Masonry, past, present and future : proved by tradition, history and revelation : including two hundred and seventy-five evidences that masonry and religion are the same

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Chapter I

Age of Masonry— Its Moral Power will Live forever— Not Modeled after False Re. ligion— What the Pope has said — Assailed by the Fires of Persecution— Our Forefathers Guided by the True Light— What is Symbolism — The Symbols of the Deity— Age of— by Faith in God— Can Climb our Way up to Heaven— We Deal not in Fancy but in Sober Realities— God's Religion what— our Business to Investigate — The Sun a Masonic Symbol — Refers to what — First Apppearance of Light— It never "Varies, except in Degree — The Visible presence of the Shekinah often seen — an Emblem of the Soul— of Life — Bro. Mackey's Opinion — Light an Emblem of Intelligence — If no Sun, Moon or Stars in the Heavens, what:

Masonry is the oldest institution in the world, with a fame of more than forty centuries upon its brow ; invariably referring to the mysteries of the past, the present, and the unknown future ; wielding a moral power in all ages, perfectly irresistable, and is destined to stand forever.

This is no fancied sketch of ours, to amuse the ignorant or to excite the attention of the thoughtless, bat are sober realities, and will continue if the Holy Bible, on which it rests, is true, until the great drama of human life is wound up, and the last shock of time overthrow the universe.

This, to an unprejudiced mind, would be sufficient to establish the fact, that Masonry is of a Divine Origin.

We take not our model of worship from false religions that have torn the Church with schisms, and contending factions, deluged the world with blood for religious rule, or political power, throwing their darkening shades over every thing Holy and Divine, shutting out the bright prospects of the great future from our view, unless we are modeled after the rules they have prescribed. This would be descending to the level of Sectarianism, and our work more resemble the confusion of Babel, than a Temple erected to God and dedicated to His Holy Name.

The Pope has said, beyond the pale of his Church there is no salvation ; but with such unholy edicts, though issuing from the throne of Ecclesiastical power, we have nothing to do — they pass us as the idle breeze we heed not. We are not bounded by sectional or geographical lines : our faith and emblems are world-wide, and the compass of the Craft, in its sublime and holy teachings, sweeps the universe.

"We are everywhere taught, by ceremonies the most impressive, the existence of God, the creation of the world, the fall of man, the death of the body, and the immortality of the Soul ; and any system that does not include these elements of faith is spurious, vain and deceptive. The Divine Being we denominate in our work as the Supreme Architect ot the Universe, is clothed with Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence : not a sparrow falls without his notice, is acquainted with the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will award us according to our works. If this is untrue, then there is no religion in our world, as far as we know ; and the Holy Bible has never informed us what true worship is.

For our efforts to spread abroad light, life, and salvation among the nations of the earth, and worship the God of our fathers, in spirit and in truth, according to the best light we have, we have been assailed by the fires of persecution. Emperors, Kings, and Popes, have combined all their energies, and lent their mightiest powers, to subvert and annihilate Masonry, with a malignity unparalleled in the history of the world. No human institution has ever passed through such an ordeal and lived; but this only proves how feeble and ineffectual are the efforts of man to destroy where God intends to save.

Our forefathers, guided by the true light, grappled with the world, determined to conquer its evils or perish beneath its ruins. They traveled steadily down the stream of time; smiled serenely at the storms of kingly wrath, that swept over the earth and howled along the sky — remained unmoved amid the convulsion of the world. Where kingdoms have been overthrown, whole nations gone down in a day, and every human institution that existed when Masonry began her triumphant march in the world has perished.

And does not this prove, and irresistably establish the the fact, that our religion is from God, that we have been watched over by an eye that never slumbers, and protected by an arm that never trembles, from the general wreck and ruin of the world ? If God be for us, who can be against us? The language we use to impress upon the minds of our votaries moral and religious truths is principally in Emblems and symbols.

WHAT IS SYMBOLISM?

If is an embodiment of all that is great, grand and glorious in the universe ; and, to a Mason, more mighty, impressive and profound, than any language known in our world. It unfolds to our view the plans and designs of the Supreme Architect, the immutable laws by which all things are governed, and the worship due to His great and holy name.

The Symbols of the Deity spread out in glowing letters of light for His creatures to look at, recorded in the Holy Bible, referred to by the Fraternity, for scientific, moral and religious purposes, did not originate in our world.

Ages on ages might have rolled away before the earth was brought into order or fitted up for the abode of man, yet the leading elements of our faith existed in all their grandeur and glory. "Who can penetrate beyond the bounds of the universe, and fix limits to creative power, and say, here is a point where darkness and nonentity reigns, and where no God is ? If there ever was a period when the Deity remained alone, no exhibitions of creative power and goodness, no intelligent beings to hymn His praise, then Symbolism, or the religion of Masonry, did not exist. But what imagination is sufficiently lofty in its flights, what eye keen enough to look across the millions of worlds that roll through vast expanse, and yet the beginning of Symbolism is as remote and indefinite as ever. Who can soar away to the heights of antiquity, which has positively no summits that we can comprehend ? We are dazzled by this altitude, and lost amid those far off, and long withdrawing recesses of that primeval distance that merges away into a fathomless unknown. This, Brethren, is an exercise overwhelming to the soul, and discomfiting to our puny faculties ; but by the Emblems, and Symbols of the Order, we are called on to stir ourselves up, that we may take hold on God ; but the vastness, and the magnitude of the thought, would seem to repel the effort as hopeless, and we are lost amid the bewildering obscurity that surrounds us ; but, Brethren, by faith in God, hope in immortality, and Charity to all mankind, we can climb our ascending way up to the Throne of the Eternal, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Yet we feel ourselves overborne by a sense of our weakness, and at every step the same mysteries of the Divine Being appear alike impenetrable and impervious. How infinitely do we sink away into an atom, amid that unoccupied and unpeopled vastness by which we are surrounded But we are content to trace the Symbols of the Order no further than our senses can accompany us ; we are satisfied to gaze upon the sun and systems that the telescope has unfolded to our view, which we know to be peopled with realities. Here we contemplate the Supreme Architect of the Universe enthroned in light and glory, reigning supreme and uncontrolled over millions of worlds besides our own. If this earth is a mere atom, amid the vastness of creative power, what an emphasis is impressed upon the mind of the Fraternity by Symbolism, lol these are parts of his ways, but the thunder of his power who can understand? The Holy Bible, and the revelations of Astronomy in our clay, correspond exactly with Masonry or Symbolism before the world was, but both alike seem to distance man, from the Infinite and Holy One. The Fraternity, however, deals not in flights of fancy, but in sober realities ;

she wades not out into those dark and troubled waters' where the tempest howls and no bottom is ; she travels not into those unknown regions of illimitable space, endeavoring to penetrate beyond the bounds of the universe, and fix limits to creative power ; but is content to use the emblems handed down to us by our forefathers, and silently work on in filling her great mission of Peace on earth and good will to men. And is not this God's religion enstamped upon the hearts of universal humanity, believed in, adhered to. taken up, and re-echoed by the Fraternity over the world ? Did the Prophets, the Saviour, the Apostles, or the Holy Bible, ever teach anything else? If they did not, then we are right in claiming that Masonry is of God. Though the object contemplated by Symbolism may be remote and inaccessible, yet it is our business to investigate, and the high purposes of our being to ascertain, for it is distinguished from all other knowledge by the peculiar avenue it is conveyed to us — the design appears to be, to impress upon the mind moral and religious truths, that intelligent beings might take in more at a glance than they could learn from the history of ages, or from any other source.

The Omniscient and Omnipresent God, represented by the All Seeing Eye, in our Lodges, infixes, as with the point of a diamond, a lesson upon science, morals and religion, that never can be effaced while memory holds a lodgement in the soul. The same deeply interesting and overwhelming truth, the same mysterious relations, even the very words dictated by the Almighty himself, unrecorded on the pages of the world's history, have been retained, and taught with great moral power, in all degrees pertaining to the Order. No other institution in the world possesses this knowledge, or has the facility of imparting instruction upon man's duty here, and his destiny hereafter, to the same extent.

IS THE SUN, SAID TO BE A BODY OF FIRE, A MILLION OF TIMES GREATER THAN OUR WORLD, A MASONIC SYMBOL ?

It is, and understood by the Fraternity as one of the most striking emblems of the Deity, darkened and bewildered as our intellects are. We are taught to look steadily at the great light of the world, and the volume of inspiration, that will illumine our pathway here, and prepare us for a higher enjoyment hereafter, in that world of glorified spirits, the grand Lodge above, where the anthems of praise will forever roll, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. What human thought can conceive of a religion more sublime, glorious and God-like than this ?

TO WHAT DOES THIS SYMBOL KEFEB ?

To the> order, harmony and government of the world, the leading element of our faith ; and sheds its hallowed beams upon our pathway here, and points steadily to the period when our labors in this Earthly Lodge shall close; and from it we learn that the light of God's countenance will increase in bright effulgence, through the boundless realms of eternity, as we go up higher and higher, to the very summit of perfection, and look down upon the conflicting world below, with a calmness and tranquility unsurpassed, and unknown any where else. And is not this God's religion, enstamped upon the hearts of all intelligent beings, whether on earth or in heaven ?

WHEN DID THE LIGHT OF GOD's COUNTENANCE- FIRST APPEAR ?

Before the world was ; but the intelligent Mason understands distinctly, that referred to in Gen. 1st and 3d, was not the light of the sun, moon or stars, for they were not yet created, or at least were still in darkness, and were not made until the fourth day. Geologists say it was more than four thousand years after this period. It must have been the bright effulgence of the Deity that flashed out upon the darkness and void, at the sight of which the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. It was designed to represent the Omnipotent energies of creative power. The Chris-

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tian world, and the Fraternity, view this subject alike, and both arrive at the same conclusion ; if one is divinely inspired the other is. Sweep from us this foundation and we both fall together, tor we have no other evidence than what the Holy Bible and the Book of Nature furnishes.

DOES THE LIGHT OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE EVER VARY.

Never, except in degree; in the cottage, in the palace, over the earth, throughout the universe, it is the same, and this is the reason why Masonry never changes ; her symbols are unalterable, they cannot be increased or diminished. And this is a proof to us, clear and conclusive, that the religion of Masonry is from God.

We are directed to call into requisition the whole power of faith, which works by love and purifies the heart. This element of our being enters into every department of life, the controlling power of the world, without which no true religion can exist, and we sink back into heathanism and idolatry.

Let it be remembered the visible presence of the Supreme Architect was much oftner seen in ancient times than at present, and to the stoutest hearts, perfectly overwhelming. Cast your eyes upon that burning Bush ; see that Pillar of Cloud by day, and that Pillar of Fire by night ; hear the voice of the Almighty, amid the golden candlesticks and in the Tabernacle; listen to that deep toned thunder on Siniah's awful mount. Did not the Almighty appear in person on Mount Moriah, in the Temple, when the glory of the Lord filled the house? What language is adequate to convey a correct impression of this bewildering scene ? even imagination is lost, and we can only gaze, wonder and admire the merciful condescension ot the Supreme Architect in visiting our fallen world and calling upon His faithful laborers to erect Him a house where His name should be recorded forever ; but these days of miraculous signs and wonders have passed and those of intense study and untiring industry have succeeded. Did not the fraternity of Free and Accepted

Masons build this Temple? the most costly and magnificent the world ever saw. And are we not endeavoring, though feebly, to imitate their example in fitting up an earthly Tabernacle, where the Most . High, we hope, will take up His abode in our hearts ? Know ye not the Temple of God is within us ? and to whom can these words more strictly apply than to God's own builders whom He has selected out of the ruins of the fall, to be the representatives of His glory through all coming time without jar, seism, or discord, for there was neither the sound of axe, hammer, or any metal tool heard at the building of the Temple, and was not this from Heaven ? And we are the only institution in the world that uses so great a variety of emblems and symbols for scientific, moral and religious purposes, to encourage us in our work and for the benefit of our race. Much is said of the light of reason, science, moral and religion ; yet, without the Book of Nature, the volume of inspiration, maps, charts, emblems, symbols, or something of the kind, to impress these truths and moral grandeur upon the mind, they tail of that impressiveness, the solemn ceremonies inculcated in the lodge room is designed to represent.

How often we are told that by patience, toil, industry and perseverence we must advance from one degree to another until we arrive at the summit of perfection, and as faithful workmen, be admitted into the Grand Lodge above where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides. But this momentous truth never was understood, not even by a Mason, without intense application and the most untiring assiduity and perseverence. " Lo, I am with you always," saita the Saviour, " even unto the end of the world." Has the God of our fathers ever given any greater assurance ? If he has not, then all the essential elements of our holy religion are immediate inspirations from Him.

The Supreme Architect well knew that without symbols or emblems to reflect His glory, all would be darkness and confusion; no symetry, order or harmony in any department of the Temple, and His divine glorv could not be understood or appreciated by any intelligent being in the universe. Why do the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth His h andiwork ? Why are these spread out in glowing letters of light for His creatures to look at? Why are we so often reminded it is our duty to contemplate the glorious works ot creation and to adore their great Creator ? Can this impression be made upon our hearts, and all 'this be done without religion? Impossible. Again:

THE LIGHT OF GOD's COUNTENANCE IS AN EMBLEM OF THE SOUL.

That mighty, thinking, working power within us is not the Deity but His image, to work out the problem of our being upon the great tressel board of human life. Plow illimitable the researches of the soul ; how boundless its range ; how lofty its flights ; its home is in Heaven, it is bound for the skies and into those bright mansions. By faith in God and the key, we hope to mingle with those glorified spirits ; the last home of the free. None but brave and honest men have a soul worthy the name. None but true and faithful workmen can expect to receive wages in the Grand Lodge above ; for we are to be rewarded according to our works. Is there any other religion ? If so, where is it found? Again :

LIGHT IS AN EMBLEM OF LIFE.

Wherever it shines over the dark regions of the world, joy and gladness are diffused. " Our Grand Master," St. John the Baptist, says that Life and Light are the same. '' In Him was life, and life was the light of men ;" (John 1st and 4th.) That He is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This element of faith, sustained by incontestable evidences from the word of God, possess a sublimity and moral grandeur unequalled by any other institution in the world. If this is untrue, then our Saviour has never taught us what kind of worship is most acceptable in His sight ; then the Fraternity and the Church will go down together, and there is no such thing as science, morals or religion in the world without light.

Brother Mackey, in his " Lexicon of Free Masonry," says : " Intellectual light was the object and the attainment, the end of all the ancient ' mysteries. 'j r ' Its velosity from the sun, a body of fire a million times greater than our earth, almost surpasses the power of imagination ; it travels at the rate of ten millions of miles in a minute. How grand, glorious and god-like is this symbol to the fraternity when properly understood and duly appreciated ; it is a just representation of the Divine and" Holy Spirit upon the souls of all intelligent beings, whether on earth or in Heaven.

IS THE LIGHT OF GOD'S COUNTENANCE UNIVERSAL?

As far as we know, it is. Nothing can be more impressive and god-like than a symbol referring to that Divine and Holy Spirit that prevades all space and flashes over the universe. It is an emblem of -intelligence. It enlightens the mind of a glow-worm, the seraph, the insect and the angel ; man's loftiest powers depend upon it ; the laws of our being, the natural and moral world, the universe itself, as far as we know, are but symbols or reflections of this light.

If there was no son, moon or stars in the Heavens, no light of God's countenance upon the souls of intelligent beings, darkness and untold mystery would brood over all the works of God and man be doomed to plunge on forever and forever without finding his way out; no joys tor the present, no hopes for the future, and so impervious would be the gloom of the world that philosophy, science or literature could not remove it or lift the veil that would brood like a pa r il of death over man's loftiest powers, prostrating them into dust. Without light existence would be an unmitigated curse, Masonry a farce, and religion a falsehood. Without it there is no Heaven and no God, as far as we know, for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And the Saviour says : " lam the light of the world." (John 8, 12.)

And does not h overwhelming truth include faith obedience and man's entire redemption from the effects of the fall ? And if we do not believe it, why is our attention so often directed to the star in -the East ? The song of angels, glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men ? If this is untrue, then the hope of the world has perished. But how can this subject be more strikingly exemplified than by the use of emblems enforcing upon the mind its solemn realities with great moral power ? If the emblematical language of these sublime mysteries, so carefully handed down to us from " time immemorial," was designed to teach nothing more than a mere casual glance at those symbols ? the Order would netver have existed. It would be too childless for prophets and holy men of God, in all ages, to patronize and lend the mightiest energies of their combined intellects to sustain. But there was a higher, nobler and holier thought impressed upon their minds when they embodied light into the system of their work as the leading element of their faith. Were our forefathers ignorant of what they were doing? Impossible; they acted under the immediate inspiration of the Almighty. And are we unmindful of what they have taught us ? It never has been denied, even for a moment, we are in possession of a mystical language of signs and symbols, known only to ourselves, which will forever baffle the prying eye of the world to penetrate, wholly devoted to the propagation of morals and religion among the Order, and for the good of our race. Let the world frown, as it ever has done, against all god-like institutions, we shall silently work on, like the corals of the ocean, regardless of the maddened waves that dash around us, or the howling tempest that sweeps over us, they are but the idle breeze we heed not.

Let it be remembered that at the command of the Supreme Architect, chaos fled and darkness rolled away. This was ancient Masonry and religion both, practised by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Babylonians and many other nations long before the Jews existed as a people, and more than two thousand years before Solomon's day.

And is it not equally true, the darkness of heathenism, that broods over a greater portion of the earth, will yet hear the mandate of the Almighty. Eternity filled with his voice, and Heaven's broad arch ring back with the sound, let there be light, and nations will be born to God in a day.

But do Masons believe in the New Birth ? Certainly we do. Brother Mackey, in his Lexicon says : " It has ever been held sacred by the Church and the fraternity in some form throughout the world." Our Saviour says : " Ye must be born again." The meaning of the expression in the Greek and Hebrew languages is, change your minds from unbelief, idolatry, isms and false religion that throw their darkening shadows over everything holy and divine, " and believe I am the light of the world." This fundamental element of our faith, is as immutable as the throne of God, which the world, or the power of darkness, with all their malice, can never shake or disturb.

The Temple is rising in majesty and might, Love gleams from her altars effulgent and bright, The hallowed rock of Ages, is her firm base, And Earth's loudest thunders her dome cannot shake.

The Author.

AGAIN : — INTELLECTUAL LIGHT.

Is an embodiment of all the science, morals and religion known in our world ? Let it be remembered that God is light. He is the Sun and center of the universe : He bespangled the firmament with the stars of his right hand, and sheds his beams increasingly glorious upon the laborers in his temple, and the Mason, who has but a faint knowledge of the true meaning of this symbol never can be ignorant of its sublime and holy teachings. When our attention is directed to it in our labors, it invariably refers to the Deity and not to his works. Millions gaze upon the light of Heaven every day without the slightest emotion of interest. But to a Mason this kind of listless indifference is impossible. But with all the powers of reason, revelations and the symbols of the Deity, spread out in glowing letters ot light for his creatures to look at, how little we are apt to reflect beyond the mere forms

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and ceremonies of the Lodge Room, or dwell for a moment upon the great object the fraternity has in view and the mission she has to fill. Alas! for poor frail nature! But the emblematical language of the Order, taking the book of nature and the Holy Bible for our guide, is better calculated to elevate man in the scale of being, renovate his moral powers, lift his soul to God, and fix his hopes firmly on Heaven, than any system in our world. Is not intellectual light then as ancient as the Deity? If it did not exist before the world was, when, did it come into being ? Revelation did not make it, men or angels did not produce it any more than they created the Deity himself. This element of our being, the Alpha and Omega of the Order, is absolutely eternal, and our forefathers were taught by immediate inspiration what -use to make of it in this earthly lodge. The initials A. L., in all our manuals, means the year of light. Symbolism or Masonry was ever present with the Deity in all his works. She heard him issue his commands to Chaos, and the whole mass, by an almighty and mysterious agency, unknown to us, was agitated with a vivifying motion, which caused the elementary principles to unite ■and presented to the eye of the Supreme Architect aseperate form, then fire gave its light amid the darkness and air, and earth, and water were seperated from each other, and these elements entered into the composition of all other bodies, then the universe was full of light and life ; then the Logos or the soul of the world, received a spherical form of all things God had yet made the most perfect and brought intoorder by the fiate of the- Eternal.

The subject is much enlarged in Plato's History of the Creation. Dr. Oliver says: "Plato was initiated into the secrets of Freemasonry by Jeremiah, the prophet.''

This mysterious and wonderful process in making the world coincides exactly with the history of Creation given by Moses, as far as he could understand or enter into the details of these wonderful and incomprehensible ways of the Almighty. Masonic tradition has preserved a faithful record of these overwhelming mysteries, forever kept secret from the vulgar and profane, who dared not. or could not penetrate the veil of knowledge or the ineffable glories of the eternal One, and this was Masonry, or Symbolism in the first ages of this world's history.

She heard the Deity speak, and it w 7 as done ; he commanded, and it stood fast; she heard the great clock of eternity as it beat the first notes of time, while enraptured millions re-echoed the praise of God and swelled into anthems of glory at this new unexpected and wonderful display of almighty power and goodness. She saw the earth as it rolled from the forming hand of its Creator, and witnessed the first motion of the planets as they revolved, flashed and blazed like the rapidity of thought around the burning throne of God, but in perfect harmony with the established laws from which they have never varied. And the skillful Mason at once perceives why these immutable laws were incorporated into a perfect system, carefully commanded and faithfully handed down to us from this early age for the benefit of our race, and so strikingly exemplified in all the degrees pertaining to the Order. (Psalms 33, 9.)

Chapter II

The Supreme Architect Represented — First Communicated a Knowledge of Himself to Man — Religion of Our Forefathers — Begin ning of the World — Division of Time — Seven Liberal Acts of Science — The Deity of the Author — Geometry a Proof of Religion — Wisdom of Our Forefathers — The Beginning of the World — Astronomy, Age of — Stuekly's Opinion Reduced to a Mathematical Demonstration — Primitive Masonry and Religion the Same — Ceremonies to Reprerent Greek Events, what ? — Wisdom of Our Forefathers, what ?