Grand Lodge.

GRAND LODGE .

LOUDON , SATURDAY , APRIL 2 S , 1 S 50

THE annual meeting of Grand Lodge was held on Wednesday , and the Right Hon . the Earl of Zetland proclaimed for the seventeenth time as Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons , amidst the applause of the brethren . Of the new Grand Officers we shall to-day say but little , as we intend to speak of them in their Masonic capacity

hereafter ; but we may observe that if the appointments do not give general satisfaction ( when will they ?) they are not of a nature to challenge any great amount of criticism . First on the list we have the Earl of Londesborough , a young nobleman whose late father was justly popular in the Craft , and whowe are informedis an enthusiastic and excellent

, , Mason . We could have wished , perhaps , that the office had fallen into other hands—indeed , we know that it would have been generally acceptable to the Craft could we have announced thatthe Earl of Carnarvon was the new Senior Grand

Warden . But it is not so ; though we have reason to believe that the office was most cordially and gracefully offered to his lordship , who declined it for reasons which it would not be becoming in us to inquire into or to discuss . We i-egret this the more , because , had his lordship consented to act , it would have placed the seal to that fraternal agreement now prevailing in Grand Lodge ; have proclaimed to the world

that , though Masons may occasionally disagree on questions of policjr , no differences of opinion arc long allowed to separate brother from brother ; and have given us the advantage of his talents and business habits in upholding the honour and dignity of the Craft . Although his lordship has declined the seat on the dais for the present , we trust that it is only for reasons which are temporary ; as wc can assure the noble earl that there is no member of the Order whose

advancement amongst her leaders would be hailed with more general and unalloyed satisfaction throughout the Craft than that of the Earl of Carnarvon . The new Junior Grand Warden , . Bro . Algernon Perkins , is a member of the eminent firm of Barclay , Perkins and Company—whose name is as a household word with the great body of Englishmen who "love a drop of good beer "

—an excellent Mason and most liberal supporter of our charities ; and , moreover , like the Earl of Londesborough , the son of a former Grand Officer . Of the Junior Grand Officers we shall as yet say but little for the reason we have before referred to ; but as a whole we may be allowed to state that we believe there never was an

occasion when , apart from other qualifications , so many excellent working Masons received office at the hands of the Grand Master ; but we cannot allow the opportunity to pass without paying our tribute of respect to a retiring Grand Officer , Bro . Jennings , the late G . D . C . Eor something like twenty-five years has Bro . Jennings been in office ; and , if we

hold to our opinion , that the system of constant re-appointments is wrong , it is from no disrespect to Bro . Jennings , for we believe that no brother ever performed his dutiesand they have occasionally been somewhat arduous—more zealously or with greater ability . Bro . Jennings was appointed under a system when a long retention of office was the rule and not the exception ; at a period when comparatively

little interest was taken by the brethren in Masonic matters beyond the precincts of their own Lodge ; and when the Craft in England was not half so popular and extensive as at the present moment—and therefore his continued reappointments appeared almost a matter of course . But Bro . Jennings has himself read the signs of the times , and—acknowledging the

justice of the arguments of those who urge that the honours of the Craft should be spread over as wide a surface as possible—¦ voluntaril y retires from the position he has so long and honourably filled . In congratulating Bro . Jennings on his retirement , we do so with the strongest , feelings , of regard and respect for his

Grand Lodge.

character as a man and a Mason , and with an earnest conviction that the Craft will not allow a brother who has so long and faithfully served them to pass into the rank of that highly honourable body—the Past Grand Officers—without some recognition of the services he has performed and of their appreciation of his honourable and upright character

as a man ; but will with one accord unanimously vote him the honorary distinction which the Grand Master has given notice to move , shall be conferred upon him . Wc trust that Bro . Jennings may long remain amongst us as an example to the younger members of the Craft , how highly is appreciated a zealous discharge of Masonic duties , and to enjoy in comparative retirement—for comparative wo are sure it will only be—the esteem and affection of his brethren and all who have the honour of his acquaintance .

Classical Theology.—Xix.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —XIX .

VII . ' —VULCAN AND SEPTEJIKER . SOME authors assert that Osiris was the founder of Thebes in Egypt , afterwards named Diospolis , and that his parents were Saturn and Rhea ; while others describe him as the son of Jupiter Libyanus ; and again it is said that his father was King Phoroneus of Avgos . Plutarch lias assured us

that on the day the great Osiris was born , " a superhuman voice was loudly hoard exclaiming , ' This day is born great Osiris , the good and supreme governor of the universe . '" If such a king ever reigned in Egypt , the " supreme governor " was no doubt called after his name ; but it is probable that he was only an imaginary mortaland thatlike Jupiterhis

, , , name signified the heavens as the father or progenitor of the sun , the brother of the moon and the other shining spheres ; on the other hand , like ' - ' Titan , " "Osiris" may have been an older name for the sun . At all events it is related that Osiris chose the sagacious and inventive Hermes ( the famous Mercury ) for his prime , minister , who , among other

many effectual services , restored to Isis the kingdom of which she had been deprived by her son Orus , in return for her credulous weakness . . For the goddess had been persuaded by the subtle pleadings of Typhon to give him his liberty after his opponents had for the first time conquered and captured him . All these imaginary transactions may be proved to have been jiriestly mystifications of theoretical history blended with astral theology , astrology , and some

particular occult sciences connected with certain sacrifical magical attainments ( this latter answers to the forbidden knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ) , peculiar to the symbolized systems of the idol worshipped , constituting the ceremonies and services appertaining to some pagan deity religiously or superstitiously invoked . This was the main gulf

—the irreparable division—between the sacrifices of the Jews and the observances of heathens . Hidden investigations comprising the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God—( in the words of the Proverbs , " If thou seekest wisdom as silver , and searchest for her as for hid treasures , then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lordand find the

know-, ledge of God" )—comprise also the revelations of things which are on no account to be named ag the same , with the denounced "forbidden" mysteries , by which was meant , paying homage to devils in the hope of appeasing their malice , for a consideration . The worship of these princij ) al Egyptian deities was

introduced into the eternal city in the time of Sylla , and abolished about fifty years previous to the Christian era . Serapis may be regarded cither as Pluto , Pan , or even Bacchus , and iEseulapius ; at least it is shown by some authorities that he can so be traced by his forms of worship thz'ough different nations ; but there are limits to such an

assumption proof . Plutarch has considered Osiris to have , been the sun . How strange , then , literally it reads ; "After the remains of Osiris were interred , there appeared unto the Egyptians a stately and beautiful bull ,, which they thought was