The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

tory to God , that he appointed a ram , which he discovered to Abraham , caught by his horns in a thicket , as a sacrifice to be offered up instead of his son Isaac , and which the father of the faithful most gratefully offered up as a burnt offering to

his benevolent Creator . 2 nd . The mediatorial sacrifice offered up by King David u-pon the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite , which proved so acceptable to the Wise Disposer of human events , that He , of his unbounded wisdom ,

and goodness , put an end to the plague , which at the time destroyed from Dan to Beersheba , seventy thousand men , occasioned by David's imprudence in having the people of Israel numbered , contrary to the command of the Most High . For when the ange

stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil , and said to the angel that destroyed the people , " It is enough ; now stay thine hand . '' And the angel of the Lord then stood by the threshing floor of Araunah the

Jebusite . And David spake unto the Lord , when he saw the angel that smote the people , and said , " Lo I have sinned , and I have done wickedly hut these sheep , what have they done ? Let thine hand , I pray thee , be against me , and against my father ' s house . " And Gad , David ' s seer , came that day to David , and said unto him , " Go up , rear an altar to the Lordi

in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite . " And David , according to the saying of Gad , went up , as the Lord commanded , and he purchased the threshiug floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver . And David built there an altar unto the Lord , and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings . So the Lord

was entreated for the land , and the . plague was stayed from Israel . And David saw that his sacrifice was acceptable unto the Lord his God . " Whereupon he exclaimed : "This is the house of the Lord God , and this is the altar of the burnt offering of Israel ! "

3 rd . The dedication of Israel ' s holy temple , it the solemnisation of this grand and sacred fabric , King Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the head of the tribes , the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel , and a mighty congregation of all nations , from

the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt . And Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord ; for there he burnt offerings , because the brazen altar would have proved insufficient to contain the multitudes of the intended offerings . The elders of Israel being assembled , they

attended the king at Mount Zion , where the ark of God ' s covenant was theD kept , which the priests took up upon their shoulders ; the Levites , according to their several designed ranks , carried the tabernacle with all the holy vessels of Moses .

The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

Then the priests conveyed the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto its place to the oracle of the house , into the most holy place , even under the wings of the cherubim ; which , being done , the priests returned from that mysterious place , one hundred and twenty of them with silver trumpets ; and they blew their

trumpets in " the court , accompanied with symbols , psalteries , harps , and instruments of music , whilst the singers , who stood at each end of the altar , lifted up their voices and sung"For he is good ; for his mercy endureth forever . " Then the house was filled with a cloud , even the

house of the Lord , so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud ; for the glory of the Lord hast filled the house of God . Then the king , standing upon his brazen scaffold before the altar , and looking towards the clouds of glory , said : " The Lord bath said that he would dwell in thick

darkness , but I have built a house of habitation for Thee , and a place for thy dwelling forever , " And the King turned his face to all the people as they stood , and blessed the whole congregation of Israel ; then , turning from the congregation , he said : Oh , Lord of Israel ! there is no God like thee in heaven nor in

earth , continually showing mercy to thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts : therefore , O Lord God of Israel ! hearken unto the supplication of thy servant , and of thy people , when they pray towards this place , even from heaven ; and when thou hearest—FORGIVE . —Pomeroi / s Democrat .

Masonic Jottings, No. 80.

MASONIC JOTTINGS , No . 80 .

BY A PAST PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER . PRIMARY NOTION ' S . The primary notions of many Oxford and Cambridge Masons I have found to be , that the ori ginal

principle of the Revival Freemasonry was a universality , comprehending all religions , in which there is a belief in the Great Architect of the Universe , in a future state of reward and punishment , and in the moral Law .

OUR FIRST LECTURES AND CHARGES . Intelligent English Brothers , who know anything of the Biograph y of our chief Founders , will have wanted no examination of the archives of Grand Lodge , to come to the conclusion that our

first Lectures and Charges were Christian . THE OLD LECTURES , THE OLD CHARGES . A brother writes , that as regards the Chris tianity of the English Lodges , the old lectures