The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-02-07

The Grand Lodge of North Carolina
He Traces Masonry from its Incep.
tion and Fifty Portrays the High
Mission of the Noble Order.
Most WorshiRful Grand Master and
Brethren Of the Grand Loaqe OF
North Carolina, Ladies and Gentle
! men:
Bearing in remembrance those truly
Masonic virtues, ''Silence and Circum.
spection" l shall claim your indul-
gence for as short time this evening
as the origin and achievements of
Freemasonry will permit:
Almost all men know that Freema-
sonry is a great school, which has
taught for ages the great truths. the
Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood
OF man and the Immortality of tbs
soul. But these doctrines are dogmas
We hold in common with all civilized
people. Says Senator Chandler: with
out debating dogmas we all hope, We
all believe. that somehow. somewhere,
sorrow and siehing shall fee away; all
souls shall be saved, and permanent
happiness shall at last come to all the
children of men, Mr.. Dick
ems made the poor, idiOtic Barnaby
and the coarse, strong Hugh Of the
Maypole Inn, hold conversations about
the wonders of the visible heavens,
and they inquired of each ,other,
"whence comes the light of the >innu-
merable stars that dot the sky?" When
they are both under sentence of death
and just before the dawn of day were
led across the prison yard to the place
of execution. Barnaby, looking upward
toward the myriad lights of night, ex-
claims: "Hugh, we shall know what
makes the stars shine, but all the won-
ders of the Universe shall be opened
to our search.''
The origin Of Masonry is shroudsd
in mystery, and is traced by different
antiquarians TO different sources, each
with equal apparent conviction. Some
writer in the Encyclopedia Brittanica
asserts with the usual positiveness of
a ''Profane" that the order was born
in the Year of our Lord 1717; but had
you in l717 asked the oldest Arab in
the deserts whence he had his knowl-
edge of the Order, he would have an
swered that his father taught him and
if asked where his father learned it, he
would have said from his father. Aud
80 it came in an unbroken line
from father to son from away back in
the days when Solomon dispensed true
Masonic light and knowledge to all the
East, while the inhabitants of England
were savages in the woods. Brother
Alfred, of Louisiana, claims that we are
descended from the Egyptians, being
the offspring of the Ancient Mysteries
of Isis and Osiris. Brother Coleman.
of Kentucky, following the teachings of
the great Robert Morris. traces the
genealogy of the Order to the Phens-
clans, and proves his case to the salts
faction of all who have had the privi-
lege of hearing him, or the pleasure of
reading his books about the Masonic
inscriptions upon the ancient wall built
by King Solomon around the base of
Mount Moriah. In prehistoric times,
Judging from inscriptions upon obelisks
and pyramids. Masonry existed in
Egypt. The priests of Isis and Osiris
initiated into the Order men worthy
and well quaiilied," and taught before
their rites became debased by the ad-
admi sion of the vicious and de-
PRAYED, the imr.'rtal.ly Of the soul.
The Greeks a i ryrians trading into
Egypt brougll' r',cnce some knowledge
Of these mystet and founded in their
respective countries. societies which
became the source from which flowed
light and knowledge which still con-
tinues to bless and ennoble the human
race. In Greece was founded the Or
der of the Eleusinian mysteries, which
was most potent agency in dissent
natin. throughout Western Europe a
knowledge and appreciation of Grecian
civilization, to which we are at this
day indebted for most that makes an
intellectual better than an ignorant
man. The Tyrians carried with them
knowledge of the practical side of the
lessons taught by the Egyptians, and
became skilled to work in gold and
purple and blue. and to engrave with
the engravers chisel. They founded
the Order of Sidonian Architects and
placed at their head the great Huram
Arbear, and no man was permitted to
become an artisan in Tyre until duly
licensed by the heads of this Order
Their manner of work was as follows:
The Master drew his designs in red
chalk, in which the coasts of that
country still abound, upon Il trestle-
| board. The Overseer of any given
number Of operatives wore plain
apron without flap or bib; and upon it
copied from the trestle- board his section
of work for the day, and the Fellow
Craft or ordinary workman, wearing
an apron with a pocket at the top for
carrying small tools, came and looked
upon the overseer's apron aud executed
his task in obedience to the designs
! thereon delinated. There were also
assistant to these, bearers of burdens
who wore a plain apron extending
from throat to knee, and fastened at the
shoulder
Thirty thousand Of these men being
sent by King Hiram to prepare tim
| Der in The forests Of Lebanon for the
| temple at Jerusalam, were lost; where,
Or how, or why, neither tradition nor
history informs US, and to supply their
places King Solomon incorporated a
like number of Jews into the Order
gave it the symbolism Of Masonry as
it stands this day and ingrafted upon it
the worship of one true God. Solo
mon was especially fitted to send Or
thodox Masonry forth upon its great
mission to the sons of men. He was
! pre-eminently man of peace, ant
lived in that era when every son Of
Israel lived at peace and in security
'under his own vine and fig tree.' II
was amost fitting time to found an order
of peace and good works on earth that
/ was to teach forever faith in Jehovah s