"As Ithers See Us."

bv his own mad fancies ; his very violence defeats the end he has in view . His slanders may be regarded as the frenzv of impotence . Nevertheless , it would be well were his friends to look after him , —out of sheer pity .

The Burning Bush.

THE BURNING BUSH .

An Address by the Rev . James Byron Murray , Grand Chaplain of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Neiu York . ( Continued from page 115 ) .

THE Greeks , who made art a moral force and rose to be the educators of man , in their sculptore and literature , changed the coarser and more primitive forms which Egypt lent them into higher and more splendid creations . Their

architecture and their sculptured figures were touched and moulded by a more grand and larger intelligence . The inward graces , the more subtle harmony , the more delicate beauty of their minds were set forth with artistic

expression and intellectual symbolism . They caught that rare and airy spirit of proportion which was working in all nature around them , and carved it in stone or built it in architecture , and made these the sign and the embodiment of the sublime , the ideal and the beautiful .

India and China had their symbolism . The sacred tree of India is the expression of her faith . It was the visible form of Brahma , the Creator ; Vishnu , the Preserver ; and Siva , the Reformer ; the three interchangeable attributes of the first great intellectual cause , the will and mind of the Highest . Not alone in the East , but in the West , did symbolism prevail . This shows that it is an instinct of the human heart , wide as the race is wide , and a felt necessity of all generations of men . The historian tells us that the same art prevailed among the earlier Mexicans , as among the people of Egypt . Religion has ever had its symbolism . All the Hebrew religion , from which we draw our royal art , is one grand symbolism . Types and their teachings speak out the emblems in which thev nre enshrined . The Bible relates

things symbolically , as if it would foster and maintain this seeming need for symbolism . Things sacred are represented from the first as appealing through symbols to the senses . The scape goat , the serpent in the wilderness , the

ark , the forecast of the temple , the ladder of Bethel with its brilliant throng of angelic beings , the Shekinah that shone with splendid light in the Holy of Holies , the burning yet unconsumed flame bush of the desert , were all

symbols of higher things . And they were prophecy ^ looking forward to a golden age , rich in works wrought for man ' s spiritual nature ; while the symbolism of our age is history and truth enshrined in the golden mists of a vanishing

past . The Temple , with its gorgeons ritual and magnificent ceremony , was not merely a house of sculptured stone , but a symbolic expression of man ' s need of a home for worship—a place consecrated to the purest spiritual ideas , and the altar of communion between God and man .

Man himself is a symbol . He is the living embodiment of a priciple , high or low , in that he is the representative of a world we cannot see . He represents truth or he represents falsehood . He stands for both , as he is true or

false in himself . He is the living symbol of justice as the eternal law of right as opposed to wrong finds a place iu his moral being , and is expressed in rewards or punishments . He is the representative of science as he has applied the

secret forces of nature to things of use or beauty . He is the symbol of philosophy as he has unfolded the laws which govern mind or by which mind works . He is the

expressed form of immortality in his spiritual nature , which thus cannot die . Truth , love , beauty , justice , poetry , art , and the manifold worlds which he is , or adopts as his own , make him a living symbol of the grandest forces in the

. In harmony with this instinct of the human heart , Masonry , like religion , has its symbols and lesser mysteries . It is a moral and social institution , and the representative

of art in ite practical bearing and science in its teaching , aud enters into the very principles which regulate art and architecture . It brings into harmonious whole not alone the elements of geometry , but symmetry , proportion , beauty and decoration .

The Burning Bush.

The symbol of the Burning Bash , which Masonry uses , teaches us that Masonry like all institutions , moral , social , and political , must have symbols . It must have forms expressed and seen . It is only the dream of a dreamer to

hope to have any system , that can influence human thought and human life , without symbols . Man ' s nature is material as well as spiritual , and he must have material things to influence it . The soul , the mind dwells in a material

temple , and cannot abide without symbols and signs . Is not this universe we see one magnificent symbolism of Him who made it and designed it to minister to this instinct of man ? The divine thought is unfolded in the majesty and glory which are spread over this visible world . With the touch of the unseen hand the Creator

covers the earth and sky with touches of beauty , such as no pencil of man can paint . The hills in their strength tell of the strength of Him who made them . The sea in its tides and boundless flow speaks of His grand , unlimited

nature . The stars that burn in the sky , and } the sun that rules the day , and the moon that rules the night , tell us of Him who is the light of lights . The flower , whose chalice holds the dew-drop , speaks of his tender care for the smallest thinors in nature . The fruits of the earth tell of

His unchanging goodness . The rain that falls upon the soil and makes the valleys and plains gleam and ripple with the golden tides of harvest , tells of His refreshing spirit . The night that covers man with sleep is the symbol of His loving providence for man His child .

And it is the wisdom of Masonry that , recognising this truth , and knowing that men are not all spiritual , employs symbols to meet this need of man's nature , mental , social and spiritual . It has learned its lessons from the rich symbolism

of the great universe about it . And this is the result of its symbolism of Brotherhood : the expression of morality , civilisation , and social life : the outward manifestation of a

high and noble intercourse of man with man . Tender and strong in its organisation , it is the treasure house of larger sympathies , generous impulses and nobler charities .

Into the quiet harbours of our seaports come the ships of the greater or smaller nations of the earth . They carry the flag that tells us they are the representatives of commerce , of labour , of art , and the thousand creations of

genius and industry . They represent the thought , the skill , the special work , the force of nationality . The flag that floats at their mast-head is the symbol of an empire or people , and tells us that the vessels are on a mission of

peace and commerce , and the flag must bo respected as if the nation stood a magnificent army in battle array . And to show that the uations are respected to which the ships come , the flag of that nation floats over the bow , as the

representative of the people . The stars and stripes are the symbol of our life as a nation , our honour , our power , our integrity , our greatness . And wherever that flag floats , on sea or land , it must be regarded with respect ancl courtesy

due to the commonwealth it so grandly symbolises . Without a flag , the emblem of itself , the strongest nation would lose its inspiration and much of its conquering force . In

battle it is the rallying point of victory , and to guard its folds from stain and capture is the moral power of the soldier . It is the nation watching its armies as they uphold its honour , its being , and its glory .

Symbols are the seen helps to impress and deepen the hold of moral truths in the mind . And the vision of the

Burning Bush glows with its symbolic lesson for all ages , and the voice that speaks out of it gives Masonry , as a moral order among men , a charge to use art , signs and all that enriches , all that will solemnise in the heart , the great

truths it unfolds . And from first to last , Masonry , therefore , has become a great symbolism , like the world about it , to touch and guide man into higher beauty and the promise of more glorious things .

In all ages there has been a Burning Bnsh for each soul who would influence his own time or all times . To prophets and holy men the vision came and God spoke to them and in them , and they became His glorious agents to utter truths for all conditions of men . It came to Homer ,

blind as he was , and he was charged to sing of beauty , and his poetry has gone through the history to cultivate human thought . It came to Phidias , and the marble block

quickened into the image of man , to be the delight and culture of the ages . It came to Plato , and his philosophy has been the education of the scholar and the thinker . It

came to Dante , and his strong soul moved oat to stronger measures in poems that cannot die . It came to Shakespeare , a very god in his insight into the human heart , and