HOME.

BY JANE M. JACKSON.

Home should be a divine nursery for love, philanthropy and religion. Without these the wealth of the whole world could not enrich a single member, or shed lustre on a single brow. Home is where children are trained and disciplined, baptized, anointed and crowned, soldiers girded for conflict, rulers are inaugurated to govern mankind. The fireside, the arm chair for old age, the cradle of infancy, all have their incidents. We never weary of home; love renews its youth every day, and, despite of care and anxiety, sends a stream of vigor through sentiments that would otherwise decay. Home should typify heaven, to which every man and woman has a birthright in the goodness of the universe, by their sympathy with home; refining the soul that it may possess, by anticipating some of the prerogatives of angel life in Paradise. In the sacredness of home, the harness of business is thrown aside, we act ourselves without fear of prying eyes. Let the storms beat, all desolate without, home has a warmth a comfort found no where else, Portraits smile upon us from its walls, the loved semblance of age, the dimpled faces of children, how sacredly cherished are both! More prized than costly works of Art. The heaven assigned union of the true and faithful husband and wife do not end here, but the companionship will be continued in Heaven. Angels fold their arms and rest when they enter a home of love, bending o'er the tender mother, as her child lisps an evening prayer beside her knee, giving her consolation when she ministers to the sick members of her family, calms the restless sufferer to peaceful slumbers; is ever the guardian angel of a happy home giving strength to the weak. comfort to the mourner, sunshine during the darkest hours. In a true marriage, the highest ideal of a home can be obtained, happiness arises from a congruity of tastes and pursuits, affection renders the union complete. Home influence is not confined to one spot, it duplicates itself to other homes as the children wander from the roof-tree, new branches spring up and bear fruit, rays from the sun beams that shone upon the childhood's loved home, will light up the dark places in the wanderer's solitary journey, far from the land of his birth. Home influences never die out, they are God's institutions. Men and women are placed in the midst of its sanctities that they may understand the laws of their moral nature though sympathy of mutual resources, and

learn how the union of affections perfect individuality, making each nobler in the sphere where God has put them. Home is of divine authority, whose laws are not to be trampled down with impunity. Wives and children need attention, counsel, love, and heart sympathy. Love has its duties that must be discharged; and of all love, married love is most acutely sensitive to its obligations. When children are made happy at home, they are not so prone to seek pernicious excitements abroad. A fair portion of every man's time is justly due to his wife and children; if he denies them this, there is no compensation for the robbery. The married are apt to forget that each other's happiness are a constant trust, a common interest, that outside influences, are wretched substitutes for the blessedness of the domestic circle. The heart is never idle, it loves, hates, or becomes indifferent, it requires very frequent assurances of continued affection. Nothing can supply the place of pure love, it renders home a garden of Eden, a foretaste of Heaven.

MASONIC COURTESIES.

BY B. LAMBERT, GRAND MASTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

"But there are other duties equally plain and which go sometimes unnoticed. When a visitor enters his Lodge, Worshipful Master should see that the Junior Deacon courteously provides him with a seat. That code of politeness or good manners was framed in no Masonic school, which permits a visiting Brother to look helplessly around in search of some vacant spot in which he may place himself. The visitor who is lawfully admitted to a Masonic Lodge bears with him his letters patent entitling him to fraternal welcome. Although his countenance is unfamiliar, he is no stranger. A member of our great family, he should be the recipient of hospitable greeting and be not permitted to depart without some cordial word of welcome. And opportunity should be afforded him, privately if he will it, to state whence and why he came. If he needed it, assistance by counsel or otherwise must be given. It is a very ancient charge "that every Mason receive and cherish strange Fellows when they come over the country and set them on work, if they will work, as the manner is; that is to say, if the Masons have any mould stone in his place, he shall give him a mould stone and set him on work; and if he have none, the Mason shall refresh him with money unto the next Lodge."

MAKING A RIGHT CHOICE.

BY JOHN RUSKIN.

A single knot of quartz occurring in a flake of slate at the crest of the ridge may alter the entire destinies of the mountain form. It may turn the little rivulet of water to the right or left, and that little turn will be to the future direction of the gathering stream what the touch of a finger on the barrel of a rifle would be to the direction of a bullet. Each succeeding year increases the importence of every determined form, and arranges in masses yet more and more harmonious, the promontories shaped by the sweeping of the eternal waterfalls.

The importance of the results thus obtained by the slightest change of direction in the infant streamlets, furnishes an interesting type of the formation of human characters by habit. Every one of those notable ravines and crags is the expression, not of any sudden violence done to the mountain, but of its little habits, persisted in continually. It was created with one ruling instinct; but its destiny depended nevertheless, for effective result, on the direction of the small and all but invisible tricklings of water, in which the first shower of rain found its way down its sides. The feeblest, most insensible oozings of the drops of dew among its dust were in reality arbiters of its eternal form; commissioned, with a touch more tender than that of a child's finger,-as silent and slight as the fall of a half-checked tear on a maiden's cheek, to fix forever the forms of peak and precipice, and hew those leagues of lifted granite into the shapes that were to divide the earth and its kingdoms. Once the little stone evaded,—once the dim furrow traced, -and the peak was forever invested with its majesty, the ravine forever doomed to its degradation. Thenceforward, day by day, the subtle habit gained in power; the evaded stone was left with wider basement; the chosen furrow deepened with swifter-sliding wave; repentance and arrest were alike impossible, and hour after hour saw written in larger and rockier characters upon the sky, the history of the choice that had been directed by a drop of rain, and of the balance that had been turned by a grain of sand.

THE problem of philosophy is to grasp the truth which is embodied in the intuitions of the age, and bring it out logically in the shape of pure idea.

EDITORIAL.

WHAT DO YOU FIND IN MASONRY.

This is one of the interogatories made by the sincere inquirer, and by the bigot. But with quite different motives and objects the two approach the other. One with an honest purpose wishes to know what is to be found in the system of Masonry which will be a benefit to him as a moral and an intellectual being. The other propounds the question with feelings of prejudice, and hatred to the workings of the Order, pretending to fear its power in our country.

We are disposed to answer the profane, who comes with feelings of friendship. For we can have an audience with him. With the other it is utterly impossible. He, who stops his ears with prejudice, and freezes over the fountain of his feelings with bigotry cannot be reached. But he who can come having ears open to hear, and a heart prepared to receive the truth, and give it due consideration, is the one entitled to our notice.

With honesty, he inquires, what is there to be found in Masonry that deserves my attention? What will it unfold to my mind calculated to make me, or any one who cherishes her workings better, happier, or a more worthy citizen? In the developments of Freemasonry, when and where does she work to benefit humanity? In what direction shall we look for her moral strength ? Where are her weak points ?

These are some of the queries coming from an honest heart, sincerely desiring to know more of this mysterious Institution.

We do not deem it necessary to minutely answer the honest inquirer all of these interrogations. But in a general manner, we say that Freemasonry as a system of moral ethics, is one of the best mediums in all of her working power for an honest man, for a man of a tender heart, one who desires to aid himself of selfishness, and exhibit all of the nobler qualities found in a human being.

We do not intend to elevate Masonry, above the benign principles of that religion, revealed by God to the world. But this much we do say, she exceeds the religion of sect and party, and conducts

her votaries upon a higher plane, and teaches them nobler sentiments, and more exalted results and aims. Masonry instinctively cultivates a confidence between individuals which party and seccan never do. And although that confidence may be basely bet trayed, still it is better for us to live, and be controled by a confiding influence, than to be distrustful of humanity.

Masonry, gives authority to one brother to speak confidently, yet prudently, to a brother. If a brother is not traveling upon the true circle which touches the two exact perpendicular lines and the great spiritual light in Masonry, it is the sworn duty of a brother to administer rebuke in love and mercy to whisper counsel, to give warning, manifest sympathy, and proffer aid.

From time immemorial, Masonry has furnished her members with a language, which can be spoken the world over, without an interpreter. Her words, symbols, and ceremonies are unknown to the world; the profane can know nothing of this language. By obligations, under all the vicissitudes of human life, one brother is bound to do another a good. Selfishness, animosity, hate, revenge and indifference, must be buried or left without the courts of the sanctuary of the Temple. The edifice of Masonry must come together without these discordant elements. As the ancient temple of Solomon was erected, every portion being put together without iron tools, so must the moral superstructure of Masonry become fitted, and the work come together without any of the confusion, and jaring elements of sect or party.

Freemasonry is taught with a code of principles, which will incline the life of her members to do good, and intensify all of the noble aspirations of the soul. Like all things which are good in the world, it was designed for the good, and not for the evil.

Masonry, is like precious seed falling upon good ground and will produce her rich harvest. So when the heart of the good and the great, receive her life-giving power, an hundred fold of the fruits of love, joy and peace are garnered as the rich reward of every true Mason.

We find Masonry to be the good seed of the husbandman, but as it is being sown, some falls upon stony ground, some by the wayside some among thorns, producing the result as recorded in that sublime lesson given by divine wisdom. Still much of it finds a congenial repository in the heart of the good. It operates to bring all shades of faith together, from every school, conducted by every party, and unite them in the bonds of love even. Men, whose party, and church predelictions forbid them to work for humanity with any who differ in the least from them, unite heart and hand, under the banner of Masonry to promote good, and exert all the power of which they are master, to renovate, redeem and make purer and better the children of men.