Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1844-07-20
Delivered at The request Of Liberty Lodge
No 81, on the occasion Of the Celebra
ton ofhe anniversary festival Of job,
The Bap,iSt. on the 24lh June, 1874.

ttOH ~ tNt DUHtttFSuIU jtSttCdt ~ JONN
the Baptist, on the gan June, 1874,
The occasion which has called us together is
interesting to every Mason. We have assem-.
bled to commemorate by appropriate exercises
! the anniversary festival of one of the patron
saints of our order, John the Baptist. We have
gathered around the altar of masonry, TO receive
its peaceful spirit in our hearts, to derive insruc
ton from the legends of the past, and to refresh
ourselves for future labors
That the institution of masonry is Of great
antiquity there exists no doubt. Its early origin
however is shrouded ia obscurity This is but nat.
ura nasmuch as at period of its history, has it
been connected with government or politics in
any shape, but has continued to remain from its
institution as at the present day an isolated so.
cetv, and of course was not likely TO have at.
tracted the attention of the historian. Masonry
it is supposed at first existed a society of OPP.
eratve artifcers, and ate rwards was changed
to its present character. The tradition exists
! in the order that its present moral character was
assumed during the building of Solomon's Tenn.
pie The internal evidence found in the peCu.
liar mysteries and ceremonies of the craft, is
thought by competent judges fully to sustain
the tradition. Tradtionary evidence of this
change in the character of masonry is probably
the best evidence that ca be adduced upon the
become matter of history--and occurring at a
period so remote that whatever record may have
been made at the time of the event must in the
mutations of time be lost destroyed, and the
\ inpossiblity of proving so ancient occurrence
in the ordinary way by living Witnesses render
it improbable that other testimony could be
procured. A tradition of this character, deri-
we'd from persons having connection with the
event and from that connection not likely to De
mistaken, and handed down from generation to
generation undsputed is entitled to great credit
III not to as much credit as any ancient histori-
cal occurrence. There are some historical facts
which seem to sustain the truth of this tradi.
ton and to invest it with the character of his
torical fact Previous to the building Of Solo
mons Temple there is abundant proof of the ex-
istence of a society in Asia Minor, known as the
| g Dyonisian Artihcers' This society though
composed entirely of men skilled in the mechani-
cal art, yet its form of Government strongly re-
sembled that of freemasonry as II at present exists
Its members were divided into separate Lodges,
each Lodge being governed by officers denomin-
ated as Master and Wardens. That this socIe-
ty was scattered over Judea during the erection
of the temple is admitted by all. Its members
being skilful and expert artiicers they were
probably employed by Solomon in the erection
of the temple, and assocating with their Jewish
edge of their fraternity and invited them to a
participation in its privileges. Sacred history
informs us that upwards of $780, 900 foreigners
were employed by Solomon in erecting that state
| ly edifce, among whom we cannot be far wrong
in placing the members of this society-who
were the most famous artihcers of their age.
Hiram the widows son who is represented as
cunning and curious workman in scripture was
probably one of those From thi connection
of the Dyonisan Artifcers with the Jewish la.
borers of the temple is supposed to have sprung
the Asydeans who we are informed by Law
re were connected with the temple, being
associated together as knights of Jerusalem
to adorn the porches Of that maj este structure
and to preserve them from decay" From the
Asydeans descended the " Essenian fraternity"
which continued to exist in Judea, and the neigh.
bouring countries long after the workmen on the
temple had been dispersed abroad seeking to
renew their labours in other lands. This last
society in its doctrines, ceremonies and mystic
ries bore strong resemblance to modern ma
sonry. 1t was society of Philosophers united
together for moral improvement and the mutual
welfare Of each other. Pythagoras derived from
this fraternity all the ceremonies and rites with
which he visited his esoteric school of philosophy,
and it was to the efforts of this Grecan sage
that Europe was first indebted for the introduc.
WIN W HiaoonIy' AhEoHk tHC PuPOiS iouHu ny
the celebrated Locke in the Bodlean Library,
was one supposed by him to have been written
by Henry the 9th, which represents Pythagoras
as Journeying into Syria and other lands where
the Venetians had planted masonry, and gain.
ing admittance into its Lodges he learned much,
and returned to Crotona where he framed a.
Lodge and made many masons, some of whom
Ijourneyed into France and in process of time
into England The existence of these societies
contemporary with the building of the temple,
springing out of each other in regular succession
the identity of their doctrines andmysteries with
those of each other and their simultaneously with
masonry as at present exists-and the fact that
Pythagoras derived his knowledge of masonry
from the last of them and introduced it thro' his
exertons into Europe, strongly corroborates the
tradition that masonry assumed its present char.
acter during the building of Solomon's temple,
and that we may justly trace the origin Of their
institution to the threshing floor of Oman the
Jebusite. Another evidence Of the great anti.
guilty of masonry is derived from its universal
existence among the nations of the earth. For