Hampshire And Isle Of Wight.

that Provincial Grand Lodge was pleased to render hospitality to so distinguished a body of Masons , and he hoped , indeed he was sure , it would be ready to do so again whenever they had any distinguished visitors to fche Province . He congratulated the Brethren on fche progress of Masonry in Hampshire ,

and on the high position the Province had attained among the Masonic Provinces of England . He made a few remarks as to the principle on which he acted in the appointment of Officers , and those which should govern Lodges in making nominationsin which he was supported by the D . P . G . M . —and then appointed

the Officers for the year as follow : — Bro . Colonel Joshua Cooper King 2475 - Senior Warden A . Lamb 694 .... Junior Warden Rev . VV . C . Witham 698 - - - ) r ,, . Rev . W . C . Hawksley 257- - - / Chaplains

J . W . Gieve 309 - - - - Treasurer T . G . Trinbrell 2016 - - - Registrar E . Goble P . G . S . B . Eng . 309 - - Secretary . Td J . Brazier 2208 - - - - I „ . _

O . W . Beep 195 - f bemor beacons W . H ! Chapman 1461 " - - | Junior Deacons P . Bascombe 1883 .... Superintendent of Works R . P . Osborne 130 .... Director of Ceremonies

Major J . T . Thackara 487 - - - DeputyDir . of Cers . W . Cole Norman 551 - - - i L . Litchfield 2203 - - - [ Assistant Dir . of Cers . S . Dacombe 394 - - - - > A . G . Prickett 1869 - - - Sword Bearer

R . G . Pither 2068 - - - - ) a . , . _ H . J . Bundy 2074 - - - - f staadard Bearers J . E . Thornton 903 ... Organist G . P . Lancaster 903 - - - Assistant Secretary P . Jerome 1958 .... Pursuivant G . A . Dunbar 2153 ... - Assistant Pursuivant

E . Hinxman 76 - - - - \ A . Best 319 D . H . Watney 928 - - - „ . , W . Stewart 1428 .... ^ Stewards

H . Sherwood 1373 - G . Rogers 2169 - - - - t J . Exall Tyler .

Some other business was transacted , and Provincial Grand Lodge was then closed in ancient form , the Brethren afterwards dining together under the presidency of the Provincial Grand Master . — " Hampshire Independent . "

Church Service.

CHURCH SERVICE ,

ON Sunday afternoon a Masonic service was held in Donaghadee Parish Church , under the auspices of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Down , on behalf of the Masonic Orphan Schools , when , exclusive of the Brethren , who numbered about three hundred , there was an exceptionally large congregation .

Bro . L . A . Pooler preached on the text St . John i ., 4 , " The life was the light of men . " He said : There are three great mysteries , three problems of human thought—self , the world , and God . I do not say that everyone here has consciously said to himself , "These three final existences sum up all being . " But

I do say that everyone does take up a definite position in regard to these three . Each has answered the questions for himself . It is generally when we come to think about Christianity that these three final mysteries force themselves upon our notice . But Christianity did nofc create fchem . Christianity deals with

mysteries which already existed . In all ages we see men standing in perplexity or faith before them . In Egypfc three thousand years before Christ , in old Babylonia , in Assyria , India , Greece , Alexandria , and Europe , down to our own day , down to the books thafc are being written now—at the back of all human

thought lie these three—self , the world , and God . Some one says , " When you talk of books you are thinking , I suppose , of philosophical works , treatises on metaphysics , theology , and such like , and I wouldn ' t be paid to read them . " Certainly not ; I am thinging of all books—even the flimsiest novel of the day ;

even fche blase society sketch , which would persuade you that truth and manhood , purity and modest womanhood , have ceased to exist in that little circle which is called society , and that the majority of men are merely healthy animals or clever scamps , while the woman of the future is a loud and vulgar female who

has doubfcs and poses as intellectual . Even in these flimsiest of books , so far as they attempt to deal with human life at all , fchey have to deal with these three great mysteries—self , the world , and God . The unbeliever , I know , proceeds to solve the difficulty by leaving out one of the factors . He eliminates God .

For him : he says , there are but two mysteries—self and the world . But this does not simplify the solution ; it rather intensifies the difficulty . It is like trying to make a triangle with only two angles . But suppose for a moment that this position is true , and that there is no God . To most minds this is unthinkable , but suppose it . Then you are still left face to face with two of the great mysteries , self and the world . What

Church Service.

answer have you ? If there be nothing above man but blind force , then man becomes the end of all things , for man is the crown of creation so far as we know . But then the crown of creation is the only discontented part of creation . He is conscious of longings and desires which find no satisfaction in

this world . " He feels he is not made to die . " But if there be no God "he is made to die , and so an infinite melancholy steals over him , for all his aspirations are in vain , or , as a modern writer puts it , " a waste of moral energy . " No wonder the same writer calls his history of humanity " The Martyrdom of Man , "

and ends it in these words ;— " Mental anguish is at hand . The hope of immortality must die ; a sweet and charming illusion will be taken from the human race as youth and beauty vanish never to return . " Thus unbelief starts from matter , and it ends with matter . It begins from the mud , and it ends in fche mud . Bufc

let us look a little more closely at these three , " self , the world , and God . " We shall first take " self . " There is no one , I suppose , who has not in some form or other asked himself the angel ' s question to Hagar , " Whence comest thou , and whither wilt thou go ? " What is the origin of myself ? Shall I go oufc

afc death as a candle that is burned out , or shall I live on under altered conditions of which afc present I can form , no clear picture ? If I am to live on , how far am I responsible for my life , and how far am I the slave of circumstances into which I

was born , and of a nature which I have inherited ? Nay , afc times I seem almost to feel as if I were two men . At one time I long for what is pure and true , and at another something within me , " a certain baseness in fche blood , " urges me to what I know to be unworthy , and I have a real fellow-feeling for the man who

wrote" Within my earthly temple there ' s a crowd , There ' s one that's humble , and there's one that's proud , There's one that ' s broken-hearted for his sins , And one that unrepentant sits and grins .

There's one that loves his neighbour as himself , And one that only cares for greed and pelf . Of much corroding care would I be free , If anyone would tell me which is me . "

These are a few of the questions which the word " self" suggests to us , and which each of us does practically answer every day . Or take the thoughts suggested by " the world . " The duration of fche universe , we are told by scientific men , is essentially finite . Ifc had a beginning , and it will have an end . The Bible

says so , too . But is the Bible right when it tells us fchafc ifc was God Who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth ? Is the world what the greafc German called " the visible garment of God ? " Can the ear of faith indeed hear the voice of God behind fche whisper of the wind and beneath the murmur of the

stream ? Or is it rather true that " nature is one with rapine , a harm no preacher can heal ? " Will the world end simply in a greafc catastrophe , or is there " one far off divine event to which the whole creation moves ? " These are some of fche questions suggested fco us by " the world . " These thoughts lead us into

the presence of tbe third great mystery—fche idea of God . Man feels there must be Someone who will be the realisation of his longings after goodness ; he feels that his life is finite , and the world is finite , bufc behind the finite there must be One who is unchangeable and eternal . He feels fchafc the world had a wise

Designer , a Designer who may indeed dwell in light unapproachable , and robed in awful majesty , and yet who may be loved by men , because He Himself is loving . My Brethren , what answer does our Christian faith give you to the mysteries of existence ? Christianity assumes three things—1 . That fche world was made

by God . 2 . That man vvas made in the image of God . 3 . That man by self-asserfcion has broken his rightful connection with God . Further back than this it does not go . It does not explain the origin of evil , bufc ifc recognises its existence , and ifc promises its extinction . Christianity , I say , assumes these

three , and it does so , first , on the authority of Eevelation , and secondly , because they have fche instinctive mark of truth . We learn from Eevelation—1 . That in the beginning the great Architect ) of fche Universe created the heavens and fche earfch , and that when the work was finished He looked on ib and ifc was

good . 2 . Thafc God created man in His own image . 3 . The Bible gives us another picture , and , whether literal or allegorical , we know that ifc is true , and the closing scene of it is this— " And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him , " Where art thou ? " And Adam answered , " I vvas afraid . " This is the

Bible account of " self " and " the world "—two of the mysteries which puzzle us . But is man to be left so—a creature half good and half evil—a soul that grovels and aspires in turn ? Is that the end ? The answer of Christianity is the Incarnation . It is the sole and adequate explanation of the puzzles of existence .

The old mysteries are alone solved as we stand in the presence of a greater mystery—God manifest in the flesh ; and we realise that , wide and far-reaching as are the results of the Fall , the

results of the Incarnation will be at least as wide and as farreaching . In Jesus Christ man and God once more meet . The old barriers are broken down . The human Brother is united to fche Eternal Spirit . The life of Christ is the light of men . Once