Freemasonry In Suffolk.

in the hands of the Treasurer will allow , subject to certain regulations , among which we may mention that each Charity is to be selected as nearly as possible in rotation ; that each Lodge shall have one

chance in the drawing for every two guineas standing to its credit in the books at the time of the ballot , and shall be entitled to only one nomination at any one ballot ;

that each successful Lodge has to give a promise in writing , through three of its principal Officers , to continue the payment of its subscription until the full amount of

the life subscription is paid . At the second general meeting of this Association , held at Ipswich on the 27 th February 1885 , fifty guineas was ballotted for , and the following Lodges and Chapter were successful in drawing a ten-guinea Life Subscribership : —Stour Valley Lodge ,

JNo . izz % St . Andrew s uoctge , INO . 1031 , noyai Sussex Chapter , No . 376 , Adair Lodge , No . 936 , and Unity Lodge , No . 71 . Three of these Life Subscriberships went io the Benevolent Institution , and one each to the Girls ' and Boys' Schools .

Suffolk forms a part of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of East Anglia , and contributes three Lodges and seventy members to that body , viz . — No . Lodge Meeting at Members 70 Albert Victor Ipswich 21 105 Freeman Bnry Sfc . Edmnnds 15 317 Yonell Gorleston 34

while the higher degrees are represented by the Prudence Preceptory of Knights Templar , meeting at Ipswich , with twenty-four members , and the Victoria Chapter Rose Croix , also meeting at Ipswich , with 34 members . In addition to these , there is a warrant in existence , but at

present in abeyance , for the Royal Plantagenet Preceptory of Knights Templar . Much of the other information contained in the book is of the character which is usually met with in such works , having reference to the days of meetings , Officers , Ac , of the several Lodges , Chapters , & c , the Grand Officers , & c ,

and details of the Charities . Altogether , the work may be said to be complete as far as it goes , still , as we have said before , it would be of even greater interest if some of its space was devoted to a resume of the Masonic events which

have occurred in the Province durmg the past . We should be pleased to see Suffolk , which is deserving of high praise in regard to the management of its Charity matters ,

making a move to remedy this omission , and we feel sure that in * uch a case the Province would soon find many imitators .

Symbols.

SYMBOLS .

An Address delivered by Rev . George F . Hunting at ihe Dedication of ihe new Masonic Temple , in Battle Creek , Michigan .

IN the early pages of an old book which we have been taught to revere is the record of the childhood of our race . A choice bit of man ' s heritage was set apart by the Supreme Ruler and Giver as the cradle of that childhood .

To describe it I shall use but two "words , for no attempt at elaboration can express a tithe of what is suggested by these words , " Eden " and " Paradise . " Through all the ages the first has been the symbol of whatever is glad and glorious in man ' s present life , and not less has it been a picture of all the joy and peace and satisfaction within the

reach of anticipation . The second is of Persian origin , and was borrowed by the seventy of Alexandria , as a fitting word by which to translate the firsfc . They are therefore really , in . our common use , one and the same word , and when we to-day seek an expression which

covers all the forms of man ' s possible felicity , we gladly fall back upon this and sum up all the heavens of real and fancied bliss in this one word " Paradise . " Beautiful as Eden ; glorious as Paradise;—what words can add to these ? They may be demeaned to describe the sensual heaven of the Turk . They may be applied to the " happy hunting grounds " of fche red man , or they may give our

poor human thought a lift toward the divine , as we look upward and wonder what shall be , when the soul , free from the clods that bind it , shall escape into the beyond . Study these two words in all their far-reaching meaning , and you shall possibly form some adequate conception of -what may be hidden in a symbol ,

Symbols.

And now we come down through the ages until a time when the Omnipotent reversed the hand which held the flood , and in silent solitude the ark floats above the deluged world . These are two symbols , the flood and the Ark , and they

mean—the one destruction , overthrow , and the other , rescue , safety , security . And the words deluge and ark have lost none of their suggestive significance by their transfer from that far-off age to our own . Turn now a leaf and see where presumptuous mortals planned to scale

heaven ' s walls and get to themselves a name ; and they succeeded , for the name is Babel , and it lives , and is familiar to our enrs to-day , as the symbol of confusion and crestfallen conceit . Turn yet other leaves of the wondrous story , and lo ! men build according to the plan drawn

upon the trestleboard of heaven , the tabernacle , the tent of Jehovah , and it is , as a whole , and its every several part , a symbol in which is written some moral truth . It would be interesting to trace the symbolic teaching throngh all the parts of this strange building , to show how aptly the curtains , the vails , the boards , the pins , the rings .

the staves and the bars , the hooks , the loops and the tenons , and even the colour of the different vails , are all made , without any forced application , to teach truth . And yet more -wonderful is the teaching of the furniture of the tent , and especially the Ark and its contents and appurtenances . The tables of the law , the pot of manna , and the

rod of Aaron , are the most significant symbols . I say it would be interesting to trace the line of instruction through all its parts until we mastered this rare , unique system of ethics , so strange , yet so beautiful , so

grandly impressive in its simplicity ; but we can follow tho fascinating theme no farther , lest we tire your patience with many words . Another step down the long ladder , toward our time , or more justly up the ladder , and see ,

from the hill-tops of Judea curl heavenward the smoke of ten thousands altars . Each bleeding , burning victim is a type , and in after time , upon another hill-top of thafc land , behold the antitype , the one chief sacrifice toward which

the lesser pointed through all the long centuries of expectation . The victim was such an one as wrung from the pagan heart of a Roman soldier the confession , " Truly , this man was the Son of God . "

And again a symbol , for the cross on which that greater sacrifice breathed out its life has grown from a suggestion of torture and agony into a thing most sacred . It has led martyrs to the stake and armies to the fiercest fight earth

ever saw . It has kindled faith and hope among the millions of Christendom , and the fire burns in their hearts to-day—each , the martyr , the soldier , and the humble

disciple , looking upon that symbol , catching from it inspiration , toils onward , upward , with this its glad "Excelsior !" " In hoc signo vinces . " And now , from this climax of symbolism let us descend to another branch of the theme

before us . Egypt is the land of symbols . The valley of the Nile is Egypt . Along the banks of this historic river the student of the mysterious finds most ample breadth for the exercise

of his skill . Shaft , column , pyramid , and rained wall , are but the tablets on which the history of nations dead is written , in symbols which baffled all scholars until the key was found .

In 1799 was discovered in the delta of the Nile the so-called " Rosetta Stone , " bearing upon its side inscriptions in three styles of character , the first and second ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics—and the third Greek .

This was the key . It fitted the lock , and within these eighty years , little by little , the old inscriptions have yielded to the painstaking , indefatigable study of oriental scholars , until to-day whole libraries are composed of translations

from those records of the past . Some one will perhaps sneer at this and ask , Of what use is all this labour ? Why not let the dead past lie in its grave ? Why disturb the mouldering remains of thing which have dropped out of

the records of time ? Our mistake lies in our ignorance . The record was not dead but slept , and men have clone well to arouse it from its slumber , and bid it tell for us the mysteries in its keeping . The past is indeed in some sense

dead , but so are fche foundation facts of geology , and of almost every science , and ifc is one of the triumphs of the human mind that it has unearthed these bottom truths , for

they afford a firm base for that superstructure which helps us in our daily needs . And here the importance of that maze of marks and signs which is found upon the walls of ruined splendour along the Nile begins to be seen and felt .