Table Of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS .

PAGE F REEMASONRY AND ISRAELITISM 419 & 420 M ASONIC AUTHORITY CLAIMED BY THE S . G . C . 33 420 THE H IGH GRADES IN IRELAND 421 PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF S UFFOLK 422 ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS 422

OBITUARYBro . William Donald , D . D . 422 THE CRAFTMetropolitan 423

Provincial 423 ROYAL ARCH 423 MARK MASONRY 423 ROYAL ARK MASONRY 423 ORDERS OF

CHIVALRYRed Cross of Constantine 423 IN ROME 424 MULTUM IN PARVO 425 INFORMATION WANTED 425 ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCESubordination in the Higher Degrees ... ... 425

The American Knights Templar and the Glasgow Girvan Encampment ... 425 & 426 The High Degrees 426 " Our Ancient Brethren" once more ... ... 426 THE GRAND MASONIC GATHERING AT PENZANCE 426 Six HUNDRED THOUSAND MASONS 426 THE GRAND LODGE OF NEW YORK 427

THE FREEMASONS 427 & 42 S ANCIENT RUINS 428 THE PLAIN OF PHILISTIA 42 S & 420 SIEGE OF DAMASCUS 429 POETRY 429 THE "LITTLE" TESTIMONIAL 429 MASONIC MEETINGS FOR NEXT WEEK ... 429 & 430 ADVERTISEMENTS 417 , 418 , 430 , 431 , & 432

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

FREEMASONRY & ISRAELITISM .

Bv BRO . WILLIAM CARPENTER , P . M . & P . Z . 177 .

VII . We now return to the ten tribes of Israel , who had been carried captive by the Assyrians . In the first deportation , under Tiglath Pilezer ( B . C . 739—about 14 years

after the supposed foundation of Rome ) , the tribes who dwelt in Gilead , east of the Jordan , and a portion of those who dwelt in the northern part of Galilee , were carried into Ashur , Halah , Habor , and the country

through which the river Gozan flows . The second and complete deportation was by a ¦ succeeding king of Assyria , generally supposed to have been Shalmanezer , but his name is not given in the biblical account of

the siege of Samaria . He is only said to have been " a king of Assyria . " By him the people who had been left in the land , by Tiglath Pilezer , were carried into the same region to which the other tribes had

been deported . Sir Isaac Newton ( Chron . of Anc . Hist . p . 2 S 3 ) , with other authorities , takes Halah and Habor to be Colchis and Iberia ( Georgia and Circassia ) , on the east of the Black Sea , the inhabitants of

which , as Herodotus states , practised the rite of circumcision . Major Rennel , whose judgment is greatly respected , agrees with Sir Isaac Newton . The country through which the Gozan flows , is reasonably

believed to be a district in Upper Media ( on the borders of the Caspian ) , called Gorzan . Philo describes the Jews as being very numerous in the East , under the

empire of the Persians ; and Josephus ( Ant . xi . 5 ) , speaking of the ten tribes , states that in his time they were in great multitudes beyond the Euphrates .

I may hope to be pardoned for a short digression here , as it will tend to remove a considerable difficulty in the history of the Assyrian empire , and a doubt which has been cast upon the verity of the Scripture

history . In Isaiah xx . 1 , we read : " In the year that Tartan came into Ashdod ( when Sargon , the King of Assyria , sent him ) , and fought against Ashod , and took it . " This is the only mention we find of the Assyrian King , Sargon , whose exist-

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

ence was long doubted , but who is recently discovered to have been the Assyrian king who took Samaria , at the end of the three years seige ( begun by Shalmanezer ) , and carried away the tribes of Israel who had

been left behind by Tiglath Pilezer . For the discovery of this interesting fact we are indebted to the researches of M . Batta , who , after some gleanings on the site of ancient Nineveh , turned his attention , in

1842 , to Khorsabad , and there discovered a magnificent Assyrian palace , which was completely uncovered in 1845 , and is believed to be the first exposed to view since the fall of the Assyrian Empire . It

is from the walls of this palace , and the various tablets of gold , silver , and other materials , and from the clay cylinders discovered in the ruins , that the record of Sargon's acts have been obtained . The

palace is ten miles east of Nineveh , at the foot of the Makloub Hills , watered by streams which now make it a pestilential waste , but which once , no doubt , made it a delightful spot . Compared with the earlier

buildings of a similar kind , erected by other kings , it is not remarkable for its size , but its decorations are unsurpassed by those of any Assyrian edifice , with the exception of the great palace of

Asshurbani-pal , at Koyunjik . The annals of Sargon , gathered from the inscriptions found on the palace walls , and on the cylinders , reveal him as one of the most splendid kings and most successful

warriors of Assyria ( Oppert . Inscript . des Sargonides ) . These inscriptions contain the following sentence , amongst others ,

evidently recorded by the king himself : " I besieged , took , and occupied the city of Samaria , and carried away 27 , 280 persons , who dwelt in it . " This was in the first

year of his reign , and he subsequently , in agreement with Isaiah ' s words , captured the city of Ashod , and thus obtained the command ofthe maritime route intolEgypt . He is also stated to have sent into Samaria

those colonists from Babylon , Cuthah , and Sepharvaim whose struggles form an interesting episode in scripture history . He died B . C . 704 , and was succeeded by his son ,

Sennacherib , who took all the fenced cities of Judah , but who , at length , by the miraculous destruction of a vast portion of his army ( 2 Chron . xxxii . 21 ) , was driven back to Nineveh .

Returning once more to the captive tribes , whom we left between thc Caspian and thc Euxine Seas , wc may remark , that it was not according to the Divine purpose , in relation to them and to the rest

of the world , that they should settle down , as a people , in the land of their captivity . " They shall wander from sea to sea , " says the word of the Lord , by Joel ( viii . 12 ) , " and from the north even to thc east they

shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord . " They were to be , as Hosea declares ( xiii . 3 ) , " as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor , and as the smoke out of the chimney . "

They were not to stay long in thc place of the breaking forth of children ( ver . 13 ) . In accordance with these prophecies , various groups appear to have migrated , some into China , some into India , and some into

other countries , including North America ; easily crossing over from the eastern extremity of Asia to the western extremity of that continent . As far as customs and traditions serve to identify a people , we

have evidences of their existence in these and other parts . It was probably some of the people carried into Media , who joined the tribes of Judah and Benjamin , and returned with them , partly under Zerub-

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

babel and partly under Ezra . The bulk of the tribes , however , there is good reason to believe , remained together , and , like those who had swarmed off from them , made their way into other regions , leaving

the east , and going towards the west , in search of that which was lost—rest ; pursuing their route along the northern shores of the Black Sea ( " wandering from sea to sea" ) until they reached the Danube ,

where we now find the fertile plains and valleys of Roumania . This is not a merely gratuitous assumption , having nothing to justify it . The prophetic word plainly points northward as

the place of Israel s wandering , and whence they were to come : " Go proclaim these words towards the north , " said the Lord to Jeremiah ( iii . 12 ) , " and say , Return , thou backsliding Israel , saith the Lord , and I will

not cause mine anger to fall upon you , for I am merciful , saith the Lord , and I will not keep anger for ever . " " It shall no more be said , The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of

Egypt ; but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north , and from all the lands whither He had driven them" ( xvi . 14 , 15 ) . " Behold , I will bring them from the north

country , and gather them from the coasts of the earth I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water , wherein they shall not stumble , for I am a Father to Israel , and Ephraim is my first-born "

( xxxi . 9 , 10 ) . All this agrees with the position of the captive tribes , and with the course which we believe them to have taken . They yearned for their own land , or to get nearer to it . The tribes of Judah

and Benjamin had returned , and the tribes of Israel would naturally be attracted towards their land , as , indeed , the prophecies we have referred to declared this should be ; and towards it they directed their steps .

As we trace the passage of a caravan across a sandy desert by the footprints they leave behind them , so we may trace the migrations and settlements of a people by the customs they carry with them , and

the monuments they leave behind them . We cannot fail to recognise a portion ofthe ten tribes in the Beni-Israel , scattered over the country from the neighbourhood of Bombay , who profess themselves to be of

the tribe of Reuben ; and we may find similar means of identifying the rest of the tribes . Allatius supposes that the Israelites who were placed in the Chaboras also peopled thecountriesof Iberia and

Colchisin this agreeing with Sir Isaac Newton , to whom we have previously referred—and he adduces the authority of Constantine Pophyrogenetes in support of the Israelitish origin of the inhabitants of Iberia , as

Herodotus had done of the inhabitants of Colchis , all of whom claim to trace their descent from the favoured tribes , and practised , as Herodotus testifies , the rite of circumcision . But , in addition to these

evidences of Israel ' s migration , we find in thc very supposed track of their movements westward , monuments which have existed for many ages , and which indicate an Israclitish origin . The manner of sepulture

amongst the Israelites was to place the body , not in the rude earth , but in a cave or chamber , either built of stones or cut in the rock . A stone covered the opening , and this stone seems to have been covered by

alternate layers of earth or sand and vegetable matter , the sand being first laid on . In some cases they were accustomed to raise high heaps , both to serve as a monument and the better to preserve the tomb