Charity.

Saviour being moved with sympathy and stretching forth his hand to help . " If any man see his brother in need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him IIOAV dwelleth the love of God in his heart /' ' We must love not in word only but

in deed . It is a perfecting principle . It is the bond of perfectness . We direct attention in the nest place to the comparative excellence of this grace . Compare it with , other principles . Faith is a gracious principle wrought in the heart by

the spirit of God . " He that believeth shall be saved . " Faith is the instrument of justification and is a valuable grace . Hope , too , is a great grace , and is an anchor of the soul both sure and and stedfast , aud enables the soul patiently to wait through the toil and difficulties of life for the consummation of its bliss in heaven . But let me

say there Avas a time when faith and hope did not exist , and there will be a time in a sense Avhen they will cease to be , but charity is crowned with immortality . Charity contains within herself virtually all the other graces . She is queen among

the virtues . Charity is the sun , these are the rays . She is the fountain , these are the streams . Again this love to God is calculated to promote , nay , is the essence of happiness . We knoAV the sign of happiness is held up to the pleasure taker ,

the sensualist , & c , but sensual things cannot satisfy the immortal spirit , because they are not adapted to its nature . This love prompts to acts of piety . It is needless to ask a man to Avork for

God if he has this prompting principle within . It is the bond of perfectness . Let me ask you to put it on . Just as the outer garments cover all the other garments so should charity encircle all the other graces . Individually we should live in

the possession ancl exercise of that charity which suffereth long and is kind , that vaunteth not itself , and is not puffed up , that seeketh not her own , is not easily provoked , thinketh no evil , rejoiceth not in iniquity , but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all

things , believeth all things , endureth all things . If we as individuals possessrd more of this princi ple , how the joys of life would multiply ; this dark valley of tears AVOUIC ! be lit up Avith some of the light and glory of heaven .

Under Bonds.

UNDER BONDS .

There is a most natural and commendable feeling ' entertained by the majority of men , to be

independent and untrammeled in their thoughts , words , and deeds , and many a one passes through life huo ' oino- the delusion that he at least has suffered no man to think for him , and has always acted independently and in accordance with his own

convictions of right . The successful merchant , the fortunate speculator , the professional man Avhose words transmute themselves to gold , or Avhose skill at the bedside of suffering humanity is gladly purchased at any price ; the minister Avhose

congregation hang- on his Avords as though they were the utterances of a demigod , and who pay for his services without counting , the farmer who patiently tills the earth and gathers the golden harvests that are the legitimate reward of

intelligent labour , the mechanic A \ hose never-ceasing toil provides his little ones with home , and food , and raiment , and enable him to obey the Scripture , which commands us to " owe no man anything , " each feel that they are sufficient unto themselves ,

ancl that in the exercise of their vocations they find that great desideratum , independence . But we all know that they are mistaken , that in fact

each of them is in some degree dependent on the others for the very success in which he rejoices . 'Tliey are , in fact , under bonds which they cannot repudiate , and the fufillrnent of whose very letter nature aud nature's God Avill require of them .

They are under bonds to use the very means which success in their several pursuits may have placed at their command for the honour of the Creator , and for the elevation of their kind to hi gher and better levels ; for the dissipation of vice , ignorance ,

and superstition , and for the hastening of the day Avhenmen shall be men indeed , disenthralled from their long and degrading bondage , and become but little loAver than the angels . No principle is

better established , and no law asserts itself ivitli greater force than this one of general dependence , without regard to the positions occupied by the great multitude of individuals . Nobility is obligation ! proclaimed the monarch , and in doing

so he enunciated a profound and all-pervading truth . Aye , light is obligation ; intelligence , education , wealth , power , genius , are obligation , ancl their possessors are under bonds to use them , so that when in the fullness of time the great day

of settlement arrives , the balance may not appear on the Avrong side of the account . Masonry , too , is obligation , and he who does not understand it has failed in making application of its earliest lessons . He who imagines that ho can be a Mason