Masonic Festivities.

MASONIC FESTIVITIES .

METROPOLITAN . Tbe Fidelity Lodge No . 3 , held its annual summer gathering on Tuesday 6 th inst , at the Crystal Palace , Sydenham , about eighty brethren attended , including : Bros . Cardwell , AV . M , terry , S . AV , Eayier , J . AV , E / jlk , S . D , Squires , Sec , Dearsley , Treas , & c , amongst the

visitors were : Bros . R . J . Simpson , P-G-. Chap-, Bigg , P . G . S . B , and several other G . " Officers . The banquet was provided in a room overlooking the gardens and terraces , and was served under Bro . Bertram ' s personal superintendence , and as usual in very best style , after the cloth was removed and grace said , the usual loyal and Masonic toasts were iven and responded to , in

g very happy style . A presentation also took place to Bro . Dearsley the Treasurer , and father of the lodge , consisting of a tea and coffee service , worth 100 guineas , which was suitably acknowledged , and after spending a few hours comfortably the brethren separated .

Obituary.

Obituary .

AVith regret we announce the death , after a short illness , of Bro . Horatio Nelson Goulty , architect , of Brighton and London . On the morning of Wednesday , the 30 th of June , he appeared in his usual health and spirits , but , later in the day , be was seized Avith a severe attack of a spasmodic nature , which rapidly increased in violence . The best medical advice of Brighton was

obtained ( Drs . Burrows , Omerod , and Furner ) , but all of no avail , and , after lingering a week , he breathed his last on Wednesday se ' nuight ( July 7 th ) at the early age of 39 years , leaving a wife and two children and a large circle of personal friends to mourn his loss . We shall give next week a notice of his public and Masonic career .

Sermon.

SERMON .

Preached by Tiro , the Rev . G . R . HOEWOOD , Prov . G . Chap ., on the occasion of the meeting of the Prov . G . Lodge of Fssex , at Colchester , on June 1 st . "Freemasonry , " said the preacher , " tracing up its origin from the earliest ages of the world , and having developed itself in subsequent times by ramifications over the whole surface of the globe , so as to rival in universality and permanence the most

famous systems of morality , philosophy , or religion which have ever existed , I felt perplexed when first honoured with a request to address you on the present occasion as to what subject I should select out of the multiplicity which presented themselves . To have discussed any of the peculiar tenets and mysteries of the Craft , however interesting a subject it might have been to us as Masons , would , I feared , be unedifying and like speaking in parables to the uninitiated . Again , to trace any connexion

which may exist between Freemasonry and the rites and traditions of Paganism , over which it is said to have shone as a light in a dark place ; or-with Judaism , with which indeed it is indissolubly associated in the matter of Solomon's Temple ; or with Christianity , which , although a continuation and development of Judaism , overleaps , like Freemasonry , all distinctions of caste or people , and by which alone is Freemasonry paralleled in the Catholicity of its aims and tendencieswould have been a most

, engaging subject , but I feared that in so doing I might possibly have given expression to opinions at variance with the views of some brother of a different creed from my own , and therefore I have thought it well to choose a theme alike applicable to men of every race , and character , and class , and creed , which , while it constitutes the essence and life of the Great Architect of the Universe—whom whether as men or Alasons we alike adore , for God is love—assimilates also the creature who exercises

it most closely to the Creator ; which , whilst it is the fulfilment of the Law , the grand feature of the Gospel , is also the distinguishing characteristic of a Freemason ' s heart , viz ., charity or love . It will also be a fitting prelude to the collection we

desire to make to-day on behalf of the National Schools of this town . " St . Paul , like a good master builder , as ho calls himself , or as we might call him without irreverence , a good Alasou , places charity or love as the corner stone of the Christian temple—as the very bond of perfectness into which all the other virtues and graces were to be incorporated , and without which they were of little worth . Without it we may indeed have a names

to live we may boast of our faith , and glory in our hope , and be proud of our experiences , and our conduct may be unexceptional in the eyes of mankind , hut in reality we shall be cold ancl dead . On the other hand ; we may be very children iu knowledge , our steps feeble and our faith faltering , and with few rays of hope to cheer us on our way , but if we have learned " to love God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves , however cheaply the world may hold us , we may clasp this assurance to our heart of hearts that we are in the right training for those heavenly mansions where love for ever

reigns . Then draw we near day by clay , Each to his brethren , all to God : Let the world take us as it may , AVe must not change our road . " You may , perhaps , think , brethren , that I have choson a very ordinary subject ; but let us not imagine that we have grasped the true idea of charity until we have well studied the essential

properties of this virtue as given us by St . Paul , in the grand Alasonic chapter , if I may so call it , from which my text is taken . You may think , perhaps , like many of the would-be philosophers and philanthropists of the clay , that charity consists , in entertaining noble tnougbts on social questions , and talking , liberal things about the poor : but this is not all , for ' though I speak with the tongue of men ancl of angels , ' says St . Paul , ' and

have not charity , I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal . ' We may , too , give away our money with lavish liberality , and yet , unless holy affections prompt the offering , lose any recompense of reward , for ' though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity , it profiteth me nothing . ' " Nay , yon may literally carry out the Apostle's words and go to the scaffold or the stake in resolute maintenance of what you

believe to be the cause of heaven , aud yet , for lack of that lovewhich can alone sanctify the sacrifice , fail to win the martyi's crown ; for ' though I give my body to be burned , ' continues the Apostle , ' and have not charity it profiteth me nothing . ' The world , too , has its own ideas of charity , but I fear that they often fall short of the Apostolic standard . There is too much parade frequently mixed up with public charity—too ranch letting tbe left hand know what the right hand doeth . Its

banquets , its bazaars , its highly-coloured descriptions of its its work , its flaming placards , ancl the ordinary style of its platform oratory , seems at times hardly to exclude the prohibition—' secketh not her own . ' "Far different was the habit of the saints of old ; in prayer and holy meditation were their schemes of charity devised , and in quietude and almost superhuman self-sacrifice were they carried into execution . As when the Jewish Alasons reared the

Temple of Solomon on Alount Aloriah , no sound of axe or hammer , or any tool of iron was heard within its precincts ; so in silent self-denial , in faith and prayer , did Christian Alasons plan and perfect those glorious Christian temples , the cathedrals and churches , which have c . me down to us as heir-looms from our sainted ancestors , and in a similar stillness of heart aud life must we build up " a spiritual house , a holy temple , a royal priesthood , to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God

through Jesus Christ . ' And it was to provide the training requisite for this object that those schools of love were founded —the holy guilds and brotherhoods and s ^ terhoods which in every age have done so much for the regeneration of mankind . " It was in truth a splendid school in which the saints of old studied divine love , and we cannot do better than follow thenexample . It was the training of their lives to find the love

of God everywhere—in nature aud Providence , in Law and Gospel , in Church and Bible . They learned that it was love which spake in the beginning , and at the fiat of the Great Architect of the Universe earth , and sea , and sky , with all their myriad marvels of life ancl beauty , sprang into existence . " It was love which cheered the drooping hearts of our first parents as they gazed on a world marred and ruined by their fault , with the promise of the A irgiu ' s Son . Love bore the