Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 31 CORRESPONDENCEVolunteering and Freemasonrv 38 The Craft in South-Eastcrn Europe 38 Is he Legally and Regularly Elected ?—j \ i 30

_ . om . cuon Keep Your Temper 38 The Eleusinian Inscription 39 Masonic Notes and Queries 39 Lodge of Benevolence 39 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 39 Consecration of the Macdonald Lodge of Ark Marinors 39

1 Tlie Grand Lodge of Greece & Mr . Gladstone 39 New Zealand 39 REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 40 Instruction 47 Roval Arch 47

Mark Masonry 47 Knights Templar 4 S Ancient and Accepted Rite 4 8 Scotland 4 8 Obituary 48 The Theatres 4 8 Masonic and General Tidings 49 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 50

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THE point we touched upon in our last , the support of the Charities by our youngest lodges , is a very serious matter . It must be quite clear to all who will think on the subject , that unless the younger lodges emulate the older

bodies in their kindly sympathy and aid of the Metropolitan Institutions , a time may come when those who have borne uncomplainingly the "burden and heat of the day" for many years may fairly say , "let others take up and continue the work where we have left it . " Many

of our oldest lodges send up a Steward every year , one we know there is which has a Steward for all the three Charities yearly , and many of our good brethren make themselves Stewards , year by year , for one or more , some for all the Charities , for fear

anything should serve to impede the progress or interfere with the acknowledged utility and benefits of these admirable institutions . Now we are not saying too much when we repeat that some of our lodges , and especially the younger ones , have never yet sent up a Steward , or remitted a

farthing to any one of the Charities . It would be a most interesting statistical detail , if it were procurable , how many actually of our lodges and chapters have not yet done anything for the Charities . For we may assume it as a fact alike unquestionable and distinct , that if they have done little

publicly for the Charities , they have done little for private lodge benevolence ; if they have done nothing for our metropolitan Institutions , they have done nothing or next to nothing for home benevolence . There is another fact as regards general benevolence which we shall all do well to ponder

over , a fact perfectly well known to all who have to do with charitable asso - ciations and organizations . It is this . That those who give the most never complain of giving , and those who give the least always do it grudgingly and querulously . VVe feel sure that our lodges only want " stirring up "

to see the matter in its proper light , and we believe that the heart of Masonic charity is neither enfeebled , decayed , or quenched . We trust that our Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution festival will evince that , despite hard times and bad times , the hearts of Freemasons are still as warm , as

loving , and as unselfish as ever ; and that just as in the past , so in the present and the future , ( God helping us ) , we will maintain in their full efficiency and reality those great Institutions of our Order , which loving sympathy

has founded , reared , and developed , and which constitute alike a test of Masonic professions , and are in veriest certainty the pride and glory of our English Freemasonry .

SOME persons often affect to doubt the importance and to question the value of Freemasonry . Yet every day which passes over our heads surely more and more serves to attest its reality , and to develope its high

significance for mankind . We live in a very desultory and disunited age . The cries of contending factions and the interests of seemingly antagonistic sections of society tend to sever man from his fellow man , and to introduce a general feeling of disquietude and discord . Freemasonry , which lives above

and looks beyond , far beyond the petty controversies and passing solicitudes of the . hour , ignores all these things and rejects them in her complacent and serener atmosphere , her more magnanimous outlook on society and the

world . She lives entirely above them . What matter to her the " shibboleths" of angry hosts , the war cries of party passion , the ebullitions of sectarian animosities ? In her peaceful p hilosophy , founded on Divine

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morality and wisdom , she bids all combatants cease from their contest , and regard each other with mutual kindness . At her benign command the " sword" is turned into the " ploughshare , " the truimphs of war are exchanged for the victories of peace , nations need no longer " rise against nation , " and the arts of gentler civilization and refining culture smooth

away the rugged acerbities of intestine strife and internecine struggles . It is this peculiar fact which constitutes alike the temptation , the danger , and the responsibility of Freemasonry at the present hour . A religious , a philanthropic , and a loyal association , based upon reverence to GOD , love to man , and devotion to the throne and lawful government everywhere , and above

all most reverential to religion , most desirous of peace , most zealous for charity , and most obedient to law , it serves as a rallying point amid divergent and often vehemently opposing opinions , for all who revere their Maker and love their brother man . Deprecating the vehemence of party spirit , and holding itself aloof from all sectarian dissensions , it

affords a shelter and a resting place for many , who , looking at the turbuleit sea of human life , hear nothing and see nothing but separation , confusion , and strife . And therefore , just now , in all lands where rightly understood , and mostly so among our Anglo Saxon race , it is happily progressing , because true to its own teaching , it never ceases in

season and out of season to profess and practice its sacred , its healing , and its generous principles . In some countries , unfortunately , leaving its own strait path , it has turned to the right or the left . In some regions it mixes itself up with politics , always fatal to it ; in some lands it affects to deal with social questions , an equally objectionable proceedure . A secret society

everywhere , it has clearly no right by the constitutions of civil society , to discuss either political or social questions , and wherever it does so , it makes itself a snare to the subject and a fear to the ruler . Above all , ought Freemasonry in all times and places to keep away from public manifestations of any kind , which are not Masonic , and it should never affect to issue declarations

about subjects alien to its own proper programme , because by so doing it renders itself obnoxious to authority , a seeming " fautor " often of revolution , and a laughing stock to society and the world . It ought to confine itself to its own humbler pathway of goodwill to all , of genial and particular and benevolence , while it should never pause in inculcating the genial

princip les of toleration and sympathy for all men . Thus and thus only will Freemasonry truly develope its proper mission , and thus and thus only will it eventually gain the goodwill of its many adversaries , v hile it retains the unchanging confidence of its friends , and the respect and gratitude of mankind .

* * THE discovery at Eleusis of an inscription alluding to the importation of the Eleusinian Mysteries into England , suggests many considerations for Masonic students to day . This isa new find and a new fact , and maybe an important factor as regards the history of Freemasonry up to thepresent .

Though it had been deemed not improbable that the Romans had introduced some Mysteries o { their own into England , the general idea on the subject was very hazy indeed . Writers and students seemed to waver between the ceremonies and customs of the mysterious Colidei , or Culdees , who were assumed to come from the East , and the "aporreta" of Druidic

Mysteries . But if the Mysteries of Eleusis were actually practised in England during the Roman occupation , it is impossible to say what traces of them remained , or how they became incorporated with the Guild system and Hermetic societies . As it is well known , many Masonic writers have leant to the Mysteries , have held that in some form or other accomodated

or developed , traces of them are to be found in Freemasonry , and some have thought that the Druids preserved a developement of them in theirsecret assemblies . Anyhow , here is a nice little question for the curious and the antiquary , here is a pretty " Crux " for Masonic students to study and to solve .

Bro . GOULD in his recent work alludes to the Mysteries in connection with the " Compagnonage , " but all seems to be tending , as we have ever held , to a form of actual English organization , though no doubt originall y derived from alien sources and far off lands .