Masonic Musings.

MASONIC MUSINGS .

By BRO . J . BALFOUR COCKBURN , P . Z . 27 ° -. Past Installed Mark Master , 43 . The Cuneiform account is much longer and fuller than that of Berosus , and has several details omitted both by the Bible and the Chaldean historian .

This inscription opens up many questions of which we know nothing previously , and it is connected with a number of other details of Chaldean history which will be both interesting and important . This is the first time any inscription has been found with an account of an

event mentioned in Genesis . That Masonry itself has , in fact , pervaded all people , nations , and languages , is obvious enough to those who have sought its traces . But it is no easy task to make the search with due patience and competent information , amidst the strange

entangled heaps of supersitious material with which the pure and simple truth has been overlaid and disfigured , not less by many of the enlightened than by the most ignorant portions of the human race . Doubtless the study is one commenced and

prosecuted by many—but the journey is long , the path rough , the obstacles numerous , and many faint by the wayside . Many also , I fear , attain just so much insig ht into the subject that they remain satisfied with the reward afforded them by occasional glimpses of the truth , veiled

behind the misty clouds of a sort of dreamlandled astray from the direct course , they allow their minds to wander unguided and unprotected into the shadowy and mysterious , permitting moments , alas , too alluring and too oft recurring ,

when—Each thought , as it forms and rises , Is full of a solemn awe . Wildly it breaks and scatters The gems of a thousand more . Onward and ever onward The old thoughts lead to new , Waking and fading together ,

The false lights and the true . Truths unrevealcd show dimly And pass with a fitful gleam , The marks of the soul ' s great battles Flit past like a misty dream . Winding and changing quickly , Clashing at times in strife . Yet their bitterness all softened

By the spell of their Spint-life . As Noah despatched the raven , thc bird of illomen , and thc dove , the emblem of Divine Grace , and put forth his hand to take back only the gentle creature which had found no resting place on which to set his foot , but when again sent forth

to reconnoitre that terrible battle field—thatwidespread arena wherein the Almighty had permitted the elements of nature to mingle in one overwhelming and all-destroying conflict—brought back the symbol of pence ; so should the brethren put out from among themselves all causes of

discord and offence , and let the humility and modesty of their demeanour in communication , not only with themselves , but with the whole human race , evince the spirit by which they are actuated in the lodge—the spirit of brotherly love . Let them prove to the uninitiated that they quit not their

respective stations till the olive branch has been produced and engrafted amongst them , and laid up like Aaron ' s rod , as a perpetual memorial in an Ark of Covenant . Let the remarks which fell from the lips of thc Most Worshipful Grand Master , on a recent occasion , when laying the

foundation stone of a church in the north of England , be ever borne in mind and instilled deeply into the hearts of all Masons ; for within the compass of a few words was evolved a great—I might almost say the greatest truth of our Order . No apology is needed for repeating these remarks .

" Although it was true , ' said his Lordship , " that no enquiry was made of those who sought admission to the Order of Freemasons as to their religious opinions ; yet those greatly erred , if any there were , who supposed that that rule of their ancient and world-wide craft arose from

indifference to religious subjects . The principles of the Order , high and noble as they believed them to be , could only be carried out by those who were aided by a higher grace than merely human institutions could supply . Their principles , he as proud to say , commended themselves to every

Masonic Musings.

one who believed in the Christian Faith ; and for himself he crmld not doubt that those principles could only fully be applied by those who enjoyed Christian privileges . Therefore , although all relig ious differences were banished from Masonic lodges , they felt free to come forward upon this

and all similar occasions , to aid in works which they knew were calculated to confer the highest blessings , spiritual and temporal , upon those for whose benefit they were designed . " To Noah and his sons had doubtless been communicated all the knowledge that had been

acquired by Adam and the generations which had intervened , for as we have before shown , one link only existed between Adam and Noah . This precious fund which had been thus accumulated for the benefit of future ages , has not even now been exhausted , and we are permitted to partake

largely of the stock . That there is nothing new under the sun is a proposition which might appear to be contradicted by the present state of science , and the constant marvellous discoveries , as they are called , which attract the attention and excite the wonder of the multitude . Still I am disposed to

think that as the auriferous produce of our antipodean colonies was no less gold , while itlay concealed in its native matrix , than it is now , when it is brought to light by the avidity and labour of successful adventurers '; so there is , and has always been , a mine of intellectual wealth , well known

and largely worked by our ancient forefathers , which has and does still afford the most brilliant results , and as amply and justly rewards the diligent , the persevering , and the skilful . But yet we cannot say that this is new , otherwise than that it is new to us .

To Masons , as a body , belong especially the privilege and office of digging deeply into the golden grained veins of science , which were indisputably discovered , known , and turned to account by the members of our primitive Craft in various quarters of the globe . That mankind

have been greatly indebted to their industry and talents is especially demonstrated by their acknowledged attainments in architecture and astronomy ; in their sacred buildings , of all ages , since the days of Solomon , and in their

knowledge of the heavens since the time of Pythagoras . Imustcraveindtilgence , I fear for , having dwelt so long upon the Ark . It is indied a subject so fruitful of discussion as to render it difficult to draw to a conclusion .

Now , however , I will pass on to a contemplation of the first act of Noah , after he went out of the Ark , he , his wife , his three sons and their wives with him , and all the animals which had been miraculously brought together for the

preservation of their kind . " And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord , and took every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar . " Seven of each of these animals had been

taken into the Ark and one of each was sacriced , leaving three pairs ^ to perpetuate their kind . It is of some importance to discover of what materials altars were , by Divine command , constructed , as they were doubtless amongst the first of sacred erections . Now the altars

mentioned in Scripture after that of Noah were the following . The one which Abraham built in Sichem , on the plain of Moreh , •when the Lord called him out of Haran and bade him pass over to a land that he would show him . The one which Abraham also built when he removed "into a mountain on the east of Bethel . "

And again the one which he built after his separation from Lot when he " came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre , which is in Hebron . " When the holy Patriarch received that trying

order to sacrifice his son Isaac , the 'heir of all the promises made to Abraham , when he was summoned away from Haran , he immediately set forward to obey it , and he came to the place which God had told him of and here he at once

proceeded to build an altar . Nothing is recorded in any of the tfbove instances with regard to the construction of the altars , but of their being essential to the proper modes of offering sacrifices as it had been originally appointed , I think , they give abundant proof .

In Exodus xx . 24-25 , we read thc following command respecting the construction of altars . " An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me , and shall sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings ,

Masonic Musings.

and if thou wile make me an altar of stone , thou shalt not build it of hewn stone , for if thou lift up thy tool upon it , thou hast polluted it . " Moses commanded the people of Israel that on the day when they should pass over Jordan into the promised land , they should set up great

stones and plaster them and write upon them the words of the law , and he added , " there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God , an altar of stones : thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them . Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God ofJwhole stones , and thou shalt'ofTer

burnt offering sthereon unto the Lord thy God . " Now we perceive that it was God ' s will , for such wise and significant reasons as He might not be pleased to communicate , that altars created to His Name , should be of earth or unhewn stone ; and there is the strongest

presumption for believing that it had always been so . Abraham built the altar on Mount Moriah before he laid the wood and the victim on itand that it was not constructed of wood , or of hewn stone is evident from thc circumstances of the case— it must , then , have been of earth , or

of unhewn stone , which corresponds with the direction afterwardsexplicitly given by God Himself and by His servant Moses . We may presume that altars were for many ages constructed of thc most simple materials , because when they were first raised , we may with justice infer that

no means of art existed for adorning them , and as they were originally formed by Divine direction , so it pleased the Almighty that they should continue , till the building of the tabernacle and the establishment of the Levitical ceremonies . No tool was permitted to be used in shaping and

polishing the stones , for fear it might conduce , or be turned , to the purposes of idolatry , in the formation of graven images , or in the sculpture of figures and ornaments , all of which might divert the mind of the worshippers from the great objects of their vows and supplications . The

regulation of this especial point we find strictly laid down in the 18 th chapter of Deuteronomy . The roughness of the work and the little time and pains required to rear a temporary altar would remind the patriarchs that till the chosen race should obtain possession of the promised land

they were to have no abiding city , but remain as strangers and pilgrims on the earth . That the primitive altar , imitated by pagans , and especially Plato , was highly emblematic and symbolical we cannot doubt , neither can we hesitate to credit , that thorough ashlars of which it was composed

represented most fitly the then existing general state of the human mind as regarded the heavenly oracles ; that its unpolluted earthly materials typified thc constituent parts of that holy altar of expiation , over which the gorgeous tissue of splendid promises and dark enigma was thus

early thrown , as a spiritual veil , by the hand of the Most High Himself , evolving in after years that historic temple whose architectural interest is so intimately blended into many of our rites and ceremonies , and culminating eventually in the manifestation of that mighty altar , that

great rock , in whose earthly portion alone the all-redeeming sacrifice was offered up , when the earth ditl quake , the rocks were rent , and the graves gave up their dead , forcing conviction on the minds of the cruel and bigoted

unbelieverswho , in all the dread agony of cowardice and terror , with blanched and quivering lips , gasped forth " truly this was the Son of God . " Now was the terrible tragedy completed , the veil of the temple was rent in twain , li ght was brought to those who sat in darkness , and salvation to all men .

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