The Teachings Of Nature.

exultingly when he flew over the plain on his gallant barb , and he never shrunk from battle . Yet they had marked a strange gleam in his eye , and had seen him look often with a wild look at the bright Aldebaran . Suddenly he gave his steed to his brother , and wandered away , on foot and alone , into tho desert to this spring , and rested on its grassy border . Then he brought stones a weary way and piled them on a sand-hill , and built him a turret , not lofty , but it towered above the plain , aud from far

off men saw and wondered . Anxiously ho toiled , and stone after stone he laid on the turret till it was finished , and then he knelt on its top and worshipped the God of the Arab . There , night after night , forgetting the world around , he held high converse with the hosts of heaven , and seemed to talk with the meteor ' s glare , and with tbe gleaming starlight , as with familiar spirits . And so the years rolled on , and the desert sage became a prophet among his people . ( So said the legend , but

this is doubtless an addition of latter years , as the sequel will show . ) None dared to go out to battle without consulting him , and knowing from him that the light was propitious ; none remained at home when he said go forth . It may be that for a while he deceived himself , and actually believed that he could read the future in the dim star-light of the desert . Be that as it might , men feared him , and said that lie alone of all the living held communion with the spirits of the deadand that

, ghastly forms on spectr . il steeds came to his turret , and he ' passed his night in holy meetings with the unfovgotten brave . Then he told them no more of the future , and they began to shrink from him , shunning his tower as the residence of the evil one . He did hold converse with the unseen and spiritual , but it was only as the student of God's works may always commune with his God . He began to read on the page of heaven ' at first dimlythen more distinctlyand at last with

over-, , whelming brilliancy , the great truth , " there is a God . " And he grew old . The dreams of his youth—sunny youth ! had faded quite ont of his recollection , or if they came , came but momentarily , waking a smile on his withered cheek , as he remembered the light step and fairy form of his long lost . He learned much , but not from books . And here begins the moral of the story . Calm thought and quiet reflection had done their

work in his mind , as they will inevitably in the mind of every one who deals in them . Study is of no avail , is not study in its true sense , when it consists merely in the reception of accredited facts without examination or thought .

Years rolled ou , and the old man grew mighty in the strength of his soul , yet lacked he the clear knowledge of the Most High . He knew there was a God . He had heard it in the wind and read it in tho sky . He knew that the cool breeze from the far palm groves was His breath , and he bowed himself on his knees and felt it among his white locks and on his brow , he longed with earnest longing to know the shape and appearance ofthe Deity of whose power he learned more and more nightly , and thought more and more daily .

Until , one night , as he was gazing on the heavens aud striving to picture to himself the definite form of the God he so blindly , yet so devotedly worshipped , there came across his soul , as it were , a lightning flash from a strange bright land . For as he saw the hosts on high , marshalled in space , countless myriads , increasing with their distance and filling immensity with a dust of worlds , far beyond the power of even his strong imagination to number , then for the first time come upon him the dim idea

of Infinity , and startled his soul with hitherto unknown emotions . Suddenly he bethought himself of the immutability of those stars , and the long watch they had kept nightly over the sons of the desert , and he felt that the God of those stars must be beyond his comprehension , "Infinite , Eternal , and Unchangeable . " An instant his blood ri > n with a wild throb through his veins , and his heart bounded exultingly in the consciousness of its first communion with its God—then stilled for

ever . The Arabs say that a flickering light was seen to move for years around the turret , but none approached it until a long time had passed , and then they found a sun-dried skeleton kneeling on its top . AVith many rites and forms of those olden times , the worshippers of Aldebaran waited his rising , and when he reached the zenith they hollowed out abed in the sand floor of the turret , and the astrologer slept there while its walls crumbled and fell . To this day the Arab shuns the hillock , and says that

• a flame , paler blue , and fitful , may be seen at times moving about the ruin in a starry night , when the bright God of the Arab , Aldebran , is above , and that it is the restless soul of the starworshipper . Such is the legend , partaking much of tbe old and

The Teachings Of Nature.

fanciful , yet evidently changed and explained by modern tradition . Such as it is , it may serve to illustrate the text " The heavens declare the glory of God , aud the Armament showeth bis handiwork . "—Masonic Trowel .

Poetry.

Poetry .

THE RAISING OF THE BEAUSEANT . By Professor Arrotra . Fling out tho Tomplo as of old ! Age hath not stained tho whitoness of its fold , Nor marred the ruddy cross , Salvation ' s sign .

Once more we lift tho sacred standard up—Companions , fill tho cup —• We pledge tho Beauseant in this sparkling wine . ' Oh 1 what a valient host have fought and bled Beneath that banner to the wind outspread , Since first it moved against tho infidel ! Who knows not how it waved on Salem ' s towers ,

When Acre , Ramla , Nazareth , wore ours , And at Tiberias fell ? Fell with the Knights who bore it to tho field , When foulest treason broke tho Christian shield , And bade tho Turkish crescent-sign advance — Fell but to rise again with triple pride , When , bounding o ' er tho tide , Tho armies came of England and of Franco !

Aud who is ho , tho leader of that band , Who first sots foot upon tho Holy Land ? Move on , unrivall'd champion that thou art ! Shout , brethren , shout ! aloft your banners fling'Tis he , tho Christian's hope , tho island king—Richard , tho Lion-heart ! Then Acre foil—tho Moslem loo wont back ,

And still our brethren followed on thoir track , And ever in tho van of battle How The sacred Beauseant , liko a meteor star Shedding its wrath afar Upon the foul and unbelieving crow . Unvanquished still—till fraud , not force , combined With basest envy in a despot ' s mind , Dragged from its staff that glorious emblem down , And poured , like water , forth tho guiltless blood , When Jacques Molay , the valiant and tho good , Received his martvr-crown .

Then perished all —Yet no : on Scottish ground Some remnant of tho Templars still was found , Whom oven treason did not dare to quell . Walter de Clifton ! honoured bo thy name ! Who , braving death and shame , Did ' st vindicate thine Order ' s truth so well . Years passed away , oro yet the warring world

Beheld again tho Templar ' s flag unfurled : But England saw the Rosy Cross return Onco more to light , and scattering dismay Within their ranks upon that glorious day When Bruce won Bannoekburu 1 Then raise it up , Companions , onco again , Though now it wave not in tho battle plain ;

True hearts are hero to guard its spotless fold , For ever honoured bo tho Templar ' s name , For ever dear thoir fame—Fling out the Beauseant banner as of old !

Masonic Lifeboat Fund.

MASONIC LIFEBOAT FUND .

Further subscription received : —Bowyer Lodge , No > 1 , 036 , Chipping Norton , £ 1 Is .