Freemasonry And Its Teachings.

to know Mmself . As apprentices we have worked on the rough ashlar ; as Eellow-Crafts we have prepared and smoothed the cubical stone , or smooth ashlar , which is the symbol of the instructed and wellregulated man . Lastly , the Master Mason ' s degree represents mature agethe period of life at which man reaps the

, fruits of his labours and of his studies ; its emblem is the tracing board , on which are depicted the plans , that is to say , the lessons of morality and of experience , the duties of the Eelloiv-Crafbs and of the Apprentices . As Master Masons , your Masonic age is seven years . The death of Hiram reminds us of

the condition and object for which we were born , and admonishes us that to fear death would be a folly , because we ought to dread only those events which are uncertain . Ereemasonry ought , then , to make us familiar with the image of death , and constantly to warn us that it is the goal to which all human beings

are tending , but that , in the economy of the universe , life itself proceeds from the bosom of dissolution and decay . Young Masons , you have just climbed to the last round of the Masonic symbol . It is now your privilege to afford instruction and to furnish an example to those in an inferior degree . As Master Masons ,

you have a ri ght to hold the gavel ; that is to say , to be Masters of a lodge , if , by . the votes of the brethren , you should be called upon to rule over them . May prudence , uprightness , coin-age , guide you in all your steps , all your thoughts and actions . Be careful to offend and violate neither the opinions

nor the consciences of others . May knoAvledge , may reason , be your only arms , your only weapons ; he anxious to persuade ; in your lives , in your conduct , evince a love for truth , for all that is good and noble in the human race . Therein consists the whole secret of Ereemasonry .

"Souter Johnny's" Son And Knight Templary.

"SOUTER JOHNNY'S" SON AND KNIGHT TEMPLARY .

( From our own Correspondent . ) In setting from our MS . the compositor made a mistake in our notice of Bro . Lauchlan , which , as it makes us appear to state Avhat is contrary to fact , necessitates correction . We Avrote that on the last occasion of Bro . Lauchlan's attending a Masonic

meeting he entertained the Sir Knights of the Ayr Priory ivith a graphic sketch of the state of Kni ght Templary in his early clays , " whenthe whole steps from E . C . to K . T . were given in many Craft lodges throughout Scotland . " Eor many the word every was inadA-ertently substituted . While all the

Scottish lodges existing in the latter end of the ei ghteenth century possessed the equal liberty of conferring the higher degrees , the great majority of them confined themselves to the practice of St . John ' s Masonry ; several of them added the Eoyal Arch to the Craft degrees ; while others went a step

farther and made Knight Templars . Of the latter class was Bro . Lauchlan ' s mother lodge , and so highl y did the original members . of the Military Lod ge of St . Paul seem to have appreciated the beauties or the utility of the Christian Degree , that ^ December , 1799 , they are found , after mature con-

"Souter Johnny's" Son And Knight Templary.

sideration , unanimously passing a law to the effect that no brother could hold office in the loclge unless he had become a Knight Templar ! But such a state of matters was certain to attract the attention of Grand Loclge , Avho in the following year formally prohibited their subordinate lodges from practising other than the Craft degrees . The following is a copy of the resolution of Grand Lodge on this subject , adopted in May , 1800 : —

" Considering that they sanction the three Great Orders of Masonry , and these alone , of Apprentice , "Fellow-Craft , and . Master Mason , heihg the Ancient Order of Saint John , and understanding thafc other descriptions of Masons , under various titles , have crept into this country , borrowed from other nations , which are inconsistent with the purity and true principles of

the Order , resolved , thafc uone may pretend ignorance , expressly to prohibit and discharge all lodges having charters trom the Grand Lodge from holding any other meetings than those of the three Orders above described ; under this certification , that the Grand Lodge will most positively proceed , on information of an infringement of this express prohibition , to censure , or to the forfeiture of the charters of the offending lodges , according to the circumstances of any particular case that may be brought before them . "

On receipt of the above resolution , the Ayr St . Paul rescinded the law they had enacted as to none but Knight Tenrplars being eligible to hold office in the lodge , ancl confined themselves , as ordered , to the practice of Craft Masonry . The non-observance of the above quoted resolution of Grand Lodge brought several lodges into trouble ; and in 1807 we find the

Ayr St . Andrew ' s Lodge practising Kni ght Templary under authority of the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland , which appears at that period to have exercised some influence over chvers West Country lodges holding of the Grand Loclge of Scotland . PreA'ious to the interference of Grand Lodge in 1800 the fees

exacted from recipients of the hi gher degrees were for the Chair , Excellent , Super-Excellent , and Eoyal Arch 5 s ., for Knight Templar 2 s . 6 d ., which fees ivere received and entered in the cash book of the lodge as part of its ordinary income . We omitted last week to state that Bro . Lauchlan

ivas in his 86 fch year , and that he was buried in Allaway kirk yard , near to the " winnock bunker in the east , " ancl within a few yards of the resting place of the poet ' s father .

Masonic Sayings And Doings Abroad.

MASONIC SAYINGS AND DOINGS ABROAD .

COLOURED BRETHREN in AXERICA . —The Triangle , an American Masonic journal , published in the German language , contains an article on coloured Masonry in America , in which the writer offers his opinion that the unhappy civil war UOAV raging there , will tend most directly to the bettering of the condition if not to the total emancipation of the coloured race , and

consequently the Grand Lodges of the United States , will be obliged to reform their intolerant laws , which act against the admission into those bodies , of coloured brethren . All negroes , nmlattoes , and other brethren having the slightest tinge of African blood in then , * veins are inadmissable , even as visitors , to the white lodges , and so strictly is this uumasonic feeling acted upon , that even those brethren , who have never been slaves , but belong to the coloured lodges of Port an