The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

stitute games and festivals ; and to compose a kind of song to perpetuate memorable events . Tradition then supplied the place of writing ; fathers explained to their children the motives of such practices and institutions , and informed

them of the events which had occasioned them . Nations were not then populous ; they had few necessities , few arts , and little commerce ; consequently their ideas and languages could not be very copious . As mankind grew more numerous , their

knowledge and their business increased , and it became necessary to invent more precise and commodious methods of attesting facts . The first attempt towards writing , if we may be allowed to use the term , was the representation of material

objects . After this , some ingenious nations invented more artificial methods : the most celebrated of these was that of hieroglyphics , of which the Egyptians are esteemed the inventors . Learned men have frequently been found in an error about

the first use of hieroglyphics . They imagined that the Egyptian Priests invented them , to conceal their knowledge from the vulgar . But this mistake has arisen from not attending to the change of circumstances . It is easy to prove that the

Egyptians at first only used hieroglyphics to transmit the knowledge of their laws , their customs , and their history , to posterity . It was nature and necessity , not art and choice , that produced the several kinds of hieroglyphic

writings . They were an imperfect defective invention , suited to the ignorance of the past ages . The Egyptians used them because they knew not letters . If this people had first invented alphabet writing , they would have been too sensible of

its excellence to use any other . This error about the use of hieroglyphics came from the Greeks . It was late before they had intercourse with the Egyptians , and none before alphabetic characters were in use . The hieroglyphic writing at that

time was abandoned by the bulk of the nation . It was then that the Egyptian priests , whose examples have been strictly adhered to by the learned of antiquity , invented a peculiar kind of hieroglyphics in order to conceal the tenets of

certain institutions from thosewho had not been admitted into the order . Nor would they , on any account whatever , draw the veil that enveloped their mystic symbols to any initiate until pledge of fidelity had been given never to divulge their secrets to an uninitiate .

Those examples have been widely adopted and implicitly retained by our fraternity for the purpose . of concealing their mysteries . The hieroglyphics , like the Sybil ' s leaves , containing the secrets of the Masonic Society , appear to the

world as indistinct and scattered fragments ; they however , convey to Masons an uniform and wellconnected system of morality . We shall now draw attention to the three Grand Offerings or Sacrifices .

1 st . —The history of Abraham's proceeding tosacrifice his only son at the command of God , is affecting in the highest degree , and sets forth

a pattern 01 unlimited resignation that every one ought to imitate in these traits of obedience under temptation , or of acquiescence under afflicting dispensations which fall to our lot . Of this we may rest assured , that our trials will be

always proportioned to the power afforded us j if we have not Abraham's strength of mind , neither shall we be called upon to lift the fatal knife against the bosom of an only child . But if the Almighty arm should be stretched forth against

him , we must be ready to resign him and all we hold dear to the Divine will . This action of Abraham has been censured by some , who do not attend to the distinction between obedience to a

special command and the destestably cruel sacrifices of the heathen , who sometimes voluntarily , and without any divine injunction , offered up their children under the notion of appeasing the anger of their gods . An absolute command from God

himself , as in the case of Abraham , entirely alters the moral nature of the action , since He and He only , has a perfect right over the lives of his creatures , and may appoint whom he will , either angel or man , to be the instrument of destruction .

That it really was the voice of God which pronounced the command , and not a delusion , might be made certain on Abraham ' s mind by means we do not comprehend , but which we know to be within the power of Him who made our souls as well

as our bodies , andwho can control and direct every faculty of the human mind ; aud we may be assured that if He was pleased to reveal himself so miraculously , He would not have a possibility of doubting whether it was a real or imaginary revelation .

The sacrifice of Abraham appears to be clear of all superstition , and remains the noblest instance of religious faith and submission that was eve given by a mere man ; which proved so satislac-