Saint John The Baptist.

that he cared for nothing save hia own convictions . The power of rulers , the remoteness , the unpreparedness of the multitude , his solitariness in his faith , the personal dangers which beset him , all these weig hed as nothing with him against the truth . When the logicians would test and

verify the statement that this or that belief is , in and of itself , right , they attempt to establish that it is accepted universally by right-minded , well-informed , unprejudiced men , the major premise being that whatever is thus accepted has the sanction of that Being who made all men ' s

mind . Now we are so constituted that nothing more irresistibly wins our respect , or more surely commands our admiration for man as man than his adherence to wisely adopted opinions . On the battlefield , the general who unflinchingly trusts in the outcome of his concentration of

forces , though the smoke envelop and the mediums of death reign ; in the Senate the great leader in a great cause , who believes implicitly in the conclusions of his reasoning ; in every department of life those who evince that consistency of effort which is the product of stability

of thought ; and , I had almost said , abovo all , they who have weighed in the balance the merits of friends who , in days of those friends' adversities , manifest a fidelity of attachment which is reverenced by the world because it is not born of profit ; all these in written and unwritten history

bear witness to tho place to which ho who is faithful , tenaciously , courageously faithful to his sincere opinions , is exalted , and the manner in which he is crowned and remembered . This the world in its heart of hearts enthrones . This it

dignifies by the name of heroism . From the days of the twilight of history when the resolute strangling of the monster serpent , exalted to tho place of a demi-god , through the successive civilisations , past that unwavering daring known as " Spartan valour ; " and thoso Greeks who are

immortalised by , or rather those self-immortalised Greeks who are placed like stars in a constellation by Demosthenes in his oration on the crown , " who foil at Thermopylae , who perished iu the sea-fight off Salamis , " all through the multiplied and varied exhibitions of this quality which is

honoured by the term " Roman Courage , " past the period when a gifted and bravo woman in the person of Joan of Arc fanned the expiring energies of a nation ; all through the sad but glorious history of Poland ; through the impossibilities wrought by English bravery on its hundred

battlefields , down to the exhibitions of intrepidity and geuins during our own colossal struggle , whcro tho actors on either side , had thoy not been absorbed iu their own deeds of wondrous valour , would havo stood transfixed in

admiration at tho equally valorous deeds of thoir opponents , from all these scenes and personages comes the lesson that mankind , in proportion as they aro lifted up iu their standpoint of observation , venerate those who are Avilling to greatly risk for a great conviction .

True , the world in its judgment discriminates . It turns an admiring look upon the monster courage of a selfish Napoleon , a still more admiring gaze upon the patriotic , disinterested courage of Washington ; but it dwells with teuderest sympathy and deepest veneration upou him who ,

though of the earth , was above it , and who most absolutely pnt aside self and laid down his life for spiritual truth . And when the philosophical historians say that " the blood

ot the martyrs is the seed of the church , " they do but declare and emphasise the complete , unparalleled illnstriousness in tho heart and judgment of the world , of the martyrs for truth .

Ye who from the shades of academic halls , where youth nurtures its grand purposes , dream of distinction and

renown , as well as ye who from the varied departments of labour so justly aspire to self-made greatness , know this : that when they who built pyramids and led armies and bequeathed unmeasured estates aro forgotten , this man

wno ate tne plain iood ot the desert , but who with his whole sonl greeted the truth and uttered it and died for it , will have , throughout the periods of human history , a name and a famo commensurate with the stability and expanse of truth ittelf .

-This characterisation of this illustrious disciple of the living Christ suggests the reasons why the society or Order ° r i ' ree and Accepted Masons cherish and revere him . He was the forerunner of truth in the world as all Masons are

tne forerunners of their own individual progress towards tmth m their own lives . Like him , though in a figurative sense , they " climb on stepping stones of their dead selves « o uighor things , " Ho was a worker in distinction from

Saint John The Baptist.

a dreamer , as is the aim to be of every Mason . He woro the leathern aprou which is one of the symbols of our Craft . His independent spirit was a type of the freedom in our Order . His great quality which has endeared him to us was his loyalty to the truth . There is a tie between

all those who love the truth for the truth ' s sake , whioh , while it is subtle , is none the less strong aud enduring There is in truth a self-doclariug quality which enables ona to readily porceivo it , aud impels him to hasten to greet and receive it ; which led kings and prophets to wait for it

and seek for it , though they never found it ; which is , like the inborn capacity to revel in the delights of music , universal by possibility and in degree determined largely by the grace of tho Giver of all endowments , which enabled Saint John the Baptist , amid the cheerless surroundings of

Judaism , with its husks of Pharisaism and its cold abstractions , and its imperfectly , because partially , understood rites and symbols , to understand the pure spirituality of Christ as the revealed incarnate God . His discerning eye detected the rays of tho rising orb of tho

world ' s spiritual light , when far below tho horizon it had just begun to illumine tho plane of this habitable world , dispelling some of the hideousness and blackness and terrors of darkness , aud revealing in advance something of the beauties and grace which were to bo disclosed by the

perfect day . The splendours of the uprisen Sun , its beatification and fructification of the moral world which came with the life and teachings of the Saviour , with His resurrection aud the descent of the Holy Spirit , which we have beeu permitted to behold , he saw only as did the

watchman described by Isaiah , who could only toll of the night and of the night ' s signs of promise . But he felt the conclusive power of Christianity even before unfolded by its Divine Author . It is this sympathy with truth stirring

in his being , like the blood in his veins , leading him to recognise it even afar off and value it and adore it , which amongst our Order throughout all the world in all time has uplifted him , and , without any laying on of hands , has consecrated aud canonised him .

As an Order we claim counection with this great embodiment of human excellence only in that aud so far as we strive to worship the Light which he adored , aud to emulate the virtues which ho so signally illustrated and commended . For Freemasonry , iu it 3 sphere , is practical

Christianity . It is an organised , systematiscd effort , extending all over tho world aud handed down from generation to generation , to give recognition and enforcement to the gentle Charities aud tho snlilime purposes iufnsed into tho heart and life of man by that Saviour of

whom this our patron was tho herald . Throughout aud by means of a vast biothorhood it cares for tho hick , the poor , tho aged , the stranger , and tho widow and the orphan , and endeavours to ameliorate tho severity of life ' s

rivalries and animosities aud misfortunes aud sorrows , and to render loyal , niiuily obudienco to " the new commandment , " which embraces within it so much of divine sanctity aud blessing , and of human elevation aud hope , " that we love one another . "

And so long as tho " All-Beholding Sun shall coutiuuo to traverso in his wide-spread orbit tho solitude and grandeur of space , whenever , year after year , ho touches the solstice of summer , and there , for a brief period , iu appearance , pauses aud rests as if weary of the majesty of

Ids ceaseless going forth , so long may bo tho brotherhood of Free and Accepted Masons unforgottingly coutiuuo to assemble , and with all tho moans and formalities which declare spiritual ascendancy , honour the sincerity , tho prophetic sympathy with goodness and truth , and the

independence aud daring of Saint John the Baptist , who was in all history " tho prophet of the Highest "—tho herald of " the Day Spring from on Hig h " which was " to take bold of the ends of the earth , to give light to them

that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death , and to guide oar feet into the way of peace , " and to diffuse throughout all kindreds and ptoplos tho pure and shiniug knowledge of God .

" Ooo God , one law , one element , And one far off divine event , Towards whioh tho whole creation moves . —Voice of Masonry

Ar00502

IMPORTANT NOTICE . —Confidential Advice free per post to all 1 . in weak and failing hoalth , with loss of strength and vitality . Fifty years experience in Nervous Ailments . Address , tho Secretary , 3 Fitzallan Sqaar J , Hholliokl . Form of Correspondence Free . Write to-dav . 60 years oxperionce , All diseases arising from impurity of the blood absolutely cured .