Our laws and regulations you are strenuously to support, and be always ready to assist in seeing them duly executed. You are not to palliate or aggravate the offenses of your brethren; but in the decision of every trespass against our rules, you are to judge with candor, admonish with friendship, and reprehend with justice.

The study of the Liberal Arts, which tends so effectually to polish and adorn the mind, is earnestly recommended to your consideration; especially the science of Geometry, which is established as the basis of our art. Geometry, or Masonry, originally synonymous terms, being of a Divine and moral nature, is enriched with the most useful knowledge; while it proves the most wonderful properties of nature, it demonstrates the more important truths of morality.

Your past behavior and regular deportment have merited the honor which we have now conferred; and in your new character it is expected that you will conform to the principles of the Order, by steadily perservering in the practice of every commendable virtue. Such is the nature of your engagement as a

Fellow-craft, and to these duties you are bound by the most sacred ties.29

29 The above charge follows Mackey, Webb, Sickles, and nearly all the manuals. A few give a different charge; a still smaller number omit it altogether. In the English system, the F. C. lecture is divided into five sections, and at the end of each is a charge as follows: First: "All just and upright Fellow-craft Free Masons." Second: "May the remembrance of the six periods of creation stimulate Fellow-crafts to acts of industry." Third: "May Peace, Plenty and Unanimity ever subsist among Fellow-craftsmen.' Fourth: "May the study of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences ever render us susceptible of the benignity of a Supreme Being." Fifth: "The M. W. Grand M." -Emulation Working, pp. 67, 74, 79, 88, 91. These they call charges, though they seem to us more like sentiments to toasts.

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MASTER MASON

FIRST SECTION

The Compasses are peculiarly consecrated to this degree, because within their extreme points, when properly expanded, are emblematically inclosed the principal tenets of Freemasonry, and hence the moral application of the compasses in the third degree is to the precious jewels of a Master Mason, viz.: Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love.30

[In this degree here may be introduced the following ode, sung where practicable, by the Lodge or a trained choir.]

30 In the English and Canadian systems, the foilowing beautiful prayer is offered at this point: "Almighty and Eternal Being, the glorious Architect and Ruler of the Universe, at whose creative fiat all things first were made, we, the frail creatures of thy providence, humbly implore Thee to pour down on this convocation, assembled in thy holy name, the continued dew of thy blessings; more especially, we beseech Thee, to impart thy grace to this, thy servant, who offers himself a

Death, like an ever-flowing stream,
Sweeps us away; our life's a dream,
An empty tale-a morning flower,
Cut down and withered in an hour.

Teach us, Oh Lord! how frail is man,
And kindly lengthen out our span,
Till, cleansed by grace, we all may be
Prepared to die and dwell with Thee.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: or candidate to partake with us the mysterious secrets of a Master Mason. Endue him with such fortitude that in the hour of trial he fail not; but that passing safely, under thy protection, through the valley of the shadow of death, he may finally arise from the tomb of transgression to shine as the stars forever and ever."-At no other point in these systems is a prayer offered in this degree.