The hue that marks the sheeted dead.
The Lodge Celestial, round the Throne,
The raptured choir, all enrobed in white,
Sing high salvation unto GOD!
Cleansed of all gross impurity,
We toilers in the Moral Fane,

So, humbly wear our garments, white.

IV. E., W. AND S.-NORTH, THE PLACE OF DARKNESS.

In all systems of ancient rites, the Borean has been stigmatized as the quarter of "frigid cold and cheerless dark."

Why tread in gloomy shades, when paths

Of light await the willing steps?
Leave the dark Borean to the feet
Profane to cowan's feet profane-
To shapeless monsters of the night
That hate the glories of the noon,
Marauders of the dark;—but we,
The ways of pleasantness and paths
Of peace will seek, where Wisdom dwells,
And find her form exceeding fair.

A society whose duty in the beehive. law of God."

V. BEEHIVE - INDUSTRIOUS APPLICATION.

motto is, "Travel and travail, walk and work," sees practical suggestions to Well said the poet, "To do nothing, is to serve the devil and transgress the

None idle here! look where you will, they all
Are active, all engaged in meet pursuit;
Not happy else. No, for the MASTER'S voice
That called them first, is ringing in their ears;
Go build! go build! a brief six days of toil
I have allotted, arduous toil, but brief;
The burden and the heat ye must endure
All uncomplainingly,— such is my will,
In darksome quarry, and on toilsome mount,
And heated wall;-go build! not happy else!

VI. HOUR GLASS-FLIGHT OF TIME.

"So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Voice of the ages, wisdom ever new,

Speaking to Masons, in simplicity,

Soon thy last sand must leave the glass of time;
For while we contemplate them, they grow less,
And even now still less as yet we muse;

The Hour Glass bids us gauge the unfinished work
That meets the eye, and sum the amount, and so
With double assiduity to toil;

Each grain recorded in celestial scroll,
Demands of all a corresponding deed.

VII. BOOK OF THE LAW - THE MIND OF GOD.

As when we turn a vessel upward, during a shower of rain, the drops from Heaven are caught therein, so in the written Word have been caught and retained, in the descent from Heaven, the very thoughts, purposes and will of Him who ruleth all. "In keeping of them there is great reward." "The Bible is the lamp which God threw from his palace down to earth to guide his wandering children home."

And can we know the mind of God?

A window to the will Supreme!

And is His purpose all exposed

To human eye, so faint and dim?
Look! open upward broadly lies.
The WORD of GOD,- the unerring LAW,
Threatening and promising by turns,
As Masons yield to fear or love.

Oh, be it ours to walk therein,

And at the end have sure reward!

VIII. ALL-SEEING EYE-SOVEREIGN INSPECTION.

That we are never lost to the direct inspection of God is a doctrine as consoling to the faithful workman as alarming to the man servant, the idle and the shirk.

Watch me, oh, Master, at my work,

And note my diligence of zeal!

Through the long day my handstrokes fall,

For thou shalt have my utmost strength;

So in the midnight horror; so

In the worst terrors of the storm;

And midst the assassin's thrust, and in

The hour and article of death,

Thy vigilant EYE will surely note,

Thy HAND avert, Thy Love abate!

IX. CHECKERED PAVEMENT - HUMAN VICISSITUDES.

The lesson of human vicissitudes is too obvious to require repetition. Uncertainty and change pervade all the affairs of men.

From purest white to deepest black;—
Despair and rapture, fear and joy,—
Misfortune's gloomy discipline,
The happy troop of good success,
Stern hue of death, sweet hue of life,

Coldness of winter, summer's heat,
Oh, who can walk from West to East,
Along this mystic floor, nor feel
His deep dependence on the Hand
Invisible that guides his steps?

X. CABLE TOW-BONDAGE OF DUTY.

To the faithful laborer in the speculative Temple, the four-fold cord, which "is not easily broken," is like the wing of the bird, which incumbers, yet uplifts: strong indeed, yet its restraints are altogether wholesome.

A gentle bond, soft as the filmy thread

That strings the dew drops on the sunny morn,

Or gossamer that floats upon the air;

A mighty bond stronger than anchor chain,

Or brazen fetters to the honest soul;

A chain of length, reaching as high as Heaven,

As deep as to the very mountains' roots;

A chain of strength that holds the wayward heart

From drift and danger; admirable bond,

Who would not be constrained with such as this?

XI. ARK-SAFETY UNDER DIVINE SHELTER.

In all systems of ancient mythology, the Ark is a type of refuge from danger-the resort in time of impending peril.

Type of serenity, we think of thee

When lightnings flout our unprotected heads;
So, when life's storms whip our unhappy souls,
And wild temptation rages in our hearts,
We turn, oh, Masons' Lodge, we yearn for thee,
Another ARK of refuge, tried and sure,
And in thy halls serene regain our strength;
In vain the storm at thy close portals beats;
Life's discords lag without; the voice within
Is music; doors secure, and keepers strong.

XII. GAVEL - OBEDIENCE.

There is no union of men so orderly as a Freemasons' Lodge. Submissiveness to rule is the sine qua non of the Mason. "The King's wrath," declares our first M. E. Grand Master, "is as the roaring of a lion."

As midst the incoherent clash and void

Of the new world, the voice of God rung out,
"Let there be LIGHT, and there was light!

This gentle monitor, and all is peace!

so falls

The clangor of debate, the heated breath,
The vow forgotten, and the sharp retort,
Yield sweetly to the GAVEL's strong "Be still!

Reason returns with quiet, and she brings
That fine reaction which the generous heart
Moves to confess and heals the rankling wound.

XIII. CHARITY - THE GREATEST OF THE THREE.

'Now, there abideth faith, hope, charity, these three." This was the expression made, in unusually poetic mood, by a master of the human mind: "these three, but the greatest of these is charity!"

The soul serene, impenetrably just,

Is first in CHARITY; we love to muse

On such a model; knit in strictest bonds
Of amity with spirits like disposed;
Aiming at truth for her own sake, this man
Passes beyond the golden line of Faith,
Passes beyond the precious line of Hope,
And sets his foot unmoved on CHARITY.
"A soul so softly radiant and so white,

The track it leaves seems less of fire than light."

XIV. LILY REMOVING THE STAINED.

The instinct of self-preservation compels Masons to expel from their Order the "found unworthy." "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person" is a divine injunction. A wail of sorrowing hearts pervades the Lodge,

And flows and bears a volume of sad sounds;

O purity defiled! oh, soiled and smirched,

Who wert so fair! upon our Pillars twain

We hung thine emblem, gathered from the mead,

A modest flower, the LILY, virgin white,

White like the Apron, modest like the soul

That hides the left hand when the right hand gives.
Tear the smirched LILY from its place defiled,
And cast it out, alas, with bitter tears!

XV. TROWEL - SPREADING PEACE.

The fundamental idea of Freemasonry is peace: 'He loveth transgression," declares the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem; "he loveth transgression that loveth strife."

Divinest privilege to trowel peace:

Strongest of cement, peace, the bond of Heaven,
Exalted on the everlasting hills:

This makes us fellow laborers with God,

And gives us best assurance of reward.
Peace, holy calm,- it broods within the veil
Where rests the golden Ark, and in the soul
Of gentle Craftsmen, infinite delight;
No sound of Axe discordant breaks the calm
In which the walls of Sion's Fane go up.

XVI. RULE-UNERRING TRUTH.

This emblem -- the Rule - teaches that the paths of truth are straight, the portals to her temple are strait, "and few there be that enter therein."

What voice, O simple RULE, hast thou to warn

And guide the willing toiler on his way?
"Better to journey with the humble few
Who walk the path unerring, than to crowd
Along the broad, meandering paths of sin;
Better in steadfastness to fix the gaze

On Truth's fair Temple where the MASTER Sits,
And so, in shortest lines attain the prize,
Than gratify the lawless, roving eye,

In crooked highways ending in despair."

XVII. THE ACACIA TREE-SACRED FOLIAGE.

The Acacia, or Shittah, is emphatically the Freemason's tree. The Burning Bush of Moses, the Ark of the Covenant and the Altars of the Temple were all of Acacia. It is sacred to the most affecting traditions of the Order. The sap of this tree is the well known Gum Arabic.

Thy very tears are precious, holy plant,
Dropt in sad recollections of the past;
The olden Builders knew thy merits well,
And prized, above the cedar, olive, palm,
The rare Acacia, offspring of the wild;
His feet the prophet bared before thy Bush,
Burning, and marvelous, and unconsumed;
Thy wood inclosed the tables of the Law,
In peaceful Sanctum resting; and the blood
Of countless victims on thine Altar flowed.

XVIII. EAR OF CORN-BOUNTY OF NATURE.

The term Corn, in all Biblical and Masonic passages, is to be read Wheat. nature, in the abounding soil of Palestine, is the finest in the world.

Look, traveler, what name you this, that droops

In wondrous heaviness upon the stalk?
Look, traveler, old Canaan hath no gift.
That equals this, to speak its MAKER'S praise!
Abounding land! how lost to early truth.
When EAR OF CORN is made the test of doom!
The rapid Jordan makes impetuous course,-
The lily specks the hills where Jephthah dwelt,-
The oleander scents the valley sweet

As in his time;-they wake the gloomy thought
Of SHIBBOLETH, the master key of doom!

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