Our Patron Saint.

both parents ; for his father Zacharias was himself a priest of the course of Abia , or Abijah , and Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron . The divine mission of John was a subject of prophesy many centuries before his birth . His birth was

not according to the ordinary laws of nature . His ftirth was proclaimed to Zacharias by an angel sent from God ; but Zacharias and Elizabeth being well stricken in years , Zacharias doubted , and for his want of faith was made dumb . The birth of

John preceeded by six months that of the Saviour . When eight days old the child of promise , according to the law of Moses , was brought to the priest ior circumcision , and as the performance of this rite

was the accustomed time for naming a child , the friends proposed to him Zacharias , after his father , but the mother required that he should be called John , a decision which Zacharias , still speechless , confirmed by writing on a tablet " his name is

John . " The judgment for his want of faith was at once withdrawn , aud he was no longer dumb . God ' s wonderful interposition in the birth of John had impressed the mind of many with a certain solemn awe and expectation . He was in due time

taken to the deserts of Arabia , the land of the " East , " from whence came the wise men to pay their tribute to the young child Jesus , and placed under the care and tuition of these wise men

where he was not only educated , but prepared by self-discipline , and by constant communion with God , for the wonderful office to which he had been divinely called . It was there that these sages of the East initiated John into the learned mysteries

and occult sciences of that day , and where he was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason , and taught the great principles of its moral science . The appearance of the holy Baptist was of itself a lesson to his countrymen ; his dress was

that of the old prophets—a garment woven of camel ' s hair , attached to the body by a leathern girdle . His food was such as the desert afforded —locusts and wild honey—thus by his dress , teaching humility and condescension , and by his

food , temperance and self-denial . And now the long-secluded hermit came forth to the discharge of his office . His supernatural birth , hard ascetic life , his reputation for extraordinary sanctity , and the generally prevailing expectation that some

great one was about to appear , were sufficient to attract tohim a great multitude from every quarter . Every Bible reader is conversant with John ' s

Our Patron Saint.

ministry , and we need not recapitulate that portion of his life . His ministry , however , was brought suddenly to a close by his tragical and untimely death . In daring disregard of the divine laws , Herod

Antipas had taken to himself the wife of his brother Phillip ; and when John reproved him for this , as well as for other sins , Herod cast him into prison . The place of his confinement was the castle of Machasrus , a fortress on the eastern shore of the

Dead Sea . Nothing but the death of the Baptist would satisfy the resentment of Herodius . A court festival was kept at MachEeras , in honour of the king ' s birthday . After supper , when the king was full of wine , the daughter of Herodius came in and danced before the company , and so

charmed the King by her grace , that he promised with an oath , to give her whatsoever she should ask . Salome , prompted by her abandoned mother , demanded the head of John the Baptist . Herod gave instruction to an officer of the guard , who

went and executed John in prison , and his head was brought to feast the eyes of the adulteress whose sins he had denounced . Thus fell , by ruffian hands , another great and good man , whose memory the Craft delights to honour . The names of

the two martyred Grand Masters , who yielded up their lives rather than forfeit their integrity , will be held in sacred remembrance by the Fraternity as long as time shall last , and their example be held up before the neophyte as worthy of all emulation . Masonic Mirror .

The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

THE MYSTIC BEAUTIES OF FREEMASONRY .

In continuation of some thoughts to which we have given expression in these columns on various subjects , which we have designated as being among " the Mystic Beauties of Freemasonry , " we propose this week to continue the same , and call

the attention of our Masonic friends , first to Hieroglyphics . From the first formation of society , mankind have endeavoured to find out methods of preserving the memory of such events and discoveries

as they imagined would be interesting to posterity . In primitive times it was customary to plant a grove , to raise an altar or heap of stone ; to in-