The ceremonies attending were of the most pleasant and soul-satisfying nature, and the entire matter one of those cheerful occurrneces of which this sterile planet is occasionally the scene.-Syracuse, N. Y. pap.

MASONRY A MONUMENT OF THE PAST. "The Chalden came with his starry lore,

That built upon Babylon's crown and creed,
And bricks were stamped on the Tigris's shore,

With signs which our sages scarce can read."

In the year 1012 before Christ, how different was the map of the Oriental world from what it is now! Then Jerusalem was in her glory, and the plains of Judea were dotted with populous cities and villages, the handiwork of our ancient operative Brethren. In this year, by the grace of God, King Solomon classified the craft and laid the foundations of our Masonic Temple, as well as that of the Most High. Our building is yet perfect; its walls strong, its pillars upright, its Sanc tum Sanctorum unprofaned; but the Mosque of Omar stands where the masterpiece of our ancient Brethren stood, and Tyre and her sister cites exist but in name. Babylon, Memphis, Ninevah, Thebes, Palmyra, and all have had an existence, but all have been blotted out by the God of nations. Kingdoms and empires have arisen, gained glory, and fallen again to nothingness; new lands have been discovered and peopled, but amid all this changing scene our glorious Order has stood firmly, and yet stands a monument of the otherwise unrelenting past.

Reflect a moment upon this theme. Think of Jerusalem as she was and as she is. Then the rising sun gilded the pinnacles of the Temple and his setting rays played lovingly around them and kissed them as he departed down the West. The priests swung their censors and chanted their praise of the Most High God, and exhorted the people to holiness to the Lord. Vast crowds bowed the knee in worship in the vestibule, and the Jewish mother brought her child into its sacred precincts to teach them of Moses and the prophets. Jerusalem was a very queen among the nations, and the fame of her king extended throughout the length and breadth of the known world. His sceptre reached to Tadmor in the wilderness, his ships brought gold and silver and precious stones from Ophir and Tarshish, and the monarchs of the surrounding country sent him tribute. But now Mt. Moriah is desecrated-not one stone of the Temple stauds upon another. The domes and minarets of the infidel Turk overlook Calvary: instead of the chanting of the priests, the prayer and the sacrifice, the Muzzein of the Moslem calls to worship at morn, at noon, at eve. Desolation sits in high places, "the heathen have come into the inheritance of the Lord, the holy Temple have they defiled; and they have laid Jerusalem in heaps," and the "chosen people of God" are scattered to the ends of the earth.

The only tangible record of the glory of the first Temple is our beloved Order. It has stood the test of time, and quietly overcome the efforts of fanaticism to destroy it and is yet vigorous, although two thousand eight hundred years have elapsed since it assumed shape and comeliness. It stands a glorious monument of the past and an ornament to the present.—Anon..

INNOVATIONS.

"FROM the examination of some of the proceedings of the Grand Lodges under review, it is but too apparent, that innovations and novelties are gradually creeping into our beloved Order. A desire for change, a morbid anxiety for exciting novel. ties in the work or established proceedings of the Fraternity,-a wish to make the age-grown forms attractve to the young eye of superficial observation,—are gaining a living existence in some jurisdictions. These are foes to Freemasonry. They are secret agencies for evil. They are speculative instructions, tending to weaken and destroy the landmarks. We cannot be silent when we observe the efforts that are thus making to loosen the foundations of Freemasonry. In the language of a stern sentinel, standing steadfast to his duty, we cry, 'Who goes there?' Unless the answer comes in the traditionary tongue of Ancient York Freemasonry, 'A Brother, clothed in the vesture of the Craft, unchanged in form and fashion, but as our fathers wore it,' we must challenge the stranger.

If may be a most disagreeable duty but it is a duty. This nerves us to action, justifies it, sanctions it, enobles it. In the performance, then, of the obligation resting upon us, we warn the Craft against insidious innovations and neoteric nescience. Harmless it may be by intention, but hurtful in their effects, they are neither to be tolerated nor trifled with. Let us invite close scrutiny, consistant care, ceasless circumspection over the labors of the Fraternity. Let us guard with stern fidelity the avenues through which these evils may seek to enter the temple. Above all, let us have the highest virtue of true men,-courage to speak,-when these evils present themselves, though attended by a retinue of either powerful or attractive surroundings."-G. L. Penn.

CONSERVATORS OF SYMBOLIC MASONRY. SOME portions of the Masonic Fraternity have been invited to unite in a new movement which may properly command a passing notice. M. W. Grand Master Pierson brought the subject prominently before the Grand Lodge of Minnesota in October last. He says:

"In August last, I issued a circular to the Lodges, warning them against a new secret organization, sought to be foisted upon the fraternity, called 'Conservators of Symbolic Masonry.'

"I had heard of this scheme a long time previous, but determined not to notice it unless this jurisdiction was invaded. But learning that several Brethren in the jurisdiction had received communications inviting them to join in this scheme, and having the example of other Grand Masters before me, I issued the circular as stated." "After carefully examining this scheme, as detailed in Communications Nos. 1 and 2, issued and signed by the author of the system, I arrived at the conclusion it was a most dangerous one to Masonry-that it was calculated to revolutionize Grand Lodges, and struck a blow at the root of Masonic polity; and that its objects were two-fold: 1st, A magnfiicent pecuniary speculation; and 2d, A plan to enable the originator and chief to control the action of Grand Lodges, and thus make himself the head or lawgiver of the whole fraternity."

To justify th's opinion he gives a synopsis of the private circulars. No. 1 was

marked "Masonically confidential," to be returned in ten days to Rob. Morris, La Grange, Kentucky. This gave intimatious of the proposed scheme which Br. Pierson deemed "extremely Quixotic."

No. 2 is sent to those who returned No. 1, marked "approved”—was marked "strictly confidential"—" to be positively returned in ten days to the chief Conservator at La Grange, Kentucky." In this number are "" seven features" of the system. The whole matter was to be within the breasts of the Conservators chosen by those in the secret, and pledged to fidelity by peculiar engagements-the Craft at large to know nothing of the association, its members, or its plans.

A journal-the Conservator-was to be published for members only, with rules and regulations for their guidance-this was to give the true work-to correct work and lectures in the various Grand Lodges. It was to reach the strictest minutiæ-to official matters-to set up the old Landmarks long thrown down. There was to be a conservator's degree-means of recognition-its members in covenant by binding and appropriate ties.

Its "seventh feature" was a remittance of ten dollars as a contribution. There was to be a Deputy Chief Conservator in each congressional district, and a Conservator and two Deputies in each Lodge, under the control of the chief conservator. According to Bro. Pierson's calculation, if half the Lodges should respond to the call, it would give the chief $75,000. He believes that a scheme so detrimental to Masonry, so subversive of its interests and principles-needs only to be exposed to be rejected, as would any other contaminating thing.”—Report of Cor. Com. G. L. of Maine.

THE EARL OF KILMARNOCK.

THE memory of a noble Brother, who suffered death for his adherence to "Bonny Prince Charlie," has been revived by the discovery of a relic of the Earls of Kilmarnock -to wit, the arms of that ancient family, which adorned their aisle in the old parish church of St. Marnock prior to the middle of last century. The relic, which is probably no less than 300 years old, and in a good state of preservation, was discovered by Bro. Archibald McKay, Poet Laureate of Kilmarnock St. John's Kilwinning Lodge, No. 22, and is described as being carved in oak, and measures about two and a half feet in length by about two feet in breadth. The various figures are well executed in bas relief. The two supporters are squirrels-the fess cheque, the helmet, the coronet, or lucken dexterhand, and the other ornamental carvings being still bold and sharp. Neither motto nor inscription was found upon it, but such may originally have been painted on it. The coat of arms was removed from the old church about the year 1740, when the building was in course of being taken down for the purpose of being rebuilt. The body servant of the Jacobite Eari became possessed of the escutcheon, and retained it as a relic of his unfortunate master, and after his death it was carefully preserved in the family as a memento of both master and

servant.

Brother the Earl of Kilmarnock, who was beheaded at London for the part he took in the rebellion of 1745, was a member of Mother Kilwinning, and for two

years held the chair of that Lodge, and during his occupancy of it in 1742, succeeded the Earl of Leven as Grand Master Mason of Scotland. Under date 20th December, 1742, we find in the minute book of the mother Lodge the following entry :-"Our late Most Worshipful Master, the Earl of Kilmarnock, being this year elected G. Master for Scotland was necessarily absent at Edinburgh ; on that account it was therefore moved that the Lodge should proceed to the election of a new Master, and they unanimously agreed upon the Right Hon. Alexander, Earl of Eglinton, who was proclaimed and acknowledged accordingly." This, the tenth Earl of Eglinton, had on the 20th January of the same year received the rite of initiation from the hands of Lord Kilmarnock, and being also passed and raised on the same day, in the words of the record of that meeting, "His Lordship of Eglinton paid five guineas into the box for the poor, besides the expense of the day which he also cleared, and obliges himself by subscription hereto annexed to abide by the rules of the Lodge." His Lordship was afterwards, in 1750, raised to the dignity of Grand Master Mason of Scotland, and continued to take an active interest in the affairs of the Craft until 1759, when he was mortally wounded by a poacher whom he attempted to disarm, and being carried to Eglinton Castle, shortly afterwards expired. We may conclude this pot pourri paragraph by stating that (speaking of the Brother whose oaken coat of arms has been again brought to the light) a scion of one of the branches of the family to which Bro. F. H. J. Crauford, M. P., belongs, attended the unfortunate Earl of Kilmarnock to the scaffold and held a corner of the cloth to receive his head as it fell from the block, for performing which office of friendship Craufurd of Crau furdland was disgraced by being put to the bottom of the army list. He however regained his position in the army, and distinguished himself in the battles of Dettigen and Fontenoy.

THE MASONIC EMBLEMS.

It cannot be denied by those who have passed through the vails, that the very progress of Masons, in their journey from darkness to light, is regulated at every point and stopping place, by some incident or illustration familiar to them as readers of God's inspired volume.

The ladder which Jacob saw has been adopted by us, the three principal rounds of which are Faith, Hope and Charity, and our whole course and progress, are regulated by that beautiful implement which is to mark the degrees by which we are to ascend from our state of ignorance and indifference to the highest intelligence, to the brightest honors, and to the highest points of virtue and usefulness in Freemasonry

There is not an emblem, not a badge, not a sign or signal, not an implement of our Craft-there is nothing connected with our Heaven-ordained brotherhood, which is not designed either to teach a moral lesson, to inculcate some truth, to vindicate and establish some virtue, to propagate some righteous principal of humanity, to relieve the sufferings of our kind, or to scatter light and knowledge among the races who fell with Adam, and by whose fall we have inherited sin and death, and all the evils that infest the earth, and that transformed our garden

of Eden into a theatre of war, of treasons, of stratagems, ay, of rank rebellion, against the laws of nature, and the commands of the Most High.

Every piece of furniture in one of our Lodges, every implement or instrument of work, every figure on the checkered floor, everything the eye can behold, impresses or ought to do so-the mind with some truth, some principle, some moral or religious sentiment, or some precept of humanity.

The square which is used by all Masons, the level and the plumb, which likewise are found in every region, and in every Lodge where Masonry has established its benificent influence, teach such lessons of morality, virtue and religion as must command the respect of all regulated minds. The square enjoins morality, the plumb rectitude of conduct, and the level admonishes us that we are all equal.

In a word, the level, which with the square and plunıb, constitute the immovable jewels of a Lodge, impress us that all men are equal by birth; that virtue, that talent, that probity, and that the noble exercise of the gifts with which we have been endowed by our Creator, alone make the difference between the men of this or any other generation of the sons of Adam. The working tools of the Society alone should be quite enough to win the esteem of every man who has a right appreciation of the duties and the obligations, and the wants of life. There is scarcely an instrument belonging to the Fraternity, that does not inculcate some token of industry, and that does not imprint on the mind the importance and necessity of labor. They not only enforce the lesson spoken of above, that all men are equal, and are actually equal by nature, but they impress the other more important one, that man must labor, and must not be ashamed of toil.

The apron which Masons wear, besides being an emblem of innocence, is the sign of industry, and all the badges and implements of our Craft, impart two ideas most essential to be perceived, those of labor and equality. The curse pronounced upon Adam, (and consequently upon each of his posterity) was, 'in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground.' And the rites, mysteries, ceremonies and observances of Freemasonry recognize this stern command. The very pillars of a Lodge represent wisdom to devise, strength to support, and beauty to adorn-N. Y. Sat. Cour.

BROTHER ROBERT BURNS

THANKS.

RETURNING

IN William Pearson's edition, 1835, of Lockhart's Burns, at page 258, we find a letter from Burns to John Ballantine, under date Edinburg, January 14, 1787, in which the following passage occurs :-" I went to a Mason Lodge yesternight, where the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Charters, and all the Grand Lodge of Scotland visited. The meeting was numerous and elegant; all the different Lodges about town were present in all their pomp. The Grand Master, who presided with great solemnity and honor to himself as a gentleman and Mason, among other general toasts, gave 'Caledonia and Caledonia's Bard-Bro. Burns,' which rung through the whole assembly with multiplied honors and repeated acclamations. As I had no idea such a thing would happen, I was downright