Masonic Secrecy.

MASONIC SECRECY .

THE Secrecy of Masonry has given rise to some of the most absurd stories , in regard to its objects and purposes . Behind bolts and bars , curtained windows and grim sentinels , the members of tho Lodge are supposed to meet and hold familiar converse with Satan , who acts as chief counsellor and adviser in maturing wicked plans to

cheat honest people and make money . Of the thousand and one of these ridiculous stories , there is not one that is worth a moment ' s notice , for they are all the legitimate children of a morbid credulity , based upon the depths of the most profound ignorance . There are those , however , who

lay some little claim to intelligence , who imagine that they have demolished all claims to GOOD in Masonry , when they say : " The wicked seek darkness rather than light , because their deeds are evil . " This sentence , with all its Divine force , is not applicable to Masonry . And why ?

Because the reason assigned why darkness is preferred to light , because their deeds are evil , is for ever cut off and disproved by the history of Masonry as an institution . " An evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit . " If there was evil in Masonry , its antiquity has certainly offered ample

opportunity for the development of that evil in deeds of fruition But unfortunately for the enemies of Masonry , it , as an institution , has borne no such fruit . That there have been dishonest men connected with Freemasonry at every period of its existence , is doubtless true . But this is no argument

to disprove the general beneficent influence of Masonry as an institution . By the same process we might demolish the religion of Jesus ; for he had a disciple that was both a UAB and a IRAITOR . The absurdity of snch reasoning is apparent .

Becanse secrecy has been abused and made the cloak for evil , we are nofc to conclude that everything which is withdrawn from the gaze of the public eye , is of wicked and direful import . God , Himself , moves in mystery , and works out his plans in secret . The operations of Nature

are secret and mysterious . Can you explain to me the secret process , by which the juices of the earth , which are absorbed by the roots of trees and herbs , are some of them converted into bark , some into the harder wood , and some into the feathery foliage that spreads its mantle of green

and living beauty around tbe earth in spring and summer ? And yet what beauties and blessings flow from this mysterious and secret process ! Not only are the operations of God and of Nature secret and past finding out , hut man carries in his own bosom a secret laboratory which none but

God can read . Secrecy is a constituent of our natures , and as God is said to have made nothing in vain , He has bestowed it npon us for wise and useful purposes . We may abuse it , as we do all of his gracious gifts , but this does not prove it to be intrinsically evil . It is a necessary principle and

lies behind and controls , to a greater or less extent , the affairs of every-day life . Every man has bis secrets . Every family has its secrets and private transactions ; and who would wish to raise the curtain and expose the sacred privacy of the family fire-side to the sacrilege of evil eyes and idle tongnes ?

Secrecy is necessary in fche affairs of government , and is the mainspring of all our actions , whether for good or evil . If it is absurd to say , that a man is wicked , because you cannot pierce his breast and read his thoughts , is it nofc

equally absurd to say tbat the objects and purposes of a Society or Fraternity of men are wicked , because they meet and work in secret ? " By their fruits shall ye know them . " This is the trne TEST , and Masonry cordially invites it .

I trust that I have now said enough to convince the most sceptical that secrecy is not an evil , or the evidence of an evil ; but that it is necessary to individual success ,

and the peace and harmony of the family circle ; if so , I can see no good reason why it may not be used by a Fraternity or Association of men for like purposes and with like results .

The objects and principles of Masonry are not secret . Trne , it has a secret language , and the ceremonies and business of the Lodge are nofc for the eye or ear of the uninitiated . This , in my opinion , is the circumstance that

gives to Masonry life , and efficiency for good . If its mystic language was unfolded , there would be no means to distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy . Its semblance wonld be put on by dishonest men , when its advantages were to be gathered , afterwards they would

Masonic Secrecy.

deny its authority and neglect its duties . And , here permit me to remark , that while the Mason is commanded to be charitable towards all mankind , he must first deal kindly with his suffering Brother if worthy , then with hia neighbour , and then with the stranger at his gate .

" Charity begins at home , " but there is no necessity for its ending there . Yet the mau who would lavish his sub . stance on strangers , to the neglect of his suffering and worthy Brother , would be considered " worse than an infidel . " Our mystic language enables us to recognise

that worthy Brother , and prevents those from drawing -wages , as workmen , who have never laboured on the Temple . It enables the workmen to recognise each other everywhere and under all circumstances . —Bro . W . B , Wood ' s Address .

Memory.

MEMORY .

JT has frequently been a matter of surprise that some of the best educated men among the Craft have been unable to study and retain the ritual , charges or lectures appertaining to Freemasonry . Among the faculties which furnish forth our mental outfit , there is none

perhaps in which greater vagaries of variation are manifested in different people , or even in the same persons on certain subjects and at different periods of their lives , than in the power of memory . Mr . Locke calls it "the storehouse of our ideas , " and if this be so , it is quite

evident that although in some cases the stock in hand may be of a very miscellaneous description , in others it amounts to little else than a " beggarly account of empty boxes . " There are those the retina of whose intellectual eye is so absorbently receptive and tenaciously retentive that almost

everything * brought within the range of its subtle and keen purview is permanently photographed , framed , glazed , and hung up , while of others the mental impressions are as transient and superficial as though written on water or traced on sand . The aforesaid philosopher

evidently thought but small things of the average human being , for , he adds , " the narrow mind of man not being capable of having many ideas nnder view at once , it was necessary to have a repository in which to lay up those ideas which it may afterwards have nse of . " It is found

with many that this notion of laying np has very much the same result as that over carefulness which , for safe custody , secretes some document or memento , or article of value in a remarkably private place over which " Lethe , the river of oblivion , rolls its watery labyrinth , " and the

seclusion of the sacred object becomes far more inviolable than was ever contemplated . The force of memory is with some people quite a marvel . The memory consecrated to the service of trifles is special and , sui generis , it is a distinct natural endowment , with its own charm of unlaboured

spontaneity ; it is an instinct , as much as that subtle reasoning and discriminating faculty which is concentrated in the nasal organ of the canine race . Apparently , the " caverns of memory" resemble so many domestic cupboards or school lockers , some of which exhibit interiors

trim and tidy , while in others chaos sits and roosts . The mnemonic deficiencies of some people are exceedingly droll and occasionally tiresome . We are all familiar with cases in which the screws of some memories run loose , where the reproductive energy never seems equal to the strain of

labelling anybody with his right name , and where life is dotted along with records of the unwelcome and grotesque contretemps in which this weakness is ever fruitful . The faculty of never forgetting a face or a name , and " putting asunder" what fate has "joined together , " is a g ift that

carries with it a mighty power of pleasing , and a great personal influence . If punctuality be the politeness of princes , this intuitive gift of recognition , ministering as it does to that self love of which nobody ever yefc had a scant supply , must he as politic as it is prepossessing . —Freemason ' s Chronicle , Sydney .

HOGLOWAy's Pi . ts . —Weakening weather . —The sultry summer days straw the nerves of the feeble and decrepit , and disease may eventuate unless some restorative , snch as these purifying Pills , bo found to correct the disordering tendency . Holloway's medicine gives potency to the nervous system , which is the source of all vital movements , and presides over every action which DIM 0 " tains the growth and well-being of tha body . No one can over-estimate tne uecsssity of keeping the nerves well strung , or the ea < c with whi * h these FUiaccomplish that end . They are the most unfailing antidotes to indigestion , irregular circulation , palpitation , sick headache , and costiveness , and nave therefore attained the largest sale and highe-. reputation . .