A Mystery Solved.

of every topic ; one , a tradition of Craft literature , is to form the present investigation , as important to systematic Masonry . In the first place , if a very celebrated name is examined , " Hiram , " and its signification is found to be " the

exaltation of life , " tho myth upstarts before the inquirer . When Niebulir commenced the study of Roman history—a history accepted for ages—reflecting that " Rome" signified " strength , " and "Numa" "law , " his beagle-like instinct snuffed a fiction in annals which related tbe foundation of

a city by robbera , with its civilisation by the king , who imposed a code ; and this hint became the germ of that magnificent deduction which substituted truth for error , and reconstructed a history unsuspected before , except by the sagacious Da Vico .

In like manner we may proceed at humble distance , but by closer analogy ; where a theme of resurrection is discussed , and the vehicle of that discussion ( sententica veMeulum ) is a namo whose literal rendering is " the exaltation of life , " ifc is at least pardonable to suppose an

allegory . Further , if the idea of fugitive murderers accompanies the theme , and their names are terminatives of a word Jutnl—thus , Jubel-um , -a , -o , and that word aignifieth " he that fleeth , "—suspicion of allegory almost vanishes into certainty : add to this , if we take theso very

terminations , we search in vam for derivative or congener in any known tongue , unless we hold Jubelura to be a corruption of Jubel-im ( fugitives ) , the plural of Jubela name so perfectly "idem sonans" that , had a ruffian been arraigned by that cognomen , a plea of misnomer

would have been untenable . Taking these words , then , aud translating them as only corrupted from oue phrase , this conclusion appears irresistible : that a iit 3 presenting them

m a position where , though stated to hi the names of actual men , they signify the acts committed by snch persons , or by them typified , that this rite is but the sacramental presentation of an Idea .

The great authority on the analysis of myths has defined them to be each an attempt to translate Thought into Fact ( das Gedachte ins Oesdiehene umzuivandeln ) . This is their side of Prophecy , which is the anticipation in thonght of the future fact . This is the myth of Masonry ,

but ifc is also the hope of immortality , the realisation of things yet to come ; but this itself , the belief in immortality—that faith which is the assurance of things not seen—is but a foreknowledge of something else ; each

graduate in each degree of Masonry is but ascending on the symbolic ladder to that cloudy canopy which shrouds the present God , and is so advancing to the knowledge of the mystery of Man .

Assuming that the legend of the third degree is symbolical , it is necessary to inquire whether the phrase Jnbelim occurred at any period in connection with violent death . The very first murder rf sorded i n Hebrew histoiy is that of Abel . Abel signifies "Breath . " Suppose , for

a moment , that there may be even in this scriptural account something typical , and certainly the cessation of Breath might be regarded as a figure of death . Connected with this murder are the flight of Cain , works of architecture , and the murderous energy which now is

transformed into creative culture and civilisation . With this state of things is connected the name of Tulal-Cain ; this , to a Mason , is already significant of change , and we could translate it that Cain ( the possessor , so the master ) having sinned , is " passed " to a time wherein he shall be

raised ; bnt he must first stoop low , " for he that bnmblefch himself must he exalted . " It is well known that this promise , of divine origin , is repeated in the Arches of Masonry : but he that humbleth himself is " Lamech " in

Hebrew ; and Lamech appears girt with Jabel and Jnbal ( the Jnbelim ) , prophecying thus : " I have slain a man to my wounding , and a young man to my hurt ; if Cain shall be avenged ( expiated ) sevenfold , truly Lamech seventy and seven fold . "

This is king James ' s version ; it is an enigma as it stands . In every other translation it is future : " I shall kill a young man for my wound . " The verse haa always been a fruitful topic of criticism . Bayle , in his great dictionary , haa page after page ; the rabbinical tradition is that Lamech

slew Cain ; the Douay commentators regard it as speaking of one who was an attendant on Cain . If we count the generations , however , from Adam to Lamech , we find them seven ( Gen iv . 18 ); from Lamech to Christ , seventy-seven ; that is , from the first man in whom humanity incurred death , through crime aud humiliation , to that man by whose

A Mystery Solved.

exaltation it first inheiited life . If the fall of man is expiated , and AbM * 9 a type , it is prophecy that after soventy-sevon have passed , all sacrifice shall cease , and the Mediator shall appear . So said Job ; " I know that my Redeemer liveth . " Here , as in the speech of Lamech ,

is the assurance of tbe Redeemer ( literally the Avenger ) . Before proceeding , it is necessary to premise that it is not proposed to say that Abel is in any way represented or typified in our Masonry . The object of this return to the morning of humanity is to unravel some of the

twisted clues of Hiramite Masonry , This is all we wish to hint ; if , in the patent history of human kind , we find death ; if , in the story of this death , there be a type ; if in the flight of the murderer's words are heard ( Jnbelim , Tnbal-Cain , Lamech ) , whicb , long ages after , aro repeated ;

if , in the repetition of these words , as in their first utterance there is a refrain of hope , and therewith a prophecy , then there is some elder mystery of death . Theso words como from that primeval time when language was

confounded and Masonry lost , and are not merelyfossil evidences of past time , but are rather like those birds of Psepho , which transmitted through the wasto of agea the oracles of Deity .

Masonry has passed through the portal columns of the tample , wandering from the high and lofty tower , from its Titanic defeat , and has found a resting-place ; but that resting-place is the symbol of Deity , and is Oman ' s tho

Jebuzite . " Oman " is " he that lajoiceth , * ' and Jebuzite , " " one treading under foot . " In the travail of Masonry is the echo of the triumphal song of him coming from Bozrab , " rejoicing as having trodden the wine-press . "

Reaching long anterior to the foundation of the temple , is the prophecy of violence , resulting from the origin of evil : but that violence was to create a means of expiation . The voice of Lamech proclaims the propitiator . When

hnmanity attsmpted in vain to scale tho heavens , its baffled phalanxes wandered on earth , aud with them wandered Masonry to the triangle of Oman the Jebrzite . Let us now , by reverse deduction , follow the historic path backward to that very site .

On that hallowed spot there was a prophecy that the temple should pass away ; and , according to the high pretension of the prophet , God had come down from heaven to he made man . Man , in his upward struggle , had fallen at Babel ; thence wandered to Jerusalem ; but the

incarnate , descended , now stands there likewise . Then follows the triple wound , of voice , when the traitor Judas inflicted the first blow ; of the heart , or affections , by the denial of an apostle ; and . kstly , by the spear which pierced his side ;

then buried iu a little hill near Mount Moriah , the prophecy was fulfilled , and the Master was re-established as that , Word whioh was from ever and for over—rising , however not at the first or second call , but on the third return of

light . It is unsafe to push too far examination , or to risk disclosure of , and here it is place to enter another caveat . Whataver , as men , we believe , we do not make

Masonry Christian : still more earnestly do we insist that , whatever wo believe , in viewing Maioury audits hypotheses , we wonld lay no profane hand on the Christian altar ; and , speaking of any creed , view it only in a humanitarian point , as one expression of adoration .

We have endeavoured to hint these two results : that in Hebrew Scripture there is found a prophecy of the third degree ; that in Christian evangile is the record of the same greafc trnfch , almost as if the third degree were symbolical of that story of passion . To explain very many things in Jewish observance , it

is necessary to suppose an introduction from foreign rites of peculiar ceremonies ; but these have certain meanings in their foreign domicil , and otherwise applied , yefc typfiy the same result . Thus , although tho sacrifice was offered at morning or eventide , the celebrant might be

ignorant of its real meaning ; for with all the exclusive character of the Hebrew hierarchy , the father of the faithful was instructed by Melchisedec , so Joseph was learned in Egyptian wisdom , and Moses , a pupil of the Pharaohs ; and even the the temple , to construct which David was

forbidden , rose with the aid of a Gentile King . It is very evident thafc there is some general substratum on which all faiths have builded ; some universal quarry , from

which all temples have been hewn ; and in the very petrifactions of the material with which the immaterial has sought expression , there cau be seen prophecy , as in the realms of Nature , of the " Coming man . "