Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

482 DENIES TIlE I~SP[RAT[ON OF THE BIBLE. FOUGHT LIKE WOLVES OVER A CARCASS. 483
ruling rite, falsely called “Scottish,” will see that thia
thirty-third degree has been preceded by a degree,
called, and intended to be, the last, or “ultimate” of
Masonry; from the Master Mason’s or Ihird degree, up.
This 33rd degree may continue to be “ultiinate~” till
its framer, Albert Pike, dies; who is now, in 1888,
seventy-nine years old. And it niay, indeed, prove to
be “the last.” For the deluge of dark orders from tile
niouth of the dragon, is a sign that the return of Chri~l
is near. (Rev. 12, 12.) But if the accursed s~stelti
etintinucs to vex the earth, and destroy souls, this rite
of :l3rd degrees will fade out, and give way to other in
ventions These degrees have been altered and added
to, by Pike, who has translated the Zendavesta (page
439) as seen in the 32nd degree, of ~hieh this 33rd is a
mere elongation, and filling out. No other Mason has
ever translated the Zend, but Pike.
In these last degrees of the rite, the drag-net. of
antiquity is drawn over all the old, lost nations; and
alt liemy, suii-worship, the worship of beasts and birds.
trees, etc., arc given on pages 435-42, as the souree~ of
the invstero s of Masonry. And the mysterics and svmhols
of the Bible, are drawn from these, instead of The
holy Ghost, by ~vhom inspifed men “spaicc as they
were moved.” (2 Pet. 1, ‘21.) And having thus denied
the source of the Bible as coming from God, Pike prodeeds
to put the worship of ‘the black ox,” “ph~nix,”
etc, etc., which has sunk Egypt from the list of nations;
on a level with the worship of our Savior, Christ; in
Europe and America! There arc his words: p. 443 “The
great ends of N’Iasonry” arc, “to reconcile all rites, and
make charitable judgrtient and toleration univcr~al ;“
* * * and in Ihe place of the smoking altar of fanaticism
and superstition, of bigotry and sectarianism, to
set up those of true Masonry.” Etc., etc. ! This is exphicit:
to thestroy Christianity, and make Masonry the
religion of the Globe!
This is not enough. He exeuses the Jews for murder.
Ing our Savior, Christ; who is nothing but a Freneh
“Apostle of the rights of man ;“ (page 477) and, on the
next page, he declares: “To no man has God given the
right to represent Him on earth;“ not even the man
Christ Jesus. And, on the same page: “We have not
to reconquer, by murder and bloodshed, that land made
holy by our Puissant Sovereign, Jesus of Nazareth.”
Here he not only insults Christ by making Him a Masonie
“Puissant Sovereign,” but he justly brands the
eonquest of Palestine, by the Crusaders, as “murder and
bloodshed;” while this whole fabrie of the 33rd rite is
professedly based on those very Crusades, and derives
from them its honors, titles, and eclat! Surely, “whom
the gods will destroy, they first make mad.”
But the force of this 33rd degree by no means lies in
the stupid quackery of its learning. In it
“More is meant, than meets the eye.”
Note 392 explains the object of this otherwise weak
degree. It was made to reduce the governors of the
Masonic world to ‘~nine” men, meeting in the little
slave-holding city of Charleston, S. C., with Albert
Pike for their “Sovereign Commander.” This was the
world’s first Supreme Council, opened by Mitchell and
Daleho, in 1801. But this 33rd degree, with Pike at its
head, did not then exist; and it was weak and wavering.
Twelve years later, i. e., in 1813, a “Supreme Council,”
Northern Jurisdiction, was located in New York, and
wolves never fought over a carcass more savagely, than
these secret swindlers of the people quarreled over the
spoils of lodgery. If the reader consults Folger’s
Histor) of the Scottish Rite, from page 15 onward, he
~uhisee, and say, that the wolves, not the Masons, suffer
by the comparison. While this fight between rival