We ere still standing before our Masonic altar, gazing down upon the open Book across which we were told that Freemasonry is the repository of a Secret Art, the parts and points of which, when imparted to us, we were never to reveal. The three tiny points of fire arranged in a triangular position, reminding us of the Great Tetractys in which the Ineffable Word-the great Key-Word of the Qabbalah-was said to have been concealed, shed their faint

light upon the Blazing Star that appears to illuminate and illustrate the words upon the printed page.

We would know more of the true meaning of so much that is contained within this Book that has been handed down to us as a rule and guide of our faith and practice. . . . But alas!— ruffianly hands have been at work-the design upon the trestle-board has grown dim-and the great Word is lost!

W

HAT am I? A human being composed of a complex body, a material and spiritual compound. A man. A man. An individual being of the human race. To this being are given five senses; and thus, perfect and erect, stands man, rising above the mere animal state. The natural position of man is erect.

All men have the same number and kind of bodily organs. All the nerves, muscles, veins and arteries found in any man of any race, are found in every other man of every other race regardless of the color of complexion, the character of the hair, or the degree of intelligence or culture. The similarity of mental and moral faculties and habits is marked. Intellect, emotion and will, the mental nature of every Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Malay or Red Man. All men have consciences whereby they are sensible of right and wrong. There are varieties of men, but all men belong to one species of being. If all men are of the same species of being, then the brotherhood of man follows. The foregoing may give some idea of physical man, the figure at which we can point the finger.

But is that all? Whence came I? That is the first great question brought home to man since human life began.

What is life itself, with all its wondrous, mighty energies; that power which maintains the heat within us and prevents our bodies-that decay so soon without it from resolution into their original elements? Life, that constant miracle, the nature and essence of which have eluded all philosophers. We know that man was sent into this world, not a spiritual, but a complex being, made up of body and mind; the body having, as is fit and needful in a material world, its full, rightful and allotted share. His life is guided by a full recognition of this fact.

And yet we know that there is matter, a soul within our body, a God that lives in the universe. I am conscious that I exist and am the same identical person that I was years ago. I am conscious that my body is not I, that if an arm and a leg were lopped off this person that I call Me would still remain complete, entire, identical as before. But I cannot ascertain, by the most intense and long-continued reflection, what I am, nor where within my body I reside. I have no power to examine and inspect-I exist, will, think, perceive. This I know and nothing more.

The man with neither the power of poetry nor prophecy, looking at the daily incidents of life, sees a helpless

little life coming into a world where, from causes beyond its control, some live a few days and pass away, leaving aching hearts; others live till youth, or till fullgrown strength and power seem to defy change, and then, suddenly are called away; others mature to an age when they seem like well-ripened harvest grain; and for each, as they go, are the laments of those who love them.

For ages the self-evident and easilyunderstood facts were clearly discerned among what are called the higher and philosophic schools; and among the finer matured man and women, constantly the light of truth shone, but did not become general. All saw there was a mortal body for every member of the human family; that for a while it was possessed of a vital principle by which it was moved and governed. Then came the change which we call death, and the body no longer moved, but at once began to resolve back to chemical conditions neither flesh nor vegetable; and the power which had controlled and moved the body as it willed, could not be seen nor traced.

Of necessity, to every though ful mind had come the question, what was that power or principle or intelligence which moved and controlled that wonderful complex body? How was the union of the two made operative, and what became of that moving force or intelligence when the body was no longer operated or governed? All this was studied intently.

Sove things seemed reasonably plain and clear to ordinary intelligence. A child drinks milk; a mature person eats vegetables, nuts, fruit, fish, or flesh. The stomach receives that confused mass, and, in the laboratory of man, the fluid is compounded which sends. blood to his whole system with red corpuscles for growth and white corpuscles to protect from disease; and that fluid deposits material for growth with suitable chemicals at each each smallest space along the way, each calling for different elements; the heart, bones, flesh, nerves, brain, skin, nails, hair, the eyeball, the iris, the pupil, each formed more delicately than the art of man

445

could devise, and all made for perfect action-if rightly used.

Matter in any combination could not make the marvelous physical life of the people. Matter alone or with other matter may cause physical acts, by force set in motion directly or remotely by them; but matter cannot enable other matter or itself to reason, to consider, to will within itself what shall be done, and change from one course to another as intelligence within itself judges best, to prepare for what is yet in the future. To know what is good and to know what is evil-that is, to have the power to consider, and know the principles and qualities of other things.

It is not conceivable that, if only matter existed, it could, by any effort of its inherent forces, produce Reason, Intelligence. Thought, or even that limited Reason which we call Instinct. Nothing can, by exercise or operation. of the forces which belong to it, create qualities of a higher nature than itself possesses, or radically different from them.

Nor can the unthinking stomach determine what should be prepared for each part of the body, nor what elements will be required for each, or the quantity to send, and when to stop; nor could it, without guiding intelligence, reject the harmful or useless elements which are present in great abundance, and equally soluble and transmissible.

The observant have always noted that only for a few years would that power to move, direct and control the body continue in it; thereafter that body. would resolve back to the soil elements; that these elements are infinite in variety, in corposition, in use, and exist in the whole earth and in the waters. It seems a necessary deduction that only a pervasive intelligence could cause them to exist, continue their appointed time, and then cease to be. The highest art of man could not care for these physical actions and results. It seemed evident that only infinite wisdom there. present could direct and guide them. " That directing principle was not originated by the mortal body, but must have come into the body from a great

source of life everywhere present and of most minute wisdom.

Only Intelligence, or something higher than Intelligence, could produce the human intellect or the animal instinct. To that Intelligence, if it must be that it exists for that, must be ascribed everything that displays design in the universe; and it follows that all the forces of matter and of nature must have been given by the same Intelligence, and are its varied action.

Assuming that this being is not a chemical compound, an adequate source has been sought, and its origin has been stated in ways surprisingly alike.

The oldest written legend-doubtless from one vastly older, now lost-says: "The Lord formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;" thus formally is stated the creation of the body, and the introduction of the living soul from the Deity.

It was an ancient doctrine that God made man after His own image. At first, Adam was alone, incapable of reproduction. The female is not created. for him out of nothing, but he is divided and becomes male and female. But he is made after the image of God in this, that he himself, of whom the body is but the envelope and instrument, is a spirit with the power of thinking, and of manifesting himself in words and acts that are but the utterance of the thought.

If the idea that man is in part divine be but an illusion of inordinate vanity, man is one of the animals, to be governed as an animal; to be led, managed, persuaded, compelled as an animal, by appeals to his animal and brutal instincts. He is wholly as the beast of prey that wars with him; the bird of prey, the hawk, the fishing eagle and the vulture; or the ape, savage and malicious; or the swine, greedy and rapacious; or the panther, treacherous, cowardly and cruel; or at best, the man of the world and of business, cold, selfish, artificial, cruel, heartless, or unsympathizing, greedy and exacting. Man then becomes a dethroned king, and the

splendor of the divine no longer illuminates his home or gilds with glory the common actions and toils of life. At once we become disinherited children for whom there is no longer any kingdom of heaven.

Philosophy has never yet succeeded, nor ever will succeed in establishing, in lieu of this doctrine, any other doctrine that does not or will not lead to atheism, and at last end in it. There is no middle ground between it and atheism. Hear the evidence or opinion of ancient learned men:

Pindar. There is one and the same race of gods and men; it is from the same parent we draw the breath of life.

Plato. When the Creator, the Father of all things, saw that this created image of the everlasting gods had both motion and life, He pronounced it to be good; and being delighted with the workmanship of his own hands, He proceeded to consider how He might make it still more resemble its prototype. Lucretius. We are all sprung from heavenly seeds; we have all one common Father.

Diogenes Laertius.-God is the creator of the universe, and also the Father of all things, a part of Himself being within all.

Cicero. The mind of man, a particle from the intellect of the Almighty, can be compared with nothing else—if we may be forgiven for saying sothan with God Himself. Thou art not the being whom this figure shows, the mind is the man, not the figure which can be pointed at with the finger. Know that thou art a divine being; it is the Deity in thee which moves, feels, remembers, foresees, rules and governs that body over which it is placed in the very same way as the Supreme Being a spirit and a mind, the Lord and governs the world; and as the Eternal God directs this world, which is in a certain degree mortal, so the neverdying spirit directs this frail body.

Sallust. The difference between the body and the spirit is always recognized. Our mind is common to us with the gods; the body, with the lower animals.

Seneca, a learned contemporary of Jesus. The same being we call Jupiter the wisest of men regard as the keeper and protector of the universe, Maker of this lower world, to whom all names are suitable. Will you call Him Destiny? You will not err; on Him depends all things, and all causes of causes are with Him. Will you call Him Providence? You will say well: for it is His wisdom that provides for this world that it be without confusion. and proceed on its course without change. Will you call Him Nature? You will not make a mistake; for all things have their beginning from Him in whom we live and move and have our being. Will you call Him the world? You will not be deceived; for He is all that you see, wholly infused into His parts and sustaining Himself by His own power. God is near to you; He is with you; He is within you. A Holy Spirit resides in us, a sacred spirit talks within us, but cleaves to its divine origin.

Juvenal. In the beginning the Almighty Creator breathed life into beasts, a reasoning soul in us.

447

The Psalmist.-Thou hast made him a little less than divine, Thou hast endowed him with glory and honor.

St. John the Apostle.-God is love. The man that dwells in love, dwells in God and God in him.

Job.-The Spirit of God hath made me; the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. There is a spirit in man; the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

That the divine life is within us and is the controlling principle of life has been spoken times without number. It is the only theory which will explain the course of life.

It will not do to say that the quotations which have been made is the language of exaggeration; the writers evidently intended to speak accurately. Thus from the written opinions of the wisest, greatest men and geniuses of both ancient and modern times, and the Book of the Law. our faith is made strong in the belief that the Soul of Man, breathed into him by God, is immortal; that he is free to do evil or choose the good-responsible for his acts and punishable for his sins.