Masonic Charities Outside The Three Institutions.

Widows' Fund , but she may be placed thereon without election provided the Board is satisfied her case is eligible and deserving . Much the same rules apply in the case of Widows as those to which we have iust referred . The limit of income from other

sources is in their case fixed at . £ 30 per annum , and upon an annuitant marrying her annuity at once ceases . In both eases tho annuities are payable quarterly in advance , provision being made for the attendance of the recipient at the Office of the Grand

Lodge , or the forwarding of a certificate by those who are unable to personally apply , every care being taken that the sums granted shall reach those for whom they are intended as speedily , and with as little trouble to the recipients as is possible . Such are the brief details of a Fund which we

have put at the head of the Masonic Charities outside the three Institutions . We consider it a record of which Mark Master Masons have every reason to be proud , and considering it is the outcome of but nineteen years' working , and that too among a

limited section of the English Brotherhood , it speaks volumes for the enthusiasm of those who have supported it . We trust the Fund will continue its career of prosperity , and that it may always be rjossible for those who have the conduct of its affairs

to do as they have hitherto done , —relieve every case regularly brought forward without entailing either the expense or anxiety of a contested election . If it is found possible to clo this the members of the Mark

Degree will have at least one important matter to congratulate themselves upon , while those whose circumstances in life may necessitate their making an appeal will have occasion to bless the subscribers and the men who , less than twenty years back , conceived and firmly established the Mark Benevolent Fund .

Masonry's Work.

MASONRY'S WORK .

Extracts from an Oration by Bev . I . F . Slidham , at the Dedication of the Masonic Rail in Neio Britain , Connecticut , 11 th March 1887 .

EVENTS teach lessons . The Operative Masonry of three thousand years ago had marked characteristics . There was uniform conscienciousness of work . For the temples of their gods they wrought like gods ; their work was eternal for eternal beings . Even in their roads , bridges and aqueducts , there were no shams , and on their

temples no meretricious ornaments . Architecture has been called frozen music , and much admiration has been expended by travellers on the ivy-mantled towers and castles of the old world . Architecture now is hypocrisy

in stone . As man builds only for man who looks only on the outward appearance he veneers , building only for the present . But not so when builders were priests , and building was a religion . Go to the still existing

monuments of ancient Operative Masonry ; and from the Pyramids of Egypt to the last stone on Westminster Abbey ; and every structure , in part and in whole , is consciencious and enduring . The foundations are sure

and the corner-stones are tried . The very mortar has hardened into a creed of Masonic honesty . They tied the stones together in every monumental pile by a bond which meant eternal unity . The test of the square , the plumb

and the level reveals the care , the patience and the security of their work . Masonic thought and feeling have ever aspired . The pinnacles of pagodas in the Orient , the utmost point of the cross that surmounts and sanctifies

old Saint Paul in London , bear witness to this . As you enter Westminster Abbey the very breath seems to be taken from you upward , with the ascending heights of column , arch and roof . Mountain peaks that seem to

prop the skies are loftier than the towers and spires of man ' s buildings ; but while God ' s power is seen in the one , man ' s praise is seen iu the other , and God loves that most which loves Him most . The work of the past was characterised by honesty , by exalted feelings and fraternal unions . * * * * *

Preemasonry has a mission . It were stupid to suppose otherwise . That which has withstood the vicissitudes of

Masonry's Work.

time—has ovei'corao persecutions—that which stands at tho head of secular beneficent societies ; which has erected magnificent temples at great cost , for its dwelling p laceswhich has enrolled in its membership , and has commanded

the deference and respect of a multitudo of men of highest mental culture , and highest religious character , must , ot necessity have a mission , worthy of , and proportionate to , the time , and brain ? , and money which it annually

expends . Thc history of Masonry is the history of its accomplishments , and those accomplishments aro tho history of its character . I glory in that history . I am proud of the friends it has gathered to its side . I am

more proud of it for the enemies it has made . Masonry does not consist in signals and pass-words , in ritualism and regalia ; these outward things are but incidental . It has a broader and deeper significance . It is not a political

Order ; its members are of every political shade of thinking , and the Order exists under every variety of civil constitution . Strictly speaking , it is in no sense a secret society .

I trust that my statement 01 this fact may comfort many persons to whom this has been a sort of hideous ni g htmare , and I also trust that this public statement will not lay me liable to the horrible wrath of those terrible men called

Masons , but whom you know , ladies and gentlemen , as yonr husbands and brothers and friends . Now that 1 have made this statement , though I be drawn and quartered , shot out of a cannon , blown up with dynamite , burnt in

coke , simmered in au inquisition frying pan , and allowed no monument to record my many and truthful virtues , as these Masons are said to be doing all the time , I stick to my statement , and I bid you look into tho innocent faces

of these husbands , present and prospective , of yours , and fearlessly tell me if you think it possible that such men as these could harbour in their childlike and transparent bosoms anythipg so fraught with disaster to the confidence

reposed in them . Nay , a thousand times , nay . Should you lay your hand upon the heart of any of these " childlike and bland " brethren ( the married ones , of course , I mean ) you would find , as a travelling" phrenologist

solemnly said , after examining my head with great Cire , " Nothing there . " Its times and places of meeting , its members , its acts and purposes ,, are known to ail intelligent people . Its principles and purposes cfinnot fail to be

known , for they have been proclaimed by press and pulpit , sounded from the housetops aud emblazoned along the streets . Its history has been written and given to the world , and its deeds of charity recognised by all generous men . In fact , Masonry is in the full blaze of publicity .

I have said that this is not a political institution ; nor is it a religious institution , strictly . It is not a church , it has no theological system , and yet it is practically religious . For while , in no sense , does it claim to be a substitute for

the church , it has ever stood the advocate and defender of the principles of Him whose name and nature is li gh " . In a word , its object , ends and aims are open to the

public . Those who uphold and perpetuate this Order , as you repeat their names by the thousands , will not be pronounced by their fellow citizens as lacking either in sense or honesty .

Americans are full of rush ; they ' allow themselves little recreation ; they are noted for looking sharply to the main chance j and nowhere under the sun will any Order go to pieces faster than in America , if there be no valid reason

for its existence , proportioned to the time , labour and cost necessary to its maintenance . Mummery , affectations of value , secrets , are vulgarly supposed to be the real factors in our history ; but the average American is a

constitutional kicker ; no one will resent moro warmly than he an imposition ; and no one is more prone than he to smash all about him , when he is made the subject of folly . This Order has never made any secret of its principles or of its

practices . There is no hiding in a corner . Its temples are in the principal streets of the cities and villages of the world . Along every by-way of the world you will meet men in all employments , and in all professions , who will ,

as proudly as ever tho old Eoman boasted of his citizenship , avow themselves one of this great Fraternity . It has no place for the man who is ashamed of it . King *

or subject , lord or serf , rich or poor , all must knock alike , all must enter alike , all must stand on the level floor of universal equality .

We meet upon the level here , though from every station come , The rich man from his mansion , the poor man from his home ; The one must leave his wealth and state outside the Mason ' s door , The other finds hia true respect upon the checkered floor .