Majority Service
MC- Brethren some of our number have reached the years of manhood and now cease to
be active members of our Order. It is fitting and proper that we give due consideration to
this fact and bid them a formal and fraternal farewell as active DeMolays. Will all who are
qualified please rise?
MC- Brother Marshall, you willl conduct the brothers to the East.
MC- My brothers, as you have attained the age of 21 years, it becomes our solemn duty to
bid you farewell as active members of the Order of DeMolay and it is our privilege to
congratulate you on having crossed the threshold which ushers you into the broader life of
manhood. The years have set up a boundary line between you and active membership in
our Order. They may widen that line into a gap, the gap into a chasm and the chasm into a
great gulf. But across them all, your zeal for DeMolay, the memory of your active
membership, and your continuing interest in its behalf will build a bridge which will span
the broadest and deepest abyss the years can carve. Only you believe and pray that you
will maintain your enthusiasm for our Order throughout the broader life upon which you
have now entered.
The ancient world held no higher civic honor than Roman citizenship. When the Roman
youth attained his majority, he laid aside the tunic for the toga virilis, the emblem of life's
new dignities, duties and responsibilities.
To you has come our country's noblest honor, that of being a citizen. You have
symbolically laid aside the garb of youth for the toga of citizenship. Across the threshold
of manhood you have passed as it were in one brief but tremendous moment.
It is to bid you farwell at the door of this larger life, to wish you Godspeed in the new you
have begun, to urge you to maintain your affection for our Order and to welcome you on
frequent visits to the Chapter around which so many happy associations cling that we have
summoned you again to the East, symbolic of the youth you have left behind. It is no
longer proper for us to admonish, instruct or direct. We can only remind and request. I
therefore ask you to permit yourselves to be conducted to the South, symbolic of the noon
of life and the manhood years you have attained.
JC- My brothers, on the symbolic journey of our ceremonies you have often heard
inculcated the cardinal teachings or our Order. To this station your eyes have been
directed as toward a goal worth all your striving. That goal you have now reached.
It is not for me, as the incumbent of the office that is emblematic of the meridian years of
life, to urge you to continued loyalty to the teachings and the practices which are designed
to fit youth for useful and honorable citizenship. I may, however, with propriety suggest
that there is no invisible line at which you are justified in disregarding the lessons taught
you in your Chapter. The virtues which adorn youth, honor manhood even more. The true
spirit of a DeMolay will make a man or boy loyal and loving to his parents while they live,
and loyal and loving to their memory when they have passed away. He will revere sacred
things and weave into the fabric of his manhood the essentials of his religious faith. He will
love the flag of his country and hold it high above all other banners of the earth, fighting
for it if need be, defending its honor in battle or on the field of good citizenship, where the
victories of peace are won. He will be loyal to the widened circle of his friendship. He will
be faithful to all the broadened responsibilities and the new pleades he has assumed. He
will be courteous and kindly and considerate because the Crown of Manhood holds no
jewel that can replace true refinement. The step of greeting, the sign of welcome, the
token of brotherhood will be the instinctive gestures of his life and always in his heart will
abide reverence for the heroic fidelity of the great exemplar of our Order.
You know best of all whether as a DeMolay your achievements have measured upto your
promise. You know best where and why you fell short of accomplishment as fallible
humanity must fail at times. But I take pleasure in testifying that int he eyes of your
brethren you have been loyal DeMolays, worthy wearers of the Crown of Youth, which
you have now exchanged for the Crown of Manhood. We rejoice if we have helped to
prepare you for the solemn tasks upon which you now enter. We glory in the hope that the
companionship of the Order has strengthened you in hours of weakness, cheered you in
times of loneliness, perhaps saved you in moments of temptation.
As the Master Councilor has suggested, it would be prsumptuous for us now to remind
you of the pledges you have made in the past. We ask none of you now. Your future is in
your own hands. We can only accompany you to the threshold which we ourselves shall
soon reach in turn. We can only remind you that what you promised yesterday is the task
of today; that pledges have become duties and obligations opportunities. The hand of
welcome will be extended more eagerly than the hand of farewell whenever you revisit the
scenes in which you have borne so pleasant a part in the past. Brother Marshal, you will
escort our brothers to the West.
SC- My brothers, at this station, emblematic of the eve of life, you have heard inculcated
may times the great truth that the wisest young man is he who looks well to the ending of
the journey as well as to its begining. You have reached the zenith years which point
backward to what you have done and forward to what reamains to be acheived. Half your
years are behind you and half before. We can only repeat the hope that when you reach the
evening of your lives you may be able to look back upon a long and happy journey, filled
with memories of duties well performed, the western sky glowing with the promise of the
everlasting morning. We ask you to turn your eyes again to the wonderful opportunities
and the golden tasks of the afternoon that are now before you. Among those opportunities
is the happy privilege of knowing that the doors have not closed upon you and that you
will always be a welcome visitor. Brother Marshal, you will cause our brothers to face the
altar.
MC- *** (3 raps)
MC- Brother Chaplain, you will lead us in prayer
MC- Active DeMolays will kneel on left knee. All others will remain standing.
Ch.- Our Father, we pray Thy watchful and loving care over these brothers who have
reached the manhood years of life. Sanctify the ties that have been formed in their chapter
and in this Order. Help these brothers to be true and faithful men as they have been true
and faithful DeMolays. Help them to realize that the teachings of his Order are
fundamental truths that know no diviiding line of years and that the true spirit of a good
DeMolay willmake each one a better poses of our Order that when we, like our brothers,
reach the noon of life, we may be better fitted for all its tasks. We ask it all in Thy holy
name. Amen.
ALL- Amen.
MC- * (rap)
MC- Brother Marshal, you will conduct our brothers to the East.
MC- And now , my brothers, this ceremony nears its close. Henceforth, we may not greet
you as Active DeMolays though the ties which have been formed can be severed only by
death. We extend again the warm invitation to visit your Chapter as often as possible.
Brother Marshal, you will afford our brothers seats within the Chapter room.
MC- *(rap)
all sit down