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viction after trial;" and to this in every other case, except non-payment of arrears, there will not, we suppose, be a single dissenting voice in the whole body of the craft. It is time that, guided by the dictates of sound justice and good common sense, this exception should no longer be made. It is time that the Mason should no longer be permitted to say, as a reproach to the consistency of our legal code —" I may lie, I may steal, nay, I may commit murder, and my Lodge will not and dare not deprive me of my masonic privileges, except after a conviction derived from an impartial trial; but if I omit to pay the secretary a few dollars, then, upon his mere report, without any opportunity given me to show that the omission was the result of ignorance, of poverty, of sickness or of misfortune, I may, without trial and with no chance of defense, be visited with the severe penalty of masonic suspension.”

If, then, it be admitted, as I trust it will, that suspension cannot be inflicted without trial, and that, simply because it is a punishment, and because punishment should always follow and not precede conviction, then to strike the name of a member from the roll of his Lodge, would be equally as illegal, unless he were called upon to show cause why it should not be done. The one principle is strictly analogous with the other. If you cannot suspend without trial, neither can you strike from the roll without trial. It is unnecessary, therefore, to enter again into the argument; but I suppose that the postulate will be granted under the general axiom, that no punishment whatsoever can be inflicted without preliminary trial and opportunity for defense.

But the concluding doctrine of Bro. Perkins needs some further consideration. This doctrine is in these words: "Striking his name from the roll of members of the Lodge, under a by-law, does not affect a brother's standing in the fraternity, nor debar him from any of the privileges of Masonry, except that of membership in the particular Lodge."

This striking of names from the Lodge roll is altogether a modern practice, taking its rise since the modern organiza

tion of permanent Lodges. In ancient times, Lodges were temporary associations of Masons for special and limited purposes. Originally, as Preston informs us, "a sufficient number of Masons met together within a certain district, with the consent of the sheriff or chief magistrate of the place, were empowered to make Masons, and practice the rights of Masonry without warrant of constitution." Then, of course, there being no permanency of organization, there were no permanent members, and, consequently, no payment of arrears, and no striking from the roll. It was only after 1717, that all these things were introduced, and as Lodges pay some contribution to the Grand Lodge for each of their members, it is evident, as well as from other palpable reasons, that a member who refuses or neglects to support the general Lodge fund, will become pecuniarily onerous to the Lodge. Still, as I have elsewhere observed, the non-payment of arrears is only a violation of a special voluntary obligation to a particular Lodge, and not of any general duty to the fraternity at large. The punishment, therefore, inflicted, (if it is to be considered at all as a punishment,) should be one affecting the relations of the delinquent with his own Lodge, whose by-laws he has infringed, and not a general one, affecting his relations with the whole Order.

When, then, his name is stricken from the roll, although even this should not be done without affording him an opportunity of defense, that is, a fair trial, I am ready to agree with Bro. Perkins, that it should not affect his standing in the fraternity, nor debar him from any of the privileges of Masonry, except that of membership in his particular Lodge.

THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD.

THE beautiful parable contained in the twentieth chapter of the gospel of St. Matthew, is of course familiar to every Mark Master; but few, perhaps, have deeply reflected on the profound symbolism which it presents to the mind of the reflective Mason. And yet there is no passage of Scripture, recited in any portion of our ritual, which is more appropriate to the ceremonies into which it is introduced, than this sublime parable of our Lord is to the whole intent and design of the Mark Master's degree. We learn from it that the Grand Architect of the Universe will make no distinction of persons in the distribution of His beneficence, but will give alike to each one who honestly seeks to obey the great law of his creation. Masonry regards no man on account of his worldly wealth or honors. It is, we are told, the internal and not the external qualifications that recommend a man to be a Mason. No matter what may be the distinctions of place or office, the humblest shall receive as full a reward as the highest, if he has labored faithfully and effectively. And all this arises from the very nature of the institution.

The Lodge is the Mason's vineyard; his labor is study, and his wages are truth. The youngest Mason may, therefore, labor more earnestly than the oldest, and thus receive more light in Masonry as the reward of his earnest work. The craftsman who had been idle all the week, and came in at the eleventh hour, brought with him that stone which, though at first rejected, became afterward the head of the corner, and so did more service to the temple than all those who had begun to labor even at the rising of the sun, and yet could offer no more at the end of each day's work than the ordinary result of an ordinary man's labor.

The vineyard of Masonry is open to all. But he who works most diligently, though he began the latest, shall not be below him who, commencing earlier, has not more strenuously put his heart into the task.

The design of all Masonry is the search after Divine truth, and each one who seeks to attain it shall find his reward in the attainment. However long we may labor-however we may have endured the heat and burden of the day, if we have not labored wisely-if our zeal has not been tempered with judgment, though first at the vineyard, we shall be last at the reward; for Truth is found only by him who looks for it by night as well as by day-whose search is directed by wisdom, and supported by faithful courage and indomitable zeal. The Mason who has made one discovery in masonic science, is of more value than he who has learned nothing but his ritual, just as the keystone was worth more than many ordinary ashlars. It is not the time that we have wrought, but the result of our work that will be considered. So, then, let us all labor in the vineyard and the quarry, in the lodge and in the study, that, being called to seek Truth, we also may be chosen to find it.-Am. Quar. Review.

MASONRY-OPERATIVE AND SPECULATIVE. [From an Address of Brother J. W. Latimer, Esq., of Texas.]

THE two grand divisions of Masonry, are operative and speculative. The one was its ancient form, the other is of more recent origin. Operative Masonry built the Temple of Solomon, and although it no longer exists as a secret science, as the speculative Masonry which we profess was founded upon, and derived immediately from it, and is closely identified with it, we will examine it for a moment. Operative Masonry is simply the art of constructing and erecting material edifices of marble and stone; whilst speculative Masonry, symbolizing moral precepts and instructions from the types of the operative art, is supposed to be engaged in building a moral and spiritual edifice.

In searching for the origin of operative Masonry as a secret art, if we wished to be ingenious and indulge in a wide field of doubtful though plausible conjecture, we might lift the

curtain of the past and carry you into the far ages of antiquity beyond the deluge-we might conduct you among the ruined cities of nations whose very names have been forgotten, to mouldering temples and statues-to broken columns, crumbling towers, and mildewed walls, dating far behind the historic ages of the world,

"Relics of nobler days, and nobler acts,"

-we might suppose that in its primitive signification it was co-eval with the puling infancy of earth, and argue that even Adam and his generations resorted to its fundamental principles in constructing rude habitations to shelter them from the storms of winter and the suns of summer.

Certain it is, that from the earliest ages of which history or tradition gives any account, to the present time, no operative art has conferred more substantial blessings on mankind. It builds your marts of commerce, adorns your temples of learning, and embellishes your sanctuaries of religion. At its magic touch cities teeming with life spring into being, fortifications of defense against a hostile invader frown defiance, and sculptured statues and lettered monuments to your great heroes and benefactors tower in air. From its prolific chisel the cold and soulless ashlar decorates the polished arch, or is transformed into beauty and life, swelling in the muscular strength of a Hercules, or blushing in the symmetry and loveliness of a Venus. In the rough granite you may gaze on the calm grave features of your Washington, or on its cold bosom read the glorious annals of Bunker Hill. Antiquity gloried in, and the present age wonders at the achievements of operative Masonry. Look at the Egyptian pyramids, standing in their eternal grandeur, a fit type of the mighty river that pours its flood at their base-as no source has ever been discovered, whence these mighty, rushing, eternal currents flow; so, the hoarded recollections of untold centuries cluster around the pyramids, and there is no key to unlock the lost centuries, still further back, that witnessed their erection. Yet there they stand, the charnel houses of lost empires, an eternal monument of operative Masonry.

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