Changes in the Register by death have been as follows: Name. Age. Service. Place of Interment. Fulton, N. Y. Waterford, N. Y. Home Plot. New Canaan, Ct. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON DECEASED BRETHREN. M.. W.. JOHN W. VROOMAN, from the Committee on Deceased Brethren, presented the report of said Committee, which was received and its recommendation adopted. To the Grand Lodge: It is fitting that we should pause in the labors of this Grand Lodge to take fraternal notice of the loss we have sustained since our last Annual Communication. No language of ours can tell the value of a faithful brother to the Fraternity. He is its defense; he is its hope; it lives with him, and in his death it loses part of its glory. Loving hearts and eloquent tongues have already paid dutiful remembrance to our deceased brethren. From their lives we can learn a lesson that will make us nobler men and better Masons. Their performance of duty will ever proclaim that there is no excellence without much labor and manly sacrifice. Their history need not be recorded in a printed Report or a published Volume. It is fully comprehended in the single word-Duty. Duty to their brother man, to their Fraternity, to their Country, to their God; that word was their guiding star and its larger meaning was laid out upon their chart of life, and this occasion should serve as a solemn reminder to the living of the Sacred heritage bequeathed us through the faithful performance of duty, both in and out of the Lodge, by those brethren of whom we speak tenderly, of whom we "speak no ill." If "of the dead speak only good," what of the living? We, who are in the jostle and heat, in the stirring, pulsing life of the present; what answer? To-day, as never before, we meet as a band of fraternal mourners covering the Civilized world, for there has never been witnessed in any age the awful spectacle of more than a billion of people engaged in deadly warfare, and of this almost incomprehensible number at least seven hundred millions of souls are residents of Grand Jurisdictions in which Free Masons hold Masonic intercourse with each other through Grand Representatives. The thought is so appalling and distressing that we stand in awe and reverently repeat the words of Holy Writ, "Be still, and know that I am God." Overwhelmed by this solemn thought we pause in silent and blank wonderment conscious of the utter impossibility of scaling the inner wall to take a passing glance beyond the veil of hidden mystery. But in this electric age of hustle and hurry, of aggregations and combinations, of wars and rumors of wars, the silence is broken because everything tends towards public proclamation and partisan publicity, to the organization as against the individual, thus conspiring to shift the specific demand which the world makes upon the one, into a general claim made upon the many. Our departed brethren were living illustrations, in their day, of the falsity of this plan of life. They exemplified the reply of one of our foremost statesmen who was once asked the question what was the greatest thought of his life. He quickly responded, "My individual accountability to Almighty God." The life work of our brethren carried out this thought, for they did not hide behind a general and indefinite claim to help the Brotherhood of Man. We are here not only to set apart a page in our proceedings for the dead but we are here to speak for the living. We are here to watch God's purposes unfold day by day concerning the present duty of the Craft in this Grand Jurisdiction. We are here to be forcefully reminded that as each emergency confronted our Fraternity God raised up men, such as we are affectionately remembering this day, to help in meeting such an emergency, men who were born for a purpose and lived for a principle. If our fraternal dead could speak they would appeal to us to live for the living rather than to mourn for the dead. The highest tribute we can pay them will be to impress upon every Free Mason the dignity of rising to an earnest endeavor to achieve something in life and not sink into a mere physical existence; "to level up and not level down." Our brethren by their unselfish service in upbuilding our Fraternity and by their unceasing efforts to do good in other walks in life demon. strated the individuality and responsibility of their manhood and thus have taught us the vital fact that no matter how many in the home, no matter how many and how near our friends may be, no matter how large in extent our social or fraternal relations may be, we are born, we live, we die, each one of us alone. Alone with the Supreme Architect of the Universe. So few brethren come anywhere near us in actual liv ing reality; we touch their hand; we assemble in the same Lodge or Banquet Hall; we brush against their thoughts; we are electrified by their wit; we come together in some little edge of opinion, but that innermost spirit that makes you yourself and I myself, is still unreached. God is its friend or else it is indeed alone. We are trying in a practical, rather than a sentimental, way to impress upon the living the paramount thought that after all that may be spoken or written it must finally be, in the ending as in the beginning, individual accountability of self to the Supreme Architect of the Universe, and to Him are we alone responsible. Our deceased brethren were each governed by such pure purposes in life, and it is with respect and reverence that we call to mind their integrity of character, unswerv ing loyalty to convictions, transparency of soul and earnestness of endeavor with the many acts of kindness and deeds of charity of which the outside world knew little. But with them life's ambitions and opportunities are now ended and they leave their uncompleted work for others to do. We shall miss their presence and counsel. We pay this tribute of respect to their memory. We extend our sympathy to those near and dear. In conclusion: how momentary and uncertain is the possession of Masonic or Civil honors. Let us who are living so shape our course in fraternal as well as in private life that when the tide of time shall for |