THE SERVICE OF THE TEMPLAR. I SERVE, and my wages are ample, I wait, I wait. I SERVE, and my service is holy, Though raiment be scanty and torn; I SERVE, and if sometimes o'er weary, I SERVE, but the long watch is ending, For I SERVE at His will At the Mystery gate I wait, I wait. The motto for the Prince of Wales, Ich Dien (" I serve "), is peculiarly applicable to the relations borne by the Templar Knight to his Heavenly Master. As expressed in the Templar's Rituals and shadowed in the armorials of the Order, the position of a Templar is that of a servant, the servant of Christ. His time of service is marked out in the mind of his Master, and his wages are "laid up in store for him," to be paid over at the proper time. Inscribed, under brotherly memories of many years, to Sir Theodore S. Parvin, Grand Recorder of the Grand Encampment of the United States. INVITATIONS TO PILGRIMAGE. COME then, dear followers of Christ, your hand; Together, Pilgrims, to the Holy Land! Climb nimbly now, along the sacred hills; Drink joyously the cool, refreshing rills; All well known things are there; from flowers that bloom And all things speak in nature's chorus true, Of Him who lived, and loved, and died for you. Come, and when Holier Land, where Christ hath gone, The deepest secrets of the upper sky Shall be revealed; the humblest emblem here Shall have its antitype celestial there, And earth, with all its imagery be given A school to fit us for the perfect Heaven. NEVER FORGET. Never forget, dear Comrade, while you live, If in his breast a kindred heart is found; Never forget, though rust and sin may soil, Never forget the sad, sad story told Never forget the good Cyrenian bold Who bore the SUFFERER'S cross so manfully; When in his place a worthier was found. Never forget to live the Templar's life, Though hard it may be, rough, and fraught with care; Our work, we told you, is a constant strife,— We promised you but coarse and scanty fare; Not long the weary arm, the moldy crust,— See on Celestial plains our camps are set! Strike and press on, brave Comrade, as you must, This piece is extensively used in the American Commanderies as an exhortation to the newly created, immediately following the accolade. For this use it admits of esoteric changes and interpolations ad libitum. It has been set to music. THINKING OF REFLECTIONS UPON THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHILE EXPLORING THE HOLY LAND IN 1868. IN NINE PARTS. That which we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled . . . . declare we unto you.-I JOHN i, 1-3. I. BETHLEHEM: THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH. I thought of JESUS on the Hill Of BETHLEHEM, fair BETHLEHEM: The Shepherds watching through the night,— The angelic songsters clothed in light,— The promised CHILD SO humbly born For pilgrimage of toil and scorn; Then, as I mused on them, This voice from BETHLEHEM I heard, The Hill is Holy to our new-born Lord! The city of Bethlehem, five miles south of Jerusalem, is charmingly situated upon an eastern spur of the ridge that composes the land of Palestine. It is 2,700 feet above the Mediterranean, and 4,100 above the Dead Sea. It covers the hill, terraced on every side from the valleys, and is thus embowered in groves of mulberry, fig and olive trees, and grape vines that produce marvelous clusters. The Shepherds watching through the night. There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.- LUKE ii, 8. The angelic songsters, clothed in light. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God. -- LUKE ii. 9–13. The promised child. Behold, a virgin shall bear a Son, and shall call his name EMMANUEL.-ISAIAH Vii, 14. so humbly born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.- LUKE ii, 7. For pilgrimage of toil and scorn. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, hid not my face from shame and spitting.- ISAIAH i, 6. "He went about doing good." II. NAZARETH: THE HOME OF HIS YOUTH. I thought of Jesus in the Vale Of NAZARETH, Sweet NAZARETH. His name is murmured in its Fount,- This voice from NAZARETH I heard,- His name is murmured in its Fount, The fountain which supplies the people of Nazareth with water is one-half mile east of the city. Thither the mother of Jesus must have gone often with water jar on shoulder, and the prattling boy by her side, as the mothers of Nazareth are yet seen to do, morning and evening. His praises sweep along its Mount. Above the city of Nazareth, on the west, is the overhanging mountain described in Luke iv, 29. The view from its top is one of the broadest and most interesting in all Holy Land, and as such must frequently have met the eye of the divine Nazarene. His youthful feet have trodden there. From the day of his learning to walk, to his departure upon his divine mission at the manly age of thirty, Jesus made his principal labors and journeys in and around Nazareth. His earliest thoughts distilled in prayer. As we read in Luke ii, 52, that Jesus, at Nazareth, grew "in favor with God," and as he was emphatically a man of prayer during his ministry, often withdrawing in solitude for that purpose, we may safely conclude that his mind was absorbed in this sacred abstraction, even from early youth. III. JORDAN: THE SCENE OF HIS BAPTISM. I thought of Jesus in the rush. Of JORDAN'S waters, cool and good; How cheering was that noontide draught! So CHRIST, whose presence blest its wave, Then, as well cheered I stood, This voice from JORDAN'S wave I heard,- Of Jordan's waters, cool and good. The water of this swift-flowing river is much cooler than the atmosphere in the hot valley through which it flows, and being pure and wholesome, it is extremely grateful to man and beast. All the wild beasts and birds of the Jordan Valley throng to these waters as to a banquet God hath prepared for them. Never such healthful cup I'd quaffed. The writer had gone down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, bathed there, tarried there for some hours, and then traversed the burning plain six miles before he reached the Jordan, and this made his first draught of its cooling waters so delicious and refreshing that "the good cheer of Jordan" will abide in his memory so long as life shall last. So Christ, whose presence blest its wave. Then cometh Jesus to Jordan to be baptized.- MATTHEW iii, 13. Jesus was baptized of John in Jordan. - MARK i, 9. Health and refreshing coolness gave. All the happiness of the body, as well as the spirit, is primarily due to Jesus, CREATOR of all things. This fact is realized with peculiar force by the traveler following up the traces of the divine feet. IV. GALILEE: THE CENTER OF HIS LABORS. I thought of Jesus by the Sea His sermon blessed its peaceful shore,— This voice from GALILEE I heard,- Blue Galilee. The purity of the atmosphere in Palestine, giving a deep cerulean hue to every object, is peculiarly observable around the Sea of Galilee, as it lies in the bottom of a deep basin of basaltic mountains. All travelers remark "How blue is this charming lake!" His sermon blessed its peaceful shore. The "Sermon on the Mount" was delivered, it is believed, upon the hills that overhang the Sea of Galilee on the west. In that clear atmosphere, the sound of his voice would readily reach the sea shore, and mingle with the singing tones of the waters as they ripple along the sand. He stilled its tempest by his power. He rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.- MATTHEW viii, 26. The Sea of Galilee is subject to sudden storms like the one described in the Scripture. His mightiest deeds he wrought. Some twenty out of the thirty-five of the recorded miracles of Jesus, including the cleansing of the leper, restoring the blind to sight and raising the dead, were performed around or in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. drew from fishermen there, His chosen few. Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw Peter and Andrew, fishers, and James and John, in a ship mending their nets, and he called them.- MATTHEW iv, 1821. It is thought that all the Apostles, save, perhaps, Judas Iscariot, were residents of the vicinity of Capernaum. V. GETHSEMANE: THE GARDEN OF HIS AGONY. I thought of JESUS, in that Grove. Of agony, GETHSEMANE: Its hoary leaves around me sighed, Its dewdrops wept; my spirit vied With nature's grief, till I forgot All time, all space, in that sad spot; This, from GETHSEMANE I heard, The Grove is Holy to our sorrowing Lord! that Grove of agony, Gethsemane.- The present inclosure of Gethsemane, a scanty half acre, is marked by the presence of eight large olive trees, to which were applied by the writer of this poem the names of eight pious song writers of America. Its dewdrops wept.-The writer visited the Garden of Gethsemane at the close of the day, as the cool olive leaves began to condense from the superheated atmosphere the refreshing dews of evening. I forgot all time, all space in that sad spot. - Cold must be the heart that can meditate under the trees of Gethsemane without The writer reading there "of the agony" and "the sweat," as recorded in Luke xxii, was fain to yield to an uncontrollable gush of emotion. tears. VI. JERUSALEM: THE CITY OF HIS DEATH. I thought of JESUS, as I walked A pilgrim through JERUSALEM. What memories does its history trace! His living love; His dying grace; The bread; the wine; the coming doom; The Scourge; the Crown; the Cross; the Tomb; This, from JERUSALEM I heard,— City most Holy to our dying Lord! I walked a pilgrim through Jerusalem.— Jerusalem is, of all the cities upon earth, the nucleus of pilgrimage. The Jews crowd there as to the capital city of their fathers; the Moham |