Masonic Legend And Tradition.

" Now for the corner-stone of another tradition : For seven years the work of constructing that Temple went steadily forward according to the designs of the ' cunning workman ' of Tyre in whom was mingled the blood of the Jew and the Gentile . Israelite and Tyrian toiled side by side , until by the united skill and industry of more than one hundred and fifty thousand workmen the Grand Design was completed . Think you a close and fraternal intimacy had grown up between these workmen ? In their hours of ' rest and refreshment' they doubtless talked over the history , customs , and religions of their respective nations , with the nature and resulting benefits of a closer union ; and though the sons of Abraham could

not , perhaps , formally unite with their co-workers the Tyrians , nor embrace their -peculiar dogmas in their entirety , they could unite in some of them . The Israelites , perhaps , would commend the doctrines and duties taught by the Prophets , and instructed their Tyrian associates in relation to the claims and promises—the privileges and blessings vouchsafed to them by the God of Abraham . " The very rock or timber on which their skill was then engaged would lead to conversation on this subject ; and in the hours of relaxation from toil , while reposing under the deep shades of the forest on the plains of Zarthanor the sides and summit of Lebanon

, , would suggest the wonders God had wrought in behalf of His chosen people ; and such themes would lead them to chant the inspired songs of the Hebrew bards , until the mind and language of the Jew glowed under the inspiration of the themes , and the hopes and prospects opening before them , while their Tyrian associates would listen , and wonder , and admire . It cannot be supposed that this free and unrestrained intermingling of workmen , even of different races , could continue for a period of seven years without creating an intimacy as sincere as it was disinterested , and without making each party acquainted with whatever was valuable and desirable in the socialreliiousor fraternal institutions of the respective

, g , nations . The one was as ready to impart as the other was to receive instruction ; while both were benefited , and received impressions that ages did not obliterate . " But the great work was finally completed , and the workmen were again to be separated . The Temple , in which the solemn and imposing worship of Jehovah was to he publically instituted aud statedly celebrated , was dedicated with the most imposing ceremonies that earth had ever witnessed . The Ark , with its sacred deposits , was safely deposited in the ' Most Holy Place . ' On his bended knees' before all the congregation' and the vast

, , assemblage which the great event had collected from every part of Judea , the great Monarch of Israel had solemnly consecrated the whole to the worship of Jehovah . And God had apappeared in awful maj esty over the -mercy seat , and accepted the offering . Next to the cloud and the thunder and the earthquake upon Mount Sinai , this was the most solemn and aweinspiring scene that man had ever witnessed .

" We may reasonably conclude that many of those Tyrian artists who so long and faithfully laboured in the erection of this wonderful structure remained to witness the great events of its dedication ; and , if so , what they saw and heard on that memorable occasion must have made a deep impression upon their minds , and served to confirm them in the truths about which they had heard so much during their seven years' association with their Hebrew friends . Many of the Jewish craftsmen were , no doubt , by this time well skilled in the science of architecture , aud disposed to devote themselves to it in preference to their old occupation . They had alsoprobablybassociation with otherswitnessed the orderhar

, , y , , - mony , perpetual friendship and general benefits resulting from a practice of the secret Bites of the Tyrians or Dionysians , and were ready to adopt them if they could be so modified as not to conflict with their own religious opinions and prejudices . The mythological fictions of the Tyrians it were easy to supersede by the great truths of the Hebrew system as revealed in 'the law and the prophets ; ' and events which had transpired during the progress of building the Temple ( with which every Mason of to-day is familiar ) could readily be ° substitutedin substancefor those prominent in the Dionysiau Rites . Herein inion

, , , my op , was the commencement of the ancient guilds or associations of builders of different nations which grew and spread , as their services were needed , down to the middle ages . The ancient rites and ceremonies of the old builders , adapted to the religious dogmas and ceremonies of the Hebrews , wedded to the moral truths taught in the Sacred Law , and baptized at the Altar of Jehovah . I will not say that it was the Freemasonry of to-day , but it was the beginning of those old guilds of after ages the fruits of whose labours , though many of them in ruins , are the wonder and admiration of still later centuries ; and these later associations of builders constituted the out of which

germ grew the Freemasonry of the present . " Our traditions and legends are linked with the architects of Tyre and Egypt and Phoenicia and Jerusalem ; and these roots of a new and constantl y improving system grew from shadow to substance , from root to tree , from germ to structure , until the culmination is now seen in the Masonic fraternity everywhere . Our traditions and legends connect us more or less directly with those ancient rites and systems , but the particulars are shrouded and lost in the dim obscurity of more than three thousand years . I can account for the origin of Freemasonry , its Jewish lineaments , its adhesion to the moral law of the Bible , and its peculiar secrets , legends , and traditions on no other hypothesis than the one I have given if anyone else can , we shall not dispute about it .