Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

XXX
Introduction.
he never existed, and Humanity, from its heart-ofhearts,
would create him again tomorrow and justify
the creation by every intuition of the human soul
and by every need of the daily life of man. The
historical contention might be given up, ignored,
and the whole character, genius, and mission of
Jesus, the Christ, be none the less leal, beneficent,
and eternal, with all of its human and dramatic
episodes. Explain it as you will, it can never be
explained away ; the character remains ; and whether
Historical or Ideal, it is real and eternal.
This digression serves to illustrate a principle of
interpretation. The Traditions and Symbols of
Masonry do not derive their real value from historical
data, but from the universal and eternal
truths which they embody. Were they historical episodes
only, the world in its cyclic revolutions would
long ago have swept by them and buried them in
eternal oblivion. These great truths, obscured and
lost in one age by misinterpretation or persecution,
rise, Phoenix-like, rejuvenated in the next. They
are Immortal Ideals, knowing neither decay nor
death. They are like a Divine Image concealed in
a block of stone (the rough ashler), which many
artists assail with mallet and chisel, square and
compass, only, perchance, to release a distorted