Fact V. Assertion.

Romish Church has interfered , and does interfere , in matters civil . It interferes openly when openness is the more politic course to pursue , but also secretly when secrecy is desirable . Now Masonry , against which so many

denunciations have" been levelled , enjoins in all countries respect for constituted authority . Just as it requires in all its disciples the profession of a religious faith , yet leaves the nature of that faith to individual preference , so it

insists that all Masons , in whatever country living , shall obey the law . It is openly proclaimed in our Constitutions that a Mason must be , firstly , a religious man , and , secondly , a good citizen . The very essence of Masomy is that its

professors shall believe in God and respect the "Civil authority , " whether such authority take the form of an autocracy , as in Russia , of a constitutional monarchy , as in England , or of a republic , as in the United States . It is

one thing to wish that all the world should be of one mind politically and religiously , but the degree of respect we claim for our own views must , in fairness , be conceded to others . Masons recognise the justice of this view , but political Rome does not . Et voila tend .

Masonry And Citizenship.

MASONRY AND CITIZENSHIP .

IT has been well said , by a thoughtful writer , that some of the noblest impulses of our nature may be inspired by seemingly inadequate motive forces . The soldier will die for the honour of the two figures which indicate the number of his regiment ; a fanatic will submit to persecution , and

even martyrdom , for the sake of some half-truth which has vividly impressed his imagination ; and even the Atheist , whose godless creed , like the icy temperature of the Arctic circle seems utterly unfavourable to the growth of the nobler passions , will sometimes astonish us by the dignity

and the persistence with which he presses upon our notice his poor schemes for the regeneration of mankiud . He who has a noble creed , and is impressed with deep convictions , has small excuse for the display of the selfish side of humanity . The world is not yet so far advanced , either

in civilisation or refinement , that it can afford to permit any member of the human family to play the part of the Lotos Eater . While wrong , injustice , and poverty remain in our midst , we , who care for the future of humanit y , are morally constrained to do our best to advance the great

interests of our race . The mere duties of citizenship , for example , entail much more onerous responsibilities than most of us imagine . Society has moral as well as legal claims upon the individual , and he who merely pays his poor rate , or serves on a jury , can scarcely claim to have fulfilled all

the obligations of social life . He is compelled to contribute in the one case , and to give his time to the consideration of questions of fact in the other , and no well-regulated mind will for a moment think that with the due performance of functions such as these the duty of the citizen

is at an end . Religion , in many cases , supplies the motive force which compels attention to the higher moral obligations of life . But this great force , immensely valuable as it is when well regulated , is often marred and narrowed by the poor dogmas of contending sectaries . The Christian

citizen of the world , whose feeling of brotherhood embraces all mankind , is no doubt a very agreeable person , but not unfrequently he permits his noble creed to remain a mere theory . Brotherhood , in its true sense , is often with him indissolubly united with the church , and although he

persuades himself that he cares as much for a Theist or a Bhuddist as he does for the members of his own communion , in practice his brotherly feelings are sadly hampered by his prejudices . The mystic tie , which binds Masons together in fraternal bonds , knows no such limits as these . The

Mason is not merely a brother to all those , of whatever creed or colour , who have passed the portals of the Masonic Temple , but the ethics of the Craft teach him a morality which for breadth and grandeur cannot be surpassed by any system of merely human origin . He is a citizen of the

world by virtue of his " calling and election , " if we may venture for once to give a secular meaning to the technical language of Theology . He is a good subject of the State , a good neighbour , and a good husband and father . He

learns to understand something of the complicated nature of human associations , and , while clinging with tenacity to the doctrine of self-help , he is yet alive to the divine grandeur of the morality which teaches us to help each

Masonry And Citizenship.

other . Charity , happily , is in some measure a noble contagion . Many a man who has lived wholly for himself , who has gloried in the character of the Sybarite , has felt the emotions of pity and mercy awakened powerfully within him by the example and teaching of his Lodge . He enters

a new world , and learns , for the first time perhaps , that "it is more blessed to give than to receive . " He realises that thousands of helpless creatures are dependent upon the charity of their fellow mortals for bread , and the divine sentiment of pity , newly awakened in his breast , makes

him a practical follower of Him who made mercy the corner stone of religion . But it is not alone as a dispenser of charity that the citizenship of a Mason receives its fullest development . We do not forget that to give with discrimination requires

wisdom ; that relief , to be effectual , must never degrade or pauperise the recipient . A man may fling his gold broadcast , and do harm ; indiscriminate almsgiving has , ere now , had the effect of pauperising whole communities , and it is at least satisfactory to know that Masonic charity ,

given , as it is , with caution and discretion , has never yet brought evil in its train . It , however , requires little or no worldly wiidom to perform those citizen duties aright which lie at the base of society . The good Mason is preeminently a truthful man . The rigid lessons of the Lodge ,

which are illustrated by the noblest symbolism derived from the study of scientific truth , are for ever before his eyes . The mathematician is not necessarily a moral man , but he who has learned to illustrate moral truth by its scientific equivalents , derived from a study of material

verities , is apt to realise vividly the enormous practical value of integrity . The teaching of moral and religious truths by the aid of symbols has never been entirely abandoned by Christians , and in that great branch of the Church which is so bitterly opposed to Masonry and its

claims symbolic illustration has been carried to an extreme point . As Masons , we realise the wondrous bearing of constructive , truth upon the moral world . The Arch , the Circle and the Square suggest ideas which rarely occur to

a mind untrained in the principles of the Craft ; and our great progenitors so fully understood the symbolism of Masonry that they have made the Gothic cathedrals , which were erected by their hands , teachers for all time of the noblest ideas to those who understand

tho language in which these stone sermons are written . The Divine Architect has conspicuously marked his handiwork with the proofs of his own integrity . Whatever we may say of the " unstable" winds , the meteorologist knows that the currents of the air obey the most exact

and unerring laws . Human skill and science have been exhausted in the effort to make the chronometer afford some truthful approximation of the flight of time . At best it is an imperfect instrument , and is useless to the mariner

until it has been rated , and its errors calculated ; but who ever knew any one of the vast orbs which roll in the immensity of space to be one instant behind its time ? The astronomer knows that he has but to direct his

telescope to the proper quarter of the heavens to find a planet whose orbit is too ^ vast for the human intellect to grasp . It had reached that portion of its vast circuit in regular periodic time , ages before man appeared on the globe , and it will probably keep its allotted course , with the same

unerring regularity , when life has ceased to exist on this tiny sphere . To a Mason , these sublime facts of physical science are deeply impressive . He does not forget that truth is the sum of the complex laws which bind the universe into one harmonious whole , nor does he fail to

remember that physical truth is allied to the moral forces which unite mankind in one great fraternity . The law of mind is , indeed , from its very nature , more difficult to comprehend than any of the great physical truths which

attract the intellect of man . But if we cannot track or circumscribe the limits of thought , if the moral world bo in itself too vast to grasp as a whole , we do not forget that the practical duties of life are clearly defined to all who care to observe them .

The Essenes Or Essenians.

THE ESSENES OR ESSENIANS .

( FROM THE FRENCH OF J . L . LAURENS . ) "TTTHEN the Jews , after having been supreme in Asia , V T became scattered in all parts of the world , and this people , onco so marvellous , had again fallen into its former