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Article COBBESPONDENCE. ← Page 2 of 5 →
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Cobbespondence.
St . John the Baptist , and subsequently St . John the Evangelist ; who , from that period until the Masonic Union in 1813 , or a short time after , has continued to be styled the grand patron of our Order , and not only so , but of all other religious orders or fraternities throughout Christendom , as also of the universal Church . His symbol , the eagle , is a prominent feature in our cathedrals and in most of the old churches , in the form of a lectern ; and in many old Lodges adorns the pedestal of the W . M ., upon which the sacred volume rests . I remember upon one
occasion , some two or three and twenty years ago , when walking round a Lodge to examine its furniture , & c , my attention was arrested by an eagle in the front of the pedestal in the East ; upon inquiring of the W . M ., who was then a Mason of forty years' standing , he informed me that it was very old , that it was there when he first saw the light , and that his father , who also had been a member of the same Lodge , bore testimony to its having been there at the time of his initiation . He also informed me that it was the symbol of St . John , to whom our Lodges were dedicated .
Again , the two St . Johns are . the .. ¦ l egitimate- parallels of our Order . They always were declared as such from the revival of Masonry in England in 1717 , ( how long prior to that date we have no authentic account ) , and are still continued as such in the provinces . Upon one occasion , when visiting a Lodge in London , I heard a lecture in which Moses and Solomon were substituted as the grand parallels for the two St . Johns , but for which no valid reason could be assigned by those with whom I was discussing the point .
I entertain the greatest reverence for the memory of Moses , who was indeed a great prophet and a type of the Messiah , and also for that of Solomon , a wise and renownedsovereign ; bat " a greater than Solomon" has declared that St . John the Baptist was \ ' more than a prophet , " and that ' among them . that a , r e born of women , there hath not arisen a greater than John . " ISTow Masonry is said to be progressive , and if the order was in existence in the days of Solomon ( which I more than doubt ) , then it would have been reasonable for the Masons of that age to have dedicated their Lodges to King Solomon , and after a lapse of many years ,
equally reasonable for the Brethren , after their return from their captivity in Babylon , to have dedicated them to Zerubabel , from the prominent position he occupied with respect to the second temple . It was to this temple , according to the prophet Haggai , that " the desire of all nations should come . " Years rolled on , and the Jewish dispensation was rapidly drawing to a close ; it was but " a shadow of better things to come . " A moral darkness covered the earth in general , and a grosser—because a spiritual—darkness the once favoured people of God .
When , in mercy to mankind , " the Son of Righteousness arose with healing on His wings , " a new dispensation dawned upon the world—one of light , pure as that of the first day ' s creation—and the harbinger of this new dispensation was " John the Baptist , " the messenger whom , in accordance with the prophet Malachi , our Lord had sent " to prepare his way before Him . " At this time the most moral sect among the Jews were the Essenes , a sect whose system was
somewhat analagous to that of Masonry , and of which sect John the Baptist is said to have been a member ; and as he was the great reformer of his age , it would be equally reasonable , as in the other instances alluded to , that the Brethren , if their Order had any connection with our own , should have dedicated their Lodges to the Baptist , whose powerful preaching in the wilderness had led the people to believe that the Lord whom they expected was " suddenly coming to his temple , " and who , when He did come , found it so sadly desecrated , that , instead of being a temple dedicated to the honour and glory of the Most High , it was applied to the purposes of an exchange , and declared it to have become a den of thieves .
Is it , then , to be considered a matter of surprise that we , who are the children of this dispensation of light , of which St , John was the harbinger—that we , who call ourselves the sons of light , should dedicate to him our Order , which , if rightly understood , is a system of light ? Our bygone Brethren were more spiritually minded ; they did so dedicate their Lodges . St . John the Baptist was the first martyr to the newly-revealed truth ; he excited the jealousy of Herod , whose vices he openly condemned , and lost his life from his unshaken fidelity to the sacred trust reposed in him . About forty vears after his decapitation , the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cobbespondence.
St . John the Baptist , and subsequently St . John the Evangelist ; who , from that period until the Masonic Union in 1813 , or a short time after , has continued to be styled the grand patron of our Order , and not only so , but of all other religious orders or fraternities throughout Christendom , as also of the universal Church . His symbol , the eagle , is a prominent feature in our cathedrals and in most of the old churches , in the form of a lectern ; and in many old Lodges adorns the pedestal of the W . M ., upon which the sacred volume rests . I remember upon one
occasion , some two or three and twenty years ago , when walking round a Lodge to examine its furniture , & c , my attention was arrested by an eagle in the front of the pedestal in the East ; upon inquiring of the W . M ., who was then a Mason of forty years' standing , he informed me that it was very old , that it was there when he first saw the light , and that his father , who also had been a member of the same Lodge , bore testimony to its having been there at the time of his initiation . He also informed me that it was the symbol of St . John , to whom our Lodges were dedicated .
Again , the two St . Johns are . the .. ¦ l egitimate- parallels of our Order . They always were declared as such from the revival of Masonry in England in 1717 , ( how long prior to that date we have no authentic account ) , and are still continued as such in the provinces . Upon one occasion , when visiting a Lodge in London , I heard a lecture in which Moses and Solomon were substituted as the grand parallels for the two St . Johns , but for which no valid reason could be assigned by those with whom I was discussing the point .
I entertain the greatest reverence for the memory of Moses , who was indeed a great prophet and a type of the Messiah , and also for that of Solomon , a wise and renownedsovereign ; bat " a greater than Solomon" has declared that St . John the Baptist was \ ' more than a prophet , " and that ' among them . that a , r e born of women , there hath not arisen a greater than John . " ISTow Masonry is said to be progressive , and if the order was in existence in the days of Solomon ( which I more than doubt ) , then it would have been reasonable for the Masons of that age to have dedicated their Lodges to King Solomon , and after a lapse of many years ,
equally reasonable for the Brethren , after their return from their captivity in Babylon , to have dedicated them to Zerubabel , from the prominent position he occupied with respect to the second temple . It was to this temple , according to the prophet Haggai , that " the desire of all nations should come . " Years rolled on , and the Jewish dispensation was rapidly drawing to a close ; it was but " a shadow of better things to come . " A moral darkness covered the earth in general , and a grosser—because a spiritual—darkness the once favoured people of God .
When , in mercy to mankind , " the Son of Righteousness arose with healing on His wings , " a new dispensation dawned upon the world—one of light , pure as that of the first day ' s creation—and the harbinger of this new dispensation was " John the Baptist , " the messenger whom , in accordance with the prophet Malachi , our Lord had sent " to prepare his way before Him . " At this time the most moral sect among the Jews were the Essenes , a sect whose system was
somewhat analagous to that of Masonry , and of which sect John the Baptist is said to have been a member ; and as he was the great reformer of his age , it would be equally reasonable , as in the other instances alluded to , that the Brethren , if their Order had any connection with our own , should have dedicated their Lodges to the Baptist , whose powerful preaching in the wilderness had led the people to believe that the Lord whom they expected was " suddenly coming to his temple , " and who , when He did come , found it so sadly desecrated , that , instead of being a temple dedicated to the honour and glory of the Most High , it was applied to the purposes of an exchange , and declared it to have become a den of thieves .
Is it , then , to be considered a matter of surprise that we , who are the children of this dispensation of light , of which St , John was the harbinger—that we , who call ourselves the sons of light , should dedicate to him our Order , which , if rightly understood , is a system of light ? Our bygone Brethren were more spiritually minded ; they did so dedicate their Lodges . St . John the Baptist was the first martyr to the newly-revealed truth ; he excited the jealousy of Herod , whose vices he openly condemned , and lost his life from his unshaken fidelity to the sacred trust reposed in him . About forty vears after his decapitation , the