Masonic History, Its Intentions And Shortcomings.

possesses for us . With the Chinese in Confucius' time the : square represented the principle of doing to others as you would they should do unto you . Mencius , the Chinese philosopher , teaching his disciples , said : " A Master Mason , instructing his apprentices , makes use of the compass and

square . " Mencius lived 400 years before Christ . The apron , or its equivalent , presented to the candidate as an evidence of his initiation , had place in all the mysteries and was esteemed a badge of honour and distinction . Among the Norsemen the neophyte was given a white shield , emblematic

of purity and innocence . The numbers used in the Lodge have ancient mystic meaning . Three , five and seven are sacred in the system of Pythagqras and imply much in the secret lore of India . The point within the circle has a signifi T cance which will afford the student much pleasure to search .

out for himself in its phallic , astronomical and . religious meanings , and has been accounted of deep meaning from time immemorial . The acacia , or plant by means of which the body was found and which likewise typifies the undying part of man , enters into all cults . The body of Osiris was found

by Isis by means of the lotus which grew beside his hidden tomb . Lastly , the Word which is whispered in the ear of him raised , represents the Ineffable Name which has been reserved for the initiates in all ages . It is the key word of power . The Jewish kabalists believed that the true name ,

spoken aloud , would shake the world . The Mahometans asserted that the real name of Allah opens all secrets to its possessor . It is a symbol of the highest import and meaning . Our word " God" is such a symbol . It stands for three Hebrew words and is essentially Masonic—G-O-D—Gomer , beauty ; Oz , strength ; Debar , wisdom .

But this is enough to show the similarity I have claimed . The student can easily multiply examples for himself . The men who are said to have engrafted speculative features upon the operative stock of Masonry were familiar with the ancient knowledge . Elias Ashmole and his contemporaries and

co-workers were , as we know , members of a mystic fraternity before they were received into the operative body of Masons . This may or may not have been the Rosicrucian society , but it was certainly possessed of a deep esotery . This society or others of its class stretched back through the darkness of the

middle ages , perhaps re-enforced from the mysterious east during the time of the crusades , until it met with the Gnostic and Neo-Platonic learning . These in turn were in touch with the occultism of Greece , or even with that which lingered in Egypt . Again these borrowed from the forgotten civilisation

that flourished in Mesopotamia , at least 7 , 000 years before Christ . ' Egypt also received light from that wonderful cult which had its seat , in America thousands of years ago , and of which the inscriptions now being read on the ruined temples of Yucatan are telling the story . And here we are enabled

to take another step backward , and in the lieht of these- same inscriptions we see the lost land of Atlantis reappear for a moment above the waters that covered its pre-historic civilisation , and learn that from thence the Maya race derived symbol and culture .

Does such a survey derogate from the dignity of Masonry ? Has it lost any of its antiquity in that we have said nothing of the Solomonic story or of the builders who came from Tyre to aid in constructing a temple to the Jewish

Deity . Masonry as a name may be modern ; it may , as the materialistic historians assert , trace only to the English operatives , but the spirit of Masonry—its light , its life , its soul , that which makes it what it is—a factor of permanent value in the world—is so old that no historian shall ever trace it to its ultimate source . — " American Tyler . "

The Masonic Obligation.

THE MASONIC OBLIGATION .

NO man ever took upon himself a more solemn obligation —a more binding obligation , a more sacred obligation ¦ —than the obligation ot Freemasonry . That is a sweeping assertion , but it is true . Some man may have taken that obligation without fully realising its true import , but that is not the fault of the

obligation ! Some man may have applied for admission to the Masonic Fraternity , may have been favourably reported ; elected , and taken his Blue Lodge degrees' —some man may have done all this without fully sensing just what he was doing . His eye may have been on the " higher" degree ' s , while his ear and his brain were dead to the lessons of the Blue Lodge . But that does not excuse him |

The Masonic Obligation.

A man who takes upon himself the Masonic Obligation and then does not "live up" to that obligation , commits perrury in his heart ! That is a sweeping assertion , but it is true . . Some man may have said to himself : " I desire to be a .

Knights Templar . That is why I am going to knock at the door of Freemasonry . I desire to shine in the high circles of society , and I think I can shine better if I am a 3 . 2 nd or a 33 rd degree Mason . " Some man , we say , may have said this , and he may have taken the Blue Lodge degrees without

realising that in order to " shine " he was taking upon himself the most sacred obligation that mortal ever subscribed to , and left , the Lodge room without knowing what the obligation •meant . That does not reflect upon the obligation , but upon the man himself .

We believe the obligation of Freemasonry is sacred . It is taken for life , and cannot be violated with impunity , if the candidate assumes this obligation in the right spirit ; it must of necessity become a part of himself until body and soul are separated by death .

It is . a solemn thing for a man to take upon . himself the obligation of Freemasonry , whether he realises it or not . —r " New England Freemason . " .

The Lambskin Apron.

THE LAMBSKIN APRON .

THE following article regarding the relative merits of the Golden Fleece , the Roman Eagle and the Lambskin or White Leathern Apron is from the pen of Brother Leroy B . Valliant : " From a period of antiquity so remote that the history

thereof fades away into fable , there comes down to us a tradition of the Golden Fleece . It was believed by the ancient Greeks that there was hidden in a land far across the then undiscovered sea a Go . lden Fleece , which grew upon the back of a ram , the gift of one . of their heathen

gods , and which was constantly guarded by bulls that breathed fire , and by a dragon that never slept , and the promise to the Greeks was ( so the fable went ) that u they could find and recover the Golden Fleece and bring it to Greece , wealth and prosperity would abound in that country .

The hope of redeeming that promise led to the formation of a secret order which embraced in its membership many of the most illustrious men of that period , who were called Argonauts , from the name of the ship Argo on which they sailed ; and tradition is replete with the daring deeds and

suffering of those men in the cause in which they enlisted . The badge of the order was the symbol of a Golden Fleece . " At a later , though still ancient period , there was formed among the Romans an order which embraced only those renowned . in war . Its symbol was the Golden Eagle .

" Of these two orders , the object of the one was worldly wealth , the object of the other bloody glory , and both have faded away from the face of the earth , as surely will perish all orders founded on sordid or vicious desires . " But more ancient than the order of the Golden Fleece

or than of the Roman Eagle is the order whose badge is a lambskin or white leathern apron , whose aim is innocence and purity of life and whose object is j Charity . That this has survived , while all others have perished , teaches us that if we live in . accordance with its tenets , we , too , should survive to a life for evermore . "

. ' . ' . Under the will of the late Bro . W . H . Wood , . of Birmingham , £ 10 , 060 is immediately equally divisible between fifteen Charitable Institutions in that city , which are specified as follows ; — The General Hospital , Queen ' s Hospital , "Women ' s Hospital , Eye Hospital , Skin and Lock Hospital , Children ' s Hospital , Orthopedic Hospital ,

Homoeopathic Hospital , General Dispensary , Ear and Throat Hospital , Dental Hospital , General Institution for the Blind , Deaf and Dumb Institution , Magdalen Home , and the Asylum for Idiots at Kno ' wle . As certain life

interests fall in , these Institutions will share equally a further sum of £ 16 , 000 . The testator also leaves a legacy of £ 1 , 260 to the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , and a similar amount to the Royal Masonic Institution for Aged Freemasons . To four Pawnbrokers' Institutions he leaves legacies amounting to - £ 8 , 500 .

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LODGE Summonses , Lists o £ members , Menus , & c , of every description Morgan , Printer , Freemason ' s Ghronigle Office , New Bamec .