The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-07-03


NOT admitted 20 these mysteries
The testimony Of history is. that
they supplied I0nian and the surround
ing country. as far as the Helespont'
with theatrical apparatus, by contract
They also Dracticed their art in Syria,
Persia and India: and about 500 b. c.
considerable number of them were
incorporated by command OF the king
Of Pergamus. who assigned to them
Teos as a settlement. II was this fra
ternity whether called Greeks, ~
rians. or Phoenicians, who built the
temple at Jerusalem. That stupen-
dous work. under God. was the result
of their genius and skill. And this
being true. from them We are as ira
ternity, lineally descended, or cur an
tiuuity is a myth, and our traditions
a fable. Hence the answer OF our
English brethren of the Fifteenth cen
tury. to the inquiry of Henry vi, that
Masonry was brought Westerly by the
Phoenicians, indicated with great ac-
curateness the probable origin of the
institution.
"They might, indeed, have, said to
him that long anterior to the advent
Christianity, the mountains OF Judea
and the plains of Syria, the deserts OF
India and the valleys of the Nile, were
cheered by it's presence and enlivened
by its ong;-that more that a thou
sand years before the coming of the
Son of Man." a little conn any OF
cunning workmen," from the neigh
boring cities of Tyre, were assembled
on the pleasant Mount Moriah, at the
call of the wise King of Israel, and
there erected out of their great skill
a mighty edifice, whose splendid and
unrivalled perfection, and whose
grandeur and sublimity have been the
admiration and theme of all succeed
ing ages. They might have said to
him, that this was the craft-work of q
fraternity whose genius and discov-
cries. and to whose matchless skill
and ability, the wisest of men in all
ages have bowed with respect. They
might have said to him, that, having
finished that great work, and filled all
Judea with temples and palaces and
walled cities, having enriched and
beautified AZor, Gozarra, and Palmyra,
with the results of their genius, these
cunning workmen in after times, pass
ing through the Essenian associations,
and finally issuing out of the mystic
halls of the 'Collegia Artificium' OF
Rome. burst upon the dark ages OF
the world like a bright star peering
through a dark cloud, and, under the
patronage of the church, produced
those splendid monuments of genius
which set at defiance the highest at
tainments of modern art.
ITO the end of the seventeenth cen
fury Masonry continued as an opera
tive fraternity, producing both IN Eng
land and on the Continent, those grand
and unapproachable specimens OF art
which are the pride Of Central Europe,
and the admiration of the traveller.
But it is no longer an operative asso-
citation We, OF this day. as Masons,
set up no pretensions to extraordinary
skill in the physical sciences. Very
few of us-accomplished Masons as
We may be-would willingly under
take to erect another temple on Mount
Moriah. At the reorganization of the
Craft and the establishment of the
present Grand Lodge of England In
1717, we laid aside our operative char
acter, and with it all pretensions tol
extraordinary skill in architectural
science. We then became a purely
moral and benevolent association,
whose great aim is the development
and cultivation of the moral sentiment,
the social principle, and the benevo-
lent affections, a higher reverence for
Cod. and warmer love for man. Thus
England became the great central
1oint of Masonry for the whole world |
Masonry is indeed a universal In
,titution. History does not furnish its
1arallel. 1t exists where Christianity /
las not gone; and it's claims will be
.espected where the superior claims
If Christianity would fail. 1t is new
er obscured by the darkness of night.
The eye of day is ever upon It. It's
are to be traced in the most
Instant regions and in the remotest
ges of the earth. Among all civil
zed people, and in all Christian lands,
is existence is recognized. 1t came
o our shores at an suspicious time;
nd ii was here rocking a Cradle of
liberty by a Washington, Franklin,
Hancock, and Warren.
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