We can do nothing for the dead. We can only offer respect to our brother's inanimate clay, and cherish his memory in the abiding faith that our temporary loss is his eternal gain. In this belief let us commit him with due reverence to the keeping of the All-Father, who is supreme in wisdom, infinite in love, and ordereth all things well.
(Family service to be omitted in case no relatives of the deceased are present.)
While we pay this tribute of respect and love to the memory of our late brother, let us not forget to extend our fraternal sympathy to his deeply afflicted and sorrowing family (wife, children, father, mother, brothers, sisters, as the relatives may be present): In your irreparable bereavement, and as he, for whom we are all mourners, was true to us, and faithful to the ties of our brotherhood, so shall we be true to you in the practice of the principles of Freemasonry and in tender memory of our loved and lost. He gave much of his time to us in devotion to our cause. We owe a grateful acknowledgement to you for his social companionship and service, and mingle our sorrows at parting with yours, his near and dear relations.
Master: "May we be true and faithful; and may we live and die in love!"
Response: "So mote it be."
Master: "May we profess what is good, and always act agreeably to our profession!"
Response: "So mote it be."
Master: "May the Lord bless us and prosper us, and may all our good intentions be crowned with success."
Response: "So mote it be."
The apron is taken from the coffin and handed to the Master; and while the coffin is being lowered into the grave, either of the following funeral dirges may be sung—the one used, to be selected and announced before leaving the lodge-room: