Gleanings By " Elihoenai."

since Christ spake on earth , even as never man spate , we have been taught and have known that lie is the appointed way , the truth , and the life ; consequently , if Freemasons do not recognise him it cannot be a guide of truth , and to everlasting life , if defective on

this point it is a mere thing of earth , earthy . But we think that our Order is purer and better than its exponents make it . We believe it to be a pure system of Christian morality , maintaining , however , that it does and must of necessity , include belief in our

Lord Jesus . It is only in its practice that it fails , and it is the fault of the brethren themselves that it is so . It bears its own evidence that it is a system of purity and holiness , and to keep it so ought to be the aim and endeavour of us all . Innovations could not

be tolerated , but a more liberal and exhaustive study and reading of its text would , we think , bear out our views , aye , indeed , were initiates not desired only for the sake of initiation , those admitted would be men of sound morals , and of orthodox belief in the author and finisher of our faith , at whose name every knee

should bow in token of the adoration their hearts and souls yield to his divinity . Eternal silence would become us better as to our

faith , if Ave cannot accept and obey the law of the Most High , unless it be agreeable to our finite wills ; as to our hope , if it does not teach us to own and worship Him who gave his life for us , and has ascended to prepare a place for us in Heaven 5 as to our charity ,

if it does not make us cheerfully obey all God ' s commands , make us hope for the best , and believe and endure all things . We are proud of these three Christian graces being attributes of our Order , but if the Lord Jesus be not in the midst of us then let us , I say , keep eternal silence in regard to them , for

they are the ministers by which our souls are employed in the worship of God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost .

Oration.

ORATION .

DELIVERED BY Bito . ROBERT WEXTWORTU LITTLE , P . M . AXD P . Z . 975 . At the Consecration of the Urban Lodge , No . 1 , 196 , at St . John ' s Gate , Glerhenwell , on the 22 nd October , 1867 . Brethren , —The occasion upon which we meet together this day is , I conceive , interesting , not only to

ourselves as Masons individually , but to the Craft at large , inasmuch as it denotes the continued prosperity of our venerable Order , which , like the famous Indian tree , perpetually renews itself in scions as vigorous and flourishing as the parent stem . It is , to myself , a source of peculiar gratification to have been called upon to

officiate at so important a ceremony as the consecration of the Urban Lodge , more especially , as I feel convinced , that its founders are brethren eminently qualified to fill the high offices to which they have been appointed by the M . W . Grand Master . Having already won their

way to fame in various pursuits of a literary character , they are now anxious to devote their powers of intellect to the advancement and development of Freemasonry . It has been truly said by a great wiiter that literary men are " a perpetual priesthood , standing forth generation after generation as the dispensers and living types

of God ' s everlasting wisdom , " and I rejoice to see so many votaries of poesy , philosophy , and science , in the ranks of our Fraternity . To their enlightened minds Freemasonry unveils a universe of thought—to them it is a keen delight to trace and to interpret those grand and solemn truths that were dimly shadowed forth in the

mystic rites of the ancient world . Looking back through the mists of ages they behold in the white-robed Essenians a kindred race , and are familiar with the symbolic teachings of the great philosophers of old . Amidst the obscurity and darkness of occult ceremonies they discern faint gleams of the true light in which we

now rejoice . In every land they find tokens innumerable graven by the hands of skilful Masons on the walls of ruined fanes and temples . They establish the affinity of our Order with the Society of Dionysian . Artificers—with the disciples of Pythagoras—wit h the College of Architects at Rome - and

with the operative associations of the Middle Agesl They demonstrate clearly that the ethics of Freemasonry were known and taught by the wisest sages of Greece , whose names are still revered and honoured by the nations .

They prove that our Order , though often persecuted , and often derided , has never faltered or failed in its sublime career , although even the mightiest empires have been compelled to succumb to the hand of conquest or of time . ' And I would ask what nobler exercise of the mental faculties can bo found than a calm and earnest

pursuit of Masonic knowledge—thus gleaning and gathering in our onward path the rich treasures of wisdom which it reveals to our view ?

But it is not merely to the intellectual pleasure to be derived from the study of Freemasonry that I would desire to direct your attention . Our institution possesses other and more practical claims to our sympathy and support . It is founded on principles that arc an honour to human nature ; it bids us hasten to the rescue of the

young and helpless from the snares of poverty and ignorance ; it calls upon us to ameliorate the sad condition of those who , in the decline of life , require our consolation and assistance . I am proud to add that English Freemasons have ever been distinguished , not only for their zeal in promoting the welfare of the Order ,

but also for their large-hearted benevolence and diffusive charity . The best answer that can be given to the cavils s . nd sneers of the unenlightened world , is to point to those excellent institutions which have been raised for the nurture of the young and the shelter of the old . . Nearly

eighty years have passed away since the Masonic School for Female Children was founded , and who can estimate the good it has achieved ? The Soys' School was established about ten years later , and the crowning of our charitable undertakings was effected by the erection of a suitable retreat for those who , having borne the hesi