Table Of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS .

PAGES MASONIC FESTIVITIES — Picnic ofthe Mariners' Lodge , Liverpool ... 530 FREEMASONRY AND ISRAELITISM ... 531 & 532 MASONIC HISTORIANS —No . 3 ...- ... 532 & 533

PROV . GRAND I , ODGE or HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OP WIGHT ... ' ... 533 & 534 THE CRYPTIC RITE 535 THE CRAFTMetropolitan 5 ^ 3 Provincial ;? : 1

... ... """¦ - * - '" - iji ROYAL ARCH — Provincial 535

THEATRICAL 535 THE MARK DEGREE AND THE CRYPTIC RITE ... 536 MBLTUM IN PARVO 537 ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

" Freemasonry and Judaism " 537 RED CROSS OF CONSTANTINEConsecration of a Conclave . it Liverpool ... 53 S LODGE OF BENEVOLENCE . ' 53 S SCOTLAND

Glasgow 539 FOREIGN MASONIC INTELLIGENCETlie Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters , Pennsylvania 539 & 540 Canada 540 & 541 THE PLAIN GP PIIILISTI . Y 541 & 542 MASONIC MEETINGS FOR NEXT WEEK 542 ADVERTISEMENTS 529 , 530 , 542 , 543 , & 544

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

FREEMASONRY & ISRAELITISM .

BY BRO . WILLIAM CARPEXTER , P . M . & P . Z . 177 .

XIV . I was precluded from noticing some details in the prophecies touching the extent of the possessions promised to Israel ,

as referred to in my last paper , by thc length to which what I had necessarily to deal with extended . I now ask attention to some of these'details .

In the blessing which Moses pronounced on Joseph ( Deut . xxxiii . 14)—for its fullness and comprehensiveness the most remarkable of all thc blessings pronounced upon the tribes—wc find this unusual

phrase : " "Blessed of thc Lord be his land . ... for the precious fruits brought forth by thc sun and for thc precious things put forth by thc ntcoii" ( Hebrew , moons ) . Many of the commentators have passed

tin ' s over without remark , while others have dealt with it in a very perfunctory way . Thc Targums of both ' Onkelos and Jerusalem interpret it , the former , of thc moon bringing forth sweet fruits at thc beginning

of every month ; thc latter , of the bringing forth of fruit in every new moon—whicli is thc same thing . These old Hebrew commentators arc supposed to have fixed the meaning of thc words " tlie precious things put

fortli by thc moons ; " i . e ., thc precious things ( fruits ) which the moon thrusts forth ( as it is in the margin of our Bibles ) every month ; for in the night the fruits , say they , arc plumped by the moon ' s coo ! and

fattening moisture , whicli is digested by the sun intheday . But , then , how could this be said of every month , if , as is generally understood , it refers to the richness of Joseph ' s lot in the land of Canaan ? The

land was , beyond all doubt , the most fruitful in tlie whole world . Its diversified surface of mountain and valley , its many streams , ancl its varied climate combining

to make it productive cf almost every fruit that grows ; and Ephraim and Manasseh occupying lands on both sides of the Jordan , had advantages as to the produce of thc country which none of the other tribes

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

possessed . But they had not the fruits of the earth in every recurring month , though the } 'probably had for the greater number of months . But if the blessing had reference , as I believe it had , to the future of the

tribes *—that is , the distant future pointed to in so many of thc prophecies—when these tribes shall have possessions throughout the length and breadth of the earth , as their descendants , the Anglo-Saxons , mav be

said to have already—then it may be literally said , they possess the precious things put forth by the moon in its

monthly course , for they have , without exception , habitations in every latitude of the fruit-yielding zones . And that it does thus refer to their widelv-extended

habitations—habitations far beyond the boundaries of Canaan—is , I think , clear from what follows : " Blessed of thc Lord be his land .... for tlie choice things of the ancient mountains and for the

precious things ofthe lasting hills , and for the precious things of thc earth and fullness thereof .... They arc the ten thousands of Ephraim , ancl they are the

thousands of Manasseh " ( ver . 15 , 16 ) . Now . it is only ofthe Anglo-Saxon people , Israel ' s descendants , that any such thing can be said . No other peoples or nations in the wide world have settlements or habitations

111 the earth and fullness thereof which afford them a harvest of fruit and other precious productions in every month ofthe year . They , and they only , inherit the blessing pronounced upon Joseph and his descendants and those who adhere to him .

The Anglo-Saxons are known as preeminently a colonising people . They are pre-eminent in many things , but in colonising they stand foremost of all the nations of the earth . Phoenicia and Greece , both

maritime States , possessing only scant territories , had recourse to emigration , as their population increased ; and this was sometimes forced by civil contentions and foreign conquests , by which the losing

party were cither driven away , or preferred seeking a new country to remaining at home . Commercial enterprise , too , led to both maritime discovery and colonisation . Such seem to have been thc causes which

led to thc founding of the Phoenician colonics , which , at an early'date , were planted along the Mediterranean coasts . Tyre was a colony of Sidon , according to the Old Testament , which calls it " the daughter of

Sidon . LcptusMagni , Hippo Hcdrhnentum , Utica , Tunis , and Carthage were all colonics of Phoenicia ; as were also Gades ( Cadiz ) , the Bclcaric Islands , Sardinia , and Sicily . In the islands of thc Aegean Sea , thc Greek

colonics were numerous , ancl a few of them became considerable states , the old inhabitants being reduced to the condition of serfs , or bondsmen . The Roman colonies were also numerous , but they were like so

many garrisons , or outposts , of Rome . They were part of thc Roman State , and they secured her conquests , and maintained tlie subject people in obedience . Indeed , the early colonies of Rome had a two-fold

political object : to secure the conquests of the Empire , and to satisfy the claims of her poorer classes , by a division of lands among them . Thc Gctre—who , as the "Northern tribes , " or thc " Goths "—overthrew the

Western Empire , did not "found colonies ; they overran and conquered whole provinces , establishing new states and kingdoms . Put their descendants , thc

Anglo-Saxons , have colonised , not as conquerors , seizing provinces or countries by force of arms , but by discovery and commercial enterprise , and , in some cases , by sending their convicts to remote parts , only very

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

partially peopled , and that by uncivilised tribes . The greater part of the colonies which they have founded have been

commercial colonies , developing the means of providing for multitudes of those . of their own people who were too much straightened at home . The vast increase and

density of the population have induced philanthropists and commercial men ( many of them uniting the love of commerce with philanthropy , and being thus , so to speak , animated by double motives ) to put forth efforts to secure comfort and prosperity for

masses of the industrial classes in distant

lands greater than they could find at home , where they were " cabin'd , cribbed , confined . " In the colonies of North * America , Australia , & c , they have mightily increased in numbers and progressed in wealth , and

have become prosperous communities . Can any one review the colonial growth of Great Britain , and not think of the words of the prophet to the houscof Israel , whose descendants we are : "The children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other

shall say again m thy ears , The place is too straight for me ; give place for me that I may dwell . Then shalt thou say in thine heart , Who hath begotten me them , seeing I have lost my children , and am

desolate , a captive , and removing to and fro ? And who hath brought up these ? Behold , I was left alone ; these , where had they been ? ' ( Isa . xlix . 20 , 21 . ) The Anglo-Saxons , too , unlike the Phoenicians ,

thc Greeks , the Romans , and other peoples , ancient and modern , have inherited "the desolate places" ( Isa . xlix . 8 ) ; and the mountains have been made the way for them , and the highways have been exalted

( ver . 11 ) . The desolate one was to bring forth so many children that she was to " enlarge the place of her tent , and stretch forth the curtains of her habitations . " She was to " spare not , " but to " lengthen the

cords and strengthen thc stakes of her tent ; " for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the nations , and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" ( Isa . liv .

1—3 ) . Accordingly , Israel was to be sown in the earth ( Hos . ii . 23 ) ; And " They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man ; they shall increase as they have increased ; and I will sow them among thc people , and they

shall remember mc in far countries " ( Zech . x . 8 , 9 ) . Now , look abroad , and find , if you can , any people but the Anglo-Saxons who have thus inherited the " waste " or " desolate " places—places cither wholly

without inhabitants , or inhabited by only a few wandering savages , who rendered desolation more desolate . The American

colonies , the Australian colonies , and thc South African colonies were all " desolale places , " which have , being peopled by the Anglo-Saxons , become prosperous colonies .

There is a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy ( xxxii . S . 9 ) which has perplexed commentators . Its "precise meaning is , indeed , by no means obvious : " When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance ; when

tie separated the sons of Adam , He set the hounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel . For the Lord ' s portion is Ills people , Jacob is the lot [ marg , cord ] of his inheritance . " Poole , as partially adopted

by 15 i ;* hop Patrick , interprets the passage thus " When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance , lie had then the children of Israel-in His mind , before they were a nation ; and He made such adistribution to other people

( particularly to the seven nations of Canaan ) within such bounds and limits as that there my lit be sufficient room for so numerous a people as the Israelites , when they came to take possession of that country . " Now , if we omit