EULOGY TO MOTHER

After the Almighty Creator had thus made man and provided for his wants,
He saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so as His last and best
gift to him, He created woman. She was so lovely and so winsome that
what before had seemed to him most fair now seemed to him but mean; in
ministry so soft and tender, in loyalty so kind and true, she has ever
fulfilled her mission and helped to mend his faults and mould him into
virtue.
My brother, Masonry teaches many beautiful lessons, but none of
more importance than true respect for womanhood. As we stand here, were
I to draw for you a picture of love divine, it would not be that of a
stately angel with a form that is full of grace, but a bent and toilworn
woman with a grave and tender face; no golden rings would enfold her, nor
rosy her cheeks nor fair, but the face of an angel of pity framed in snow
white hair; her hands are not white and slender, but roughened with work
and woe, by bearing other's burdens and soothing the tears that flow; no
halo of light surrounds her, no wondrous power she hath, but many and
many a blessing is spoken along her path; others may paint their angels
with white robed forms of grace, but my sweet angel of pity has my
mother's careworn face. But why endeavor to convey to you an ideal
which is already enshrined within your heart, for deep down, safely
locked within that secret chamber, you keep that cherished ideal, sacred
and holy; it is your mother. It was she alone, all alone, who went down
into the valley of the shadow of death to receive your trembling soul at
the gates of life; it was she who pillowed your baby head within the
elbow of her bended arm; it was from her tender breast you drew the life
giving fluid that sustained you in your helpless years; it was she who
first taught your lisping tongue to frame that God given prayer, "Our
Father, who art in heaven," in which all races, sects and kind may join.
There is no man so vile, so base, so low, but who in his sin-stained
soul, keeps pure and apart a little place for his mother's memory. And
when, in the silent watches of the night his mind turns back to pure and
happy childhood hours, he remembers that mother and is drawn closer to
God.


From the Murrow Masonic Monitor (Oklahoma)
Second Section (Middle Chamber Lecture), FC degree

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