Laying The Foundation Stone Of St. Agnes' Church, Moseley.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF ST . AGNES' CHURCH , MOSELEY .

THE foundation stone of a now chnrch in the district of Moseley was laid on Wednesday , 3 rd inst ., with fnll Masonic ceremonial , by tho Right Worshipful Brother Sir Edmund A . Lcchmere , Bart . M P ., Provincial Grand Master , assisted by the Worshipful Brother Colonel John Machen , Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Warwick , shire , ancl tho brethren of tho Provincial Grand Lodges of

Worcestershiro and Warwickshire . Notwithstanding tlio unfavourable state of the weather , thero was a large attendance . Tho new church , which is called St . Agnes , is being erected ? n a road bearing the same name , branching out of tho Wake Green-road . The site has been given by Mr . F . Wilmot . Tho church will be erected from the design of Mr . W . Davis , architect , Oolmore-row , Birmingham , and will

be in fcho form of a cross , with nave of moderate width , and wide aisles . The present contract is only for a portion of the com . plete structure , the plans having been so ai ranged thafc , with regard to future extensions , no portion of tho church will either have to bo taken down , or left unfinished , except a temporary west wall . The firsfc portion comprises chancel , clergy and choir

vestries , organ chamber , north and south transepts , and parfc of the nave ; accommodating nearly 400 persons . The second portion will comprise an extension of the navoand aisles , and tho erection of a north porch , with tower and spire , providing additional accommotion for 326 persons . The tower and spire will be iu the centre of tho west end , and will look very prominent and imposing in this

position , having a total height of 137 feet . Tho style of bnilding is Gothic , of tho geometrical period , with somewhat elaborate ornamentation . Tho windows in tho clerestory will be much larger than those in the north and south aisles , the object being to obtain the principal light from abovo , as not only being softer and more equally diffused , but less in the lino of actual vision . Buttresses are to be

placed between the clerestory windows , adding much to the stability of the walls . The east end will be made square , partly because thafc is the distinctively English form of chancel , and partly becanse it allows the introduction of a very fine east window , which will bo an important feature , both internally and when viewed from the road . The chancel , which will be of dignified proportions , will be provided

with stalls , and will accommodate four clergymen , twelve choirmen , and twenty-two boys . The floor here will be laid with Minton tiles , and that in the body of the church will be of Bnrnettised wood blocks , which have the effect of reducing the noise of rising and moving to a minimum . A low screen wall is to be placed betweon the nave and chancel , forming a base for a screen , should one

be desired at a future period . The altai * , by its footpace being raised seven steps above the floor of fcho nave , will be made the mosfc prominent feature in the church . The two vestries are to be on the sonth side . The architect has arranged for the erection of an organ chamber on the north side of the chancel . . The extreme length of the church from east to west will be 127 feet , and the width from north

to sonth 48 feet . It is proposed to warm it by hot-water pipes running under the aisles , the heating chamber being under the clergy vestry ; to light it with gas-jets around the tops of the capitals of the columns ; and to ventilate it by means of hoppers in the upper portion of the clerestory windows . Both inside and onfcside fche walls will be faced wifch stone , and the church will have a tiled roof . The

builder is Mr . William Bloore , of Alma-street , Aston , and the masonry work will be done by Messrs . Miller , Carr and Co . The first contract is expected to be completed in July of next year . The total cost of the completed building will be about £ 8 , 000 . The cost of the portion now being erected will be about £ 4 , 000 , of which abonfc £ 2 , 500 has been promised . The Freemasons assembled about

halfpast eleven , in tho National Schools , Moseley , where a Craft Lodge in the three degrees was opened by the W . M . and Officers of the Stability Lodge , No . 564 , Stourbridge . The Right Worshipfnl Provincial Grand Master and Provincial Grand Officers having entered the Lodge , and being received with the customary hononrs , the Provincial Grand Lodge was opened in due form . The Worshipfnl

Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire , Brother Colonel Machen , accompanied by his Provincial Grand Officers , then entered the Lodge , and was saluted with the customary honours . The Prov . Grand Master , in offering his fraternal greetings to the D . P . G . M . and the Prov . Grand Lodge of Warwickshire , moved the following resolution , which was seconded by Bro . Buck P . G . S . W ., and was carried

unanimously . The members of fche Provincial Grand Lodge of Worcestershire offer a hearty welcome to the members of the Prov . Grand Lodge of Warwickshire , represented to-day by the D . P . G . Master and other brethren of thafc Province , and desire to express their cordial satisfaction afc having an opportunity of working in unison with the Grand Lodge of Warwickshire upon so interesting an

occasion . Colonel Machen D . P . G . M . Warwickshire , replied . A letter was read from the D . P . G . Master , Bro . A . F . Godson , enclosing a handsome donation to the Building Fund , and expressing great regret that absence from England prevented his attendance that day . The muster roll having been suitably called , and after the Provincial Grand Master had explained the arrangements of the day ,

A procession was formed , in the following order : —Two Tylers ( with drawn swords ) , Brethren of the Province of Warwickshire , and other visitors , not being Provincial Grand Officers , Lodges according to their numbers ( Juniors walking first ) , Architect with plans , a cornucopia with corn borne by a Master of a Lodge , two ewers with wine and oil borne by Masters of Lodges , Past Provincial Graud Pursuivants , Provincial Grand Pursuivant , Provincial Grand Organist

trowel borne by a Past Master , mallet borne by a Past Master , Past Provincial Grand Sword Bearers and Directors of Ceremonies ) , Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies , and Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies , Past Provincial Graud Superintendents of Wcrks , Provincial Grand Superintendent of Works ( bearing inscription plate ) , Past Provincial Grand Deacons and Eegistrars , Provincial Grand Eegistrar , Past Provincial Grand Chaplains , Past Provincial Grand Wardens , Provincial Grancl Secretary with Book of Conati-

Laying The Foundation Stone Of St. Agnes' Church, Moseley.

tntions , Provincial Grand Treasurer with phial containing coins , & o ., the Provisional and Past Provisional Officers of Warwickshire and other visitors being Provincial Grand Officers , the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire , tho Corinthian Light borne by the Master of a Lodge , tho Column of the Provincial Junior Grand Warden borne by the Master of a Lodge , the Provisional Junior

Grand Warden with the plumb rule , the Doric Light borne by the Master of a Lodgo , the Column of the Provincial Senior Grand Warden borne by the Master of a Lodge , the Provincial Senior Grancl Warden with tho level , Provincial Junior Grand Deacon , the Provincial Grand Chaplain bearing the Sacred Law on a cushion , the Deputy Provincial Grand Master with the square , the Ionic

Light borne ¦ by the Master of a Lodge , the Provincial Grand Sword Bearer , the Right Worship ful Provincial Grand Master , Provincial Senior Grand Deacon , two Provincial Grand Stewards , Provincial Grand Tyler . In this Order they proceeded to Moseley Church , where a special service was held . The prayers and lessons were intoned by the vicar ( the Rev . W . H . Colmore ) and the Rev . H . J .

Coachafer ; and the sermon was preached by the Rev . W . K . Ryland Bedford , Rector of Sutton Coldfield , and Past Grand Chaplain of England . The rev . gentleman took for his toxt Daniel ii . 34 , " Thou sawesfc till that a stone was cut out without hands . " It was thus that , in prophetic vision , the man who , with the graces of the courtier combined the piety of the anchorite and the

stedfastness of the martyr , to whom were opened the ineffable secrets of the counsels of the Most High , beheld thafc great revolation which has made the world what it is , and will go on transform , ing it nntil the time of the consummation of all things . Ifc was when tho fourth great monarchy was verging upon decrepitude , when the ruthless tyranny of the Assyrian and Persian dynasties had swept

away the petty independent tribes who had by their feuds and ma . randings kept the world in barbarism ; when Greece , with her universal language , and Rome , with her commercial enterprise , her law-abiding instincts , and her religious indifference , had prepared , humanly speaking , the earth for the spread of the Gospel . Then it was thafc , without hands , withont any visible machinery for success ,

a message was launched upon the world from an obscure province of Judea which , as a stone , mig ht have pulverised the lime-compacted edifices of Babylon , broke down and dissipated the prejudices and traditions of ages , not with a new message , but with one whioh , old as the world itself , hacl never before gained a general hearing . It abolished the sun-irod and the thunderer , the demons of the air and

the nymphs of the stream , by revealing a true Father in heaven , by vindicating the latent divinity in human nature , and showing that it was possible to bridge the abyss which seemed to sever man from God . Let me draw the picture in the words of an eminent thinker , of our own day ( Mr . Fronde ) : — " Neither the philosophy of the schools , nor the mysteries , the festivals , the rituals of the heathen

gods , availed to check the impurity of society , or to alleviate the miseries of mankind ; but vice and wretchedness disappeared in every bouse into which the gospel found an entrance . This was true , and ifc was a truth which outweighed a millionfold the skilfallest cavils of the intellect . A new life had come into the world , it was growing like the grain of mustard seed , by its own vital force , and the earth

was growing green under its shadow . Such an argument was unanswerable . No other creed could be pointed to from which any stream was flowing of moral regeneration . " For eighteen centuries and a-half , these exalted doctrines have been published among men , generation after generation being sharers in the benefits arising from their dissemination . Yet the warfare is not accomplished , nor the and so a material stone is laid to-day , an emblem of the stone cut

last enemy put nnder the feet of the great Captain of our salvation j withont hands , from whence may arise a building made with hands , a figure of the true , of the heavenly Jerusalem , the church descending from above , to tell mankind the overmastering secret of victory oyer mundane things , the revelation of God made flesh and tabernacling iu the hearts of men , this , the Alpha and Omega of religion—it has been truly as well as poetically

expressed—In the mosfc ancienfc time , When God and man were friends , And earth was rounded wifch a summer clime , And the dull doubt , that lends Sorrow to life , was all a thing unknown ; Before those hours had flown , God walked afc eventide thro' Eden ' s shade , And spoke to man , and man was nofc afraid ,

Cannot thafc time return ? Is it not here for those "Who , from fche strong still work of God can learn His grandeur of repose ? A day with Him is as a myriad years j A tear outweighs the spheres ; And aa He walked ' neath Eden's mystic tree , In the cool eventide , He walks with thee !

Ifc seems to me , brethren , then , that there is an especial propriety in the Association of the Masonic body with such a ceremony as this of to-day , in times when men ' s minds are too often aesthetically disquieted by the symbols of the ancient Testament , recoiling from the elaborate , but apparently trivial , ordinances of external worshi . If we at any time are inclined to withhold

p our intellectual sympathy from the visible Church , with its varied laws of oblation , its conventional guarantees of purity , its rales of ecclesiastical ritual , let us remember that the rovolatious to Moses , to Isaiah , and to Daniel , would appear puerile , if not unseemly , unless we recalled what those types aud

images meant , and were known to mean , by those to ly bo " they were revealed ; what , in fact , by the principles of visible language , then recognised , they must havo meant . And as ou ** wind appreciates the hidden language of typo and figure , the whole economy of ancient Scripture , ceremonial , devotional , and prop hetic , will utter no strange sound , although its syllables and sentences be