Classic Poem

Men of the bright inheritance, oh, true and loving band,
Who, linked in chains of Masonry, around this altar stand,
Bright let THE FIRE OF Friendship burn and warmly let it glow,
For a stranger from a distant land comes in your circle now.

T HE A CACIA blooms in every clime, the B ROKEN S HAFT doth rear
Its mournful form in mystic guise, and meets us everywhere;
The G AVEL rings o'er land and sea, yon E MBLEM speaks the same
About the globe, as here it speaks, THE U NIVERSAL N AME .

And why? because ONE G OD we have, in whom alone we trust;
He made us all, O UR F ATHER made us all of kindred dust;
The same green Mother E ARTH , the broad, the generous, He gave
That feeds us while we live, and gives us when we die, a grave.

We build a common T EMPLE too, the lofty and the low,
We bring the same heart-offerings and in common homage bow;
Our T RACING B OARD the same designs in every clime has given,
And, serving the same M ASTER , we expect the same bright Heaven.

Then let the stranger have a place within your mystic band,
Where eye responsive answers eye, and hand unites with hand;
He knows your W ORD , He knows your S IGN , He asks no better grace
Than with you here to sit awhile and greet you face to face.

Peace in the Lodges where you work be Heaven's boon to-day;
Peace, Peace; it is the yearning prayer the stranger's heart would pray;
And could they hear it from the land and from the rolling sea,
From every Mason's lips would come the cry, S O MOTE IT BE !