The Erlangen Reform Lodge.

amination paper" ( Fragenverzeichniss ) , which contains the folloAving questions to be put to applicants for reception : — 1 . Can you account for the existence of the universe in harmony , without considering as its

originator a primitive factor endowed Avith the most absolute Avisdom and power ? 2 . What do you consider as the paramount and supreme object of the existence of mankind , as the ultimate vocation of man ?

3 . Do you love inquiring into the nature of your own self , and into its relations to man , to nature , and to God ? 4 . Does man possess a reliable guide to lead him through all emergencies of life , through joy

and suffering , through happiness and misfortune , thai he may be certain to find the right way to his destination , so long as he can only master his passions ? 5 . Do you love truth and justice to such an extent that you are prepared to enter upon manly strife for their maintenance ?

6 . Would you , in either thought or action , grant any preference to man over man—say to the Christian over the Jew , to the Jew over the Mussulman , to the latter over the Fetishisht ; or would you judge and honour man solely on the standard

ofhis moral character , irrespective of his reli gious persuasion ? 7 . What are your ideas with reference to the future of your soul ? 8 . Do you like assisting your neighbour , by

advice and by actions , in so far as your means admit thereof ? 9 . Do you hold with rational arrangements under all circumstances ?

Antiquity Of Masonry.

ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY .

Freemasonry is in its principles undoubtedly coeval with the creation , but in its organisation as a peculiar institution , such as it now exists , we dare not trace it further back than to the building of King Solomon ' s temple . It was , however , in its origin closely connected with the ancient

mysteries , and the curious inquirer will find some gratification in tracing this connection . When man was first created , he had , of course , a perfect knowledge of the true name and nature of the Being who created him . But when , by his own follyhe fell "from his hih estate" he lost

, g , , with his purity , that knowledge of God which , in his primeval condition , formed the noblest endowment ofhis mind . And at length , the whole human race haAring increased in Avickedness until every thought

and act Avas evil , God determined , by a flood , to purge the earth of this excess of sin . To Noah , however , he was merciful , and to this patriarch and his posterity Avas to be entrusted the knowledge of the true God . But on the plains of Shinar man again rebelled , and as a punishment

of his rebellion , at the lofty toAver of Babel , language was confounded , and Masonry lost ; for Masonry then , as now , consisted in a knowledge of these great truths , that there is one God , and that the soul is immortal . The patriarchs , however , were saved from the general moral desolation ,

and still preserved true Masonry , or the knowledge of these dogmas , in the patriarchal line . The Gentile nations , on the contrary , fell rapidly from one error into another , and , losing sight of the one great I AM , substituted in his place the names of heroes and distinguished men , whom , by

a ready apotheosis , they converted into the thousand deities who occupied the calendar of their religious worship . The philosophers and sages , however , still retained , or discovered by the dim light of nature , some traces of these great doctrines of Masonry , the unity of God aud the immortality of the soul . But these doctrines they dared not teach in public ;

for history records what would have been the fate of such temerity , when it informs us that Socrates paid the forfeit of his life for his boldness in proclaiming these truths to the Athenian youth . They therefore tau ght in secret what they were afraid to inculcate in public , and established for

this purpose the ancient -mysteries , those truly Masonic institutions , Avhich , by a series of solemn ancl imposing ceremonies , prepared the mind of the initiated for the reception of those unpopular dogmas , while , by the caution exercised in the selection of candidatesand the obligations of

, secrecy imposed upon them , the teachers were secured from all danger of popular bigotry and fanaticism . The members Avent through a secret ceremony of initiation , by which they became entitled to a full participation in the esoteric knowledge of the Order , ancl were in possession of

certain modes of recognition known only to themselves . In all of them there Avas , in addition to the instructions in relation to the existence of a Supreme Deity , a legend in Avhich , by the dramatic representation of the violent death and sub - sequent restoration to life of some distinguished personage , the doctrines of the resurrection and the soul ' s immortality were emblematically illustrated .

Among these religious institutions ivas that of the Dionysian Mysteries , which were celebrated throughout Greece ancl Asia Minor , and in which by the peculiar legend was the murder of Bacchus , the Titans , and his subsequent restoration to life . The priests of Dionysius , having devoted themselves

a chitectural pursuits , established , about one to th n and years before the Christian era , a society of builders in Asia Minor , Avho are styled by the