Masonic Sermon.

MASONIC SERMON .

MASONIC Lodges iu ancient times were dedicated to King Solomon , in modern times to Sfc . John the Baptist aud St . John the Evangelist , two eminent Christian patrons of Freemasonry . Ifc is eminently fitting for us to celebrate St . John's Day . I would bring you a message from St . John the Evangelist .

It is found in the firsfc epistle , 1114 : "I have written to you young men , because you are strong . " Ifc is a message from a warm and loving heart , expressing the deepest interest in all that was in any way vital to manhood and life . Such a message , it seems to me , may be eminently fitting for us to consider on St . John ' s Day .

By operative Masonry we allude to a proper application of the useful rules of architecture , whence a structure will derive figure , strength and beauty , and from which will result a due proportion on and just correspondence in all its parts . We learn that King Solomon ' s temple was principally supported by three

grand Masonic pillars , called wisdom , strength and beauty . Ifc is still more evident that these pillars came into speculative Masonry with important teaching . Masonry , if it have any excuse for living at all , must furnish something that may be called a positive help to life .

We should take up the first of these supports of the templewisdom . The prime object of life cannot be gain of material good , neither can a liberal education be considered a gain of certain degrees of knowledge . The true man regards as a sacred trust his own individuality , by which we mean those traits

whereby God intended that he should differ from those around him as he does in form and feature . Men are sluggish and gravitate towards sensuality ; they fall into habits and routine and run into ruts . Notions indolently taken up gather about them a crust of antiquity that no one . dares Jo break through .

Brothers , that speculative Masonry sounding so often in your admittance ceremonies of itself ought to arrest your attention . Operative Masonry builds houses of beauty , of strength , for our protection and happiness . Speculative Masonry builds manhood , character in wisdom , strength and beauty . There are so many things which we accept as a part of life ' s ceremony and find no meaning or vital truth in it .

In all your greetings , get ; wisdom , upon each individual rests the solemn obligation to make the most possible of himself and to store up resources of knowledge , and virtue of friendship and heart treasure . Brothers , are you furnishing to every other Brother help and wisdom and strength according to your solemn obligations ?

The world is not built for sluggards . Life is built for waking up dull men , making lazy men uuhappy . This soul hunger which every true man has , is not meaningless . It means that he is by all means to satisfy that hunger by food .

He who studies a great book never gets tired of that book . He who studies a great work of art to find in it a new expression of beauty , finds no monotony in that work of art . Let me bid you to look through this speculative Masonry to find new ideals for higher living .

The second pillar iu the temple is strength . There are some things both in nature and character which are incompatible with each other . As a perfect eye should possess telescopic and microscopic power , so will mind be perfect only as it hasacuteness to embrace aud strength to hold . In a perfect mind great logical power should be united with quickness of imagination , but these

tend to exclude each other . In moral character economy is a virtue , but has a tendency to exclude generosity , which is also a virtue . The idea of strength is simple , admitting of no analysis ; but strength itself may be manifested in either of two ways . It may make au impression , it may overcome obstacles . It may break down obstacles ; it may build up bridges . It may be used to resist opposition , ifc may be used to help the weak .

The strength of the clod is nothing compared to the wisdom of the soil . Those of us who have lived many years , pursuing our ideals all the time , are as far as in youth from overtaking them if they are pure and high . The first greac pillar of character is wisdom , but wisdom without strength co resist , to overcome , to build bridges , is powerless , doomed to defeat . It is wisdom that

makes or chooses the aim of life , it is strength brings to pass the purpose . Let me put the emphasis where it will be distinctly felt . Many a man has wisdom to choose , to desire the right , but he seems to have no strength that brings to pass the purpose . As to intention , desire , there is no great difference among men . You all mean to be good men , honest , honourable , generous ; even with

men who have none of these things it was nofc that they did not possess desire , or intention , but that some other passion overcame the higher or highest . Good intentions are so far from being an index of character that they are current in the lowest moral strata of society . See in speculative Masonry how to subdue these passions , act upon the square , keep a tongue of good report and practice charity , and you add wisdom to life , also strength to fulfil .

Masonic Sermon.

Is there nothing in the reference to the seven liberal arts and sciences ? The attentive ear receives the sound from the instructive tongue and the mysteries of Masonry are safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts . It remains for ua to consider the third and last , the pillar of beauty . As the idea of strength is simple , so is that of beauty .

The emotion can be known only by being felfc . Doubtless there is something of inherent beauty in all forms of moral goodness , bufc in some more than in others . If it is said , as it may be , that there is beauty in justice , yet there is more of wisdom and strength than beauty . It may be said that . while wisdom depends on the intellectual , and strength ou the will , beauty depends on the

affections . The affections are beautiful because they are spontaneous . We are all conscious of these different modes of action . A worker may pursue his daily tasks for the fear of poverty or to provide sustenance for his loved ones , or nofc only to provide for those dependent , bufc also to have a large , inspiring love for his work . A Mason may see in his Lodge and in his work only social and business advantages .

John is well called the apostle of beauty . We are fco find thafc in its real and true meaning ifc is not mere indefinable or sentimental abstraction , bufc thafc it is a vital , living force , and in its manifestations it is life , it is-aetion , it is service . The moment we bring our lives into harmony with the current of fche divine order of things , we shall find the beauty of gladness restored to us . It is from the attempt of the will to resist these currents that

some of the profoundest struggles of-which our nature is capable arise . Now , all such spontaneous movements , if legitimate , are beautiful . You will find that all the evil , error , disease , suffering , fears and the forebodings of life , are . on the side of the physical , the material and transient , while all fche peace , joy , happiness , growth , life—rich , exulting abounding life—is on fche side of the spiritual , the ever-increasing and the eternal .

It is a well-known fact in the scientific world thafc the great work in the process of evolution is fche gradual advancing from the lower to the higher , from the coarser to the finer . This higher spiritualisation of life is what the Master had in mind when

he said , " Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness , " and by this higher spiritualisation of life thus set into operation the very force of man ' s mind becomes charged with a living might and omnipotent power , so as to effect a mastery over all exterior conditions .

The first duty of man is to search out fche lines of wisdom , strength and beauty . Going out into life wifch this great purpose controlling , you will be amazed fco find how rich this world is in all those things which minister to character , happiness and life . This gives the rounded life , and he who fails in any one comes short of the perfect whole . The great secret of success is wisdom to choose , strength to afctain , and beauty to adorn , —Eev . Fayette Nichols , of Wesfcboro , Mass ., in " American Tyler . "

The Mason's Oath.

THE MASON'S OATH .

rr **| HE great cry against Freemasonry in the past has been _ L based upon the supposed fact thafc every initiate was required to take a blood-curdling oath to do certain things that were unlawful . In the year 1738 Clement XII ., then Pope of Eome , issued a bull of excommunication against Freemasons , and

assigned as the reason for his condemnation of the Institution tbat it confederated persons of all religious sects " in a mysterious bond of union , and compelled them co secrecy by an oath taken on the Bible , accompanied by certain ceremonies , and the imprecation of heavy punishments . " All who refused to renounce Freemasonry were to be " ipso facto excommunicated . "

In 1757 the Synod of the Scotch seceders adopted an act concerning what they called " the Mason Oath . " This act declared " that all persons who shall refuse to make such revelations as the Kirk Sessions may require , and to promise to abstain from all future connection with the Order , shall be reputed under scandal and incapable of admission to sealing ordinances . "

The reasons stated for passing this acfc were : " Thafc there were very strong presumptions that , among Masons , an oath of secrecy is administered to entrants into their Society , even under a capital penalty , and before any other of those things , which they swear to keep secret , be revealed to them , and they pretend to take some of the secrets from the Bible ; besides other things which are ground of scruple in the manner of swearing the said oath . "

During the anti-Masonic crusade in this country which followed the disappearance of Morgan in 1826 , the great cry against the Fraternity was the detested Mason ' s oath . Of course every Mason knows the fallacy of the opposition to the Institution on that ground . It was claimed that this oath was regarded by Masons as paramount above the laws of the land . Tho very first lesson of the Lodge refutes the charge . An oath is binding only when the performance is possible . It is to be performed to the best of the ability of the one assuming