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Article THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON AS A SYMBOL OF FKE... ← Page 6 of 15 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Temple Of Solomon As A Symbol Of Fke...
Ereemasotrry in its present organization— -not that the system did not exist before , but that the union of its operative and speculative character , and the mutual dependence of one upon the other , was there first established . At the construction of this stupendous edifice—stupendous , not in magnitude , for many a parish church has since excelled it in size ,
but stupendous in the wealth and magnificence of its ornamentsthe wise King of Israel , with all that sagacity for which lie was so eminently distinguished , and aided and counselled by the Gentile experience of the King of Tyre , and that immortal Architect who
superintended his workmen , saw at once the excellence and beauty of this method of inculcating moral and religious truth ; and gave , therefore , the impulse to that symbolic reference of material things
to a spiritual sense , which has ever since distinguished the institution of which he was the founder . If I deemed it necessary to substantiate the truth of the assertion that the mind of King Solomon was eminently symbolic in its propensities , I might easily refer to his writings , filled as they are to
profusion with tropes and figures . Passing over the book of Canticles—that great lyrical drama whose abstruse symbolism has net yet been fully evolved or explained , notwithstanding the vast number of commentators who have laboured at the task—I might simply refer to that beautiful passage in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes ,
so familiar to every Mason , as being appropiated in the ritual to the ceremonies of the third degree , and in which a dilapidated building is metaphorically made to represent the decays and infirmities of old age in the human body . This brief but eloquent description is itself an embodiment of much of our Masonic symbolism , both as to the mode and the subject matter .
In attempting any investigation into the symbolism of Freemasonry the first thing that should engage our attention is the general purport of the institution , and the mode in which its symbolism is developed . Let us first examine it as a whole , before we investigate its parts , just as we would first view , as critics , the general effeot of a building before we began to inquire into its architectural details .
Looking , then , in this way , at the institution—coming down to us , as it has , from a remote age ; having passed unaltered and unscathed through a thousand revolutions of nations ; and engaging as disciples in its school of mental labour the intellectual of all times—the first thing that must naturally arrest the attention is the singular combination that it presents of an operative with a speculative organization ; an art , with a science ; the technical terms and language of a mechanical profession , with the abstruse teachings of a profound philosophy .
Here it is before us—a venerable school , discoursing of the deepesi
* According to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland , it was only one hundred and nine feet in length , thirty-six in breadth , and fifty four in height .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Temple Of Solomon As A Symbol Of Fke...
Ereemasotrry in its present organization— -not that the system did not exist before , but that the union of its operative and speculative character , and the mutual dependence of one upon the other , was there first established . At the construction of this stupendous edifice—stupendous , not in magnitude , for many a parish church has since excelled it in size ,
but stupendous in the wealth and magnificence of its ornamentsthe wise King of Israel , with all that sagacity for which lie was so eminently distinguished , and aided and counselled by the Gentile experience of the King of Tyre , and that immortal Architect who
superintended his workmen , saw at once the excellence and beauty of this method of inculcating moral and religious truth ; and gave , therefore , the impulse to that symbolic reference of material things
to a spiritual sense , which has ever since distinguished the institution of which he was the founder . If I deemed it necessary to substantiate the truth of the assertion that the mind of King Solomon was eminently symbolic in its propensities , I might easily refer to his writings , filled as they are to
profusion with tropes and figures . Passing over the book of Canticles—that great lyrical drama whose abstruse symbolism has net yet been fully evolved or explained , notwithstanding the vast number of commentators who have laboured at the task—I might simply refer to that beautiful passage in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes ,
so familiar to every Mason , as being appropiated in the ritual to the ceremonies of the third degree , and in which a dilapidated building is metaphorically made to represent the decays and infirmities of old age in the human body . This brief but eloquent description is itself an embodiment of much of our Masonic symbolism , both as to the mode and the subject matter .
In attempting any investigation into the symbolism of Freemasonry the first thing that should engage our attention is the general purport of the institution , and the mode in which its symbolism is developed . Let us first examine it as a whole , before we investigate its parts , just as we would first view , as critics , the general effeot of a building before we began to inquire into its architectural details .
Looking , then , in this way , at the institution—coming down to us , as it has , from a remote age ; having passed unaltered and unscathed through a thousand revolutions of nations ; and engaging as disciples in its school of mental labour the intellectual of all times—the first thing that must naturally arrest the attention is the singular combination that it presents of an operative with a speculative organization ; an art , with a science ; the technical terms and language of a mechanical profession , with the abstruse teachings of a profound philosophy .
Here it is before us—a venerable school , discoursing of the deepesi
* According to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland , it was only one hundred and nine feet in length , thirty-six in breadth , and fifty four in height .