our affections, govern our actions, and we shall go forth to more noble enterprises and conquests, than did the Templars of old. At the close of the foregoing address, which was received with much satisfaction, the Te Deum Laudamus was finely chanted by the choir, (the Temple Quartette of Boston.) The benediction was invoked by the E. Grand Prelate, and the Grand Officers retired. The R. E. Grand Commander then declared the Grand Commandery adjourned in ample form. At the invitation of the E. Commander of Natick Commandery, the Grand Officers repaired to the banquet hall, and participated with the knights and their guests in a bountiful colation. The interest of the occasion was enhanced by the presence of Milford Commandery, which appeared in full Templar Costume, to welcome the new Commandery into the roll of subordinates within this jurisdiction. Several brief, but interesting speeches were made during the evening, social greetings were interchanged, apparent joy prevailed, and all seemed pleased with the good cheer and good will which characterized the entire ceremonies. ALFRED F. CHAPMAN, SPECIAL ASSEMBLY, JUNE 7, 1872. A SPECIAL ASSEMBLY of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templars and the Appendant Orders of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was held in Freemasons Hall, Charlestown, Mass., on Friday, June 7, 1872, at 8 o'clock, P. M. Grand Officers Present. R. E. Sir NICHOLAS VAN SLYCK E. Sir REV. GEORGE S. NOYES E. Sir WILLIAM PARKMAN Grand Commander. Grand Senior Warden. Grand Recorder. Grand Warder. The Grand Commandery was formed in due array, and the Grand Asylum was opened in form, for the purpose of constituting and dedicating Coeur de Lion Commandery and installing its officers. The lines of the new Commandery were formed by the Eminent Grand Senior Warden; the R. E. Grand Commander and Officers of the Grand Commandery were announced by the E. Grand Warder, and entered the Asylum of Coeur de Lion Commandery, where they were received with the honors due their rank and station. Coeur de Lion Commandery of Knights Templars and the Appendant Orders was then solemnly constituted and dedicated in due and ancient form, and proclamation thereof was made by the E. Grand Warder. The official obligation was then administered by the E. Grand Prelate, and the R. E. Grand Commander, assisted by the V. E. Deputy Grand Commander, installed ་ Sir WILLIAM HENRY KENT Sir WILLIAM PATTERSON Sir JOHN D. WILSON Eminent Commander, Captain General, together with the other officers into their respective offices, and proclamation was made thereof by the E. Grand Warder. The R. E. Grand Commander then delivered the following ADDRESS. Sir Knights of Caur De Lion : It has been a matter of wonder that Charlestown has not before this had an organized body of Knights Templars. This want has now been supplied. You are now invested with all the authority and power that belongs to any chartered commandery and from now henceforth are to be held responsible for the good repute of Templar masonry in this the most classic part of the old Commonwealth. Here should be cultivated and always found feelings the most lofty, whether of patriotism or of chivalry. The memory of deeds performed by our ancestors in this vicinity should inspire your hearts with joy. pride and gratitude; with joy that their manhood was made manifest in resistance to wrong and oppression, with pride that their work was so gloriously ended, and with gratitude that by the blessing of Almighty God it eventuated in giving liberty to our great and much beloved country. These memories should also inspire you as knights to perform deeds worthy of men forming in part, "an institution founded upon the Christian religion and the practice of the Christian virtues." You have taken as a name the cognomen of one who is the most celebrated for feats of arms and deeds of daring among all those whose names have come down to us in history, and have appropriately taken it, because not only of his renown as a gallant knight but because all of that part of his reputation we love to dwell upon was won when in connection with Knights Templars, he strove for the redemption of the Holy Land from the control of the infidel; for the rescue of the sepulchre of our Saviour from the Saracens and its restoration to Christendom; that again the Christian might be permitted to visit the Holy shrine and there offer his devotions to our departed Lord. That portion of his life was animated by the same spirit that animated those that gave birth to and perpetuated the order of the Temple. "The Holy Land! what manifold associations cluster around that little spot of earth on which break the blue waves of the Mediteranean where they reach their eastermost limit; memories the most sacred, the most tender and the most thrilling, cause the very name to call up before us a vista of the past such as no other land possesses; * what a history that land has seen of peace and of turmoil; of freedom, and of bondage; of glory and of shame! across it has the tide of conquest rolled in every age; its plains have been enriched by the blood of many a different race. It lies before us as we think of it, now in the sunshine of the days when Ruth gleaned in its fields, now in the splendor of Solomon's rule, and then we see its condition portrayed in that medal which the Roman victors struck where at the foot of a lonely palm a weeping maiden sits, and beneath which we read the mournful words: Judea Capta." * * How many feet have sought that land! the pathways to it from every part of earth have been worn by the staves and the footsteps of pilgrims. In the front we see the venerable form of him who when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went.' Thence down to these busier times stretches the long procession of those that have travelled far to kneel and to dwell on soil that to the pious heart is like no other soil. And as it has been in the past it will be in the future. Oldest shrines may be deserted, supersti tion may pass away, but the sense of reverence and the power of association will never so far perish that they who have the Bible will no longer care to visit the Holy Land.” The author of these beautiful lines,* also says: During eighty-eight years Palestine had been in the hands of the Crusaders, and Christian kings had ruled in Jerusalem. But this episode of romance and of glory was ended, when in 1187 Saladin routed the Christian armies at Tiberias after which all the land was subdued save a few strongholds over which there still rose the banner of the Crusaders. This catastrophy awakened grief and consternation throughout Europe, and at once the third crusade was undertaken by the Germans under Barbarossa, and the English under Cour de Lion. The exploits of the two allied armies revived for awhile the drooping hopes of the Christians, but soon there arose perfidy at home and treason in the camp. These did as much to render fruitless the achievements of Richard as did the power and skill of Saladin. Consequently at the end of the campaign the cresent waved as defiantly as ever over the land of Israel." This epitomizes a period in the history of the Holy Land fraught with more of interest than is contained in any equal period of history, and by following this history closely the student can obtain a better knowledge and appreciation not only of the enthusiasm that buoyed up Christendom in the long struggle for the possession of Palestine, and the superstitions that impelled the Moslem to resist its attempts but of the characteristics of Richard of England. What a man! what of danger could deter him, what of suffering could discourage him, what of difficulty could dismay him? Indeed danger, suffering and difficulty not only did not cause him to look backward, but on the other hand acted only as incentives to urge him on to more difficult tasks, to more dangerous enterprises, to more undaunted zeal. You may call it fanaticism, superstition, what you will. Yet it must be admitted that the acts of this hero king of England were (except when influenced by sudden passion) always in accord with his daily profession of belief in Christ and desire for the restoration of Jerusalem. How mag The Children's Crusades," by George Zabriskie Gray. |