Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
likely to be discredited by posterity , unless they were substantiated by the most unexceptionable evidence . The Greek and Armenian Christians appear to give a better account , although they ascribe the miracle to a different cause ; for we read in Maundrell , that they keep up a peculiar ceremony , on a persuasion that every Easter-eve
a miraculous flame , or shekinah , descends from Heaven into the holy sepulchre of Christ , to kindle all the lamps and tapers ; and that lights from this sacred fire are kept continually burning . And on that eve , the people assemble in vast crowds round the door of the sepulchre , which being at length opened by the Greek patriarch and the Armenian bishop , out came two priests , with blazing torches in their
hands , which they held up at the door of the sepulchre , while the people thronged about with inexpressible ardour , every one striving to obtain a part of the first and purest flame . Those who got the fire , applied it immediately to their beards , faces , and bosoms , pretending that it would not burn like an earthl y flame , but that , like the fire in the burning it liht
bush , and in the shekinah in the wilderness , was g without heat ; but , as Maundrell quaintly adds , "it was plain that few of them could endure the experiment . " Going out of the church , our traveller saw a number of people melting their wax tapers upon pieces of linen which were intended for shrouds ; and these superstitious persons imagine that this embalment will protect their bodies from the flames of hell .
This is evidently a pretended shekinah , originating in the glory which hovered over the ark in the Holy of Holies , placed over our Foundation Stone , appearing in the same place , and used for the same purpose as that stone—to propitiate the favour of God , and to convey personal holiness . The Stone of Foundation is lost ; for that legend is to be
rejected which identifies the Scottish palladium , now in the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey , with that celebrated stone ; but the Jews are still in existence , dispersed amongst the nations of the earth , possessing their own laws and religion , and enjoying toleration for their worship in countries where no other toleration is permitted . Bishop Newton has
given a very noble and comprehensive view of the divine protection of this extraordinary people amidst the ruins of ancient nations , and the annihilation of powerful kingdoms , proving that they are in reality the people of God , and pre-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
likely to be discredited by posterity , unless they were substantiated by the most unexceptionable evidence . The Greek and Armenian Christians appear to give a better account , although they ascribe the miracle to a different cause ; for we read in Maundrell , that they keep up a peculiar ceremony , on a persuasion that every Easter-eve
a miraculous flame , or shekinah , descends from Heaven into the holy sepulchre of Christ , to kindle all the lamps and tapers ; and that lights from this sacred fire are kept continually burning . And on that eve , the people assemble in vast crowds round the door of the sepulchre , which being at length opened by the Greek patriarch and the Armenian bishop , out came two priests , with blazing torches in their
hands , which they held up at the door of the sepulchre , while the people thronged about with inexpressible ardour , every one striving to obtain a part of the first and purest flame . Those who got the fire , applied it immediately to their beards , faces , and bosoms , pretending that it would not burn like an earthl y flame , but that , like the fire in the burning it liht
bush , and in the shekinah in the wilderness , was g without heat ; but , as Maundrell quaintly adds , "it was plain that few of them could endure the experiment . " Going out of the church , our traveller saw a number of people melting their wax tapers upon pieces of linen which were intended for shrouds ; and these superstitious persons imagine that this embalment will protect their bodies from the flames of hell .
This is evidently a pretended shekinah , originating in the glory which hovered over the ark in the Holy of Holies , placed over our Foundation Stone , appearing in the same place , and used for the same purpose as that stone—to propitiate the favour of God , and to convey personal holiness . The Stone of Foundation is lost ; for that legend is to be
rejected which identifies the Scottish palladium , now in the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey , with that celebrated stone ; but the Jews are still in existence , dispersed amongst the nations of the earth , possessing their own laws and religion , and enjoying toleration for their worship in countries where no other toleration is permitted . Bishop Newton has
given a very noble and comprehensive view of the divine protection of this extraordinary people amidst the ruins of ancient nations , and the annihilation of powerful kingdoms , proving that they are in reality the people of God , and pre-