Country Cousins In Town.

suddenly translated to St . Paul ' s or Westminster Abbey , when tho anthem was swelling forth from the well-trained choir and supported by the intensity of a powerful organ . " Well , then , consider our friend arranging for his annual outing , and see how unselfish he is . He comes nofc to us

alone , but makes a practice of bringing with him thoso members of fche family who aro—what shall we say ?—eligible for tho trip . Thus , whilo ho is engaged at his business or pleasure , the younger branches aro free to disport themselves at will , always , of course , keeping well

in viow the obligations due to each other with regard to rendezvous and discipline . Passing along the crowded thoroughfares of the City last week one jostled with a strange variety of form and visage from every county in the kingdom , and the broad dialects

mingled strangely with the buzz of conversation one is accustomed to hear in every-day life . With equally strange perversity , too , the provincial will not learn the rule of the street—that is to say—to keep on the right when walking , and thus there have been some

ludicrous bungles , and imprecations on the part of strangers as to the ill-mannered Londoners who are always colliding , with " many a mutual punch and shove . " The ladies are enraptured with the glisten and the glare of the shop windows and their contents ; they devour , we are

afraid with covetous eyes , the jewellery and the finery that are everywhere displayed , little heeding the rushing crowd who pass by , and who , by their very familiarity with such sights think nothing of them . Then , as to the tours they make , are they not quite herculean in their way ? A

brother was relating good humoredly , the other evening , the programme which had been rigidly carried out by his " good lady " and the grown-up members of his family . We scarcely know if we can enumerate them all , but certainly they included , first , the Bank , Koyal Exchange and

Mansion House ; then a peep at the Guildhall and its library ; Cheapside , and Bro . Sir John Bennett's " Gog ancl Magog " striking the chimes upon the clock ; St . Paul ' s , the Law Courts , the National Gallery , Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament ; thence by underground

railway to Madame Tnssaud ' s , winding up with a seat in the dress circle at the Gaiety ! If this is not a menu large and varied enough for a gourmand at sight-seeing let us for ever after hold our peace . But not only do the places of amusement benefit by this periodical influx of visitors ;

from our experience of provincial life we know it is one of the most sacred and religious duties of those who are so fortunate to be included in the trip to London to carry home some souvenir of that glorious event . How much

more " correct " is the sealskin jacket from the establish ment in St . Paul ' s Churchyard or the West-end ? fche silk dress or mantle from Swan and Edgar ' s , or Jay ' s , or Peter Robinson ' s , will " astonish the Browns" in that little

village—for the Browns cannot boast of more than a local milliner , of course ! Then the toys , the bric-a-brac and the little knick knacks for the children from the Lowther or Burlington Arcades , and the other mementoes of London that are stored away into packages for home , all mean the

circulation of money and the diffusion of happiness and pleasure for months afterwards . It is unfortunate our friends were so disappointed as regards the weather , but let us hope that what was wanting in that respect may

have been made up by the kindliness of their reception by friends in town , and the " hail fellow , well met , " kind of hospitality to which they have been entertained . They have our heartiest good wishes , and may their shadows never grow less .

Behold This Light!

BEHOLD THIS LIGHT !

MASONS ^ are to-day , and have always been , of the most intelligent , pure-minded , God-believing people of their times and nationalities , and have universally been found upon the side of good government , true morality , temperate livelihood and enlightened charity . I do not

intend to say that the Masonic Order has always succeeded in excluding from its temples the unbelieving , the depraved or the vicious , —there was one Judas even among the

selected apostles of Christ ; and it cannot be supposed that any organization c _ n securely guard itself against those who seek its protection , and adopt its tenets , to mask the secret corruptions of their own lives , or to afford them

Behold This Light!

better opportunities to prey upon their fellow men . Masonry has grown mosfc rapidly in those countries possessing the highest civilization , and in those times of the most rapid progress of enlightenment and education , conclusively proving that underlying its symbols and allegories are

certain divine truths and principles , satisfactory to the most profound investigators and scholars , and essential to the welfare and happiness of mankind . The uninitiated may scoff at our Fraternity as a latter-day invention , and , as at most , an offspring of those societies or Lodges of

Operative Masons , who builded the grand cathedrals and monasteries of the middle ages ; but Masonry is older than tbat , older than the temple of Solomon , erected by its masters ; older than the pyramids of Egypt and South America , those miracles of stone that have defied the ages ;

older than any historical civilization , its origin must be ascribed to the era of some great dominant or parent people , of whom the nations are all descendants . To them have been handed down , from time immemorial , those great truths which , so sacredly guarded through the night

of ignorance , barbarism and superstition , preserved in those ancient allegories and myths whose real meaning was unknown , save to the initiated priests and brothers , are found symbolised upon the stupendous ruins of both hemispheres , and are known and understood by the select few in

most of the nations and tribes of modern times . The advent of man upon earth is lost in the gloom of prehistoric ages . The earliest histories and legends displayed to our wondering vision great nations and races of people , inhabiting widely remote portions of the globe ,

speaking different languages , possessing various types and phases of civilization , and exhibiting most of the different characteristics of mind , race and colour , which distinguish their descendants of to-day . Nearly or quite six thousand years ago , a civilization existed on the banks of the Nile ,

in many respects more wonderful than even that of the most progressive nation in this noon of the nineteenth century . It is more than probable that the Mongolians in China ,

the lost race which inhabited southern and central America , and possibly some others , were even then unknown , but formidable rivals of the enlightened , intellectual , scientific and governmental advancement of their Egyptian

compeers . Whence these different civilizations had their birth , whether they sprang from one cradle or from many , through what cycles of time they had been developing their

necessarily slow growth , where , when , how , the great parent or dominant race of mankind lived , ere yet the Tower of Babel was begun , are questions which receive no answer from the pages of history , the voices of tradition , or even the revelations of the inspired prophets and teachers .

Modern investigation has gone far to establish , if not to conclusively prove , that sometime , away back in the night of the past , somewhere upon the face of the earth , there existed a great , powerful , civilized , educated , scientific race of people , who worshipped one God , and who believed in the

immortality of the soul , and the resurrection after death . Whether this was the parent race of all others , or was the one favoured people , holding direct from the Great Creator the divine truths of His existence and glory , certain it is that from this one nation there has descended to the

inhabitants of all portions of the globe , clear unmistakable traces of the one language , the one religion , and the legendary and mythical memory of its pristine power and splendour . Upon what portion of the globe this civilization , which was hoary with age when that o _ Egypt was

yet unborn , had set its throne and builded its altars no man can tell . Some historians and scientists have located it in Asia , from the fact that nearly all nations have a tradition that they came " from the East , " and these scholars have supposed that this referred to a geographical migration

towards the West ; but I shall endeavour to show that all such tradition is but a part of the transmitted belief of the people of the great parent or dominant race , that they came " from the East , " that is , from the sun , that is , from God . The belief of mankind in God has always sought for

some fitting symbol to most forcibly illustrate His splendour , power and glory . What so representative of them all as the sun , that mightiest messenger of His ? That sun which brings us light and warmth and joy , which weds

the earth with his amorous beams until she brings forth the bounteous harvests ; that sun upon whose daily coming all life depends , the splendour of whose face no mortal eye can gaze upon undazzled . That unknown , wonderful ,