The Sword Of The Knight Templar.

their scabbards , and the fury-flash of their blades was quenched iu the blood of the last perfidious victor who had entered the gates . The gates were then closed , and fearlessly , with silent resignation , they rested from their toils , and waited their entombment in the ruins of the structure

which soon fell , and , with a thunderous crash , was at once their knell and burial . True , those days are now gone . True , the castle of chivalry is an untenanted pile , whose walls are green with the moss of decay , and the ghostly

echoes of whose corridors are woke only by the curious footfall of the poet , the novelist , and the antiquarian . True , the Knight who within its chambers found relaxation and refreshment after

the fatigue of a many-miles' journey , has quaffed his last libation there—the libation of death—and departed , to return no more , on his way to that Jerusalem where he has ere this , if worthy , knelt at the feet of his Sovereign Master , and been

dubbed and created a Knight of celestial station . True , the portal swings creakingly in the winds of years , aud the warder rests from his arduous watches through the drear night of superstition , and no challenge of alarm is given in the noonday

of present civilisation to disturb his peaceful slumbers . But the better spirit which animated that romantic era has survived the general wreck , and pervades the Order that perpetuates the name and memory of its most illustrious representatives .

The exalted virtues of the Templars are cherished by us as precious heirlooms , and shoidd be displayed in our conduct as distinguishing lodges .

Fortitude must be ours , as it was theirs . We , too , need it . We , too , must exercise it . As Masons , as citizens , as men in the vicissitudes of fortune ; in the daily struggle with fraud , and baseness , and oppression ; in the thronged thoroughfare , where

gauut poverty begs a meagre subsistence , and pampered vice struts disdainfully in the gay colours of abird of paradise ; in the low-roofed , dim-lighted , garret , where stitches her life out—instrainod endeavour to sustain it—the pale girl , too spotless to

purchase ease at the price of honour ; and in the solitary cabin , where the widow moistens her hard crust with tears of bereavement , and divides it in scanty mouthfuls to the little ones who press eagerly around her .- iu all these situations we

require fortitude ; fortitude to enable us to rebuke despotism of circumstances ; fortitude to keep the devil of our own selfishness behind us ; fortitude to raise the downcast , to scorn the sneer of custom ,

and to recognise humanity as one family , and every human being as our kinsman . Fortitude must dwell with us at home , to cheer us in affliction and adversity . Fortitude must go with us abroad to nerve us against temptation and

attack . Fortitude is , indeed , the blade of our sword of defence and duty , that which parries , which cleaves , and always gleams bright promiseof triumph , even in the most uncertain hour of thefray .

This sword has a , point—it is mercy—the divinestattribute of man , which likens him to Immanuel ,. who was its incarnative . We never render

successso glorious , defeat so effectual , as when we stoopto lift up the foe we have stricken down , and spread the healing salve of forgiveness on the sores we ourselves have inflicted . It is the supreme charm of our blessed religion , that it is a religion of "

mercy . Nothing but the Victim of Calvary can melt a rebellious world into penitence . And the cross of self-sacrifice , painted upon theclouds in our van , is the emblem of our faith , and ,, as such , the only sign in which we may

expectto conquer . A soft word turnethaway wrath . A . gentle look , like the first star that pierces thestorm-cloud , reflects itself upon the tumultuous , ocean of juassion , and kisses its angry heavingsinto tranquillity .

More authoritative than the voice of rulers , morepotent than the artillery of beleaguering hosta , moreaccurate than the red-hot shaft of Jove , more overwhelming than the samiel is mercy , which winsobedience without a command , which gains possession

of the strongholds of affection without a bombardment , which annihilates every impediment to its absolute sway in the heart without a stroke or explosion , which sweeps away every vestige of formerantipathy without bending or bruising a single frail plant of sensitiveness . Let it , Sir Knights , be

thepoint of your swords ever extended to the fallen . Staunch in the maintainance of your own carefullyformed opinions , be liberal to those who differ from you , ancl who are as apt to he right as yourselves . Bigotry , vindietiveness , and malice are scarcely fit

instincts for the hyena that sniffs and craunches among the bones of the dead , much less for a follower of Hugh de Payne and Godfry Adelman . If you have enemies , personal or otherwise , do not forget your declaration of willingness to he reconciled to

them whenever they manifest a corresponding disposition . It caunot he dishonourable to confess a fault . It is unquestionably godlike to forgive . How sublimely does our Order shake hands across the gulf of the late intersectional war and call each