Why Brethren Cease To Take Ant Interest In The Order.

we shall assuredly find that good men AY ill no longer secede from us , , and that many HOAV standing aloof Avill be attracted towards us , AVIIO will serve to make Masonry , powerful though she is , still more poAverful ancl , blessed as she is , still more blessed . J . K . _

Oration On Masonry.

ORATION ON MASONRY .

Delivered by BRO . L . P . METIIAII , Prov . S . Gr . W ., Devon , at the Meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge , Aug . oO'h , 1866 . Yeiy Worshipful Sir and Brethren , —By command of the Provincial Grand Master , and in accordance with the ancient custom usual on occasions like the present , the duty devolves on

me of delivering an address on the merits and obligations of our Order . Were I as able as I am willing , the task Avould easily be accomplished , for the materials are , indeed , abundant to prove its antiquity and its value . Masonry Avas practised

by the shepherd-astronomers and astrologers of Chaldea , by the priest-kings of Egypt , by the Brahmins of India , and by the philosophers of Greece , and it reached its meridian splendour when Solomon , the then Grand Master of the

Order , surrounded by his brethren , laid , Avith Masonic ^ honours , the foundation stone of the temple AA'hich he intended to dedicate to the service of God . We have the authority of a credible Roman historian for saying that Avhen J Lilian , the

apostate , 1 , 800 years after , cleared the foundations of the same temple , the vaulted chamber was discovered in AA'hich our ancient brethren had assembled , Avith its most sacred and most secret symbols perfect and undisturbed . These symbols are to be traced among nations wide as the poles asunder , differing as much in their language ,

creed , colour , and character as to the period at AA'hich , and the land in AA'hich , they lived . They are to be found on the pyramids of Egypt , the caves of Elephanta , the temples of classic Greece , the Round Towers of ' Ireland , the courts of

the Alliambra , and the arches of onr sublime cathedrals . Whence then this universal presence and permanence ? Because its foundations rest not on the mutable and perishable circumstances of external life , bat on sentiments ivhich spring

from , and appeal to , the most deep-seated affections of our nature , and are fouud-j . l on the purest principles of piety and virtue . Tho volume of the Sacred Law is never closed in our lodges ;

from its pages Ave derive our duty to God , our neighbours , and ourselves . We learn to look up to God as the one great cause , to implore His aid on all our lawful undertakings , and to bend Avith resignation to His divine will . We are taught to

regard the Avhole human race as the children of one Father , whom Ave are to treat with justice , to relieve in Avant , and comfort in sorrow . For ourselves , Ave are taught to be prudent , temperate , enduring , and just . As citizens Ave are enjoined

to be loyal aud peaceful , our motto being , ' Fear God , honour the Sovereign / Under every emblem irTour lodges there lie solemn aud important truths , tending to purify the morals , to improve the understanding , bind the human family more

closely togethei-, and to raise the soul to God . The implements of labour teach us the use Ave are to make upon earth of the talents committed to us hy our Great Creator and Judge , and remind us of the account we must surrender of their use

Avhen Ave are summoned to His presence in the Grand Lodge above . Freemasons , in those dark ages Avhen might made right , guarded with jealous

care the feeble ray of light Avhich Avas in hourly danger of being extinguished by the violence of rude and untutored savages . Sustained by the felicitous combination of the love of art and the sublime truths of religion and morality which

Freemasonry taught them , they fanned the feeble spark until it burst into a bright and enduring flame , which has shown its fruits in the creation of those miracles of art Avhich still astonish , delight , and instruct the Avorld . Again , Freemasonry has

bound men more closely together than any other human institution . In those dark ages to which I have alluded , Freemasonry not only protected those AA'ho Avere Avithin its pale , but threw its

shield , like its offspring Chivalry , over all Avho were suffering and oppressed . In our more fortunate age it has cemented friendships , restored the credit of the bankrupt merchant , succoured the shipAvrecked and exiled , set the

prisoner free , fed the hungry , clothed the naked , visited the AY ' KIOAV aud orphan , and even arrested the uplifted steel thirsting for a foeuian ' s blood . It has an universal laiio-uao'e , and an universal fund of benevolence . It brinscs all classes of men

together in equal and social intercourse . In our lodges are those Avhose birth is noble , Avhose possessions are A-ast , AA'hose talents are great , and Avhose taste is refined ; by their side sit those who possess none of these things , and Avhom the outer