Freemasonry & Israelitism.

you be saved ; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength . " The first step has been secured . Israel had been for ages making his way hither , through difficulties and dangers which

threatened his extinction , but being sustained by Him who had promised deliverance from all evil , and who was to employ him for bringing back from idolatry and all its horrible accompaniments , the nations and

peoples , and subduing them by the light and power of His truth , he had been made to " stand in the evil day , and having done all to stand ; " and now , renewing his strength , he was presently to gird up his loins and

pursue his high and holy mission , in making His name known and His Fatherhood acknowledged , "from the rising of tlie sun to the going down thereof ; " for " Thou art my servant , O Israel , in whom I will be glorified " ( Isaiah xlix 3 ) .

ERRATA . — In the preceding paper , page 451 col . 3 , line 1 , for Gctitk read Gctit ; line 10 , same col ., for proscribed read prescribed ; line 14 , same col ., for wine-pressers read wine-presses ; line 27 , same col ., for Masstis read Mwotis ; and in tlie

following line , for Tamais read Tanais . In page 452 , line 4 , for sworn read sure ; same page , col . 2 , line 3 , for Idomeans read Idumeans ; and iri line 12 read the same ; in the same col ., in 10 th line from close , for with read both .

The Plain Of Philistia.

THE PLAIN OF PHILISTIA .

BY CAPTAIN WARREN , R . E . { Continued from page 429 . ^ We were out from sunrise to sunset every day , but we did not suffer from the heat , though it was often up to 100 ° in the shade during the afternoon ; in the night time it was comparatively cool , going

down to near 70 , except during the siroccos . May 24 , 1 S 67 , — We left Jerusalem on a month ' s tour in the Plains of Piiilistia , intending to try aud photograph the monuments in the mosque at Hebron , and we were provided with letters from the Pacha of Jerusalem for that purpose . We

travelled with much pomp and ceremony to Hebron , being accompanied by a lieutenant and four zaptis , ¦ who were to secure us admission to the mosque . The result of this expedition is described page 39 Recovery of Jerusalem . 1 had had a sharp attack of lever on 22 nd May , and only got out of bed to get

on horseback . Corporal Phillips also caught the fever on our arrival at Hebron , but our ride down to Gaza , where we arrived May 29 , brought us round again . Riding all day in a hot summers sun is a queer remedy for fever , but I have tried it more than once with success .

On our way down we met women in the villages acting the part of mourners . The conscription was going on , there husbands were being taken away . Soldiers , they say , never return to their native villages , so they are mourned as dead men , and the widows marry again shortly .

May 30 . —I had been requested to proceed a [ cw miles S . E . of Ca / . a in search of tlie Tels Jenia and Gcrar , supposed to be the ruins of the city Gerar ( Gen , xxvi . ) , and spoken of by several authors as having been discovered by the Rev . J . Rowlands in Van de Velde ' s Memoir ( 1858 ) , p . 115 we have

the following : — " Um el Jerar , the site ol Gerar , at the foot of Tel Jema in W . idy-el-Adar , recognised by a few scattered stones in the vicinity of some line springs , was therefore laid down in our maps according to the information of the natives . " On making enquiries J easily learnt the position

of Tel Jema , and the only difficulty in the way was the permanently unsettled state of the country about this borderland , which being almost common ground , appears to be constantly liable to raids from tribes from the south . Just now , the wheat having been recently gathered , there were many

wandering bands of si range Bedouin about , who appeared to sniff our two zaptis from afar and long to punish them . On making arrangements fo > - passing a night at Tel Jema , our zaptis broke out in mutiny ; so paying off the most blustering , we set off with the

remaining man , a black , ordering the muleteers to encamp beside the " line springs " at Gerar or Tel Jema . We soon left Gaza behind us and entered upon a rolling plain covered here and there with a stubble

of the wheat . The natives of these parts are roving farmers—a turbulent lot of a nondescript race , « 'ho arc constantly in trouble either with the local government or with their own allies , the Bedouins ; every now and then compelled to build themselves Village ? , thev are again rendered homeless bv the

The Plain Of Philistia.

raids from the south , and thus being constantly ex posed to dangers from all sides , they are somewha reckless in their behaviour , and it is not uncommon to hear that the soldiers of Gaza have been ordered out against them . Still they appear to thrive and to be well-to-do , no doubt partly on account of the

richness of thesoil , but partly by doing a little foraging on their own account and putting it clown to the Bedouin , or else by acting as "jackals " in the raids which are sometimes made on the villages of the fat Philistian plains . Their land may—must—be very productive , but as we wander on up and down the wady banks and

over the swelling hills , it appears to be a series of semi or wholly barren wastes , interspersed with sand-hills on which linger a few solitary fir trees , though in the far west , on the sea coast , may be seen clusters of date palms around the villages , with the line of telegraph wires from Gaza to Alexandria , rudely preventing our losing ourselves in thoughts of the past .

I had always pictured to myself a peculiar region for the scene of Isaac ' s life , perhaps from its name of Goshen corresponding with the name of the fertile Egyptian tract ( Gen . xlvii . 11 ) , " the best of the land , " something to compensate for the difficulty of his position . But there is nothing at the

present day to bear out the idea , and it strengthens our opinion of his obedience to the Divine command when we find how he gave up the pleasures of freedom , of a wandering life , or of settling in a country like the rich plains to the north of Gaza , in

order to dwell in this tame and monotonous solitude . Perhaps to his gentle and peaceful nature there may have been something congenial in the character of this country , but to a European it simply presents the disadvantages of a desert and settled life without the joys of cither .

We had not advanced far into the plain before we came across Wady Shcriah , and I became aware that this portion of Van dc Veldc ' s map , put in on Bedouin authority , was hopelessly in error ; but I found little chance of correcting it , for there are few prominent points , and one sand-hill is the

veritable twin brother of the next , and so on . After travelling south from Gaza , about eight miles , we came full in front of Tel Jema on the south side of Wady Gusseh , having to its west a little patch of cultivated ground on which melons were growing . But where are our tents , and where are the fine

springs of Gcrar ? Mafish , Mafish ; nothing but Tel Jema and its melon beds . The Tel itself is a mound similar to those of Jericho , the Jordan , and Aiak Mcnshiyeh , artificial and covered with pottery and broken glass ; and no doubt marks the site of some ancient stronghold or citv . I now

inquired from the natives for other ruins , but they denied there being any nearer than Sbcta , or any water cither , except Tel Shcriah , where they say there are streams of water . Is not this latter likely to be the looked-for Gerar seen by Mr . Rowlands ? At Tel Jema itself thev said they obtained their

water from fel Ajur , on the sea-coast , the mouth of the Wady Guzzeh , and there we were directed to proceed , as being the on ' y place where our tents could be pitched . There arc here a lagoon and some springs ol medicinal water , very nasty tothe taste , but just the very stuff to carry off the ill effects of our

lever , and we returned to Gaza next day nearly well . On our road through the sand-hills we came across a great lizard , looking like a small crocodile ; we gave chase and ran it to bay under a . little sand cleft . On going up to it , it puffed itself out , and opened its mouth so wide that we stood around not venturing

to touch the beast , and eventually shinned it by swinging a leaden plumb-bob on to his head ; we then lied him hand and foot and fastened him on the rug behind the saddle of the dragoman , who was rather nervous about his companion coming suddenly to life again . We then rode on to Gaza ,

and met a good many Bedouin on the road , who shouted out after us "Warren ! Warren ! " It did not strike me at first as odd , but when they all began shouting out my name we were a good d ? al puzzled . On getting' into camp we tied the beast , now quite lively again , to a stake in the ground ,

and let him get in the shade under the lee of my tent . The townspeople soon began to llock around us . and I heard repeated exclamations of" Warren ' . " and on going out to see the reason , found them pointing to the lizard , and discovered that I had a namesake inhabitant of the desert . This animal

to well known on the banks of the Nile , but I am not aware that it has been seen in Syria before by Europeans , and as 1 was anxious to get him forwarded to England , 1 sent him in a cage to Dr . Chaplin , at Jerusalem , who identified him as the Nile lizard ; he was taken to be examined by some

of the English residents , but after getting into a harmonium and refusing' to be dislodged for some time , it was considered desirable to return him lo the care of . Sergeant Birtles , who was encamped outside the town . He throve very well until a certain Sunday morning , when he was tied hand and foot and put into a pit 20 as to be very safe , and a

The Plain Of Philistia.

Nubian guard was told to watch that he did not escape . On return from church he was not to be found , and nothing was heard of him for three years . When we were leaving Jerusalem in 1870 , we learnt that this animal , when !! cooked , is a very favourite dish of the Nubians ; and that some

Nubian friends of our black guard having come to visit him , they had together regaled themselves on my unfortunate namesake . At Gaza we were encamped under an aged tamarisk tree ( see No . 255 p hoto . ) . I paid a visit to the governor , who gave me leave to visit the

mosques , and served we with the best cup of coffee I have tasted in Syria . The old church , described by Porter , is worth a visit . On one of the white marble columns in the nave is a Jewish sevenbranched candlestick sculptured ; it was out of our reach , but there is no doubt about its existence ; it

is on a square of about six inches . Some of the columns appear to be of granite . We could find no vestige of ancient Gaza outside the city . 3 rd June , left for Askelon , thirteen miles in a straight line . At the present port to N . W . were bones and jars

collected ready for exportation , and a few coasting boats in the offing . Passing over the drift sand we came here and there to craters , thirty to forty feet deep , at the bottom of which would be growing a fig or an apple tree laden with fruit . ( To be continued )

Circular On Intemperance.

CIRCULAR ON INTEMPERANCE .

Office of the G . M . of the State of Ohio , Toledo , January 9 th , A . L . 5871 . To the W . M ., Wardens , and Brethren of Lodge No . — . Brethren , —At the last session of the Grand Lodge of Ohio , begun and held in the city of Springfield ,

October 18 th , A . L . 5870 , the select committee , to whom was referred so much of the M . W . Grand Master ' s address as relates to intemperance and profanity , submitted a report , which was unanimously adopted , as follows : — " That those vices have become alarming and

painfullyprevalent , even among the members of our Ancient and Honourable Fraternity , marring the beauty and harmony of our lodges , producing discord , inalienation , and moral . declension , at war with the very elementary principles on which the whole fabric of the Masonic Institution is based .

Every Masonic brother , by the tenure of his profession , is bound to obey the moral law , and what said that law : ' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain , for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takcth His name in vain . ' In the first step which a man takes , at the very entrance of

the vestibule of the Temple , with what solemnity is he charged , among other duties , that which he owes to his God—never lo mention his name but with that reverential awe which is due from a creature to his Creator , to implore His aid in all his laudable undertakings , and to esteem Him as the chief good .

Again , as he ascends another step towards the Inner Temple , what brilliant hieroglyphics arrest his attention , up towards which all eyes are turned in mule and reverend awe . And can even an Entered Apprentice profane that sacred name by imprecating its curse upon himself , or upon his

fellow-man ? How much more a Master Mason , whose feet have trodden the sanctum sanctorum , or Holy of Holies . Drunkenness is a vice of most hideous mien , brutalizing the physical man , and rendering him an object of contemptanddetestation , mingled with pity . Alas ! how many even of our

brethren—generous , noble , and gifted—have fallen victims to this insatiable vice , and are nowmouldcring in dishonoured graves , or hastening with trembling strides in the same broad road to destruction and death , unhonourcd and unwept , save by the grief-stricken , heart-broken wife and helpless

orphans , or the doling mother , on whose maternal breast he in youth pillowed his boyish head . Your committee deem it unnecessary to elaborate the evils resulting from these unmasonic vices , not only to tlie Fraternity of which theywerc once honoured and beloved members , but by their vicious example

in the community where their vices are practised . Your committee recommend for adoption the following : ' Resolved—That the M . W . Grand Master be , and he is hereby authorised , and it is made his duty , to issue 11 circular to be addressed to the subordinate lodges of this jurisdiction , enjoining the

Masters of the several lodges to action in these premises , by all the powers of moral suasion and brotherly kindness , lo arrest the evil , and , in the last resort , to cut off the persistently offending members as cancerous excrcscenscs on the body of

Masonry . Brethren . —Freemasonry is based upon the practice of virtuous principles , inculcating the highest standard of moral excellence ; morality is its foundation and chief corner-stone . Every Mason should be a moral man ; no member of our Fraternity )