MASONIC.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2416, 14 December 1880, Page 4

MASONIC.

AN ELOQUENT ADDRESS. [Concluded.] In our own country, its service is of a different kind. We need more respect for authority, less self-will ; a deep sense of the sacredness of law, and education in the habits, manners, andfeelings of deference and loyalty. I believe that the Order of Masonry, the quiet efficiency of its organism, the regard for forms it fosters, the love of order it induces and deepens, the graceful habits of submission it educates, and the sacredness it pours around organic law ami the scats of authority, are a prominent portion of the bonds of civilization in our country, and an immense blessing when we consider our natural perils.

Brethren, let us cherish the duties and trusts of our fraternity for this good influence that it so naturally and liberally expends. Let us resolve, as part of our duty to the Creator, the source of order and'law, to drink more deeply of the springs within our enclosure, whose issue is healing and reviving. In the maintenance of the bond and customs of our order is the pledge of our prosperity as well as the assurance of our service. Order lias limits, Let us continue to guard sacredly our limits; to suffer no transgression of them. By keeping within our limits alone are we prosperous and orderly; and within our limits our prosperity is the welfare of the community, the good of the State the strengthening of civilisation. llcjoice, brethren, in your privilege; wall off from intrusion the garden of order you have received ; and guard the book of your Constitution with the Tyler’s sword.

Organisation and Order! In preserving'thesc wc are in harmony with the will and work of the Sovereign Architect, published in the harmony, dignity, and peace of nature. And one other word must be spoken, so familiar, so precious, to the Masonic ear and heart. You anticipate what it is charity. In nature which speaks of the wisdom and character of the Invisible Spirit, organisation is not for the sake of wisdom and skill chiefly—order is not for the sake of law and obedience chiefly—but all for the sake of charity. There is harmony and stability that there may be breadth of bounty—constancy in giving wherever is need. Within every district of nature there is beneficence to all the need within that district, and then a pouring out of .alms into a general fund of bounty and cheer. Every mountain upholds and supports the herbage on its slopes, and sends off rills to carry down soil to the vales and plains; while they feed herbage there; you cannot find a tree, or a plant or a flower that lives for itself. The animal world breathes out gases for the vegetable kingdom, and then the vegetable world exhales or stores up some elements essential to animal health and and vigour. The carbonic acid we breathe out here, and which is poison to us, blown eastward by our west winds, may be greedily taken up a few days hence by vineyards on the slopes of the Sierra, and returned to us in the sweetness of the grape. The equator “ sends greeting” to the arctic zone by the warm Gulf Stream that flows near the polar coasts, to soften their winds. The poles return a colder stream, and add an embassy of icebergs, too, to temper the fierce heats. Selfishness is condemned by the still harmonics of creation. Perfect order issues out of interwoven service. Do we ever get tired of the toils and tax of charity ? Suppose the sun did ; what docs he receive in homage or obedience from' the orbs that swing round him in comparison with what he gives—all his light, all his heat, all his vitality for the blessing of four-score worlds. Shall we complain of the demand upon our treasures, or our private purses, for the sacred funds of the Masonic Board of Relief ? What if the sea grumbled at the assessment which the mighty sun—the Most Worshipful Grand Master of the system—levies on substance. Every day the sun touches its stores with its wand of light and says, give, give. And it obeys. Evaporation is its tax, constantly demanded, constantly given. Remember, brethren, that every cloud you see, whether stretched in a beautiful bar across the east at sunrise, or hanging in pomp over the gorgeous pavilion of the retiring day, is part of the contribution for the general relief of nature assessed by the lordly sun. The water which the ocean keeps is salt. Pour a bucket of it on a hill of corn and it kills it. The water which the ocean gives is fresh, and descends in blessing after it rides in beauty or majesty on the viewless couriers of the air. Nature tells us that to “ give is to live.” Society is struggling up to reach the order which nature thus indicates. Civilization is yet in its infancy 7. There is no town, no village of Christendom yet, where the bounty of nature to all the needy is fulfilled. Let us be grateful, brethren, that within our fellowship charity is organised, as well as peace. Our treasury has no uvavice in it, The oil poured upon our head flows to the end of the beard and the garments’ hem, How good and how precious it is for brethren to dwell in such unity! May it continue, brothers, and widen through our fidelity, and service, and beneficence ! God preserve our organization, guard our order, inspire our beneficence, and grant that, a century hence our successors may meet here to to enjoy in a larger fellowship the result of our faithfulness.