Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1911-05-04
Origin OF Freemasonry.
BY r. \. Nus.

OF Freemasonry as an organization, of
course is as impossible as it would be
to tell who struck Billy Patterson, or
how old Ann was, or even to tell
when the first church was established.
We kow that. the ecclesia was in
the Wilderness, and probably long
time before that, and under various
names since. And while the under
lying principles are Interchangeable, the
Society has taught various dogmas,
and many of them quite at a variance
with each other. Therefore, we con-
clude with DR.. Miller: "Discrimin-
ate between fundamentals and acci-
dentals; the former abiding perman-
entity, the latter appearing and disap-
pearing like foam on the oceans
crest"
Ere the Morning Stars sang to-
gether and all the Sons of God shout
ed for joy; when darkness was upon
the face of the deep and the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the
waters, and God said, be Light, and
Light was; when the Supreme Archi-
t-ct of the Universe placed the plum
met to the foundations. of the Earth
and with compasses Circumscribed
the boundary line thereof; and sent
the worlds whirling through space to
the music of the spheres, they were
all constructed on strictly scientific
geometriCal principles, and thus the
basis upon which the superstructure
Of Masonry Is erected, was laid.
When man began to observe and note
the beauties of nature, he doubtless
brgan to initiate the divine plan and
to study symmetery and order. This
gave rise to Architecture as an occu-
patton, and in time they not only
formed unions. or met together to
discuss and devise new plans and
adornments and thus probably gave
rise to Builders Cooperative Unions.
Remains of ancient buildings show
that many, II not most, of the great
public edifices were built of stone.
The oldest word we have for a
worker in stone is the Araimaic word
.SIbAm, which is therefore equivalent
TO the English word maSon.
The Greek letter gamma and the
!Syriac letter Simrl, which is also He
brew, are both found cut in ancient
stone work. 1t has been thought that
this is the real origin of our Masonic
G.. Did those ancient builders have
such an organization and use the first
letter of their occupation as its sign
Of course we cannot say, but this
possibly accounts for it years agone.
Josephus says tha, the Essences had
existed thousand years when he
wrote his Antiquities. This would
place their beginning about the time
OF King Solomon. and the claim tha,
Solomon was instrumental in adding
the esoteric teachings may be true
Our very symbols,n proves that the
earliest fraters were masons or car
penters, as they are he people tina
u,e them most. If the curious de
sire more light on the Essenes, le
them read the account given by 10
-Sephus. and if Masons, they will b'
struck with many OF the similaritie
- between them and our fraternity.
The story OF Dmon and Pythia
was written three lnndred years be
sore the beginning Of the Christian
Era. This was about one hundred
years after Dyonisius usurped kingl
power and GIasrG the government Q
Syracuse, which brought on tn
trouble with Senator Damon. Thu
xs,he people might easily have know
the truth concerning the affair.
legend says that Dyonisius offered t