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hew the timber and raise and cut tho required quantity of stone . Tho workmen were divided into Masters , Fellow Crafts , and Apprentices ; the Apprentices were classed by sevens , and the Fellow Crafts by fives . Although the temple was seven years and seven months in its completion , still there was not heard within its walls the sound of axe

or hammer , or any iron or steel instrument . Tins was to indicate that harmony and brotherly love should at all times prevail iu our Lodges , and that order— " Heaven ' s

first law "—is an essential element of success in all great and important undertakings . The building and dedication of so magnificent a temple to the ever-living God was the triumph of Operative and Speculative Freemasonry .

"Nothing , indeed , can be more simple and consistent than the creed of the Fraternity concerning the state of their Order at this period . The vicinity of Jernsalem to Egypt , the connection of Solomon with the royal family of that kingdom , the progress of the Egyptians in

architectural science , their attachment to mysteries and hieroglyphic symbols , and the probability of their being employed by the king of Israel , are additional considerations which corroborate the sentiments of Freemasons , and absolve them from those charges of credulity and pride

with which thoy have been loaded . The intervening period between the glorious reign of Solomon , the destruction of the magnificent temple , and

the captivity of Judah , although belonging to the second revelation , forms a collecting link in the chain of events , and is remarkable for ono of the greatest discoveries ever made by man for the benefit of man .

After the death of Solomon , the tribes of Judah and Israel divided into two kingdoms , the type of which was figuratively shown by tho judgment of the wise monarch in the case of the two women and the living and dead child ; the former representing a foreshadowing of the house of

Judah , and the latter that of Israel . The faithful , who remained true to the Lord , belonged to the former , and by their zeal and fidelity , their love and attachment , glorified His name ; to preserve which , from the gross idolatry which surrounded them in every direction , cost many their lives .

It would appear , then , that notwithstanding the corruption and idolatry and utter absence of all true religion during this age of darkness and deprivation of spiritual light , there wero a chosen few who did not forget the knowledge of God which they had derived from their

ancestors . Although their spiritual trestleboard was lost ; although they were without a chart to guide them ; with no testimony iu Israel to refer to ; yefc they forgot not tho oral instruction which they had solemnly sworn faithfully to keep , to do , and to observe . The voice of a religious

faith whispered in their attentive ears , "thafc that which was lost would be found , " so long as they remained true and faithful servants ; for ifc was written , in that which they were seeking , " Take this book of the Law , and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your

God , that it may be there for a witness against thee . " Cherishing this lively faith in their hearts , and with only the two great lights of Masonry to guide them , they patiently and steadily pursued their noble work , with the

enlivening hope that , ere long , the third and greatest light would manifest itself , and , by its rays of divine intelligence , illuminate the moral and intellectual darkness of the children of Abraham .

Since the rapid progress of idolatry in place of the religion of God , three centuries may have passed away without the Law and the Testimony being read to the people in the temple , which was closed by Abaz , who restored the worship of Baal , made his children go through tho fire to

Moloch , and burned incense in the high places and on the hills , and under every green tree , to the idols of tho Syrians . -But Hczekiah , having observed tho distresses of his conntry , considered the cause of them , and endeavoured to fcpply a proper remedy . He opened tho temple and

icsfcored divine worship ; he broke the images , cut down the groves , and cleansed the city and the laud from the pollution of idols . Ho was succeeded by his son Mauassoh , who displayed as much zeal fco restore , as his father had shown -to abolish , idolatrous worship ; he replaced the

"aago of Baal in the Temple , and put to death the prophet saiah , who , in his own sublime language , denounced the popular sins , and with prophetic accuracy , described the coimng ^ the Messiah and his attributes . About this Period the Order of Masonry may havo beon instituted in wane . Nuuia Pompilius , a Sabine philosopher , was then

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king . He was an enemy to war , studied to softea tho manners of tho Romans , rather than to render them superior in power to their neighbours ; encouraged agriculture , and divided the citizens into distinct bodies of artists , whom he employed to erect a temple to Janus ,

which was to remain open iu time ot war , and to be closed in time of peace . Ho alsj instituted tho Order of the Sabine Priesthood , to preserve the sacred shields

said to have fallen from heaven , nnd which were considered the palladium of t ! e state . The ceemonies of this new Order boro a strong resemblance to somo of ihu ceremonies of tho higher degtces of Symbolic Masonry .

Truth , like the sun , may be obscured for a time , bat will shine again in resplendent beauty . So ifc h is been with Freemasonry at different periods . Hence we have noticed these contemporaneous events , to show that theso cognised principles of our Order were always kept alive iu the hearts of the faithful among all nations .

These achievements of the good and true , among the conflicting elements in the moral , political , social and religious phases of society , only inspired them the more to discover that spiritual copesfcone wanting in the arch of promise , through which we may hope to gain admission to

that "temple not mado with hands , eternal in theheavens . " The prophecy , made three hundred and forty years before , by a prophet from Jerusalem , that the altars of idolatry , on which sacrifices were offered at Bethel by Jeroboam and the people , should be destroyed by a king of

Judah , named Josiah , was fulfilled during the reign of this monarch , of whom the Bible says : "And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord , and walked in the ways of David his father , and inclined neither to the riorht hand nor to the left . " In the eighteenth year of his

reign he sent for the faithful three—Shaphan , Maaseiah , and Joah the recorder— " to repair the house of the Lord his God . " They immediately raised the money for the purpose , which was delivered over to the high priest

Hilkiah , who put it into " the hands of the workmen ( Master Masons ) thafc had the oversight of the house of the Lord , and they gave it to the workmen ( Fellow Craft ) that wrought in the house of the Lord to repair and mend the house . " " And the men did the work faithfully . "

The most important link m the mysterious chain—the discovery of the Word—which had been lost to the house of Israel , now completed tho divine mission of Hilkiah the priest , and added a brighter lustre to the throne of Josiah . The glory of this august discovery belongs to the former ,

as it is recorded that " Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord , given by tho hand of Moses . " Also , " And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphau tbo scribi , ' I have found the book of tho law in the house of thu

Lord . ' And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan . And Shaphan carried tho book to tho king , and brought tho king word back -again saying , ' All that was committed to thy servants , they do it . ' "

As there wero three witnesses who commenced the work , so were there three witnesses to complete it . Tho solemn transaction having been completed , tho world bec-. unn indebted to Freemasonry for tho discovery of that greatest of treasures—the Bible . Like Tabor , it is a " mountain

apart . " That book where God has put His own perpetual Shekinah , let us choose as the sanctuary afc whose oraclo we may find answers to our doubts , aud light upon our path ; to the Spirit ' s home , whither our affections shall every day return .

But a third period was to come of a totally different character from either of the past , and employing a totally different species of action . In this period , which is our own , mankind was to bo governed by separate and contemporaneous sovereignties , thus constituting a rivalry of

states ; that rivalry compelling nations to cultivate their peculiar means of power , and that cultivation obviously tending to bring into the fullest activity all tho variety and vigour of individual character . This change , too , was tho subject of miracle and prophecy . In the vision of tho

king of Babylon , the division of the western empire into ton sovereignties was distinctly shown a thousand years before its fulfilment , splendidly and unanswerably filling up that astonishing development of Providence . —Voice of Masoni y . ( To bo continued ) .

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