The Universality Of Freemasonry !

panied by Jewish societies , lodges , chapters , firemen , city officials , & c . " Our cousins over the Avater certainly perpetrate most extraordinary feats . Whatever connection there may be between Jewish societies , lodges ,

chapters , firemen , and city officials , it seems to us such an objectionable jumble as sometimes takes place in provincial towns in this country , when Odd Pellows , Foresters , Teetotalers , & c , help to swell a procession , in Avhich Freemasons take part .

But Avhen a JeAvish congregation accepts , at the Laying the Foundation Stone of their Synagogue , the assistance of tbe Military and Reli gions Order of Masonic Kni g hts Templar ( the modern representatives of the crusaders of the middle

ages ) , we feel assured that both these Jews and the Kni ghts Templar can have but little conception of the principles and the foundation of the Order , under whose banner the latter range them * selves .

The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

THE MYSTIC BEAUTIES OF FREEMASONRY .

THE ACIBJJT MODE OP WOKSIIIP . When the Almi ghty had finished the glorious work of the creation , man , being in a state of innocency , communed with his Gocl , and received from him those sacred precepts , which , after his

fall , he communicated to his children , AVIIO handed them down to posterity by oral tradition . Enoch exceeded his brethren in piety and virtue , aud was , as an example to mankind , translated , Avhereby he did not see death . Noah found grace

in the eyes of the Lord , for he was a just man , and so perfect in his generation that through him the race of mankind Avere saved from the great deluge ; Avho handed down to post-diluvians the laws of his Creator as he had received them from

his predecessors . Abraham , renowned for his piety and faith , obtained such favour in the sight of God that He vouchsafed to style Him " His Friend / - and promised to make ofhis posterity , a great nation ; and that in his seed ( that is , one of his descendants ) all the kingdoms of the earth should be blessed . This refers to the Messiah ,

who was to be the blessing and deliverance of all nations . In course of years Moses excelled them all , on account of the series of wonders wrought by the Almi ghty , through him , to rescue tbe oppressed Israelites from the cruel tyranny of the

Egyptians , who havin g first received them as guests , by degrees reduced them to a state of slavery . By the most peculiar mercies and exertions in their favour , God prepared his chosen people to

receive with reverent and obedient hearts the solemn restitution of those primitive laws , which probably he had revealed to Adam and his immediate descendants ; or which at least he had made known by the dictates of conscience - but Avhich

time and the degeneracy of mankind had much obscured . This important revelation Avas made to them in the AA'ilderness of Sinai ; there assembled before the burning mountain , " surrounded Avith blackness , and darkness , and tempest , " they

heard the voice of God pronounce the eternal laAV , impressing it on their hearts Avith circumstances of terror ; but without those encouragements and those excellent promises Avhich Avere afterward offered to mankind b y Jesus Christ . Thus were

the great laws of morality restored to the JBAVS , and through them transmitted to other nations ; and by that means a great ' ] restraint was opposed to the torrent of vice and impiet y Avhich began to prevail over the AA'orld . To those moral precepts

above stated , Avhich are of perpetual and universal obligation , ivere superadded , by the ministration of Moses , many peculiar institutions , Avisely adapted to different ends ; either to fix the memory of those past deliverances , which were

figurative of a future aud far greater salvation —• to p lace inviolable barriers between the Jews and the idolatrous nations , by whom they were surrounded , or to the civil law by which the com .-munity Avere to be governed . To conduct this

series of events , and to establish these laAvs Avith this people , God raised up that great prophet , Moses , to AA-hom he delivered the tables of the law , penned by bis OAVU immediate finger ; and directed him to build a tabernacle or moveable temple in

the wilderness , as a receptacle for the tables of the law , the ark of the covenant , and for offering up their sacrifices and oblations to the Great I Am ; which tabernacle he Avas commanded to place due East and West , as a type of that more excellent temple built by King Solomon on Mount Moriah ,