Craft Masonry in Orange and Rockland Counties, New York

Respectable Auditors,
It falls to my lot to address you on a most solemn occasion; a fellow citizen, and a worthy brother, who but a few days since, was
actively engaged in the busy scenes of life, now lies before you a breathless corpse. Suddenly snatched from the society of his
relatives and friends, and wrapped in a mournful shroud, he is placed before you on the brink of that opening grave; it is there
placed for a moment, to give us a pause for serious reflection; and to drop a tributary tear to his memory. Such a scene as this
proclaims, in accents louder than triple thunder, this all important truth, that man is mortal.
It was the desire of our departed brother, while he yet was a tenant of mortality, that his funeral solemnities should be attended with
masonic honours. In accordance to his wishes, and at the request of my surviving brethren, I now appear before this assembly of
mourning friends, to bear a part in the obsequies of the deceased. You this day behold the solemn procession, and contemplate
these badges of grief. From these ceremonies we shall learn many interesting lessons, which in the ordinary course of life, we
should never regard; and while out of respect to the memory of a departed friend, or brother, we are induced to exchange the
common routine of pleasure or business, for the house of mourning, and a temporary intercourse with its inmates, and to bedew its
sacred portals "with sympathetic tears for their distress.'' In these serious and endeared moments, we are feelingly alive to the
charms of virtue, and the dictates of religion. We are necessitated, in a measure, to clothe ourselves, in imagination, with the garb of
the dead, well knowing that very soon we must wear it in reality. On such occasions we should endeavour to copy their laudable
examples, and to catch some portion of the divine spirit, which has ascended to Heaven.
It was not only the custom of the Egyptians, and the Greeks, to celebrate the burial of a deceased friend, with funeral pomp; but the
sacred scriptures also furnish many instances of a similar kind, and bear testimony to its propriety, and tendency to soften the
manners, and to mend the heart. When Joseph heard of the death of his venerable father Jacob, he hastened to visit the breathless
clay; he fell upon it, wept over it, and kissed it, and commanded his physicians to embalm it. He then, with all his brethren, and those
of his own, and of his father's house, with chariots and horsemen, a very great company, went up to bury him, in his own burying
ground, and a great, and very sore lamentation for their father, for seven days. How much more respectful was this solemnity, than
the unceremonious manner, which too generally prevails at the present day, of burying the dead, even without the customary
services of religion. Such negligence and inattention, has the appearance of thoughtlessness, and that it is our chief concern to
succeed, as quickly as possible, to the estates of our departed parents; with very little respect to their memories, or any due sense
of their former kindness to us, usefulness to the world, or the lessons which their examples should teach.
The ancient Christians, besides their funeral solemnities, were wont to meet frequently at the graves of their martyred saints, and
holy men, and there to write the histories of their sufferings, and their triumphs, for the purpose of deeply infixing, in their own minds,
that unconquered boldness, and fervent piety, which characterized these disciples of Immanuel; and to furnish themselves with all
the peculiar virtues of these Christian heroes.
Our business, this day, is to recall to our memories, a truth which cannot be too often repeated, that we must all die, and render a
strict and impartial account of our stewardship, to our Maker; and the wisest know not how soon, or how sudden, this great and
irreversible change may happen to each one of us.
But a few short months have elapsed, since we were called upon to perform the last sad honours of Masonry, over the mortal
remains of one of our oldest, and most respectable brethren, and this day we have received a fraternal summons to convey to the
silent tomb, the corpse of a worthy and venerable brother, who was walking our streets, not a week since, and was assiduously
engaged in the affairs of the world, in all the bloom and pride of his usual health. He has indeed been suddenly called from his
station among us; but we have good reason to hope and believe, that he was not wholly unprepared to exchange his house for a
coffin, his activity in society for solitude and silence, and his exertions for doing good to mankind for darkness and the grave. From
the busy scenes of this mortal life, it hath pleased the Sovereign Disposer of events, to call him, as we trust, to become a member of
the church triumphant, in Heaven; from his family in this world, to the paradise of God. To them this providence must be peculiarly
afflictive; and considering the heavy loss which they have sustained, and the keen sensibility it must have excited, I feel myself in
doubt how to proceed. Should I dwell upon the dark side of this dispensation, it would only open wider the springs of grief, and
enlarge the avenues of sorrow. I wish not to add affliction to the afflicted; but would rather, if I knew the means, administer comfort
and consolation to the broken hearted; though their best and dearest earthly friend is gone, never more to be a resident in this our
world, yet they have a rational hope to support them under their trials, that he has exchanged worlds, infinitely to his advantage.
Charity forbids that we should place him any where but in the bosom of Abraham, surrounded with myriads of kindred spirits,
solacing him with beatific joys, at the fountain of delight, and drinking full draughts of the rivers of pleasure, which flow at God's right
hand. He died but to live again, and to live in a more happifying and exalted manner, than when here on earth. His relatives and
friends have no reason to lament his death, as a loss to himself; for while to him to live was Christ, so for him to die is his eternal
and unspeakable gain.
But I hasten to a conclusion. Funeral addresses are intended only for the benefit of the living; therefore let the virtues and noble
example of our departed brother be long cherished in our memories, and precious to our hearts. Let us dry up our tears, and silence
every vain complaint. Let us not question the dispensations of Providence, nor ask, with a murmuring temper, with a certain
conceited philosopher, whether it were not desirable, that the virtues and talents of eminent men should be hereditary? Let us rather
trust, with confidence, that the Bountiful Giver of life, and its blessings, will in the end, do us ample justice. Let us persevere in the
line of our duty, and serve our generation faithfully, according to the divine will, well knowing that the all-seeing eye of our great and
glorious Grand Master, continually observes and records all our actions; and may we learn from him, that a heart pure, and
detached from sordid pleasures; a soul panting after perfection, and devoted to the service of its Maker, and the best interests of
mankind, shall at length rise, and mix, in eternal fellowship, with the beatified family of God.
"In these bright regions of celestial day,
Far other scenes, far other pleasures reign
All beauty here below, to them compar'd,
Would, like a rose before the mid-day sun,
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