Relic Of Newcastle Freemasonry.

RELIC OF NEWCASTLE FREEMASONRY .

npHEBE has been found by Mr . Graham , the architect , in the I process of demolishing the old Dispensary in Low Friar Street , a very remarkable Masonie relic . It . was found on Saturday , the very day on which the interesting facts appeared about the Dispensary in the " Journal ' s " " North-Country Notes . "

The relic is none other than the copper plate , bearing in Latin the engraved record of the foundation of the Freemasons' HaU , to which , early in the century , the Dispensary was removed from Pilgrim Street . The plate , curiously enough , -was between two layers of lead , inducing , by voltaic influence perhaps , the chemical

action which has obliterated some of the letters . The substance of the writing is that , on the 21 st of September 1776 ( being nine days before the Kalends of October ) , Francis Peacock ' , Provincial Master , laid the foundation-stone ( " fundamenta " ) . He did it "in order to the establishing of mutual friendship , for the

veneration of the Euling Architect , the highest Divinity of Nature ; for the investigation of truth ; for the kindly cultivation of morals , science , and polite arts ; for the benefit of mankind ; for the furthering of timely comfort in brotherly meeting . " The site of the old Hall is the property of Mr . G . G . Laidler , Newcastle . — " Whist , " in ' * Newcastle Journal . "

The Bible.

THE BIBLE .

''TT > IBLE , " according to the Greek and Latin word biblia ( plural J 3 biblion ) , moans a book , and is the collective term now applied exclusively to the Scriptures , from seriptura , a writing ( verb , scribere , to write ) . The inner bark of the papyrus , the first kind of writing material known was called biblos . The original translation of the Hebrew Testament into Greek , about the year 260 B . C ., bore the title of the Septuagint ( Latin , septuaginta , seventy ) ,

oecause it employed the labours of seventy-two translators . Dr . Campbell , however , rejects this derivation , and contends that "it was sanctioned by the Jewish Sanhedrim , or great Council , which consisted of seventy or seventyone members besides the High Priest . " But as it contained many corrupt interpolations , Origen laboured at a revision , writing thus respecting the

falsifications , " the difference of the text in the various copies of St . Matthew ' s Gospel was caused either by the carelessness of copyists , or by the malicious boldness of the correcting writers , or of those who added , or who took away . " At the end of the fourth century Jerome writes in a similar manner respecting the Latin translation , adding , " there are as many texts as manuscripts . "

It was about the year 1381 that Wickliffe began his life work , and , as a preliminary to his labours , announced to the world his intention of translating the Scriptures into English , " so that men and women might read them , " for he contended that " the apostles converted the most part of the world by making known , to them the Scripture in the language most familiar to the people . "

Formerly considered as a book for the exclusive use of the Church , it was jealously guarded as such , and when required by circumstances , its contents were doled out by the ecclesiastics in such portions , and with such interpretations and reservations as they thought necessary , probably believing , as Pope Gregory did , that " the Word of God to be revered must be concealed . "

English Translation . — " The English translation of the , Bible had been several times revised , or re-made since the first edition . It finally assumed its present form under the authority of James I . Forty-seven persons in six companies , meeting at Westminster , Oxford , and Cambridge , distributed the labour among them , twenty-five being assigned to the Old Testament , fifteen to the New , and seven to the Apocrypha . * The rules imposed for their

guidance by the king were designed , as far as possible to secure the text against any novel interpretation ; the translation called the Bishop's Bible being established as the basis , as those still older had been in that ; and the work of each person or company being subjected to the review of the rest . The translation , which was commenced in 1607 , was published in 1611 . " ( Fuller's " Church History . " )

The Revised Version . —About the beginning of the year 1881 , the New Testament Company finished their monumental labours of nearly eleven years , and gave to this age a version of the Christian Scriptures whioh is probably truer to the sense actually written by the original authors and compilers than any other in the world . At the time when this version first

appeared there were not wanting critics who uttered deep regrets at the freedom taken wilh the authorised version , and foretold dire calamities and wide-spread consternation throughout the English-speaking communities . These forebodings , however , have not been realised , for unfortunately this new version failed to obtain the popularity which it deserved .

It would be impossible for me to give any lengthy extracts here ; I will therefore content myself with pointing out one or two textual alterations of familiar passages , leaving further research to my reader . In the Lord ' s Prayer , the concluding petition , "Deliver us from evil , " becomes "Deliver us from the evil one . " The question , " What shall it profit a man if he shall

gam the whole world , and lose his own soul ? " is changed into " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own life ? " Hades is substituted for hell in two well-known passages . The inscri ption on the altar , " To the Unknown God , " is altered into " To an Unknown God . " Half-a-dozen of the most familiar texts in the New Testament disappearaltogether .

Fate of Translators . —According to Canon Westcott , " Tyndale , who gave us our first New Testament from the Greek , was strangled for his work at Vilvorde ; Coverdale , who gave us our first printed Bible , narrowly escaped the stake by exile ; Rogers , to whom we owe the newly formed basis of our present version , was the first victim of the Marian persecution ; Cranmer , who-has left us our Psalter , was at last blessed with the death of a triumphal agony . The work was crowned by martyrdom , and the workmen laboured at it in the faith , and with the love of martyrs . " Fate of the Apostles . —Of the various Apostles mentioned in the

The Bible.

Scriptures , Matthew is supposed to have suffered martyrdom , or was slain in the city of Ethiopia . Mark was dragged through the streets of Alexandria , in Egypt , till he expired . Luke was hanged to an olive tree in Greece . John was put into a cauldron containing boiling oil at Rome , but escaped death , being afterwards banished to the Isle of Patmos . He died a natural death at

Ephesus , in Asia . James the Great was beheaded at Jerusalem . James the Less was thrown from a pinnacle and beaten to death . Philip was beheaded . Bartholomew was skinned alive . Andrew was crucified , and pounded while dying . Thomas was run through with a lance , and Jude was shot through with arrows .

The Gospels . —St . Matthew wrote his gospel' A . D . 44 , the same being found buried in the tomb of St . Barbus , and conveyed to Constantinople in 485 . Mark also wrote his gospel A . D . 44 ; St . Luke in 55 ; and St . John wrote his gospel at Ephesus in 96-7 , two years after he was thrown into the cauldron of oil , as mentioned above .

Value of the Bible . —In the early portion of the fourteenth . century a Testament was worth £ 2 16 s 8 d , equal to £ 45 6 s 8 d now , taking sixteen as the multiple for bringing down money to our standard . In one of the Computi of Robert Trethewy ( 1354-5 ) , mention is made of the redemption of a Bible which had lain as security for repayment of a loan of 60 s 3 d .

Chinese Printing . —At the beginning of the present century , a copy of the New Testament was printed and produced in China for the sum of fourpence . They have a very simple method of printing in the country of the Celestials , being able , without screw , lever , wheel , or wedge , to throw off 3 , 000 impressions of any page in one day . The whole apparatus of a printer in China consists of his gravees , blocks , and brushes . These he may shoulder and travel from place to place , purchasing paper and lamp-black as he needs

them ; and , borrowing a table anywhere , print editions by the hundred or the score , as he may be able to dispose of them . The Chinese Testaments are not arranged like the English ones . The words do not go across the page , but in columns from top to bottom . The paper is very thin , and printed only on one side , and the plain sides of two pages are folded together , like an uncut book . The paper for these is made and the books are printed in China . The cover also is Chinese , and is made of yellow paper , like silk , shot with gold dust .

First Money Transaction . —The first money transaction we read of in the world was the sum paid by Abraham to the Sons of Heth for the cave of Machpelah . Till then , and indeed long after , wealth was estimated by the number and quality of cattle , and cattle were the principal instruments of commerce .

_ Monuments—Epitaphs . —Though in the Old Testament portion of the Scriptures there are numerous incidental notices of monuments to the dead , there is not , we believe , any express passage that bears resemblance to an epitaph . There is in the Talmud , a statement to the effect that the great stone , called the stone of Abel , I Samuel vi . 18 , bore the following inscription or epitaph : — "Here was shed the blood of righteous Abel . "

Sarah , Wife of Abraham . —The only woman whose age , death , and burial are recorded in the Bible , was Sarah , the wife of Abraham . See Genesis xxiii . The term Lord ' s Day . —There is but one instance in all the Bible where the term Lord ' s day is found , and that is Rev . i . 10 , but neither that text nor its context tells us what day of the week the Lord ' s day is . We have three

passages of Scripture which declare the seventh day of the week to be the Lord ' s day or Sabbath , namely Exodus xx . 10 , Isaiah lviii . 13 , Mark ii . 27 . The first of these texts ' states that " the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God " ; in the second the Lord calls the Sabbath " My holy day " ; and in the third , Jesus says that " the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day . "

The Bible Denounced . —A Puritanical sect called the " Sweet Singers , " common in Edinburgh during the reign of Charles IL , not only made a holocaust of all story books , ballads , romances , and similar publications , but in their religious zeal denounced even the printed Bible . Words not Anglo-Saxon . —The Lord ' s Prayer contains only four wordsdeliver , temptation , power , and glory—which are not of the Anglo-Saxon stock .

Road . —A correspondent in " Old and New " ( February 1875 ) , pointed out that in the English Bible the word road occurs only once , and then it is used in the sense of raid—an inroad . We hear of paths , of ways , never of roads , which must be regal works , the offspring of art and the production of a settled peace . A Greek or Roman made roads ; an Arab or Jew never . Still there are highways in the . Bible .

Go To . — " Go to " occurs eight times in Holy Scripture ( Gen . xi . 3 , 4 , 7 , ; II Kings v . 5 ; Ecclesiastes ii . 1 ; Isaiah v . 5 ; James iv . 13 ; v . 1 ; and " Come now , " is to be found in Isaiah i . 18 ) . Halliwell says that " go to" is equivalent to " well , " " well now , " " well then , " or " go on , " and it occurs in the French Alphabet Svo ., London , 1615 , as the-translation of or sus . " Notes and Queries , " 4 th August 1877 .

Eggs . —Eggs are mentioned seven times in the Bible , the most ancient being that of Job vi . 6 , " Is there any taste in the white of an egg ? " Ibid , 3 June 1871 . Miser . —According to Chaltrome , " It is somewhat singular that there is no recorded instance of a miser in Scripture ; though there are abundant warnings against covetousness , which is at the root of the matter . It looks almost as though , if thore were such people in the early history of mankind , they were beneath notice . "

Down to tho Ground . —The phrase " Down to tho ground , " says the " Glasgow Weekly Mail" ( 26 th February 1898 ) , " is usually regarded as slang , and Dr . Brewer , in his dictionary of' Phrase and Fable , ' merely gives the meaning as ' That suits me down to the ground '— ' Entirely . ' A

correspondent points out that it is not slang , but good old English , and , as a matter-of-fact , of Biblical origin . If tho curious reader cares to verify , he has only to turn up Judges xx . 21 aud 25 , where he will read twice over how ' the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground 22 , 000 Israelites . ' "

( To be Continued ) . " The Book of Rarities , by Kdward Roberts , P . M .

* The history of the Apocrypha ends 135 B . C . The books were not in the Jewish canon , but wero received as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church , at the Council of Trent , in 1545 .