Masonry's Grandeur And Goodness.

love and tho Fatherhood of God , the two grand realities for which the soul yearns in this age of venture into all knowledge sacred and profane , into every department of science and matter , and the philosophies of the immortal mind .

Masonry , whatever its origin , has built itself as a temple into the history and chief works of mankind . Its high regard for human rights , its fealty to true government , its loyalty to the golden rule of doing to others as you wou'd have others do to you , its ideal of fraternity , have given to

ifc width and altitude in the movements of civilization . It has been the constant advocate of Science , the promoter of knowledge , the teacher of the wise and pure laws of living , and so it has become a large and integral portion of the best governments . Its spread has been as the spread of

man on islands and continents . For the better growth of its commonwealths of lodges and chapters , ifc may , it is true , have been confined to special places ; but its finer essence , its atmosphere of brotherly love , has not beon confined , but like the air that breathes from the north aud

south , the east and west , breathes upon and touches all . Its dominion is in the great moral nature , and therefore among the changes of empires or the noiseless march of timr , it cannot be changed like outward dominions . Its government may be assailed and has been assailed , but

cannot be permanently overturned by any human revolutions ; its truths , if not victorious in one placo , move calmly on to achieve victories in other places . The piinoiples which sustain it have been fountains pouring fotth waters to refresh tbe disciples who tended the fires on the

altars in the past , and still pour forth waters to refresh the thirsting lip and the yearning heart of thoso who wait upon its altars in the present . For as a power in history , a society for mankind , amid difficulty and thc barbarity of persecution , it has been unbroken in its course through

the centuries . As such a society , with such a power , it has , as by the working of a natural law , achieved a character of its own , and a speech of its own , and that speech , uttering itself in special sign , in dramatic form , in the rich vesture with which ifc clothes its troths , is understood by

all the congregations of its temple . A light in darkness , it has enlightened times when knowledge was hidden from view and even religion clouded by ignorance , and has moved on as through the firmament which overarches man ' s labors , like electric fires which flash now and then

into a supreme brightness ; but unlike electric fires , ifc flashes and never dies . Masonry is not the religion of Israel ; ifc is nofc the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth . Ifc has drawn largely and wisely from both , and so has gained its universal character .

To take away its Hebrew teachings , to take away its Christian teachings , would leave it a slender and fragile thing indeed ; but the truths which fills its temple with the incense of devotion ; its charities , however old , are truths and charities transfigured by the doctrine that came

from tbe manger cradle of Bethlehem , from the Hill of Calvary , and the broken tomb in the Olive Garden . Its emblems and symbols are old among the oldest , and yet many of them are from the Temple of Mount Zion , but the large and magnificent spirit which breathes in them is

the inflowing of the glorious gospel of the living God . Types , shadows , ceremonies , ritual of the altar , sacrifices , have all been taken up in the Person of One , and by His life and death and resurrection have become spiritual blessings for the spiritual blessings of man , and havo

fallen like drops of the clouds on man ' s moral nature , and so have penetrated and refreshed all the moralities and teachings of Freemasonry . Out of this has grown a distinct grandeur of fche

Institution . The greatness of Masonry has sprung from the principles which underlie it and have wrought themselves into the characters of its members . This is a truth manifest in all societies which have benefited mankind ; as ifc is a truth manifest in those nations which have

impressed themselves as a power in history . Their great princip les have infused themselves into all the body nnd circulated as blood through the frame , giving life and health and vigour . Those nations of antiquity which have educated the world were strong because their ruling

thoughts were strong ; as learning , culture , philosophy , art in stone in Athens ; as strength , dominion , power and law in Rome . These were the vassals to their magnificence , to the fadeless splendour of the deeds they accomplished as empires . And this is true of Masonry . Its principles have been wrought into all its frame and gave it a glory of

Masonry's Grandeur And Goodness.

character ; its emblems and symbols , shrinicg great truths , have circulated as blood through its body and given ifc lifo and strength , and made ifc a superlative moral influence . Masonry has been as the shadow of a rock in a weary

land ; a refuge from the storm for the burdened life , and has been the resting place for the light that rejoices , tho light of that love which hopeth all things and endureth all things . This is the grandeur of the Fraternity .

It is a science of emblems and symbols . By its very nature as a society Masonry is in itself a symbol . Tho ancient Greek societies from which tho word comes , wero men gathered together for the purpose of pleasure , for

religion , or for those things that could be accomplished only by the agency of association , or by mutual agreement and harmony among those so united in one body . A symbol , therefore , meant things thrown together as in associations or societies .

Symbols are the speech of all men •the one great speech unbroken into Babel tongues ; the one universal tongue beard in the highest civilisation , in the dwelling of the barbarian and the hut of the savage . They picture to tho mind ideas of oftentimes more fully and strongly than

words . Symbols are silent educators , even moral forces , and breathe with inspirations for those who use ' them . A great heart heats in them with the perpetual movement and order of the tides . Speech may change and has changed in every nation , and may be tho record of the decay or

progress of a people ; but symbols , the special clothing of special ideas , special facts , special principles , are unchanged . Venerable with age , they are ever fresh with youth and meaning , and strong by the greafc things they contain . To promote human friendship , to gather men into

fellowship and sympathy , Lodges and Chapters were formed and rules laid down for their guidance and instruction . In the passing of tho yeais they naturally became academies of learning , schools of morality , teachers in tho gentler philosophies of life ; powers to enlarge , ennoble the mind ,

by law , by wisdom and integrity ; supports and pillars ot strength in the family , in the great world of traffic and commerce , and in tbe State . The Masonry of the chisel , thc hammer aud the trowel were accordingly transferred from the quarry , the carved stono and builded wall to tho

mind of a man and became speculative , and was from thafc hour a moral architect fashioning tbe greafc interests of tho intellect and heart . The instruments of worldly toil became , throngh this transformation the symbols of magnificent truths . The threes so common in Masonry ,

clothed with higher attributes , spoke with a fuller voice and wrote themselves as the visible expression of the inner and enduring forces of the brotherhood . The constant monitor , the Holy Bible , with its accompanying square aud compasses , is ever visible to the Masonic eye .

Faith , hope and charity shaped themselves for every brother as the threefold defense and sustaining powers in tbe moral temple . Brotherly love , relief and truth sound on the ear and heart as grand guides in fche walk and conduct of life . The three steps , the five and seven steps ,

which are but combinations of fche threes , are for fche advancing Mason the paths to ampler light and knowledge . The triangle , in its united three , passes for him into a glorious suggestion and symbol of God , and the attributes of God . Wisdom , strength and beauty , in thoir

ever lepeated utterance , are to his spirit no longer unmeaning words , but sublime realities , reflecting that divine wisdom which designed in His own infinite mind the structure of this manhood ; the divine strength which supports it ; the divine beauty which adorns it as the Creator adorns the work of His hands .

The Holy Bible nas been spoken of more fully in tho past . The square and compasses are left , therefore , for a brief consideration . Looked at in their true light , they shine into large and beautiful meaning . The first has to do with earth and the measurement ofthe things of earth ,

and has a close relationship with man ' s physical nature . From earth he arose a body at fche word of God ; from earth he is sustained and nourished ; to earth he returns to await the resurrection of the body in a more glorious form . The second has to do with circles and the measurement of

spherical bodies , and so passes beyond the earth . It points to a special truth in man ' s inner nature . From heaven tho spirit de-cended , and man , by the inbreathing of the

Almighty became a living soul , and the moral and spiritual were fashioned into a likeness of tha Creator . These are the great truths told out by these emblems of the Fraternity , and witness to a reality and a religion in Masonry .