Masonry Religious And Patriotic.

MASONRY RELIGIOUS AND PATRIOTIC .

An Oration by Bro . J . A . McDougall , before the Grand Lodge of Illinois , at its Second Annual Communication , in Jacksonville , 5 th October lS / fl , Bro . Stephen A . Douglas , Grand Orator , being

unable to be present . THE occasion which has brought us together is one of deep and imposing interest . We are here , the representatives of an Institution about the temples of which have whistled the winds of more than thirty

centuries ; assembled , as was the want of the brotherhood of old , to repolish the jewels of our faith , and brighten the links of that mystic chain that unites in the sympathy of friendship , in the practice of charity , and in the cultivation of virtue , the scattered members of our Order throughout the world .

Who is there that can look along the line of receding ages , back to the time when tho world ' s history fades into the dim obscurity of the long forgotten past , and behold emerging from that obscurity , with the first rays of the dawning light , the broad foundations of our Institution

and watch its gradual extension , until within its walls are found citizens of every nation—votaries from every shrine , all speaking one common language , the language of truth , of virtue , and of friendship ; and then remember that this time consecrated edifice has had no dependence upon

physical existences—no association with political powerno connection with particular creeds , but was erected of the material of moral principle , but the labours of

immaterial thought ? Who ia there , I say , that with the mind ' s eye can take in this vast conception , and his pulse not throb and his soul swell within him as he contemplates the sublime reality ?

Time , the destroyer , in his eternal and continued work of devastation , has swept over cities , and the sands of what once were gardens , but now are deserts , cover them ; the prone column , the broken obelisk , the mouldering pile furnish the only memento of their forgotten founders ;

empires after empires have grown into power and dwindled into nothingness ; generations after generations have lived , and flourished and ceased to be . Physical men aud his physical work are alike ephemeral ; but the vnrks of the eternal mind partake of its own indestructible essence .

Thus , while the chisel of Praxiteles left uo trace , up . ' l the things that be , of the perfection of hi * art ; the strains of the old blind man of Scia are to ir . any a » familiar now as when he himself struck bis harp in the presence of his

favourite heroes . Thur , while the beautiful fabric which the poet of Israel erected to his God has been dust for ages , the music of his song still lingers upon the lips of thousands .

' But all the productions of thought , all the creations of intellect , have not the like claim to immortality . Of the achievements of the human mind , as of tho workmanship of . the human hand , man naturally seeks to preserve that which is most perfect , most beautiful and most pure .

Thus the subtle and mischievous speculations of the ancient sophists were forgotten , with the schools in which they were taught ; while the beautiful and profound philosophy of Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , yet lives on the page of learning and in the admiration of its votaries .

Thus the religions which stained their altar stones with the blood of human victims , are remembered only with horror ; while that faith which asks , as the only fitting eacrificc to the Omnipotent , the aspirations of a pure and unpolluted heart , is becoming the religion of the world . And thus ,

and for all these reasons , while empires have been creating and crumbling ; false religions been promulgated and forgotten ; while time has crumbled all that was physical into dust , and consigned most that was intellectual into oblivion , this Institution has continued a connected and

prosperous existance . The stormy serge of time , dashing against its whitened walls , but only rendering them more purely white . The revolutions of the earth shaking all

other Institutions to their fall , but only settling the foundation of this more firmly . It has stood for three thousand years , and stands now—fitting and glorious emblem of the immortality of truth and virtue .

To those ignorant of the character . of our Order this may seem but the veriest rhapsody—but unmeaning sound , signifying nothing . To the Mason , however , they are old familiar truths ; he need not be told of the antiquity of

Masonry Religious And Patriotic.

Masonry—he already knows it . He need not he told of the purity of its principles—he h < , s already felt it . Bnt aside from the lessons taught in onr temples , the inquisitive and curious may learn the truth of all my observations from recorded and veritable history .

It was one of the peculiarities of ancient learning that it was taught in secret , and taught by symbol . The instructions thus inculcated were never reduced to writing , bnt registered only upon the tablets of the memory of the initiated ; such was the case in the schools of the

Gymnosophists , and in tho colleges of the Egyptian priesthood . In these institutions were taught not only the mysteries of religion and the maxims of philosophy , but also tho rules of art . From them all the learning of the east derived its source ; in them existed the germ of the world ' s enlightenment .

The wise and magnificent Solomon had in his youth gathered the learning of the oriental world . In the language of inspiration , " His wisdom excelled tbe wisdom of the east country , and all the wisdom of Egypt . " He is supposed to have been not only master of the Egyptian

mysteries , but familiar with the learning of the Persian and Chaldean Magii ; and when he conceived the design of erecting the temple at Jerusalem , the learning thus acquired he applied to the regulation , organisation and instruction

of those whom he engaged in the erection of that vast editicc ; and it was thus that of th ^ builders of the Temple of Solomon was established the first Lodge , properly , of Masons .

From the East the learning of the Craft was transplanted into Europe by Pythagoras . As was then the custom among the lovers of learning , that philosopher spent a great portion of his life in travel ; studied in the colleges of Egypt ; visited the Gynmosophists of India , and acquired

the learning of the Magii . Attracted by reputation for learning and wisdom which had at that day placed Solomon first among the wise men of the East , he visited Jemsalem , where his own great reputation gave him access to all the institutions of that most remarkable people . Having

acquired all the learning of his age , he returned to his native island , but finding its tyrant his enemy , he established himself in Crotona , in Magna Grecia , where , adopting the Eastern mode of instruction , he taught the rich and varied lessons acquired in his many years of travel .

Numa Pompilius , the second Roman sovereign , was one of his disciples , and from him acquired thoso principles of government , philosophy and religion which distinguished him as one of the wisest monarchs of antiquity . After his accession to the throne , among other Institutions he

established the Collegia Fabrorum , or College of Builders ; introduced into it the organisation and mysteries of the Hebrew Lodges , and endowed its members with many

privileges . So high was the estimate placed upon this Institution by the Roman people that they afterwards extended , recognised and established those privileges by the laws of the twelve tables .

Thus patronised by the government , similar Institutions multiplied and early became dispersed through all the provinces of the Roman State . They , as it were , cultivated the soil which the sword had gained , and where the Roman arms brought desolation and death , they erected the

monuments and taught tbe arts of a refined civilisation . It is said that there was no town , at all important , no province , however distant , where members of these colleges did not exist , until the downfall of the Western and Eastern empires . Numbers of them accompanied each

Roman Legion , and when the Roman power established itself iu Britain , the exteusive works there undertaken drew a large number of the Craft to that then remote Province ; the same was the case in France , Spain , on the Rhine and on the Danube . During the invasion and devastation of

England by the Picts , Scots and Saxons the Order nearl y vanished in that country , but it continued to flourish in France , Spain and the Greek empire , and from these countries the Christian Saxon rulers of England reintroduced it into their territories .

In the seventh century Athelstane granted to his brother Edwin a charter for a Grand Lod , ge at York , which was then established , aud that prince became its Grand Master . This ancient temple , with its charter of twelve centuries ,

still continues in existence , and to it all due allegiance was rendered ; and from it all Masonic jurisdiction originated , until the foundation of the Grand Lodge at London , by its authority and consent , in 1567 .