The Ideals Of Freemasonry.

the realm of stars , and angels are the companions of his soul ! Thus , while the ignorant and vicious man toils on hopelessly and drearily ; cheered by no bright thoughts ; his head ever inclining to the earth ; looking upon the universe with the stupid gaze of tho brute ; his mind destitute of all ideas , and his heart moved by no glad iusjiirations ;—the virtuous

and intelligent labourer welcomes his toil with hope and joy , because he comprehends that labour is a vocation honourable and sacred as any other . He feels himself a jiricst in the Temple of Nature—a co-labourer with the Supreme Architect , in adorning and beautifying the earth . He never wearies and becomes discouraged ; for he catches glimpses of the sublime Truth which the great Mason-Poet * of Germany —whose wondrous songs , even to-day , stimulate the intellects and charm the hearts of the world—has embodied in his

mystic psalms : — The Mason ' s ways arc A type of existence ; And his persistence Is , as the clays arc Of men iu this world . He hears the great voices ,

Voice ofthe sages , Of the World and the Ages" Choose well ; your choice is Brief , but yet endless . " Here eyes do regard you , In eternity ' s stillness ; Here is all fulness , Ye brave , to reward you—Work , and dcsjiair not .

He goes forth in the morning , and the world on ivhich ho looks , swimming iu sunbeams , is less bright and fair than the world that lies in his heart , which Knowledge has illuminated with her everlasting light . The mountains , barren , rocky , storm-blackened , or crowned with sylvan sjilendours ; the valleys , flower-robed , and ribboned with meandering

streams ; the rivers , hastening to the soa , and making music as they go ; the trees , and rocks , and flowers—nil tho activities of Nature , and the great enter ] irises of man , speak with eloquence to his soul , and reveal to his intelligent spirit the secrets of Nature and of Nature ' s Gocl . Virtue and knowledge arc , therefore , according to Masonry ,

matters of supreme necessity , not simjily because knowledge is power ancl virtue is profitable , but because they ennoble and exalt man ' s higher faculties—expand his heart , and make him the rceijiieut of enjoyments which wealth cannot purchase or jirocure , nor poverty , nor any outward circumstance take away ; and . because , by themhe is enabled to

, "divest his heart and conscience of all the vices and superfluities of lifo ; thereby fitting himself , as a living stone , for that sjiiritual building , that house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens . "

III . —THE MASONIC IDEAL 01 ' RELIGION AKD OF LIBERAL CULTURE . " Speculative Masonry is so far interwoven ivith Reli g ion as to lay us under obligations to pay that rational homage to the Deity , which at once constitute our duty and our happiness . It leads the contemplative to view , with reverence and admiration , tho glorious works of creation , and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfection of his divine Creator . "

" Of all the human sciences , that concerning man is certainly most worthy of the human mind , and . the proper manner of conducting its several powers in tbe attainment of truth ancl knowledge . " These extracts from the venerable teachings of Freemasonry , show that it takes note , at the same time , of both religion and education—nay , that it brings them together in a most intimate relationship . In the sublime lecture on the

sciences and arts , which is contained in the second section of the second degree , this appears in a remarkable manner . That Freemasonry should bo spoken of as a religious institution , or as imparting religious instruction , undoubtedly sounds strange to thoso who think that reli g ion must necessarily be confined to a particular set of theological dogmas ; or , in

other words , be sectarian . But why should it be thought necessary to make religion traverse simjily the narrow circle of sectarian ideas 1 Is it not a degradation to confine it to so limited a sjihere 1 The Masonic ideal is , that relig ion is absolute , everlasting , and unchanging ; that it is not a dogma , or a collection of dogmas , but rather reverence and humility

before the awful ideas of infinity aud eternity—a sense of subjection to the great law of justice which stretches through the universe , and of obligation to love ancl serve man on earth ancl Gocl in heaven . The ideas of Gocl , retribution , a future life—these great facts of religion , aro not the property of any one sect or party ; they form the groundwork of all

creeds . Religion , we have said , is everlasting and immutable . It is the same yesterday , to-day , and for ever . Sectarianism is hut the material framework , changeable aud perishable , which men , in different ages and countries , have raised around it . This material ancl human investiture of sectarian

dogmas changes with the tunes and seasons ; but that religion , in the light of which all Masons , whatever their jiarticular creed , desire to walk—that religion , sent forth into the world with the awful sanction of the Christ upon itwhich , as an ancient says , "is to visit the widow ancl fatherless in their afflictions , and keep ourself -unspotted from the

world ; " that religion , the essence of which is to love God suprcmcty , and our neighbours as we lovo ourselves , can never change ; being absolute , it can never pass away—and it may lie taught with all its obligations , duties , and hojics , and in all its beautiful ajiplications to lifo , without being trammelled by any sectarian dogmas whatever . ' -

About religion , in its absoluteness , neither men nor sects ever dispute or quarrel . No ; it shines over tho hitman soul , clear ancl bright , like tho eternal stars—visible to all , and always and everywhere has her voice been heard , consoling the sorrowful , fortifying the weak , and bidding the sons of men aspire to a celestial communion .

AVith the ancient educators of our race , all the sciences were revelations from heaven—were all holy . Art was holy , literature was holy , and these wero all parts of one vast philosophy or religion , which addressed itself , not to ono merely , but to the entire of the human faculties . All education , with them , was religious and moral .

It was the deep , earnest , and positive faith of the ancient teachers , iu the unseen and sjiiritual , which led them to blend , in this manner—unfortunately so , to our modern habits of thinking—the ideas of science with those of religion . And here we moderns fall far below the ancients . Wc have divorcee ! science and jjhilosophy from , relig ion ,

and seem to regard them as quite different ancl distinct things . On the other hand , they contemplated the universe from tho reli gions point of view . All the jihenoineiia of life—all the motions of tho heavenly bodies—the whole stupendous spectacle of tho world—revealed to them tho jircsence of an unseen intelligence . Hence their religion

embraced all the facts of physical science , as well as those ideas which relate exclusively to the nature and destiny of the soul . With them , science , and art , and philosophy wero necessary parts of religion , and rejiosed on a sjiiritual basis . Hence instruction , ivith them , we have said , was religious and moral And were thc-y not ri ght 1

The ancient mysteries were established for human instruction , ancl there all tho sciences wore studied with reference to a higher sjihcro of thought . Nature , witli all her laws , her motions and her mysteries , ivhich science attcnqits to oxjilain , was , in their view , only a shadow , reflex , or projection of the more substantial verities of the unseen—the