ADVERTISEMENT. T may appear inconsistent for a Society which IT specially eschews theological discussions, and professes to have no creed in religion nor party in politics, to become the herald of a work like the present, in which religious views are presented from the stand-point of a particular church; and we therefore esteem it a duty to correct at the outset any misapprehension on this subject. When the hand of death was laid upon the author, and his career of usefulness checked at its meridian splendor, his friends and brethren felt that they had lost one whose earnest and devoted zeal for every good work had given him a place in their affections not easily to be filled by another, and they especially desired to have some token of remembrance that should incite them to imitate his virtues and lead them to emulate his unselfish devotion to the right. Under these circumstances, it appeared that nothing could be more appropriate than a volume expressing the best feelings of his heart in a service to which he had freely devoted his life. In no other way could it have been so truly said of him that, "being dead he yet speaketh." While many will find comfort in perusing the sentiments of the following pages, which else had not seen the light, no one need see in them any attempt to make Freemasonry further responsible than a desire to pay the most fitting tribute to the memory of one who served the Craft with fervent zeal, yet never forgot his higher obligations to the Divine Master whose servant he proclaimed himself to be. The press has been aptly described as a means whereby thought is made immortal; and in assisting thus to rescue from oblivion the thoughts of our departed friend and brother, we do not feel that we are derogating from our often announced conviction that Freemasonry knows no sectarianism. We may be further permitted to add, that, whatever a brother's religious preferences may be, he will find nothing in these sermons to disturb them, but only, it is to be hoped, to increase his reverence to the Deity, and his kind remembrance of one who can "no longer extenuate for himself." And so we commend this Memorial to the brethren as the most fitting monument to commemorate the pure life and loving fraternal walk of our lamented brother. Fraternally, JOHN W. SIMONS. |