Great Truths Plainly Told.

GREAT TRUTHS PLAINLY TOLD .

By S . T . Rowe Orator G . Lodge Arkansas , in " voice of Masonry . " ( Continued from p . 69 . ) A CAEEFUL study of the liberal arts and sciences will throw a halo of divine light upon every page oi * the Holy Bible , which will , as we study ib , help us to clear life of all its vices and

superfluities , and light up our pathway from earth to heaven . The more wisdom we obtain the closer are our relations to God , and the more are we assimilated to Him , until we find within us a world of harmony , more life-giving than the spring and summer rains , or the dews of Hermon . Masonry has ever taught silence

and secrecy , because they are among the grandest virtues . " Keep thy tongue from evil , and thy lips from speaking guile . " The cultivation of these virtues tend to bridle the foul tongue of slander , to the destruction of evil reports against neighbours , bickerings and baekbifcmgs , and are the palladium of peace and goodwill among men .

The earth , the sun , moon , stars , worlds , and the whole universe were created in silence . They make their stupendous revolutions in silence . God rules the universe in silence , and in silence He showers His manifold blessings upon men . Secrecy produces a family feeling among Masons , and creates

a unity , harmony and strength which could not be obtained in any other way . As noiseless as the approaching light of the blushing morn , Masonry , with peace and love in one hand , wisdom , strength and beauty in the ofcher , through the power of its secret ministry , hath diffused order , beautv , virtue and civilisation over

all lands . The Mason has always been taught to have faith in God . " Faith is the foundation of Justice , the bond of Amity , and the chief support of Society . " God has so created the human family that they are compelled to exercise faith . The child has faith in its parents , that they will protect him from harm and

alleviate his wants . The husband has faith in the wife and the wife in the husband , and both have faith in their children . Men respect government because of their faith in its power and ability to protect them . The commerce of the world is founded on faith , from the least to the greatest transactions . We all have faith in

God , that He will preserve our lives , send His sunshine and rain and seasons in due time . With all these great truths the Mason ought to bind himself to God by such a strong chain of faith that neither friend or foe , life or death , or the combined powers ofthe infernal regions could move or shake it . Masonry has always

taught charity , which is one of its first as well as greatest lessons . Ib kills envy and listeneth not to the tale when reported by slander . Eevenge and malice hath no place in its sacred domains . It forgives the injuries of men and strives to blot bhem out . Ib lives , moves and acts far above sectarianism , the foibles

quirks and quibbles of men . Arrayed in celestial armour , wrought in the unerring forges of Heaven , with the shield of faith , with the helmet of salvation , wifch the sword of the spirit , with bhe breastplate of righteousness , with the loins girt about with truth , and the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ,

Charity mounts its heaven-born steed , shod with everlasting peace and love , and white as the purest lily , and with the speed of a Pegasus it flies to the relief of the distressed , the widows , the orphans and the unfortunate , leaving sunshine and untold joy in its wake .

The Mason is taught to believe in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body . In fact , this is fche end of Masonry and the hope of the world . Measured , polished , tried , squared and proven by all the great truths of Masonry , we reverently , calmly and trustingly await the good will and pleasure

of the Grand Master of the Universe , to do with us as it may suit Him . " It is said that the pyramids of Egypb employed one hundred bhousand men for many years , bufc it was only to build monumental piles beneath whose shadows kings might rest . " These pyramids are only temples for the dead ; Masons are

building one for the living . The pyramids were only mausoleums in which the bones of the mighty dead might repose in imperial magnificence ; Masons are erecting a structure in which the God of Israel shall dwell forever . The pyramids shall crumble away until not one stone shall be left upon another ; but who shall

count the years of immortality , fche lifetime of a soul which is fitted for ibs place in the heavens ? Who can define its outlines , or fabhom ibs depbh , or measure its journey ? Ifc is a stream which grows broader and deeper as it flows onward . An angel ' s eye cannot measure its length , nor an angel ' s wing travel to its

farthest boundaries . When earth ' s proudest monumental piles have crumbled away , and their sands have been scattered to the desert winds , and the glory and greatness of earth shall be forgotten , then will the immortal soul be pluming its wings for loftier flight . It it a fountain whose sources are in fche infinite ,

"whose placid waters flow on forever . With all these great truths , all these ever-burning lights , if the Mason fails to obtain an abundant entrance into the glorious city of eternal happiness , prepared for the good and the true , he will have no one to blame but himself .

My Masonic Brethren.

MY MASONIC BRETHREN .

An interesting address by Past Grand Master John M . Carter before the Masonic Veteran Association , at Baltimore , Md . HpWO years before the reorganisation of Freemasonry in the JL mother country , John Moore , collector of the Port of

Philadelphia , furnished the earliest written evidence of the existence of Masonry in America , in a letter to England , in which he mentions having " spent a few evenings in festivity with my Masonic Brethren . "

This was half a century before the Stamp Act . We were colonists ; our allegiance was to the Crown . " My Masonic Brethren , " like himself , were men who had first seen the light upon the opposite shore of the Atlantic . They had journeyed westwards to a new and comparitively Unknown land . Instead of

waging war upon the natives they had treated wifch them for their lands , and sought to impress upon fche savages some respect for arts of peace . William Penn , broken and disheartened with age , infirmity , and the ingratitude of favourities , was seeking to recuperate from the harsh injustice of prison life and rapidly declining to the close of an eventful and useful career .

New York , Philadelphia and Boston were small towns . Baltimore was a little straggling village . Nofc a newspaper was published in all bhe colonies . West of the Alleganies the country was unknown . The red man , pressed back from the ocean shore , roamed at will over the rest of the land , and menacingly resented any further incursions ofthe settlers upon his domain .

Nearly two centuries have passed , and we " are spending an evening in festivity with our Masonic Brethren . " They come from the rock-bound coast of Maine , from the sandy beaches of Florida , from fche shores of the lakes upon the north , from the

rising of the balmy gulf stream in the south , from the fertile prairies of the west , from the ice-bound homes of the seal on the Pacific to the vineyards and continuing harvests of the Golden Gate .

They are not here for conquest or gain . No victorious army carrying death and destruction in its train . No merchantmen laden with fche wealth of other nations to exchange for our own productions more needed elsewhere . No prospectors , armed fco

the teefch , to stake out claim and announce the doctrine thafc might makes right . No traders to profit by the ignorance of the natives . Only Masons " to spend an evening in festivity with their Brethren . "

We welcome you , my Brethren , upon historic ground . It was here the standard of religious liberty was first planted in America . It was here the declaration of bhe Association of Freemen anticipated by a whole year and led up to the masterpiece of state papers , the declaration of American

independence . Ib was here the nation ' s bard , pent up a prisoner on bhe enemy ' s ship , gladly awaited fche renewal of hostilities and earnestly peered through the mists of dawn to discover if the star-spangled banner still floated over the ramparts as proudly and as defiantly as at fche close of the previous day . Ib was here the

locomotive inaugurated revolution in motive power in this part of the world . It was here that illuminating gas first dispelled the semi-darkness of the torch , candle and taper . It was here the firsfc message over the magnetic telegraph announced to anxious recipients at the nation ' s capitol the prayerful intelligence

" What hath God wrought . " It was here , sixty-five years ago , that tbe smouldering embers upon the altars of Freemasonry were relighted and fanned into flame ; and it was here twenty-six years ago that the National Federation of Masonry , almost rent asunder by civil strife , was re-established and set upon an enduring footing .

And yet , how many have been the untoward and disturbing causes which have militated against the institution of Freemasonry during the long period since John Moore ' s letter to friends in old England ?

Hardly had the Eevolution closed when the Illuminati began its covert , and serpent-like attack . Army Lodges had attested alike the patriotism and Masonic zeal of fche soldiers . Washington , Lafayebbe and Che leading generals of the war had set the example of devotion fco both country and Lodge . But still the poison was

distributed , ami with all bhe more potency because of bhe insidious methods of the conspirators . Thab Masons were traitors who sought to destroy the country was a doctrine sedulously disseminated ati'l implicitly believed by the vulgar herd and many others as well , till time and circumstances demonsfcrated the

falsity of ihe charge and the base motives of its promulgators . Then came the Morgan excitement , which spread its malignant influence all over the land . Lodges , Chapters , and Commanderies went out of existence in shoals . Even violence was resorted to , and fco acknowledge one ' s self a Mason was

ofttimes to invite personal assault at fche hands of fanatical opponents . Thii . k of the organisation of a political party having but a single article of faith—unrelenting enmity bo the institution of Freemasonry . And yet a distingushed citizen , whose vaulting ambition was fortunately frustrated , actually accepted the terms