"From Labour."

the place of the dry monotony of work . It would be idle to deny that such an interregnum produces a most wholesome and exhilarating effect on every mind and body . Whether it is in the transient pleasure of friends meeting

friends in " jolliest amity" for a single day , or a more prolonged excursion further afield , the reaction is proportionately beneficial in every sense of the term . Nob only are old friendships renewed and cemented ,

and fresh and lasting acquaintanceships created , but the rough angles which may possibly have

formed , like knobs and excrescences , on the perfect ashlars of our fraternal relations are rubbed off ; and whilst congratulations are exchanged upon the continued prosperity of our Order and the harmony that is apparent

amongst all sections of it , many little matters that might have ruffled the surface of that accord which should ever pervade our Lodge affairs , are set straight and relegated to their proper sphere of oblivion . It has been our duty and

pleasure , since last we wrote upon the subject , to record the steady progress and prosperity of the Craft generally , the sustained liberality of the brethren in the cause of Charity , and the maintenance of all those great and glorious

principles which he at the very foundation of our Brotherhood . In view of another recess , which is dawning upon us , we offer our sincerest wishes that those who contemplate the many enjoyments of the holiday season ; may they

realize to the full the anticipations they may be forming , and that they may return , when the gavel shall summon them to renewed labour , with physical powers recruited , and hearts refilled with those genuine impulses

which flow from a sincere and active study of the tenets of Freemasonry . Onr country friends , to whom such changes bring no such acute appreciation perhaps as is felt by " menin town , " will doubtless find other means of variety and relaxation . Probably they may wend their ways

Cityward , and whilst seeing the " sights o town supply the places of those who have winged away to fairer scenes , where the din and bustle of City life is silenced , and replaced by the soft whispering of forest leaves , and the cadences of the " sad sea waves . " To each and all we cordiallv

wish a " happy time , and as we welcome our Provincial brethren with every hearty good wish as they appear in our midst , so also we send with our town friends the same fraternal greetings on their various ways , wherever they

may be scattered o er land or water , with the hope that each and all may return to their respective spheres of labour after the rest and refreshment they may have experienced by the holiday season which is now dawning so auspiciously upon them all .

The Masonic Pearls, And Antimasonic Swine.

THE MASONIC PEARLS , AND ANTIMASONIC SWINE .

rriHAT Freemasonry is the happy possessor of pearls , no JL one who is at all familiar with it will deny . All Freemasons know it , and also not a few non-Masons , who have paid any attention to our literature . It possesses pearls of thought—some of the loftiest thoughts known to

the ages—pearls of moral teaching , and pearls of social and convivial companionship . One pearl of thought is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul ; one pearl of morality is obedience to the One living and true God , and

to the obligations of the Craft ; and one pearl of fraternal practice is the enjoyment incident to the period of Masonic Refreshment . We might instance many others , but these are sufficient for our purpose . Indeed , Masonry is a crown of pearls , some of which are of priceless value .

It is quite as easy to prove that anti-Masons are comparable to swine , as that the distinguishing characteristics of Freemasonry are comparable to pearls , —although it may be a little unfair to the swine to compare anti-Masons

to them . Anti-Masons are as blind as bats to truth , as intolerant as Roman inquisitors to what they do not understand , as drivelling as idiots concerning the mysteries

of Masonry , as stilted in their pride as Lucifer , pretenders in religion , and with nothing consecrated about them , unless it be a consecrated stupidity . Such are the biped swine of our era—anti-Masons , and of course we do not

cast our pearls before them . Nor do we cast our pearls before any of the profane . We do not invite non-Masons to join us . We do not , or should not , set up anything that partakes of the character of a Masonic show , and ask

The Masonic Pearls, And Antimasonic Swine.

the public to admire it , and in effect say , if they like it , to send in their petitions for membership . No , the genius of Masonry is opposed to all this . It is a secret society . Its pearls are for its initiates only , certainly not for its

enemies , nor even tor those who are indinerent to its merits . Here we may enunciate an important principle , which goes to explain why it is that Masonic pearls are not scattered broadcast over the earth .

There always has been an aristocracy in truth . The highest truths have never been made clear to the ignorant , the degraded , the despisers of the good , the true and the beautiful . Consider a few striking examples of this fact . To whom did Jehovah commit the divine truths of the Old

Testament ? To the world at large ? No , not even to half the world , but only to a small fraction of it—to the seed of Abraham , to His chosen people , the Hebrews . In the highest civilisations of elder time a kindred rule

prevailed . In Egypt , in India , and in Greece , truth was the prerogative of the best classes . The initiates in the Mysteries of Osiris in Egypt , and in the Mysteries of Eleusis in Greece , belonged to the intellectual aristocracy

of their time . The vulgar herd might worship stocks and stones , animals and reptiles , the sun , moon and stars , Jupiter , Apollo and Mars , but those who could appreciate the truth and be trusted with it , worshipped the One only

living and true God , and acknowledged their faith in the immortality of the soul . These were secret or esoteric doctrines with them , which might not be openly avowed , lest they should be contemned—they were pearls , that

might not be cast before swine . The Mysteries were a prudential veil , that concealed from the vulgar crowd the truths which they could not comprehend , and would only treat with ignorant disdain . Even cosmopolitan

Christianity came first to the Jews , and afterwards to the Gentiles , and to the more ignorant of these it is still foolishness . The bulk of the populace of China to-day are justly denominated heathen , with their joss houses and

degrading practices ; but the earliest missionaries to China from the West soon discovered that " the higher class despised the idolatory of the vulgar . " One of the charges made by the Greeks against the early Christians was ,

"their teaching the worship of one God to the common people . " The Founder of Christianity Himself almost always exhibited a prudential , mysterious reserve . When He healed the sick , opened the eyes of the blind , cured the

impotent and raised the dead , "He gave the strongest injunctions of secrecy which , nevertheless , the active zeal of His partizans seems by no means to have regarded . " Baptism was , and is still , the initiatory ceremony which introduces the Christian candidate into the Christian

Mysteries , and for several centuries after Christ the central truths of Christianity were taught exclusively in secret , and only to baptised iniates . Freemasonry is not at all peculiar in dividing mankind

into Freemasons and profanes , and reserving its pearls for those who value them . The Jews divided mankind into Jews and Greeks . The Greeks divided them into Greeks and Barbarians . In this respect we are not innovators ,

although we are often charged with vain glory and despising others . We despise no one . We do glory in our system of truth , in oar impressive symbolism , in our active charity . If we enjoy ourselves and do good to

others , why should we be made the subjects of invidious criticism and slanderous detraction ? Why should the merchant who has goodly pearls with which to freely reward his friends , be lampooned as a deceiver ? But

remember , these filthy detractors are only swine , men who go nosing around the world stirring up the mud of untruth , and flinging it over others better than themselves . Right sure are we of this , that our enemies will discover

no pearls , for they are not cast before swine . Pearls are ornaments of great price ; pearls beautify and adorn , but who ever saw one in a sow ' s ear ? Masonic truth , like all truth , is powerful and will prevail , in spite of the puny efforts of anti-Masons—the profanum vulgus of their time . —Keystone .

HOUOWAT ' S PIILS AND OIWTMENT . —Soldiers and Sailors . —These well-known and easily used remedies are especially serviceable and convenient for those who , like soldiers and sailors , are exposed to great changes of climate , and the hardships inseparable from their calling . Many of the diseases engendered in the system from these and other untoward causes can be checked and controlled by attention at their onset , and in Holloway's remedies will be found a ready means of relief , withont hindrance from duty . Many a man is invalided , and rendered more or less a burden to himself and friends , from neglect of the early symptoms of his complaint , which calamity might bo averted by timely resort to the use of Holloway ' s Pills and Ointment .