Address By Bro. J. P. Schtutz, W.M. Of The St. John's Lodge (No. 919), Of Alexandria.

immortality of the soul , and repel from us the errors of bigotry and superstition , without becoming atheists , and observe the moral law , to whatever creed we may belong . Thus , a man should be a good man and true , honest and

straightforward , and never lose sight of the divine precept "to do to our neighbour as we Avould that he should do to ns . " Let us not forget that it should be characteristic of a true Freemason to go humbly in the

ways of the Lord , to do justice and have compassion upon those who err . Last , not least , let us remember that Freemasonry obligates ns to a perfect silence on all the secrets we are taught , and let it be graven in our hearts that " he who

guards his tongue guards his soul . " I believe I cannot do better on this occasion than quote the Avords of Ecclesiasticus xxvii ., 16 and . folloiving , " Whoso discovereth secrets looseth his credit , and shall never find friend to his mind . LoA e thy

friend , and be faithful unto him ; but if thou betrayest his secrets , follow no more after him . For as a man hath destroyed his enemy , so hast thou lost the love of thy neighbour . As one that letteth a bird go out of his hand , so hast thou

let thy neighbour go , and shalt not get him again . Follow after him no more , for he is too far off , he is as a roe escaped out of the snare . As for a lvound it may be bound up , and after reviling there may be reconcilement ; but he that betrayeth

secrets is Avithout hope . " Freemasonry is an inexhaustible source of erudition , for the more a man knows , the more will be left for him to learn ; the more he says , the more will be left for him to say ; I will not trespass

too much on your time and patience , but finish Avith these words " that if we forget in our conduct that we are men , the world , with its habitual severity , will always remember that A \ -e are Masons . "

The Pope And Freemasonry.

THE POPE AND FREEMASONRY .

Referring to the letters by the Rev . Bro . Milner which appeared in our issue of last week , Jos . Rogerson Cotter , of Donoughmore Rectory , has Avritten the following letter in reply , ancl which we take from our Cork contemporary : —

" While your correspondent , the Rev . John Milner , confined himself to his subject , I did not think it necessary to notice his dissertations on his favourite topic . But now that he has addressed the clergy ,

and recommended to them to call m the aid of the ' mysteries' of Freemasonry , as not only a new light on their teaching , but for the better understanding of Prophetic Scripture , I feel solemnly called on to enter my protest against such a course

as he recommends , as also to express my total dissent from the system of interpretation he gives in the latter part of his letter . " You , probably , Avould not open your columns to a controversy on so enlarged a scale as a

detailed and systematic examination of the combined ' preturist' and 'futurist' views of prophecy he advances in a condensed form in his letter would necessarily involve . If you did , I should feel it my duty ( with your permission ) as a successor of

the Apostles , and of our Reformers , however reluctantly , to take up the gauntlet he has throivn down , to the best of my ability . But for the

present I shall only state , for the benefit of such readers as may not have examined the subject , and may be led away by confident assertions , that every single point he has advanced , about the Neronic date of the Apiocalypse—the ' seas , ' the "

' trumpets , ' the ' vials , ' the ' beast , ' Antichrist , — ' Babylon , ' the ' Seven Heads , the Ten Kings , ' & c , & c . —that each aud all of these have been , in the very aspects of interpretations—Mr . Milner gives , calmly , closely , and fairly examined , and ( as

appears to me ) triumphantly ( in that view ) refuted and set aside by Mr . Elliott , in the 5 th edition of his Horce Apocalypticce . I cannot think Mr . Milner has read that work , or I think he Avould haye hesitated to use the language he apples , in the

person of Doctor" Gumming , to a very numerous class of writers , both ancient and modern , on the Protestant side , calling their views ' prophetic nonsense . ' I bea . to remind him also that the

whole body of our English and Irish Martyrs and Reformers were ( in common with the Continental Churches ) unanimous in the 'prophetic nonsense ' of holding Rome to be the ' Babylon' of St . John , ancl the Pope to be ' the Antichrist . ' I may add

that the views he puts foi-Avard were devised in the year 1585 by two Spanish Jesuits , Aleassar and Ribera , with a view of setting aside the then unanimous opinions of the Protestant Divines—¦ the former making-the prophecies altogether '

preturist , ' —the other altogether ' futurist , ' —the one Jesuit making the prophecies fall short of the time assigned by Protestants to the rise of the Papacy . —the other making them overleap altogether the long interval of the Papal dominanoy ,