Historical Relation Of Freemasonry To Ancient Egypt.

recognition are a part of the Landmarks of the Craft , not to be altered or disturbed , " sacred and inviolate . " How they are to be given , taught and communicated is known

to every Master Mason , and from whence some of those Landmarks were derived is a legitimate subject in connection with Ancient Craft Masonry and Egyptology .

Two thousand and seven hundred years before the Christian era , there was erected afc the entrance of the Temple of tho god " Amun Ra , " in the city of the Sun , in Egypt , two great pillars or obelisks representing tho sun and the moon—Osiris and Isis . " Tho term Obelisk is derived from tho Latin obeliscus , a diminutive of the Greek word obelus , meaning literally a

spit , to indicate the peculiar form of this species of monument . " There were many of these peculiar shaped monuments erected throughout the land of Egypt , which appears to

have been the only nation of antiquity that adopted them . They were not built of successive layers of stones but consisted of a single shaft , generally of red granite . Of all the obelisks the largest and mosb beautiful was that of

Karnac , afc Thebes , cut by Queen Amense , about B . C . 1760 ; it is a single shaft of the purest and most exquisitely polished syenite , in height about 90 feet , and in weight about 400 tons . When we remember that those immense blocks of stone were transported hundreds of miles from the quarries to

the place where they were erected , we must accord to those ancient craftsmen the credit of moving great weights and masses for distances beyond anything attempted by modern engineers . " The two Obelisks were of unequal

size , the one representing Osiris , the son , was the larger , and the smaller one the moon , Isis . " Those pillars were always set in pairs before the entrance , or " ia tho outer porch of the Temple , " and behind them over the doorway

was a winged globe , surmounted with the head of an asp , the emblem of royalty . This symbol with the two obelisks , Osiris and Isis , " formed the trinity of the gods , tho main feature in tbe Egyptian mysteries and foundation of their

religion , " and there they wore always found , that impressive trinity , as landmarks to the initiated and subjects of admiration and wonder to the profane . You see them frequently in another form , the head and breasts

of the woman , the body of the bull , the paws and tail of the dog , all compounded in the sphinx , one of tho most significant and ingenious creations of the Egyptian

priesthood , and ifc was found in the apex of the obelisk within a right angled triangle couchant before the corresponding deity ; while upon all the obelisks this image was depicted either as it is here described or in hieroglyphical figures . Those two obelisks had been erected to commemorate an

astronomical event in connection with Egyptian history . Ifc was fche time when the sun , moon and the dog-star all appeared in the heavens on the same day , two thousand seven hundred and eighty-two years before the Christian era , and it was called " the year of light . " *

Once in the great cycle of 1461 years , those three orbs were seen shining in the firmament at the same time , and they were adorned as representing the power and majesty of tho Being by whom they were created , and to whose

glory they were dedicated . As upon aU their monuments , and in the curious bufc significant ways of tho ancient Egyptians , those obelisks were covered with hieroglyphical characters , and the people paid homage to the beings

symbolised in those figures without knowing what they represented ; ifc was a blind worship , prompted in part by thafc innate feeling which craves a deity , and it was also directed and encouraged by the initiated .

The priests and masters of the mysteries understood their meaning , but nofc the masses . It was all part of a system by which a few could direct the many , and by means of " words engraven upon stones" lead a community

along " paths they had not known ; " but in the direction of eternal truths , just as now , after the lapse of ages , a comparatively few of the enlightened travel along the same road , teaching and illustrating the same doctrines .

In the progress of time centuries rolled on , nations rose and fell . Tbe Israelites had broken the bonds thafc held them in subjection to their Egyptian task masters . The

Pharoah " thafc knew not Joseph " had driven their chariots into the miry bed of the Red Sea , and the overwhelming flood had covered tho pursuing hosts , while Israel went forth unharmed upon her sacred mission .

Historical Relation Of Freemasonry To Ancient Egypt.

Beyond the Jordan amidst the hills of Palestine had risen a city which , if not as extensive or as popular as Memphis , or Thebes , or Ifeliopolis of ancient Egypt , yet , iu tho interesting associations that attend upon its foun li tion and are connected with its history , far excels them all . On

one of the hills upon which was built this famous city was erected a temple , whose splendour and costly magnificence outshone all similar works that had preceded it . Before the entrance of this majestic temple , as before tho entrance

fco fche temple of'Amun Ra , stood two pillars or columns , ono on tho right hand and one on the left hand . " And ho set up the pillars in the porch of the temple ; and he set up the right pillar , and called the name thereof Jachin ; and

he set up the left pillar , and called tho name thereof Boaz . ' 1 Kings vii . 21 .

The designer and builder of those pillars was a Phoenician , of the city of Tyre . He was a famous worker in metals and in stone , and was sent to Solomon by the King of Tyre to assist in the building of tho temple .

The Phoenicians , one of the celebrated nations of antiquity , founders of great cities and tho executors of grand architecture and engineering works , were indebted to the Egyptians for all they knew in science , mathematics and

astronomy . To the Phoenicians have been assigned the art of writing , the origin of making glass , the science of Navigation ; when in fact all those arts and sciences were known

and practised in Egypt long before Phoenicia had seen the light of day , centuries anterior to the time when the man of Tyre—Hiram the builder , was born .

This skilful workman was an adept in all the knowledge necessary to constitute a great architect , and ho must have been a member of those mystic associations that kept concealed , and only imparted to their initiates the explanation

of those mathematical and geometrical problems such as the supporting powers of the arch , and its life giving principle , the Keystone ; the manner of determining altitudes , tho results of the studies of the ancienfc Egyptian philosophers ,

all of which was carefully concealed from the great mass ot ignorant workmen , hewers of wood and bearers of burdens . " There were no mystic characters or monstrous figures engraved upon those brazen pillars : but the ornament

ation was in keeping with the sacred building of which they formed one of the most striking adjuncts , and the great Phoenician had bestowed upon them the impress of his prolific genius . What those pillars represent to tho

Freemason is known to all present , and you cannot fail to comprehend the analogy between the obelisks that stood in front of the Egyptian sanctuary and tho pillars erected by the man of Tyre before the temple dedicated to the great

Jehovah . Nowhere is there to bo found a more striking resemblance or such indisputable evidence of the derivation of Masonic exemplification from the ancient Egyptians than in those grand and massive columns ; while the time and

mode and place of their erection , the events they commemorated , the sacred character of tho edifice in front of which they stood , formed at least a wonderful coincidence .

That they had the same significance , that they were to the initiated in the Egyptian Mysteries what the Boaz and Jachin are to the initiated in ancient Craft Masonry , is a reasonable and just deduction , aud as the descendants of

Noah received through him those sacred revelations for the preservation of which the Patriarch had been saved when all mankind sank beneath the waters of the deluge , so do wo recognise in those majestic pillars , " that stood in the outer

porch of King Solomon ' s Temple , " the symbolism and strength and truth of an established faith , taught and believed and exemplified to-day in Freemasonry , as it was five thousand years ago in the esoteric mysteries of the

ancient Egyptians . My Brethren , in the strange and weird emblems so graphically depicted on the walls and columns of of this hall , in those geometrical figures we behold the signs and symbols

of the religious faith held by a long extinct race , whose shadows are thus thrown across the intervening centuries down to this age of truth and enlightenment , and as we look upon these curious mementos of that singular people , we

must recognize and acknowledge the affinities which bind the Freemasonry of to-day to those early workers of the Craft who , in the person of the great Hebrew leader , stood

before the Pharoah of four thousand years ago and demanded the freedom of Israel , so that he might take them forth upon the journey leading to the hill of Zion .

The same bright orb , which to the Egyptians was born with each succeeding day , still shines upon those fertile