Table Of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Random Notes on treemasonry 379 Footsteps of Freemasonry 3 81 Removal of the Bard of Avon Lodge 3 8 2 Masonic Notes and Queries 385 Masons' Marks 384

C RAFT M ASONRV : — Metropolitan 385 Provincial 385 ROYAL ARCH : — Provincial 386

MARK MASONRY : — Metropolitan 3 8 7 RED CROSS op CONSTANTINE : — Metropolitan 38 J ANCIENT AND ACCKPTEO RITE : —

Provincial 30 7 Co R R ES PO N tl R KCE . The Roy al Ark Mariners Degree 3 88

Anderson ' s Book of Constitutions 3 8 9 Masnnic Tidings 390 Masonic Meetings for ncxt week 390 Advertisements 377 , 37 8 , 390 , 391 , 392

Random Notes On Freemasonry.

RANDOM NOTES ON FREEMASONRY .

A Lecture delivered before the Members of the Royal Sussex - Chapter of Perfect Friendship , at Ipswich , on IFednesduy , the _ lk Jane , 1872 . BY BRO . EMRA HOLMES , _ I ° ,

P . M . St . Helen ' s Lodge , No . 531 , Ilaitlepool ; P . G . A . D . C , Suffolk ; W . M . Albeit Victor Lodge of Mark Masters , Ipswich ; E . C . Prudence Encampment of Masonic Knights Templar ; P . Prov . G . Almoner , Northumberland ,- P . 2 nd Grand Captain , Suffolk and Cambridge -, Grand Provost of England , ( Order of tlie Temple and Hospital ); Member of the Royal Order of Scotland ; & : c .

( -Continued J com page _ 66 ) . Mackey thus writes on Jehovah , the ineffable name of God . " Josephus in writing upon this subject , uses the following expressions ,

whereupon God declared to Moses his hol y name , which had never been discovered to men before , concerning which it is not lawful for me to say more . " In obedience to thislaw , wherever tlie word

Jehovah occurs to a Jew in reading he abstains from pronouncing it , anel substitutes in its place the word Adonai or Lorel . In consequence of the people thus abstaining from its utterance , the

true pronunciation of the name was at length lost . Nor is the question yet definitely settled , some Orientalists contending , on orthographical grounds , that Jehovah is the true pronunciation ,

while others , on the authority of certain ancient writers , assert that it was pronounced Jao . Some learned Jews even doubt whether Jehovah be the true name of God , which they

consider to have been irrecoverably lost , and they say that this is one of the mysteries that will be revealed only at the coming of the Messiah . They attribute this loss to the sinful habit of

applying the masorelic points to so sacred a name , in consequence of which the true vowels were lost . They even relate the legends of a celebrated Hebrew scholar whom God permitted

to be burnt by a Roman Emperor , because he had been heard to pronounce the hol y name with these points . This dispute is not likel y to be terminated by a reference to ancient authorities ,

among whom there is too great , a discrepancy in relation to the name to be easily reconciled . Irena ? us calls it Jaoth ; Isidore says it is Jodjod ; Diodorus Siculus , Jao ; Clemens of Alexandria ,

Ja ; and the Samaritans , Javah . The Grand , Elect , Perfect and Sublime Masons tell us that the pronunciation varied among the patriarchs in different ages . Methusalah , Lameclv , and Noah

Random Notes On Freemasonry.

pronounced Julta ; Shem , Arphaxed , Selah , Heber , ancl Peleg , pronounced it Jeva Rue , Serug , Nahor , Terah , Abraham , Isaac , and Judah , called it Jova ; by Heyrom , anil Ram , it was

rjronounceel Jeva ; by Salmon , Boaz , anel Obeel , Johe ; b y Jessie , and David , Jehovah , and they imply that none of these was the ri ght pronunciation , which was only in possession of Enoch ,

Jacob , and Moses , whose names are therefore not mentioned in this list . The Jews believed that this holy name , which they held in the hi g hest veneration , was possessed of unbounded

powers . " He who pronounced it , " say they , " shakes heaven and earth , and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror . " There is a sovereign authority in this name ; it governs the

world by its power . The other names ancl surnames of the Deity are ranged about it , like oflicers anel soldiers about their sovereigns and generals ; from tliis king-name they received their

orders anel obey . " The Rabbins call it Shem Humphomsh , the unutterable name , and say that David found it engraved on a stone while he was digging the foundations of the earth .

Manasseh Ben Israel states it as the opinion of the Cabalists , that Jehovah is not only the name of the divine essence , but that it also denotes the Azeltttliic world , or word of emanations , which

contain the ten Sephiroth , or emanations from the Deity , which compose the universe , according to the Rabbinical Philosophy . The pronunciation of the name was preserved and transmitted by

the Essenes , who always communicated it to each other in a whisper , ancl in stub a form , that while its component parts were known , its

connected whole still remained , a mystery . It is said too , to have been the pass-word in the Egyptian Mysteries , by which tlie candidate was admitted to the chambers of initiation . The

modern Jews say it was engraved on the rod of Moses , and enabled him to perform his miracles , anel they attribute all the wonderful words of Jesus Christ to the prophecy of this

incommunicable name , which they say say he stole out of the temple anel wore about him . " Touching the antiquity of the Arch , Mackey says , writers on architecture have until within a few years been

accustomed to suppose that the invention of the arch ancl keystone were not anterior to the era of Augustus . But the researches of modern

antiquaries have traced the existence of the Arch as far back as 460 years before tlie building of King Solomon ' s Temple , anel this completel y reconciled Masonic tradition with the truth of

history . Bro . Capt . Warren , in his excavations beneath the Temple of Jerusalem , has discovered several arches of most ancient elate . He came across a chamber which he supposes to have

been a Masonic Hall—anel found stones marked with the marks of the time of King Solomon . These facts must be full of interest to Royal Arch and Mark Masons . It is said that the

Jesuits , finding Masonry leading to Infidelity , invented or at least altered the Rose Croix degree , which is strictly Christian and Trinitarian . Some think on the other hand that it originated with

the Rosicrucians . If the tendency ofthe Craft is towards deism or infidelity ( which however , I do not admit ) then there is a necessity for the higher degrees to neutralise that tendency and \ o act as a counterpoise to the free thinking

Random Notes On Freemasonry.

views of many who call themselves Masonsbut who are not so truly at heart . I could never understand the unreasoning hatred of Roman Catholics towards our order—for there is little

doubt that in the middle ages , tlie Freemasons were Roman Catholics—anel I suppose it is only to be accounted for b y the fact that auri-. cular confession , which is the key to Romanism ,

is set at nought by the Mason , who cannot reveal the secrets of the Craft even to a father con-, fessor . I receiveel a letter from a nun some little time since , which is so characteristic that I should

have liked to read it—but time is pressing . Antient Masonry was pure deism—Mediaeval Masonry , Catholic . Some Freemasons trace the order to an astronomical , * and others to an

arkite origin , ancl probably there is the impress of both upon it—but I boldl y affirm that there , is nothing inimical to the Roman Catholic religion in Freemasonry ancl indeed the hidier

degrees are , if anything , favourable to it . Faber , who sought an Arkite ori gin for every thing , says , that the initiations into the mysteries ofthe ancients scientificall y represented the mystic

descent into Hades , and the return from thence to the light of day , by which was meant the entrance into the ark anel the subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure .

They all equally related to the allegorical disappearance or death or descent of the Great Father at their commencement , and to his invention , or revival , or return , from Hades , at their

conclusion . They were , says Warburton , the learned Bishop of Gloucester , "a school ofmorality and reli g ion , in which the vanity of polytheism and the unity of the First Cause were revealed to the initiated . Bro . Longstaff ,