WAGES OF A MASON. The operative Mason, in ancient times, received, as compensation for his labor, corn, wine and oil—the products of the earth—or whatever would contribute to his physical comfort and support. His labor being material, his wages were outward and material. The Free and Accepted Mason, on the other hand, performs a moral work, and hence his reward is interior and spiritual. The enlightened brother finds his reward in the grand and gratifying results of his studies, and in the joyful fruits of his Masonic deeds.' He sees the glory of the Divinity permeating all worlds, and all parts of the universe reveal to his soul celestial meanings. All nature overflows with beauty, love, melody and song, and unspeakably rich are the delights he derives from communion with her spirit. If he be a child of fortune, and raised above the necessity of labor, he finds the purest pleasure in the practice of charity and the exercise of benevolence; for charity, like mercy, brings its own recompense.
" It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." If, like our ancient brethren, he is a laborer, his wages are still ample and enduring. Thus, while the ignorant man
toils on, drearily, cheered by no bright and living thoughts, his mind destitute of all ideas, and his heart moved by no glad inspiration, the Masonic laborer welcomes his toil with joy, because Freemasonry has taught him that labor is a divine vocation, " Laborare est orare." He goes forth in the morning, and the world on which he looks, swimming in sunbeams, and glittering with dewey diamonds, is less bright and fair than the world that lays in his heart, and which science has illuminated with her everlasting light. The mountains, barren, rocky and storm-blackened, or crowned with sylvan splendors ; the valleys, flower-robed and ribboned with meandering streams; the rivers, hastening to the sea, and making music as they go; the trees, and rocks, and flowers ; all the activities of nature, and the great enterprises of man, speak with eloquence to his soul, and reveal to his enlightened spirit the glad secrets of Nature and of Nature's God. These noble, ample and enduring enjoyments are the wages of the true Mason.