The Old Year And The New.

And their darkest of nights , whose shadowy slopes Are lit with tho Hashes of starriest hopes , And their sunshiny days , on whose calm heavens loom The clonds of the tempest—the shadows of gloom !

And , ah ! we pray With a grief so drear , That the years may Btay When their graves are near .

Tho' the brows of to-morrow be radiant and bright , With love and with beauty , with life and with light , The dead hearts of yesterdays , cold on the bier , To the hearts that survive them are evermore dear .

We turn tenderly to the days that witnessed our hopes and fears—our failures and successes—our joys and sorrows—and the farewell which we are obliged to speak to the old year is like the Good-bye spoken to a dear

friend about to leave us . The fading year has advanced ua in age , has increased , perhaps , some burdens that we have to carry , and has made itself felt with not a few of us in limitations and deprivations ; but it is safe to say

that the year has brought to us likewise a rich and varied ministry of blessing . It has put iuto our hands , and left th . * re , treasures which enrich our lives . The past has gone ; ifc canuofc be brought back ; but its substance remains . We

carry along with us the gifts and ministries of former days ; inns we aro educated and disciplined ; thus individual character is fornied , and the best results of human living are attained . " The lifo of all our yesterdays , " says a

gifted writer , " lives in what we are to-day , in our thoughts and feelings , in our tendencies and habits , in everything that goes to make-up character . " We are debtors to all the past , and every departing year claims from us the

meed of grateful remembrances . Cherishing such a disposition to rejoice in and profit by the swift passing years , we shall be enabled to review the past with cheerfulness , whi ' e wo face the future with a firm resolve and an

abundant hope . Whatever our condition , or surroundings , if we are only established in this philosophy , we shall be thankful * . As the writer from whom we have already quoted says , " There is always a call to grateful feeling . Are we

poor ? We " might bo beggars . Are we beggars ? We might be lepers . Are we lepers ? Our sickness might be unto death . Is it unto death ? We have yet a heaven beyond . There is something for which we should be

thankful . Has trouble come to us during the past year ? It might have been worse . Have we lost our dearest and best friends ? They at any rate are not here to suffer .

Has the year disappointed us in matters of business and individual striving for the prizes of earth ? We can still be thankful that it has not taken away our power and will to work . "

Thus everywhere and always , and especially at the parting of the ways , as now , we should thank God and take courage . As we pass another mile stone in life ' s journey we should seek to gather strength and confidence from the

past to speed us forward in the unknown way . Let us be hopeful as we journey on , even though labours and sorrows , mistakes and failures , rise before our vision in the

backward look . No matter what the record of the past may have been , there is always a door of opportunity opening to the future , and we may well rejoice that men are not held as by cruel fate to low , hard conditions , but may

" Kise on stepping stones Of their dead selves to nobler things . " While it is always in order to plan and resolve for better things , there is no season more appropriate for such a work

than the beginning of a year . Then one may well desire to start forth under the influence of a fresh , clear , elevated ideal , with a purpose to realize a higher good than has as yet been attained . 0 , how much better would it be for

all of us if we could live and act by constant reference to such an ideal—if we could but form the habit of always referring our conduct to some high and noble standard Then would the work of life have less of drudgery and

more of zest , and its results would be more ample and satisfactory . To help create such an ideal , and to bind the thought to its observance , is one part of the mission of Freemasonry . Its teachings are intended , many of them ,

for stimulus in this direction . It demands first o £ all a service in the way of personal moral culture—the doing of a work by means of which one ' s own heart and life shall be brought into correspondence with a lofty ideal . To this

end , for this purpose , it presents illustrious names and characters in its ritual , presses into use an elaborate symbolism , and calls attention in various ways to those sublime virtues which most ennoble human character . It would

The Old Year And The New.

instruct its disciples in the best wisdom ; it would inspire them to holy living , having pure and noble thoughts enshrined at the very centre of being . " I pray to God , " said Socrates , " that I may be beautiful in my soul ; " and this inner character should be to every true Mason the first

object of desire . Whatever his resolutions for the New Year , let him determine that he will bo watchful of himself , that ho will strive for self-improvement , and that he will aim to realise his best ideal of a manly character . There will be difficulties in the way of embodying and illustrating

such an ideal , but let him persevere , and not lose a good heart animated by courage and hope . Let him remember the significance of the Masonic symbols—the rough and the perfect Ashlars . Let him work as the sculptor does to

produce the grandest triumphs of his artistic genvus . It is a slow process to bring the block of marble to represent the saint or hero , but the sculptor does not despair and at last the desired result is attained .

" When Godlike art has with superior thought The limbs and motions in idea conceived , A simple form in humble clay achieved Is the first offering into being brought ; Then , stroke on stroke , from ont the living rook Its promised work the practised ohisel brings , And into life a form so graceful springs That none can fear for it time's rudest shook . "

It takes time , patience , and faithful endeavour , to mould human nature into practical form , and produce a symmetrical , noble character . It seems slow and discouraging work sometimes ; but let not the earnest one relax his efforts or give up trying to reproduce in himself the ideal that

glows before his moral vision and commands his best thought ; let him make fresh resolves and do his best to live up to them—so shall he get forward in life ' s way , aud the close of every year shall witness his soul ripening for God and Heaven . —Freemason ' s Bepository .

The Last Prestonian Lecturer.

THE LAST PRESTONIAN LECTURER .

BY BRO . R . F . GOULD . WILLIAM PRESTON , the famous author of the "Illustrations of Masonry , " bequeathed , as most

brethren are aware , the sum of £ 300 , Consols , as an endowment to ensure tho annual delivery of a lecture , according to the system of Masonic instruction practised

for many years under the original ( or Constitutional ) Grand Lodge of England , and of which he waa himself mainly , if not entirely , the author . For many years the Prestonian lecture was delivered

regularly , i . e ., annually , according to the terms of the bequest , by Laurence Thompson , a noted preceptor , at meetings of the Lodge of Antiquity . Afterwards the lectures became intermittent , and have now ceased to be delivered . The last occasion on which the

wishes of the founder were carried into effect was m 1861 , the lecturer being Bro . H . G . Warren , of whose Masonic career a slight sketch may perhaps be acceptable .

Bro . Henry George Warren—born 1813 , died 1887—was initiated in the Robert Burns Lodge , No . 25 , 13 th January 1840 , and remained a member until the close of

1843 , afterwards rejoining—1861—and continuing on the roll until 1879 . Prom 1852 to 1857 he belonged to the Lodge of Regularity , No . 91 , and from 1853 to 1874 to the " Prudent Brethren , " No . 145 , where he twice filled the

chair . In the year 1853 he resuscitated the Phoenix Lodge , No . 173 , of which he was successively Master , and ( for

many years ) Secretary , and finally an honorary member—1884—in acknowledgment of his meritorious services . The remaining Lodges with which Bro . Warren was connected were : —the Berkhampstead , No . 504 , in 1856 ; the Grand

Stewards , 1856-73 , of which he became W . M . in 1860 ; and the West Kent , No 1297 , of which he was a founder and the first Master , 1870-83 . He was a member of the Polish National Chapter , No . 534 , from 1854 to 1883 . The Lodge of Regularity , No . 91 ( then 108 ) , sent him up

as Grand Steward in 1855 . Bro . Warren was a Life Governor of the three Charitable Institutions , having served as Steward of the Girls' School once , the Boys' School twice , and of tho Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution four times . He was on the Audit Committee of the Boys' School in 1857 , and acted as Hon .