Sir Knights, In entering upon the responsibility of opening this new Encampment in your city, let me enjoin upon you at the outset not to forget that you are establishing a Society which is founded upon the Christian religion. 66 Knighthood in terms implies integrity of purpose, open, honest, frank, and fair dealing, and the exercise of all those virtues that should distinguish the Christian gentleman. A true Knight scorns all duplicity, all dishonesty, and all unfair dealing. Looking to the Scriptural HEAD of his Order, he will seek to obey His precepts, and especially to do unto others as he would that others should do unto him. None but a high-minded, honorable man is worthy of the Order." * Let no supposed necessity induce you to confer the Orders in indecent haste. Remember that it is your duty to confer the Orders in such a way as to inspire the recipient in the fullest manner with the beauty and solemnity of our Ritual. Let no ambition induce you to prostitute the Order to enable you to fill up your ranks. Receive among you only those who have a firm faith in the Christian religion, of unblemished morals- a morality which is indispensable for the occupation of the highest positions of trust and respectability in your community. Require at least those essentials which Burke described as embodying, in Chivalry, "the generous loyalty to rank and sex, the proud submission, the dignified obedience, and that subordination of the heart which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness." Among yourselves remember that you should be faithful and Let honor ever be your guiding star, and truth your anchor. Let harmony and concord ever dwell among you. As Knights, remember that personal prejudices, self-interest, and jealousy should never be known. Be united by one hope, and sustained by the same heavenly confidence; and " as link after link in the chain of those attachments is dissolved at death, let it be such that it can be renewed again in undecaying strength and immortal beauty." true. *Sir William B. Hubbard. Let Faith, Hope, and Charity, Justice, Fortitude, and Mercy, Courtesy, Magnanimity, and Valor be united in each of you. May you be distinguished among your fellow-men, for the practice of all the Christian virtues. Let the widow and the orphan, the destitute and the oppressed, receive your constant care and protection. By every means in your power, endeavor to raise the standard, and sustain the reputation of our Order. Ever stand forth as champions to espouse and maintain the Christian religion. Keep constantly before you the example of Him who died upon the Cross of Calvary. Into whatever despondency or misfortune you may fall, remember the Faith and Hope of which that Cross is the emblem. Sign of my Faith, seal of my Hope, Pledge of God's love to wandering man, Dimly the way of Truth to scan; And ever when life's billows toss, Though whirlwinds sweep and storm-clouds frown, Faith o'er the cloud shall see the Cross : Hope o'er the Cross shall see the Crown." The Grand Officers then proceeded to the Grand Asylum, where the Grand Encampment was closed in Ample Form. SPECIAL ASSEMBLY. OCTOBER 13, 1865. A Special Assembly of the GRAND ENCAMPMENT OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS AND APPENDANT ORDERS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND was held at Fitchburg, Mass., on Friday, the thirteenth day of October, 1865. Formed in due array, and opened the Grand Encampment in Ample Form at seven o'clock, P. M. The Grand Master announced that the Grand Encampment was assembled for the special purpose of constituting Jerusalem Encampment and installing its officers. The Grand Encampment marched in procession to the Asylum of the new Encampment. The services of constitution were in accordance with the ritual in use in this Grand Encampment (see pp. 4-19, ante). The Grand Master Installed Sir EDMUND DANA BANCROFT, M. E. Grand Commander of Jerusalem Encampment. The Deputy Grand Master installed the remaining officers. The Grand Master addressed the new Encampment as follows: SIR KNIGHTS, The city of Jerusalem for thousands of years has been distinguished; and in every age, since its foundation stones were laid, has attracted Pilgrims to its holy shrines. Thither the ancient Israelites repaired from Egypt and Greece, and from wherever else they might be sojourning, to witness the glory of its Temple, and, at the Passover, to participate in the solemn ceremonies of that commemorative festival. In the days of the wisest of kings, the nations of the earth came from afar to behold the beauty and glory of that vast Temple, which has made the name of its builder immortal. The proud Queen of Sheba, with a numerous retinue, came up from the southermost land of Ethiopia to pay homage to King Solomon, and behold for herself the truth of the wonderful stories which she had heard of the riches and splendor of this little city among the mountains of Judea. Perhaps she had been informed of that splendid description which Tobit of the tribe of Naphtali gave, while an exile at Ninevah, who confessed that he alone of his family went often to Jerusalem at the feasts, as it was ordained unto all the people. “O Jerusalem, the Holy City! Many nations shall come from far, to the name of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands."..." All generations shall praise thee with great joy."... "For Jerusalem shall be built up with saphires, and emeralds, and precious stone: thy walls and towers and battlements with pure gold; and the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir." The wonderful trees of Lebanon, the gold and silver from the "Golden Sofala," the jewels and precious stones from the ports of Tarshish and Ophir paid their tribute to the genius and pious zeal of Solomon; and were lavished upon that Holy Temple which Josephus calls "a work the most admirable of any that had ever been seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its magnitude, and also for the vast wealth expended upon it, as well as for the universal reputation of its sanctity." It was covered on every side with plates of gold; and to the distant Pilgrim, as he gained the ascent of one of the numerous hills about the city, it reflected so strong and dazzling an effulgence, that his eye was obliged to turn away, being no more able to sustain its radiance than the splendor of the sun. As its beauty and glory burst upon him, after wandering months in his journey to this consecrated place, as the high white walls of the Holy City cast a gleam along the valley, and Zion with its palaces arose, and the smoke of the offering upon Mount Moriah ascended to heaven, -he would with his companions chant the Psalm of David. "Great is the Lord; and greatly to be praised The mountain of his holiness in the city of our God. Is Mount Zion, on the north of the city of the Great King. Walk about Zion, go round about her! Tell her towers! Mark well her bulwarks! Consider her palaces! That ye may tell it to the generation following." There dwelt the haughty people who believed themselves especially favored of God; and there they had erected the Temple so renowned, within which was the Shekinah which the ancient Jew contemplated with the most reverential awe. Thus, before the Christian era, Jerusalem was celebrated throughout the length and breadth of the world accessible to the Jews. It impressed itself upon the nations in a marvellous manner. It was never a mart for trade. It had no harbors; and no richly laden ships could gather there the commerce of the seas. It was situated in the midst of a desert country. The valleys had no water, and the soil was parched and stony. Nothing but its connection with the religion of the Jews gave it any prominence or character in the days of Jewish prosperity. Jerusalem, however, became a more celebrated city than the Jewish nation in the days of its greatest renown ever dreamed of; and attracted to its gates Pilgrims of a livelier faith, and brighter hope, and more transcendant charity, than was ever known to the Jew. The tragedy upon Calvary was the doom of Judaism. Henceforth these unbelievers became outcasts from the city of their devotion. Scattered over the face of the earth, they have ever since hoped for restoration; a hope which, deferred for more than eighteen hundred years, has not yet sickened the heart of a single one of this peculiar people. In whatever clime they roam, they still turn to Jerusalem as the city of their promised rest. "They take pleasure in her ruins, and would kiss the very dust for her sake. Jerusalem is the centre around which the exiled sons of Judah build, in imagination, the mansions of their future greatness. In whatever part of the world he may live, the heart's desire of a Jew is to be buried at Jerusalem." The day-spring from on High first dawned upon this distinguished city; and from thence, has spread its meridian splendor upon this benighted world. The celebrated Temple was utterly |