Third Degree Legend.

THIRD DEGREE LEGEND .

WHENCE is the " Third Degree Legend " derived , and how has it been handed down to us as an illustration of the

doctrine of a future life ? In no documents , sacred or profane , do we find fche slightest foundation for the story . On the contrary , in the Jewish Scriptures , we are distinctly told that H . finished the work of the Temple ; and after that we hear no more about him .

To understand both the legend and its application , we must go back to the ancient Egyptian mysteries , and study fche story of Osiris , as related to the Initiates of days long , long before Solomon reigned , long even before the Hebrews left their Egyptian bondage .

The legend of Osiris is so familiar that it scarcely needs repeating . To point my remarks , however , it will be necessary just briefly to recapitulate its chief features . Osiris , a King of Egypt , in pre-historic times , half-man , half-god , after having reigned for several years , during which he dispensed the blessings of light and civilisation to the country under his rule ,

was barbarously murdered by his brother Set or Typhon , with the assistance of his sister Nephthys , put into a wooden coffer or ark , and thrown into the Nile . His wife ( and sister ) Isis made great lamentations for him , and set off to search for his body , which she ultimately found in a tamarisk-tree in Byblos , in Phoenicia , and brought back to Egypt . Set recaptured the body , cut it into numerous pieces , and scattered the fragments over

the land ; but the inconsolable Isis travelled about until she had gathered all the pieces together into one place , when she replaced each limb in its proper position , and with the aid of the now repentant Nephthys , breathed into them the breath of life , and raised Osiris to life again , nofc on earth , but in the better world , where he became ruler of Hades and judge of the souls of men . His son Horus revenged the death of Osiris by slaying Set , and assumed the throne of his father .

This legend is represented in engravings on the walls of nearly every temple in Egypt , especially up the Nile , and the raising of Osiris is graphically depicted in this wise : Isis is shown in the act of piecing together the several parts of Osiris , while Nephthys , standing at his head , fans him with the breath of life .

Another version , of great interest to us , is stated to have been found painted on a sarcophagus . A lion sitting on its hind legs , grasps with its left fore-paw the left hand of Osiris , while in its right it holds the sacred'symbol of life ; and near the head of the recumbent figure stands Isis , in the attitude of the H . S . of . a Fellow Craft .

Now , the meaning of this legend is two-fold . First ifc represents the sun ( Osiris ) after having dispensed the blessings of light and warmth , sinking in the West , overcome by the darkness of night ( Set ) , aided by the dusky twilight ( Nephthys ); pursued by the moon ( Isis ) , and finally rising once more in the East ; now assisted by the twilight dawn ( the repentant

Nephthys ) ; bufc represented not as himself , but as bis son , fche new-born rising Sun ( Horus ) . Secondly , fche story represents the sun passing through the summer solstice , overcome by the power of winter , and returning again in the constellation of Leo in the following summer . In the present time the sun enters the

summer solstice , not m Leo but in Cancer . This is due to the precession of the equinox , for in ancient days fche sun appeared in Leo in the early summer , and this is one evidence of the antiquity of the legend from which we have derived our modern tale with which we illustrate the degree .

The story of Osiris has been so ingeniously constructed thafc it is also made bo apply to the rise and fall of the Nile ; the scattering of the fragments of his body over the country by Set , typifying the diversion of the river in flood into the numerous canals , by means of which the fertility of Egypt was , and still is , maintained .

I would here remark that the ark in which the body of Osiris was placed became a very sacred object in his worship ; and on the wall of one of the temples afc Thebes there is a representation of his ark , surmounted by a five-branched sprig of acacia , and the following words inscribed in hieroglyphics : " Osiris sprouts forth . "

The most superficial eonsideratian of this legend will be sufficient fco indicate the origin and meaning of the tradition of the Third Degree . The sprig of acacia is familiar to us all , the ark of Osiris is represented on the Tracing Board by the , the peculiar known as the Lion ' s paw is explained by the astronomical features of the Osirian legend , and the origin of the deduction of a future life becomes for the first time apparent .

With regard to the sacredness of the acacia tree , I would digress for a moment to remind you that the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant was constructed of acacia wood , and , according to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews ( chapter ix , v . 4 ) , contained nofc merely the tablets of the Law , but " Aaron ' s rod that budded "—surely an analogue of the evergreen sprig of acacia , and possessing a similar symbolic significance .

Third Degree Legend.

One other extraordinary statement in our ritual which can be explained by reference to fche legend of Osiris , is that the body of H . A . was " re-interred as near the sanctorum as Israelifcish law would permit . " The Israelitish law would have permitted it nowhere within the Temple precincts ; bufc in the Egyptian

Temples specially dedicated to Osiris , or rather to one of the Triads of which he was the first person , there was a small secret chamber on the roof , nearly over tbe S . S . or Adytum , into which only the highest initiates were permitted to enter . No light of day save that admitted through the opening of the door was

permitted fco enter this tiny cell , tho walls of which were covered with engravings of the dead and resurrection of the Sun-God , and numerous curious symbols referring to the legend and its esoteric interpretation . The roof of the secret chamber in the famous Temple of Philae , above the first cataract of fche Nile , fell

in while I was quartered afc the neighbouring Military Station of Assouan , and the light of day streamed into it for probably the first time for abont two thousand years . The symbols and pictures thus clearly disclosed to view were of fche greatest interest

to the Speculative Mason , as well as to the Egyptologist . These cells were supposed to mark the temporary burial place of one of the severed limbs of Osiris before they were collected again by Isis ; and hence probably arose the tradition as to the burial place of H . A .

The Egyptian mysteries and their counterparts , as practiced amongst cognate nations , had a great influence in moulding and developing timely religious thought . Philosophers and savants from all parts of the world , notably from intellectual Greece , flocked to Egypt , and were initiated in great numbers , and on

their return to their native lands instituted similar ceremonies The most famous of these were the Dionysiac and Eleusinian mysteries , which attained so much celebrity in Greece in the days of its intellectual and architectural supremacy . The legend of Persephone , spirited away by Pluto into the other world , sought for by her mother , Demeter , and restored to earth for a

seisontypifying the seed time and corn harvest—by means of which the candidate for the Eleusinian mysteries was taught the mysterious and secret doctrine of fche immortality of fche soul , was merely the more poetical Greek rendering of the teaching of the mysteries of Osiris , and probably accounts for the appearance in our Second Tracing Board of the otherwise inexplicable " ear of corn . "

The Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated with great solemnity once a year at the famous Temple of Ceres at Eleusis , a few miles from Athens . The ruins of this Temple , recently excavated , are amongst the most interesting of the interesting remains of antiquity which render Greece so fascinating a resort

for the educated tourist . The sixth book of Virgil's ZEneid is supposed to be a poetical , and of course greatly enlarged , account of what was revealed to the poet at his initiation into these mysteries . At a visit to the ruins of the great Temple of Ceres , afc Eleusis , I found a large quadrangular chamber , with tiers of

seats on three sides , into which opened a subterranean passage believed to lead to the Acropolis in Athens , and which probably represented the cave described by Virgil . As an attempt to explore this passage was dangerous , the Greek Government had closed its entrance , so that I was unfortunately unable fco

penetrate its dark recesses . It is easy , however , to imagine how suitable it would be for dark ceremonies intended to impress tbe mind of the initiate ., Bufc before the Eleusinian mysteries had reached the zenith of their popularity , the rites of Tamuz in Phoenicia perpetuated the legend of the murdered Sun-God : and

from teaching the sublime doctrine of a future life , had become an excuse for orgies of the basest sort . The mourning for the murdered Tamuz is mentioned as one of fche abominations enacted in the ruined Temple at Jerusalem during the last days of the Jewish captivity—vide Ezekiel viii , 14 . , In later days

similar but more depraved ceremonies were employed in the Greece-Egyptian mysteries of Serapis , and the Persian mysteries of Mithras , both of which held their ground in Eome long after St . Peter and St . Paul had suffered martyrdom for the Christian faith .

But you may reasonably iuquire how the long period between the decline of these ancient mysteries and the rise of modern Freemasonry is to be bridged . I need not strongly insist on the improbability of the literate and intellectual men who collected , the scattered fragments of Speculative Masonry and

moulded them into their present form having invented the symbols and legends , and then promulgated the incongruous and often nonsensical interpretation of them with which we are all familiar . They must have found both the symbols and their explanations ready to hand , or they would have made a much more intelligent

and -classical job of it . Have we any suggestion to offer in explanation of their importation into Europe ? Leaving out of consideration the once popular theory of the Eoman College of Architecture as being the means of the diffusion of Speculative Masonry—a mere assumption unsupported by even fche garbled and often unintelligible traditions of the Operative Craft—let u- s