nd invoking your assistance in the solemn ceremonies
about to take place, I declare this Lodge of Sorrow opened.

The Chaplain, or Worshipful Master, will then offer the following, or
some other suitable

Prayer:

Grand Architect of the Universe, in whose holy sight centuries are but
as days; to whose omniscience the past and the future are but as one
eternal present; look down upon Thy children, who still wander among the
delusions of time--who still tremble with dread of dissolution, and
shudder at the mysteries of the future; look down, we beseech Thee,
from Thy glorious and eternal day into the dark night of our error and
presumption, and suffer a ray of Thy divine light to penetrate into our
hearts, that in them may awaken and bloom the certainty of life,
reliance upon Thy promises, and assurance of a place at Thy right hand.
Amen.

Response: So mote it be!

The following, or some other appropriate Ode may here be sung:

Ode.

Tune--Bradford, C. M.

O brother, thou art gone to rest;
We will not weep for thee;
For thou art nowhere, oft on earth,
Thy spirit longed to be.

O brother, thou art gone to rest;
Thy toils and cares are o'er;
And sorrow, pain, and suffering now
Shall ne'er distress thee more.

O brother, thou art gone to rest,
And this shall be our prayer:
That, when we reach our journey's end,
Thy glory we shall share.

The Worshipful Master (taking the skull in his hand) will then say:

Brethren: In the midst of life we are in death, and the wisest cannot
know what a day may bring forth. We live but to see those we love
passing away into the silent land.

Behold this emblem of mortality, once the abode of a spirit like our
own; beneath this mouldering canopy once shone the bright and busy eye;
within this hollow cavern once played the ready, swift, and tuneful
tongue; and now, sightless and mute, it is eloquent only in the lessons
it teaches us.

Think of those brethren, who, but a few days since, were among us in all
the pride and power of life; bring to your minds the remembrance of
their wisdom, their strength, and their beauty; and then reflect that
"to this complexion have they come at last;" think of yourselves, thus
will you be when the lamp of your brief existence has burned out. Think
how soon death, for you, will be a reality. Man's life is like a flower,
which blooms today, and tomorrow is faded, cast aside, a