Mystery.

the bigoted and narrow-minded few who have burdened the earth with their presence since God said , " Lot there be light . " The word mystery , to these self-constituted critics , is a potent emblem invented by Pluto for the purpose of

leading mortals to immoral practices and disreputable companionships ; hut to tho God-trusting and truth-loving , the word has a far different meaning . To them it is tho key to a beautiful system of allegories written by Omnipotent fingers , and designed to lead man by peaceful paths to the

pure springs and sweet waters of morality and virtue , where he may drink and be satisfied , even as God has promised in His Word , whose promises you accepted and

on whose glowing pages yonr hands were placed , my brethren , ere you wore permitted to cross tho tessellated border and stand unchallenged upon tho checkered pavement of Freemasonry .

It would be utterly useless , and Masonically unusual , to honour the first-mentioned by answering their arguments , or noticing their existence , although I shall allude to them more particularly before closing . But with the lastmentioned , I hold all things in common , and to them , to

yon , my brethren of the mystic tie , feeling assured that whatever I may say which has merit will be cordially received , and that if , unfortunately , I give expression to thoughts inappropriate to the occasion , they will be excused by an application of the fraternal charity which should ever prevail among Masons .

Let us begin with the first words which fell upon our expectant ears when , on bended knees , we asked to be received among tho sons of Light . " And tho earth was without form and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep . " Phcebus had not fashioned the royal chariot

of the sun ; Diana , of the crescent moon , had not hung her silver bow in the western horizon , and Sirius , the dog-star , bad not set his silent watch in the sky . Tho mountains were not ; neither hill nor verdant plain , nor smiling valley , to greet the tardy morning ; no leafy groves invited weary

lifo to cool shadows , dreamy rest , and "balmy sleep ; " no bursting bud or perfect flower or ripening fruit ; no dewy morn or fervent noon or evening ' s cooling breath ; no bright-plumed bird shook the dew from his breast , and rose on buoyant wing to warble his morning hymn to the

Creator ; no babbling brook or rippling lake to break the awful silence ; no life ; but tho quietness of death was everywhere . The inky dome of a starless sky settled down upon an inanimate world ; Night held her court in the balls of silence , and the black waves of a sunless ocean fell with remorseless fury upon the surf-line of chaos .

" Let there be light , the Almighty spoke ; Kefulgenfc beams from chaos broke T' illuminate the rising earth . " Tno purple wing of the first sun flashed across the fitimmeut like the blade of a scimetar ; jocund Day smiled

as startled Night spread hor sable wings and flew to the uttermost parts of the earth . The mountains shook the waves from their rugged shoulders and lifted their proud heads above the clouds to catch the golden glory of the first morning ; hills nestled , like broods of frightened

fledglings , at the feet of their lordly neighbours , contented to rest in their protecting shadows . Yalley and plain , mountain peak and rocky canyon , flashing lake and restless ocean , singing brook and thundering cataract , acknowledged the mystery of Creation .

God willed it , and the earth was carpeted with green , interspersed with clinging vines and plants of fiery splendour . His hand scattered the seed , and the magnolia threw its delicious fragrance to the southern gale ; the oak arose liko a slumbering giant from the bosom of the plain , and

in its strength bid a defiance to the storms ; the pine tree flung its green banner to the winds and stood on solemn duty guarding the portals of the north ; the crash of

avalanches , the rumbling of mighty torrents , the cyclonic whirl of ocean storms , the songs of birds , the chants of rejoicing angels , and the voice of man proclaimed the " mysterious " power and the goodness of God .

As it was mystery at the beginning , so it will be mystery at the ending ; my brethren , man born of woman is as prone to mystery as smoke to join the clouds ; " as tho hart thirsteth for the water brooks , " so man has an insatiable thirst for the mysterious .

When the Almighty sent the first pair out into the world to wring from an unwilling soil the bread to sustain physical life , He gave them two particular blessings , which

Mystery.

have clung to them through all the ages as only Divine favours can cling to man ; one was connubial love , designed to people the earth with multitudes like unto the stars of the firmament and heaven with angelic hosts .

The second was love for tho mysterious , designed by tho Great Architect to be tho Archimedian lever which should lift mankind from the clay of sensual depravity and tho mire of ignorance to the high grounds and pure atmosphere of spiritual and intellectual excellence .

Man in his wilful blindness may fail to see the trail , but the instinct , the desiro , is firmly rooted in the bed-rock of his nature , and like the " untutored savage " he may " seo God in the trees and hear Him in the winds , " if he will only read the mysterious characters that his Creator has strewn with lavish hand all along his pathway .

To ancient imagination , all nature was peopled with invisible beings , who in mysterious power governed all objects . The firmament of heaven , the earth and the waters under the earth were in tho vassalage of some spirit or deity of higher or lower degree . The husbandman

scattered no seeds ; the woodman entered not the sacred forest ; tho mariner refused to " smite the sounding furrow ; " the hunter joined not tho chase or bent the supple bow ; the warrior planted his spear in tho earth and refused

to try the hazard of arms , and tho most ardont lover soaght not the bower of beauty , till by libations , sacrifices , or hastily muttered prayer , thoy had sought the favour of their guardian deities .

Surrounded by such influences , we find little reason to wonder that the mysteries of Freemasonry wore moro than a thousand years old when tho star of Bethlehem arose and angel choristers sang , " Peace on earth , good will towards men . "

Love for the mysterious is " the Christian ' s vital breath . " To study the mystery of theology the scholar burns the midnight oil , forsakes the world and its transcient pleasures to dwell in an atmosphere of purity and love . To study the source and history of the mystery of

Ancient Craft Masonry Rob Morris , of blessed memory , left home and native land to dwell among strangers . Tho dangers of ocean travel , the heat and dust of arid plains

and sandy deserts , the angry glance of Bedouins , or the threatened violence of infidels , awakened no alarm in his faithful breast , and sent not a tremour of fear to a heart dedicated to God and devoted to the mystery of Masonry .

If tho mystery of our Order had no other plea for its existence than that its heroic and Christian disciple , Rob Morris , joined the Bast and West to each other by a fraternal bond of affection , which time cannot corrode , bat which will abide until empires crumble into dust aud

are forgotten ; it would be young a thousand years hence . Every useful art and science , every comfort and convenience , every prayerful thought or reverential emotion

that has made life worth living , and advanced man to a nearer walk with his Creator , is the direct result of his restless desire to drop a plumb-line into the depths of tho ocean of mystery which surrounds him .

It is said that the return of the seasons , the beauty and variety of man ' s natural surroundings , the wondrous display of planetary systems , each particular planet held in its orbit by a mysterious power utterly beyond his comprehension , gave man his first idea of order and

symmetry . It did far more than this . It fired his heart with a noble ambition to study the mysteries of his surroundings and improve his opportunities , he had only to cast an observing eye about him , to see that an All-Wise

hand had scattered blessings innumerable all along the path of his mortal existence , and left him only the task—sometimes simple , more often complicated—of divesting them of some portion of their mysterious character and adapting them to his use .

It took a Franklin with a silken cord more potent than bands of steel or hammered gold , to draw the mystery of electricity from the clouds and adapt it to the use of bis

fellows . Watts , in a silent reverie at his mother ' s ingleside , discovered the mysterious power of steam , and its benefits to man are beyond the computation of mathematicians .

Newton studied nature till in au unguarded moment she allowed him to catch a glance at the secret of gravitation , and then dropped the curtain to her mysteries forever . The mystery of navigation charmed Columbus from the marts of trade to the courts of kings ; mystery lent magical charms to his arguments ; mystery filled his sails , stood at the wheel and guided his frail craft over hor own