Bid Them Come In

Bid them come in — the loving, the beloved —
They whose fidelity we've fondly proved;
Throw wide the doors, ye sentinets alert —
Admit them, they're the Tylers of the heart!
Conduct them through our imagery, and tell
The lessons that those emblems teach so well.

Open yon Book — it is divinely good,
For in it are best types of womanhood;
Heroic Adah — golden Ruth are there —
Truest in sorrow, noblest in despair —
And Esther, Queen — and Martha crowned in faith —
And brave Electa, glorious in death;
It is our First Great Light, whose rays inspire
The soul of woman with celestial fire.

Show them the Orient, whose Sacred Name
Bespeaks God's presence unto us and them;
The ripened Sheaf , the fruitful South above,
Yields its best nourishment for those we love;
Display the Square , — of all beneath the sky
Woman can best resolve its mystery;

The Level , — on our passage to the tomb,
No voice like hers dispels the thickening gloom;
The Plumb — her walk is virtue's ways sublime,
And the best model of the passing time;
The Trowel — she delights to calm and please,
Smooth our asperities and teach us peace;
Show them these ancient mystic monitors,
They testify the jewels that she wears.

Now point the Imagery that graces high
The Brazen Pillars in their majesty;
The ripe Pomegranate's shell, the Lily's leaf,
The Net whose meshes such fond counsels weave;
Her delicate taste will best combine the thought,
Of Plenty, Peace and Unity inwrought;
Thus the whole Lodge, from furthest West to East,
Will yield its treasures to our gentle guest.

Now lead them forth unto the abode
Where Masons labor in the works of God;
Go to the desolate home, the darkened door,
The scanty table of God's sorrowing poor;
Behold the sick, groaning on beds of pain;
List to the orphans, lonely they complain;
See the pinched face of poverty; go in
Where haunt the fiends intemperance and sin;
Observe the midnight candle, by whose light
The widow toils for bread through half the night;
See, rioting in sinful ways, the youth,
Lost to all discipline and lost to truth;
See the unburied dead, who wait to gain
The last sad rites that man bestows on man;
See the whole earth in crime and sorrow hid.
And drop the pitying tear as Jesus did.
Now let them learn what Masons teach and do,
The spirit and the limit of our vow;
To soothe the sorrowing, dry up the tear,
Visit the sick, attend the sable bier,
Rear up the desolate in virtue's way,
Check the intemperate who go astray;
Make God's name honored through his Volume bright,
And guide men out of darkness into light.

So all our purposes they'll understand,
And give us loving voice, and heart, and hand.
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