Masonic Benevolence.

origin and incapable of being mingled with aught which can have a price . However much its votaries may have failed in acting up to the dictates of the immortal verities taught in words and embodied as the enlivening spirit in the

material forms of its chosen symbols , they have not hitherto so far lapsed from appreciation of tho Masonic design , as to set up the Golden Calf of mutual insurance ( however beneficial that may be ) in place of the Shekinah

of Love for humanity and charity as part of the worship of God . It is to be hoped that the Craftsmen will still prefer to be Freemasons , to being members of some society built on the ruins of tho Masonic structure ; and if they desire to avail themselves of tho benefits of economic

arrangements for mutual protection against pecuniary distress , they will do so in a proper manner—one becoming Masons—that is , without attempting to foist that class of business—however prudent and beneficial it may be—into the grand and orderly design of Masonry .

But it is plain to be seen that if the mutual benefit •societies are allowed to flourish as an apparent part of the , Masonic outfit , it cannot be long until the effort will be made to take the whole thing into the Lodgo as part and

parcel of the Masonic establishment ; and next , and soon , will follow " sick benefits " and " accidental policies , " and whatever else may be designed for mutual protection

against pecuniary loss . When that clay comes Masonry . will have at last found its end as such—its organization may continue in a transmuted form , but it will be a totally different establishment from that which has been committed

to our hands—one as degenerate as unworthy of the trust it should have held and preserved . Whenever that time , may come , it will be because society is unfit for Masonry , and not because Masonry lacks anything of being too good for society .

The object , scope , intent and mission of Masonic benevolence , so much spoken of and so little appreciated , is that of shedding within and consequently without the circlo of its brotherhood the light and truth of all ennobling ,

elevating and energising principles and conduct , which like streams from perennial fountains , ever and ever , gently , imperceptibly , but unceasingly and surely , wear deeper and deeper their channels in the hearts and minds

of men , until the sands and mire of base and selfish sentiment are purified or swept out and the deserts of the Boul become gardens of life for the healing plants of virtue ; to implant dignity , manfulness and uprightness , with

, " Friendship , Morality and Brotherly Love " in all hearts , that relief and charity may be no longer a duty but a delight to the bestower ; to make the Masonic body a brotherhood , and not a mere association ; to make that brotherhood each for himself benevolent in the true

sense of the term , and thus to secure a stream of active and efficient benevolence , and to incite to all noble and charitable work . Then each is free to seek without the Lodge , for means to promote human welfare .

Here is the great oversight of our Brethren who are so often flattering themselves that they have found something . better than Masonry . They imagine that the Masonic Lodge is an organised corporation to do all the good

enjoined on the Craftsmen , by turning the crank of official machinery ; the Officers in power this year to attend to . the duty and give place next year to their successors , and

so on by annual shifts , like the day and night shifts among the workers in a mine or on a ship , while the owners pay the bills and take their rest , devoid of care or labour .

This is not Masonry . Such organisations and expedients are all right in putting the fruits of benevolence to good use ; they have been largely induced among men by the influence of Masonry and other beneficent institutions as

motive forces , but these forces are above and before all . Doubtless all forms of machinery for putting into immediate effect what benevolence bestows are good and proper ,

but they are not a part of the Masonic Lodge , and the Craft must not be made responsible for their character or conduct .

This is one of the lessons , formerly familiar to the brethren , but now it seems necessary to be learned by many viz . : that the Craft never took any obligation of you or me as a Mason to vote for the Lodge to be liberal and

charitable , and raise funds by forced levy or otherwise for that purpose , or for springing new arrangements for investing money so as to give each investor a good return ,

or to put the Lodge forward in any way , either as a charitable or beneficial or mutually beneficial agency , apparatus or intermedium between us and our duties of

Masonic Benevolence.

benevolence and charity . We have never undertaken to see that the Lodge shall be benevolent and furnish means for the purpose . That which Masonry requires is what the Mason is to do himself and of his own volition in

liberty and as a Freemason ought to do before God and his own conscience , and because no other charity , so-called , is charity at all so far as the doer is concerned . Masonry does not undertake that the Lodge shall do any

man ' s work for him . He must quarry , hew or care or set the stones which fall to his task in the work , as the occasion requires , according to his skill , without calling on the Lodge . The function of the Lodge is to teach and

influence him to do his benevolent work , as his hands find to do . This is why all the wisdom , truth , morality and religion of the Lodge is committed to him in liberty and rationality , on his own responsibility , and not as an

overseer or master commits a task to a servant , as is done in superstitious institutions . And this is why the modern processes which have slipped into the Lodges of raising funds by dues to expend as a Lodge , often in ostentation

to some extent , in costly funerals and otherwise , are innovations and departures , and have degraded Masonry , by putting it on the level of a mere expenditure of money , and the perfunctory discharge of offices ; aud why true

Masonry is lost sight of ; and why the idea of the Brotherhood is superseded by the idea of a mutual benefit society . Looking at what has already happened in the way of lowering the character of the Fraternity , and the overload

of mere secular business , contentions and defaults in duty to be dealt with , which are now cast upon the Lodges and Grand Lodges , is it not time to stop ancl unload our useless burdens , and keep tho Lodge clear of further innovations ,

especially of those things which can be better cared for outside the Lodge ? This is the substance of the contention made against the mutual benefit organisations being

fastened on the Lodge , which is wrong and injurious . Let them be made separate , and go on to the highest point of usefulness to their members which can be secured and maintained . —Voice of Masonry .

Notes For Masonic Students.

Notes For Masonic Students .

AN OPERATIVE MASONIC GUILD . IT is well known that thus far very few traces of tbe operative or only Masonic Guilds or Lodges are found . There is a list of Masons working on the Chapel aud Hall of St . Stephen's , Westminster . On some of the Fabric Rolls we find names of Master Masons and Master Carpenters , and perhaps , here and there , also " artifices , "

" operarii , " " operantes . " Dallaway first collected a list of Master Masons , and in the Bodleian we have the names of the Master , two Wardens , five Master Masons , and seven Apprentices belonging to "Lodge Laboriarinm , " attached to Christ Church , Canterbury , in 1126 .

But Toulmin Smith found no actual Masons' Guilds , though probably many such exist . In the Carpenters' Guild of the Holy Trinity , at Norwich , and in the account of the Guild of St . Austin , Norwich , published by Tonlmin Smith , we have a schism in 1389 of certain Masons who

evidently , as Tonlmin Smith says , formed part of another Guild . They are James Alluciday , Robertas Snape , and Robertus Etyngham . Robertas Etyngbam is a " Masonic" of Norwich . We also find the names Johannes Hardebkye Newman in the roll of

the famous Guild of St . George , Norwich . We shall eventually collect many more of these names and references , and we may yet light upon a list of a mediaeval Guild of Operative Masons . SPEBO .

The following is a list of the Brethren on whom Jubilee honours have been conferred by General J . Studholme Brownrigg , C . B ., the B . t . Wor . Prov . Grand Master for Surrey : — Bro . Dr . Lavies Secretary No . 1826 - - P . P . G . Warden

Dr . Thompson P . M . No . 1556 - - Ditto James Churchill Secretary No . 1149 - Ditto W . P . Morrison W . M . No . 416 - - P . P . G . Registrar

D'Arcy Blackburn P . M . No . 370 - - P . P . G . Deacon George Payne No . 2101 . - - Ditto Dr . H . M . Smith I . P . M . No . 463 - - P . P . G . Assist . D . C Vernon Knight P . M . No . 1046 - - Ditto

The fine old Priory Church at Brecon has received an addition to its stained glass , of a window from the studio of Mr . Taylor , of Berners-street , the gift of Mr . Aneurin George , in memory of his wife and daughter . The massive proportions of the building are cathedral in character , for which it would be nob unsuited in the event of a new diocese being formed in South Wales .