Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

69." The Great Republic, to which Bro. Pike refers, is the Ideal of Masonry; the Genius that hovers like a protecting angel over the Lodge. Make it impossible ^[59] for a Jew or Parsee, Buddhist or Brahmin, to enter any Lodge without witnessing the profanation of his sacred altars or contempt for his religion, and the angel hides her face and retreats from altars already profaned by unbrotherliness. Masonry is the Universal Religion only because, and only so long, as it em-braces all religions. For this reason, and this alone, it is universal and eternal. Neither persecution nor misrepresentation can ever destroy it. It may find no place in a generation of bigots; it may retire for a century; but again comes a Master Builder with the Key to the ' Shut Palace of the King, ' throws open the blinds, lets in the light, kindles anew the fire on the sacred altar, clears away the rubbish, when behold! the tesselated pavement is as bright as when it first came from the quarries of truth, the jewels are of pure gold and brighten at the touch, and the great lights are undimmed and undecayed. 'When the candidate is ready, the Master appears.' And yet men are so foolish and so vile as to imagine that they can destroy their heirloom of the ages; this heritage from the Immortals! No age is so dark as to quench entirely the light of the Lodge; no persecution so bloody as to blot out its votaries; no anathemas of Popes so lasting as to count one second on its Dial of Time! These, one and all, serve only to keep the people in darkness, and retard the reign of Universal Brotherhood. Therefore for humanity — the Great Orphan— the real Master laments. He smiles at the passions of Popes or Kings and pities the folly of man. He only waits, indifferent as to results, knowing these to be ^[60] under eternal law, but ready and willing, whenever and wherever the instruction entering the listening ear may find lodgment in the faithful breast. For ages, Kings, Popes and Synods have done their best to kill this Secret Doctrine by anathematizing or burning its Masters. The Jesuits got possession of its Lodges, transformed out of all recognition many of its degrees, and made of them an abject tool of the Sacerdotal hierarchy."

70." Hiram Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his life when the temple was near completion, and yet it is recorded that after the completion of the temple he labored for years to construct and ornament a palace for the King. Add to these facts the statement that the temple was constructed without the sound of hammer or any tool or iron, and it is thus likened more nearly to that other 'spiritual temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, ' and the literal and historical features disappear, and the symbolism stands out in bold relief. " *

71.''Masonic Lodges are dedicated to the Sts. John; one of whom, the Evangelist, opens his Gnostic Gospel with the Greek philosophy of the Logos, the principle of emanation already referred to; and the other, the Seer of Patmos, writes a book symbolical of ancient initiations, which many a non-initiate has tried in vain to interpret. It may thus be seen that there is a deep significance in the dedication of Lodges to ^[61] the Sts. John. Take, for example, Revelations xvi, 16: 'And the city lieth four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth and the height of it are equal.' (A perfect cube.) 'And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is an angel. ' The language is evidently a veil, designed to conceal the real meaning from the uninitiated. As the measure of man; that is, a perfect man, or ' angel, ' we have the cubic as a symbol of perfect proportion. Hence a square man. The temple of Sol-om-on, the Cubical City — which unfolded becomes a cross, — and hence, the 'measure of a man' — all these refer to the work of regeneration, or initiation. The rebuilding of the temple after the plan drawn upon the Tressel-board, by which it shall be like that spiritual temple, not made with hands, plainly refers to initiation from which result perfect proportion and perfect harmony. " *