M. W. Hazen INDEX OF PAPERS INDEX OF LECTURES BIOGRAPHIES .

Presentation of a Volume of Sacred Law It is my pleasant duty this evening to present to you your own Volume of Sacred Law, that great light in Masonry. Before doing so, however, I have certain observations to make regarding that Holy Book, to which I trust you will pay strict attention. The Holy Bible is commonly thought of as one book because it is contained between two covers. It is in reality a library of sixty-six books, thirty-nine of which are found in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. These books represent the sacred literature of the Hebrew peoples, the product of many centuries of varied authorship and subject matter. They combine law, history, prophecy, poetry, biography, philosophy, ethics and the revelation of the Divine Truth and LIght. Diverse as are the subjects and authors, remote as are the legend types and styles of expression, the intelligent reader discovers an ever-increasing purpose running through the pages like silver threads through a darker fabric—veritable flashes of light and truth which reveal the mind and character of God and His never failing love towards all mankind. The Bible is the world's supreme record of man's experience with faith. It is the freemason's trestleboard in character building, that important duty to which you have dedicated yourself this evening and for which you have been emblematically presented with the tools of the degree. In this Holy Book are laid down the principles of correct living. Its great men loom large upon the background of world history. They lived, they fought, they loved, they sinned, they repented and they left behind them, here in this Holy Book, the testimony that the keeping of God's law and the doing of God's will are the things in this life that are worth living for. We need to know our Bible, to learn its precepts, to reverence it as our Great Book friend. And, my brother, that your feet may not stumble, that your pathway through life may be well lighted, your brethren of this lodge have commissioned me to place in your hands this evening your own Volume of Sacred Law, the great masonic light, with the prayer that it may indeed be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway. They bid you read it frequently, thoroughly, and carefully, and urge you to use it as a rule and guide in your earnest efforts to become a better man and a better freemason, a credit to Freemasonry in general, to this lodge in particular, and an asset to the community wherein you may at any time reside. Provided by RW Bro. John Bentley Alexander (d. 1961/12/27) who affiliated with Cascade Lodge No. 12, Vancouver from Sunbury Lodge No. 28, Nova Scotia on 19 March 1928. From a wet chemical photostat copy in the Archive of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. circa 1950-1961.

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