Fraternity The True Mission.

There is a kind of men who sneer at idealism—who , as we have elsewhere written , if an attempt is made to carry the thought from the cold and temporary details of business to higher spheres , exclaim , as did the brothers of Joseph , " Behold ! the dreamer cometh . " Here is Masonry , the miracle of the time , which lives to teach men that they have duties and affections , hopes and irationswhich take hold on something beyond the material wants ; and

asp , many a barren tongue replies , " Behold ! the dreamer cometh . " Masons , even , who have passed through the wonderful series of our symbolic teaching , when we attempt to lift their minds to the true intent and meaning of all , are often found who say , " We have corn , wine , and oil ; and what more is needed ?" Much , dear brother , much . You have not yet unravelled the mystic web ; you have not yet attained the true light ; you have heard the syllables , but you

have not grasped the thought within . . . . Alas ! if we undertake to say to lohat we are " raised , " and from the full heart express the li ght to which we believe our eyes are thus opened , we shall hear from many a blinded brother , " Behold ! the dreamer cometh . " The crowning glory of Masonry is its ideal character—an idealism which , gaining lodgment in the true Masonic heart , elevates , refines , purifies and ennobles . Fraternity—that is the grand idea which Masonry inculcates . A fraternity based upon moral worth , cemented by charity , not of the pocket , but of the heart .

There has been liberty enough—perhaps too much for national welfare there has been equality enough—perhaps too much for the hi gher not to have been contaminated by the lower ; but of fraternit y there has been too littlehow much too little let the wrathful times , now so sadly " out of joint , " brine back the melancholy answer . Man can not live alone . He may not separate the object of his existence from that proposed by the Supreme to humanity .

Without the sentiment of fraternity , knowledge , of whatever immensit y , is a delusion and a snare . Without this sentiment , welling up ever from the heart of man , he cannot be a true Mason , though we pile degrees and orders heaven-high upon him . It is not what is placed upon him which makes the Mason , but that which finds admission and genial resting-place in the warm heart within .

" Love , 0 my brothers ! and revere ideas . Ideas are the words of God . Superior to all of country , superior to humanity , is the country of the intellectual , the city of the spirit , in which the believers in the inviolability of thought , in the dignity of our immortal soul , are brothers . * * * Reverence enthusiasm ; adore the dreams of the virgin soul and the visions of the first days of youth , because these dreams of earliest youth are the

fragrance of Paradise , which the soul retains in issuing from the hands of its Creator . Respect , above all things , your own conscience ; have on your lips that truth which God has placed in your heart , and , harmoniousl y uniting , bear ever erect your banner , and boldly promulgate your faith . " The old man who , with years , has lost faith in humanity , is the dreariest sight the angels can look down upon ; the saddest , perhaps , "is the youn ^ man who earl y forgets that he should be a brother , and is hut an alien stranger .