Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

102 BEHAVIOR
BENAC
bees were feigned to be produced from the
carcass of a cow, which also symbolized the
ark ; and hence, as the great father was esteemed
an infernal god, honey was much used
both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries ."*
Behavior. The subject of a Mason's behavior
is one that occupies much attention in
both the ritualistic and the monitorial instructions
of the Order . In " the Charges of a Freemason,"
extracted from the ancient records
and first published in the Constitutions of
1723, the sixth article is exclusively appropriated
to the subject of "Behavior." It is
divided into six sections, as follows : 1 . Behavior
in the Lodge while constituted . 2. Be
havior after the Lodge is over and the Brethren
not gone . 3 . Behavior when Brethren
meet without strangers, but not in a Lodge
formed. 4 . Behavior in presence of strangers
not Masons. 5 . Behavior at home and
in your neighborhood . 6 . Behavior toward
a strange brother . The whole article
constitutes a code of moral ethics remarkable
for the purity of the principles it inculcates
and is well worthy of the close attention olt
every Mason . It is a complete refutation of
the slanders of anti-Masonic revilers . As
these charges are to be found in all the editions
of the Book of Constitutions, and in many
recent Masonic works, they are readily accessible
to everyone who desires to read them .
Behold Your Master . When, in the installation
services, the formula is used, "Brethren,
behold your master," the expression is not
simply exclamatory, but is intended, as the
original use of the word behold implies, to invite
the members of the Lodge to fix their attention
upon the new relations which have
sprung up between them and him who has j ust
been elevated to the Oriental Chair, and to
impress upon their minds the duties which
they owe to him and which he owes to them .
In like manner, when the formula is continued,
"Master, behold your brethren," the Master's
attention is impressively directed to the
same change of relations and duties . These
are not mere idle words, but convey an important
lesson, and should never be omitted
in the ceremony of installation .
Bel. 5? , Bel, is the contracted form of t1y5,
Baal, and was worshiped by the Babylonians
as their chief deity. The Greeks and Romans
so considered and translated the word by Zeus
and Jupiter . It has, with Jah and On, been introduced
into the Royal Arch system as a
representative of the Tetragrammaton, which
it and the accompanying words have sometimes
ignorantly been made to displace . At
the session of the General Grand Chapter of
the United States, in 1871, this error was corrected
; and while the Tetragrammaton was
declared to be the true omnific word, the other
three were permitted to be retained as merely
explanatory .
Belenus. Belenus, the Baal of the Scripture,
was identified with Mithras and with
* Bee, Evans, Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical
Architecture .
Apollo, the god of the sun . A forest in the
neighborhood of Lausanne is still known as
Sauv ,belin, or the forest of Belenus, and traces
of this name are to be found in many parts of
En land . The custom of kindling fires about
midnight on the eve of the festival of St . John
the Baptist, at the moment of the summer
solstice, which was considered by the ancients
a season of rejoicing and of divination, is a
vestige of Druidism in honor of this deity . It
is a significant coincidence that the numerical
value of the letters of the word Belenus, like
those of Abraxas and Mithras, all representatives
of the sun, amounts to 365, the exact
number of the 'days in a solar year . (See
Abraxas .)
Belgium. Soon after the separation of
Belgium from the Netherlands, an independent
Masonic jurisdiction was demanded by
the former . Accordingly, in May, 1833, the
Grand Orient of Belgium was established,
which has under itq jurisdiction twenty-one
Lodges. There is also a Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which
was constituted in the year 1817 .
Belief, Religious . The fundamental law
of Masonry contained in the first of the Old
Charges collected in 1723, and inserted in the
Book of Constitutions published in that year,
sets forth the true doctrine as to what the
Institution demands of a Mason in reference
to his religious belief in the following words :
"A Mason is obliged, by his tenure, to obey
the moral law ; and if he rightly understands
the art, he will never be a stupid atheist nor
an irreligious libertine . But though in ancient
times Masons were charged in every country
to be of the religion of that country or nation,
whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion
in which all men agree, leaving their particular
opinions to themselves ." Anderson, in his
second edition, altered this article, calling a
Mason a true Noaohida, and saying that
Masons "all agree in the three great articles of
Noah," which is incorrect, since the Precepts
of Noah were seven . (See Religion of Masonry .)
Bells . The use of a bell in the ceremonies
of the Third Degree, to denote the hour, is,
manifestly, an anachronism, for bells were not
invented until the fifth century. But Freemasons
are not the only people who have
imagined the existence of bells at the building
of the Temple . Henry Stephen tells us
(Apologie pour Herodote, ch . 39) of a monk
who boasted that when he was at Jerusalem
he obtained a vial which contained some of
the sounds of King Solomon's bells . The
blunders of a ritualist and the pious fraud of a
relic-monger have equal claims to authenticity .
The Masonic anachronism is, however, not
worth consideration, because it is simply intended
for a notation of time-a method of
expressing intelligibly the hour at which a
supposed event occurred .
Benae. A significant word in Symbolic
Masonry, obsolete in many of the modern
systems, whose derivation is uncertain . (See
Macbenac.)