-
Articles/Ads
Article MAS ONIC L E GENDS. ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mas Onic L E Gends.
weakness of their minds , condemn what they ought most to venerate . " The allegories of the old Jewish Scriptures , and the parables of . our Saviour , were not all of them , as is well known , relations of facts , . bat - beautiful fictions , of a significance in general easily understood . though in some cases abstruse , and requiring in their explanations a degree of wisdom not attained to by every pretentious sage of modern
days . We have said fictions , but we ought rather to have said narratives founded on something real or apparent in nature , history , or common life ; and they are in words wjiat emblems are in painting , the former being addressed to the ear , the latter to the eye . The literal meaning of " legend" ( from legendo ) , is simply a reading—i \\ this respect being synonomous with lecture ( from lectio ) , also a Masonic term . "Who but a narrow-minded sectary would think of
repudiating the beautiful allegorical legend of Bnnyan r There are not a few A . rabian , as well as all Jewish legends , which serve to illustrate many points in Masonry . And tlje same inay be said of certain Christian legends recorded in the Xegenda Aurea , and elsewhere . Legends , snch as those here referred to , deserve to be studied by every member of our mystic Craft , who aspires to illustrate , in his own character , as it is his bounden duty to do , the
beauty of our Order . It appears from the writings of Bede and Usher , that Christian legends were read on set occasions in the course of public worship in the olden time . One of the books found among the ruins of Verulam in the tenth century , contained a history of St . Albans , written in the ancient British character and dialect .
Cosmo and Damia . n . —As a counterpart to the mythological legend of Castor and Pollux , for which , as we think , modern Masons have substituted the two Saints John , we have several legends of Cosmo and Damian , Arabians by birth , but dwellers in the city of iEgia 3 .. They spent their lives in ministering to the poor , the sick , and the afflicted—all ¦ " for charity and the love of God . " They suffered martyrdom as Christians , whose faith they professed . Of the many legends of them extant , w e shall refer to one only ,
illustrated in an Italian picture , representing the Saviour in the disguise of a sick pilgrim , ministered unto by these holy brothers—a beautiful allegory truly , literary illustrating the text , " Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren , yc have done it unto me . " St . John the Evangelist . —There is a legend of St . John the Evangelist , related by Calmet , which indeed should not be called a
legend , since every word of it is true . In his old age he made no longer any set discourses , but uniformly without variation iterated and reiterated , in all assemblies , the simple exhortation— " Little children , love one another , " At length the people grew weary of
* Cyril Alexander , quoted by out late lie v . Bro . T . M . Harris , in a posthumous work of his , under the nom deplume of " Theodore Temple / ' entitled "J . ) isciplina Arcani , " or " Discipline of the Secret , "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mas Onic L E Gends.
weakness of their minds , condemn what they ought most to venerate . " The allegories of the old Jewish Scriptures , and the parables of . our Saviour , were not all of them , as is well known , relations of facts , . bat - beautiful fictions , of a significance in general easily understood . though in some cases abstruse , and requiring in their explanations a degree of wisdom not attained to by every pretentious sage of modern
days . We have said fictions , but we ought rather to have said narratives founded on something real or apparent in nature , history , or common life ; and they are in words wjiat emblems are in painting , the former being addressed to the ear , the latter to the eye . The literal meaning of " legend" ( from legendo ) , is simply a reading—i \\ this respect being synonomous with lecture ( from lectio ) , also a Masonic term . "Who but a narrow-minded sectary would think of
repudiating the beautiful allegorical legend of Bnnyan r There are not a few A . rabian , as well as all Jewish legends , which serve to illustrate many points in Masonry . And tlje same inay be said of certain Christian legends recorded in the Xegenda Aurea , and elsewhere . Legends , snch as those here referred to , deserve to be studied by every member of our mystic Craft , who aspires to illustrate , in his own character , as it is his bounden duty to do , the
beauty of our Order . It appears from the writings of Bede and Usher , that Christian legends were read on set occasions in the course of public worship in the olden time . One of the books found among the ruins of Verulam in the tenth century , contained a history of St . Albans , written in the ancient British character and dialect .
Cosmo and Damia . n . —As a counterpart to the mythological legend of Castor and Pollux , for which , as we think , modern Masons have substituted the two Saints John , we have several legends of Cosmo and Damian , Arabians by birth , but dwellers in the city of iEgia 3 .. They spent their lives in ministering to the poor , the sick , and the afflicted—all ¦ " for charity and the love of God . " They suffered martyrdom as Christians , whose faith they professed . Of the many legends of them extant , w e shall refer to one only ,
illustrated in an Italian picture , representing the Saviour in the disguise of a sick pilgrim , ministered unto by these holy brothers—a beautiful allegory truly , literary illustrating the text , " Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren , yc have done it unto me . " St . John the Evangelist . —There is a legend of St . John the Evangelist , related by Calmet , which indeed should not be called a
legend , since every word of it is true . In his old age he made no longer any set discourses , but uniformly without variation iterated and reiterated , in all assemblies , the simple exhortation— " Little children , love one another , " At length the people grew weary of
* Cyril Alexander , quoted by out late lie v . Bro . T . M . Harris , in a posthumous work of his , under the nom deplume of " Theodore Temple / ' entitled "J . ) isciplina Arcani , " or " Discipline of the Secret , "