THE Master Mason imposes a duty on himself, full of moral virtue and Christian charity, by enforcing that brotherly love which every man should extend to his neighbour.

FIRST, That when the calamities of our brother call for our aid, we should not withdraw the hand that might sustain him front sinking; but that we should render him those services, which, not incumbering or injuring our families or fortunes, charity and religion may dictate for the saving of our fellow-creature.

SECOND, From which purpose, indolence should not persuade the foot to halt, or wrath turn our steps out of the way: but forgetting injuries and selfish feelings, and remembering that man was born for the aid of his generation, and not for his own enjoyments only, but to do that which is good; we should be swift to have mercy, to save, to strengthen, and execute be

nevolence.

THIRD, As the good things of this life are variously dispensed, and some are opulent whilst others are in distress; such principles also enjoin a Mason, be he ever so poor, to testify his good-will towards his brother.-Riches alone are not the only means of doing good; virtue and benevolence are not confined to the walks of opulence :-the rich man, from his many talents, is required to make extensive works under the principles of virtue; and yet poverty is no excuse for an omission of that exercise; for as the cry of innocence ascendeth up to heaven, as the voice of babes and sucklings reach the throne of God, and as the

breathings of a contrite heart are heard in the regions of dominion; so a Mason's prayers, devoted to the welfare of his brother, are required of him.

FOURTH, The fourth principle is never to injure. the confidence of your brother, by revealing his secrets; for perhaps that were to rob him of the guard which protects his property or life.-The tongue of a Mason should be void of offence, and without guile ;-speaking truth with discretion, and keeping itself within the rule of judgment;-maintaining a heart void of uncharitableness, locking up secrets, and communing in charity and love.

FIFTH, Of charity, so much is required of a Mason, in his gifts as discretion shall limit ;-charity begins at home, but like a fruitful olive tree, planted by the side of a fountain, whose boughs over-shoot the wall, so is charity: it spreads its arms abroad from the strength and opulence of its station, and lendeth its shade for the repose and relief of those who are gathered under its branches.--Charity, when given with imprudence, is no longer a virtue; but when flowing from abundance, it is glorious as the beams of morning, in whose beauty thousands rejoice. When donations, extorted by pity, are detrimental to a man's family, they become sacrifices to superstition, and, like incense to idols, are disapproved by heaven.

As Moses was commanded to pull his shoes from off his fect, on Mount Horeb, because the ground whereon he trod was sanctified by the presence of the Divinity; so the Mason who would prepare himself

for this third stage of masonry, should advance in the naked paths of truth, be divested of every degree of arrogance, and come as a true Acacian, with steps of innocence, humility, and virtue, to challenge the ensigns of an order, whose institutions arise on the most solemn and sacred principles of religion.

LECTURE X.

THE SECRECY OF MASONS.

IN this age, when things serious are too often received with laughter, things religious treated with contempt, and what is moral, spurned from the doors of the polite; no wonder if our intentions to prove this society of religious as well as civil institution, should be ridiculed and despised.

IT is not to be doubted many assemblies of Masons were held before the christian æra; the first stage of masonry took its rise in the earliest times, was originated in the mind of Adam, descended pure through the antediluvian ages, was afterwards taught by Ham, and from him, amidst the corruptions of mankind, flowed unpolluted and unstained with idolatry to these our times, by the channel of some few of the Sons of Truth, who remained uncontaminated with the sins of nations, saving to us pure and spotless principles, together with the original symbols.-Those ancients, enlightned with original truth, were dispersed through many states;—they were called to join the Jewish na◄ tion, and many of them became united with that people. The Wise-hearted were employed in the construction of the tabernacle of Moses, they were embodied at the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and might from thence emigrate into distant countries, where they would superintend other religious works.

The ceremonies now known to masons, prove that the testimonials and insignia of the Masters' order, in the present state of masonry, were devised within the ages of christianity, and we are confident there are not any records in being, in any nation, or in any language, which can shew them to be pertinent to any other system, or give them greater antiquity.

In this country, under the Druids, the first principles of our profession most assuredly were taught and exercised: how soon the second stage and its ceremonials were promulged after the building of the temple at Jerusalem, we have no degree of evidence. As to the third and most sacred order, no doubt it was adopted upon the conversion of those who attended the Druidical Worship, who had professed the adoration of the one fupreme being, and who readily would receive the doctrines of a mediator; a system in religion which had led the sages of old into innumerable errors, and at last confounded them with idolatry.

UNDER our present profession of masonry, we alledge our morality was originally deduced from the school of Pythagoras, and that the Basilidian system of religion furnished us with some tenets, principles, and hieroglyphics: but these, together with the Egyptian symbols and Judaic monuments, are collected only as a successional series of circumstances, which the devotees of the Deity, in different and distant ages of the world, had professed; and are all resolved into the present system of masonry, which is made perfect in the doctrine of christianity: from these united mem