Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
errors of a false worship—he resolved to attempt , by a practical argument , the conversion of his family . For this purpose , according to the tradition , taking advantage of his father ' s temporary absence , he took an axe and demolished all the deities in his warehouse except the largest , and placing the axe in his hands , he retired to await the issue . When
Terah returned , and demanded to know how his property had been destroyed , his son informed him that the great deity , in whose hands he saw the axe , had been offended with the rest , and in a paroxysm of rage had hewed them in pieces . Terah expostulated — declared that the tale was absurd—that it was impossible for an inanimate block thus
to act—and therefore discredited the relation . On this admission , Abraham , in a noble strain of eloquence , urged on his father the inutility of paying adoration to stocks and stones , which , as he had himself confessed , were not only unable to perform a common act of volition , but even to
protect themselves from indignity or destruction , and concluded with exhorting him to abandon his senseless idols , and turn to the living God . Instead of being converted , Terah was highly exasperated against his son ; and suffering the feelings of a parent to be swallowed up in his resentment , he immediately denounced Abraham to the official
authorities . Being arrested and brought before the King of Chaldea to answer for his heresy , he boldly avowed his want of faith in the religious institutions of the country , whose deities , instead of being able to extend protection to their worshippers , were incapable of helping themselves . His temerity subjected him to a severe
punishment . He was condemned to be burnt alive , and was thrown into a furnace of fire for that purpose . But , like the three holy children of a later age , he was miraculously protected , and came out from amidst the flames unhurt , to the great astonishment of the king and his whole court , who were spectators of the scene .
Picart rejects this legend , which is mentioned by Jerome , and considers that the Teraphim of Laban , and the father of Abraham , were but so many figures by which men represented their deceased fathers , or such of ' their sovereigns as they had not an opportunity of honouring in person , by living at a great distance from them . In this manner they
endeavoured to compensate by art for what nature had taken from them , or which the distance of place prevented their having a sight of . It was , therefore , says he , no more than a testimony of the love ancl respect which good children owe to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
errors of a false worship—he resolved to attempt , by a practical argument , the conversion of his family . For this purpose , according to the tradition , taking advantage of his father ' s temporary absence , he took an axe and demolished all the deities in his warehouse except the largest , and placing the axe in his hands , he retired to await the issue . When
Terah returned , and demanded to know how his property had been destroyed , his son informed him that the great deity , in whose hands he saw the axe , had been offended with the rest , and in a paroxysm of rage had hewed them in pieces . Terah expostulated — declared that the tale was absurd—that it was impossible for an inanimate block thus
to act—and therefore discredited the relation . On this admission , Abraham , in a noble strain of eloquence , urged on his father the inutility of paying adoration to stocks and stones , which , as he had himself confessed , were not only unable to perform a common act of volition , but even to
protect themselves from indignity or destruction , and concluded with exhorting him to abandon his senseless idols , and turn to the living God . Instead of being converted , Terah was highly exasperated against his son ; and suffering the feelings of a parent to be swallowed up in his resentment , he immediately denounced Abraham to the official
authorities . Being arrested and brought before the King of Chaldea to answer for his heresy , he boldly avowed his want of faith in the religious institutions of the country , whose deities , instead of being able to extend protection to their worshippers , were incapable of helping themselves . His temerity subjected him to a severe
punishment . He was condemned to be burnt alive , and was thrown into a furnace of fire for that purpose . But , like the three holy children of a later age , he was miraculously protected , and came out from amidst the flames unhurt , to the great astonishment of the king and his whole court , who were spectators of the scene .
Picart rejects this legend , which is mentioned by Jerome , and considers that the Teraphim of Laban , and the father of Abraham , were but so many figures by which men represented their deceased fathers , or such of ' their sovereigns as they had not an opportunity of honouring in person , by living at a great distance from them . In this manner they
endeavoured to compensate by art for what nature had taken from them , or which the distance of place prevented their having a sight of . It was , therefore , says he , no more than a testimony of the love ancl respect which good children owe to