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Article COBBESPONDENCE. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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Cobbespondence.
science , the period when the sun reached his greatest northern and southern declination by entering the zodiacal signs Cancer and Capricorn , marked as it would be by the most evident effect on the seasons and on the length of the days and nights , could not have passed unobserved , hut on the contrary must have occupied a distinguished place in their ritual . Now these important days
fall - on the 21 st of June and 22 nd of December . When Christianity came to mingle its rays with the light of Masonry , and our ancestors found that the Church had appropriated two days near those solstitial periods to the memory of two eminent saints , it was easy to incorporate these festivals , by the lapse of a few days , into the Masonic calendar , and to adopt these worthies as patrons of the Order . St . John the Baptist , by announcing the approach of Christ , and by the
mystic ablution to which he subjected his proselytes , and which was afterwards adopted in the ceremony of initiation into Christianity , might well be considered as the grand hierophant of the church , while the mysterious and emblematic nature of the apocalypse assimilated the mode of teaching adopted by St . John the Evangelist to that practised by the Fraternity . The early Christians , as the best means of ensuring the adoption of the new faith , were careful to preserve
times and places that were held in reverence with the natives they went among . Gregory the Great laid strict injunctions on the missionaries to Britain to this effect—the Baol fires continued to be lighted until a recent date—and St . Paul ' s Cathedral stands on the site of a temple to Diana . As we claim for our institution a high antiquity , we ought not to allow the limit to the present era ; and to preserve its universality with all who acknowledge the true and living God Most High we
must adhere to King Solomon ; it having been the great object at the Union to preserve this universality . Dr . Oliver has always written in advocacy of Johannite Masonry ; but , many good Masons consider , not to the benefit of the institution . We hope not to see the day when our Hebrew Brethren are disowned . Again , the Freemasons throughout all ages were builders . The mighty architecture of early times could only have been produced by a unity of purpose in all employed , whether in the heads that contrived or in the hands that assisted to raise their
structures , and no great work was ever produced without this concoi'd . We have abundant testimony of this in structures that are now the pride and glory of England and France , to go no further . The beautiful cathedral of St . Ouen , in Rouen , was designed by Alexander de Berneval ., the Freemason , a . d . 1118 ; Peter of Colechurch , who designed the Old London Bridge , 1199 , was the Grand Master in England , and William of Wykeham built Windsor Castle , where he presided over
400 Freemasons . In fact , every one of our time honoured churches was the work of the Freemasons . The Essenes there is good reason to believe were a brotherhood embodying in their habits much of Masonic practice ; they were an order of monks , but although the ecclesiastics , who , by their profession could not marry were cenobites , yet we are nowhere told that Freemasonry was a cenobitic institution , The Essenes were a solitary community , whose abode was in the wild and
rocky country about the Jordan ; their dwellings were caves , they neither constructed or lived in houses . St . John the Baptist was doubtless one of them _ , and there is not the smallest tittle of evidence of either the Baptist or Evangelist being Freemasons ( architects or builders ) . Bazot ' s theory with regard to the adoption of St . John ( bear in mind , in all Lodge documents he is called St . John of Jerusalem ) is doubtless correct ; it was St . John the Eleemosynary ^ a canonized
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cobbespondence.
science , the period when the sun reached his greatest northern and southern declination by entering the zodiacal signs Cancer and Capricorn , marked as it would be by the most evident effect on the seasons and on the length of the days and nights , could not have passed unobserved , hut on the contrary must have occupied a distinguished place in their ritual . Now these important days
fall - on the 21 st of June and 22 nd of December . When Christianity came to mingle its rays with the light of Masonry , and our ancestors found that the Church had appropriated two days near those solstitial periods to the memory of two eminent saints , it was easy to incorporate these festivals , by the lapse of a few days , into the Masonic calendar , and to adopt these worthies as patrons of the Order . St . John the Baptist , by announcing the approach of Christ , and by the
mystic ablution to which he subjected his proselytes , and which was afterwards adopted in the ceremony of initiation into Christianity , might well be considered as the grand hierophant of the church , while the mysterious and emblematic nature of the apocalypse assimilated the mode of teaching adopted by St . John the Evangelist to that practised by the Fraternity . The early Christians , as the best means of ensuring the adoption of the new faith , were careful to preserve
times and places that were held in reverence with the natives they went among . Gregory the Great laid strict injunctions on the missionaries to Britain to this effect—the Baol fires continued to be lighted until a recent date—and St . Paul ' s Cathedral stands on the site of a temple to Diana . As we claim for our institution a high antiquity , we ought not to allow the limit to the present era ; and to preserve its universality with all who acknowledge the true and living God Most High we
must adhere to King Solomon ; it having been the great object at the Union to preserve this universality . Dr . Oliver has always written in advocacy of Johannite Masonry ; but , many good Masons consider , not to the benefit of the institution . We hope not to see the day when our Hebrew Brethren are disowned . Again , the Freemasons throughout all ages were builders . The mighty architecture of early times could only have been produced by a unity of purpose in all employed , whether in the heads that contrived or in the hands that assisted to raise their
structures , and no great work was ever produced without this concoi'd . We have abundant testimony of this in structures that are now the pride and glory of England and France , to go no further . The beautiful cathedral of St . Ouen , in Rouen , was designed by Alexander de Berneval ., the Freemason , a . d . 1118 ; Peter of Colechurch , who designed the Old London Bridge , 1199 , was the Grand Master in England , and William of Wykeham built Windsor Castle , where he presided over
400 Freemasons . In fact , every one of our time honoured churches was the work of the Freemasons . The Essenes there is good reason to believe were a brotherhood embodying in their habits much of Masonic practice ; they were an order of monks , but although the ecclesiastics , who , by their profession could not marry were cenobites , yet we are nowhere told that Freemasonry was a cenobitic institution , The Essenes were a solitary community , whose abode was in the wild and
rocky country about the Jordan ; their dwellings were caves , they neither constructed or lived in houses . St . John the Baptist was doubtless one of them _ , and there is not the smallest tittle of evidence of either the Baptist or Evangelist being Freemasons ( architects or builders ) . Bazot ' s theory with regard to the adoption of St . John ( bear in mind , in all Lodge documents he is called St . John of Jerusalem ) is doubtless correct ; it was St . John the Eleemosynary ^ a canonized