Masonic Unity.

MASONIC UNITY .

THE idea of Masonio unity and measurement is one that should often claim the attention . It is well to consider , first , am I united , in my Masonic work , with the cause , its measures , and men ? Having settled that affirmatively , it is then well to consider how that unity of feeling corresponds with daily action . Is it thought

I ought to be a better man because I am a Mason ? If so , I ought then to turn my thoughts to nobler things . How should it guide me in my transactions with men ? What element of Masonry should enter into my business relations ? What better influence should I havo upon the

young ? Tears ago a man , jusfc after taking the Knight Templar degree , said to the writer : " I ought to be a better man than I am to take such a degree as that . "

But did it mend his way ? No ; he did riot stop to consider the idea of unity in his work , nor the measurement that men were making . The Sir Knights thought he should have been a better man . His measnremont

began in the Comraandery . The Master , Fellow Craft and Apprentice , all expected to see more of the true measurement of the man . AH were disappointed . If we are so low in the measurement of imperfect human judgment , what will it be when we como to the infallibly correct

judgment of an All-wise Judge , who allows no element of character to pass his notice . Character is man ' s grandest possession—greater than estates , purer than gold or precious stones . It is the verv

life of the man . Character , with all its power thrown into unison with a good cause , and measured by the pure standard of godly judgment , is a boon to be coveted by all . —Liberal Freemason .

The American Ritual.

THE AMERICAN RITUAL .

BY BBO . JACOB NORTON . rpHE early records of the Joppa Lodge of Instruction , if ¦ * - they are preserved , will testify that when I sailed to America in 1842 I was a perfect master of the English Lodge work . Of course I then believed that Masons the world over ( or at least the English-speaking Masons ) had

the same ritual . My surprise was therefore great on visiting an American Lodge to find that I had to learn everything over again . Just imagine ray thoughts when I first heard lectures about a pot of incense , a bee-hive , thn forty-seventh problem of Euclid , an hour glass , a scythe ,

a monument erected by Solomon to Hiram , the Saints John having been Masons , and one of them was made a G . M ., when upwards of ninety years of age ; Christian prayers and Christian allusions , but more particularly to hear in the raising ceremony such phrases as "lion ' s paw , "

and " lion of the tribe of Judah , " besides the exhibition of other strange pictures on the Masonic carpet . On inquiring as to where they got all these notions , the answer I received was , " as we received it , so we must impart it . " With all that new stuff in the ritual , and with the

sectarian explanations given to the old and new symbols , it is no wonder that pious American Masonic scholars were ready to " swear up and down " that Masonry was revealed to Adam in the garden of Eden , and what nob ! But yet the history of Masonry as given by Anderson ,

The American Ritual.

viz ., that we received our mysteries from the operative Masons , was never doubted . It was believed that not only had the English Masons in 1717 revived the old Grand Lodge , but there was not the slightest doubt entertained

that the Knights Templar were Masonized in tbe Holy Land , and the Masons were Templarised after the death of Bro . De Molay , either in Scotland or elsewhere . But about twenty years ago a daring reasoner became dissatisfied with Anderson ' s and Preston ' s Histories of

Freemasonry . Bro . Bromwell , Grand Master of Illinois , rejected all former connection of our Freemasonry with the former operative bodies or associations of builders , stonecutters , bricklayers , & c . And he reasoned thus : That a system like Symbolic Masonry , or , as our writers

persist in calling it , Speculative Masonry , which treats altogether of abstract and recondite truths concerning the Deity , the philosophy of life , the excellency of virtue , the course of Providence , the nature of man , and the like , all taught by symbols and veiled in allegory , has nothing in common with an association of mechanics to reerulate

workmen ' s wages , and for mutual benefit , unless one of these institutions shonld be used as a covering mask for the other . If any one looks on the Master ' s carpet he sees indeed many things which appear to be implements of architecture , bnt in fact are mostly instruments of

geometry , and besides those , a much larger number , and many of them the most important , which have no relation to architecture at all . For instance , a ladder constantly alleged to have been seen at Bethel , two parallel lines perpendicular , with the Holy Writings on them , three

burning tapers , an ark , a pot of incense , the letter G , the sword pointing to the naked heart , the acacia , the sun , moon and stars , the hour-glass , the scythe , the tabernacle of Moses , the cloudy canopy , the blazing star , the sheaf of

wheat at a waterfall , the lamb , the cherubims , '' & c . With such a mode of reasoning , it is no wonder that Bro . Bromwell worked himself up into a belief that our Freemasonry was never connected with the building guilds of the Middle Ages .

Bro . Joseph Robbing , P . G . M . of Illinois , has , within a few months , recommenced contributing articles to the Voice of Masonry at Chicago , one of these articles was reprinted in this journal , and I hope to see the remainder laid before the English reader . These articles startled a dashing ,

brilliant , scintillating , but unread and uninformed high degreer . Our chivalrous knight thereupon immediately armed , cap-apie , to fight against Bro . Bobbins' heresies . I have not all the numbers of the Voice of Masonry before me , but I remember that in one of his arguments he referred to

Athelstan ' s Grand Lodge of York as a matter of historic fact , and in another article he asserted that the kings used to appoint the Grand Masters of Masons in olden times . These specimens of historic information show clearly that his knowledge of Masonic history was not acquired from

the writings of Bros . Findel , Lyon , Gould , Hughan , and other modern Masonic investigators . But his great bombshell seems to be Bro . Bromwell ' s oration of twenty years

ago . Bro . Bromwell's oration , in his opinion , has knocked Bro . Robbins' heresies into " a cocked bat" ( as the saying is ) . Bro . Robhins replied to his opponent in the October Number of the Voice .

In the said paper Bro . Robbins cites me as an authority for stating that " up to 1738 there were only two great lights in the English ritual , and of those two the Bible was not one . The Bible was mentioned , however , as constituting j