Masonic Ceremonial.

and increased excitement prevails , a condition of affairs often most desirable , as many of the works engaged in are intended for public use , and , in a measure , are dependent on public sympathy for their completion and sustenance .

On the whole we may sum up the matter in a few words . Freemasonry , as a system of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols , sees in such events as the laying of foundation stones a ready means of impressing some of its lessons on the outside world ; of reminding its members of many others , which can only be appreciated by those within the circle

mystic , ana at me same time periormmg a public service , by undertaking what should essentially be a public duty . So long as these objects can be secured by the means we have referred to , we hope the members of the Masonic Order may be frequently called upon , while we further hope that the benefits

and honours that Freemasonry has it in its power to confer may never be put to improper use , or that any unworthy motive may actuate a desire for the introduction of Masonic Ceremonial .

Glories Of Masonry.

GLORIES OF MASONRY .

An Oration by Bev . Bro . Thomas W . Barry Grand Chaplain , before the Grand Lodge of Kansas , at Junction City , 16 th February 1888 .

APPRECIATING the honour conferred on me by this appointment , I willingly rise , not only to give my testimony to the present excellency of onr noble art , but to pay a feeble tribute to the historic glories of the

Ancient Craft . It has been said by one that " Masonry is a beautiful system of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols . " It has been said by another that " Masonry is a moral and intellectual Institution , devised

by its founders for the especial benefit of men who wished to know the truth , and then with all their might do it , whether under evil or good report . " I endorse these statements and will add that Masonry is an Institution

founded on eternal reason and truth ; whose deep basis is the civilization of mankind , and whose everlasting glory i t is to have the immovable support of those two mi ghty pillars , science and morality .

There have been gloomy philosophers who have argued against the sociability of man . But every feeling of the human heart , every trait in the human character , and every

line in the history of civilised nature , is against this idea and in favour of the idea that man is essentiall y a being formed for society . In fact , the history of mankind may be considered the history of social life .

When the mighty Master Hand , with so much facility , created from the dust of the earth the two first inhabitants , he could with equal ease have created thousands of the same species , and given them all the advantages of a

perfect civilisation . But he thought good to create two only , with an evident purpose of a gradual population and a gradual advancement in those improvements for

which He wisely fitted the human mind , and in which He as wisely determined to keep that mind occupied . And , from the fertile soil of human intelligence , the arts and sciences , and culture of every kind have proceeded with

gradual progress , and man , by his boundless capability of improvement , has gone on to cultivate and adorn , to beautify and to bless social life with all which reason could approve and fancy admire . Let glorious crowns of immortality rest on the heads of

those great and distinguished worthies of the Ancient Craft who have nobly added to the sum of human happiness by advancing the cause of civilisation ; who by the invention and improvement of the arts and

sciences have exalted the dignity and extended the comforts of mankind . The mighty conquerors of earth who folded in exulting triumph their standards , crimsoned in human blood , and built their fame on wide-spread ruin

improve and humanise the world . These are the men

and devastation , will be forgotten and sink into darkness and obscurity , while the memory of those true heroes will shine with a brighter lustre , those fathers , friends and benefactors who existed only to diffuse light and blessing , to

Glories Of Masonry.

whom we exult to call brethren ; these are the men who throughout all ages , have composed the Hononrnblo Fraternit y of Masons . In proof of what I say permit me just to touch with a

passing pencil : First , the antiquity ; second , the extent ; third the comprehensiveness ; fourth , the excellent utilit y of an Institution whose daily advancing progress , highly flourishing state and unquestionable merit , no one can

doubt who beholds this honourable assemblage of Master Masons . If antiquity merits our attention and demands our reverence , where will the society be found that has an equal claim ? Masons are well informed from their own

private and interior records that the building of Solomon ' s Temple is an important era , from whence they derive many mysteries of their art . You will remember that this great event took place more than a thousand years before tho

Christian era , and consequently more than a century before Homer , the first of the Grecian poets , wrote ; more than five centuries before Pythagoras brought from the East his sublime system of truly Masonic instructions to illuminate

the Western world . But we date the commencement of our art from a remoter period . We acknowledge our debt of gratitude to tho wise and glorious King of Israel for many of our mystic forms and hieroglyphic ceremonies .

Our art is coeval with creation . The Sovereign Architect raised on Masonic principles this beauteous globe . He commanded the master science , geometry , to lay the rule to the planetary world , and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system rolling round the central sun .

Secondly . An Institution of snch remote antiquity may reasonably be supposed to be of boundless extent . We trace its footsteps in the most distant ages and nations of the world . We find it amongst the first and most

celebrated civihsers of the East ; we deduce it regularly , from the first astronomers on the plains of Chaldca to the wise and mystic kings and priests of Egypt , the sages of Greece ,

the philosophers of Rome , and even to the rude and Gothic builders of a dark and degenerate age , whose vast temples still remain as monuments of their attachment to the Masonic arts .

It may in truth be said that in no civilised age or country has Masonry been neglected . The most illustrious characters , kings and nobles , sages and statesmen , authors and artists , divines and warriors , have thought it their glory to

protect and to honour it . And at this present hour , when we find the Brotherhood successfully established in every Kingdom of the earth , we are happy to rank in that list many names which do honour to their own , and would have

done honour to any age . To enumerate them would be a task abundantly pleasing , but the time allows me not . It would be delightful to linger on the names of some of those

heroes whose boast it was that they were friends and lovers of our art—the ancient , the honourable art , for whose promotion and dignity Lodges are opened in every quarter of the globe .

And here let me remark , and I do it with peculiar pleasure , that in whatsoever else men may dispute and disagree , yet they are all unanimous in respecting an Institution which annihilatesall parties ; conciliates all private opinions ;

and renders those who by their Almighty Father were made of one blood , to be also of one heart and one mind ; Brothers , bound , firmly bound together by that indissoluble tie , " the love of their God , and the love of their kind . "

This alone might well be considered a sufficient reason for the extent or universality of the Craft . But when to this we add the comprehensiveness of the Institution , and the vast circle of arts and sciences which it takes in , we will

no longer wonder at that extent , but be satisfied " That Masonry must and will always keep pace , and run parallel with the culture and civilisation of mankind . We may say , and say truly , that where Masonry is not , civilisation will

never be found . ' And so it appears , for in savage countries where Operative Masonry never lays the line , nor stretches the compass , where skilful architecture never plans the dome , nor rears the well-ordered column ; on those

benighted realms liberal science never smiles , nor does art exalt , refine , and embellish the mind . Give Masonry a chance to exert her heaven-born talents in those realms ; let her rear the dwellings and teach the lofty temple to

emulate the clouds , and see what a train of arts immediately enter and join to give their patron , architecture , completion , and glory . At their head , sculpture with his

animating chisel bids the forming marble breathe ; painting with his pencil steals nature ' s fairest tints while the glowing canvas starts beneath his touch into beauty and life . Look