Masonic Lifeboat Fund.

MASONIC LIFEBOAT FUND .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JANUARY 16 , 1869 .

"When Ave consider the Lifeboat completed , we , as a matter of course , remember that it is to be manned—manned , not for a regatta , nor for sport , but manned for deadly danger , for battles Avith the furious elements , with death itself . A cry at

the dead of nig ht ! A wreck ! Immediately the fishing hamlet—for too often the wreck is off some sparsely populated coast , such as St . Abb ' s in Berwickshire , where there is no Lifeboat on that savage coast between Dunbar and

Berwick-on-Tweed—the hamlet blazes with light , men , Avomen , and children pour down-to the quay , where the spume is driven mast-high over the sullen rocks . Then comes a cheer . The Lifeboat is out , and its gallant crew at their posts . Once , twice , thrice ,

is the Boat thrown back like a straAV upon the beach , but the crew , still undismayed , battle ivifch the Avaves , struggle through the tigerish surf , and end by sa \ 'ing life . Now ., Avhat reward gain these brave fellows ? Listen .

"Each Lifeboat to have a coxswain-superintendent , Avith a fixed salary of £ 8 ; and an assistantcoxswain , Avith a yearly salary of £ 2 . " On every occasion of going off to a wreck to save life , each man of the crew to receive 10 s . b y

day and £ 1 by night . These payments to be doubled on occasions either of extraordinary risk or of long exposure . " These sentences are taken from the Eeport of the National Lifeboat Institution . The total lives

saved in 1867 by Lifeboats , in seas Avhere none but Lifeboats could live , Avere 783 . In addition to the lives saved , 35 vessels Avere preserved by Lifeboat creAvs . In 1824 , 124 lives were saved :

in 18 o 0 , 470 ; and every year a saving of valuable life by Lifeboats is on the rise , as more Lifeboats are put upon our most dangerous coasts . Brethren , are Ave to appeal in vain to you ? Brethren , are the Freemasons of Great Britain

and Ireland to be laggards in a field where they should be foremost of the day ? Brethren , are we to see , daily , men willing and ready to face death upon the hazard of saving a single life , and still stand idly by , careless and recklessAvhen a few

, shillings from each member of our noble Order would set afloat half-a-dozen Lifeboats ? We do not ask for half-a-dozen ; we ask , for the present , but you to aid us in putting one into the hands of

Masonic Lifeboat Fund.

the National Lifeboat Institution . Oh , brethren we cannot appeal to your sympathies in vain . We Avill not believe that lukewarmness wraps you as with a mantle . We will not believe that you have forgotten that many—very many—of our

brethren are seafaring men , Avhose lives are in danger ; yes , even they may be Avrecked in port . We would rather think that the matter has not been brought fairly before you—that you have not , therefore , given it that consideration which it really

deserves ; but Ave sincerely trust , nay , Ave feel convinced , that our present appeal will not be made in vain , and that before many months have passed over our heads , the placing of the Masonic Lifeboat on some part of our British Isles' sea-gird shores will be a feat accomplished .

The Sepulchre Of Hiram, King Of Tyre.

THE SEPULCHRE OF HIRAM , KING OF TYRE .

BY DNALXO .

Five miles to the eastward of the present town of Tyre , on one of the loAver hills of tho Lebanon , in moui'nful and solitary grandeur stands a weatherbeaten relic of remote antiquity ; it is an immense sarcophagus of grey limestone , resting on a

massive pedestal of four tiers of large hewn stones . By a tradition , Avhich has probably come down unbroken from tho days of Tyro ' s greatest splendour , this is believed hy all sects and classes oi the country to bo the Sepulchre of Hiram , King

of Tyre , the friend and ally of Solomon . Nor could a better site be found for this mausoleum ; on a spot from Avhence in life the great Tyrian might havo viewed nearly all his kingdom : on the east , the glorious hills of Lebanon and

anti-Lebanon , topped by the pale blue , snow-capped cone of Hernion ; on the west , the walls and buildings of his splendid city , with beauty doubly