Aristotle says: "It has been handed down in a mythical form, from the earliest times to posterity, that there are G.o.ds, and that The Divine compa.s.ses entire nature. All besides this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the mult.i.tude, and for the interest of the laws and the advantage of the State. Thus men have given to the G.o.ds human forms, and have even represented them under the figure of other beings, in the train of which fictions followed many more of the same sort. But if, from all this, we separate the original principle, and consider it alone, namely, that the first Essences are G.o.ds, we shall find that this has been divinely said; and since it is probable that philosophy and the arts have been several times, so far as that is possible, found and lost, such doctrines may have been preserved to our times as the remains of ancient wisdom."
Porphyry says: "By images addressed to sense, the ancients represented G.o.d and his powers--by the visible they typified the invisible for those who had learned to read in these types, as in a book, a treatise on the G.o.ds. We need not wonder if the ignorant consider the images to be nothing more than wood or stone; for just so, they who are ignorant of writing see nothing in monuments but stone, nothing in tablets but wood, and in books but a tissue of papyrus."
Apollonius of Tyana held, that birth and death are only in appearance; that which separates itself from the _one_ substance (the _one_ Divine essence), and is caught up by matter, seems to be born; that, again, which releases itself from the bonds of matter, and is reunited with the one Divine Essence, seems to die. There is, at most, an alteration between becoming visible and becoming invisible. In all there is, properly speaking, but the one essence, which alone acts and suffers, by becoming all things to all; the Eternal G.o.d, whom men wrong, when they deprive Him of what properly can be attributed to Him only, and transfer it to other names and persons.
The New Platonists subst.i.tuted the idea of the Absolute, for the Supreme Essence itself;--as the first, simplest principle, anterior to all existence; of which nothing determinate can be predicated; to which no consciousness, no self-contemplation can be ascribed; inasmuch as to do so, would immediately imply a quality, a distinction of subject and object. This Supreme Ent.i.ty can be known only by an intellectual intuition of the Spirit, transcending itself, and emanc.i.p.ating itself from its own limits.
This mere logical tendency, by means of which men thought to arrive at the conception of such an absolute, the [Greek: ??], was united with a certain mysticism, which, by a transcendent state of feeling, communicated, as it were, to this abstraction what the mind would receive as a reality. The absorption of the Spirit into that superexistence ([Greek: t? ?p??e??a t?? ??s?a?]), so as to be entirely identified with it, or such a revelation of the latter to the spirit raised above itself, was regarded as the highest end which the spiritual life could reach.
The New Platonists" idea of G.o.d, was that of One Simple Original Essence, exalted above all plurality and all becoming; the only true Being; unchangeable, eternal [[Greek: ??? ?? ??? t? ??? t? ?e? pep?????e ?a? ???? ?st? t? ?at? t??t?? ??t?? ??]]: from whom all Existence in its several gradations has emanated--the world of G.o.ds, as nearest akin to Himself, being first, and at the head of all. In these G.o.ds, that perfection, which in the Supreme Essence was inclosed and unevolved, is expanded and becomes knowable. They serve to exhibit in different forms the image of that Supreme Essence, to which no soul can rise, except by the loftiest flight of contemplation; and after it has rid itself from all that pertains to sense--from all manifoldness. They are the mediators between man (amazed and stupefied by manifoldness) and the Supreme Unity.
Philo says: "He who disbelieves the miraculous, simply as the miraculous, neither knows G.o.d, nor has he ever sought after Him; for otherwise he would have understood, by looking at that truly great and awe-inspiring sight, the miracle of the Universe, that these miracles (in G.o.d"s providential guidance of His people) are but child"s play for the Divine Power. But the truly miraculous has become despised through familiarity. The universal, on the contrary, although in itself insignificant, yet, through our love of novelty, transports us with amazement."
In opposition to the anthropopathism of the Jewish Scriptures, the Alexandrian Jews endeavored to purify the idea of G.o.d from all admixture of the Human. By the exclusion of every human pa.s.sion, it was sublimated to a something devoid of all attributes, and wholly transcendental; and the mere Being [Greek: ??], the Good, in and by itself, the Absolute of Platonism, was subst.i.tuted for the personal Deity [[Hebrew: ????]] of the Old Testament. By soaring upward, beyond all created existence, the mind, disengaging itself from the Sensible, attains to the intellectual intuition of this Absolute Being; of whom, however, it can predicate nothing but existence, and sets aside all other determinations as not answering to the exalted nature of the Supreme Essence.
Thus Philo makes a distinction between those who are in the proper sense Sons of G.o.d, having by means of contemplation raised themselves to the highest Being, or attained to a knowledge of Him, in His immediate self-manifestation, and those who know G.o.d only in his mediate revelation through his operation--such as He declares Himself in creation--in the revelation still veiled in the letter of Scripture--those, in short, who attach themselves simply to the Logos, and consider this to be the Supreme G.o.d; who are the sons of the Logos, rather than of the True Being, (??)
"G.o.d," says Pythagoras, "is neither the object of sense, nor subject to pa.s.sion, but invisible, only intelligible, and supremely intelligent In His body He is like the _light_, and in His soul He resembles truth. He is the universal _spirit_ that pervades and diffuseth itself over all nature. All beings receive their _life_ from Him. There is but one only G.o.d, who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world, beyond the orb of the Universe; but being Himself all in all, He sees all the beings that fill His immensity; the only Principle, the _Light_ of Heaven, the Father of all. He _produces everything_; He orders and disposes everything; He is the REASON, the LIFE, and the MOTION of all being."
"I am the LIGHT of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in DARKNESS, but shall have the LIGHT OF LIFE." So said the Founder of the Christian Religion, as His words are reported by John the Apostle.
G.o.d, say the sacred writings of the Jews, appeared to Moses in a FLAME OF FIRE, in the midst of a bush, which was not consumed. He descended upon Mount Sinai, as the smoke of a _furnace_; He went before the children of Israel, by day, in a pillar of cloud and, by night, in a pillar of _fire_, to give them _light_. "Call _you_ on the name of _your_ G.o.ds," said Elijah the Prophet to the Priests of Baal, "and I will call upon the name of ADONAI; and the G.o.d that answereth _by fire_, let him be G.o.d."
According to the Kabalah, as according to the doctrines of Zoroaster, everything that exists has emanated from a source of infinite light.
Before all things, existed _the Primitive Being_, THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, _the Ancient King of Light_; a t.i.tle the more remarkable, because it is frequently given to the Creator in the Zend-Avesta, and in the Code of the Sabeans, and occurs in the Jewish Scriptures.
The world was His Revelation, G.o.d revealed; and subsisted only in Him.
His attributes were there reproduced with various modifications and in different degrees; so that the Universe was His Holy Splendor, His Mantle. He was to be adored in silence; and perfection consisted in a nearer approach to Him.
Before the creation of worlds, the PRIMITIVE LIGHT filled all s.p.a.ce, so that there was no void. When the Supreme Being, existing in this Light, resolved to display His perfections, or manifest them in worlds, He withdrew within Himself, formed around Him a void s.p.a.ce, and shot forth His first emanation, a ray of light; the cause and principle of everything that exists, uniting both the generative and conceptive power, which penetrates everything, and without which nothing could subsist for an instant.
Man fell, seduced by the Evil Spirits most remote from the Great King of Light; those of the fourth world of spirits, Asiah, whose chief was Belial. They wage incessant war against the pure Intelligences of the other worlds, who, like the Amshaspands, Izeds, and Ferouers of the Persians are the tutelary guardians of man. In the beginning, all was unison and harmony; full of the same divine light and perfect purity.
The Seven Kings of Evil fell, and the Universe was troubled. Then the Creator took from the Seven Kings the principles of Good and of Light, and divided them among the four worlds of Spirits, giving to the first three the Pure Intelligences, united in love and harmony, while to the fourth were vouchsafed only some feeble glimmerings of light.
When the strife between these and the good angels shall have continued the appointed time, and these Spirits enveloped in darkness shall long and in vain have endeavored to absorb the Divine light and life, then will the Eternal Himself come to correct them. He will deliver them from the gross envelopes of matter that hold them captive, will re-animate and strengthen the ray of light or spiritual nature which they have preserved, and re-establish throughout the Universe that primitive Harmony which was its bliss.
Marcion, the Gnostic, said, "The Soul of the True Christian, adopted as a child by the Supreme Being, to whom it has long been a stranger, receives from Him the Spirit and Divine life. It is led and confirmed, by this gift, in a pure and holy life, like that of G.o.d; and if it so completes its earthly career, in charity, chast.i.ty, and sanct.i.ty, it will one day be disengaged from its material envelope, as the ripe grain is detached from the straw, and as the young bird escapes from its sh.e.l.l. Like the angels, it will share in the bliss of the Good and Perfect Father, re-clothed in an aerial body or organ, and made like unto the Angels in Heaven."
You see, my brother, what is the meaning of Masonic "Light." You see why the EAST of the Lodge, where the initial letter of the Name of the Deity overhangs the Master, is the place of Light. Light, as contradistinguished from darkness, is Good, as contradistinguished from Evil: and it is that Light, the true knowledge of Deity, the Eternal Good, for which Masons in all ages have sought. Still Masonry marches steadily onward toward that Light that shines in the great distance, the Light of that day when Evil, overcome and vanquished, shall fade away and disappear forever, and Life and Light be the one law of the Universe, and its eternal Harmony.
The Degree of Rose teaches three things;--the unity, immutability and goodness of G.o.d; the immortality of the Soul; the ultimate defeat and extinction of evil and wrong and sorrow, by a Redeemer or Messiah, yet to come, if he has not already appeared.
It replaces the three pillars of the old Temple, with three that have already been explained to you,--Faith [in G.o.d, mankind, and man"s self], Hope [in the victory over evil, the advancement of Humanity, and a hereafter], and Charity [relieving the wants and tolerant of the errors and faults of others]. To be trustful to be hopeful, to be indulgent; these, in an age of selfishness, of ill opinion of human nature, of harsh and bitter judgment, are the most important Masonic Virtues, and the true supports of every Masonic Temple. And they are the old pillars of the Temple under different names. For he only is wise who judges others charitably; he only is strong who is hopeful; and there is no beauty like a firm faith in G.o.d, our fellows and ourself.
The second apartment, clothed in mourning, the columns of the Temple shattered and prostrate, and the brethren bowed down in the deepest dejection, represents the world under the tyranny of the Principle of Evil; where virtue is persecuted and vice rewarded; where the righteous starve for bread, and the wicked live sumptuously and dress in purple and fine linen; where insolent ignorance rules, and learning and genius serve; where King and Priest trample on liberty and the rights of conscience; where freedom hides in caves and mountains, and sycophancy and servility fawn and thrive; where the cry of the widow and the orphan starving for want of food, and shivering with cold, rises ever to Heaven, from a million miserable hovels; where men, willing to labor, and starving, they and their children and the wives of their bosoms, beg plaintively for work, when the pampered capitalist stops his mills; where the law punishes her who, starving, steals a loaf, and lets the seducer go free; where the success of a party justifies murder, and violence and rapine go unpunished; and where he who with many years"
cheating and grinding the faces of the poor grows rich, receives office and honor in life, and after death brave funeral and a splendid mausoleum:--this world, where, since its making, war has never ceased, nor man paused in the sad task of torturing and murdering his brother; and of which ambition, avarice, envy, hatred, l.u.s.t, and the rest of Ahriman"s and Typhon"s army make a Pandemonium: this world, sunk in sin, reeking with baseness, clamorous with sorrow and misery. If any see in it also a type of the sorrow of the Craft for the death of Hiram, the grief of the Jews at the fall of Jerusalem, the misery of the Templars at the ruin of their order and the death of De Molay, or the world"s agony and pangs of woe at the death of the Redeemer, it is the right of each to do so.
The third apartment represents the consequences of sin and vice and the h.e.l.l made of the human heart, by its fiery pa.s.sions. If any see in it also a type of the Hades of the Greeks, the Gehenna of the Hebrews, the Tartarus of the Romans, or the h.e.l.l of the Christians, or only of the agonies of remorse and the tortures of an upbraiding conscience, it is the right of each to do so.
The fourth apartment represents the Universe, freed from the insolent dominion and tyranny of the Principle of Evil, and brilliant with the true Light that flows from the Supreme Deity; when sin and wrong, and pain and sorrow, remorse and misery shall be no more forever; when the great plans of Infinite Eternal Wisdom shall be fully developed; and all G.o.d"s creatures, seeing that all apparent evil and individual suffering and wrong were but the drops that went to swell the great river of infinite goodness, shall know that vast as is the power of Deity, His goodness and beneficence are infinite as His power. If any see in it a type of the peculiar mysteries of any faith or creed, or an allusion to any past occurrences, it is their right to do so. Let each apply its symbols as he pleases. To all of us they typify the universal rule of Masonry,--of its three chief virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity; of brotherly love and universal benevolence. We labor here to no other end.
These symbols need no other interpretation.
The obligations of our Ancient Brethren of the Rose were to fulfill all the duties of friendship, cheerfulness, charity, peace, liberality, temperance and chast.i.ty: and scrupulously to avoid impurity, haughtiness, hatred, anger, and every other kind of vice. They took their philosophy from the old Theology of the Egyptians, as Moses and Solomon had done, and borrowed its hieroglyphics and the ciphers of the Hebrews. Their princ.i.p.al rules were, to exercise the profession of medicine charitably and without fee, to advance the cause of virtue, enlarge the sciences, and induce men to live as in the primitive times of the world.
When this Degree had its origin, it is not important to inquire; nor with what different rites it has been practised in different countries and at various times. It is of very high antiquity. Its ceremonies differ with the degrees of lat.i.tude and longitude, and it receives variant interpretations. If we were to examine all the different ceremonials, their emblems, and their formulas, we should see that all that belongs to the primitive and essential elements of the order, is respected in every sanctuary. All alike practise virtue, that it may product fruit. All labor, like us, for the extirpation of vice, the purification of man, the development of the arts and sciences, and the relief of humanity.
None admit an adept to their lofty philosophical knowledge, and mysterious sciences, until he has been purified at the altar of the symbolic Degrees. Of what importance are differences of opinion as to the age and genealogy of the Degree, or variance in the practice, ceremonial and liturgy, or the shade of color of the banner under which each tribe of Israel marched, if all revere the Holy Arch of the symbolic Degrees, first and unalterable source of Free Masonry; if all revere our conservative principles, and are with us in the great purposes of our organization?
If, anywhere, brethren of a particular religious belief have been excluded from this Degree, it merely shows how gravely the purposes and plan of Masonry may be misunderstood. For whenever the door of any Degree is closed against him who believes in one G.o.d and the soul"s immortality, on account of the other tenets of his faith, that Degree is Masonry no longer. No Mason has the right to interpret the symbols of this Degree for another, or to refuse him its mysteries, if he will not take them with the explanation and commentary superadded.
Listen, my brother, to _our_ explanation of the symbols of the Degree, and then give them such further interpretation as you think fit.
The _Cross_ has been a sacred symbol from the earliest Antiquity. It is found upon all the enduring monuments of the world, in Egypt, in a.s.syria, in Hindostan, in Persia, and on the Buddhist towers of Ireland.
Buddha was said to have died upon it. The Druids cut an oak into its shape and held it sacred, and built their temples in that form. Pointing to the four quarters of the world, it was the symbol of universal nature. It was on a cruciform tree, that Chrishna was said to have expired, pierced with arrows. It was revered in Mexico.
But its peculiar meaning in this Degree, is that given to it by the Ancient Egyptians. _Thoth_ or _Phtha_ is represented on the oldest monuments carrying in his hand the _Crux Ansata_, or _Ankh_, [a Tau cross, with a ring or circle over it]. He is so seen on the double tablet of Shufu and Noh Shufu, builders of the greatest of the Pyramids, at Wady Meghara, in the peninsula of Sinai. It was the hieroglyphic for _life_, and with a triangle prefixed meant _life-giving_. To us therefore it is the symbol of _Life_--of that life that emanated from the Deity, and of that Eternal Life for which all hope; through our faith in G.o.d"s infinite goodness.
The ROSE was anciently sacred to Aurora and the Sun. It is symbol of _Dawn_, of the resurrection of Light and the renewal of life, and therefore of the dawn of the first day, and more particularly of the resurrection: and the Cross and Rose together are therefore hieroglyphically to be read, _the Dawn of Eternal Life_ which all Nations have hoped for by the advent of a Redeemer.
The _Pelican_ feeding her young is an emblem of the large and bountiful beneficence of Nature, of the Redeemer of fallen man, and of that humanity and charity that ought to distinguish a Knight of this Degree.
The Eagle was the living Symbol of the Egyptian G.o.d _Mendes_ or _Menthra_, whom _Sesostris-Ramses_ made one with _Amun-Re_, the G.o.d of Thebes and Upper Egypt, and the representative of the Sun, the word RE meaning _Sun_ or _King_.
The _Compa.s.s_ surmounted with a crown signifies that notwithstanding the high rank attained in Masonry by a Knight of the Rose Croix, equity and impartiality are invariably to govern his conduct.
To the word INRI, inscribed on the Crux Ansata over the Master"s Seat, many meanings have been a.s.signed. The Christian Initiate reverentially sees in it the initials of the inscription upon the cross on which Christ suffered--_Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum_. The sages of Antiquity connected it with one of the greatest secrets of Nature, that of universal regeneration. They interpreted it thus, _Igne Natura renovatur Integra_; [entire nature is renovated by fire]: The Alchemical or Hermetic Masons framed for it this aphorism, _Igne nitrum roris invenitur_. And the Jesuits are charged with having applied to it this odious axiom, _Justum necare reges impios_. The four letters are the initials of the Hebrew words that represent the four elements--_Iammim_, the seas or water; _Hour_, fire; _Rouach_, the air, and _Iebeschah_, the dry earth. How we read it, I need not repeat to you.
The CROSS, [Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph] was the Sign of the Creative Wisdom or Logos, the Son of G.o.d. Plato says, "He expressed him upon the Universe in the figure of the letter X. The next Power to the Supreme G.o.d Was decussated or figured in the shape of a Cross on Universe." Mithras signed his soldiers on the forehead with a Cross. [Glyph] is the mark of 600, the mysterious cycle of the Incarnations.
We constantly see the Tau and the Resh united thus [Glyph]. These two letters, in the old Samaritan, as found in Arius, stand, the first for 400, the second for 200-600. This is the Staff of Osiris, also, and his monogram, and was adopted by the Christians as a Sign. On a medal of Constantius is this inscription, "_In hoc signo victor cris_ [Glyph]."
An inscription in the Duomo at Milan reads, "[Glyph] et [Glyph].
_Christi-Nomina-Sancta-Tene_."
The Egyptians used as a Sign of their G.o.d Can.o.bus, a [Glyph] or a [Glyph] indifferently. The Vaishnavas of India have also the same Sacred Tau, which they also mark with Crosses, thus [Glyph], and with triangles, thus, [Glyph]. The vestments of the priests of Horus were covered with these Crosses [Glyph]. So was the dress of the Lama of Thibet. The Sectarian marks of the Jains are [Glyph]. The distinctive badge of the Sect of Xac j.a.ponicus is [Glyph]. It is the Sign of Fo, identical with the Cross of Christ.
On the ruins of Mandore, in India, among other mystic emblems, are the mystic triangle, and the interlaced triangle, [Glyph]. This is also found on ancient coins and medals, excavated from the ruins of Oojein and other ancient cities of India.
You entered here amid gloom and into shadow, and are clad in the apparel of sorrow. Lament, with us, the sad condition of the Human race, in this vale of tears! the calamities of men and the agonies of nations! the darkness of the bewildered soul, oppressed by doubt and apprehension!
There is no human soul that is not sad at times. There is no thoughtful soul that does not at times despair. There is perhaps none, of all that think at all of anything beyond the needs and interests of the body, that is not at times startled and terrified by the awful questions which, feeling as though it were a guilty thing for doing so, it whispers to itself in its inmost depths. Some Demon seems to torture it with doubts, and to crush it with despair, asking whether, after all, it is certain that its convictions are true and its faith well founded: whether it is indeed sure that a G.o.d of Infinite Love and Beneficence rules the Universe, or only some great remorseless Fate and iron Necessity, hid in impenetrable gloom, and to which men and their sufferings and sorrows, their hopes and joys, their ambitions and deeds, are of no more interest or importance than the motes that dance in the sunshine; or a Being that amuses Himself with the incredible vanity and folly, the writhings and contortions of the insignificant insects that compose Humanity, and idly imagine that they resemble the Omnipotent.
"What are we," the Tempter asks, "but puppets in a show-box? O Omnipotent destiny, pull our strings gently! Dance us mercifully off our miserable little stage!"
"Is it not," the Demon whispers, "merely the inordinate vanity of man that causes him now to pretend to himself that he is like unto G.o.d in intellect, sympathies and pa.s.sions, as it was that which, at the beginning, made him believe that he was, in his bodily shape and organs, the very image of the Deity? Is not his G.o.d merely his own shadow, projected in gigantic outlines upon the clouds? Does he not create for himself a G.o.d out of himself, by merely adding indefinite extension to his own faculties, powers, and pa.s.sions?"
"Who," the Voice that will not be always silent whispers, "has ever thoroughly satisfied himself with his own arguments in respect to his own nature? Who ever demonstrated to himself, with a conclusiveness that elevated the belief to certainty, that he was an immortal spirit, dwelling only temporarily in the house and envelope of the body, and to live on forever after that shall have decayed? Who ever has demonstrated or ever can demonstrate that the intellect of Man differs from that of the wiser animals, otherwise than in degree? Who has ever done more than to utter nonsense and incoherencies in regard to the difference between the instincts of the dog and the reason of Man? The horse, the dog, the elephant, are as conscious of their ident.i.ty as we are. They think, dream, remember, argue with themselves, devise, plan, and _reason_. What is the intellect and intelligence of the man but the intellect of the animal in a higher degree or larger quant.i.ty?" In the _real_ explanation of a single thought of a dog, all metaphysics will be condensed.
And with still more terrible significance, the Voice asks, in what Respect the ma.s.ses of men, the vast swarms of the human race, have proven themselves either wiser or better than the animals in whose eyes a higher intelligence shines than in _their_ dull, unintellectual orbs; in what respect they have proven themselves worthy of or suited for an immortal life. Would that be a prize of any value to the vast majority?
Do they show, here upon earth, any capacity to improve, any fitness for a state of existence in which they could not crouch to power, like hounds dreading the lash or tyrannize over defenceless weakness; in which they could not hate and persecute, and torture, and exterminate; in which they could not trade, and speculate, and over-reach, and entrap the unwary and cheat the confiding and gamble and thrive, and sniff with self-righteousness at the short-comings of others, and thank G.o.d that they were not like other men? What, to immense numbers of men, would be the value of a Heaven where they could not lie and libel, and ply base avocations for profitable returns?