Lodge And Chapter Support Of The Masonic Charities.

LODGE AND CHAPTER SUPPORT OF THE MASONIC CHARITIES .

WE called attention last week to the general question of our great Metropolitan Institutions , which are truly the pride and ornament of our Benevolent Order , and to-day we think it well to invoke consideration to a special point connected with that active and individual

support which is so needful and all important for the Charities , and constitutes such an admirable reflection on the reality of Masonic professions of goodwill to others , of unchanging concern for the welfare of our Brotherhood .

In the Report of the Charity Committee of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Devonshire , in our columns last week , appears this pregnant sentence , full of meaning and importance for all well-wishers to the Charities , and which

alludes to a fact , in plain and unmistakable terms , if in tersest utterance , which all who have studied the Charities question know , alas ! is too well founded . It is this : that manv Lodges seem to ignore the existence

of the great Charities altogether . Now , if instead of limiting this disagreeable fact and befitting complaint to the good Province of Devonshire , we said all Provinces alike at home and abroad , District Grand Lodges no less

than Provincial , we should only be stating what is alike entirel y true , and absolutely incontestable . Yes , the one weak point in a generous upholding of onr great Charities is the absence of official , as contrasted with the

most generous individual support . All our three Secretaries will testify to the good which might accrue if all Lodges and Chapters made a point of giving an annual subscription , proportionately of course

according to their means , so that year b y year the Secretaries mi ght rely on a regular income from Lodges and Chapters , independently of what the zeal and good-heartedness of the Stewards would return at the Festivals . Some Lodges

and Chapters year by year , some most liberally and persistentl y testify , at every Festival , how deeply interested they feel in the financial prosperity , the steady

progress , and the thorough efficiency of the Charities , which deserve so well of all loyal and large-hearted freemasons .

But then , per contra , the official support , so to say , is not commensurate alike with the excellency of the cause , the position of certain Lodges aud Chapters , or the actual necessities of the case . There are some Lodges and

Chapters which never have given anything , we fear , to any of the Charities . There are not a few which every now and then , in a perfnnctory manner , do just contrive to put ln an appearance , bat what an appearance after all ?

J-here is a large number which seem , as the Devonshire ^ omtnittee truly and pointedly puts it , to ignore the Chafes altogether , while again there is a few , we forbear au names , which markedly take all they can out of the

Y ^ ties , an ( l pay hack as little as they possibly are Die . "Wo speak severely , but we speak sincerely . We ° ^ e our best thanks to tho Devonshire Charity Committee , Which , in the lasting interest of the Charifies , has spoken to

us fair ] ^ freely , and fully , these " naked words of truth , " uich if not acceptable in this world of ours to many , t'ghfc to be welcomed by Freemasons , one of whose great ] eadin princ j piea j s Truth ! In saying this we do not shut our eyes to some difficultle sin thecase .

Lodge And Chapter Support Of The Masonic Charities.

All Lodges are not so prosperous as others . Some Lodges are in debt to their Treasurers . •Not a few- aro paying far too much attention to the ' requirements of the social circle , so that they have no spare cash for charity .

And then a vast majority are relying on the generous initiation and kindly efforts of individual Stewards , many of whose efforts and returns year by year are as creditable to

themselves as they are help ful alike to the grand cause of charity , and the prevailing interests of our excellent and invaluable Institution .

In old days , before the charity movement happily took such large proportions , bearing however always in mind what we owe to individual efforts and personal munificence

of successive Stewards , very many Lodges made a small collection once a year , as each brother could afford , which was sent up in the name of the Worshi pful Master for one or all of the Masonic Charities .

The practical outcome of our remarks to-day would be then simply and fraternally to call the attention of our brethren to this seasonable warning and reminder of the Devonshire Charity Committee , and to urge upon all our readers ,

and friends everywhere , that in their Lodges and Chapters they should seek to induce their Brethren and Companions one and all never to forget the annual needs of our Charities , but every year , and year by year , to send up a Lodge

and Chapter payment , an official subscription , be it large or be it small , thus showing that they are , happily , by no means amongst those who are amenable to such a censure , in that they never forget the existence of the useful and admirable Charities of English Freemasonry .

Architecture.

ARCHITECTURE .

An Address by Eev . James Byron Murray , Grand Ghaplain , before the Grand Chapter of New York , 2 nd Feb . 1887 . - MAN" stands upon the earth the master-work of creation . In design and finish he is the special building of the architect of all being . He is upright in form , that

he may aspire to Him that made him . And this visible order of his being is the channel through which he couveys to the inner self the meaning and use , the interpetration and suggestion of the material world about him . His eye

is not only the splendid organism of sight , but the august instrument to bring to tho spirit the knowledge of nature for its development and mental culture . His band is not only for personal service , but is the more grand agent to

mould learning or philosophy , poetry or wisdom for the benefit of the society , and to direct the marvellous industries which elevate and enlarge the ages . In his outward conformation he is the dwelling place for mind , the home of

spirit which allies him to the Creator . And as he thus stands upon the earth , with more than chiselled sculpture of form and tho splendour of mind , he is the hi ghest architecture of God .

On looking at man as he is , at what he has done , we find three great prevailing types which mark the race into special divisions , and which , by their characteristic traits modify or give glory to Art in its forms of scul pture , painting and architecture .

There is , first , the unhistoric man of the south-eastern seas . The lines of his face , meeting at a dull apex , reach downward . His sensuous organism is large and fully