LAST NIGHT I KNELT WHERE HIRAM KNELT

Last night I knelt where Hiram knelt

And took an obligation.
Today I’m closer to my God
And I’m a Master Mason!
Tho’ heretofore my fellow men
Seemed each one like the other.
Today I search each one apart;
I’m looking for “My Brother”.
And, as I feel this friendly grip,
It fills my heart with pride;
I know that while I’m on the square
That he is on my side.
His footsteps on my errand go
If I should such require;
His prayers will plead in my behalf
If I should so desire.
My words are safe within his breast
As though within my own;
His hand forever at my back
To help me safely Home…
Good counsel whispers in my ear
And warns of any danger
By Square and Compass, Brother now!
Who once called me a stranger.
I might have lived a moral life
And risen to distinction
Without my Brother’s helping hand
And fellowship of Masons.
But God, who knows how hard it is
To resist life’s temptations
Knows why I knelt where Hiram knelt

And took that obligation!!!

--- Bro. RUDYARD KIPLING

FOOTNOTE: Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was in 1886 initiated as an Entered Apprentice Mason (April 5), passed as a Fellow Craft Mason (May 3), and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason (December 6) at the Lodge Hope and Perseverance No. 782 in Lahore, India. Although he resigned from the craft in 1895, the influence of Freemasonry would be evident in his literary work.