Oration Delivered At The Quarterly Meeting Of The Provincial Grand Lodge Of West Yorkshire.

The Word of God no longer suffers wrong , Bound in the fetters of an unknown tongue , But speaks with plainness art could never mend What simplest minds can soonest comprehend . From this pure fountain of truth we Masons derive all our principles of religion and morality

—our duty towards God and to our neighbour . In our triangle is represented our belief in a Triune God , the Great Architect of the Universe . "In the beginning God ( Elohim in the plural joined to a verb singular ) created the heavens and

the earth .- " " The S pirit of God moved on the face of the waters , " reduced their chaotic mass to order , and to beauty , when the morning stars sang together , and the sons of God shouted for joy . The first chapter of St . John ' s Gospel ,

now and always open before us , and on which rest the square and compasses , tells us " without the word /* Christ , " was not anything made that was made . " Thus demonstrating that our Triune God was the Great Architect of the Universe .

We fully recognise the love of God in " sending his Son into the world that we might live through Mm , and in sending him to bless us in turning away every one of us from our iniquities . "''' Faith , hope , and charity , or love , are the three

graces and pillars of our glorious temple , and all our worshippers who enter our hallowed shrines , are taught to love God with all their hearts , and their neighbours as themselves . I have not time ( for I am limited to twenty minutes )

to descant in all the moral obligations and virtues we strongly enjoin , and strictly enforce in our Order , such as benevolence , purity in thought , word , and deed ; love of the brethren- — "let brotherly love continue , be kindly , affectionate , one to another ; love the brotherhood , fear God

honour the king , be pitiful , be courteous / ' No enmity can enter our peaceful portals—the serpent of discord neither hisses nor stings here—all is harmony and love ; the only contention and rivalry I have ever noticed in our meetings was to " do

good unto all men , " " give honour to whom honour is due , " and to stretch the liberality of our benevolence to the utmost limits of our power , according to the apostolic motto of our institution , " pure reli gion before God and the Father is this ,

to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world . Witness our noble institutions for the maintenance and education of the orphans of our Order , and providing for their employment in life . We know full well how our noble and distinguished P . G . M ., Earl

de Grey and Ripon , used every effort to make the recent appeal for funds for the Girls' School a success in the province of West Yorkshire ; and it was eminently so ; though it pleased the Great Architect of the Universe , in whom we live and

move and have our being , to take away " the desire of his eyes with a stroke , " and bring down a beloved mother to the grave , just at the time when he anticipated pleasure and satisfaction in presiding at the great festival in London , and reaping the fruits

of his exertions in announcing from the chair that the brethren of his province had magnanimously responded to his call , and presented to him a beauteous Masonic coronet of nearly £ 2 , 000 subscriptions . May he live long to see us ever thus

abound in the riches of our liberality . How cheerfully has this Grand Lodge at all times provided for the wants of distressed Masons and their

widows and children , having this apostolic maxim for their presiding star , " remember them that are in bonds as bound with them , and them which suffer adversity , as being yourselves in the body , " and therefore liable to like visitations . Innumerable

other advantages and beauties in the galaxy of our system I might depict , but time says " Tace . " I shall , therefore , wind up with asking this solemn , question , has our illustrious Order been received with that favour which it so richly merits in the

world ? Ten thousand times , no ! It has in all ages been pursued with hatred and persecution ; its mysteries have been celebrated in dens and caves of the earth to escape the grasp of its deadly foes . The Papacy has ever manifested the most

ruthless hate against it down to the present hour ; we have the honour of being annually denounced as the off-scouring of all things by his Holiness the Pope , and ranked with rebel Fenians . The history of the murderous and cruel persecution of

the Knights Templars , even in England , as described by Dean Hooke , in his lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury , would harrow up your feelings . There is every reason to believe that Masonry was deeply-rooted amongst the

enlightened and reforming Wichclimtes and Lollards , as appears by the following letter of the great and learned John Locke to Lord Pembroke , taken

from the Book of Irish Constitutions . " My Lord , —I have at length , by the help of Mr . Collins , procured a copy of that MS . in the Bodleian library which you were so curious to see ; and in obedience to your lordship ' s commands , I herewith send it , to you . Most of the