How To Secure Attendance.

HOW TO SECURE ATTENDANCE .

W'E quote the following , by Grand Master Emerson to the Grand Lodge of Utah , with approval ; it is good advice for any Masonic climate : — " The Master of a Lodge should be a studious and thoughtful man , and , above all , a man fruitful in resources .

Should the energy and zeal of the members of his Lodge begin to slacken , and their attendance become more and more reluctant and infrequent , he should be able to devise some scheme , to put into operation some plan , by which

he may win them back to their allegiance . The Lodgeroom should be made , nexfc to home , the most delightful and attractive place on earth ; a pleasant retreat from the cares and dividing influences of every-day , active business

life . Every Mason should regard his Lodge as a perennial fountain to which he may come at all times , and have his own moral courage , and his confidence in his fellow-men , increased and strengthened . Does business annoy him , or

financial disaster threaten , ho here learns that no man should be regarded for his worldly wealth or honour . Is he discouraged and disheartened by the repeated instances of dishonesty and peculation in high places , in the world

around him , he is here encouraged and strengthened by the fact that Masonry nofc only teaches , bufc demands of her thousands of votaries everywhere , and by a constant symbol , to walk uprightly in their several stations before

God and man , and act upon the square in all their dealings . From under such teachings a reflective mind comes out , strong and self-reliant , ready to fight life ' s battles , and gain honour in the conflict . As means to so desirable an

end , I would suggest that as often as time will permit , when the Masters make the usual inquiry , if any brother has anything to say for the good of Masonry , that it be something more than formally done . Insist upon

something being said upon tho subject of Masonry . If found necessary , go to some brother , before Lodge-night , and tell him that you shall call upon him , and he must be prepared if only for a five minutes talk . Invite others to express

either their assent or dissent as to what has been said , and you would soon be surprised at the readiness with which your call would be answered , as well as at the general increase of knowledge upon Masonic subjects . In this

connection I have one further suggestion to make . Occasionally , at least , at your regular communications , after the routine business is done , and when there are no degrees to be conferred , let the Master go through with

the questions and answers constituting the lectures of the three degrees , requesting the first brother on the right , or left , to answer the first question , the next the second , and so on around the Lodge-room . Invite discussions as to

the correctness or otherwise of the answers , the Master , however , for the time being the final arbiter upon the question . If no work offers , exemplification of the degrees and other modes of schooling the members may be

substituted , and thus social intercourse stimulated , and attendance upon Lodge meetings made interesting and agreeable . Such a course , persisted in , although it may be against difficulties and opposition at first , cannot fail to

bring work , and will inaugurate a season of great prosperity , while the simple opening , hurrying through with whatever is to be done , closing and hurrying to extinguish the light of the Lodge-room , dispersing in the

quickest possible time , as is often the case , will leave your minds and hearts as dark as the room you leave behind , so far as any good the meeting together has done you , and will result in depleted attendance , and loss of interest among the membership , and will serve to still further increase the already large army of non-affiliates . " —Canadian Craftsman

Descendants Of Deities Who Once Reigned In Egypt.

DESCENDANTS OF DEITIES WHO ONCE REIGNED IN EGYPT .

BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . II / E have in America several opposition pretenders to T V Egyptian Masonic Bites , and all claim to be doing a good business . There must be money made out of it , for one of those Egyptolic Pontiffs died recently , and the Keystone assures us that his executor sold the Pontiffsnip for a certain sum of money . ISow , I have no doubt

Descendants Of Deities Who Once Reigned In Egypt.

that Bro . MacCalla , of the Keystone , as well as many other Grand Lodge dignitaries , would like to send all tho Egyptian Rites to Sheol , but as each of these Grand Lodge dignitaries owes allegiance to a half-dozen or moro other kinds of humbugging rites , they must therefore keep

mum about the Egyptianites . I have recently come across a book called " History of Art in Ancient Egypt , " and I think that the following extract will show the fallacy of believing that Freemasonry could ever have existed in ancient Egypt . Our author says : —

" The King [ of Egypt ] was the living manifestation ancl incarnation of God : child of the Snn ( Sa Bsi ) , as he took care to proclaim whenever he wrote his name . The blood of tho gods flowed in hia veins aud assured to him the sovereign power . "He was the priest above all others . Such a form of worship as

that of Egypt required nodonbfc a large sacerdotal class , each member of which had his special function in the complicated and gorgeous ceremonies in which he took part , bnt the King alone , at least in the principal temples , had the right to enter fche sanctuary and to open the door of the kind of chapel in which the symbolical

representation was kept ; he alone saw the God face to face and spoke to him in the name of his people . The pre-eminent dignity of this priestly office did not , however , prevent the King from taking his proper share iu war or political affairs generally . The army of scribes and varions functionaries , whose titles may still

be read upon the most ancient monuments of the country , depended upon him for their orders from one end of the country to the other , and in war ifc was he who led the serried bittalions of the Egyptian army . The King was thus tho supreme pontiff , the immediate chief of all civil and military officers , and as the people believed that

his career was directed by the gods , and in the words of an inscription ' the representatives of Ra among the living , ' his divinity , begnn on earth , was completed and rendered perpetual in another life . All the dead Pharaohs became Gods , so that the Egyptian pantheon

obtained a new deity at the death of each sovereign . Tho deceased Pharaohs thus constituted a series of gods to whom the reigning sovereign would , of course , address himself when he had anything to ask ; hence the monuments upon which we find living Pharaohs offering worship to their predecessors .

"The prestige which such a theory of royalty was calculated to give to the Egyptian Kings may easily be imagined . Tbey obtained more than respect , they were the objects of adoration , of idolatry . Brought up from infancy in this religious veneration , to which their hereditary qualities also inclined them , generation succeeded

generation among the Egyptians , without any attempt to rebel against the royal authority , or even to dispute it . Ancient Egypt , like its modern descendant , was now and then the scene of military revolts . These were generally provoked by the presence of foreign mercenaries , sometimes by their want of discipline and licence ,

sometimes by the jealousy which they inspired m the native soldiery , bufc never , from the time of Menes to that of Tewfik-Pasha , has the civil population , whether of the town or of the fields , shown any desire to obtain the slightest guarantee for what we should call their rights and liberties . During all those thousands of years not the faintest

trace is to be discovered of that spirit from which sprung the republican constitutions of Greece and ancient Italy , a spirit which , in yet later times , has led to the parliamentary governments of Christian Europe . The Egyptian labourer or artizan never dreamt of calling in question the orders of any one who might be master for the

time . Absolute obedience to the will of a single man—such was the constant and instinctive national habit , and by it every movement of the social machine , nnder foreign and native Kings alike , was regulated . " From the construction of the pyramids of Cheops and Chephren ,

and the cutting of a new canal between the two seas under Nekau to the Mahmondich canal of Mehemefc Ali , and that abortive enterprise the barrage of the Nile , the only method thought of for obtaining the necessary labour was compulsion . An order is received by the governor , who has it proclaimed from one village to another

throughout his province ; next day the whole male population is driven like a troop of sheep to the workshops . Each man carries a bag or basket , which holds his provisions for a fortnight or a month , as the case may be ; a few dry cakes , onions , garlic , and Egyptian beans , . . . Old men and children all had to obey the summons .

The more vigorous and skilful amongst them dressed and put in place the blocks of granite or limestone ; the weakest were useful for the transport of the rubbish to a distance , for carrying clay and water from the Nile to the brtckxnakers , for arranging the bricks in the sun so that they might be dried aud hardened .

" Under the stimulus of the rod , this multitude worked well and obediently , under the directions of tho architect ' s foreman and of the skilled artizans who were permanently employed upon the work ; they did all that could be done with men without special education .

At the end of a certain period they were relieved by fresh levies from another province , and all who had not succumbed to fche hard and continuous work , returned to their own places . Those who died were buried hastily in graves dug in the sands of the desert by the natives of their own village . "

The above extracts clearly prove that in ancient Egypt neithers the rulers nor the ruled had the slightest idea of human rights , kc . True , they had religion in abundance , and were taught to hope for better times in a future state ,

but what is fche use of a religion which endorses a government ' s injustice towards its people . Such a religion was very beneficial to kings , nobles , and priests , but it must have been a cruel mockery to the masses ; hence , it is no wonder that the children of Israel afc last got tired