Whence Freemasonry Came.

but they had no means or dates by which to designate the time . It was before any calendar had been establishedand therefore no date could be assigned as the one when the rise would occur . However , they noticed that this

overflow was preceded every year for a few days by a brilliant star showing itself in the east between dawn and sunrise . They named it " the dog star , " since it was to them as a faithful watch-dog , warning them of approaching

danger . Now we have the " blazing star , whose teachings so closely correspond with this that wo are almost forced to the conclusion that we obtained this symbol on the banks of the Nile . Time will not admit of further references , although they are abundant .

But admitting all that is claimed in regard to this ancient organization , you ask , How does this theory harmonize with Masonic references to Tyre and its workmen ? Let us see . Some two thousand years before the

beginning of our era Egypt was overrun and largely subdued by a foreign people . The native rulers were dethroned , and the invaders installed their own rulers in their stead . These people are known as the Shepherds , and tho era of

their supremacy as that of the " Shepherd Kings . It was during their time that Joseph was sold into Egypt , and one of their kings was the Pharaoh to whom Joseph became Prime Minister ; and one of their High Priests whose

daughter he married . And it is not at all strange that this king , being himself of foreign blood and not of Egyptian ancestry , should look kindly on this wise youth from

Palestine . These people ruled Egypt wisely . They had their own wise men initiated into the sacred mysteries , appointed to the priesthood , and taught in the learning and " wisdom of the Egyptians . "

Afc length , after some centuries , the native Egyptians succeeded in throwing off the dominion of the invaders , driving them from the land and reinstating their own native rulers . It was one of these who , the Bible tells us ,

" knew not Joseph , and who enslaved the Israelites . The Shepherds had treated kindly the kindred of Joseph , who had saved them from famine , and who , like them , were strangers in the land ; the native Pharaohs enslaved them .

Now , our best Egyptologists , including Marietto , have decided that these Shepherds were from Phcenicia . But Phoenicia , as you aware , was "the land of Tyre and Sidon . " So that these Phoenicians , driven from Egypt , returned to their native land with their scholars learned

in Egyptian wisdom , engineering , architecture , & c , and had nothing to do but to organize their priesthood , as in Egypt . And we have enough in our Masonic traditions and in Bible history to convince us this was done . Before

their journey to Egypt they had been wandering tribes ; now they were an organized nation , with an educated priesthood , and history tells us they soon after rose to the front rank as merchants , manufacturers , and builders .

Thus it would seem there is no difficulty in harmonizing these two sets of traditions , the latest Egyptian discoveries furnishing this easy solution .

Let us now return to Egypt . Israel is in bondage ; centuries pass ; oppressions grow more terrible . At length an order is issued that all male children born to the

Israelites be slain . A beautiful boy is born , and his mother , as I have no doubt tens of thousands of other Hebrew mothers did , tries to save the life of her boy by hiding him from the cruel murderer of little children . But he is

discovered by the King s daughter , and , wonderful freak of fortune , if you choose to call it such , is adopted into the royal family . He is called Moses , and is known as the son of Pharaoh ' s daughter . One author tells us he became a

priest of Heliopolis . These were at the head of the scholars of Egypt , and their reputation for wisdom and learning was world-wide . To them came Solon , Thales , Plato , for instructiou . Josephus tells us thafc Moses became a general in the Egyptian army ; that at one time , as a large Ethiopian army was invading the land , and driving all before it , Moses was assigned to the chief command of the Egyptians , defeated the invaders , drove them from the land , and saved the nation . Certain it is , at least , that all the knowledge

thafc could be imparted to one of fche royal family was imparted to him . All gateways of knowledge were open to him .. He was exercised in handling and governing large bodies ( f men . He was being unwittinelv Drenared for

the greaiwork in reservation for him . " He was learned in all the yisdom of the Egyptians , " says the Bible . But we have alieady seen that this wisdom was in the keeping of fche powelful priesthood . " Moses , therefore , must have b ° « a oae of than ) , as fche historian states . This wisdom

Whence Freemasonry Came.

was taught orally , just as our Masonic teachings are today , for of books , as we know them , they were ignorant . Moses , then , was familiar with Egyptian wisdom , a member of the learned priesthood , acquainted with their organization and their methods of teaching .

Now , having known no other means of retaining or imparting wisdom than that of a selected priesthood , would it not have been natural for him , when leading his people , to have selected a body of men , organized them into a similar

priesthood , and have imparted to their keeping the wisdom he had learned in Egypt , especially the principles of mathematics , engineering , and architecture , so that when they arrived in Palestine , the home of their father Abraham , to

which they were returning , they would be able to again build up their waste places and fortify their strong places ? Well , the Bible tells us that is exactly what he did do . He selected the tribe of Levi—his own tribe—and set them aside as a consecrated priesthood . Can it be doubted thafc

this priesthood were taught by Moses the things he had learned in Egypt ? Would he be willing that , so far as his people were concerned , this valuable knowledge should die with him ? For what had he learned this wisdom , except

that through him it should go to them ? For centuries they had been kept in ignorance and slavery . When they arrived at home , how could they , an ignorant mass of exslaves , do the work assigned them ?

If , as wo believe , Moses had been specially set apart and prepared as the leader of his people , and had been taught all this wisdom , which was so essential to them , as the Scriptures are careful to tell us he had , he could not have kept it locked up in his own breast and been guiltless . The

very announcement that he had it means that he had it for them . They had it not for themselves ; he , their guide , had it for them . He alone ' mid all that vast surging multitude was wise , and his duty to them and his duty to

his God required that some means should be adopted whereby they should have the benefit of that wisdom when he was gone . You who believe he was saved from death in infancy by miraculous power , and brought up in the

very sanctum sanctorum of Egyptian knowledge , do you believe that all that wisdom died with him " on Nebo ' s lonely mountain , " before the feet of his people had even touched the brink of Jordan , which yet rolled between

them and their home r Brethren , it could not have been so . During the forty years in the wilderness , these principles so necessary to the welfare , defence and protection as a people , must have been imparted by some one , that it

might be preserved till the occasion for its use arrived . And the persons to whom it was imparted must have been this priesthood , the Levites , his brethren . And I will go farther , and assert that when David was making the

preliminary arrangements for building God ' s great temple , to be carried out by Solomon , ho selected these same Levites to take charge of the work , and that too because they understood the principles of the work .

Do you think this is imagination ? Listen . Says David , in talking to Solomon about building the temple : " There are workmen with thee in abundance , hewers and workers of stone and timber , and all manner of cunning men

for every manner of work . "—1 Chron . xxii . 15 . And immediately afterwards occur these words : " And David gathered together all the princes of Israel , with the priests and the Levites . And the Levites were numbered from

the age of thirty years and upward , and their number by their polls , man by man , was thirty and eight thousand , of which twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord . " ( To be continued ) .

Ar00402

Brother George Holman has been elected Worshipful Master of the South Saxon Lodge , No . 311 , Lewes . The installation ceremony takes place this month .

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a day upon the chest and neck . Holloway ' s treatment is strongly recommended with the view of giving immediate ease , preventing prospective danger , and effecting permanent relief . These all-important ends his Ointment and Pills e in accomplish , and will surely prevent insidious diseases from fastening on the constitution , to display themselves afterwards in those disastrous forma that Trill probably embitter life till death itself ii almost prayed for .