The Ancient Mysteries And Modern Freemasonry; Their Analogies Considered.

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND MODERN FREEMASONRY ; THEIR ANALOGIES CONSIDERED .

BY AT / BERT 0 . J 1 ACKAY , W . D , ( Continued from p . -125 . ) THE Jews and the Mohammedans

invariably practice this ceremony of ablution or lustration on all important occasions , and especially before addressing the Deity iu prayer . Throughout the Scriptures , clean hands are the symbol of purity of heart . Davidfor instancesays that " he onl

, , y shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or shall stand in His holy place who hath clean hands and a pure heart . " And in another place he declares that before attending on the altar of Jehovah , he will " wash his bands in innocence . " The same

symbol was well known to the heathen poets . Thus , as a single instance , Hector is made by Homer to say that ho " dreads to bring the urns of incense as an offering to Jove , with unwashed hands . " It is not , thereforesurprising that the aspirant

, in the Mysteries , underwent an ablution or purification of the body by washing , as a sign of that purification of the heart which was essentially necessary for all who would seek admittance to the Sacred

Mysteries . AVhen an aspirant was preparing to be received into any of the Ancient Mysteries , he was carried into the temple or other place of initiation , and there underwent a thorough purification of the body by

water . This is what was called the lustration , and was in fact the preparation for the Lesser Mysteries . It was , as I have alread y intimated , symbolic of the purification of the heart which was the absolutelynecessary preparation for admission

to a knowledge of and a participation in the arcana or secret instructions . In modern Freemasonry , that which is known by tbe name of "Ancient Craft Masonry , " embracing , as it has been authoritativel y defined , the three symbolic degrees , including the Holy Royal Arch , there is , it is true , no distinct ceremony of

lustration . There is no real washing 0 f the body with the element of water , as was practiced in the Ancient Mysteries , and in the Orders of Chivalry , but there is a symbolic or implied lustration . The Entered Apprentice ' s degree takes , iu fact , the place

of tho Ancient Rite . The degree reall y involves no duties or obligations except those which are connected with the purification of the heart . The very implements that are confided to the candidate to be used by him as the tools of this degree

, namely the guago and gavel , are given to him that he may learn his duties to God , his neig hbour aud himself , and be taught to divest his mind and conscience of the superfluities of vice . Every ceremony of the degree is intended to impress upon the

candidate the necessity of a pure life and conduct , so that he may lay the foundations of that spiritual building , which , as a Mason he is hereafter to erect . Thc whole of this

is nothing more nor less than a symbolic lustration . The Entered Apprentice ' s degree is really a preparation for the other degrees , and in the Ancient Mysteries , Preparation and Lustration were synonymous terms .

Initiation was the next step in the Ancient Mysteries . It was here that the dramatic allegory was performed . It was here that the myth , or fictitious history on which the peculiar Mystery was founded , was developed . The aspirant passed through the supposed events of the life ,

the sufferings and the death of the hero or god , or had them brought in vivid representation before him . The ceremonies constituted a symbolic instruction in the iiiitia—the betdnninffs of the religious instruction ivhich it was the object of the

mysteries to inculcate , and hence the candidate being in possession of these initio was said to be "initiated . " These ceremonies were performed partly in the Lesser , but more especially in the Greater Mysteries , of ivhich they were the first part .

Very properly was the aspirant said by passing through these ceremonies to be " initiated , " that is , to be a participator in the " beginning "—the initio , of the doctrine , because without further and fuller instructions they would be wholly unintelligible . Now precisely this analogy exists in Modern Freemasonry . Here the candidate having gone through the lustration ,