A Touch Of Nature

on mountains , lakes or rivers , in sequestered valleys , or m the suburban country that is now so readily approached throngh the rapid transit afforded by lightning trains . Wo are all for the nonce students of nature . We have

laid aside our plumb , level and square , our twenty-four inch gauge , compasses and trowel , and not losing our lovo for art , bnt rather exercising it all the while , we say , with the poet Pope :

"All natnre is bnt art , unknown to thee ; All chnnen , direction , which thon canst not see ; AH clisrord , hnrmony not understood ; AU partial evil , universal good . "

Another poet , ancl a Freemason as well—Goethe , called nature "the living , visible garment of God . " How true and beautiful is the thought . Tho Grand Architect of the "Universe we cannot see , but His wondrous works we may .

Every snow-clad peak that crowns a mountain top images His majesty . Every flower that blooms , decking the earth with richest colours , pictures His beauty . The songs of the birds , so pure , so sweet , so musical , represent the

harmonies of the Grand Lodge above . Earth and air , sea and sky are full of God . The book of nature is God's oldest Testament . The records of geology are far more ancient than the records of Moses . And yet , with all its

beauty , and loveliness and glory , nature is imperfect . The blue sky of the summer is hidden when the cloud sails before it , and when the thunder roars , the lightning flashes , and the cyclone raves , one feels that nature is

fallen from grace . Pascal wns right in estimating its value when he said : " Nature has perfections , in order to show that she is the image of God ; and defects , in order to show that she is only His image . " The earth hud

fallen , even before man was created . The revelations of the coal measures , containing forests laid low through an inestimable epoch , testify to the hoary age of onr p lanet , to

the revolutions it has undergone , ancl to the gradual evolution of utility and beauty for the accommodation and pleasure of man , long before his advent to the traditional Garden of Eden .

As one goes out into the haunts of nature in these July and August days , the enrth appears one vast Garden of Eden . Nothing is in undress , and beauty is everywhere . Artist and architect as the Freemason is , he finds

unnumbered cathedrals erected in the forest shades , vast ancl grand and beantiful , with nature ' s choir for vocalists , and the wind sweeping the notes of an organ unseen , but not unheard . Lover of antiquity as the Freemason is , the

oldest art known to him , or to man , is , as Carlyle has said , as a mushroom compared with the venerable globe on which we tread . Let us , then , admire ancl love nature while we may , while the Lodges are closed . Let us arise

at break of clay ancl behold the morning star , ancl the sun as he mounts from tho horizon with fiery disc ; let us listen to the orchestra of the winds and the songs of the birds at the first blush of morning ; let us stroll over hill

and dale when the sun is declining in the west , when the greensward is chequered with shadows , the kine are lowing o ' er the hills , and the sheep are bleating in the vales , and "look through nature up to nature ' s God . "

Then shall we return to the Lodge in the autumn truly refreshed , full of reverence and love for the great Grand Master of all , health mantling our cheeks with a ruddy g low , the fire of vigorous activity flashing in our eyes , the

elasticity of youth evident in our steps , ancl we be prepared to diligently and well perform that labour which the Craft expects from all of its members . Your Lodge will be a

better Lodge for your communion with nature , since you will be a better Mason and a nobler man . Your work will be more truly artistic , after you have sat at the feet of the Grand Architect of the Universe and admired and studied His perfect work . —Keystone .

Masonry's Worthy Object.

MASONRY'S WORTHY OBJECT .

WE are living in days of rigid historical inquiry , and I make free to say that if we would see the Craft progress on its all-inclusive mission , it must pursue its course on the old and well recognized landmarks , and

pronounce without hesitation , equivocation , or mental reservation of any kind , in favour of faith and revelation . To permit Freemasonry to fall under the guidance of shallow minds that retail second-hand infidelity , would be to

Masonry's Worthy Object.

seal its doom for all time . These men , where they exist aro not half as wise as they think themselves to bo , and thoy are not by any means tho reliable guides in the do . main of morals and ethics which their admirers try to make

out . The " Ancient Charges look upon tho man capable of reasoning God out of his created works as a " stupid atheist , " ancl a charge more ancient still has written him in larger characters—A roon .

I have heard some well-intentioned Masons talk about the beauty of the Craft as a non-religious organization , bufc these excellent brethren can hardly be accused of any very intimate acquaintance with our history , or any undue

familiarity with the teachings of the Craft . When they say " non-religious" they simply mean " non-denomina . tional . " But this loose method of speaking frequentl y creates a wrong impression on the Masonic as well as

tho non-Masomc hearer , ancl helps to give countenance to some of the calumnies which have been uttered against us . To bo non-religious would require ns first of all to

extinguish one of our three great lights , namely the volume of the sacred law , and to attempt anything of that sort would be to divorce ourselves from the essential life of

genuine Freemasonry , which , if seriously attempted , would rend the Craft from floor to ceiling , and if any of the fragments survived the disruption , it would survive as a chaotic mass , without principle and without cohesive force of any

kind . Extinguish " the Lamp of God " and you have at once a darkness that may bo felt—a morality that rests npon no basis and that cannot be illustrated by any symbol . The world has never been , and we have no reason to

suppose that ifc ever will be , without its doubters , its unbehevers , and its sceptics . They exist with regard to all progress , they combat every movement for moral or social reform . In regard to Masonry the non-believers and the sceptics are

as legion ; they outnumber ns on all sides , ancl yet their unbelief and their scepticism prove nothing . Divine revelation fares no better , and those who are waiting for the sceptic to nut away his scepticism , or the fool to put away

his folly , are likely to leave the world very little better than they found it , and themselves not improved in any respect . What is needed , therefore , is not a ceaseless wrangle about our conceptions of the Infinite and the

Eternal , the natural ancl the supernatural , but a principle of love ancl hope that shall help us by regular steps along life ' s rugged pathway until such time as the " lower lights " on the earthly altar shall have merged into the dazzling

glories of that Eternal light which hath no shadows . We are not called upon , as some foolishly imagine , to explain every difficulty , or to solve every riddle ; this indeed were

a tnsk very much beyond the powers of all eai'thly intellect ; ours is the simpler duty of performing our appointed work as true craftsmen under the consciousness of God ' s presence , for

"In the older days of art , Builders wrought with greatest care Each minnte ancl unseen part ,

For the soda see everywhere . Let ns do onr work as well , Both the nnsoen and the seen ,

Make the house where gods may dwell , Beautiful , entire , and clean . " This is a worthy object—worthy of the highest manhood , ancl is , according to Masonic tradition and teaching ,

inseparabl y linked with the spiritual and supernatural . Within the points of the compass , therefore—that third Great Masonic Light—there lies the fountain and pearl of all doctrine , namely , the " resurrection of the dead . " We

are cheered b y the thought that our solemn ceremonies do not leave us standing by the darksome grave mournfull y contemplating only the emblems of mortality ; we can raise our eyes to the sprig of acacia , blooming in evergreen

beanty above the silent grave . It is an emblem of onr faith in the immortality of the soul . By it we are reminded of our high and glorious destiny beyond the world of shadows , ancl that there dwells within our tabernacle of clay an

imperishable and immortal spirit which the grave shall never receive , and over which death has no dominion . Who then will dare to affirm that Freemasonry is in any sense opposed to religion ? The Mason with this hope will purify

himself even as He is pure , ancl with unfaltering faith in the resurrection of the dead , we may go on in humble confidence fulfilling our separate tasks until the Supreme

Grand Junior Warden Death shall call ns from labour to the refreshment of " the rest that remains for the people of God . " Surely I might appeal to the better judgment of