Table Of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS .

PAGES REVIEWS 663 FREEMASONRY AND ISRAELITISM 66 3 & 664 I SRAELITISII ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE 664 & 665 THE P HILOSOPHY OF FREEMASORY 665 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MASONRY 665

THE F AIR . SEX AND ADOPTIVE MASONRY ... 666 THE M ORALS OF MASONRY 667 THE DISCOVERIES AT J ERUSALEM 667 BIRTHS , MARRIAGES , AND DEATHS 668 HELP FOR CHICAGO 668 GRAND LODGEOF QI . EKEC 66 S MULTAM IN PARVO 669

O RIGINAL CORRESPONDENCEBro . Carpenter and Bro . Buchan ... ... 66 g The Purple in West Lancashire ... 669 & 67 c Masons' Marks ... ... ... ... ... 670 An Appeal for Chicago ... ... ... 670 G RAND CHAPTER OF ENGLAND 670 & 671 C ONSECRATION OF A MARK MASTERS' LODGE

AT HUDDERSFIELD 671 I NTERESTING DISCOVERY AT THE OLD J EWISH SYNAGOGUE , BIRMINGHAM ... * 671 S COTLAND 671 THE C RAFTMetropolitan 672 Provincial 672 & 673 MARK MASONRY 673 ORDERS OF

CHIVALRYRed Cross of Constantine 673 INSTRUCTION 674 MASONIC MEETINGS FOR NEXT W .-. i-ru . 674 A DVERTISEMENTS 661 , 662 , 674 , 675 , & 676

Reviews.

Reviews .

— * — The Old Constitutions belonging to thc Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of England and

Ireland , & c . ; edited by the Rev . JOHN EDMUND COX , D . D ., F . S . A ., P . G . Chaplain , & c London : Richard Spencer , Great Oueen-street .

Thc judgment which this work has already elicited at thc hands of certain literary critics—some of whom may , but most of whom assuredly do not , belong to the Masonic Order—is probably known to

many of our readers , especially as we more than hinted at the fact in our last week ' s leader . The Standard has written fairly and sensibly upon it , albeit a vein of dry humour runs through the review ; but thc

Observer ' s remarks are conceived in such bad taste as to render its criticism comparatively valueless . Now , we hold that Bro . Spencer has really conferred a boon upon the Masonic reading public by the

publication of this work , and our thanks are due to him more particularly for the reprint of what we may now term thc " Roberts' " Constitutions , the earliest printed copy of Masonic regulations extant , and which

is , on good grounds , believed to be thc only copy of thc edition now in existence . These curious " Old Constitutions " possess a quaintly-written preface , and thc traditional history of Masonry commences with thc following invocation or prayer :

"Thc Almighty Father ofl leaven , with thc wisdom ofthe Glorious Son , thro' the goodness of the Holy Ghost , Three Persons in one Godhead , be with our beginning , and give us His grace so to govern our lives , that we may come to His bliss , that never shall have end . Amen . "

( lo 6 e continued . ) On thc Advantages of Gas for Cooking and Healing ; by MAGNUS OIIRKN , A . / . C . E ., Secretary of the Crystal Palace District Gas Company .

This pamphlet , which wc have read carefully , is calculated to convince tlic most sceptical as to tlic saving to be effected from the use of gas for the purposes advocated by thc author , whose well-known

reputation as a scientific engineer stamps his opinions on the subject with a high value . In this instance , moreover , details and proofs are cited which render his positions impregnable , and entirely remove theories into the domain of facts .

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

FREEMASONRY & ISRAELITISM .

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

XXI . Notwithstanding that I have occupied so much space in the columns of THE FREEMASON , in exhibiting what I consider some of the proofs to be found in history of the

identity of the Gothic race , especially of its great Saxon branch , with the Ten Tribes of Israel , I have by no means exhausted them . There are other points of identity which will present themselves to the studentand which ,

if not so striking as those I have selected ; are sufficiently so to suggest that proofs of Israel ' s identity with theSaxon race are to be found in great profusion in sacred scripture and profane history . If they are not proofs

ofthe identity ofthe Saxons with "Israel , " " Ephraim , " or the " Ten Tribes" so long supposed lost , they exhibit a number of coincidences of the most extraordinary kind known in ancient or modern times . No

believer in the history of the Hebrew race , from the call of Abraham to the overthrow of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah , and the final overthrow of the latter by the Romans , in the first century of the Christian

era , can , I think , reconcile to himself the idea , that ten-twelfths of that people , who had been chosen by the Almighty to preserve , as in a sacred depository , the knowledge of His being and worship—when

all the world had plunged into the darkness and licentiousness of idolatry—and whose preservation , restoration , and final and unparalleled glory , as a people , occupy so large a portion of thc prophetic writings , were

destined to be kept out of sight— " lost "in no way employed in bringing about that emancipation , restoration , and universal dominion so emphatically and rciteratedly predicted of them , as to constitute , as it

were , the central page of prophecy . Thc two tribes known as Judah , or the Jews , are not "lost , " but arc , and have been for nearly two thousand years , the witnesses , all over the world , of thc truth of those terrible

prophecies which foretold the punishment , dispersion , and affliction that should follow upon their persistent violation of thc Law , and rejection of the Divine promises . With a conviction of their obligation to

keep thc Law , but unable to do so , as outcasts from their land , and destitute of an altar and of a sacrifice , Judah , or thc Jews , wander abroad , sighing and praying for a return to the land of their forefathers . But

while Judah is thus answering one of tlie great purposes of God , in testifying to the verity of the Word that was written so many ages ago , can it be believed that Israel , of whom it is written , " O , Israel , thou hast

destroyed thyself , but in me is thine help , I will he thy king : where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities ?" ( Hosca xiii . 9 , 10 ) , and of whom , also , so many and such wonderful things are

predicted , as to themselves and as to their relations with the nations—can it be believed that these were to be as a light put under a bushel , for tlic space of 2500 years , and then , iu some miraculous way , to come forth as a

numcrou-i people—a great people , possessing the Islands—a people unto whom king * shall bow down , into whose lap the nations shall pour their riches , and at whose

footstool they shall do homage ? This is not the way in which the G . A . O . T . U . has been found , in past history , to govern the world , Progression seems to be the Divine law ; and it is exhibited in nations as in indi-

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

viduals . Under the Divine guidance , men and nations prepare themselves to occupy the place and do the work which tend to the consummation of the Divine purpose in relation to the human race ; and it is

reasonable to believe , independently of all predictions pointing in that direction , that during the time the world and the church have been fancying the Ten Tribes to be " lost , " or to have been found only in a few

isolated spots in the East , living in small communities , in no way contributing towards the accomplishment of the Divine purpose , they have been instrumentally employed in effecting those great changes

which , during the last 1500 years , or soproceeding from the very regions into which Israel was carried captive , and having their foundation laid by the Gothic ' race , in the diffusion by them of those Divine truths which were revealed to their forefathers—¦

have been progressive !} 'making "the wilderness and thc solitary place to be glad for them , and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose , " because " preparing a highway for our God . " I thus now put the question

upon a purely rational basis , apart from all prophetic intimations , in the hope that it may lead to such reflection , on the part of some who have followed me in these disquisitions , as will induce them to meditate more

deeply on the wonderful harmony between the prophecies relating to Israel , after her captivity , and the history and character of the Saxon race , of which I venture to think I have given some glimpse . But there is one

prophecy to which I cannot help referring , as it appears to me to be , more , perhaps , than any other , incompatible with the common notion of the disappearance of these tribes , until shortly before the time shall

arrive for their restoration to their own land . In Isaiah lxi . 9-11 , wc read , " Their seed shall be known [ or illustrious ] among tlic nations , and their offspring among the people : all who see , them shall acknowledge

them , that they arc a seed which the Lord hath blessed .... For as the earth pushcth forth her tender shoots , and as a garden makcth her seed to spring forth , so the Lord Jehovah shall cause righteousness and praise

to spring forth in the presence of all thc nations . " It is thus that thc people that have come of Israel arc to become known , or illustrious , as a people , among , or in thc midst of , the nations—not as Israel ; for , as

we have seen , they were for a time not to be known , or identified either by themselves or by others , although , as we now know , they have been all along doing Israel ' s work ; or thc work which it was predicted

Israel should do . The meaning of thc prophecy , I take it , is , that they are to be distinguished amongst the nations , as an extraordinary and a superior people whom thc Lord hath blessed . They arc to be a

prosperous people—pre-eminently prosperous . And they are to be a people eminently religious , for they arc to be clothed with "tile mantle of righteousness , and with the garments of salvation" ( ver . 10 ) . They

are thus to appear as a nation . The worship and service of God are to be identified with them ; and the acknowledgment of Him as their Creator , Redeemer , and Governor , is to be nationally made , as is found to be the

case , not only 111 England and her dependencies , but in all Saxon nations . This , as I have said , is not a people who are to break forth suddenly upon the world . They arc progressively to become thus distinguished ;

their growth is to be gradual , and , like thc scjd which has sprung forth and arrived at maturity they are to cast their seed abroad , gradually widening the area they occupy . They arc to " take root . " " Israel shall