Masonry Shows Men What To Do.

MASONRY SHOWS MEN WHAT TO DO .

EREEMASONRY is a series of traditions orally preserved and dramatically enacted ; it is a body of mystic science " ¦ rowing ont of the very roots of the creation ; and it is a system of morality , inculcating on its disciples , in the guise of emblems and allegories , the duties they owe

to their God , their fellows and themselves . Grasped in its inmost geniuf * , it wears a triple aspect , at once scientific , religious and ethical ; for it seeks to unfold tho mysteries of nature and art in precise form and measure and number , and to train its votaries to an intelligent fulfilment of their

destiny , in the light of tbo great principles which preside over the origin , method and end of all things . It teaches that the objects , relations , and motions of the universe , both of matter and mind , are manifestations of the attributes and purposes of the Creator , and that the direct interpretation

and obedience of His will , and thus recorded , is the true religion for universal man , free from the assumptions of arbitrary king or priest . Earth and moon and sun and comet and star , gravitation and cohesion and magnetism and light and heat and sound ,

point and line and surface and solid , square and compass and gauge and level and plumb , are didactically scientific when proving the exact relationships of nature , profoundly moral in their application to the duties of man , unutterably mystic and religious as instant revelations of the presence

and power of God ; and it is not in any mere signals of fraternity , or claims for help , as the vulgar suppose , but it is in a knowledge of the constituent laws and cabalistic secrets of the creation , that tbe chief dignity and significance of our ancient Craft reside . Tho real genius of

Freemasonry , hidden far beyond the intention of its founders or the consciousness of its members , is to be gathered by a clear comprehension , not so ranch of any of its special tenets or ceremonies , as of its general scope as a whole , and the ultimate aim implied in all its procedures . One of tbe most striking- characteristics of our

Institution is its system of mystical instruction . There is nothing in Masonry , from cable-tow to taper , which has not a practical moral . The Institution is vocal all through with allegorical narratives setting forth noble examples ; pictured all over with impressive symbols exhorting to

wisdom , to virtue and to piety . Its regalia and forms are not the puerile dislay and empty ceremonies which they might seem to an ignorant spectator . Each particular is alive with meaning and use . Every point in the Masonic

Lodge , every act in its ritual , is loaded with a moral which ought to tie carefully pondered and practiced . By our symbolism every Mason should be led to feel something of the poetic beauty and religious solemnity of the duties of daily life .

There is need of speaking emphatically on this subject , both because of the great intrinsic force and beauty of these symbols , and because they are so often neglected and forgotten . Many of our brethren slur over them without any appreciation of the fact that herein resides the very soul of

Masonry . This is doubly disgraceful . For example , the Mason who fails to cultivate his mind by that pursuit of philosophy , literature " , art and science to which he is so persuasively urged in his initiation , and who neglects to refresh his conscience and confirm his better vows by

frequent contemplation of the solemn monitors there hung up before him , is the more inexcusable because he sins directly in the light , and against the immediate exhortations of his guide . No Craftsman can pass the Middle Chamber of King Solomon ' s Temple without being introduced to

philosophy through an analysis of the five senses , and being instructed in tbe lofty claims of the seven liberal arts and sciences . Indeed , at the earliest stage of his progress he is told to learn—from the fact that the Lodge which he

has entered metaphorically rests on three great pillars , called wisdom , Strength , aud Beauty—that there must be intellectual insight to contrive , moral power to support , and affectional loveliness to adorn all great and important

undertakings . Our ancient brethren , who were practical Masons , while we are but theoretical , it must be confessed , were more faithful to their duties than we are to ours . For they

proceeded with the utmost solicitude to erect their temporal buildings exactly according to the rules and designs laid down by tbe Master on his trestle board , or book of models ; but we , carelessly overlooking the symbolic directions of our Order , fail to erect our spiritual buildings as we ought ,

Masonry Shows Men What To Do.

agreeably to the rules and designs laid down b y tho Supreme Architect of the Universe in that great volume of nature and revelation which is our moral trestle board , or book of patterns . The true Masonic trestle board for each individual workman , whether in the quarry of business , at

the furnace of politics , or ou the structure of character , is his own mind ; and every Mason , at an early stage of his initiating journey , is warned to copy into it all the plans of his life only in strict accordance witb tbe rules of tbe four cardinal virtues stationed at the four quarters of the moral

compass . Although our ancient brethren wrought in operative , we in speculative Mascnry , yet we must not leave the moral principles , the everlasting duties and virtues of our Order as mere speculations , but must carefully reduce them to practice .

The old proverb does not attribute beauty to mere looks much less to empty profession ; but , with the powerful emphasis of truth , it says : " Handsome is that handsome does . " There is no beauty in the world like the beaut y of performance , no glory like the glory of fidelity culminating in success .

Every true Mason is a spiritual architect , required to build an indestructible bouse of character out of the rude material of his being . This is the fairest and sublimest of all temples . This he is taught that every man must rear for himself . It is to be built out of faith , knowledge and

virtue , the blessings of Providence and the disciplines of life . The heart is its altar , to burn with the incense of gratitude , overshadowed by cherubic wings of wonder , and fanned with the living breath of divinity . When the spirit-fabric is complete , death tears down the scaffoldino *

of flesh and bones that surrounded it , and the pure soul mounts to God , a perfect and undecaying temple not made with hands . Such being the genius of Freemasonry , is it any wonder that its children love and revere it , rally around it , and swear to shield and perpetuate it , and make it co-extensive with the whole earth ?

Let us then be true and earnest in all our relations with the great Institution of Freemasonry . No one with an adequate knowledge of the facts and philosophy of the subject , and with a spirit sufficiently expansive and sympathetic , can fail to see that , as an educational and

benevolent Institution , our Order is one of tbe mightiest means ever devised for promoting the progress of mankind ; and that if its members will only live up to its precepts , and combine to spread them in organised action , there awaits it a more glorious destiny than has ever yot fallen to the lot of any single institution in the world .

The Chnrch , by its verbal teachings , tells men what to do ; Masonry , by its symbolic ritual , shows them what to do . Now let our great democratic Brotherhood , scorning merely to say what ought to be done , not content any longer with a dramatic exhibition of it , resolutely begin ,

with one mind and one heart , to do it , in the actual sphere of private and public life ; aud Freemasonry , if not bearing off the diadem from the Church itself , shall at least be crowned with it in the forefront , as no inferior champion in establishing the kingdom of God on earth . On the

contrary , if the leading representatives of our Order throughout the world , reckless of the grand philanthropic and religious sentiments of morality and disinterestedness , so profuse on their lips and in their ceremonies , are absorbed

in the pursuit of office and selfish pleasure or advantage , tho Institution , in spite of all its chivalrous associations and delightful memories , will be gradually shorn of its glory and justly pass into oblivion . —Voice of Masonry .

A correspondent calls pur attention to the fact that tho statement that the Swiss authorities have ordered the William Tell story to be wiped out of their school books is indignantly denied . Bro . Jacob ^ Norton will doubtless make a note of this contradiction .

At the September meeting of the Star in the East Lodge , No . 650 , Bro . J . H . Vaux S . W . was unanimously chosen W . M . for the ensuing year . Tbe Secretary , Bro . W . v-Sanders , was presented with a silver cup by the retiring W . M ., Bro . S . Winter Parker , in recognition of valuable services rendered to the Lodge during his terra of otn

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FUNERALS properly carried out and personally attend * " . in London and Country , by Bro . G . A . HUTTOST , 17 Weweas *' Street , Strand , "W . C . Monuments erected . Valuations ma * - *"*