MASTER'S SONGS.

Selected and amended.

Not the fictions of Greece, nor the dreams of old Rome,
Shall with visions mislead, or with meteors consume;
No Pegasus' wings my short soaring misguide,
Nor raptures detain me on Helicon's side.

All clouds now dissolve; from the east beams the day;
Truth rises in glory and wakens the lay:

The eagle-eyed Muse sees the light-fills the grove,
With the song of Freemasons, of Friendship and Love.

Inspired with the theme, the Divinity flies,
And throned on a rainbow, before her arise
Past, Present, and Future-in splendid array,
And Masonic succession, their pleasures display;
She views murder'd merit by ruffian hand fall,
And the grave give its dead up, at fellowship's call,
While the craft, by their badges, their innocence prove,
And the song of Freemasons is Friendship and Love.

From ages remote, see the muse speeds her flight,
To bask in the sunshine of mystical light;
In freedom and friendship-the brotherhood stand,
While the splendours of virtue illumine the land.
From darkness mysterious the world sees the day,
While friendship's bright beams chase the vapours away,
And the Lodge here below joins the chorus above,
In shouting Freemasonry, Friend hip, and Love.

That the future may keep what the present bestows,
In rapture prophetic the Geddess arose

As she sung through the skies, angels echoed the sound,
And winds bore the notes to the regions around;
The grand proclamation our song shall repeat,
"That Masons for ever in harmony meet;

"And till Time be no more, our fraternity prove,

"That the objects we aim at are Friendship and Love.

D

Composed for this work by Com. S. Brown.
IN the slumbers of night, when the craft are at rest,
And e'en in the quarries the gavel is still,
Ah! what is that sound that I hear in the west,

And what is that voice that resounds from the hill?
Again and again-through the forest it rolls;
Some spirit I fear from its prison has fled;
Some spectre, escaped from the region of souls ;
Some sinewless form of the slumbering dead!
The crumb'ling earth moves, and a whispering breath
Steals soft through the silence that listens to hear;
The heavy clod falls, like the dull tread of death,
And tales of fell murder creep cold on the ear.
Perhaps 'tis some stranger, at night led astray,
And lost in the gloom of the wide-spreading wood;
Oh, no! 'tis a brother, assail'd on his way,

And ruffian hands reek in his innocent blood!
Ah, brother! the fast flowing, heart-telling tear
Shall moisten the dust where the evergreen grows;
The Cassia unfading shall bloom round the

year,

And tell where the ashes of merit repose. Sleep, dust of the ancient! till Nature expire,

And Nature's Grand Master command thee to rise; Then spring, like the Phoenix, from earth's final fire, And soar to the brilliant Grand Lodge in the skies.

CHAPTER VIII.

MARK MASTER.

GENERAL REMARKS.

By means of this degree, every operative brother was known and distinguished, at the erection of king Solo

Disorder

mon's temple, by the Senior Grand Warden. and confusion were thus banished from among the workmen, and every part of the workmanship was discriminated with the greatest nicety, and with the utmost facility. The faulty workman was detected, and the overseer was enabled to distinguish the industrious and skilful from the indolent and undeserving.

CHARGE AT OPENING.

"Wherefore, brethren, lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.

"If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious; ye also, as living stones, be ye built up in a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God.

"Wherefore, also, it is contained in the scriptures, Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste to pass it over. Unto you therefore, which believe, it is an honour; and even to them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.

"Brethren, this is the will of God, that with well doing ye put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men, love the brotherhood, fear God."

FIRST SECTION.

This part of the lecture explains the manner of opening a Lodge of Mark Master Masons. The stations and duties of the respective officers are noticed--and the mystic ceremony of introducing a candidate is explained, The number of artists employed by king Solomon are specified; the order that prevailed among them is accounted for; and the section ends with a beautiful dis

play of the manner in which one of the principal events originated which distinguish this degree.

SECTION SECOND.

Here the Mark Master is particularly instructed in the origin and history of the degree; and learns the extent of his obligation, to extend the hand of relief to a worthy and necessitous brother. An effectual mode of punishing guilt and rewarding merit is here presented, and the marks of distinction which were conferred on our ancient brethren, as the rewards of excellence, are particularly named.

The following Scriptural passages are introduced.

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in that stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."-Rev. ii. 17.

"And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need; and will bring it to thee in floats, by sea, to Joppa, and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem."-2 Chron. ii. 16.

"The stone which the builders refused has become the head stone of the corner. ."-Psalm cxviii. 22.

"Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner?" ---Matt. xxi. 42.

This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner."--Acts iv. 11.

"He that hath an ear to hear let him hear--Rev. iii, 13. "Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh towards the east; and it was shut."-Ezek. xliv. 1.

"It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same."--Ezek. xliv. 3.

"And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary."-Ezek. xliv. 5.

The working-tools of a Mark Master are the chisel and mallet.

The CHISEL morally demonstrates the advantages of discipline and education. The mind, in its original state, is like the native diamond, rude and unpolished: but as the chisel soon discloses the latent beauties of the diamond, so education discovers the latent virtues of the mind, leading them forth into the boundless field of improvement, to aspire to the summit of human knowledge, and learn our duty to God and man.

The MALLET teaches to correct inequalities, remove superfluities, and reduce man to his proper level, so that by a quiet deportment he may, in the school of discipline, learn to be content. What the mallet is to the workman, enlightened reason is to the passions; it curbs ambition; it depresses envy; it moderates anger; it encourages good dispositions: whence arises among good masons, that comely order

"Which nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,

"The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy."

"BROTHER,

CHARGE AT ADVANCING.

"I congratulate you on having been thought worthy of being promoted to this honourable degree of masonry. Permit me to impress it on your mind, that your assiduity should ever be commensurate with your duties, which become more and more extensive as you advance in masonry.

"The situation to which you are now promoted will draw upon you not only the scrutinizing eyes of the