Behold This Light!

many of the Indian tribes of America , retained almost the same identical memory of the destruction of their world by a deluge ; and both havo inherited the one great belief of the original people of God , in His unity , aud in another happier existence after death , and both worship Him as

Creator and Father . But , as already stated , the great truths of religion and science , in most nations , degenerated among tho masses into sun worship and idolatry , and could only bo retained and perpetuated through the moro barbarous ages , which must havo succeeded tho destruction of

tho great centre of civilization , by the institution of an order of mysteries whose priests and brethren should be initiated under the most sacred vows of secrecy , into the sublime mysteries of religion , and the profound teachings of science . This , then , was tho mighty mission of the

brethren of this ancient Fraternity , to keep ancl preserve , for all ages , the great religious truths ancl scientific discoveries of God ' s chosen people , received by them directly from Divinity itself , or acquired in . the course of thoir wonderful enlightenment and advancement .

And what secrets may not those great sages and patriarchs havo wrung from Nature ' s laboratary ? Had they solved the problems of life and death ? Of our own immortality ? Of the incomprehensible plan of the universe ? Of the Godhead itself ? We are taught in

Holy Writ thafc the people proposed to build a tower , " Whose top may reach unto Heaven , " and that the Lord Himself declared : " And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do . " And the Lord confounded their tongues . Why ? Was it simply to

prevent tho building , by " Operative Masons , " of a tower of brick or stone whose top shonld reach to the material heavens ? Or was it to destroy the possible erection of a tower of science and discovery by the great students of

nature and religion , those " Speculative Master Masons , " the summit of which should extend even to the secrets of heaven ? Had they already seen beyond the flaming sword ? And were their outstretched hands almost within

reach of the fruit of the tree of knowledge ? Would God have taken such decisive and terrible action if the completion of the tower , " and the discovery of the nature and secrets of Divinity , was not already an imminent possibility ?

Hidden within the Holy of Holies , guarded by the nnrelaxing vigilance of its devotees , cherished more clearly than life itself , many of these ancient revelations and discoveries have descended unto us . As already shown , the perpetuation of these great truths was secured b y means

of established Orders , or Fraternities , called mysteries ; and their existence was carefully " veiled in allegorical fables , the key to which was disclosed to him only who had taken the highest degrees of the mysteries , and given the most convincing proofs of his fidelity and zeal . "

The sacred legend or allegory of the Egyptians related " that Osiris , or the sun , was slain by Typhon , a gigantic monster , typical of darkness and the evil powers of nature The body was placed in a chest , thrown into the Nile , and swept out to sea . Isis , or the moon , personified as a

goddess , ransacks the whole earth in search of the body , which she finds horribly mutilated ; she joins the dissevered parts and raises him to life again . " " The ritual of the mysteries in Egypt , India , and Greece , was founded upon this legend , in some form , of the death and resurrection of the

personified sun-god . An allegory pregnant with the great truths of Divinity and immortality . " The Egyptian mysteries of Osiris and Isis were in the form of a mystic drama , representing the death by violence of Osiris , the search for his body by Isis , and its finding ancl being raised to life and

power again . " " I saw the sun at midnight , " says Apuleius , speaking of his own initiation into the mysteries , " shining with its brilliant light , and I approached the presence of the gods beneath , and the gods of heaven , and stood near and worshipped them . " The sublime mysteries of

religion , and the profoundest teachings of science , were revealed to him who had been permitted to stand in the splendour of the risen sun . An eminent Masonic author says , " The mysteries of all the other nations of antiquity were qnite similar to those

of Egypt , and were no doubt derived from them . " In the temples of the mysteries in India there were stationed triangularly at the east , west and south points of

the mystic circle , the three representatives of the sun-god , denoting the rising , setting and meridian snn . Ifc is believed that future investigation will clearly prove that the sun temples of the mighty civilisation of prehistoric

Behold This Light!

America were dedicated to the same mysteries and to the preservation of the same great truths . On both hemispheres the descendants of that parent , godlike race , by the same means , in the midst of idolatrous times and tendencies , kept ever burning the light of their inherited belief .

" Late discoveries make the fact that the unity of God was taught in tho ancient E gyptian mysteries , beyond all doubt . " " The manifold forms of the Egyptian pantheon , " says fche late E . Deutsch , ' were but religious masks of the

sublime doctrine of tho unity of the Deity , communicated to the initiated in the mysteries . " " The gods of the pantheon , " says M . Pierrot , were " only manifestations of the one being in various capacities . "

" The three cardinal requirements of Egyptian piety were love to God , love of virtue and love to man . " That our

ancient brothers of Egypt were not deficient m the Masonic virtues of " brotherly love , relief and truth , " appears from the inscriptions on their tombs : " I have given bread to the hungry , water to the thirsty , clothes to the naked , shelter to the stranger . " Enough has been advanced to

show that the ancient mysteries taught the unity of God , the immortality of man , profound scientific truths , a pure morality and a tender charity . It is true that in the progress of many centuries the mysteries became corrupt , and among most nations lost a

knowledge of their primitive truths . But among all the corruptions which in later times prevailed , there yet remained a " chosen band , " who preserved the ancient teachings of the mysteries in their purity . Says a Masonic writer : " From these few and faithful ones the truth was

handed down to following generations , and from them , all that is great , glorious and ancient in modern Freemasonry was derived . " " From them Freemasonry received its two great doctrines of the unity of God , and the immortality of man . "

It is not the purpose of this address to attempt to follow the lineal descent of Freemasonry from the ancient mysteries of Egypt ; that work has been done by those whose

great wisdom , knowledge and patience , have well qualified them for the task , and the incontestible proofs which they have accumulated , so far as they can be disclosed to the uninitiated , are within the reach of all .

" Long before the building of King Solomon ' s Temple , Masons were known as the 'Sons of Light . ' Masonry was practised by the ancients under the name of Lux , or its equivalent , in the various languages of antiquity . " " We are informed by several distinguished writers that the word

' Masonry' is a corruption of the Greek word mesonraneo , which signifies ' I am in the midst of heaven , ' alluding to the snn , which , being ' in the midst of heaven , ' is the great source of light . " Others derive it directly from the ancient Egyptian phre , the sun , and mas , a child . Phre mas-sen ,

children of the sun , or Sons of Light . " The masters of the ancient mysteries designed and builded the mighty temples , monuments and pyramids of antiquity . But the name

Mason means more than a mere master of the trowel , the level , the plumb , and the square . It means the master of those great primitive truths and scientific secrets which the Fraternity has cherished from time immemorial .

Along the pathway of the centuries , disguised in formulated myths and allegories , the divine truth has travelled on . From the Osiris of the Egyptian mysteries to the Dionysius and Bacchus of Greece and Asia Minor , and to the Hiram of Masonic lore , the way is clearly discernible .

Atlantis , that rose from the waters as the home of the God-sprung race , from her vantage ground of exalted civilization and divine revelation , filling the earth with her power and splendour , is ingulfed for ever in the ocean that was once her slave . Egypt lies in the night of her

desolation ; her pyramids and monuments ruling over a sea of sand . The temple of Solomon reflects no more from its golden crest the rays of its Creator ' s sun . " Borne , that sat on her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world , " has crumbled into ruin and decay . The cities

palaces and triumphal arches of antiquity sleep with the Pharaohs and the Caesars in the dust of the ages . But the light still shines in the East , the divine secrets are still preserved , and despite time , death and change , the infinite truth shall never die . —Voice of Masonry .

The Bevised Book of Constitutions ; Critically Considered and Compared with the Old Edition . London : Simpkin , Marshall & Co ., 4 Stationers' Hall Court , E . G . Sent on receipt of stamps , One Shilling , by W . "W . Morgan , Freemason ' s Chronicle Office , Belvidere Works , Hermes Hill , Pentonville ,