To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

The JVeemasojt has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS should reach the Office , 198 , Fleetstreet , London , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the " Freemason , " may ba addressed to the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

Important Notice.

IMPORTANT NOTICE .

COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise us of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and- India j otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

The Freemason is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / 6 . P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the chief office , London .

NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason " to the folloyving parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Neyvfoundland , New South Wales , Neyv Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United States of America , & c .

REMITTANCES RECEIVED . £ s , d . Anchor , E ., Greymouth ( P . O . O . ) 200 Baxter , T „ Indh ( P . O . O . ) 1 4 o Bigni . ll , J . C , East Indies ( P . O . O . ) o IJ o Brierly , H ., D . D . G . M . Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o Gibson , J . M ., A . G . Sec . Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o Gunn , R . L ., W . M . 27 , Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o

Hutchinson , W ., Neyv York 160 Layvry , G ., M . M . 6 , Ont . ( Draft ) 0100 Lindsay , D . S ., Braidwood ( P . O . O . ) o 10 6 Mason , J . J ., G . Sec . Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o Mitchell , G . Treas ., Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o Port Alfred Lodge , the Cape ( P . O . O . ) o 1 * o Smith , H . G ., U . S . A . ( P . O . O . ) o 13 o Stringfellow , J ., Roma ( P . O . O . ) 200 T . W ., Ont . ( Draft ) o 10 o

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

Thc folloyving unavoidably stand over until next week : —Bro . Harriott ' s Second Letter ; Letter from Bro . R . de Vervega ; Testimonial to Bro . W . Smith . Reports of Prince Frederick William Lodge , 753 ; Great Northern I odge , 1287 ; Fitzroy Lodge , 5 6 9 ; Ellesmere Lodge , 750 ; Priory Lodge , 1000 ; Hope and Unity Lodge , 214 ;

Hartington Lodge , 1021 ; Kendal Castle Chapter , 129 ; Temple Chapter , 10 C 4 ; Swedenborgian Rite . To hand : —Banquet cf the Southyvark Lodge of Instruction ; Belgrave Lodge of Instruction ; Star Lodge of Instruction ; St . Andrew ' s Chapter and Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners ; Masonic Ball at Barrow .

Births, Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . 6 d . for announcements , not exceeding four lines , under this heading . ] BIR'I HS . BELL . —On the 26 th ult ., at Fricckheim , Forfarshire , the wife of the Rev . Benjamin Bell , of a daughter . DOWSON . —On the 29 th ult ., at Hereford-square , South Kensington , the wife of A . C . Dowson , ofa son .

MARRIAGE . COOPER—HILL . —On Nov . 18 , 1876 , at St . John ' s Church , Sydenham , N . S . W ., William Charles , son of Sir D . Cooper , Bart ., to Alice Helen , daughter of G . Hill , Esq .

DEATHS . COUTTS . —On the 27 th ult ., at 30 , James-street , Covcntgarden , Anna , the beloved wife of Bro . John Coutts , i ' . G . P . Deeply regretted . ELLIS . —On the 14 th ult ., at Banara , Mount Gambier ,

South Australia , Mary , wife of T . C . Ellis , Esq ., aged 20 . GUXDIIY . —On the 1 st inst ., at his residence , The Hyde , Bridport , Bro J . Gundry , ; ' R . W . Prov . G . Vaster of Dorsetshire .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , FEB . 3 , 1877 .

The Consecration Of The Aldersgate Lodge.

THE CONSECRATION OF THE ALDERSGATE LODGE .

This ceremony , which took place on Monday last , suggests many important considerations . We need hardly assure our readers , that our excellent Secretary , Bro . John Hervey , spoke , as he always does , both with impressiveness and practical common sense , or that his remarks

yvere duly appreciated , as they deserved to be , by the meeting . Neither need we dilate on the ceremonial , as that is well known to our readers , and " mutatis mutandis , " is pretty much the same on all occasions . It is also unnecessary for us to call attention to the excellent and eloquent addresses

at the festive board of the Grand Secretary , the W . M ., oar Rev . Bro . P . M . Holden , and others , for they speak for themselves in our lucid and careful report . The gathering was a highly successful one , and will long be remembered by those who were privileged to be present . But what yve are anxious to call our

readers attention to is this . Here is a lodge confessedly composed of men of distinct social worth and high scholastic acquirements , set up before the world for the purpose and aims alone of our venerable Order . It contains in it men of business , members of the medical

profession , clergymen , brethren of high intellectual culture , as well as most respectable citizens of the Aldersgate Ward , and as such it seeks to conform to and uphold the tenets and practice of Freemasonry . Its first initiate is to be the Master of Christ ' s Hospital , and we are glad

to remember to-day , and happy to point out the fact to oar readers , that in the heart of the City of London a lodge so calculated to do good , and be so useful and improving to its members , is now , happily , formally set up . May all of

prosperity attend it , and may its labours thus happily begin cinduce to the glory of God , the welfare of the Craft , and the happiness of mankind . Our Rev . and able Bro . Brette ' s pleasant announcement at the close that the list for the

Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution anniversary had reached sggi is a good augury ofthe future for the Aldersgate Lodge .

Is Freemasonry Materialism?

IS FREEMASONRY MATERIALISM ?

It has occurred to us , that , as we hear so often just now of "materialism , " and " materialistic , " some of our readers may like to know what is the meaning of words so often thrown at our heads , crammed down our throats , used by the sciolist and " windbag , " " usque ad

nauseam . " Materialism comes , no doubt , either from material , as J ohnson says , " consisting of matter corporeal , not spiritual , " or from the French word " materiel , " made up of matter ; and just as the good old Doctor defines materialist * ' as one who denies spiritual substances , "

so Napoleon Landais declares " materialisme " to be the " systeme de ceux qui n ' admittent que la matiere , " and " materialiste " to be a " partisan du materialisme . " And then the question conies in here , What is matter ? Well , we need not , as we cannot , go into the discussions which this subject has originated and still entails . We

need not even trouble ourselves with the discordant views of learned writers or fashionable empirics on the subject . It is still " non-proven . " The reviewer of a " Life of Kingsley , " a short time ago , said in one of our leading weekly journals , that Kingsley had changed his mind on the subject , and seemed latterly to lean to another view of " matter . " And as scientificists

are not yet agreed as to what matter really is , we , as Freemasons , may be content simply to take for granted the existence of matter , without too closely enquiring either into its " raison d ' etre , " or its " modus vivendi . " its conditions of

existence , so to say . But in an abstract sense we all are aware of the tangible and impinging properties of " matter , " whatever form it assumes , or we like to give it in this visible world , and in this mundane life of ours . But with that , as Freemasons , we have nothing to do , more than

Is Freemasonry Materialism?

any one else , and it is not in this sense that Archbishop Vaughan , and tha numerous croyvd of cackling geese used the word " * material " today . It is in the meaning , rather as opposed to spiritual , and hence we often apply it in common parlance to those who , denying the spiritual

kingdom of the great dispensation of the Most High , or the " eternal fitness of things , " or the promise of futurity , or the hopes of a better country , the gift of an immortal soul , an undying body , and everlasting life , bound all their expectations , and limit all their endeavours ,

to this present , earthly , material , dying existence . There are some to whom this world is everything—the future , nothing . Its joys , its pleasure , its plan , its promises , its gifts , its happiness , its wealth , are all in all to them . They have no better aspirations , no purer

emotion ; their to Icaton and to agathon are comprised in the life that noyv is , and when it passes ayvay , their being is either annihilated for them in the grave of animal death , or they disappear like little atoms of space and time , absorbed into the infinity of atomism .

It is to this class of dreary sceptics , of materialistic unbelievers , that Archbishop Vaughan is alluding , and as he classes Freemasons one and all in this category , he means politely , but impressively , to say that we are as bad as bad can be , and in his opinion , like the famous

turncock , who incurred the aqueoas wrath of the "Shepherd'' in Pickivick , "hooked for something uncomfortable . " Let us observe i . i passing that all this plethora of invective and excommunication has something very ludicrous and very loyv in itself . In our humble opinion , in this

his hasty and uncritical position , Archbishop Vaughan , ( though quite on a par yvith his unhistorical achievements ) , has committed three grave errors , one of act , another of assertion , a third of prophecy . It is not the fact , imprimis , that materialism in its yvorst sense is the ruling

principle of the age in which yve live . There is no doubt a noisy and unbelieving school , and if you will , materialistic , but it is completely overbalanced by that mass of sound thinking men , who are not ashamed to stand up as grave and reverent believers in the wotk , the

revelation , the providence , the moral government , the retributive justice of God . If here and there we see proofs abounding , as in all ages , of evil living , of hurtful doctrines , of base minds and deeds , of the deceivers and the deceived , of the seducers and the seduced * if around us the Juggernaut of

worldly luxury , profligacy , shame , and infidelitylifts its hideous head , still we can console ourselves with the thought that never in the history of the world were so many noble sacrifices being made , so many truly philanthropic labours carried on for the temporal and

eternal welfare of mankind , as to-day . All such utterances , then , are but the meaningless inarticulate cries of those , who , like parrots , have learnt a few stock sentences b y rote . The world has its evils and its wrongs , God knows j its social errors , and its pernicious influences

many and alarming . But it is not all bad , and certainly not God-forsaken . On the contrary , there are those , the salt of the earth , still striving as ever to shine as lights in the world , and aiding nobly by every good word and work , to pull down the strongholds of human

crime , tyranny , iniquity , and to raise in their stead the outyvork and the battlements of the great and eternal city of our God . Even to-day none of us need doubt for one moment as to which side will prevail in this mighty " Armgeddon , " or hesitate for one

moment to anticipate the eventual victory of God s truth , God ' s majesty , God ' s goodness , and God ' s right in the world . And so too as regards us Freemasons . We are not , and never can be , materialistic in any sense of the word . Archbishop Vaughan knoyvs nothing of usour true

, teachings , our real principles , our living life , our actual actings , or he would not make so silly and false an accusation ! We are so , of all men , alike most spiritual and religious , in our ceaseless realization of the presence of one governing ,

living , true , omniscient , ever present God Most High . All our Masonic work begins and ends in prayer to Him , and acknowledgment of His presence and power , and goodness and greatness , and as far as words and acts can testify of opposition to materialistic teaching , everything