Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

In treating of the origin of the " high degrees , " Bro . Findel remarks : " Ramsay pronounces the famous word Kilwinning , and tho promise which it held out of reviving the Order [ Masonic Knights ?] , was , in the then state of things , only

too - alluring . . . . There can be no doubt that here we have the source of the high grades . " The votaries of " Scotch Masonry " should , when pointing to the ancient bailiary of Cunninghame in Ayrshire as embracing within its boundary the

fountain-head of that very elaborate system of mystic rites , bear in mind that the place of Chevalier Ramsay's nativity was within a short distance ( fourteen miles ) of Kilwinning , —ancl that to this circumstance may be attributed his knowledge of

the traditionary fame of that village as the ancient Scottish centre of the Mason Craft , and his subsequent use of its name in the promotion of his newly-promulgated Masonic inventions ; although at the time of his birth , and even during the period in which he was engaged in the preparation of what has been termed " the corner-stone of the

hauls grades , " the Mason Court of Kilwinning was a purely operative institution , and its members for the most part were composed of masons and wrights , whose education was not such as could have fitted them for the study or

understanding of those ineffable and sublime rites of which they were the alleged conservators . It is certain that Ramsay was not a member of the Kilwinning Lodge ; nor is it likely that he ever had any communication with it .

In tracing the movements of Robert Bruce during the protracted struggle which arose out of the disputed claim to the Scottish crown , the historical reader will have noticed that shortly after swearing fealty to Edward of Carlisle in 1297 , he

is found encamped with a band of his patriotic countrymen at Irvine , a town about two miles distant from Kilwinning ; in his subsequent sojournings in the district of Cunninghame , he may have visited Kilwinning , but that he ever did so cannot be established from contemporaneous history .

THE human heart will not bon * willingly to what is infirm and wrong in human nature ; if it yields to us it must yield to what is divine in us . The wickedness of my neighbour cannot submit to my wickedness ; his sensuality , for instance , to my anger against his vices . My faults are not the instruments that are to arrest his faults ; and therefore the impatient reformers , and denouncing preachers , aud hasty reprovers , and angry parents , generally fail in theii- several departments to reclaim the error .

The Knights Templars.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS .

By ANTHONY ONEAL HATE . ( Continued from page 127 ) . BOOK THIRD—CHAPTER TEN .

GRAND MASTER—THOMAS DE BERAUD . Quarrels between Templars and Hospitallers . —War between Mamloolcs and Tartars . —Bendocdar advances against the Christians and takes several ftyrtresses . — Siege of Safet . —Heroism of the Templars . —Safet stormed after a stubborn defence , and the defenders massacred . —

A . truce concluded . —Bendocdar atiaclcs Armenia and the Templar fortresses . —Attacks Acre , storms Joppa , and captures Beaufort . —Beath of St . Louis . —Prince Fdward ofFngland lands in Palestine . —Peace concluded . —Fdviard stabbed by an assassin , is saved by de Beraud . A . D . 1257—1273 .

Thomas de Beraud , * Grand Preceptor of England , was elected Grand Master . The disgraceful conflicts still raged between the Templars and the Hospitallers , and this spirit of discord added to the misfortunes of the Christians in the East . The

blood of these valiant defenders of the Holy Land deluged the streets of cities which they had undertaken to defend , and the Knights attacked each other with a fury that nothing could appease or turn aside ; each other sending to the West messages for immediate succour to continue the fratricidal war . The noblest families of Christendom

were , from their domestic relations with the Knights , dragged into these sanguinary quarrels , and it became at length a common question in Europe , not whether the Christians had achieved a victory over the Saracens , but who had been

conquerors , the Templars or Hospitallers . These quarrels , however , were put a stop to by the incursions of the fierce Moguls and Tartars . Some Musselmen villages which had paid tribute to the Tartars had been pillaged , and reparation was

demanded from the Christians , which they refused ; thereupon war was declared . The Templars , under the command of Etiene de Sist , the Preceptor of Apulia , hastened to meet them , but in a long and desperate combat they were cut to pieces . f

To add to the dangers of the Christian position , the Mamlooks advanced from Egypt to do battle with the Tartars for the possession of Palestine , Without any means of making a successful head against these armies , the Christians sent urgent messages to Europe for help ; but the Pope