No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. W. District Deputy Grand Master, brethren; It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to propose, what I consider the most important toast of the evening, a toast to our visitors. Graham was thoroughly passed to the second degree and we had that lovely soprano to lead us in carols at the Festive Board. and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. You'll learn and remember everything you need to make a great speech, even at short notice, while enjoying a good laugh. As one Brother who was hard of hearing said to his neighbour during a speech, “ Hasn’t he finished yet? However, while you need a good story or two or at least some one-liners, they must be relevant and must appear within the context of your speech.In fact, it is not until the middle of that century that the Sicilian orator, Corax, along with his pupil, Tisias, began a formal study of rhetoric. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

This shows that you have been paying attention and that you are a discerning member of the audience. The Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master asked me if there was anything I disagreed with in what he said.

As you get better at public speaking, and to get to know your subject better, try to memorize what you’re going to say.

It’s like having a patient Past Master talks you through every single detail, and explain everything that happens in the Lodge in detail. Now, whatever you do, NEVER, EVER start by saying that you are a bad speaker, that you have no skill in speaking, or you don’t know what to say. It is reputed that the first after dinner speech ever was given by Christopher Columbus, who started with the words, “Brethren, a funny thing happened to me on the way to India.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. We are all visitors on this sublunary abode but this evening we have had the pleasure of welcoming you to our own small part of it. Let us give thanks for the food and drink we laid before us and for the Good Companionship we enjoy each month, but most of all we ask that the Great Architect continue to help us to practice outside the Lodge those virtues we have been taught in it. Public speaking is a skill you can learn, and Freemasonry offers the opportunity to perfect and practice this skill. It might be clouds drifting in a blue sky, a stream splashing through a forest, gentle waves rolling onto a sandy shore or a peaceful garden.