May Mason.

" So do I need you ten times more than she . " " Do you 1 You are looking very well May moaned and grieved for me day and night , until she was worn to a shadow , and you did not even get sick , said Rica , " saucily .

" I did not suppose you would go out as a nurse among the Masons , " said he , with a frown . " I would not , had they all been like you , " she retorted , with a pout . " Mr . Gerard converted me , " she added ,

mischievously . 'Thanks to Mr . Gerard , " said Hugh , dryly , " and I will take the new convert to my heart . " " You will have to take May , if you take me" said Ricasoberly . " We are not to

, , be separated again . " " We might open an asylum for unfortunate Masonic orphans , " said Hugh , with an air of resignation . " We , indeed 1 You may consider yourself fortunate if you are taken in as

an ' unfortunate , ' sir . " " Taken in , I may be , but unfortunate no more ; thanks to little May Mason's influence over her 'Anti-Masonic' Auntie . "

Social Problems And Their Peaceful Solution.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR PEACEFUL SOLUTION .

BY BRO . REV . W . TEBBS . III . TEMPERANCE . * " God causeth ... to grow ., that He may bring forth food and -wine that maketh glad the heart of man . "

" 'Wine is a mocker , strong drink is raging . " WHAT says a follower of the Royal Solomon 1— " Wine is as good as life to a man , if it be drunk moderately ; what life is then to a man that is without wine 1 for it was made to make men glad . Wine

measurably drunk , and in season , bringeth gladness of the heart and cheerfulness of the mind . But wine drunken with excess maketh bitterness of the mind with brawling and quarrelling . " In this burning question of the day , then , we must

distinguish carefully between use and abuse . But what , one might say , has this question , however important it may be , to do with social , or in other words the national , prosperity 1 Surely it is purely a matter for individuals . Granted ! but inasmuch as the nation is a body corporate made up of individual units , so whatever affects those individual units

affects , in the long run , the corporate body ; and , thus , this question of Temperance , inasmuch as it affects the processes of Creation and Recreation , by which our national work is clone , by deteriorating the one by an abuse of the other , is of most material importance to the nation at

large . To return for a moment to our old simile of the machine , we know that if it is to prove of lasting use , it must remain in good working order , and to this end every part of it must be of the best quality ,

and must be carefully preserved in this condition . Now as one— -and that a most important part of our machine—is the working classes , and as it is to them that our attention is just now more particularly directed , it is important to see how this question of Temperance affects them , for

it is upon them quite as much as upon any other class of the community that our national prosperity depends . At this present time we know by sad experience that drink is the ruin of thousands in all classes of society , and we shall do well to inquire firstwhether the custom

, of drinking alcoholic liquors is , or is not , beneficial . If it be not , stop it at once , and our subject is at an end 1 If it be , then let us discover in what way we can control it and prevent its abuse . Now , it is quite clear that if wine—and

under this name we may for our present purpose recognise other forms of consumable alcohol — were not beneficial we should find its use distinctl y forbidden in Holy Scripture ; but the very reverse is the case , for we find its use as a medicine recommended by St . Paul ; we find its use as a food pointed out by the Psalmist ;