Trivial Appeals To Grand Lodge.

Lodge should exercise great caution before it unduly binds itself to concede such an expenditure of time as these appeals incur . It was a question which might well have been brought before a judge in chambers , so to speak ,

rather than into open court , or before a corporate body , and the appeals entered a weelc or two ago lead us to an expression of these views , so trivial were they in their nature , ancl so full of transparent weakness . As each

came on for hearing the verdict was " there is nothing in it , " and this opinion was fully illustrated by the result While the general body of Grand Lodge will always readily attend to any appeals of a serious character , they

evidently felt on this occasion that they were matters over which a committee of the respective Lodges might exercise jurisdiction . In short , in none other but extreme cases can there be any justification in appealing to Grand

Lodge . The cheers that were raised at one or two intervals during tho inquiry wero unquestionably ironical , but the appellant either could not , or would not , comprehend that such was the case , and that such exhibitions of feeling

were only provoked by tho weariness which had come over the assembly by the reiteration of such airy grievances . Instead of that , the appellant took it as a graceful compli ment to himself , even after his admission that he had been

hasty , if not rash , in his behaviour . The universal feeling undoubtedly was that the man had committed an indiscretion , ancl that instead of his posing as a martyr , Grand Lodge could but blame him , and he should have had

the common courtesy to admit his fault at once . At any rate , it was a pitiable waste of time , which all regretted who were subjected to the infliction , ancl which we hope to see not soon repeated .

This Grand Edifice.

THIS GRAND EDIFICE .

An Oration by Bight Worshipful and Eeverend W . 8 . Hooper , before the Grand Lodge of Illinois , 8 th October 1885 . ( Continued from page 387 ) .

IN thus tracing this thought we have upon one hand a legendary idea with some foundation in fact ; upon the other , the blending of history through all these ao-es , and though it antagonizes our long-cherished thouo'ht it presents a wonderful resume of history which carries us

back through all these ages of time into the past now hid from all but historic memory ; away into the ages of the brightest intellect and of the grandest oratory , into those days of the sumblimest writing and of the greatest thought

and when art and architecture stood pre-eminent amonw men . Through the ages of chivalry , and again into the dawning of the light of the greatest age of earth ; awav through the ages when heathen thought marked the brow ' s

of earth s great leading men , and when godly thought inspired the followers of the Divine . Through long periods of time after the birth and death of the founder of the new religious faith , on through all the periods of its growth ,

trials and triumphs . From the days when grand architecture was the aim of man , through its decline , fall and rising again . From the time when literature was the only high element of mental power , through its decline , and

into the dark ages when men fell by death because of their belief in a given faith . Through the trials , falls and triumphs of early discoverers and inventors , until the

present , when mental power and knowledge have brought man into the richest field of culture , knowledge and power ever known to man .

Through all of these , if of great , and most of them if of modern antiquity , has Freemasonry passed . She has seen the rising of Republics , and beheld their fall under the crushing tyranny of Empires . Empires and kingdoms

have fallen from the power of their royal grandeur , only to give place to governments more kind and merciful than they . No institution , outside of the church , has seen more changes in the political and social positions of men than

she . Nor have any outlived more of persecution and survived as she has to build herself into a grand and beautiful edifice , whose walls are as resplendent as the polished

marble ; as symmetrical as her prototype of ancient days . Yonder are her lofty pinnacles and massive towers ; there her granite walls , whose niches are filled with the statues of her heroic dead ; there a king , yonder a prince , thero a •warrior who , in time , wore the laurels of many a well-

This Grand Edifice.

earned victory ; there a statesman whose voice was once heard ringing in sublime eloquence in the halls of legislation . The poet ancl the man of science stand side by side ; Uio peasant from his plough , the mechanic from his bench ,

the labourer from his pick , all staud to do honour to their cause . This picture is but the fact of her internal character . The line of human distinctions has faded ; the

grand and humble , tho king ancl subject , the rich and p : or , all kneel alike beside her altar , and join their hands in one united brotherhood .

Within we look aloft ; there , in her frescoed dome , gleams the All-Seeing Eye . Below , the lamb of innocence stands at our side . Jacob lies beneath the clouds , through whose rifted curtain there gleam the evening stars , while

angels walk up and down the ladder , singing their songs of glory , and the anchor upon the rung holds out the thought of hope , ancl faith stands up as a shield of protection for

man . Temperance , Purity and Justice stand proudly at our side , as our protectors from vice ancl wrong . Beneath our feet we tread the mosaic pavement , teaching us the frailties and the checkered scenes of human life . We stand

beside her altars , between the burning lights , whose triangle unfolds the idea of the Divine . Her Holy Book lies open for us to catch the gleam of inspiration from its holy page , in the eloquence of the words and strains of the

prophet , led by the idea of the Divine . Time stands with mowing scythe , while Virtue , at the side of the dismembered column , reads the records of our lives . Her walls have been squared , her pillars plumbed , her floors levelled by the architects of the highest morality .

We admire her as the artist of taste and skill admires

the statue in the palatial garden . In his admiration would he despoil that statue of a single member ? Would he strike out the sightless eye , or knock away the defenceless arm of stone ? No . And shall we tear away a single

pinnacle from this grand temple r Shall a single column fall from her massive porch ? A polished rock from her ornamental walls ? No ; strike clown the arm that dare attempt the deed ! Rather let her go on in her glory and

her work , polishing and adorning more of the minds of men ; lifting them into a realm of purity of thought higher than the common walks of men ; on until the isles of the sea , the cities of the plain and the hamlets of the mountains shall rise to do her honour .

In this wonderful fabric are events from almost every age . Events when God dealt face to face with man ; that of chivalry , Avhen godless man dealt alone with self . Moral ancl material interests are alike among the rocks of

her walls . Architectural plans and scientific truths adorn and enrich her structure . The bards give polish and beauty to her songs ; morality gives power and grace to her working .

We speak and are tau g ht of her basis upon the level and the square , but the great and fundamental base of these , the triangle , is forgotten . This is greatest because from it have grown the level , square and plumb . These are parts ,

that is the whole . With it all the rest of the work may be performed . With them , only their part . They are limited ; it has no limit . The one represents perfection , the other but parts of man's work . There is more of this

emblem throughout Freemasonry ' s work than of the former . It is of more value because of its greater teaching . The level and the square , the plumb ancl the guage , are emblematic of the highest virtue of man ; but the triangle

the highest of the Divine , His eternity ; hence we ought to look more at this thought , and it is indeed strange that this emblem has been lost sight of , when its importance

and character so exactly conform to all the teachings of Masonry . Go where we will in the domain of Masonic work the triangle predominates as a silent , unobtrusive and almost unknown emblem . The form of the executive

chairs of the lodge , the altar , the arrangement of the lights , the movement of the novice in his introduction , are all triangular . The triple degrees , words and grips bear this element . Take it away and we rob Freemasonry of

her highest symbolism , her grandest idea of eternity and divinity , to which all Masonio minds should ever be turned as their greatest hope and the final destiny of man . The temple idea of Masonry , and its foundation upon

that grand building of Solomon , is that man is the living temple of God . The Apostle grasps this idea , as did , undoubtedly , the founders of our Order , and its symbolism is

to teach that in man ' s heart is the dwelling-place of God , as was the holy of holies , where the fire of the Shekinah danced upon the altar as the sunlight upon the rippling