It has been a good month for Linwood Lodge as we are starting to receive petitions for new members. Brethren, I cannot express the importance of using the petitions mailed out to you with the previous newsletter, it will be the difference maker in the survival of YOUR LODGE.
One of our very own, WB Ralph McLemore Jr. was honored at Grand Lodge as being selected as the next District Deputy Grand Master of the First Masonic District, and I hope that you will join us celebrating his Installation on Nov. 30th at 7:30pm at Linwood Lodge. While at Grand Lodge from your very own first district, RWB Mike Himes was voted the new Grand Master of Ohio which makes his new title MWB Mike Himes.
Coming up at our next stated meeting will be the annual election of officers for your lodge and I need to hear from anyone interested in becoming an officer ASAP. I also encourage everyone to come out and let your vote be heard. If there is only one time you can make it out to visit the lodge this year, the annual election of officers has to rank at the top of the list.
On the lighter side...As this may be the last bulletin you receive from this current Master, I would like to thank the officers of Linwood Lodge and the brethren that have come down or supported this lodge in the many ways that they were able to do so.
I would also like to share with you my favorite Masonic story, it goes like this...
A man, fond of travel, always kept his eyes open for anything unique or unusual in the cities he visited. During a tour of a certain town he was attracted by a somewhat remarkable spire over a public building. About two-thirds of the way up he noticed that the stone figure of a lamb had been inserted. Then from its back, the spire continued its course.
Stopping a passer-by, the traveler said, "Excuse me, friend, but I am a stranger here, and wonder whether you could tell me if there is a story behind that unusual spire?"
"Yes," the man replied," the spire has a story. I live around here and saw this building go up. When the Masons reached the part indicated by the stone lamb, one of them lost his balance and fell. As you see, it was a good way up.
"Was he killed?" the interested traveler asked.
"No," said the local man, " that's the miracle. When his friends hurried down, expecting to find his mangled body on the pavement, there he was, shaken and badly bruised, but with hardly a broken bone. And the reason for his miraculous escape from death was a lamb. Several lambs were on their way to the slaughter, and as the mason fell, he landed on the back of one of them. The lamb was killed, of course, but saved the mason's life. The builder was so impressed with the miracle that he had that stone lamb placed there as a lasting tribute to a lamb dying to save a Mason from a terrible death."

The moral of this story is... That this lamb is still dead today, but we have a lamb that has been offered to us that is very much alive. And as this town gives reverence to a lamb who saved one man's life, so ought we, to give much greater reverence to the lamb who saves many.

Hope to see you soon,