Masonic Sayings And Doings Abroad.

MASONIC SAYINGS AND DOINGS ABROAD .

"We are informed by a correspondent that an effort is being made by the lodges in St . John , New Brunswick , to organize a " General Board of Relief . ' It is proposed to place a per capita tax , on the number of

members , as returned to the Grand Secretary , by each a lodge ; committee to be appointed by each lodge , and this committee to appoint a sub-committee to distribute the funds .

Address of G . W . Bro . M'ench , to the Grand Lodye cf the District of Golwnibia . " Let us remember that although we are brethren we are men , and subject to all the frailties of humanity . That we may all err , for it is the characteristic of

mortality ; and while we know that " to err is human , let us never forget the remainder of the poet ' s sentiment , " to forgive , divine . " The time will never come on this earth , until the arriyal of the millenium , when men will not he found

going wrong . ¥ e are all the subjects of passions , of prejudice , of indiscretion . If we mean to live harmoniously , we must exercise charity , we must subdue passion , and we must look upon the failings of ovv fellow-men , and especially of our brethren , as to be

forgiven , instead of to be reproached and trumpeted to the world . " fheii gently scan your brother man , And gentler sister woman ,

Though ye may gang a kenning wrung , To step aside is human . " This was said by a poet and a brother Mason , and now when we cannot disguise the fact that feelings do exist among the members of this jurisdiction that

are not cred itahle to the Craft , let us all strive to overcome them ourselves , and to earnestly inculcate the sentiments expressed in these quotations , and cast the mantle of charity and forgiveness over the errors of our misguided brethren .

There is in Brooklyn an association , of which any member in good standing in a Brooklyn lodge , can become a member by the payment of a small fee , ¦ which , unobtrusively , does a great deal of practical good . When any member of the association dies . , the survivors pay one dollar each into the hands of

the Secretary , ancl this sum is given to the widow or other legal representative of the deceased . As there are about three hundred members , the amount is amply sufficient to pay all reasonable funeral expenses ( if there he anything reasonable in modern funerals ) , and leave something to enable the widow to look

around for a week or two without danger of starvation , Keduced to its simplest form , this amounts to an agreement on the part of each member to contribute about five dollars a year to relieve the distress of the widows and orphans of his brethren stricken

down by the hand of death , and secure to each one thus contributing , the assurance that in case of his own death , the heavy cost of consigning his remains to their last resting place will be met without drawing upon the means be may have been able to get together

for his family . During the existence of the association some thousands of dollars have been paid by it to the families of deceased brethren , ralieving , in some instances , the sorely pressed purses of lodges and ! brethren , where a long-continued drain has been kept

up by sickness of the head of a family and cessation of income from his labour . In view of its great beneficence , the wonder is that the association does

not number in its fold every Brooklyn Mason . Members die , and others take their places , and so it keeps on . The initiation fee is a permanent fund not touched by deaths of members , and were it possible that so praiseworthy and practical a means of mutual assistance could dwindle down to the last

man , his patience , perseverance , and longwindedness ,. would be amply rewarded , seeing that the permanent fund is largely more than equal to the dollar per head paid to his predecessors when the association was full . Speculations of this kind , however , are

entirely nnworthy in connection with an undertaking of this character , which does not offer opportunities for making money nor inducements for the investment of capital , but simply a convenient medium whereby

many small contributions may be gathered into one sum , when death makes such an offering peculiarly acceptable to the widow and the fatherless little ones . We are justified in believing that there are few Masons in Brooklyn who , being asked to contribute one dollar toward the funeral expenses of a dead

brother , would hesitate for a moment , even though the giving involved a sacrifice . The association systematizes such giving without making its calls a tax beyond the means of any brother able to keep up his affiliation in a lodge . The Secretary is the

wellknown , genial , and venerable H . W . Earn , which fact is worth a whole column of argument to prove that the association should have three thousand members instead of three hundred . — New York Dispatch .