download PDF version - Global Grey

'260 BOOK OF THE A. AND A. RITE.
like the legend of our Grand Master Hiram, in which
some see figured the condemnation and sufferings of
Christ ; others, those of the unfortunate Grand Mas-
ter of the Templars ; others, those of the first Charles
and others still, the annual descent of the sun at its
winter solstice to the regions of darkness—the basis
of many an ancient legend : in no other way could
Masonry possess its universality—that character
which has ever been peculiar to it from its origin,
and which enabled two kings, worshippers of a dif-
ferent Deity, to sit together as Grand Masters while
and the men of
the walls of the first Temple arose ;
*****
gods were an abomination.
Gebal, who bowed down to the Phoenician gods, to
work by the side of the Hebrews, to whom those
Pythagoras said : " God is neither the object of
sense nor subject to passion, but invisible, only in-
telligible, 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
diffuses itself over all nature. All beings receive
their life from him. There is but one only God,
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
;