The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-23
MASONIC TEMPLE.
Continued From sixth Page.

1stence-there were tour looges IN Lon
don preserving the old symools ana
customs and the catecnlsIn Te'Iseu III
1868.
AS an organization, Masonry in this
country has existed since st. jonas
Lodge, of Boston, began to work in
1873, and even earlier, II the provincial
Grand Master for New Jersey appoint
ed in 1929. assumed his duties.
Masonic lodges rapidly took their
DIaces throughout the cOlonistS; they
held their meetings in the camps OF
the Revolutionary army, and they are
today not only in every state Of our
Union, but in every civilized country
of the world. The last step Of progress
was taken in England in 1892, when our
Hebrew brethren were welcomed with
in. This was no Innovation, but the re-
turn to the perfect excellence Of an
earlier day. The ancient Constitution
had declared: mo private hatred or
feud is to be carried to the threshold:
still less, political or religious disputes
Secure from the storms that beat with
out, in the lodge room, the Mason
abides in the ark Of peace.
AS time rolls on, Masonry widens
and extends it's influence in the world
She never seeks a proselyte; she ad-
mits nome but the voluntary seeker ar
ter truth. She does not pride herself
upon the mere number that march un-
der her banners, and many are those
LII Z hOl DtCh %HND $3.50
circle of Brotherly Love.
Yet, the Grand Lodge Of North caro-
lima, in it's 18th year, has ~Jurlsdlction
over 269 lodges, and 11,191 Masons live
within its bounds. OF these, 697 were
initiated during the past year, making
with ali deductions, a gain of asa, or
over 4 per cent. And the statistics for
North America show that in 1897-1898.
the Grand Lodge Of the United States
and British America represented ST.
227 members, a gain over the preceding
year of 4,945. (Of the Royal Arch
MasOns, there were 177,628 and the
Knight Templars numbered 13,bf0.j
Evidently as a force in human affairs.
Masonry must be considered.
True, there are those who cannot see
anything good therein. There was
even a period when good men gave
way to violent political hatred of the
Brotherhood. AS a philosopher says:
"aristOtle said of his works, They
are published and not published" No
man can learn what he has not prepa-
ration for learning, however near to
his eyes is the object. A chemist may
tell his most precious secrets to a
digger, and he shall be never the
Wiser-the secrets he would not utter
to a chemist for an estate.
Our eyes are holder that we cannot
see things, until the mind is ripened-
then we behold them, and the time
when we saw them not is like a
, dream.
Masonry needs not the authority Of
great names to win dignity or rever-
ence. 1T speaks in the life of every true
brother of the tie.
Sweet is the tear that from some
Towards eye
Drops on the cheek of one he lifts from
earth"
Bishop Taylor has said, in his quaint,
1NI,t i, ~a-e;uO La r,,o oa 1rhnrn -
nothing greater for which God made
our tongues, next to reciting His
praises, than to minister comfort to a
weary soul" And what greater pleas
ure can we have han that we should
bring joy to our brother, who, with his
dreary eyes, looks to heaven and rOund-
about and canno find so much rest
as to lay his eyelids closed together?
That thy tongue should be turned 70
Heavenly accent, is glory to thy voice.
God is pleased with 40 music from be-
dow so much as in the thanksgiving of
relieved widows and supported Or
phanS."
Although Masonry needs no advo-
Gates, and is her own ensample, yet it
is not without an interest of it's own
that we view the great figures that
adOrn it's sculptured halls, stretching
back in dim cOlOnades, to remote an
tiquity. Rather, may l say, so vast
is the number of the elect, masters, the
princes of the royal secret of life, that
it is as if one lifted his eyes to the
starry cOnClaVe, to mark the SplendOr
of these glittering orbs, so great in
number, yet, each in his appointed
place.
If we speak of the illustrious in our
country, all will give place to the
faithful craftsman and worthy Wor-
shipful Master Mason, who penned
these lines: The rand object of Ma
Sonry is to perpetuate the happiness Of
the human race" and signed it George
Washington.
The Master of the Lodge at Alexan-
1rla, then president of the United States
wrote to st. David's, of Newport, r. l.,
in 1871 that he was Persuaded that a
just application of the principles on
which the Masonic fraternity is found
ed, must be promotive of private virtue
and public prosperity"
These words are as admirable as
his deeds, and in November, 1896, about
to enter the last year of his life, he
addressed the Grand Lodge of Mary
land thus: 80 far as 1 am acquaint
ed with the doctrines and principles of
F~TeemasOnry, l conceive them to be
founded in b~eneVolence and to be ex-
ercised only for the good Of mankind
In December next, a solemn pilgrim
age by his brethren will be made to the
spot where a hundred years ago his
ashes were laid to rest in the home and
by the stream he loved so well.
His gallant friend, the Marquis De
Lafayette, who crossed an ocean to Of
fer us his sword, was a Mason, and
fifty years after his battles, came tt
enter again TIE lodges of his trans-At-
iantic brethreA
So was Benjamin Franklin, the first
Master Of the first lodge, established in
Philadelphia, in 1874. Many years
thereafter he helped to initiate Voltair,
in Paris, and he presided in the 1odg,
of sorrow which was convened in mem
DRY of Voltaire. Alas, that the Crane
Orient of France should have cut her
self off from Masonic recognition bN
setting aside the andmark of a belle
in a personal God.
To name a very few of the stars u
the Eastern Hemisphere, 1 point you t.
Charlmagne, who invited the travelling
Masons from Italy, and drank of thei
learning; to Charles Martel, who l.
said Ito have sent many workmen an,
Master Masons into England; to tn
four Masons, Claudius, Simplicius an,
their brethren, martyred at Rome un