Masonic Thoughts For Christmas, 1877.

carried their admission . The only gainers by this senseless change are the Ultra montanes , and the old antagonist of Freemasonry , Bishop Dupanloup . For French Freemasonry such an act can only place it in the most melancholy of positions— "Isolation , " and may be , as we fear it will be . the prelude to its own internal

dissolution . Before the world it now stands in complete opposition to Cosmopolitan Freemasonry , and to its own ancient teaching , and we apprehend that there is nothing before it , humanly speakin 0- , but a reprobation of its acts , and a denial of its jurisdiction by all Anglo-Saxon Freemasons . We are sincerely sorry for the French Freemasons .

" Peace On Earth, Good Will To Man."

" PEACE ON EARTH , GOOD WILL TO MAN . "

We are closing another eventful year of the great calendar of time , and war , cruel , devastating war , is still wasting and destroying the brig ht promise of human life , and entailing its bitter and heartrending miseries upon thousands of our suffering fellow-creatures . At this time ,

then , and at this season of the year , so propitious to gentle souvenirs , and more gladdening truths , it seems well to remind ourselves of the unchanged hopes and aspirations of Freemasonry . For war qua war , Freemasonry does not possess and cannot have any sympathy . Of course

there are wars and wars . There is , for instance the war of defence , which is sacred ; there is the war of liberation , which is needful ; there is the war of honour and principle , which is commendable . But war is a sad necessity always , at the best , and can only be defended

as a necessity , and in the words of perhaps the greatest soldier who ever lived , the Duke of Wellington , we ought always to try and avoid war , if we possibly can . For war , it is too often forgotten , amid a blaze of heroic language or gaudy transparencies , the songs of

the victor , the flush of victory , is in fact a very prosaic and petty affair after all , when measured by the greater standard of humanity . We say nothing here of the line qualities it may evoke , or the noble deeds it may embalm , the heroism or daring which it displays , or the dauntless

courage which it perpetuates , for all these things are duly sang of and recounted by the bards and chroniclers of all time . And no doubt they have their good side and their true meaning for man , and life . But war , however fascinating and how gorgeous in the abstract ,

in theory , — in the concrete , practically means the overthrow of all civil life and polity , and virtue , and innocence , the ruin of peace , and of all we count most dear to us , nationally and individually , and above all the domination of all that is fell and foul , all that

is cruel and crooked , all that is unsavoury and unsatisfactory on this fair earth of ours . War is the absolute destruction of the labours of the husbandman , of the savings of the tradesman , of the progress of honest industry , of the developement of kindly commerce . We say nothing here

of the sufferings of humanity which it introduces in its train , or the outrages onlwomen , innocence , or helplessness which it entails , the ravages it occasions , the epidemics it brings about . Freemasonry cannot follow with applauding voice the car of the conqueror , which seems only to

be drawn , like hateful Juggernaut , over the prostrate bodies of the infatuated and the reckless . No orphan ' s cry , no widow ' s wail , shall go with Freemasonry , accompany its footsteps , herald its advance , or mark its ascendency . The victories it wishes to celebrate are those of

civilization ; the triumphs it is glad to record are those of peace . Under its banner are congregated those who wish to see the gradual , loyal , orderly , advance of the human race in the one safe way of patriotic legality , and , above all , in that general good , which most of all tends to the happiness of the citizen , the

contentment of nations , and satisfactory march of the great army of the human race . When , then , to-day , we still hear the blast of war , if even in a far-off land ; when wc read the tales of hideous cruelty , or have to listen to some fearful damning record of human wickedness , of the prevalence of those awful passions which war excites , as Freemasons , we cannot but express

" Peace On Earth, Good Will To Man."

a wish , at this season of the year for the advent of a golden epoch of healing peace . We look forward to the time when " Wars shall be no more , " when the " sword shall be turned into the ploughshare , " when peace shall shine upon this fair world of ours in all its radiant grace . For

that happier time we still can wait , in confiding hope , even amidst the mists and darker hours of to-day , and faith still whispers to us of a glad dawn yet to be , when in God ' s own good time , the angelic song shall yet be heard again , often forgotten amidst the discordant shouts of earthl y folly , wickedness , and warfare , " Peace on Earth , Good Will to Man . "

Our "St. John's."

OUR "ST . JOHN'S . "

Time ' s wheel , ever relentlessly running on , has rolled round , and the noted point in its periphery has again come into contact with our Masonic parallel : the weeks have sped away noiselessly and uneventfully , may be , yet gradually and surely , and here we are once more

gathered in lodge to celebrate our winter " St . John ' s . " A joyous time it is and a merry , for is it not the birth of our new Masonic year ? the starting point of many of us in a fresh career of duty and of usefulness to the Craft and Lodge , to the brethren , and , let us hope , to ourselves .

To one amongst us it is an especially anxious time—we mean to our Master , now newly enthroned in the chair of the Royal Solomon . For him the circle of this year of office will revolve concurrently with the circling-line which will bound his duty , touching on either side the

exemplary parallels to which his attention was long ago directed , and on whose pattern he must frame his future conduct ; regulated on the one side , by the eager zeal , the unflinching rectitude of the Master who gave the law amidst the terrors of Sinai and Horeb , and who enforced it in

its strictest integrity through the sad world of wilderness to the honey-yielding , milk-flowing p lains of the Canaanitish rest ; and , on the other , by the wisdom of the Grand Master , whose glory and renown were told" to earth ' s remotest bound . The new-made Master looks upon the one that

now stands beside him , a step below that chair that but lately he so well and proudly filled , and whose hand but a moment before gave into his hand the gavel of high rule and acknowledged authority ; and in this his hour of elsvation above , but by his fellows , though a proud flush

may mantle over his cheek as he thus grasps in his strong right hand the symbol of the worth y and well-earned reward of his labours , he cannot but feel that , work as he will , and labour as he may , Time ' s circle will as surely revolve for him as it has for his brother on the step below him ,

and the time must inevitably come when the point will once more touch the parallel , and he too must descend from his proud position as his brother has done before him ; and yet , he may console himself with the thought that even that lower step is , after

all , the position of dignity ; for it is the place of those who , having as lately well-ruled as they have aforetime well-wrought , are entered into that rest which is the reward of toil , and are even now in the enjoyment of the reward , the hope of which has sweetened their labour in the days gone by .

And as for these last , the Fathers of the Lodge , they in their turn will remember that a few more revolutions , at most , of Time ' s circle , and their well-earned jewels of rectitude , adorned with learning and judgment and experience , must fall from off their necks—for all mundane things , jewels though they be ,

are" Shadows , not substantial things , " which will vanish at the dawning light of morning , and will" In the earth be equal made , With the poor crooked scythe and spade . " Nor is the lesson of Time ' s circle lost to the brethren below the chair ; for them too , it

touches , year by year , its parallels and theirs , the two St . John ' s . To them it points to a ceaseless round of duty , regulated on the one hand by the burning eager zeal for truth and rectitude of the Baptist , and on the other by the meek love and trustfulness in the Master ' s care of him we speak of aB "the Divine ; " the love

Our "St. John's."

modelled on that of the one , tempering the life moulded by the warning call to the repentance , from the objects of the lower life , to those of the better life above us and beyond , of the other ; nor must they long delay , for none — " can stay Death ' s hand , Nor hold the ebbing sand ,

Of Life ' s hour-glass ; We can but brave and patient , stand ,

And let it pass . " Just as it was the case with the exemplar , in days of old , the Widow ' s son , so must it soon be with them . Happy for them if they then leave behind amongst their brethren a reflection of his bright and beautiful career of integrity , made the more resplendent by the fortitude of his faithful , albeit sorrowful , end .

Labour isended and refreshment is begun , and round the festive board are gathered the resting sons of toil ; but where are the familiar faces that we see there no more , and whose are those young forms that occupy the places of the loved and

lost ? With joy and sorrow , weal and woe , This chequered life jogs on ; and so The world keeps rolling ! While stars have set , fresh stars have shone ; New friends replace the old ones gone ,

Our grief consoling ; And marriage-bells ring on and on , Through death-knells tolling !" And so the circle is always complete , but yet though this be so , we cannot quite forget the loved and lost—lost ? no ! gone before ! For

now Time ' s circle shining out once more , although it shows us gaps here and there where earth-worn felloes have dropped out of the wheel , gaps ever widening till all , even we ourselves , shall be gone , yet tells us that the lost parts shall be reunited in the future , in the circle

of Time no longer , but of Eternity instead , an everlasting band , to be broken no more , but to circle on for ever round the throne of The Great Architect of the Universe , Himself the centra of the system of love , taught us in this out greatest festal-day , our annual " St . John ' s . "

" Le Monde Maconnique, " " The Scottish Freemason," And " The Freemason.' '

" LE MONDE MACONNIQUE , " " THE SCOTTISH FREEMASON , " AND " THE FREEMASON . ' '

It is a great pity , that those worthy brethren who write in the Monde Maconnique are so ill posted up in all that relates to the Free ? nason . It is not indeed surprising that thus it should be , but we think it well to state , for the information of our readers , that thus it is . Having recently hinted that certain editorial articles of the

Freemason are animated by the views of a trader , and thus assuming that the Editor and Publisher of the Freemason are one and the same , in order to point a childish sarcasm , they have made another amusing mistake in the last number of the Monde Maconnique ; for now they gravely

assert that the Editor of the Freemason and of the Scottish Freemason is the same person , and like the French Republic , '' one and indivisible . " But , as we before pointed out , Bro . Kenning , though the sole proprietor , is not the Editor of the Freemason , who has a distinct

personality , however humble , of his own . And so also we think it well to remark to-day , that the editor of the Freemason is not the editor of the Scottish Freemason , has nothing to do with its direction , and knows nothing of its articles , and in no sense directs its opinions . The Scottish

Freemason is a perfectly independent paper of itsself , and unconnected with the Freemason . Though Bro . Kenning is the proprietoi and publisher of both , the Scottish Freemason has been , and is so ably edited , that we feel the compliment of the Monde Maconnique very much , and as we

fully agree with the actual editor of the Scottish Freemason in all that he has said , and in all that he does say week by week so effectively , we are very happy to be supposed to " row in the S 3 me boat " with him . What a pity it is that

our old antagonist Bro . Adrien Grimaux should make such a "leetle bifsteak , " and like the "charming woman" of the old song should " talk of things " which he certainly does not " understand . "

ETON COLLEGE . —The school will close next Friday for the Christmas vacation , when the authorities of the Great Western and South Western Railways will run special trains for the conveyance of the boys to their homes .