MASONIC.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2415, 13 December 1880, Page 4

MASONIC.

AN ELOQUENT ADDIIESS [Continued.]

It is in the light of this principal that the value and nobleness of Masonry appear. I say again that no edifice which our ancient brethren reared was equal to the living structure of which they and vve are portions. How often we read or hear with pride, that in the building of the first temple the stones were made ready before they they were brought together; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building ! What is the growth of our Order itself ? How quiet the process yet how constant! Who hears the noise of it ? Who sees or knows when the sound timber and the approved stones are brought together and fitted, and lifted to their place amidst the war and_ strife and selfishness of the world; let, in thousands of towns and cities of the world, in all its zones, in almost all communities and tongues of men, this work, in substantial sameness of method and pledge, is going on. The Temple of Solomon must stand as it was built. It could not enlarge itself. It could not bud with smaller temples, and then take them in under a widening roof or swelling dome. Neither, when some of its pillars decayed, could it restore its own decrease, as the living cedars of Lebanon repair their wastes and renew their leaves. But our conscious temple does all this, and noiselessly it fills in its losses ; it enlarges its sweep and sway ; it does it through men of all conditions, and classes, and races; and still it stands in its old proportions though in greater amplitude symmetrical sublime, This is the most remarkable social organisation of the world. None on the globe with half so many elements in its composition, is half so old. We arc told of late that excavations made under modern Jerusalem disclose remnants of the old city in various periods of its history. Portions of the massive masonry of the time of Solomon are uncovered. Above these appear fragments of the work of Zerrubbabel. On a higher historic stratum are specimens of workmanship from the age of Herod the Groat; and still above these, but below the level of the present city are remains of the constructive toil ordered by Justinian. We delight to feel, brethren, that the past, measured by as many ages, is under ns, but it is not beneath us in a broken symmetry and a dead grandeur as under Jerusalem. It is rattier beneath us as the roots are beneath a tree, and as the central rings arc hidden in the trunk. The give power and pith to the structure, still they are part of itsj present majesty, sources of living vigor, prophecies of its future strength. Wc should take satisfaction, brethren —nay, a noble pride—in the consciousness of the age and vastness of our organisation. If a stone in St. Peter’s could be conscious, or any portion of the wall or spire of Strasburg Cathedral, do you think that it would rejoice in its position ; that it would be exultant over its partnership with other stones in rearing the grandeur of such a pile for such worthy uses ? If any fragment of such an edifice could be conscious, and did not feel any pride or any privilege in its position and its call, would its indifference be a merit or ■i shame rather ? How shall it bo with us? Shall we not feel that there is dignity, that there is privilege in being living fibres of an organisation which lias passed from one era of the world to another ; which is older than the oldest empire of Christendom ; which lias on its roll names that sparkle in history like the sovereign stars ; and which exists, not for the purpose of private aggrandisement or the selfish joy of its members, but to give deeper root to good principles in the world, and to diffuse the spirit of peace and order? If a Mason is not grateful and glad over his fellowship, it is because he docs not appreciate the value in the world of the organisation of good. The idea of organisation is connected with the idea of order, And here also .Masonry reflects to us, or rather illustrates, in a higher form, the wisdom breathed by the Great Architect through nature. It is said that order is heaven’s first law. It is no less true, brethren, that it is earth’s first privilege, It is the condition of beauty, of liberty, and <>f peace. Think how the principle of order for all the orbs of the solar system is hidden in the sun. The tremendous power of his gravitation reaches thousands of millions'of miles, and hampers the self-will —the centrifugal force—of mighty Jupiter; of Uranus, with his staff of moons; of cold, and distant, and invisible Neptune. There's a Grand Lodge for you, in which these separate Masters arc held in check by the Most Worshipful Grand Master’s power! Nay, they tell us now of a central sun around which all other suns—those, fixed stars of the firmament—bend and sweep. If this suggests any argument by analogy in favor of a World Congress of Masons, with a Grand Lodge of Nations, and a Supreme Master, whose power runs over seas and across continents, girdling the earth like a magnetic stream, I leave it to be discussed. But in the case of our planetary system, is it any hardship that our separate globes are so strictly under rule, and pay obeisance to the .sun ? Is it not their cheif blessing, their sovereign privilege ? What if the order were less strict and punctual ; what if the force in these globes, that chafes under the centimil rein, and champs its curb, should be triumphant for a day ? What if the earth should gain liberty against the pull of the sun ? Beauty from that moment would begin wither ; fertility would begin to shrivel. The hour of seeming freedom would bo the ,dawn of anarchy ; for the sun’s rule and apparent despotism is the only stern and oeucficent condition of perpetual harmony, bounty, and joy. K very where order is the great' interest. What humanity needs is the fulfilment of these indications of nature; freedom with order; a proper consciousness of worth in every breast ; a recognition of each man of the worth and claims of every other ; and an acknowledgement by all of a common and controlling law. This idea of order, fulfilled in tbc architecture of nature, is committed as a trust to our fraternity, and the proper reverence for it is poured out continually through the influence of our hallowed bonds. For eveiy country that influence is silently wholesome. In lands where the spirit of society docs not recognise sufficiently the worth of man, but pays too much homage to rank and name, our Order quietly fosters the principle of equality of privilege, and responsibility under the laws of everlasting justice ; and without being revolutionary, it upholds the honor of human nature, and patiently rebukes despotic arrogance and aristocratic scorn. {To he Continued.)