ADDRESS OF GRAND MASTER



might add desperation to their heroisrm and comrnit theii manfully to tile
success of the expedition. We have pursued a like policy. By thle very
name we have given this charity-by the investments we have made of the
sacred fund contributed in its behalf, and the cerenionie.s with which we
inaugurate its establishlment, we have lef ourselves no return jleet-it is burned
to the water's edge, and an honorable and safe retreat Irom this solemn
engagement is now a moral impossibility. We must succeed, or suffer an
inglorious and irredeemable defeat. But we Lhall tuccced. It is an enter-
prise prompted and sanctified by too many uncanceled VoU8 to the dead, and
fraught with too much happiness and hope to the living, ever to be aban-
doned by the Masons of Kentucky.   Within our jurisdition more than
thirty thousand Masonic hearts are embraced in fraternal companionship,
which should feel the inspiration of this holy mission and beat in lharillony
with its hopes.
  But there is an influence, second to this cause, far more potential thaa
fraternal sympathy or orgaliize(d benevolence-an influence which under-
lies and prompts them both. It is an influence from the skies, secured to
the enterprise in answer to the supplicating cries of the beneficiaries them-
selves-the desolate widows and iminoverished orphans for whom we would
provide this shelter and home tromi the pitiless stornss of life.
  The mere announcement of this lproposed charity line thrown a glorious
sunbeam of hope athwart the darkened charmbers of their so6ul, ant amid
the ceaseless toil andl coneuming, anxieties of the day, and througlout tile
sad and lonely vigils of the night, their importunate appeals for its success
have ascended from the hapless hut of the disaonsolate widow and from the
orphan's pallet of straw to that infinite Being "whose eyes arc ever over the
righteous and his ears open to their cries."
  An itispired apostle of Christianity has defined "pure anrd undefiled relig-
ion before God, the Father," to lie this, "to visit the fatherless and the wid-
ow in their afflictions, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.'
In view of this definition, is not our charity well niigh elevated to the (ig-ni-
ty of a religious institution  The first cbapter of relative duties embraced
in this comprehensive summary of "pure and undefiled religion" is but an-
other designation for the noble charity we have thig day met to iniaugurate;
and think you the Divine Autihor of this religion Will permit an institution,
whose grand design is in such beautiful barmiony with its teachings, to fail
of ultimate suecess Nay, verily. When the compassionate Redeemer
uttered to Hlis disciples the mournful truth that "tile poor ye have always
with you," lie evidemtily intendedl to designate thenm as the special legatees
of his love, and the ohligation to minister to their wants is as imperative as
it is perpetual, and will ever require the sympathy antd co-operation of tIme
Christian, the patriot, and the philanthropist, and such sympathy and



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