Installation.

in public as is now claimed to be permitted in some jurisdictions is an innovation against evory teaching of the degree of secrecy . Yet in the old Regulations it is declared that installations shall be by certain significant ceremonies and ancient

usages . Tl is is true of all Lodge work . Who can deny it ? Yet it is not infrequent that Lodges for want of time , as it is explained , their work is half done , imperfectly done to the discredit of Masonry . Want ( f time ! If Lodges have not time to do tin- wnk . tin n it should be postponed

till the opportunity to do it all , and do it well , is secured . If an evil is permitted to exist , it grows if not corrected . So it comes to pass that here a little and there a little of

disobedience to tbe established regulations begets greater evils , till at last innovations are not regarded as blights on the perfection of Masonic ceremonials or destructive of Masonic law .

It is not wise to countenance tl e slightest neglect of the established rules of the Craft , especially in the performance of tbe ritual . Once it happens that omissions are permitted , ifc is cited as a precedent . It is contended that as such a

Lodge did its work without correction , another Lodge may by that example omit in its work what is essential to its perfected performance . So by degrees innovations creep in , and by and by they obtain a sort of authoritative endorsement .

If at the installation of the Officers of Lodges any part of the ceremonial is omitted , whafc may be expected of the future obedience of the Lodges to those regulations that Masonic authority has commanded ? As Lodges are now about to instal their Officers , tho

occasion should be taken to impress on the members the duty of obedience to the established regulations which govern Lodge action in all its labours . Especially should he who instals know exactly what the ancient regulations

require in tlie ceremony . A careful examination of these regulations as well as of all the ceremonial of the Craft should be the study of the Officers of Lodges . Thus only can the laws be enforced . —Keystone .

Its History Is Illustrious.

ITS HISTORY IS ILLUSTRIOUS .

F * r \ HE golden legend of Freemasonry gives inspiration to JL every student . Far back in the yeai * s , at a time unknown to men , there began a system of morality , founded upon the pure principles of ri ghteousness , illustrated and tanght by the simplest , yet the grandest symbols known to

the human mind . As the tiny spring , hidden in the mountain ' s craggy summit , bubbles out in a refreshing stream , overruns tbe rocks and roots that gladly make a way for its current , widens into the brook , dancing and sparkling over its pebbly bed , kissed in grateful delight

by the nodding grasses and flowers that line its path , gathers strength and power from every hillside rivulet , until it is lost in the swell and rush of the mi ghty river pouring its great volume of waters into the reservoir of the fathomless sea , a blessingto tbe whole earth , so this system

of symbolic morality has gathered strength and power as it coursed its way through the ages of the pasfc , receiving fche glad approval of the good of all nations until ifc covers the whole earth , a blessing to the sons and daughters of Adam . They call this system of symbolic morality

Freemasonry . Ifcs history is illustrious . Its legend is golden . Men will never know , they can never know , the good that has been done by the simple , commonplace , easily understood lessons of Freemasonry . The work of the Fraternit y is like the work of nature , silent bufc irresistible . In the

darkness of the inner earth the changing growth of creation goes on , and in ages yet unborn , men will find the treasures that are to-day being conceived in the womb of nature . All this work , the making of the gold and the silver , the storing of the precious stone is done in the

pro -nrlr-n r of silence . It is God ' s history of creation , written by His own Almighty finger . The hintory of Freemasonry is written upon the imperishable tablets of human souls . The eye of the body may become darkened , but tbe eye of the soul is always light . The hand of the body and the busy

brain , may be pulseless and powerless , but the soul outlasts the hand and the brain . The influence of Freemasonry upon the soul is silent but effectual . Its principles are

elevating and ennobling , and the man who comes within the mystic circle finds au atmos phere to rarified that the poison of vice , if not entirely destroyed , looses much of its virulence . Whatever was the bubbling fountain of Free-

Its History Is Illustrious.

masonry , or wherever it had its rise , matters not , so long as we drink of its pure waters and bathe in its cleansing stream . History is but the record of events . Man makes events . Therefore the lives of men are tbe pages of the world ' s life story . Colossal figures rise in every age as marks of

certain epochs . They are indexes to the chapter of events that follow . And so the volume of the world ' s history is marked at each successive age by the doings of a man . The life of Moses is tho story of the Red Sea and the Promised Laud , the smitten rock and the tables of tho

Law . The life of Solomon is the building of the temple with its glory and magnificence . Csesar is the index to Roman history . The life of Columbus is the discovery of America with the marvellous results of tho past four

hundred years . In Napoleon we read ambition , Moscow and Waterloo . The story of Washington is thafc of American Independence , with all that that independence has done for the world . And so the figures of men appear as the exponents of history .

Along the years of Masonic history appear men whose lives are interwoven with the warp and woof of its symbolism . They have stamped their individuality upon its teachings . They have proved by their acts that having tasted of the purling waters of truth they havo been made

better and wiser , and have left their improved and ennobled lives as a grateful tribute of the purity of the stream from which they drank . Masonic history is illustrious , not only because of the noble characters that stand as exponents of the powerful

influence of its teachings , but because of its stead y growth No opposition , no matter how determined , has been able to destroy it . It has rather made the institution stronger , and it is to-day more deep-rooted iu the hearts of its adherents than ever before .

The history of Freemasonry is marked by monuments of the skilful operative workman , as well as the imperishable souls of " just men made perfect " by its truth . The great cathedrals of the Old World , with their pinnacles and domes , their turrets and towers , their lofty windows

where the sun steals through , flooding the knaves and aisles with a softened and mellow light , as though by its silent presence demanding a reverential acknowledgment of the sacredness of tbe spot , are the product of operative

Masonry . Upon these magnificent structures , the admired buildings of the earth , the square and compass , the plumb and rule have been used , and true to the unerring test of the implements of the Craft , these evidences of an illustrious past stand perfect monuments of a perfect work .

From this operative school , with its wonderful object lessons , was evolved the speculative school in which the same unerring tests of square and compass , plumb and rule are applied to the hearts of men , and those whose spiritual buildings are erected agreeably to their measure ,

are perfect monuments of a perfect work , whose existence will run parallel with the eternal ages of virtue . The history of Masonry must be taken in its continuit y from the operative to the speculative . In the operative school , the Apprentice was required to prove his skill as a workman

before he could become a Fellow , and the Fellow became a Master only after be had learned the lessons of tbe tools he had used , and was able to draw such designs upon the trestle board as would deserve the work of the Fellow and Apprentice . It is the same in the speculative school .

The Apprentice must be able to appreciate the beauty of the li g ht to which his eyes have been opened , and when he learns the lesson of the open trestle board of the Grand Architect of the Universe , he may ascend the winding stairs and be taught the beautiful lessons of a wonderful science ,

which will prepare his heart to meet the responsibilities of life , and receive the sure reward that follows a strict adherence to integrity and virtue . Masonry has made men better . It has led them to aim at a higher and purer life . It has made them appreciate a nobler manhood . It has made them understand better

the problem of living . It has taught them how to die . Ifc has permeated fche whole world with its pure principles . It has raised the fallen , and rescued the depraved . It has clothed the naked and fed the hungry . It has built homes for the homeless , and asylums for the sick . It has educated

the ignorant and sheltered the fatherless . It has helped the church to ameliorate the condition of unhappy humanity . Its influence has benefitted government , in establishing justice and destroying despotism . Its silent work haa been felt in the very pulsation of a better moralit y in the community . Its history is illustrious . — N . Y . Dispatch .