Dining And Drinking Toasts.

although , unless tempted to remain by a game of lansquenet , they break up at the end of tivo hours , and disperse to play dominoes and drink beer among strangers in the cafes on the Boulevards . But a public banquet without speeches is the dullest affair in the world - , it is a gross feed , and nothing more . There is no more joy about it than there is in dining at the table iVlwte of the Hotel du Louvre . You talk , perhaps , to your rig ht and left hand

neighbours , whom you may or may not know ; the buzz and the clatter prevent anything like general conversation , and you may go away without a laugh or mental excitement of any kind to quicken the circulation of the blood , and counteract the effects of repletion . " There is a rationale about the management of an English public dinner wliich the Marquis de la Grange does not

understand . Speeches maybe , and often are , prosy and wearisome ; hut without speeches there can he no homogeneity in an assemblage of fifty or tivo hundred men . Without speakers to direct the general stream of thought , and cause all hearts to vibrate simultaneously to one and the same chord , a public dinner party is as much a mob as an army without officers . And after all the cant about long speeches being a bore , it generally happens , in accordance with the natural arrangements of society , that the speaking department falls into the hands of those best qualified to do justice to it .

" If the Marquis de la Grange should ever do London the honour of a visit , I hope he will go to a Theatrical Fund dinner , OT to some entertainment at the London or Freemasons' Tavern , at which some of our leading statesmen , or the princes of art , science , and literature dilate upon the special object ofthe gathering to au admiring public . When he observes the instantaneous silence which follows the word " order" from the chair , the

respectful attention with which , in the interests of a necessary social institution , the most humbly endoived speaker is listened to , and the manifestations of intense satisfaction AA'hich greet the accomplished orator , or the eminent public man , he will perhaps instead of decrying the imitation of English toasts , regret that his countrymen do not imitate them better . He will have an opportunity of convincing himself that the foremost men in

England do not disdain to cultivate the difficult art of appropriate speaking at public festivals , that the practise of the art promotes a close fraternization and sympathy betivccn different classes of society which it is next to impossible to attain in auy other "Kay , and that an English public dinner , so far from being a mere joyless and monotonous meeting , at which people eat and drink more than usual , is a feast of reason and a HOAV of soul marked h y distinguishing features and characteristics which cause the partakers to remember it for years with pleasure , and to look foi-Avard to its annual repetition with deli ght . "

The Building Of The Temple.

THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE .

AT the recent Provincial Grand Lodge of Suffolk , held at Woodbridge , on the 12 th instant , under the presidency of the R . W . Bro . F . Roxburgh , Grand Registrar of England , acting by virtue of his office as Prov . Grand Master ( that office being now vacant ) , the following excellent discourse was preached in Sfc . Mary ' s Church , before tho brethren , by

the Eev . B . N . Sanderson , second Master of Queen Elizabeth ' s Grammar School , at Ipswich , who had that day been appointed Prov . Grand Chaplain : — " AKD tho house , Avhen it AA'as in building , was built of stone made ready before it ivas brought thither , so that there was neither hammer , nor ase , nor any tool of iron heard in the house , while it ivas in building . "—1 KIXGS , vi . 7 .

TRULY it must have been a strange sight to have stood on one of the hills of Jerusalem , and to have beheld rising in such majestic silence the temple which Avas being budded to the glory of the Most High , by Solomon , the son of David . Strange it must have been to mark IIOAV , day by day during those seven years , the Jui ghty pile grew and increased , yet noiselessly . All the materials were prepared at a great distance ; the stones ivere hewn in the

quarry , there squared , marked , and numbered ; the timbers ivere felled and prepared in the forest of Lebanon , there squared , carved , marked and numbered also ; thence they ivere conveyed to Jerusalem , and there set up with wooden tools in silent beauty . ' ' Ko workman ' s steel , no ponderous iron rung , Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung . " And herein , brethren , the temple ivas most plainly declared to b e a work of God ; for our Grand Master builded not of his own

wisdom , but as he had been taught of God by the mouth of David his father . And if we were to seek for some mark to distinguish the works of man from the works of God , it might well be that of quietness and peace . Go by one of our factories on some Sunday , and you know that it is a day of holy rest , because there is no noise , not a sound , within those lately so busy walls . Man ' s work has ceased . Go by it the next morning , and there is

the hum of voices , there is the sound of wheels , there is the clank of engines , and you know that man's work is going on ; for in all the works of man , noise and tumult are the tokens of industry and progress . But go again into a young plantation—what do Ave see there' ? No mortal could tell at what moment any of these trees , soon to groiv to giant strength , first began to live . No mortal can mark

and measure the progress of that growth , so steady , yet so noiseless ; for when God works , we may see that which is done , but the doing of the workjs hidden alike from ear and from eye of man . /

And so Solomon . ' King of Israel , when he was building a house for the Lord God , was taught ( as far as possible for man ) to build it in the same way as the Great Architect of the universe builds the mighty temple of nature—and to carry on the work in stillness and in silence . It is not to my present purpose , brethren , to show how in this , as in other respects , the temple on Mount Moriah was a figure of

that more glorious temple built without hands , of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the head corner stone , elect , precious , and into AA'hich we also as lively stones are built up into a habitation for God through the Spirit . But there is another point of view from which we may profitably regard the passage of my text , and it is to this that I IIOAV propose to direct your attention , and to show to my brethren in Freemasonry a curious parallel which we may

draw in Masonic allegory betAA-een the life of a true servant of God and the work of a wise builder . Brethren , we are each of us bound , whether initiated or not , to be labouring AA'ith all our might in the erection of an acceptable temple to the Most High God . By the various works of an upright and holy life we are bound to be rearing an abode for him , of which he may say , " This is my rest for ever ; here will I dwell , for I have desired

it . " A devout life is this temple ; and the stones of which it is bnilded are the works of truth and love , tried and approved by the square of God ' s word , and the compasses of self convincing conscience . Follow me , I pray you , while I endeavour to trace the likeness betAveen this great work and the course through which we in Masonry have to pass . It is the allegorical representation ofthe life of the good man . Poor and ignorant , all unconscious of the way in which he walks , and of the Ai ork which has to be done , he is placed in the course of divine providence afc that mysterious portal which is the entrance to the service of

God . He stands in that way in which to rush madly forward is inevitable ruin ; to retreat is destruction no less certain , but more ignominious . Ere the light of reason has dawned upon his infant mind , many an earnest prayer rises up before the throne of God from those who watch over his tender years , that the Great Architect of the universe may be pleased to endue him with a competency of his divine grace , to enable him to unfold the

beautics of true godliness to the honour and glory of his holy name . The kind care and attention of parents and teachers lead him on further still , until at last , though without quite understanding why it must be so , he learns that a great and solemn duty is incumbent upon him , and that the Almighty Master aAvaits the service of a soul now fust beginning to be conscious of its powers and responsibilities .

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom . With the first conscious resolve to dedicate a heart purified from every baneful and malignant passion to the glory of God and to the welfare of man , a new light breaks upon everything . Darkness has fled , and that which ivas till noiv unknown becomes plain . The voAved servant of God no longer is guided either by blind instinct or implicit reliance on the teaching of others , but goes

boldly on his way , walking by the triple light of God's revealed will , of sound morality , and of watchful self control . He is greeted as a brother by brethren ; he learns to distinguish those AVIIO are engaged in the same noble work as himself ; he learns to feel that he is in truth a member of a vast fraternity which embraces all mankind ; and his love , looking through every distinction of rankcountryand colourextends itself as far as from cast to

, , , Avcst , as wide as from north to south , as deep as from the surface of the earth to the centre , ei-en as hig h as the heavens . He receives the tools wliich enable him duly to calculate his work , and to go forth AA'ith patience and industry to accomplish it , and the tongue of good report tells loudl y that a true brother is employed