Freemasonry And Judaism.

Abraham His instrument in extirpating it , and thereby redeeming the human race from its thraldom . The driving out of the Canaanite , the hotbed of idolatry was his first commission to the Jews . Much controversy has arisen about the God of Mercy doing this ; but it was done

in mercy to stop the propagation of that which would have involved the woild in dieir own ruin . The Cities of the Plain were destroyed for the same causes , but the Jews were not made the instruments of their destruction , because their full time was not yet come ; but Abraham

witnessed it , and the episode of Abraham s intercession for them has no parallel in profane history . " Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right ? and be it far from Thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked ; " but the Almighty promised , " That I

will not destroy for ten ' s sake " —if ten righteous men could be found there—r'and Abraham returned to his own place . " Before his death , Moses charged the children of Israel in a manner that can only be found in Scripture narrative , that obedience to Jehovah would ensure their

temporal and eternal happiness , but that following after strange gods would be visited with exemplary punishments . Their after career proved the necessity and accuracy of this premonition . Has the Jew been superseded and replaced by the modern Christian ? What

argument have we in support of this theory ? the writings of the New Testament give none . St . Paul , who boasted of being the Apostle of the Gentiles , when addressing the Gentile Church at Rome , writes : " I say , then , hath God cast away His people ? God forbid ; for I also am

[ not wax ] an Israelite of the seed of Abraham , of the tribe of Benjamin . " One of the great mistikes of tbe day appears to me to be that the Jew will be absorbed in the Christian ; but the very reverse appears to be the spirit of prophecy and our Lord's teachings . The bringing in of

the Gentiles seems to be the Divine purpose , and old Simeon declared that " He was a light to lighten the Gentiles , and the glory of thy people , Israel . " Our Lord ' s death left His litilband in an apparent desperate state . The shepheid was smitten , and the sheep were

scattered abroad But after His resurrection , He appeared to His disciples , and again proclaimed that all the transactions which they had witnessed were what had been foretold by Moses and all the prophets . After His ascension , the Apostles met by arrangement to comment upon their

important mission , and at their first meeting struck the keynote of all their teaching—th ' resurrection of the dead , " He is risen ; " and this , with the doctrine of repentance and a good life , is the whole of the Christian ' s creed . Noth \ n > r more is required of him ; but to do thai

should be his life s study in order to fit him for the life to cone . During the first century ofthe Christian era this was the substance , if not the whole , of Christian teaching . The theology of the day , or as now made up , was hardly known until the fourth century after Christ . There

were heresies , but they hardly disturbed the quiet of the Church ; and if thev understood the nature of their own doctrines , . they have not succeeded in handing their irtie meaning down to us . Indeed , the history of the new Church down to the third or fourth century is as mm h

a myth as the names of the founders of Rome or the g imes of Olympia . It is , however , pretty certain tint th J d ictrine of lhe trinity , or tripersonality , of the Godhead was unknownindeed , unthought of—till the fourth century . It took its rise in Egypt , and at first little notice

was taken of the new doctrine ; indeed , the Emperor Constantine advised the bishops not to trouble their heads about such silly matters . However , the motto of Sir Henry Wottore , " Dispittandi pruritus ecclesia scetbecs " ( the itch for disputation is the dirty scab of the Church ) , was too life then , as now . 'hie ecclesiastical drum

was beat , Arianism against Sabethanism , Donatists against Caecillanists , fought one against the other to decide the fact whether God was in one person or three . It was agreed to decide the quarrel by a council to be summoned by Constantine . It seems pretty certain that a council was held , but whether it was at Nice or else-

Freemasonry And Judaism.

where , who attended or presided , is a mystery . No authentic acts of its famous sentence have been committed to writing , aid this is all the authority we have for the ' fair . ois Nicene Creed , which before being " read or sung" in our cathedrals , is introduced by a flourish on the trumpet and a swell of the great organ stops , which would awaken the soundest sleeper .

oSText to the doctrine of the Trinity , or equal with it , is the doctrine of the Atonement . This word in its original sense means reconciliation , agreement , viz ., at one men . t . The wo . d though much used in the Old Testament is only once mentioned in the New , and then in the

opposite sense to the one in which it is properly preached . It is preached " That Goo received the atonement by the death of his Son ; " but in his Epistle to tbe Romans , Paul says "That we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received

the atonement . " Here modern theology says one thing and the scriptures declare the opposite . So in the word " sacrifice . " We use it to express a giving up of something that is most dear to us and that causes distress in parting with it . We make an alarming sacrifice

But the word is formed from two Laun words—to make holy for an offering ; and thus the Scripture says that we are " to present our bodies a living sacrifice , holy , which is our reasonable service . " I should like to avoid doctrinal disquisition , but upon this point it

cannot be avoided . In the translation of the New Testaiient from the Greek , to one Greek word two English equivalents are given , and this ii the case in the word Parakleton . Our Lord uses this word in John xiv . verses 16 and 26 , where it is translated " comforter ; " but the

same word , used in the rst Epistle of John , chap . ii . v . 1 , is translated " Advocate , " and these two separate offices , in modem theology , are second and third persons in the Godhead Thus common-sense people are really at a loss to know what doctrine is intended , or whether the

translators themselves knew . Hie consequence of hiving three Omnipotents , is that each must have something to do which the other two Omnipotents could not do . The whole scheme of salvation is to some minds ( my own as well ) very foggy and unintelligible . The Jews were

guilty of a most abominable crime in ihe judicial murder of our Lord , whom His judge had declared to be innocent of the charge preferred against Him . Many of the Jews of the present day acknowledge this to have been a mistake , and offer but a very slight justification . The

Christians , however , glory in the act , and say villi exaltation , that " if the Sanhedrim had not been so hellishly cruel , the God of heaven could not or would not have been kind . " I will not discuss the logic of this doctrine , but challenge its truth . It is said that the High Priest in

placing the sins of lhe people on the head ofthe animal and then killing him and offering him in sacrifice on the Jewish altar , was a type of our Lord ' s death and sufferings in our stead on the cross , and by his sufferings we are freed fr JIII the curse of death and by imputation made

righteous . But this scheme of salvation , as it is vamuingly called , is attended with a host of insuperable difficulties , and the first is , that in no case where the sins of the people were confessed and placed on the head of the animal was that animal slain , but driven out of sight . That our

Lord ' s death , by the cruelti •* of ihe Jews , was necessary for our salvation is disproved by the teachings of St . Paul , who alludes to it al all times vith just indignation and h irror , and as a crime that has filled up the iniquities of the Jewish nation , anil only uses it as an a priori

argument to prove the a posteriori demonstration , viz ., " The Resurrection of the Dead . " In all his p-eaching and reasonings , temperanre . righteousness , and judgment to come were h ' s only themes , and whe . i the wicked corisd .-nce of Felix trembled , Paul had r . o anodyne doctrine

to offer bin in the shape of iinpu : ed ridueousness , or doubtless Felix would have given an instant hearing and sucked the poison in . The first duty devolving upon the d sciples at their Lord ' s death was to complete their number , which was to be twelve . A number is used in

Freemasonry And Judaism.

lie sacred volume to denote some specific state o which that number corresponds ; . one is never ised but to express the One Divine R i lg , and . welve denotes all things of faith and charity in one complex . Thus was this sine qua non that the one elected should have seen our Lord

subsequent to His resurrection to bear witness to that fact St . Paul preached the doctrine of the blood of Christ , but in the same sense as the Lord taught it while on earth—that is , in its spiritual , and not in its natural or literal sense . " The letter killeth , but the spirit giveth life . "

Man is a compound of soul and body , and each has to be nourished with food , each according ro its kind . As flesh and blood are the means of support to the natural man , so it corresponds with the Lord ' s divine goodness and truth , which are the doctrines with which He feeds the souls

of all His disciples . To what a sad state has the spurious doctrines of Christendom reduced the Church of God . They have deprived it of vitality . Where is the life of the Church ? Is it to be found in the bickerings and dissensions of the clay ? Do we find it in the appeals to

the Prn y Council about forms , vestments , genuflexions , and the lighting up of candles ? Light , more light ! is the eager cry of man in his improved civilised state , and wax tapers are lighted up on unmeaning altars to satisfy the cry . When will nation cease to war against nation , and man

begin to love his brother ? is the piercing cry of humanity . When will kings and emperors ce ise to take counsel how best to despoil each other of their fair domains , which ' each has lusted after , and on the attainment of which God has been thanked for assisting perjury , robbery , and

murder ? Oh , when ? Not while the priests of Christendom—whether in triple crown , mitre , or gown and cassock—consecrate and pray the - Author of Peace and Lover of Concord " to grant a blessing upon the banners which are to incite God ' s creatures to deeds of blood , hatred ,

and revenge . " The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the svaters cover the sea . " According to Bro . Carpenter's researches the Jew is covering the earth . Will he take his glorious book of prophecies with him ? Will he , and what then ? " The wolf and the lamb

shall teed together , and the lion shall eat straw like an ox . ami mist shall be the serpent ' s meat . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountains , saith Jehovah , for a new heaven and a new earth shall be created , and the former shall not he remembered nor brought into mind . But be ye glad and rejoice in that which I create ,

for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a j > y . " But all this must be in that day " that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem ; half of diem towards the former sea and

half of them towards the hinder sea , in summer and in winter shall it be . And Jehovah shall be king over all the earth . In that day shall there be one Jehovah and His name ONE . " W . B ., 742 .

"Antagonism" In The High Degrees.

"ANTAGONISM" IN THE HIGH DEGREES .

I have read with much satisfaction the leading article in THE FREEMASON of August the 5 th , and as it seems to me to put matters fairly and

dearly before the Masonic public , I think a little more in the same direction might not be out of place .

That antagonism exists between different rites in ccn lection with the high degrees is a fact which cannot be ignored , but which , for the sake

of Masonry—using that term in its very widest sense—is to be deplored , and should , if possible , be smoothed away and obliterated .

I , of course , constantly hold that true Masonry is bound by , at the utmost , the R . A . Degree . The three degrees of Craft Masonry are

complete in themselves , and universal in their comprehensiveness ; and the Royal Arch Degree is so far compatible with Craft Masonry , that it ,