Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-06-25

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spoke without notes we can only pre-
sent an imperfect sketch of it, as fol-
lows:
Antiquity is not necessarily venera-
bic. Because q thing is old is no cer-
tain sign that it Is sacred; for there
are old vices and follies, as well as
virtues and graces. Our times are
better than old times. Old fogies are
out of the procession. A suitable rev.
erence for age is befittlng the young;
blind devotion to it is the idolatry
of fools. Still, whatever is good grows
venerable with years and fragrant in
its memories. Old books are good to
read, old friends are good to love, and
old wine is said to be good to drink.
Christianity points to its age as one Of
the proofs of its immortality. So Ma
sons glory in the age and perpetuity
of their Order, as one of the evidences
of it's worth and ndestructibility.
To begin with, it is not impious or
irreverent to say that there is such a
thing as the Masonry of God. Though
the spirit world had existed from
everlasting, night and chaos
reigned over all the earth. But Jeho-
yah spoke the Illuminating word, and
the morning stars sang and all the
sons of God shouted for joy around the
cradle in which newborn world was
laid. And there was design in it's
construction, as the range of planets
and the sweep of comets prove. There
was proportion, too, as exhibited in
Jupiter with his moons and Saturn
with his girdle of light. The Masonry
of our own planet is written ON every
mountain and inscribed on every rock.
This is the Masonry of God.
PHYSICAL MASONRY.
The earth would have been vast
bowling wilderness without the hand
Of man. Physical Masonry crowns
the banks of lordly rivers with noble
cities. Physical Masonry rears the
home, that sweet and sacred asylum,
however humble or however homely,
which reconciles man to his lot and
woman to her sorrows. Without this,
man would have remained dweller
in tents and follower of herds forever.
But Physical Masonry appeared, and
there arose those colossal structures of
the East, the very fragments of which
are viewed by modern travellers with
an idolatry almost equal to that which
reared them. Such Is the work of
Physical Masonry.
ITS ANTIQUITY.
The fact that mystic signs and SYM
bols similar to those by which one
brother may now know another in the
dark as well as in the light, existed at
an early day, leads us to infer that far
back in the ages Masonic brothers
everywhere could meet upon the level
and part upon the square. The arts
fiourished in an early age. Noah con-
structed the ark of almost fabulous di-
mensions and navigated it upon a
shoreless sea, and when the flood had
subsidized and the Patriarch from the
old world stepped out upon the misty
mountains of the new, his first work
was the erection of that al tar which
glistened with the hues of the first
rainbow. The construction of temples
and cities and the progress of the arts
founded upon o knowledge of geome-
try which followed, show that what
ever else they lost, they retained the
use of the working tools of our ancient
craft. King Solomon reduced the
work to form and order. Over 200, 900
workmen were employed in the con-
structiOn of the temple for upwards
of seven years, but so thor
oughly were they divided under diff
ferent names and stations-Entered
Apprentices, Fellow Crafts and Master
Masons;-their hours of labor and re-
freshment appointed; their wages
fixed and the manner of receiving
them; so admirably had the Pheni-
clan stOne-cutter i'm the quarry and
the Hebrew workmen on the sides of
Lebanon done their work, that at last
the peerless building came together
without the sound of ak or hammer or
any tool of iron, having more the ap-
pearance of being the handiwork of
the Supreme Architect of the Universe
than of human hands. The Temple
was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar
about four hundred years after its
completion. Zerubbabel built the Sec
ond, which was far inferior to the first
and was destroyed by Titus seventy
years after the coming of Christ. Sew
en- hundred years before Christ col
leges of artisans were imported into
Rome by the lawgiver Numa, whose
symbolic ceremonies and secret signs
of recognition were not unlike ours.
Hence they spread over Europe under
the name of Travelling Free-Masons,
constructed the cathedrals, parochial
churches, monasteries and works of
art, near which they erected their huts
or "lodges,' which latter name has
designated the assembly of Masons
until this day. In the year 926 Prince
Edwin established the first English
Grand Lodge at Yor.., and from that
gathering English and American
Lodges derive their authority.
1t is further significant of the antiq-
uty of our Order that among many
ancient Indian tribes in this country
there exist certain signs and tokens
which have been handed down from
immemorial generations. De Witt
| Clinton, once Grand High Priest of