Table Of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Aids to Study 4 ° i Surrey Masonic Hall 40 $ Freemasonry in the North of Ireland 40 S Freemasonry in New Zealand 40 S Presentation to Bro . Dr . J . D . Moore 400 Consecration of the Marlborough Lodge , No . 1399 ... 408 Capitular Freemasonry in Great Britain and Ireland 3 Barrow-in-Furness Masonic Club 311

Masonic ridings 4 " Grand Lodge of New York 41 - CRAFT MASONRY : — Metropolitan 4 ' - ! Provincial 4 ' 5 Ireland 4 ' 5 ROYAL ARCH : — Provincial 11 f '

MARK MASONRY : — Provincial 4 ' 6 OBITUARY : — Bro Alfred Pickup 41 ? Bro . Jesse Taylor 4 ' 7 Masonic Meetings for next week 41 S Advertisements 40 ; ,, 406 , 419 , 420

Aids To Study.

AIDS TO STUDY .

BY BRO . WM . CARPENTER P . M . & P . Z . ; i ; VIII .

It has often been said that Masonry is not religion . This , however , is only partially true . Masonry assumes that thc true and only God has revealed His will as to human conduct , and

to lay an adequate foundation for this , has revealed so much of His own being and character , and of His relation to us , as our Creator , Governor , and Redeemer , as to enable us to form

a true conception of our obligation to worship Him ; i . e . to love and serve Him , and to regard Him as the only object of our adoration , thanksgiving , and devotion . All this is comprised in

the sacred writings , which , by way of eminence , are collectively called Tin : BIHI . E , or THE BOOK . Masonry recognises this , and expressly declares , at every candidate ' s initiation , that " The sacred

writings are to rule and govern our faith ; " and , in addition , all its meetings are opened and closed by prayer , and all its ceremonies are interspersed

with prayer , recognising these religions truths and drawing their force , obligation , and appro priateness from them .

To thc orthodox Mason—by which I mean a member of the . Craft who really enters into , and appreciates its mysteries , usages , and ritual —it must be a matter of gratification to find that

the studies and researches of recent times , especially in arch . Tology , ethnology , and philology , tire continually multip lying the evidences and proofs of the verity of the history and events we Jind

recorded in the Bible , and that what—some three-quarters of a century since- — -were urged as arguments subversive of the historical veracity ofthe Biblical history , by such writers as Volney

and Palmer , arc now levealing facts which furnish undoubted proofs ol its authenticity and historical accuracy . AVhile the scholars of

Germany were building in the dimness of their closets , a . theory to persuade themselves and others of the fictitious character of the Old

"Testament history , the well applied zeal and industry of travellers , historians , and li ; i"'uists , opened up the chambers of Nineveh and Babylon , uncovered the rocks of Sinai , discovered the key

for unlocking the hieroglyphic see ruts of old Egypt , laid bare the foundations of the Temple at Jerusalem , brought into the light of day the veritable records of . Moabitish kings , and extorted , by patience of research , and mar-

Aids To Study.

vellous inductive skill , a thousand other corroborations of Hebrew history and prophecy . It cannot be gainsaid that the veracity of Scripture history is confirmed by almost every additional

discovery of modern science and research , and that records of the past are almost daily exhumed , that attest the historical character of events and personages which transcendental criticism had boldl y

impugned , as simply mythical . In a former paper , 1 glanced at the very scanty and altogether imperfect knowledge we have of Egypt ' s ancient history , in consequence of thc

paucity of its existing records , and the difficulties which long existed in deciphering such as are found in the hieroglyphics of her still preserved monuments of stone and papyri , Many of these

inscriptions have now been deciphered , and if they do not afford tlie means of constructing an Egyptian history , thev afford the most

decided , as well as most unlocked for confirmation of biblical history and incidents , and thus justify the claims of the sacred volume to the character of authentic history .

Some writers have seriously given to Egypt a history of tens of thousands of years , and tried to show that some of the ancient monuments

were erected long betore . the period fixed for the Deluge ; but nothing has yet been discovered amongst its vast mass of ; ancient inscriptions which points to so remote a chronology , while

there are many presumptive evidences that these monuments are all subsequent to the time of Noah . Herodotus , indeed , speaks of , 41 kings ,

whose united reigns reached over 11 , 340 years , and in connection with this , he states that during his time the sun rose twice in the West and

twice set in the East , and that these strange phenomena produced no particular elYect on the inhabitants , the country , or the Nile I ( B . ii . c . 42 . ) These statements are , probably , two

fables which Herodotus picked up amongst the gossiping priests , and which he felt bound to give , because they were extraordinary , Often ,

when relating the strange tales of the , sacerdotal order , he gives plain indications of his own -want of faith , though , in his relation of the account of these . - . 541 kings , he expresses no doubt of its

accuracy . But the alleged antiquity of Egypt has been satisfactorily accounted for b y men who have carefully investigated the subject . At one period

of Egyptian history , as suggested in a lormer paper , a considerable number of princes ruled at the same time , in different parts of the country . Each of these princes has been given a distinct

period , and the whole years of each prince have been added together , and the sum to . l . 'il has shewn a chronology of tens of thousands of years , liesides this , Mr . Bryant has shewn that still

lalser reckonings have helped to make tip this antiquity . All the Egyptian , kings had a numerous list of names and titles . Each of these names and titles has been made into a separate

person , and each person into a separate and independent sovereign , to which an appropriate number of years has been attached ; thus the rule of a single dynast ) ' has been multiplied

many times over , and the chronology of Kgvpl has become utterly confiiv'd and mi . " - idaln . Tlie first rulers of Egypt being , according to their traditions , •' 'oils , and the accounts of their

Aids To Study.

reigns purely mythological , periods of twenty or thirty thousand 3 ears are matters of small consideration . During biblical times , beginning with Abram , the history , and the chronology too ,

have become more reliable ; and had the Scripture accounts given the specific names of the kings who reigned , instead of the general , name of Pharaoh , which simply means " monarch , " the

history and chronology of Egypt would have been considerably improved . But , taking the authority of Bunsen , it may be stated generally , that for about 1000 yearsB . c , there begins a series

of contemporaneous events , of which evidence is found in the Bible and the Egyptian authorities 'E gypteus Stelle . ) All the statements of the Bible , in relation to Egypt , so far , are admitted ,

even by Bunsen , to be historically accurate , because they agree with the teachings of the monuments . Surely , then , it is presumable , that all the Scripture statements , as far down

as Abraham , are equally reliable . Other , and equally careful students of history , indeed , have found points of contact between the Bible ,

accounts and Egyptian monuments at a much , more ancient date than that at which Bunsen

finds them . The key which has opened the literary treasures of the ancient Egyptians to thc scientific world , is the famous Rosetta Stone , now to be seen in the British Museum . It is the

fragment of an oblong slab of black basalt , from the " far Syene , '' and was found at Rosetta , in Lower Egypt , in 1 799 , ft bears a trilingual inscription ; the upper one in hieroglyphics , thc

lower one in Greek , while the centre one is in a character commonly known as the enchorial , or demotic ; i . e ., the writing of the people , as distinct from that of the priests . The Greek

text showed that the tablet contained a recognition of the highest honours of the Pharaohs in the person of Ptolemy Epiphans , who reigned in Egypt at the close of the second century , n . c .

As engraved copies of the stone became common in Europe , its decipherment appeared to scholars a problem capable of being solved .

Sceyne and Porson , by restoring and interpreting the Greek inscription , greatly facilitated this most difficult task . To an Englishman belongs the honour of having taken the first

step towards reading the hieroglyphic portion of the tablet . Dr . Thomas Young , a learned physician , offered "A Conjectural Translation of the Egyptian Inscription of the Rosetta stone ;"

and the system which he originated has been more or less continued by the genius of such men as Cliampollion , i ) e Rouge , and Marriette , amongst the French ; liimsen , J . epsius , and

Ih'tigsch , amongst , the Germans ; and of our own coiintry / neii , the not less distinguished names of ihreh , Osbiirn , Poole , Guodvvyn , Sharpe , and others , who have all contributed

their quota to the greatest philological triumph of the present century . Champollion ' s Egyptian grammar and vocabulary , enlarged by the labours of subsequent Egvptologians , have , as

'h'lig . seh observes , made ihe rules of hieroglyphic grammar the common properly of science ; and De Kuuge . one of ( he most successful

decipherer :-, aiiii ' e . , Jlei ' . ¦ ..- 1 all in .. ' . Il . llflalt- ( hi ' ...-quarters of the longest document :-., s . / iiisiiiiius more , and sometimes less , according to the