Funeral Oration.

on the uncertainty of [ human life , the sure certainty of death , and on the vanity of all human pursuits . Decrepitude and decay have been stamped on the face of all nature ; it has been written on the face of every living thing ; it is also well recorded in the volume of our Sacred Law that " Thou shalt surel

y die ; " hut to you that have made that law your particular study , you will also have found it recorded , that after death cometh a great and a glorious victory . The cradle and the grave stand in juxtaposition to each other , and it is a melancholy truth that , so soon as we begin to live also we begin to die ; and

yet is it not passing strange that , notwithstanding the daily momentoes of mortality that cross our path , notwithstanding the funeral bells constantly tolling in our ears , and the mournful processions that go about our streets , that we will not more seriously consider our latter end ? We go on from design to

design , and hope to hope , and lay our plans for the employment of many years to come , when we are suddenly alarmed at a summons from the messenger of death , at a moment when we least expect him

nay , perhaps at the very moment when we only think ourselves in the meridian of existence . Of what use then are all the externals of human dignity , the power of wealth , the dreams of ambition , pride of intellect , or the charms of beauty , when nature has paid her just debt . Fix your eyes on this last sad scene , and view life stripped of all its ornaments ; view it shorn

of all its beauty ; view it in all its natural meanness , and then we think you will be persuaded as to the utter emptiness of life's delusions . In the grave all fallacies are detected , all ranks are levelled , and all distinctions buried in the dust . While we drop the sympathetic tear over the grave

of our deceased brother , let us cast around his foibles , whatever they may have been , our broad mantle of Masonic charity , nor withhold from his memory the commendation which his virtues claim at our hands . Perfection on earth has never yet been obtained , the wisest as well as the best of men have gone astray . Suffer , then , the apologies of human nature to plead for one who now can no longer plead for himself hero below .

Our present meeting aud proceedings will have been vain and useless if they fail to excite our serious reflections , and strengthen our resolutions for future amendment . Let us each , then , embrace the present moment , while time and opportunity offer , to prepare for that great change when the pleasure of the world shall be as poison to our li and the happy

ps , reflections of a well-spent life be our consolation . Thus shall we not be hurried unprepared into the presence of that allwise and powerful Judge to whom the secrets of every heart are known . Let us resolve to maintain with greater assiduity the dignified character of our profession . May our Faith be shown

by a correct moral walk through life ; our llopo be as bright as the glorious mysteries that will be hereafter revealed ; and our Charity , boundless as the wants of our fellowmen ; and , after having faithfully discharged the duties which we owe to God , our neihbour and ourselveswhen at last it shall lease

g ; p the Great Architect of the Universe to summon us into His eternal presence , may the trestle board of our lives pass such inspection that it may be given unto each of us to eat of the "hidden manna , " and to

Funeral Oration.

allotted to us here , employ our time for the mutual welfare and happiness of each other . Unto the grave we have consigned the body of our deceased brother , there to remain till the trumpet shall sound on the resurrection morn . To those of his more immediate relatives and friendswho are most deeply stricken at his losswe

, , can offer but little of this world ' s consolation , but in the beautiful spirit of the Christian Theologist , " He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb " looks clown with infinite compassion on the widow and the fatherless in the hour of their desolation . Then let us improve this solemn warning , that at

last , when the sheeted dead are stirring , when the Great White Throne is set , we shall receive from the Great Judge the thrilling invitation — " Come ye , blessed of my father , and inherit the kingdom prepared for ' you from the foundation of the world . And thine , O righteous Father , shall be the glory for ever . —JB 11 all , —So mote it be .

receive the White Stone with a new name written thereon , and which will ensure everlasting happiness at his right hand . This emblem I now deposit in the grave of our deceased brother ; by it we are reminded of the universal dominion of death ; the mattock , the coffin ,

and the melancholy grave admonish us of our mortality , and that sooner or later these frail bodies of ours must moulder in the parent dust . This evergreen is an emblem of our Faith in the immortality of the soul ; by it we are reminded that we have an immortal part within us that shall survive the grave ;

for " in my better part I shall rise immortal far above the lofty stars . " The Great Architect having been pleased out of His infinite mercy to remove our brother from the cares aud troubles of this transitory existence to a state of endless duration , thus breaking a link of that great and fraternal chain that hinds us all together , may we now who survive him , during the short space

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

IIEBAIDBIC BADGES . I take the liberty of offering some remarks anenfc the question put by " A Canadian Templar , " at pago 9 of the present volume of the Magazine .

JT HE BEAUSEAXI .