of contempt; which fhall not only fecure their good from being evil spoken of, but gain it the trueft praise. MAY the lodge this day conftituted maintain a high credit in the increasing lifts of Masonry! May its benevolent and peaceful influence diffuse joy and gladness over these plains, made memorable by the maffacre of those who fell victims of tyranny, but MARTYRS TO LIBERTY! From the shuddering recollection of that horrid scene, let us turn to the happy contraft this day prefents. Here are no inftruments of deftruction; no clangor of battle; no groans of flaughter; no garments rolled in blood: only the emblems of love and the train of peace. A little band of brothers celebrate as a festival of joy the day which conftitutes them a regular fociety, and confecrates their plans and purposes of charity, focial virtue, and happiness. May these plans and purposes produce the moft beneficial effects; evince the good of masonry, redeem its credit with the prejudiced, and establish it with the candid! And may the fociety, in every part of the world, be influential in dif fufing the light of wisdom, aiding the Strength of reason, and displaying the beauty of virtue ; in leffening the aggregate of human misery and vice, and in extending the bounties of charity and the bleffings of peace! DISCOURSE IX. DELIVERED AT THE CONSECRATION OF ST. PAUL's LODGE IN GROTON, AUGUST 9, 1797. EXODUS, XVI. 15. "AND WHEN THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SAW IT THEY SAID ONE TO ANOTHER, IT IS MANNA, FOR THEY WIST NOT WHAT IT WAS. AND MOSES SAID UNTO THEM, THIS IS THe bread wHICH THE LORD HATH GIVEN YOU TO EAT." THE children of Ifrael, in their travels through the deserts of Arabia towards the land of Canaan, murmured against Moses and against the Lord because the scanty stores they brought from Egypt were nearly exhaufted, and they were ignorant of the means for a new recruit. In particular they wanted bread. They were gratified by a miraculous providential supply. Bread was |