An Old Masonic Address.

AN OLD MASONIC ADDRESS .

A CORRESPONDENT sends ns what follows , as taken from "Thoughts on Various Subjects , " without a title page , but with a name and endorsement of 1771 , under the head " Society . " In the work itself it is thus addressed : "A Charge delivered to a Lodge of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons , in the substance of a Sermon preached at Boston , in New England , 27 th December , 1749 . "

The Rev . T . Brochwell preached a sermon at Christ Church , Boston , December 27 th , 1749 , and though we have not the sermon set forth anywhere "in extenso , " as far as we remember , we have collated it with the same extract published in the Pocket Companion of 1754 , and doubt not that this is the sermon alluded to in this extract , a " Substance of a Sermon . "

THE principal intention in forming societies is undoubtedly the uniting men in the stricter bands of love ; for men considered as social creatures , must derive their happiness from each other : Every man being designed by providence to promote the good of others , as he tenders his own advantage ; and by that intercourse to secure their good offices , by being , as occasion may offer , serviceable unto them . Christianity in general ( for I now enter not upon the melancholy divisions

so rife among us ) never circumscribes our benevolence within the narrow confines of nature , fortune , profit , or personal obligation . What I would advance is this : That we restrain not our love to our next neighbour only , this being merely a point of conveniency—Nor to our acquaintance solely , this being the effect of inclination purely to gratify ourselves—We are not to caress our friends only , because gratitude and common justice require even that at our

hands—Nor yet those especially from whom we expect to receive benefit , for this interest and policy will prompt us to . —Nor our relations only , for this the ties of blood and meer nature dictate—Nor is our love and charity limited to them particularly who are of the same Church or opinion with us : For by the very same reason that we are induced to believe ourselves in the right , they may imagine themselves so too ; and what we may judge to be a perfection

among ourselves , they may condemn as a blemish . Be it so then : That in some points , or rather modes of worship , we may differ or dissent from each other , yet still the Lodge reconciles even these . There we all meet amicabl y , and converse sociabl y together—There we harmonize in principles , though we vary in Punctilios—There we join in conversation , and intermingle interests—There we discover no estrangement of behaviournor alienation of

affection—, We serve one another most readily in all the kind offices of a cordial friendship . Thus we are united , though distinguished : united in the same grand christian fundamentals , though distinguished by some circumstantials : United in one important band of brotherly love , though distinguished by some peculiarities of sentiment .

Freedom of opinion thus indulged , but its points never discussed , is the happy influence under which the unity of this truly ancient and honourable society has been preserved from time immemorial . And whoever is an upright mason , can neither be an atheist , deist , or libertine . For he is under 2 K