Henniker Lodge, No. 315.

Cox into the chair , and he could say that from the time their W . M . entered the Lodge nntil the present moment he had fulfilled every portion of the work entruste 1 to him as well as it was possible to be done , and he would reflect as much credit upon the Lodge as any previous Master had done . As they all knew the good qnalities of the W . M ., he would simply ask them to drink the toast in bumpers . Bro .

Henry Cox having thanked tbe I . P . M , and brethren , said he hoped to bs spared to carry ont his duties during his year , and would endeavonr to discharge them to the best of his ability . The Visitors was next given , and acknowledged by Bros . H . Diokey W . M . 355 , and W . W . Lee 400 . The W . M . proposed the I . P . M . and P . M . ' s and said that as the brethren had seen Bro . Tipper perform the installation ceremony

that evenmsr , tbe toast required no comment from him . Tbe P . M . sail performed their dnties in an efficient manner , and he hoped other brethren would imitate them , so that the prestige of the Lodge would be kept np . Bro . H . Tipper I . P . M . said the P . M . ' s were only too pleased to do what they could for the brethren generally and the Lodge in particular . The P . M . ' s had all received kindness from the members , and could not do too much for tbe Lodge . Thev would be

always willing to help the W . M . or any brother when called upon . The Officers were then heartily how nred , and responded to by Bro . Crutch S . W . Bro . J . Barnett jnn . J . W . also replied , and said that although he belonged to several Craft Lodges , his home was in the Uenniker Mark Lodge , at which he bad been present every meeting since his advancement , and bad had the distinction of bringing three or four of his dear friends into it . The Tyler ' s toast terminated a very enjoyable evening .

P.G. Lodge Of Gloucestershire.

P . G . LODGE OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE .

THE Annual Grand Festival of Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire was hold on Tuesday , tbe 27 th inst ., in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral , the Dean of Gloucester ( Dr . Spence ) , who himself received the compliment of appointment as Provincial Grand Chaplain , giving his permission for the use of this

interesting meeting-place , under the special circumstances of the day ' s proceedings . Provincial Grand Lodgo was summoned at 2 p . m ., and when proceedings commenced , shortly after that hour , there was an unusually numerous attendance of the Brethren of . the Province . Those

present ii . clnded the Right Hon . Sir Michael Hicks Beach , Bart ., M . P ., Provincial Grand Master , and Bro . the Deputy Pror , Grand Master R . V . Vassar-Smitb , and many other * , the Lodge being the largest held since the incorporation of the Province . Provincial Lodge having been

duly opened , the Provincial Grand Master at once invested the Dean of Gloucester as Provincial Grand Chaplain . A procession from tho Chapter House along the cloisters to tbe Cathedral was then formed , and to the strains ol the March from Eli , the brethren moved forward to

the choir , wh ^ re ample accommodation had been reserved for them . Divine service was conducted , iu the presence of a large congregation of the general public , in accordance with a special form which was supplied to the Brethren on

entering the Cathedral . The service was sung to Garrett in F , the anthem being Wesley ' s "Blessed be God , " which was very effectively rendered . Bro . the Dean of Gloucester , who wore the collar of Provincial Grand Chaplain , preached the sermon , which we report verbatim : —

MY BROTHERS OT OUR ORDER , —You have asked me to speak to you to-day in this great and storied Honse of God in Gloucester— to speak to you of onr Order , its solemn duties , and its high privileges . The sacred plaoe where we are meeting now was not improbably the work of men who preceded ns in tbe Craft . The matchless Cathedral

of the early Middle ages—1 mean of the days when the Norman and the Angevin , and the yet greater Plantagenet , reigned in Englandhad no gradual development . In England , as on the Continent of Europe , the Norman and then the Gothio minster sprang as it were at once into being , with nil its weird and marvellous beauty , with its

strange richness of detail . The union ia those days between the Monk Bchola- and the Mason artist must have been of the cloaest . The two men had one great purpose in view—one master object before them . They would glorify the Groat Architect of tbe Universe by honouring Him in whose blessed person He has

manifested Himself—even in Jesus Christ onr Lord . In the marvellous development of religion in the eleventh and two following cenniries , the Monk scholar and his friend tbe Mason set themselves to educate the rough and often barbarous peoples who had taken the place of the old , worn out , and often dissolute Roman

Provincial ; and the two , the Monk and the Mason , aided , I leverently think , by the Third Per-on of the ever-bleseed Trinitythe Holy Spirit—felt their best and most direct way of educating theBe ignorant but mighty warrior successors of the old races , was by erecting great " Books of Stone , " from which all might read , in

which all might lear i . These books of stone wero piled up with strange rapidity all over the western and central provinces of Europe ( the specially chosen homes of the new nationalities ) . They

were piled np by the waters of the broad and noble Rhine , by the silvery current of the Seine and Loire , nn the banks of tho Severn and the Thames . Tbepe vast stone hand-books of Christianity were > aieed b y the Monk , probably with tho F-ecmason heloin < r him , As

P.G. Lodge Of Gloucestershire.

has been strikingly said— "These Glorious ' Books of JStone were at once significant and inexhaustible , feeding at once and stimulating profound meditation ; the majestic height ( this choir of Gloucester is a noble example)—tbe height , the vastness , snggosted the Inconceivable , the Incomprehensible in the Divinity j it seemed to symbolise as no words were able the incalculable grandeur and

majesty of the Divino works . The mind felt humble under its shadow , aa before an awful Presence . Its form and distribution was a confession of faith ; it typified tbe Creed ; the Trinity was proclaimed by the nave and the two aisles ; the whole building was a cross ; the altar and its decorations told its great story , in language all might read ; the solemn Crypt or nnder-church below represented

the world in -which it is neither clear nor dark , where the soul of m : in awaited in quiet , blissful repose the joy and brightness of the resurrection morning . " Years passed on . The new nationalitiesthe Norman , the Frank , the great Teuton families—became settled in their new homes . The mighty kingdoms of the Plantagenet and the Valois , the Hapsbnrg , and the Hohenstauffen replaced the Roman

Provincial . Comparative peace and prosperity reigned in Europe , and vast wealth—greater far than had ever been dreamed of even in the golden days of Rome—became the heritage of the new world of the Middle Ages . Years passed on . The art of printing inaugurated a new era , and the printed book replaced the Cathedral as the groat educator , and for a time the work of the Mason and the Monk seemed

at an end . The story of the noble minster—the scene of our solemn service to-day—ia the story , With little variation , of every one of these matchless piles in England , France , and Germany . Roughly speaking , the great building task , whioh set itself to educate the new nationalities , began in England with the Norman Conquest . On the Continent the same date may be taken . At first the grave and

sombre Round Arch style—we call it here Norman—held the field . The Crasaders brought Home sfcrauge fantastic Eastern forms of surpassing loveliness , which the great Mason teachers of the West weaved into the grandeur of these mighty sombre buildings . The work went on . For three eventful centuries all art , well-nigh all intellectual power , was absorbed in architecture . The exact Btory of our Craft , its olose

connection with the early meditoval Church , has still to bo told . It was probably close and intimate . During these three centuries—the XII ., XIII ., and XIV . —England , Germany , and France saw a splendid Cathedral arise in well-nigh every important city . It is scarcely an exaggeration to affirm that in those ages , every noble thought which was born in men ' s breasts was written in stone . In the XV . century

a new power arose—the printing press . Gradually the mighty power of architecture faded away j we watch it—the spirit of the groat Gothio builder—slowly dying . The Renaissance Period , which marked the transition of the latter half of the XV . and XVI . Centuries , was but tbe last effort of a dying art . Since then no great ootboUral has been built . Here and there faint , poor copies of the

masterpieces of a past age mark with emphasis the truth , that the spirit whioh onoe inspired the Monk-Mason of the Plantagenet and the Valois has winged its solemn- Sig ht from the homes and hearths of men . The books of stone were no longer needed for the education of nations and individuals : the printed book , for good or evil , had taken their place . But the monk aud the Mason were still among us ; their

enduiing work , their mighty books of stone , too , remain . What of their subsequent story ? This is not the place , nor the time , to speak of tho firBt . How far the successor of the monk—the clergymanhas found his place in the life of the new Society , belongs to history . No one would venture to say that he is not at least as powerful a factor in tho Society of the days of Queen Victoria as was the monk

in the stormy years of the Plantagenet Edwards . May God in His great wisdom , for His dear Son ' s sake , ever give him of His Spirit , to help , advise , to comfort , and to teach . Then , too , the great stone book of those early Middle Ages has survived the wear and tear of centuries—has survived revolution in politics , in

thought , in life . It still stands , does it not ?—take Gloucester as an example—in its grey , scarred beauty , upright and well nigh as stately as it did when the Black Prince came back from Cresty , and that grand window , with its tender silvery hues , was placed there , or when Richard 11 . held his memorable Parliament beneath the

shadow of these walls . It is not needed in the same way , or for all the same uses , aa when the Monk and Mason first designed it and planned it , but while ohanged , it still occupies a foremost place among the busy religions agencies of the age . It will probably take a yet higher position in tbe tnatdriel of the wars of the Lord against infidelity and sin . We pass from the Monk and the Cathedral to tbe

Mason . What of him ? Again the work is changed . It is different now to what it was in the days of the old Plantagenet kings , when , working faithfully for hia God by the side of the scholar monk , he helped to plan and build those mighty' books of stone we call Cathedrals—in whioh for cantaries tbe people read the story of the Divine Architect , and how he loved and planned for men . Toe work

of oar great Order is changed , bub as in old days we are bound together by solemn vowi . Now , as then , we are members of a vast brotherhood , knit into one great unity by a common longing—a longing to do good , to act righteously , to biod up the wounds of the broken hearted , to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction . May I not add ( as one of the brothers of our proud

Order ) to keep ourselves unspotted from the world . Our timehonoured ceremonies date from the foundation of the great Solomonic Temple . They aro based one and all npon solemn scenes of that never-to-be-forgotten ngo , when the grandest Temple the world has ever gnzed on was built—the House in which ever and anon the visible glory of the Great Architect of the Universe was pleased to dwell . And while our rites

and ceremonies rest npon these ancient sacred memories , onr vows are based npon—if it bo possible—a nobler basis still—the words and wishes of Jesus Christ . The true Mason is indeed His follower , Hi * faithful and loyal servant . There are many in this lordly House of God this afternoon beside tbe brethren of our grent Order . Tuoy mark with cm ions attention our strange , quaint symbols ; tbo jewelled apron , the embroidered scarf , the sacred emblems which belong to