of all hearts are disclosed, and
men are rewarded according to the deeds done in the body.

"[*]Some years ago I stood out on the great plains this side of Denver.
To the north, the south and the east was one vast stretch of plains,
the eye interrupted only by the horizon. I turned and looked to the
west, and clearly outlined in the distance was the chain of the Rocky
Mountains--the backbone of the continent. There I saw Long's Peak,
Pike's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, as mighty sentinels--watch
towers--that had served as landmarks to many a weary traveler on the
Santa Fe trail. They stood as the manifestation of the might of an
Omnipotent Power. So I turn to the record made by this order in the
last eighty years, and find colossal sums of money--not hoarded, but
collected to relieve humanity, to educate the orphan, to bury the dead
and to befriend the widow. I see arising, as if by magic, asylums for
our needy. I see a great host, one million strong, advancing, shoulder
to shoulder, elbow touching elbow, all bent on deeds of mercy and acts
of love. Are not these also mighty sentinels erected amid this
surging, striving throng of humanity to serve to guide man in the road
to a higher and better life? These peaks of the Rockies may crumble
and pass away, but a force for good once set in motion never loses its
force. It is eternal. To beautify, to strengthen, to adorn and to
expand our order and more fully present its magnificence to the world,
we have the department of Patriarchs Militant. It depicts as gallant a
band as ever marched to the sound of martial music or deployed for
battle. As the knights under Richard Couer de Leon or Peter the Hermit
marched forth to rescue the Holy Sepulcher from the hand of the infidel
and guard its sacred entablatures, so will our chevaliers as bravely
guard our ritual, our mystic rights, our honor, the honor of our
mothers wives and sisters, as a sacred trust.

"And so our order moves forward to greater conquests. In the past it
has worked marvels for humanity. May we not, for the future, predict
better and more highly wrought out achievements? Humanity has been
taken as it is and in the progress of refinement has been raised to a
higher standard. It is the hand-maiden of civilization that works
under even yoke for the best sides of humanity. While it does not
displace or attempt to displace the church, it aids. It has
friendship, love and truth as the three human g