Correspondence.

present W . M . was only consecrated eatly in tho year 1800 , ra the province of Hotts . I understand " A PROVINCIAL P . M . " has already let it bo widely kuown that ha iutouds being nominated for tho office of Grand Treasurer for 1892 .

Good luck to him , aud compliments of tho season to you . Yours very fraternally , J . S . CUMBKKL . IXD , A Past Prov . Graud Warden 3 Cedars-road , Beckenhain , Kent . 31 st December 1890 .

Another Convention Of Anti-Masonic Cranks In The Hub.

ANOTHER CONVENTION OF ANTI-MASONIC CRANKS IN THE HUB .

To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DUAR Sut AND BROTHER , —Last yoar I scut you tho proceedings of a new auti . Masonic convention held in Boston . I now send you oxtracts from the Boston Herald giving an account of three ont of four meetings held by tho same organisation this week . The Pwas displayed no sympathy for the organisation ; for , ont of four Boston

papers I consulted , two of them had but brief notices of the convention , ono paper did not notice it at all , and tho Boston Herald did not favour it very much . It seoms to mo that tho would-be agitators , who aro unknown probably outside of their respective churches , aro seeking for notoriety in now fields . The resolutions they passed at the said convention , will not furnish either instruction

or very much amusement to your readers . But still , it ia worth knowing what the professed greatest enemies of Freemasonry havo to say against it . For that reason and that reason alone , I hope you will reprint the extracts herowith enclosed . Fraternally yours , JACOB NORTON . BOSTON , U . S ., 19 th December 1890 .

Against Secret Societies.

AGAINST SECRET SOCIETIES .

AGAINST Oath-Bound Lodges was the rallying sentiment of the New England Christian Association which began its annual convention at Park-street Congregational Church . The meeting began at 7 o ' clock with devotional exercises , led by llov . I . Hyatt of New Hampshire . At 7 ' 30 President A . J . Conant of Connecticut gavo a brief address of weloome , adding a word concerning the purpose of the society , which is , in brief , to wipe Freemasonry

off the face of the earth . The war horses of anti-Masonic agitation wero present , and from among their number William F . Davis , of Chelsea , lately imprisoned for preaohiDg on the Common , was called to the platform , and spoke on " Romanism and Freemasonry . " At least , that was the theme announced . The address contained

a good many epigrammatic and stnkiog statements that served to entertain the audience for more than an hour . He said , among other things : " If there is anybody iu tho steel trap of Freemasonry horo tonight , I hope the strings may ho loosened and they may escape . " I know thero are somo here who havo already declared their

independence , but there aro others who do not kuow Freemasonry , and BO think well of it . "They arguo this way : My father was a good man ; he was a Mason ; therefore Masouvy is a j : ood thing . " What is that argument worth ? Gou . Grant was a good man ; he bad a cancer ; does it follow that cancer is a good thing ?

"Perhaps tho cancer is a blossing . If wo must havo tho smoking , it is well to have the cancer to show its evil eil ' ects . " So , if wo must havo the secret societies , conspiring to derango bttsines ? , manipulate politics , and defeat tho canse of justice , it is woll to havo a Crouin affair ; to seo a preacher murdered by Masons before ho could deliver a sermon against tbem ; to see Italians plying

thoir daggers in secret vengeance . " When a man is put in jail for preaching the Gospel , God knows how to open tho gates and lot him out , as ho did for Peter ; or to open the gates and lot people in to minister to him , as in the case of a man imprisoned for preaching on tho Common hero in Boston . And

ho knows how to break down tbe men who put him there , as you will remember . "You can't be freo by calling yourself 'free' aud ' accepted ' Masons . Free ? Free from what ? From liberty to tell tho truth . Masons begin blindfolded , and continue in the same manner to the end .

" There are tho worst infidels in Harvard of any place in tho country , because they know more there . If any Baptist minister ia cast out of his own church for heresy , he is received at Harvard with open arms , and set to teaching the Bible and Hebrew . Nowhere ia tho divinity of Christ attacked so subtly as at Cambridge " Ho arraigned the Herald as aa enoiny of Phillipa Brooks , because ,

in November 1837 , it described a Masonic celebration at Trinity Church . "No minister can be a Mason , " he said , " without loes of spiritual power . Some good ministers are Masons , and some good ministers have dyspepsia , but that doesn't recommend either . " Tho speaker read from the " Voice of Masonry , " July G , 1 S 76

P 337 , to provo that Masonry recoguized no lawu but those of its own creating . In that it resembled Kouianism . Rev . 0 . P . Gifford , who was c ~ pected to follow , was unable to be present , and the discussion ended . President Conant aunonnced the following committees of tho convention : On liuance , A . A . lloyt , A . M . Paul , Z . Graves ; on rc 3 olti - tiou ? , J . p . Stoddard , Lincolu , I . Hyatt ; ou uoniiuations , S . 0 .

Against Secret Societies.

Kimball , Waldo Graves , and P . B . Brown ; on enrolment , James French , Edwin Kimball , and Mrs . D . Power . There will be three sessions to-day—at 0 a . m ., 2 and 7 p . m .

Grange Ritual Condemned.

GRANGE RITUAL CONDEMNED .

THERE was a large attendance present when the third session of tho third annual convention of the New England Christian Association began at two o ' clock , on the 16 th nit , with a devotional service conducted by Mr . A . N . Paul , of Providenoe . Rev . L . W . Frink , of West Boylston , was the first speaker , and his subject was " The Grange and the Country Churches . " The Grange , he said , was doubtless started for a laudable purpose ,

but , in reality , the Grange rejects the fundamental principles of the Bible , while it proposes to bring about tho same results by purely earthly methods . I have no objection to the literary exeroises of the Grange , but I hnvo tho most decided objections to its ritual , with its too wide scope , that will allow avowed infidels to become members . I am told that

this is not a religious institution , but that it is simply for tbe advance of agricultural purposes . If it is not a religious institution , why has it a religious ritual , inoluding even a burial service ? And , if not a religious institution , Christians have no right to belong to it . The Master tells the candidate that the obligations of the Grange will not conflict with his religions , moral or social obligations . If

that Master is not a Christian , what does he know of social , moral or religions obligations ? The ritual of the Grange says these teachings ( the teaohings of the Grange ) are the loftiest that can be presented to man . How about the teaohings of our Lord ' s word ? " The Grange , " so say its members , " is striving with other saored organisations for the elevation of

mankind . " For Christian people to belong to tho Grange is to rob them * selves of spirituality , to dull the Christian perceptions , to weaken the Church itself , and to place in the path leading thereto one of the greatest of stumbling blocks . I know of no person who is a member of a Grange or any other aeoret organisation who is a good church member .

In his address , the subject of which was " Ye Have Robbed God , " Rev . E . M . Darat said : A man cannot exohange the Lodge for his religion . The Christian Chnroh is a positive system in diBtinotion to a moral system . Using the word of God for any other than a Christian purpose is robbing God . Not every man makes his Lodge his religion , bat moat men permit the Lodgo to satisfy as far as it is capable of

doing the demand of bis religious nature ; such a man is robbing not only God , but himself . The Christian religion is centred in the Christ . The Christian religion is the only God-given system , and its Christ is a Christ of authority . A plea for these secret institutions is that they are taken from the Bible , but I would like to ask if thero i 3 one of them that is sanctioned

by the command of God . If not , they are adapting to their own ends what is really God's ; they are stealing from him , plagiarising his rules . Thero is only one way in which a man may escape from his sins , and that is not through the Lodge , but through the pardon of God , sought with humility . The charity of tho Lodge is a mere business arrangement , a giving

because a return ig expected . The Church of the living God is not a clubhouse nor an insnrauco organisation , but it is the divine causo that is benefitting all humanity . Men who belong to tho Lodgo are robbing God pecuniarily , giving to tho Lcdgo what belongs to God and to his fellow-mon . A mau owes to his children a scientific and a spiritual education , and the

Lodgo robo him of tho means to rnoet theso obligations . If you aro a Christian you can't afford to go into Lodges ; if not , you can ' t alford it , for you should speed evory moment iu trying to become ono . Rov . Hezokiah Davis spoke very earnestly on the relationship redeemed man sustains toward God , and the antagouistn of tho Lodgo to this relationship . Tho redemption that is provided for us through

Jesus Christ includes tho whole man . The Lodge member is only a half-and-half man if he is a church member ; half for the Lodge and half for Christ . " All Israel , " said the speaker , " ia met in Christ ; hence I havo no need of the Lodge . " Mr . Perry , of Thompson , Ct ., who has been connected with the judicial court , told of his own experience concerning the influence of

Masonry on the law aud judicial workings . Just before tho close of the session , Rev . Mr . Hyatt presented tho following resolutions , which were unanimously adopted : — Whereas , Freemasonry transforms amusement into sin , politics into treason , benevolence into selnJ . uess , brotherly lovo into conspiracy , and worship into formalism ; and

Where » 3 the so-called minor secret orders , of whatever namo , par . tako more or less of the same nature , and are used as feeders to the higher orders ; therefore , Resolved , that we are opposed to them all , and in a Christian way will seek to show our fellow-men their trno oharacter . Resolved , that we urge all within them to renounce them , with such confession as tho nature of their connections with them may

require . Resolved , that wo will earnestly persuade those outside of them , especially tho yontb , never to unite with them . Resolved , that it ia our conviction that wo need to seek earnestly to promote a deep and fervent spirituality as the motive power in our reform work ; that an ontiro consecration to God and implicit faith iu His word ia the only true basis of actual reform .

Resolutions of thanks wero voted tho Press , the committee aud janitor of Park-street Church , the musicians and all who had oxtended hospitality to the members of the convention . Although the rain was falling in torrents at the time of commencing tho evening soaaiou , thero was a large attendance . Tho first halfhour—from 7 until 7 ' 30—was devoted to a servico of prayer , conductor by Rov . Dr . James M . Gray , with congregational singing , led by Mr . i \ W . Mollou . Iu tho unavoidable absence of Rev . A . J .