The Pillars of the Porch

Today in Masonic History we present The Pillars of the Porch by Rob Morris.

The Old is better: is it not the plan 
By which the Wise, in by-gone days, contrived 
To bind in willing fetters man to man, 
And strangers in a sacred nearness lived? 

Is there in modern wisdom aught like that 
Which, midst the blood and carnage of the plain, 
Can calm man's fury, mitigate his hate, 
And join disrupted friends in love again? 

No! for three thousand years the smiles of Heaven, 
Smiles on whose sunbeams comes unmeasured joy, 
To this thrice-honored Cement have been given, 
This Bond, this Covenant, this sacred Tie. 

It comes to us full laden from the tomb 
A countless host conspire to name its worth, 
Who sweetly sleep beneath th' Acacia's bloom 
And there is naught like Masonry on earth. 

Then guard the venerable relic well 
Protect it, Masters, from th' unholy hand 
See that its emblems the same lessons tell 
Sublime through every age and every land 

Be not a line erased the pen that drew 
These matchless tracings was the Pen Divine — 
Infinite Wisdom best for mortals knew — 
God will preserve intact the Grand Design.