Ad01001

LONDON , N . W . Hotel , Grand Midland Venetian Rooms now available for Masonic Dinners , etc . Other Midland Railway Hotels at Liverpool , Leeds , Bradford , Derby , Morecombe , and Heysham . Chief Office : W . TOWLE , Midland Grand Hotel , Manager . London , N . W . M . R . Hotels , etc .

Ad01002

PERRIER = JOUET & Cos . CHAMPAGNES . FINEST VINTAGE RESERVE-CUVEES . THE FAVOURITE MASONIC BRAND . Agent—A . BOURSOT , 9 , Hart Street , Hark Lane , London .

Ad01003

ASSURANCE . EXCHANGE ROYAL INCORPORATED A . D . 1720 . Funds in Hand Exceed - - , £ 4 , 850 , 000 Claims Paid Exceed - - £ 41 , 000 , 000 UNIMPEACHABLE SECURITY . FIRE , LIFE , MARINE , ANNUITIES , ACCIDENTS , BURGLARY , EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY . Apply for full Prospectus to XV . X . WHYMPEK , Secrelmy . Head Office : —ROYAL EXCHANGE , LONDON , E . C .

Ad01004

ilUJSTEATflttEflisanc ) ¦ rw w ¦ mrmr \ , w "wrmr "wir wf \* r N !« sr voir vur NaarwrMF w Mir w vwliiiir w

What Use Is It ?

What Use is It ?

THIS is a question which is often asked by the non-Mason when at a loss to understand the enthusiasm with which the Freemason pursues his craft . Moreover , it is a question which sometimes the Freemason finds recurring to himself , long after it has been asked . It is also a question

which it is eminently desirable that he should be able to answer . Not only for his own satisfaction , and to prove to himself that his time and money and talent are being profitably expended , but there can be no reason why the world at

large should not receive some small enlightenment on the subject . We may not canvass . Nothing more un-Masonic can be conceived . But on the other hand we can not expect persons to become candidates for our mysteries , knowing absolutely nothing of what they may be pledging themselves to , or what benefit they are to derive from membership of the Order .

Such information as the candidate acquires previous to his actual reception is of the negative type . He is told that nothing will be required of him incompatible with the due discharge of his civil or religious duties . His proposer has probably told him , in reply to a very probable query , that the Order is not a friendly or benefit society . And with this he

generally has to be content , and he enters the Order full of curiosity . A not uncommon result of this is that as soon as the curiosity is satisfied , indifference succeeds , or , if not indifferencethe social side of our proceedings acquires

, undue prominence . This is a striking feature of Indian Freemasonry . The Hindu is very powerfully influenced by this motive , and when he finds that our meetings are not , as he possibly thought , a revival of the Eleusinian mysteries

his interest flags . It is worth , then , considering if there is not some way of explaining what the Order is , and at the same time abstaining from infraction of the landmarks . In the first place , Freemasons are a body of men who have entered into certain guarantees of conduct , which , if

duly observed , will help to make them better citizens and better members of society . The basis of progress in any enterprise , good or bad , is co-operation , and therefore it really makes for the good of any state in which Freemasons congregate , that there should be wealthy , powerful and well

organized combinations , pledged to discountenance any proposal that has for its object the subversion of the good order of society , and pledged to honour and obey the laws of whatever state that may at any given period afford them the protection of those laws .

Whether for good or evil , these are days of big organizations , of syndicates and of trusts , all of which have come into existence in obedience to the principle that discipline and combination will always prevail in the long run , but whereas such enterprises are too often formed with the object of extinguishing rivalry , in Freemasonry we see

the strongest and most influential and most numerous organization the world has ever seen , humanly speaking , all of whose members are pledged to help those of their number who have fallen , and to uphold their good name in their absence as well as in their presence . We protect

them in all their lawful undertakings , we find them friends , and thus we provide society with the germ of progress and development . Our next description of the Order is a more personal one ,

and may possibly answer the query as to whether it is worth all the expense that it entails . To be a Freemason means that a man is solvent , in good standing with a very influential section of the community , and actuated by motive which , until the contrary is proved , do him credit . And a certain amount of education is presupposed . The stay-at-home

brother may not appreciate altogether what this means , but the brother on his travels has many opportunities of finding it out if he be so disposed . The brother who has gone to a far off land to seek employment , has , if he care to use it , in his character of a Freemason , the clearest evidence that

he is respectable , and , even if clown on his luck , that he is not a loafer . And both he and any other brother who finds himself settling down among strangers , need not be very long without friends , who will further his designs to the best of their abilitv .

Whilst Freemasons as such have absolutely nothing to do with politics , still it is impossible for any one to study our legends and traditions without acquiring some reverence and respect for men and things of time past , and he will become to that extent , and in a sense quite outside any political significance , a conservative . The highest genius is that

which extracts the most out of existing materials , and thus our first gift to the neophyte is that which was God ' s first gift to his new formed world , and the first words addressed to the new made Mason are the very words which clothe the first recorded utterance of the Almighty . If there is any

virtue in age , Freemasonry has it , for our principles are as old , and unchanging , and as durable , as the throne of T . G . A . O . T . U . himself . The Freemason never excites himself