duties both various and important; we have duties to our Lodge and to the Masonic Brotherhood; we have duties arising out of our position in society and the ordinary occupations of our life; we have duties as subjects and citizens; we have duties as members of churches or religious communities; above all, we have duties to God, the duty of worshipping Him and of observing all His ordinances. All our duties are to be performed as in the sight and fear of God, with a regard to His authority and to His glory, and no otherwise can there be a performance of any of them, no otherwise a proper motive or one equally bearing upon them all, impelling to and sustaining in them. Those duties, however, which we distinguish as our duties to God, are in their own nature most important, and faithful attention to them is eminently helpful in regard to the performance of other duties, keeping our hearts under the influence of that best motive without which our foot will be sure soon to halt. "Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" (Eccl. ix. 10), is the divine rule, which we should ever seek to reduce to practice. Let us not be weary in well-doing," says the Apostle Paul, “for in due season we shall reap if we faint not" (Gal. vi. 9). We are called to be "zealous of good works; " let us also remember that it is he that persevereth unto the end that shall be saved.

III. THAT THE PRAYERS OF A MASTER MASON SHOULD ASCEND FOR THE DISTRESSED.

We see from from this rule what importance must be assigned, in a just view of the Masonic Institution, to its religious nature. Its first requirement is that the candidate for admission must profess his belief in God and in a future state. A belief in God is not to be regarded as a mere intellectual conviction. Every true belief has its consequences; it affects the feelings and affects the conduct. It is impossible to have a true belief in the

existence of God, and yet to live as if there were no God. It is impossible to believe in God, and yet not to feel a necessity of approaching Him in prayer. Prayer is the natural utterance of the heart's desires to Him who is able to grant them, and on whose blessing we feel ourselves at every moment to depend. Such feeling is implied in the very notion of a belief in God, and prayer might therefore be expected naturally to flow from every heart. That it does not do so is owing to the corruption of our nature-that same corruption which inclines to transgression of God's good commandments, and makes us self-indulgent, selfreliant, disposed to anything rather than seeking God and waiting upon Him. A Freemason, however, professing his belief in the existence of God, may be expected, as he owns himself bound, to wait upon Him in all humility of worship and acknowledged dependence. He must pray. Not to do so would be to belie his profession. But for whom and for what is he to pray? We do not at present require to consider the awswer of this question any further than to say that whatever his prayers for himself, and with regard to his own circumstances, needs, and dangers, he is also called to pray for others. It is a distinguishing characteristic of our Order that every brother is called to feel an interest in every other brother, to make the cause of his brother, as far as possible, his own, and to help him to the utmost of his power. There is often no way in which he can help him but by prayer. This, however, he is taught to regard as an important aid, for it secures the favourable intervention of that higher power on which all are dependent. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," says the Apostle James (James v. 16); and we have many examples in Scripture of intercessory prayer, or prayer on behalf of others, as well as of prayer on one's own behalf and of the answer of it. Indeed, it is remarkable how much in the Book of Psalms, and in other parts of Scripture, prayer takes the character of intercession. for others, very often for the whole Church or people of God. It is an admirable proof of the greatness of the

privilege which the servants of God enjoy, that they are thus permitted and encouraged to pray, not only for themselves, but for each other, to become intercessors as well as mere suppliants for pardon and grace. It accords with their relation to God as children to a father, with their right to approach Him, crying Abba, Father. And no one who truly esteems and enjoys this right can fail to avail himself of it in making prayers for others, as well as in praying for himself. His wife and children are dear to him; he knows their need of God's blessing to be as great as his own, and therefore he cannot but pray for them. And so as to others with whom he is connected by different ties. The spectacle of distress moves his heart, and he must relieve it if he can, he would relieve it if he could; but probably he finds that his means are too limited, or that the case is one to which all the means within his reach are utterly inapplicable. What is he to do then? If he can render no assistance in any other way, he may have recourse to prayer; no case is beyond the reach of God's help: God's wisdom, and God's power are equal to every emergency. Prayer, however, is not to be used alone, if there are other means which we can also employ.

If there

are, God calls us to use them, and we do not honour Him, but rather mock Him, by our prayers, whilst they are disregarded. It is vain for a man to cry for daily bread whilst he sits in indolence, refusing to work for his bread as God has commanded him; he is to work and also to pray; not to pray without working, and not to work without praying. His prayer for daily bread ought to be a prayer for the divine blessing on his industry, for strength to persevere in it, for guidance in all that relates to it, for success in the object of it. And so with prayer for every other blessing; all appropriate means are to be used, as much as if there were no need for prayer at all, or no belief in the efficacy of prayer, and yet with that constant sense of dependence on God, which makes prayer seem always necessary, that belief in its efficacy which makes it seem of all means the most effectual. This connection of prayer with the

use of other means-with work, with giving, with anything that can be done for any good purpose-is too often much lost sight of, and prayer is too much looked upon as a thing by itself; which it is, indeed, in its nature, but not in its proper use. It ought to be joined with everything which we do, and everything which we can do—that is, everything good to be done at all-ought to be joined with it. There is an old saying, and a good one, that a man ought not to plant a plot of potatoes without prayer. Such is our access to God as His children, that crying to Him, Abba, Father, we are entitled to ask Him for a blessing in all our affairs and in all our undertakings and, indeed, we ought never to engage in anything on which we cannot ask His blessing. We ask it-after the highest of all examples-on our food when we are about to partake of it, and we ought in like manner to ask it on everything to which we apply our hands. As we ought to feel for the distress of a brother, so, whatever else we may do to relieve his distress-and we ought to do all that we can in he circumstances-we ought to pray for him, to pray earnestly for his guidance, support, comfort, and relief.

"Confess your faults one to another," says the Apostle James, "and pray one for another, that ye may be healed" (James v. 16). It may be remarked in connection with this text, that the greatest distresses of a brother are often the consequence of faults which, although he may confess. them to us in private, he most anxiously desires to conceal from the world. It is our duty to conceal them, if it may be done without prejudice to higher interests, but also to give him such counsel and aid as we can, and to pray for him. "Brethren, pray for us," says the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. v. 25); a memorable exhortation, from which we see how high a value the great Apostle of the Gentiles ascribed to the prayers of his brethren, even of the humblest of the holy brotherhood. We see this also from his words in his Epistle to the Philippians: "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. i. 19.) It seems unnecessary to multiply proofs from

Scripture of the value of prayer. Our Lord himself taught that "men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke xviii. 1). And perhaps there is no passage of Scripture more impressive in relation to this subject than the beginning of the eighteenth Psalm; the psalmist declares his deep distress: "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me." But then he But then he says, "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God." What follows? "He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears." And the next words are remarkable as showing the power of prayer. All the powers of heaven and earth are represented as moved by prayer. "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also moved and were shaken, because He was wroth. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and ire out of His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down, and darkness was under His feet" (Ps. xviii. 4-9). Many verses follow of the same character. The efficacy of prayer could not be more strongly represented, nor is there any passage of Scripture more encouraging to prayer.

IV. A FAITHFUL BREAST CONCEALS THE FAULTS AND SECRETS OF A BROTHER.

It is not only the duty of every Mason carefully to conceal the secrets of Freemasonry from the profane; but he is required to lock within his own breast the secrets of a Brother, whether that Brother has communicated them to him in confidence, or he has become acquainted with them in any other way. Especially important is the application of this rule in the case of any fault which a Brother has com mitted; for this is a kind of secret the divulging of which would often do great harm, and at all events would cause much pain to him by whom the fault has been committed. The rule of Freemasonry now under our consideration, in this fourth