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miserable specimen of a Grand Master , was succeeded by C . D ., who was infamously worse . AVhen Jesus took a penny in his hand and Inquired , " whose image ancl superscription are these ? " the "image" was this which we see before us . The " superscription , " or as we would now term it , inscription , was HIP TI CAESAR DIVI AVG P AVGVSTVS

that is , " Imperator Tiberius Cassar , Divi Augustus Filius Augustus , " meaning in English , « The Emperor Tiberius Cassar Augustus , the son of the deified Augustus . " The preceding Emperor Augustuswho bad been deified bthe

, y Senate , had adopted Tiberius as his son , ancl this explains the allusion . On the opposite face of the coin ( the side which we call the reverse ) the words are ,

PONTIFF MAXIM that is , PONTIFEX MAX 1 MUS or "The Hi gh Priest . " As a general rule the Emperor filled the office of the Hi gh Priestas being at the

, head of the religious college . This is on the princi ple that the crowned heads of some European countries at the present day are the heads of the church , though they may have no personal religion whatever .

The figure of Tiberius is seated upon a chair to the ri ght , having in his left hand a branch of some kind ( olive , most probably ) , in his right a headless spear . The second idea to be impressed upon your readers' minds is , that the value of

the penny ( fifteen cents ) was in the country and age to which the parable refers , good wages . Fifteen cents a day may not at first si ght appear much ; but we must consider that the value of money consists in what it will purchase , and that

the value of money is the most fluctuating thing in the world . Twelve years ago my dollar bought but two yards of calico ; today it buys eight or nine . Twenty-five years ago my dollar would buy five bushels of meal ; to-day it will not for two .

pay In the fourteenth century one doUar ( or say one ounce of pure silver money , which is about the same thing ) , would buy as much meat and grain as a gold eagle ( 20

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dollars ) will now . At this rate , a penny in the time of Jesus was worth at least two dollars ( comparing values then and now ) , and perhaps three . This was good wages , as most of the class called common labourers at the present day , if they

merely had to pick grapes and tread them out , would acknowledge . Let me now recapitulate : 1 . The penny referred to in the Mark Master ' s degree is silver . 2 . The silver penny in the parable was

good in purchasing 2 or 3 dollars worth of the necessaries of life . In a future article , if . you like , I will write you concerning the "half Jewish shekel of silver , " which plays so important a part in the same Mark Master ' s degree .

One thing all ought to know , viz ., that at the time of building the Temple of Solomon there was no coined money . Gold and silver were used by weight , not by count . The first coined money was made nearly three hundred years after Solomon had been gathered to his fathers .

Freemasonry In France.

FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE .

BY BRO . J . H . GABALL , ( Continued from page 448 . ) THESE articles were verbally agreed to , so that it should not be mentioned in the

Convention that the Act of Union was anulled . In consequence , in the Statutes of 1806 , the Grand Orient instituted the Grand Directory of Rites , in which the Scottish Rite was represented , ancl the Supreme Councilon its partpublished on

, , the 27 November , 1806 , an organic decree , from which it will be well to quote articles 3 , 4 , 7 . " Article 3 . The degrees above the 18 th , up to and including the 33 rd , will not be conferred in the futureuntil the

, Organization of Councils , Tribunals , Colleges , and Chapters , except by the Supreme Council of the 33 rd degree , or in virtue of a special and particular delegation emanating from it . "