To Our Readers.

TO OUR READERS .

TShe Freemason is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / . Brethren in foreign parts , wishing to have this newspaper sent them regularly from the office of publication , should , in sending their remittances , add to the 2 d . per week thc postage on 2 oz . newspapers .

To Advertisers.

TO ADVERTISERS .

The Freemason has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . For terms , position , & c , apply to GEORGE KENNING , 198 , Fleet-st .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

All Communications , Advertisements , & c , intended for insertion in the Number of the following Saturday , must reach the Office not later than 12 o ' clock on Wednesday morning . The following stand over : —Letter from Bro . C . Burgess ; A Masonic Presentation ; Reports of Carnarvon Lodge , No . 1573 ; Love and Honour Lodge , 75 ; Lodge Victory , No . 557 .

BOOKS RECEIVED . " Boletino do Grande , Oriente Unido , & c , do Brazil . " " Era Almanack" received , a review of same will appear hext week . " History of British Guiana ; " " The Golden Pheasant , " J . Henderson ; " The Artist ; " "The Westminster Papers ; " " Young Folks ; " " The Ladies' Treasury . "

Births, Marriages, And Deaths.

Births , Marriages , and Deaths .

BIRTHS . RAMSON . —Dee . 24 th , at 169 , Huskesson-street , Liverpool , the wife of Bro . E . Ramson , Lodge 249 , of a daughter . VVotr . —D ; c . 26 th , at 46 , Seymour-street , Liverpool , the wife of Bro . Isaac Wolf , Lodge 1503 , of a son .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , J . 8 , 1876 .

H.R.H. Prince Leopold.

H . R . H . PRINCE LEOPOLD .

We learn that the Most Worshipfnl Grand Master has been pleased to appoint H . R . H . Prince Leopold Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire .

Our Royal Grand Master In India.

OUR ROYAL GRAND MASTER IN INDIA .

The reception of the Prince of Wales at Calcutta has been most loyal , and everything seems to have passed over w ith the greatest success . The Investiture of the ( Irder of the Star of India was most striking and imposing , and there can be no doubt whatever but that the visit of our

Royal Grand Master to India will have produced the best effects . By the time our readers read these lines the Prince of Wales will have left Calcutta , and the " Pioneer " publishes the following as the final arrangements for the Prince of Wales ' s tour after his departure from Calcutta ,

adding that the only alteration in the least degree probable is an extension of his Royal Highness ' s stay at Jeypore by one day : —On Monday evening , the . 3 rd of January , he will leave Calcutta by the East Indian Railway , and will arrive at Benares on the evening of the 4 th , visiting

Bankipore en route . Leaving Benares on the morning of the ( 5 th , he will get to Lucknow the same evening . The Prince will spend the 7 th , Sth , and 9 th at Lucknow , and will proceed on the morning of Monday , the 10 th , to Cawnpore , where he will spend that day , starting at night

for Delhi . After remaining at Delhi from the nth to the 17 th he will go on to Lahore , arriving there on the morning of Tuesday , the I Sth . The remainder of the 18 th and the whole of the 19 th will be passed at Lahore . Leaving that city on the morning of Thursday , the 20 th , he will arrive at Jummoo on the

evening of the same day , and will remain there as the guest of Ihe Maharajah of Cashmere until the morning of Saturday , the 22 nd , when he will set out on his return to Lahore . Sunday will be spent at Lahore , and on Monday , the 24 th , the Prince will take the train for Agra , visiting Umritsuren route . At Agra a halt will be made from the 2 jth to the 30 th . The visit

Our Royal Grand Master In India.

to Scindiah at Gwalior will occupy the 31 st and the ist of February , and on Wednesday , the 2 nd , the Prince will return to Agra . On the 4 th , he will go on to Jeypore , where he will remain until the evening of Sunday , the 6 th . The night of the 6 th and the whole ofthe 7 th will be spent in travelling towards Nynee Tal , via Moradabad

and Kaladoongee , and then will commence a shooting expedition in Kumanon and the Nepaul Serai , lasting from the Sth to the 2 nd of March . Bareilly will be reached on the morning of Friday , the 3 rd , and will be left on the evening of the same day . A few hours of the 4 th will be spent at Allahabad , and on the morning of

the 6 th His Royal Highness will arrive at Indore , where he will remain as the guest of the Maharajah Holkar until the evening of Tuesday , the 7 th . On the evening of the Sth he will arrive at Ellora , where he will stay until the next evening . He will then go on to Bombay , and will embark on or about the roth of March .

The Limits Of Religious Thought And Teaching.

THE LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND TEACHING .

We published Iasdr week an interesting letter from , we understand , Professor Tyndall , with reference to a recent allocution or circular of the French Roman Catholic Bishop of Montpellier . No doubt Professor Tyndall calls the attention of the "Times , " in which journal the letter

originally appeared , to this last deliverance of an energetic Roman Catholic prelate , on account of the old theory publicly avowed , but enforced anew by Roman Catholic authority . It is this , practically , the unchanged teaching of Roman Catholicism , which sets it so much at variance

with the reason , intellect , feeling , and public opinion of the day . For what is this claim on the part of Rome ? Ic is simply this , that the Roman Catholic Church , as the Church , has the ri ght to pronounce and hold any and all scientific teaching contrary to the truth of Revelation , and

to denounce it and condemn it " ad fideles " accordingly ! But the Church—qua the Church in our opinion—has no such inherent authority , or proper power . It is to' proclaim spiritual truths not scientific , its great domain is the world of Grace , not the world of Nature . It may and

probably does illustrate its teaching , from the wondrous storehouse of animate or inanimate creation , from the marvels of discovery , from the realms of science , from the laws which govern our material being , from the condition and normal existence of created man , but it has no

rig ht to pronounce dogmatically on these subjects ex cathedra , much less to make them questions of religious belief , or ii reli gious heresy , at least , so we hold . It would be very absurd if the Archbishop of Canterbury , for instance , were to say to any learned professor or scientific

teacher amongst us , " You are propounding certain theories concerning the ' law of selection , ' gravitation , ' ' optics , ' ' ethnology , ' ' zoology , ' ' anthropology , ' ' geology , ' & c , & c , and inasmuch as your researches seem to contravene the words of the Bible I claim the right of the

Church to condemn your views , and denounce your discoveries " In our humble opinion , that would be travelling beyond the limits of reli gious thought and teaching ! It is true that there may be " oppositions of science falsely so-called . " It is , no doubt , correct to say that many writers

have , in late years especially , advanced very questionable statements , which they hold tenaciousl y as " dogmata , " and have spoken but little reverently of the Bible , which , as true Freemasons , we recognize and revere as God ' s word . But still , though this be so , it overpasses , as

we regard it , the real limits of reli gious teaching , when any religious body professes to have a ri ght qua a religious body , to deal with the deductions of skilled writers , in any branch of the natural laws of this wondrous world of ours , the researches of pure science , the study of psychological

phenonema , and to pass a reli gious opinion upon them , and declare them to be true or false , sound or unsound , contrary to God ' s word , or opposed to revealed truth . We cannot see or understand how such power can be vested in

one or any denominational body . A churchthe Church that we consider the church , has a right no doubt to lay down terms of communion , to declare on its infallible or fallible authority , as the case may be , certain spiritual verities

The Limits Of Religious Thought And Teaching.

and distinct doctrines to be the truth for its members , and to reject ill who refuse to accept them , or be bound by them ; but it cannot , as it seems to us , say , or lay down anything more , rightly or lawfully . lt clearly has no warrant to say that , because certain truths of the Bible are seemingly afrected by certain discoveries

of science , those discoveries must be untrue . The Church may command its preachers to aver certain truths to be absolute and essential truths , and , e converse , to condemn b y implication , all opposing dogmata , and leave the result to the understanding or faith ofthe people . But it

can rightly do no more , and go no further . The claim of the Church of Rome to supervise and give its " imprimatur" to scientific discovery cannot be admitted by any who value the freedom of the intellect , or believe in a right use of reason . Poor Galileo said that the sun was a

"fixed body , with the "earth continually revolving round it on its own axis . " but the Inquisition , because the Bible had said that the " sun stood still in the Valley of Ajalon , " believed that the sun moved round the earth , and not vice versa , and condemned the great astronomer as a

heretic . And so it still is , Rome claims to-day , to pronounce on all the discoveries of science , on all the results of modern investigation on the bearings of the natural laws of the universe , on the careful conclusions of the student and the sage . Such a claim , as we said before , cannot

be conceded , and must be resisted . It is one of the main elements ofthe great struggle which is now going on . We are not among those who oppose ourselves , because we are Freemasons , to religious teaching , or the proper limits of religious thought and dogma . Far from it , we are neither

secularists nor sceptics , humanitarians or unbelievers , but we venture to contend for the liberty of scientific studies , just as we uphold freedom of commerce , toleration of opinion , and inviolability of worship . We regret deeply to find that the Church of Rome is embarking on

a contest , in which she must be defeated , since in this , as in many other things , the absurdity of her demands , and the unreasonableness of her teaching , will , end in her own overthrow , by the spirit of public opinion , and bringdown to the ground with her much that otherwise might have been willingly upheld , and safely maintained .

The "Freemason."

THE "FREEMASON . "

We are still on the threshold of the new year and we have been taking stock ; and the result is , on the whole , gratifying . We do not indeed wish or seek to come forward with magniloquent phrases , or conventional " bunkum . " We are not very anxious to praise ourselves at the

expense of others , or for the kindly purpose of annoying somebody else , give forth with boastful flourishes what we intend to be satirical , but what we know to be untrue , Far be from us any such ignoble feelings . It may suit those who deal in " cheap and nasty" wares to obtrude

an inferior article on a gullible public ! But we need follow no such course , nor be characterized by any such tactics . Ours is both plain sailing and straight running . We do not wish to " tout " for patronage , nor laud

ourselves for support . We take approval and disfavour as they come and go ; we rate them at their proper worth , we care neither for the one nor for the other , to tell the honest truth . We try to do our duty honestly , justly , liberally , by the Craft , and we have no fear that our motives

will be misconstrued , or our efforts disregarded . The " Freemason " has never yet appealed to anything but the public opinion and approval of the Craft , and it never will . It has ever pursued a straightforward even course j it has neither been subsidized by friends nor patronized by any select

body of Freemasons ; it has had no public company to back it up ; it has never been the organ of a party or the journal of a coterie , but it has asked for a " fair field and no favour j" and thanks to the liberality , and sympathy , and justice of the Craft , it has obtained a hearing . It was

originally set on foot when Masonic literature seemed to have found the "facilis descenus Avemi , " and since 1869 , the date of its publication , it has unobtrusively pursued the even tenour of its way . It has had , like all newspaper properties , its brighter and its darker days j but owing to the energy , and perseverance , and p luck ot its