Natchitoches spectator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1867-18??, 1867-12-31

Solomon, rejoiced greatly and said bless
ed be the Lord, this day, which hath
given unto David wise son over this
great people, and he sent to King Solo
mon, saving: / will do all thy desire,
concerning timber of cedar and timber
of fir;-my servants shall bring them
down from Lebanon, unto the sea, ana
/ will convey them by sea, in floats, un-
to tho place, that thou shall appoint me.
Then did solomon send ana 'fetch
Hiram out of Tyre" the master tcorkmda
of the tcorid. ''He was widows son
OF the tribe of Napthali, and his father
was Il man of Tyre"-he was filed with
wisdom and understanding, aud cunning
to work all works in brass. Now did
Solomon s.set about the building of a
Temple which should be place OF wor.
ship for all people, and i'll the month
tBul," the seventh mouth in the seventh
year thereafter he finished the WORK;
during all OF which time. the very eie-
ments preserved their peace, for there
wat neither storm nor tempest, but one
unbroken stream of sunshine. Every
thing connected with this old Temple,
has n moral and a meaning. we mud
that the three great builders, were, IN
themselves, the Types of the different
nationalities. Solomon was jew OF
the royal line of David; Hiram, King OF
Tyre, was a Sidnian, and the widows
son. the Jeloued of Masons, was of the
mixed blood OF both jew and Tyrian,
1t may he here remarked, that at TINS
time, Polythesm, idolatry and infdeil-
ty, had swept as besoms over the
earth. Even in the Land of Judea, the
sacrificial affairs daily smoked with tho
incense of Baal The few Jews, who
had still remained true to tn .ir allegi-
ance, clinging with deathless zeal to the
laws and the ordinances OF Moses, per
mitted not the foreigner nor the stran-
ger to draw near unto the "ark OF the
Covenant 1t seemed, therefore, to
please God to call out from the City of
Tyre, a cunning artificer, who blended
in his own person the elements of the
two nationalities in order that he might
build unto his name an House where all
the sons and daughters of Adam, with
ersoever dispersed about the CLIQUE,
might freely come and bow before his
affairs. IAN holy Place" where no one
should find admission by reason of his
worldly wealth or honors; before whose
portals the pride of ancestry and the
Donp Of caste, should bow low their
lofty heads, and bend their stubborn
knees; where there was alike but one
qualification of entrance for the King
and the peasant, namely: Faith and
Fealty to the only true and the living
God. And thus i6 is, that the grand old
building, which the Bible assures us
was reared "without the sound of the
hammer, the axe, or other tool of IRON"
was, in itself, q fitting Type and strik-
ing emblem of that better Temple where
the CLARK OF Mammon's metal is never
heard. and where the high and the low,
and the rich and the poor, will finally
meet upon the Level Masonry was
born with the birth Of the Temple and
as within it's sacred walls, Solomon and
the Tyrian and the widows SON. met
Az brothers upon the Level, acted upon
the Plumb, and parted upon the Square,
80 do Masons still ever meet, and act,
and part. No sooner was the Temple
com pleted than its fame spread out
through all the Earth, and the light of
Masonic science burst forth upon the
world. For we read that it was then
that the Kings and the wise men of all
nations came to learn wisdom of Solo
mon, and that they went away chilled
with wisdom that they couldnot obtain
| elsewhere" Masonry, in its incipiency,
and for twenty-eight hundred years at
! forwards, was known as operative, by
which it il to be understood that the
craftsmen employed the practical rules
of the system in the works of art and
! architecture, SliiCe WHICH IlilS u hssS iV-
ceived name with which it was never
cheistened by the Fathers, namely: spec
ulatiUe. We call attention 20 this fact
with no purpose to cavil about a word,
for a name detracts nothing from a
cause, but for child-like reason, that
we are unwilling TO see one gray hair
stripped from thu head of our we're GABLE
mother We have ever failed to appre-
ciate or to understand any essential dis
tinction between Masonry noc and Ma
sonry then. 1t is true, that III former
time, our ancient Brethren labOred IN
the building of material Temple; but
no less do we labor in building the moral
edifice, the Spiritual Temple. 1t is nei
ther fair nor proper to cali that specWld
the which ever employs the most phi
, ticai means to accomplish the greatest
; objects of life. Our doctrines are not
mere localities, neither is our philosophy
mere casuistry. Masonry, in the true
) sense of the word, is ever operative ant
] whenever it shall cease SO TO be, 1t vii
cease to be Masonry.
r With these remarks uson the antiqult.
2 of the Order, we will noW direct our at
. I>tentiOIl to its Universally. We hav'
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