Published in the Liverpool Transcript Thursday, July 19, 1860
Oh! ye Craftsmen who proudly the Mason’s badge wear, Why still meet on the Level and part on the Square; While ye act by the Plumb ever upright and just, Be stong in you faith, and in God put your trust.
With the Square and the Compass to counsel and guide, You may travel the earth with a feeling of pride; And with smiles on your face that a clear conscience brings You may shake hands with Princes and sit down with Kings.
By the Landmarks unharmed that for ages have stood, When fire and sword swept the earth like a flood; Protected and watched by the All Seeing Eye, Heart-rooted they stand; and times changes defy.
At the Altars you kneel where your fathers have knelt, Where the proud and the strong into tenderness melt; So firm and enduring, that man cannot sever, Is the mystical tie that binds them forever.
Though your lives, may be checkered and dark by the way, Where the sunbeams of home on the heart cease to play, The great light of the Craft, with its lessons sublime, Will illuminate your path on the journey of time.
Should some poor erring Brother his claims on you press, Oh! Regard not his faults but believe his distress; Over failing be tough to throw Charity’s veil, For the best are but mortals, and mortals are frail.
As ye stand by the grave of a Mason, and weep, With emotions of anguish all silent and deep, Oh! Forget not the needs of his desolate hearth, And the dear tender ties that long bound him to earth.
Go, kind sympathy, visit the fireside of grief, And should want be found there, carry speedy relief; Do not give as you would to the mendicant poor, That may shivering stand and beg alms at your door.