Pain Is An Element Of Strength For The Masons.

PAIN IS AN ELEMENT OF STRENGTH FOR THE MASONS .

BY BRO . ERMILO G . CANTON , GRAND SECRETARY MEXICO . To pretend to walk in the paths of life in an easy and serene manner without stumbling over rough stones , and without the briers injuring our feet , is to dream of something impossible , is to pretend a phantasmagoria ! idealism , which , by merely opening our eyes to reality , vanishes like a mist . Having passed the first ages of life , reason and the conscience are formed ,

and , as free beings , place our destiny in the pathway . Each step is a doubt ; each look we give round about is a vacillation . Who can be vainglorious of having been lucky enough to find—when taking the route—the broad way , festooned with floriferous margins and with placcid currents ; the sun clear and cloudless ; transit easy and commodious ? In the unfortunate journey which we undertake from the cradle to the grave there is no one who is free

from turbulence and obstacles . We have to pay a tribute , we have to render a jewel , and that tribute and jewel are called pain . Pain is the contingent with which we all contribute to embellish the great drama of life , and each one of us is merely a suffering personage in that picture where all the colours have been shown and all the perspectives distributed . But in the created , everything obeys the immutable laws of compensation , and the same which

pain makes us bend in response to thefirst dismay , invigorates and strengthens us , taking then the street of bitterness more warlike and resistant . Of this we find manifold examples in life , because there is no work that is not examined closely by the rudeness of test . You have the forge with its fire , its anvil and sledge ; the workman separates the incandescent metal from the red heat , places it on the anvil and with athletic energy discharges on it

the tremendous blows of forging . The metal suffers ; each blow make sparks of useless matter fly , which in a moment shine in the air and subsequently fall extinguished on the powerful pavement of the workshop . After the test , and the metal having been modulated ; it remains between the hammer and the anvil , fit for the strength that is required of it . You have also the diamond ; a despicable pebble in its primitive form , and found only by

those who search with perseverance among the asperity of the earth and among the mysterious labyrinth of the veins of ore . The diamond is placed in the crucible , the fire laps it with an embracing tongue , depurates it , facilitates the cutting of its facets , and lastly after the test is converted into a precious conquest of labour . Think of the mariner who commences to navigate ; the solitude , the sadness and the tempests of the sea armour and

teach him . In the midst of great danger he learns to resist and secure equilibrium ; in the highest parts of the masts of the vessel he finds the habitude that is necessary to withstand dizziness ; and in al ! the contingencies of his nomad life he finds enough vigour , free from dread and marine daunt , to challenge the angry combats of that immense expanse called the ocean . See the men who encourage a warring spirit ,

or are lead to death by the egotism of others ; the first skirmish puts them to the test ; fright , horror , fatigue , and perhaps fear are the circumstances which surround them ; but afterwards , when accustomed to the firing , they follow exempt from suffering the conventional sound of the bugle and under the frightful yoke of an inflexible discipline , they go resolutely , perhaps without banner and without faith , and without an

opinion of their own , to play calmly with the dice of death such as at Pultava , St . Quintin , Waterloo , Sedan , and Mexico . They were weak and timorous ; the trial made them strong . There is nothing , therefore , that can elude this general rule and by the same influences , man in regard to which is moral has to fatally bear that tremendous and decisive test called pain , which goes deeper into the soul than the forge does the metal or the

crucible the diamond . Pain is a law that must be irremissibly respected . We suffer , and after its violence has passed , the pang leaves us an abundance of experience and energy that comforts us . The amount is so great that it cannot be easily reduced to figures . We learn to listen to the consoling and philosophic voice of resignation ; we open our breast to hope and each fresh knock increases that source of faith in the future which is so called .

Probably these words , if spoken to a gathering of profanes , would be received with a smile of cold scepticism ; perhaps some one would say that in daily life what we term blows of life , far from giving us hope , wrest our faith and leave us doubt . Such option cannot be admitted here , because we are in the Alasonic world and the Mason is—and should be—less victim to passion and error , and consequently should believe , because puny spirits

only deny without making affirmations ; only those needing light are unbelievers j because to believe is a necessary virtue , whatever that belief may be as . regards morality , philosophy , or the sciences . No one , no Mason , I am sure , will smile when he reads these lines from my flying pen , when it states that pain after its transit leaves us many lessons—the golden hopes of a compensating futurity . Nevertheless , when pain , when the unforeseen accidents of life afflict us , an incontrovertible instinct impels us to seek aid ,

sufficient protection to compensate those displeasures . And here , like a loving mother , our august Institution appears performing such a noble action , such an ineffable mission . Profane life awakens that instinct , and we come here . in "earch of mutual help , fraternal aid from our brother , the lodge and society in general , and then we extend the hand to those who fall in the struggle , to repress . the weeping of those who suffer , and confraternity rouses the courage of those that are oppressed by sorrow . When entering

Pain Is An Element Of Strength For The Masons.

the lodge we divest ourselves of pride , and we remove from ourselves the airs of haughtiness , forgetoffences , and clothe ourselves in the most modestapparel of humility . Thus we should be converted from enemies to brothers , and thus it will be more easy for us to clear the pathway of life of thorns and rough stones , and to walk therein with less fatigue and languidntss . In Masonry the I isa plural ; one body only with thousands cf hands to extend and

thousands of hearts to feel . The opinion of others when it is contrary to our own , is not an insult as it usually is in the profane world ; what another thinks is , in the Masonic Temple , the result of freedom of thought , which never should even in the greatest divisions constitute any other thing than different phases of good intention and dissimilar ways of arriving within our Order of that pleasant goal of fraternity and love . If all men were to

think alike , the brain would end by atrophy for want of exercise . _ We come here to thc Masonic hearth , to the lodge , each one bringing his shire of misfortune , to assist ourselves mutually , to strengthen ourselves to continue with new ardour the path of inclemency in the bitter street of life . Yes , Masonry has beautiful laws , and on us depends the practising of _ them and taking them to the land of realisation , and this we shall attain imitating the

slow but constant labour of the drop of water , and as it at last perforates the rock which minute by minute it strikes , thus , with equal patience , if we do not dismay , we shall increase our progressive scientific and moral development , and we shall conquer our blessed redemption from the slavery of error . —Translated from the Boletin Masonico ( Mexico ) , by Bro . Eli Broad , Lodge Nepean , N . S . W ., for Masonry .

Obituary.

Obituary .

BRO . DELOITTE . By the death on Tuesday , the rz-rd ult ., at Southall , of Bro . William Welch Deloitte , the founder of the firm of Deloitte , Dever , Griffiths , and Co ., one of the oldest accountants in the country passes from our midst . The deceased , who was 80 years of age , commenced practice as a public accountant in 1845 , and had , therefore , been in business for nearly half-a-century , when he retired from City life three years ago . In his early days Bro . Deloitte was engaged on the staff of

the official assignee in bankruptcy of the City of London Court , but at the age of 26 he commenced practice in' Basinghall-street . Bro . Deloitte took a great interest in the formation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants , of which he was the President in the year 18 S 9 , having previously held the office of Vice-President for a period of four years , besides occupying a seat on the Council with one of his partners , Mr . J . G . Griffiths . He was also one of the founders , and , until his retirement from business , the President of the Chartered Accountants '

Benevolent Association , For many years the deceased carried on business in Manchester under the style of Messrs . Deloitte and Halliday , and was a member of the old Manchester Society of Accountants . Some of the best known stockbrokers and accountants have passed through his office , and among the latter may be mentioned Mr . Charles J . Stewart , the clerk to the London County Council . During his business career Bro . Deloitte has had the handling of many large and important matters , and . indeed , it may be said that the present system

of keeping English railway accounts is due very largely to his initiative when first called upon to act as professional accountant to the Great Western Railway Company about 45 years ago . He was also the originator of a system of hotel account-keeping which is now adopted by all large hotels both at home and abroad . Many of the older members of the profession will , no doubt , remember that it was he who investigated and unravelled the great frauds that were perpetrated on the Great Western Railway Company by Redpath in 1857 , and on

the Great Eastern Steamship Company in 1870 . Bro . Deloitte was closely associated with the late Sir John Pender , Sir Richard Glass , Sir George Elliot , Sir Daniel Gooch , Mr . Cyrus Field , and the other pioneers of submarine telegraphy . He was a Freemason of many years' standing . Bro . Deloitte was possessed of a generous disposition , and in addition to building a church at Southall , where he had resided for the past 40 years , he also erected a number of almshouses for the poor in the Jubilee year .

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