Shibboleth: A Templar Monitor

THE ILLUSTRIOUS
ORDER OF THE RED CROSS.
Monitorial Instructions, Notes, Comments, and Suggestions.
A FEW HINTS TO COMMANDERS.

It is the earnest desire of the author of this Monitor to discover that all the Commanderies invest the beautiful, instructive and entertaining Order of the Red Cross with the interest its importance demands. The Ritual provides ample opportunity for the display of true dramatic taste, both in robing and in reading. It also presents the great central thought of the Order,—Truth,—as it has never been presented previous to the adoption at Denver.

The feeling had become almost universal that the Order of the Red Cross was of slight importance, and was at best little more than a social observance. Hence the ceremonials were hurried over, the candidate was practically told that it was mere matter of form, and he went away profoundly impressed that the Commandery was indeed a jovial institution. Never was a graver mistake, and the impression so made was more injurious than beneficial. The Ritual now adopted can not fail to correct that erroneous view of the value of the Order.

The Order of the Red Cross should, if possible, be conferred upon classes, and be made the occasion of social intercourse among the members; the healing of wounds, the forming of new bonds of fraternity. The lessons of the ceremonies tend to these noble ends, and by conferring them with the dignity and pathos they merit those ends will be assuredly attained. See with what fervor of gratitude the newly created Companions will hereafter refer to the name they assumed, and the character they represented. There can be no nobler, and if the work is done with the devotion to dramatic effects which the Ritual demands, that name and character will never be forgotten.

p. 8

[paragraph continues] Hence the propriety of the Refection at the close of the work of the Council.