ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. He was the forerunner of Jesus, a son of the Jewish priest Zacharias and of Elizabeth, who, as a zealous judge of morality and un daunted preacher of repentance, obtained great celebrity, first in his native country, then in the mountains of Judea, and afterwards among the whole nation. His simple and abstemious manner of living contributed much to his fame, and especially the peculiar purification or consecration by baptism in a river bath, which he introduced as'a symbol of that moral purity which he so zealously inculcated. Jesus allowed himself to be bap tized by hith, and from that time forward John said unto his disciples, that he was certainly the Messias. The frank earnestness and .the great fame with which he preached even in Galilee, soon brought upon him the suspicion and hatred of the court of Tetrarch Antipas, or King Herod, who imprisoned him, and ' on the 29th August, in the thirty-second or thirty-third year of his life, caused him to be beheaded. The 24th June, his
birth-day, is dedicated to his memory through all Chris tendom. The patron saint of the Freemasons' brother hood was formerly not St. John the Baptist, but St. John the Evangelist, whose festival they celebrated the 27th December, upon which day they hold their general assembly, probably induced thereto because at this sea son of the year the members could be better spared from their business or profession. For this reason also they chose for their quarterly festivals, the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, Michaelmas, and the festival of St. John the Baptist, which last festival, on account of the better weather and other circumstances having been found to be more convenient for the yearly assembly, was often appointed for the time on which it should be held, so that it has now become nearly general. Many lodges still' celebrate the 27th December, and call it the St. John's day.—Gadicice.