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Article SYMBOLIZATION. ← Page 5 of 7 →
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Symbolization.
pleased to accept as His peculiar habitation , and to honour with His visible glory . It was on this principle , when that same Temple lay in ruins , anil the Jews , after the captivity , were busied in restoring their own dwellings rather than the dwellings of the Most High , that tbe prophet Haggai boldly stood forth in the name of the Lord , with that burst of holy indignation , —Is it for you , O ye , to dwell in your ceiled houses , and this house lie waste ? " ( p . 5 . )
Having thus levelled the footstone of his Masonic edifice b y building the Temples of Solomon and Zerubabel , he proceeds with his lecture b y a judicious explanation of symbols ; and the subjoined passage would , have done infinite credit to the W . M . of a Lodge when expatiating on its emblematical situation .
" Cast your eyes around you , Brethren , and say whether all that you see here does not speak to you of heavenly truth . Look towards yonder chancel window , and say why it faces the eastern heaven . Is it not that it may catch the earliest beams of the rising sun ? yes ; as this , like most of our other churches , has its eye towards tbe Sun of the Universe , even so , we are taught , the invisible church of God looks for light only from that Sun of Righteousness whom the Sun of the Universe represents under fi
a gure . We see His star in the Fast , to the East therefore we turn , like the Jews to Jerusalem , and so we watch for His coming when we say our prayers , when we say our creed , when we are laid low in the chambers of death . It is plain , therefore , to the humblest why the altar should be placed at the east and the font at tbe west end of the Lord ' s House ; the sacrament of holy baptism thus meeting us , as it were , at our first entrance into tbe church , ushering us into the passage of the
nave , type of the church militant—that straight and narrow way that leads to life eternal—that narrow way by which we pass under the chancel arch , in type the Gate of Pleaven , and becoming dead to the world , mount by the several steps of Christian perfection to the throne of the highest grace , the very altar and mercy seat of God . It may not be amiss to mention that the ancient Christians attached such importance to these different quarters of the'heaventhat the baptised
, were even placed with their faces towards the west as being opposite to the east ; towards that quarter , that is , of the prince of darkness , whom the baptized were to renounce , and whom they did thus renounce , with hands outstretched as it were in defiance . " ( p . 8 . )
This is excellent ; and its Masonic orthodoxy will not be disputed . Exactl y the same symbolism is found in Masonry . Thus Dr . Oliver , in his " Historical Landmarks , " says : — "We now come to consider the situation of the Lodge . It is built due East and West for various reasons . The tabernacle was directed b y the Almi ghty to be placed
due east and west , with the Ark and Mercy Seat in the latter quarter . And this gave a new impulse to the formality of Jewish worship . From this time their acts of devotion were performed with their faces toioards the west , which was considered b y them as the hallowed quarter where the Deity resided . Some assign as a reason wh y
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Symbolization.
pleased to accept as His peculiar habitation , and to honour with His visible glory . It was on this principle , when that same Temple lay in ruins , anil the Jews , after the captivity , were busied in restoring their own dwellings rather than the dwellings of the Most High , that tbe prophet Haggai boldly stood forth in the name of the Lord , with that burst of holy indignation , —Is it for you , O ye , to dwell in your ceiled houses , and this house lie waste ? " ( p . 5 . )
Having thus levelled the footstone of his Masonic edifice b y building the Temples of Solomon and Zerubabel , he proceeds with his lecture b y a judicious explanation of symbols ; and the subjoined passage would , have done infinite credit to the W . M . of a Lodge when expatiating on its emblematical situation .
" Cast your eyes around you , Brethren , and say whether all that you see here does not speak to you of heavenly truth . Look towards yonder chancel window , and say why it faces the eastern heaven . Is it not that it may catch the earliest beams of the rising sun ? yes ; as this , like most of our other churches , has its eye towards tbe Sun of the Universe , even so , we are taught , the invisible church of God looks for light only from that Sun of Righteousness whom the Sun of the Universe represents under fi
a gure . We see His star in the Fast , to the East therefore we turn , like the Jews to Jerusalem , and so we watch for His coming when we say our prayers , when we say our creed , when we are laid low in the chambers of death . It is plain , therefore , to the humblest why the altar should be placed at the east and the font at tbe west end of the Lord ' s House ; the sacrament of holy baptism thus meeting us , as it were , at our first entrance into tbe church , ushering us into the passage of the
nave , type of the church militant—that straight and narrow way that leads to life eternal—that narrow way by which we pass under the chancel arch , in type the Gate of Pleaven , and becoming dead to the world , mount by the several steps of Christian perfection to the throne of the highest grace , the very altar and mercy seat of God . It may not be amiss to mention that the ancient Christians attached such importance to these different quarters of the'heaventhat the baptised
, were even placed with their faces towards the west as being opposite to the east ; towards that quarter , that is , of the prince of darkness , whom the baptized were to renounce , and whom they did thus renounce , with hands outstretched as it were in defiance . " ( p . 8 . )
This is excellent ; and its Masonic orthodoxy will not be disputed . Exactl y the same symbolism is found in Masonry . Thus Dr . Oliver , in his " Historical Landmarks , " says : — "We now come to consider the situation of the Lodge . It is built due East and West for various reasons . The tabernacle was directed b y the Almi ghty to be placed
due east and west , with the Ark and Mercy Seat in the latter quarter . And this gave a new impulse to the formality of Jewish worship . From this time their acts of devotion were performed with their faces toioards the west , which was considered b y them as the hallowed quarter where the Deity resided . Some assign as a reason wh y