The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-11-09 00:00:00

FREEMASONRY

A sermon has just been published which was preached
in the Cathedral Church of Bangor, by the Very Rev.
the Dean, on the 6th of September, before the Society of
Freemasons of North Wales and Shropshire. The rev.
preacher gives some account of the origin and progress of
Freemasonry, tracing the former in this country to the
introduction of Christianity, and attributing to it the
knowledge of architecture which has raised so many ec-

clesiastical structur

Of its uses lie says

" It is to the members of the Craft that we owe those
stately towers that figure and shadow out the stability of
that Church against which the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail ; as also the taper spire, whose head reaches to the
heavens, pointing out to us higher worlds, and leading our
thoughts from earth to heaven. To them we owe the
lofty shaft, the sweeping arch, the winged buttress, the

the fretted vault, the cloistered walk—all alike adapted,
and calculated at once to call to meditation, to excite de-
votion, to perfect praise. Upon these monuments of
eminent skill, and of beautiful design, so full of mind, (a
cluster of contrivances, in which beauty is always madc.

subservient to utility, but in which.utiliiy always termi-
nates.in beauty ;1 upon these we may gaze with delight,
and the more appreciate the more we understand their
accurate proportions, their emblematical designs, and
significant devices. And indeed with re
hang over these buildings with high intellec

son may we

tion-al delight, we know that Christopher Wren,
the great master of the Palladian style, himself a Mason,
declared (it is said) of one of these buildings, that he could
have raised such, could he have known how and where to
place the first stone."
Taking for his text 1 Peter, ii. 17, " Honour all men,
love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the King," he
enlarges with genuine eloquence upon the practice of the
several virtues enjoined, and pleading in behalf of the
Carnarvonshire and Anglesey Infirmary, concludes with
the following forcible peroration :
" Let us then observe the promise of the Word of God,
and the practice of the Son of God. The Promise—
" Blessed is the mar. who provideth for the sick and
needy, the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble."
The Practice—" He went about doing good and healing
all." Onward then be our path ; inward be our prayer ;
upward be our faith, hope, and charity. Give holily,
and so please God,—give liberally, and so please all men,
—give cheerfully, and so honour the brotherhood and sa-
tisfy yourselves. No man is liberal in the degree in which
he should be, but he who makes his own luxuries yield to
his neighbour's comforts, his own comforts to his neigh-
bour's wants, and his own wants to his neighbour's ex-
treme necessities. If we would obey this rule, we must
learn to dress with less decoration, and to dine less dain-
tily ; a few shreds of our fine linen, a remnant of our
ptirple clothing, and the few crumbs which fall from our
tables, would serve to feed the hungry, cover the naked,
and comfort the sick.
" Dearly beloved Brethren,—the Scripture moveth us
in sundry places, to be " willing to give, and to be glad
to distribute." I will not burden you, I ask you no more
than my Master bids me to ask. I ask you then this only,
to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said,
—" It is more blessed to give than to receive."

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.—The Registrar-
General has just issued his quarterly return, from which
we learn that the marriages, births, and deaths, exceed
the average, so that the result is mixed, indicating great
activity in all the sources of employment, hut no general
diminution of the causes of mortality. 80,014 persons were
4marriednienw t lfiaemqiul
iaerst ejeending a
b.ll
iusnbee
d 3,0
ot , r
51,825826;
maonrde
ttihmuns
were established in the corresponding quarter of 1848.
The proportion of persons married to the population was
1,766 ; of marriages 883 in 100,000 ; while the average
numbers are respectively 1,655 and 82S. The increase in
the marriages appears to be greatest in London, where in
the quarter they were 6,713, or 1,304 more than in the
corresponding quarter of 1848. In Hampshire, Devon,
Somerset, Cheshire, Lancashire, Durham, Cumberland,
and South Wales, and generally in the ports from which
emigrants sail, an unusual number of marriages was
celebrated. 151,193 births was registered in the quarter
ending September 30th, 1852. The number slightly
exceeds the high number registered in the corresponding
quarter of 1851, and is treater by 31,371 than the number
registered in 1840. Within the last twelve months
621,260 children have been enrolled on the national re-
gisters. The rate of births in England is influenced by
the seasons ; it is higher in the first than it is in the last
two quarters of the year, in the proportion of 34 to 31.
As 15.1,193 births and 100,497 deaths have been registered
in the quarter, the natural increase is 50,696, which is at
thexate 0f:3,1i9.9 weekly, id 557 daily.