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

82 Mystic Masonry.
is taken as a symbol. The building and the restoration
of the temple at Jerusalem are dramatically
represented in the work of the Lodge, and in the
ceremony of initiation, by a play upon words and
parity of events, and applied to the candidate, with
admonition, warning or encouragement, as the
drama unfolds.
The measurements and proportion
of the temple are dwelt upon in order to bring in
the science of numbers, form, and proportion, so
manifest in architecture, and to connect them with
the "spiritual temple" with which they all
have the
same, though less obvious, relations.
The symbolism
is fitted to ideal relations, rather than to actual existences
or historical events.
Sol-om-on represents
the name of Deity in three languages, and the biblical
history is doubtless an allegory or myth of the
Sun-god. There is no reliable history of the construction
of any such temple at Jerusalem, and recent
explorations and measurements have greatly
altered the dimensions as heretofore given.
Hiram
Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his
life when the temple was near completion, and yet
it is recorded that after the completion of the temple
he labored for years to construct and ornament
a palace for the King.
Add to these facts the statement
that the temple was constructed without the