Aids To Study.

AIDS TO STUDY .

BY BRO , WM . CARPENTER , P . M . & P . Z . 177 . IS o . XVI . than

It has been written , not more eloquently truthfully , that on entering the temple of revelation one of the first objects that has attracted the attention of all ages , and which constitutes a grand support , is the pillar of prophecy . Like

the celebrated obelisks of Egypt , it is covered with hieroglyphics , which the wisdom of man , and the skill of science , in their combined efforts attempt in vain to decipher . There is one interpreter , however , whose elucidations never

fail to render the inscriptions intelligible . It is Time . His hand retraces all the figures before the eyes of succeeding generations ; this interpretation is recorded by the pen of faithful , impartial history ; and by comparing the

commentary with the original , we are able to comprehend both the one and the other . This pillar is adamant , and resists the impressions of age . Its inscriptions were written by hands which have long since mouldered into dust ;

and by persons who did not themselves always understand what they wrote , nor were able to explain the characters which they formed ; but the substance of them was dictated by God Himself , and the column is Flis own

workmanship . There have been many fruitless efforts made to shake this monument of infinite wisdom , and to erase the lines of inscrutable knowledge ; but the pillar remains unmoved ; the lines unimpaired , and the whole uninjured

either by malice or by years . The parts of this singular elevation which stand nearer the roof of the temple , are covered by an impenetrable cloud . The whole pillar was once equally

involved : but Time , who has rolled away the mist from its base , shall , at the destined period , unveil the remaining part of it ; and while we shall be able to read the writing , he shall announce , with unerring perspicuity , the interpretation .

We have seen how far this description of Scripture prophecy has been realised in the histories of Egypt and Assyria , both mighty and civilised , but poisoned with the dregs of idolatry , and deeply infuted with its cruelties . Egypt was

renowned for its learning and opulence ; Assyria for its conquests and the magnitude of its dominions . They have both passed away , and their glory is trodden in the dust , as was written when nothing seemed more unlikely . So , in like

manner , with Babylon—the " Great Babylon "" the glory of kingdoms , " " the beauty of the Chaldee ' s excellency . " When in the plentitude of its power , and , according to the most accurate chronologers , 160 years before the foot of an

enemy had entered it , the voice of one had made itself heard there—the voice of prophecy pronounced the doom of the mighty and unconquered Babylon . A succession of years brought it gradually to the dust , and the degradation of

its fall is marked till it sinks at last into utter desolation . At a time when only magnificence was around the great city , —emphatically called " THE Great" fallen Babylon was delineated by the pencil of inspiration , exactly as every

traveller now describes its ruins . It departed not , however , on its first conquest , nor on thc final extinction of its capital ; one metropolis of Assyria , rose after another in the land of Chaldea , when Babylon had ceased to be " the glory of kingdoms . "

Aids To Study.

It seems almost undeniable that tlie vast region known as Babylonia , and as described in modern times , should have been , at one time , the most fertile region of the whole East . It was one vast plain , adorned and enriched by the Eiqihrates

and the Iigris , from which , and from the numerous canals that intersected thc country from the one river to the others , water was distributed over the fields , giving rise in that warm climate and rich apparently exhaustless soil , to

an exuberance of produce over so extensive a region without a known parallel , in either ancient or modern times . Herodotus says he knew not how to speak of its wonderful fertility , which none but an eye-witness would credit .

And we have the like testimony from Strabo . Ammianus , Marcellimus , and others ; the lattei of whom states , that from the point reached by Julian ' s army to the shores of the Persian Gulf , there was one continuous forest of verdure . What

is it now ? Many modern travellers have supplied the answer . I quote one ( Loftus ) "Long lines of mounds mark the courses of these main arteries which formerly diffused life and

vegetation along their banks ; but their channels arc now bereft of moisture , and choked with drifted sand ; the smaller offshoots are wholly effaced . All that remains of that ancient civilization—¦

that ' glory of kingdoms , ' 'the praise of the whole earth , '—is recognisable in the numerous mouldering heaps of brick rubbish which overspread the surface of the plain . Instead of the luxuriant fields , the groves and gardens , nothing

now meets the eye but an and waste—tlie dense population of the former times has vanished , and no man dwells there . ' "" As lo the former greatness of the empire or of its capital , the only real traces to be found of it are in the large

mysterious-looking mounds which meet the eye of the traveller , as he wanders over the plain . Each mound has a name , handed down from ancient times , and preserved by the country people ; and some of them are lo be identified

with names found m the Bible . But no certain remains of the walls of Babylon have hitherto been identified so as to indicate their precise limits , though assiduously sought for . Nebuchadnezzar , having shaken off the fear which seems

to have possessed him for the time given to him to "break off his sins by righteousness , and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor , if it might be a lengthening of his tranquility , ' " ( Daniel iv .. 27 , ) became repossessed of his

arrogance and defiant will , and dwelling upon the great works he had accomplished towards rendering Babylon impregnable , exclaimed , " Is not this great Babylon , that I have built for the house of the kingdom , by the might of my power ,

and for the honour of my majesty !"' " ( Ibid . ) Similarly he exalts over the works he had thus accomplished , in the famous inscription which modern research has recovered from the ruins : — " I strengthened the city . Across the river to the

west 1 built the wall of Bab ylon with brick . . . . Behold , besides the Ingur-Bcl , the impregnable fortification of Bab ylon , I constructed on tlie eastern side of the river , a fortification such as no king had ever made before me . . . . Against

presumptuous enemies who were hostile lo tlie men of Babylon , great waters , like the waters of the ocean , I made use of abundantly . . . . Thus I completely made strong the defences of Babylon . "

But it was all in vain . Babylon was doomed , because of its idolatry , tyranny , oppression , pride , covetousness , drunkenness , falsehood , and

Aids To Study.

other wickedness . More than a century before thc country had attained to the meridian of its glory—a time , therefore , when human sagacity would have foretold her increasing greatness , rather than her complete desolation , Isaiah

uttered his "burdens . of Babylon , '' ( chaps , xiii ., xiv ., xlv .. ) in the former of which he names the Medes as the victorious enemies , and in the latter , Cyrus as the victorious commander , as

did also Jeremiah ( chap , h . ) ; and both of them its utter overthrow , and perpetual desolation , ( Isaiah xiii ., 4 , 5 ; xiv ., 23 ; Jeremiah ] ., 13 , 15 , ) also the means and the manner in which it should be taken ( Isaiah xlv ., 1-3 ; Jeremiah li ., 31 . )

There are many other and very expressive predictions that I might cite , but time and space fail . The Student may easily refer to time , by the aid of a concordance ; and one only conclusion can he come to—that which is intimated at the

commencement of this paper . The fulness and simplicity of the Bible , as therefore recording the facts of history , cannot fail to impress a thinking mind more deeply than the littleness visible in the inflated records of mere mortal

men . The unadorned truth is less doubted , more unreservedly depended upon , than it is when dressed up in the needless ornaments of

human eloquence . J lie record is felt to be true , and we receive it as a substantial and . superhuman reality . To the sceptic and the infidel the whole case is abundantly monetary .

On Freemasonry.

ON FREEMASONRY .

BY BRO . HEXRV T . BOJIART , P . P . G . S . B . Dr . Watts says . " religion or virtue includes duty to God and our neighbour ; reglion then is a system of practical duties and thus stands

opposed to theology which is a system of speculative truths . The moral duties , which a man commits to practice in this probationary slate with a view lo pleasing his Creator , are

acts of pure religion . Freemasonry was revealed by God himself to the first man ; placed in the garden of JCden , Adam would certainly be made acquainted with the nature of his tenure , and

taught with the worship of his Maker , that simple science of morals which is now termed Freemasonry . This constituted his chief employment in Paradise , and his onlv consolation

after his fall ; for speculative . Masonry is nothing else but ( he philosophy of the mind and morals founded on the belief of a God , the Creator , Preserver and Redeemer , which instructs

mankind in the sublimities of science , inculcates a strict observance of the duties of social life , and inspires in the soul a veneration for the author of its being , who would reveal nothing but what

had a tendency to encourage the practice of those precepts which were given to preserve die newly created man in the strict line of moral duly , therefore , Masonry must be closel y

interwoven with ( he practice of religion . Its operative portion proceeded from the effects of human necessily after the fall , so far as was conducive to man ' s comfort and convenience in

this life . Hence originated the two great divisions of Masonry ; operative Masonry was of human institution , speculative Masonry of Divine . Jt is for want of bearing in mind this

distinction that so many errors arise respecting the nature and tendency of Freemasonry . Before the introduction of the Art of Priming , it is evident the preservation of Eternal