Very Worshipful Master,

Worshipful Brethren, Wardens, and Officers,

Most Honorable Brethren to all!

Through patience and submission, the most adverse circumstances take on a more tolerable form, the heaviest burden becomes easier to bear, and what the sufferer once held to be insurmountable is eventually overcome. This is a truth which even the most ancient sages asserted, which religion itself has sanctified, and which daily experience has confirmed. We, too, must now allow this truth the entry it deserves. The purpose of our present assembly is not unknown to you. It was not to celebrate a joyful festival of our Order, not to renew the memory of its founding, not to add a new link to our chain The "chain" refers to the "Chain of Union," a Masonic ritual where members join hands to represent their fraternal bond., not to perform the final duty for the merit of a departed brother original: "vollendeten Bruders"—literally a "perfected brother," a common Masonic euphemism for a member who has died, not to converse about the secrets of our Order and thereby strengthen ourselves fraternally in wisdom and virtue, that the command of our Very Worshipful Master gathered us today — —. Today, as brothers, as Masons, we are to say the final farewell; we are then to leave this place of quiet joys forever, and to dissolve the bond of most blessed harmony as completely as if it had never been tied! Brethren! Masons! who would have ever thought it!

Worshipful Master: (German: Meister vom Stuhl) The elected presiding officer of a Masonic Lodge.
Wardens: (German: Vorsteher) Senior officers who assist the Master in governing the lodge.