A Mystery Solved.

Ifc may be said , that we have proved only that Masomy is itself a witness of Christianity . The denial alr ^ dy made cin be repeated , and , as indicated , that the Jewish

system had its undercurrent from other sources thru one unmingled fountain , so had Christianity united extraneous waters , swelling the grand stream rolling on io he etornal sea .

Ifc were simply a labour to collect a'l the miracles performed by Apollonius , urged by Porphyry , prior io the Christian era ; the darkness at the death of any g ^ eat man ( Serv . ad Virg . Geor . i ., 465 ); the raising of a widow ' s son ; innumerable prodigies , common to every religion .

Some coincidences are peon liar ly interesting to a Mason . Thus , when the Prophet of Nazareth went up to be transfigured , his disciples saw three—Moses , Elias and Him . None of these saw death , as mortals meet it , When Moses took his last farewell of Israel , an archangel Incamo

the custodian of his body . Elias rode on the flaming chariot , entering heaven in the pomp of the prophet , rendering up his commission to his Great Mastar-in person . Christ was the conqueror of death itself . Three moita . bodies were seen , irradiate with the transcendent illumination of divine , unending life .

The very learned "Venturou , balievmg in a natural exegesis , holds that it was only an appearance of Christ and two Essenes . It was essenic , but not ss thus sa'd . The reason and purpose of the transfiguration cannot be found in the biblical prophecies . When God came do * - * , a

on Sinai to establish tho old law , there was a promise given among the children of Israel , in that unwritten law , which sent some to weep for Adonis—some to the gi-oves for darker orgies ; bnt iu the purer faith of tho Essene , looked for that long-drawn existence which wrs to wake agei-.

" Dixit Beits Mosi ; per vitam tuam , quemadmodum viiarn tuam posuistipro Ismelitis in hoe mundo , ita tempi re futuro , quando Eliavn prophetam dcmittamvos duo tempore vcnie ' ds . " —Debarim Rabb . iii .

There was this universal belief : therefore the question , "Alt thou Elias ? " Even the dying "Mi lama" was thought to be an invccation of Elif * ?; for it spread abroad that Elias had gone up on high ; Moses was sleeping his parduring sleep , but when the M ; ¦ 'tar became man , these

three should stand on earth , the A jh which overbridged death , whose keystone had fcaen ijj : ) t * d of the builders . In a very remarkable mainer Socrates is seen with two friends , while his disciples are prost . „ te in slumber ( Plato ,

Symp ., 223 ) . This transfiguration was essenic—not Christian ; aud essenic , because the ttath was one of those foundation veiities on which Belief has reared its myr ' ad creeds .

It is possible objection may be made thai , although we do not know what Christian or Hebrew prophecy was fulfilled , still , there may be one unknown . This , too , may be said of every thaumaturgic symbol . Objection , however ,

of this sort does not reach the evolution of Christ , as Idea from the mind of Philosophy : at a time , also , when the culmination of prophecy shed no light on the religion which was to be illustratad by him ; an evolution clearer even than the prefiguration of Jewish prophecy .

Philosophy , guided hythe light of Nature , substitutes reality for the " unknown God . " Plato , in his wondrous Glaucon , speaks cf the " Autanthropos , " perfectly lighteous

yet tried by the imputation of all sin ; and as although this Ideal were not sufficient , adds , in language startling in an Athenian , "by bonds , fche scourge , and afc lest the cross itself . "

Any of the platonizing fathers could furnish us with similar analogies . Khigsley , in his Hypatia , has modernized them in an admirable argument between the fair dialectician of Alexandria and a Christianized Jew , who draws his attack from the armoury of Plato , who by bis

symbolism deduced from intellect the idea of God , the Son of God suffering to triumph as the perfecter of humanity . Nor is it only in the mathemata of philosophy , but even in the higher knowledge of Mind , the pathemata of anoient poetry , that there was the excogitation of Messias and

prophecy thereof . Here , too , the symbolism of mythology vailed the truth ; but it was also plainly outspokea at diverse times . Even if the Orphic hymns are forgeries ,

every school-boy knows his Pollio , and to support that marvellous poem , Faber has collected parallels innumerable . To this last-cited author ifc is enough to refer our position for authority . He and a host of coincident writers will prove for us , with regard to reli gion , what we assert of this

A Mystery Solved.

Masonio deg'ee , that there is some universal substructure on whicb all are res red . Here it is that we seek the third degree : that ifc repievents fie intellectual evolution of man and his destiny . Revelation may be given to afford a general certainty to be the

complement of that high reason vouchsafed to few : in some , wearing the splendour of intellect , irradiate with direct reflection from eternal light , and thos prophets ; in others , polarized , so as to become a new flood of effulgence , intallect which , absorbing light , gives out another lay , and

thus teachers . Inspiration and philosophy are but diverse problems , demonstrating the same divine Idea . There is an inherent necessity for the exhibition of truth by symbols ; for the union between the symbol and the substance is

sacramental . If there ha onything real , ifc must also have an ideal existence : certainly Omnipotence , creating , most havo the thonght which becomes matter ; and so matter , vivified , or man , may in its ideal be struggling back to thafc Deity , whioh is oiigia , and shall become end .

The explanation of tho third degree is , that it is historical , as recounting the attempt of humarity too soon to penetrate within the vail of knowledge ; that , therefore , man would wander thron-rh 1 'fe the master of existence .

Yet the tree of knowledge too soon plucked , sin enters into the world , and by sin , death ; the tree of knowledge , however , bears still its fruits for the healing of the nations who form the subject' ? of the grim king , and brings forth fruit on the bank of that perennial stream " flowing from the throne of God , pure as crystal . "

The contest of evil is the history of pasfc ages . Iu the purity of heaven , the mightiest battle was fought wifch wrong . Whether Scripture tells of the mighty demon warring with archangels , whether mythology has its demogorgon and titanic strife ; whether philosophy spaaks of the

necessity of evil to perfect right 3 ousness ; there is in the law of puvity the lecognition of s'n , and in that its provided atonement . In heaven , there might be the triumph of strength ; on earth , thera was and is to be the victory of love . God , who went forth iu the omnipotence of deity to

annihilate rebellion in heaven , became that Word which on earth , in the plenitude of Love , was to reconcile man to himself . Whether fallen man , a . itfcle lower than the angels , is but that host of archangels , ruined , driven from heaven , is suggested in the very symbolism of antiquity .

Lucifer , Phaleg , Prometheus , and every name which represents the fall , prophecies the ascension . The son of the morning maybe cost down from heaven , but it is still the bright and morning star which heralds the eternal day .

Babel may confound the tongue of upstrugghug man , but the temple not made with hands receives the pentecostal descent . The titan may scale the Olympus and fallen river with the thunderbolt , but the Lord of Light will yet sit down as a God on the throne of Zeus , " reconciled

through death . " It has been attempted to show that Masonry , so far as

the third , contains some prophecy of man ' s destiny . No effort is now made to unravel that prophecy . Our limits prohibit controversy , or we should like to combat the idea of many learned Masons , that our rites are Christian in their symbolism . It has been shown , more by indication

than otherwise , that Christianity , in its prophecy and in its history , is a revelation of man ' s destiny ; Masonry , a deduction thereof , made by human intellect . Anterior to Christianity , prior to the Hebrew Temple , there was this mystery communicated by the Gentiles to the chosen people .

The lore of Babel and the secret of the Pyramid were taught to sojourning Israel . Dr . Oliver has an idea that antediluvian Masonry represented Abel in its third degree , and thereby prophecied Christ . The error is , that Abel is but a type , and one interpreted into the Hebrew Scripture

like Job , which latter book alone gives a glimpse of Evil in the audience of Good—Satan in heaven . Masonry is not Hebrew , nor Christian . Intellect and Revelation are the sybilline books , in which man may read his future . One is the commentary to the other . For example , let ns ask

why a Gentile king , a Hebrew king , and a Gentile-Hebrew were the Grand Masters of the mystery concomitant on the religion of the Temple ? Hir ? m of Tyre might be taken as a representative of the outer nationality united to

Judaism by Hiram Abif . But tike Hiram Abif as representing the Masonic ( intellectual mystery ) exaltation of life ; so Solomon tho religious ; is there any place for tho third , the complefcory of religion and reason ? Prophecy will answer , and tell us why this monarch closed the triad . Continued on page 262 .