The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-23

the creations OF the period. And. IN
later centuries, the artist a been no
rIore able to excel the medlacvai wSn-
ders in architecture. than the colorist
al reproduce the tints Of their win
dows, thai have filtered the diamonds
beauty from the sunlight for centuries.
That sentence OF Genesis. Il have
given thee every green herb for meat
like all the rest OF the Book. has q
profound ~symbolicai. as well as a lit
erary
IL is not merely the nourishment of
the body. but the food OF the soul that
is intended. The green herb Is OF all
nature. that which is most essential
TO the healthy spiritual life OF nan
Most OF US do not need fine scenery:
the precIpice and the mountain peaks
are not intended TO be seen by AID men
perhaps their power Is greatest over
them who are unaccustomed TO them.
But trees and fields and flowers are
made for all. God has connected the
labor which Is essential to the bodily
s~ustenance with the pleasures which
are healthiest for the heart; and while
He made the ground stubborn, lie
made the heritage fragrant. and Its
blossoms fair. The proudest architec-
ture man can build has no higher honor
than 10 bear the image and recall the
memor OF that grass or the held whlch
is, at once. the type and support or MS
existence: the goodly building Is the
most glorious, when IL Is scuiptureu
into the likeness OF the leaves OF Para
disc; the great Gothic spirit II noble
in its hold of nature, like the dove or
Noah. 10, in her mouth was an olive
branch. plucked on"
The great interpreter OF art In our
time thus portrays the constant return
to nature by which true art is kept
pure and just. Like the tabled An
taeus, strength RECEIVERS with the
touch OF the mother. The m In
stones that lie scattered where ma
tons have encamped as Ii were for a
night. and gone their way from Baal-
bac to Iona, from the temple OF kar-
max to the Cathedral of York, the
flower OF civilization Is there express
ed, and that alone which Ia most true.
is most strong and most beautiful. Ar
chitecture has been said To be frozen
music; If so. the most sublime Is It's
unsung anthem To the Grand Master
of the Heavens.
Masonic truth and legends are 10 be
found interviewer with the very fibre
of German ~teratur Its symbols have
been dug from ancient graves. Some
of the most exalted rulers OF THAI peo-
pie have declared that its original In
spiration was Divine.
The early annals of Masonry in the
British Isles are meagr IL any are
authentic at all. But that Is true OF all
our history. Little at the best do we
know OF the lives OF our f~orefathers.
long since the Christian era.
The weight of modern Masonic au-
thority is against the acceptance Of tn.
authenticity OF the ancient charter pre-
served at York, or OF the admission OF
the famous Conference of 926.
But at least, there is nothing ante
ceDdently improbable in the migration
of the corporation of architects to the
region where Athelstan and Alfred
had been rebuilding churches and mo-
naSterieS and destroyed cen
turtles before by the early Picts n
Scots, or later by the Danes and North
men, in their bloody incursions under
the ominous raven OF the north.
The story goes that the ancient
Christians, according to an orienta d.
vision of belief. founded a Church In
Britain before the Saxon conquest, and
took refuge from their enemies in the
Mountains of Scotland and Ireland,
and in the islands, as in Anglesea and
Mona
Architecture expanded with the
church building d to the advance
Of religion. The annalists say: In &c
King Athelstan confirmed a Constitu-
ton to the corporation Of architects,
through his brother Edwin at York,
where the original is preserved. 1t re-
counts the history OF architecture, from
Adam, the tales of the Rabbis, speaks
OF the temple OF Solomon, and of Ply
~thagoras. Euclid and Vitruvius. There
Is a reference to st. Albanus, 300 A. D.,
who procured a charter for the Masons
from the Emperor Carausius.
Then Is related the destruction OF the
ediices by the Northern tribes, and the
troubles of the Angles and Saxons, un-
til Athelstan resolved to restore the
ancient and venerable society. After
this Ia r~ecounted the sixteen most an
Gent laws.
The York charter also contains the
famous legend which derives the seven
liberal sciences Masonry being part of
geometry from the family of Lamech.
II was said to have been preserved
on a stone pillar from the flood. taught
by Euclid to the Egyptians and taken
by Israel to the building OF the temple.
Maymus Graecus was said to have
brought It to Charles Martel and 10
England.
Were the whole OF this rejected as
being without sufficient historic confr-
nation, there Is ample evidence of the
existence OF Masonic societies in Eng
land and Scotland. Jealousy OF the
privileges allowed them induced the
wal of the same by royal pow
er in the fifteenth century, but Queen
Mary restored them. The word Lodge
occurs for the first time in our tongue
in a statute Of 1891, in reference TO tn.
College Kirk Of st. Giles in the records
OF Edinburgh
A charter Of the Jurisdiction as pa
tron and protector was given In 1901
to st. Clair OF Roselyn and his heirs.
II Is interesting to note that In 1875
some hundred and thirty-five years Ia
ter, when the general assembly OF sym
bolical Masons met, the representa- tive
OF the st. Clair family resigned his
hereditary office and was elected Grand
Master.
A candi and critical examina ton o.
the subject. in the light OF the progress
OF scientific research, will take note
that from time TO time of Bacon. tn
learning based upon authority and allie
gory was modified by discovery as the
result OF interrogation by experiment
and deduction But this can only af-
feet the p~hysical-it cannot touch the
eternal veristies Of moral and spiritual
truth-that which was from the begin
ming. and Is. and shall be, forever.
Next, in 1865. came the great fire in
London and It's rebuilding. st. Paui's
arose. and Its architect, Sir Christie
pner Wren, was the last Grand Master