The bliss above thy better share,

In heaven's own glory blessed.

Rest! Brother! Rest! thy journey o'er,
Immortal life begun;

Now safely reached a calmer shore
Beyond a changing sun!

After singing, a eulogy may be delivered, or appropriate remarks made by the members in regard to the deceased, after which the Worshipful Master will continue.

WORSHIPFUL MASTER: Here we have no abidingplace; soon the places that now know us shall know us no more forever. I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the · Lord from henceforth.

SENIOR WARDEN: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

JUNIOR WARDEN: For we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. WORSHIPFUL MASTER: Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Let us pray.

CHAPLAIN: Our Father and Creator, the darkness and the light to Thee are both alike. Thou hast vouchsafed to call us Thy children, and dost most graciously permit us to call Thee Father. Behold us, we pray Thee, hear us with a father's compassion, as we now lift our hearts to Thee. Thou art our only refuge and strength,―our glory and confidence. Thou givest for a little while and then takest away; the flower is cut down in the tender bud; death spares not the innocence

of childhood, or the hoary head of righteousness. O, our Father, let not our faith in Thy goodness be shaken by the mysteriousness of Thy ways; but sustain us, righteous Father, in our good resolutions and in the steadfast performance of life's duties; look upon us in mercy, and accept with indulgence the little service we may be enabled to render to the cause of virtue, charity, and truth; let the death of our brother impress upon our minds the solemn thought that we too must soon pass away; give us, we beseech Thee, Thy grace, that we may spend our fleeting hours in Thy service, and when life's journey is over may we each hear the welcome sound, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And unto Thee be all the glory, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

RESPONSE: So mote it be.

The Worshipful Master will then close the Lodge.

MASONIC FUNERALS.

Ceremonies to be observed going to and while at the grave.

THE brethren should assemble at the Lodge room, or some other suitable place, and at the appointed time promptly proceed to the house of the deceased in the following order, viz.:

WORSHIPFUL MASTER.

WARDENS.

TREASURER AND SECRETARY.

CHAPLAIN,

DEACONS.

MASTERS OF CEREMONIES.

MEMBERS.

PURSUIVANT AND TYLER,

On arriving at the house, the above order will be reversed, and continue until the procession reaches the place of interment, when the brethren will take open order to the right and left, facing inward, giving sufficient space to allow the funeral procession to pass between the open lines to the grave. The brethren will uncover during the time the procession is passing through, and remain in their positions until the religious ceremonies at the grave have been concluded, when the Worshipful Master, followed by the officers and members of the Lodge, in the above order, with closed ranks, shall proceed to the grave, the Worshipful Master taking his station at the

head of the grave, the Senior Warden at the foot, and the Junior Warden at the side and left of the Worshipful Master; the members will then quietly form a square about the grave as in the following diagram.

The brethren being in position, the Worshipful Master, assisted by the Senior and Junior Wardens, will perform the following service in a deliberate and solemn manner, being careful not to hurry it, and, if possible, to have it fully committed to memory.

WORSHIPFUL MASTER: Our brother has reached the end of life, and we have come in the performance of a duty which the dearest ties of friendship and love enjoin, that of laying his body in the dust; and as we bedew his grave with becoming tears, let us be impressed with the lesson of our own mortality. How honorably he sustained the cares of life, we can all attest; let us, therefore, preserve his memory, and dwell on what was good and amiable in his character. That our brother was faultless cannot be supposed, but he has now appeared before the Almighty Judge; let the silent sorrows of our hearts register only our brother's worth. Farewell, my brother; thou hast gone to meet thy God, and may He approve thee. May we be faithful, and

when our end approaches, may our eyes like thine be closed in peace. Farewell! till the Grand Summons; then, brother, we will rise and greet thee. Let us pray.

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CHAPLAIN: Almighty and Everlasting God, let it please Thee, in Thy fatherly goodness, to inspire us with profound reverence for Thyself, with.a clear apprehension of our relations to Thee, and with a humiliating sense of our utter helplessness and dependence. Standing as we now are in the very presence of death, we would feel and confess the justness of the divine decree, "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." We would feel, in all its solemn weight, the truthfulness and the force of Thy word, as it says to us in warning accents, "Man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth the ghost, and where is he?" We thank Thee for the life of our brother, whose mortal part we commit to the earth, in the hope of a glorious resurrection, and we devoutly beseech Thee to quicken us who tarry awhile longer, and "so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Quicken us, "that whatsoever our hand findeth to do, we may do it with our might." Teach us that divine charity which "thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;" that we may secure the commendation of our Lord and Master; that to us it may be said, "For I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me;. I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." Let Thy fatherly care and protection be over those composing the immediate family of our departed