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enforced , and the King , on arriving at man s estate , not only repealed it , but himself was initiated into the Order . Many of the Sovereigns of England have held the office of Grand Master of the Order , from Alfred the Great to George II , and n the life of the present Heir Apparent be preserved , we

shall once more witness a King of England in the Grand Master ' s chair . And , further , I would ask you to suffer me , with deference but with directness , to suggest that an attitude of mind is possible in connection with modem Freemasonry which may violate the very principles of our age-long protest against narrowness , and limit the Holv One of Israel .

Freemasonry has represented a haven of rest from contentious sectarianism , not by excluding any , but by including all who acknowledge the Great Architect of ths Universe , But the Grand Architect of the Universe is the one Eternal Substance Who is known by His self-revelations , and whose

highest self-revelation is in the person of Jesus Christ , the Divine Humanity . And if modem Freemasonry remains stagnant upon the plane of the older rationalistic Deism , and fails to receive with ever growing consciousness the ever increasing self-revelation of God , it is untrue to the deeper

sense which appertains to every word in that immortal literature which occupies a prominent place in every Lodge , and upon which we have every one of us sealed our obligations with our lips . Speaking from a Christian pulpit , I fearlessly claim the closest possible union between the mysteries , the

esoteric teachings , and the watchwords of our Ancient Order , and the embodiment of the moral character of the Universal Soul in the person of Jesus Christ , which is called the Incarnation . True , our Order knows no creeds ; acknowledgment

of the one Supreme Being admits all within the consecrated precincts of our Lodges , our sacred bond of union knows no difference of clime , and exists in every quarter of the habitable globe .

True , the lives of English Freemasons have been as safe in the hands of the Mahdists of the Soudan as of the Boers in South Africa , where they have chosen to claim the protection of the Order , as Benhadad claimed it in that lesson from the Book of the Kings which has just been read .

But it is of the essence of our Order that she should be drawn along with the ever increasing self-revelation of the Supreme Being she acknowledges , and the non-recognition of the Christian Orders in the Craft Lodges is not consistent with the traditions of the past . Why are our modern Lodges

no longer dedicated to our Grand Master , King Solomon Why do they always bear the names of saints of the Christian dispensation , and especially of St . John the Evangelist and St . John the Baptist ? Why do all our ancient English Freemason documents commence in the name of the Blessed

Trinity ? Only because our Order has automatically obeyed the primary law of her being , and in fulfilment of the claims of evolution has received into her heart the aspect of the nature of the Great Architect of the Universe revealed in Jesus Christ .

Suffer me , in conclusion , to state this truth in the form of a proposition . The terminology of our Order addresses the Supreme Being as the Grand Architect of the Universe . An architect does not build , he designs , he thinks , his thought is transmuted into matter : it is woven into fabric ,

it becomes bricks and mortar and dwells among us ; but this reality of what is built is not in the bricks and mortar , but in the Thought o'f the Architect . Freemasonry in addressing God as Architect , acknowledges that God is the Universal Thinker , that what he thinks is , and that

things are thoughts . Freemasonry , therefore , teaches me to recognise one majestic elemental principle of life which is the all-originating causitive spirit . It is of little consequence esoterically speaking , what name is applied to this all originating Spirit :

"A firemist and a planet , A crystal and a shell , A jelly-fish and a saurian , And caves where the cave-men dwell—Then a sense of law and beauty ,

And a face turned from the clod—Some call it evolution , And others call it God . "

The life of this elemental causative spirit pulses through all things , and we and all that exist and move and have our being in it . It follows as a logical necessity that universal humanity is the outbirth of God , and therefore that , elementally , God and man are unseverable . Moreover , it follows also that the highest . outbirth of God , the most perfect

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specimen of universal humanity , will be the most conspicuous manifestation of the moral character of the elemental causative spirit that man is capable of apprehending , and this spells the sacred name of Jesus Christ . And he says : " Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out , " and

the heart of man , wearied with pursuing an infinite abstraction through boundless space , bewildered by such phrases as " universality , " " intensity , " " thought , " " generation , " " Grand Architect , " and the rest , believes Him , and replies : '" Just

as I am , without one plea , O Lamb of God , I come , a hand is , as it were , stretched out from the infinite to guide his weakness through the changes and chances of this mortal life until the day break and the shadows flee away , and he is safe within the portals of the Grand Lodee above .

Brother Freemasons think on these things . Take your Freemasonry seriously , let its principles be incorporated into your lives . And may the Great Architect of the Universe give us all the only true freedom—not a mere surface freedom of individual action , but freedom of the Spirit from

religious torpor , freedom of the will from the fetters of sin , freedom of the intellect from the narrow slavery of unbelief . " Who , then , is free ? The wise who well maintain an empire

o ' er himself . " And pure Freemasonry , followed to its logical issue , will bring this freedom , for it will lead us to Jesus . And , " if the Son of God shall make you free , " then shall you be " free " Masons indeed . " So mote it be . "

After the sermon an offertory was taken in aid of the Royal Victoria Hospital , and the Royal Boseombe and West Plants Plospital , amounting to £ ~ 2 J 8 s . The Rev . S . C . Lowry ' s fine hymn , " O Thou before Whom open lies the

roll of bygone ages , was sung during the offertory , and the processional hymn , " O , worship the King , " was sung at the close of the service , the Brethren again forming into a procession to the schoolroom .

An emergency meeting of the Lodge of Hengist was held afterwards at the Masonic Hall , when' the Right Plon . the Earl of Malmesbury was initiated into Freemasonry by the Prov . G . M . A united banquet was held in the evening in the Princes

Hall of the Grand Hotel , which was nicely and suitably decorated for the occasion . The Prov . G . M . the Right Hon . W . W . B . Beach , M . P ., presided , supported by Bros . W . W . Miller , J . A . Hosker , and G . W . Powell , the Worshipful Masters respectively of Lodges Flengist , Boseombe , and Horsa .

Bro . Miller W . M . 195 proposed the toast of the R . W . Prov . G . M . the Right Hon . W . W . B . Beach , M . P ., and the Officers of the Prov . Grand Lodge , present and past . The Prov . G . M ., in responding ' , referred to his long connection with Masonry from the time he joined the Apollo

Lodge at Oxford , of which he was the Worshipful Master for some years , down to the present time , and to the many distinguished men he had met in connection with the Craft during that long period . lie said he counted it a great pleasure to rule over such a united and such a large Province ,

where the Lodges and the Brethren vied with each otli ^ r in their endeavours to promote the best interests of Masorry . It had afforded him very much pleasure to visit Bournemouth again , and to take part in such a unique ceremony , the remembrance of which would remain with him as long as he lived .

He then proposed the toast of " Freemasonry in Bournemouth , " and expressed his high regard for the Brethren there . He also referred with pleasure to the rapid growth of the town and its prosperity , and to the corresponding

advance which the Craft had made in the district . Pie alluded with pride to the deep feeling of Fraternity that it was most evident existed between the three Bournemouth Lodges , and in conclusion appealed to the Brethren to maintain the principles inculcated in their Lodge rooms .

Bro . C . J . Whitting P . M . and Chaplain 195 P . Prov . G . S . D ., also responded , and as historian of Lodge Hengist was able to give a number of interesting details in connection with its long career of nearly 130 years , the Lodge having been formed first in Christchurch and then transferred to Bournemouth .

Bro . J . A . Plosker , M . D ., W . M . Boseombe Lodge , No . 2158 , proposed the initiate , and said he felt sure that he would never have cause to regret the part he had taken in

bringing forward the name of the Earl of Malmesbury as a candidate for Freemasonry , and he was also sure that the Earl on his part would never regret having become a member of the Craft .