reparing for eternity. Let
us each embrace the present moment, and while time and opportunity
permit, prepare for that great change when the pleasures of the world be
as a poison to our lips, and the happy reflections consequent upon a
well-spent life afford the only consolation.

Thus shall our hopes be not frustrated, nor we be hurried unprepared
into the presence of that all-wise and powerful Judge, to whom the
secrets of all hearts are known. Let us resolve to maintain with
sincerity the dignified character of our profession. May our Faith be
evinced in a correct moral walk and deportment; may our Hope be bright
as the glorious mysteries that will be revealed hereafter; and our
Charity boundless as the wants of our fellow-creatures. And, having
faithfully discharged the great duties which we owe to God, to our
neighbor, and to ourselves, when at last it shall please the Grand
Master of the Universe to summon us into His eternal presence, may the
Trestle-board of our whole lives pass such inspection that it may be
given unto each of us to "eat of the hidden manna," and to receive the
"white stone with a new name" that will insure perpetual and unspeakable
happiness at His right hand.

The Lambskin being removed from the coffin, the Master holds it up and
says:

W. M.: The Lambskin, or white leathern Apron, is an emblem of innocence
and the badge of a Mason; more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman
Eagle; more honorable than Star and Garter, when worthily worn. This
emblem I now deposit in the grave of our deceased brother. [Deposits
it.] By it we are reminded of that purity of life and conduct so
essentially necessary to gaining admission to the Celestial Lodge above,
where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides.

The mattock, the coffin, and the melancholy grave admonish us of our
mortality, and that, sooner or later, these frail bodies must moulder in
their parent dust.

The Master, holding the evergreen, continues:

This evergreen, which once marked the temporary resting-place of the
illustrious dead, is an emblem of our faith in the immortality of the
soul. By it we are reminded that we have an immortal part within us,
that shall survive the grave, and which shall never, never, never die.
By it we are admonished that, though, like our brother whose remains lie
before us, we shall soon be clothed in the habiliments of death, and
deposited in the silent tomb, yet, through our belief in the mercy