her, is loyalty to
the laws of right, of truth, of purity, of love, and the lofty will of
God. How to live is the one matter; and the oldest man in his ripe age
has yet to seek a wiser way than to build, year by year, upon a
foundation of faith in God, using the Square of justice, the
Plumb-line of rectitude, the Compass to restrain the passions, and the
Rule by which to divide our time into labor, rest, and service to our
fellows. Let us begin now and seek wisdom in the beauty of virtue and
live in the light of it, rejoicing; so in this world shall we have a
foregleam of the world to come--bringing down to the Gate in the Mist
something that ought not to die, assured that, though hearts are dust,
as God lives what is excellent is enduring!

IV

Bede the Venerable, in giving an account of the deliberations of the
King of Northumberland and his counsellors, as to whether they should
allow the Christian missionaries to teach a new faith to the people,
recites this incident. After much debate, a gray-haired chief recalled
the feeling which came over him on seeing a little bird pass through,
on fluttering wing, the warm bright hall of feasting, while winter
winds raged without. The moment of its flight was full of sweetness
and light for the bird, but it was brief. Out of the darkness it flew,
looked upon the bright scene, and vanished into the darkness again,
none knowing whence it came nor whither it went.

"Like this," said the veteran chief, "is human life. We come, our wise
men cannot tell whence. We go, and they cannot tell whither. Our
flight is brief. Therefore, if there be anyone that can teach us more
about it--in God's name let us hear him!"

Even so, let us hear what Masonry has to say in the great argument for
the immortality of the soul. But, instead of making an argument linked
and strong, it presents a picture--the oldest, if not the greatest
drama in the world--the better to make men feel those truths which no
mortal words can utter. It shows us the black tragedy of life in its
darkest hour; the forces of evil, so cunning yet so stupid, which come
up against the soul, tempting it to treachery, and even to the
degredation of saving life by giving up all that makes life worth
living; a tragedy which, in its simplicity and power, makes the heart
ache and stand still. Then, out of the thick darkness there rises,
like a beautiful white star, that in man which is most akin to God,
his love of truth, his lo