will be observed. The general lights of the hall will be turned low. The four brethren at the corners of the catafalque will extinguish their tapers.