Brethren,
At the building of King Solomon's Temple there were two people who went by the name of Hiram. One was Hiram, King of Tyre. This relationship is not only preserved in the Holy Bible, the records of the Jews, but also in the public records of Tyre. It is also related by Phoenician historians that King Hiram gave his daughter to King Solomon in marriage. The second person who went by this name was a skillful worker in brass and other substances, whom Solomon secured from Hiram, King of Tyre, to be the principal architect and engineer. He was of mixed race, being a 'widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali' . . . 'A women of the daughters of Dan' and his father was a brass worker of Tyre. (1 Kings 7:13-14) This architect carried forward with little confusion or hindrance, and with perfect unity and harmony among all the vast numbers of workmen. Throughout the construction of the Temple, King Solomon appears to have been in frequent intercourse with Hiram, King of Tyre and with his chief architect, Hiram. Freemasons have kept this architect Hiram's memory alive.
It was 1866, when the United States was recovering from a long and bloody Civil War, Henry Welles, who owned a drugstore in Waterloo, New York, suggested all the stores in town close for a day to honor the soldiers who were buried in the city cemetery. So on May 5, 1866, the townspeople placed flowers, wreaths and crosses on the graves of the soldiers. Near the same time, General Jonathan Logan hosted another ceremony for the soldiers who survived the war. The veterans paraded through town to the cemetery to decorate their comrades' graves with flags. It was called Decoration Day. In 1868, the two ceremonies were joined, and in 1882, the name was changed to Memorial Day a national holiday on the last Monday in May. This holiday has now come to celebrate not only verterans, but also loved ones who have died.
Memorial Day's Master Mason Degree was a prime example of these memories. We certainly did appreciate the Past Master's Association, Bartlett Lodge and representatives from District 1 and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee being present and participating in raising Michael Wayne Wilson to that degree. It is occasions like this that makes all 'Brothers' remember so great a man as Hiram, 'the widow's son.' May his example of integrity consistently remind us of why we are Masons!
Faternally,
James L. (Jim) Nichols, WM
The Annual Picnic has been set for Saturday, July 22, 2000. Get your reservations in now. Don't wait until the last and then forget about it. Reservations MUST be in no later than 5 PM, Tuesday, July 18. None can be accepted after this time. See the map for the location. Memphis Sport Shooting Association
9428 Old Brownsville Road
Books are transient and will pass away. Homer, Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare and the Bible itself are all doomed. When time is done they are done. But the life of God in the soul of man can never die. It will live when the globe itself, and all that it inherits, shall dissolve like a dream and leave not a rack behind. Of that eternal life the Bible bears witness in words the simplest, the deepest, the sanest, the truest and the sweetest that man has heard in his long journey, and it is therefore that we love it.
Calendar of Events
Craftsman Club will meet every Tuesday night at 7 PM for study and Ritual work.
| Thursday | July 6, 2000 | 7 PM | Stated Meeting |
| Saturday | July 22, 2000 | 12 Noon | Annual Picnic |
The basis of happiness is the love of something outside self. Search every instance of happiness in the world and you will find, when all the incidental features are eliminated, that there is always the constant, unchangeable element of love - love of parent for child; love of man and woman for each other; love of humanity in some form, or a great lifework into which the individual throws all his energies.
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