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

CHRISTIANIZATION
CHROMATIC 149
adopted by some of the most distinguished
Masonic writers of England and this country,
but one which I think does not belong to the
ancient system. Hutchinson, and after him
Oliver-profoundly philosophical as are the
Masonic speculations of both-have, I am
constrained to believe, fallen into a great
error in calling the Master Mason's Degree a
Christian institution . It is true that it embraces
within its scheme the great truths of
Christianity upon the subject of the immortality
of the soul and the resurrection of the
body ; but this was to be presumed, because
Freemasonry is truths and all truth must be
identical. But the origin of each is different ;
their histories are dissimilar . The principles
of Freemasonry preceded the advent of Christianity
. Its symbols and its legends are derived
from the Solomonic Temple and from
the people even anterior to that . Its religion
comes from the ancient priesthood ; its faith
was that primitive one of Noah and his immediate
descendants . If Masonry were simply a
Christian institution, the Jew and the Moslem,
the Brahman and the Buddhist, could
not conscientiously partake of its illumination .
But its universality is its boast . In its language
citizens of every nation may converse ;
at its altar men of all religions may kneel ; to
its creed disciples of every faith may subscribe.
Yet it cannot be denied that since the advent
of Christianity a Christian element has
been almost imperceptibly infused into the
Masonic system, at least among Christian
Masons . This has been a necessity ; for it is
the tendency of every predominant religion to
pervade with its influence all that surrounds
it or is about it, whether religious, political, or
social . This arises from a need of the human
heart. To the man deeply imbued with the
spirit of his religion, there is an almost unconscious
desire to accommodate and adapt all
the business and the amusements of lifethe
labors and the employments of his everyday
existence-to the indwelling faith of his
soul .
The Christian Mason, therefore, while acknowledging
and appreciating the great doctrines
taught in Masonry, and also while
grateful that these doctrines were preserved
in the bosom of his ancient Order at a time
when they were unknown to the multitudes
of the surrounding nations, is still anxious to
give to them a Christian character ; to invest
them, in some measure, with the peculiarities
of his own creed, and to bring the interpretation
of their symbolism more nearly home to
his own religious sentiments .
The feeling is an instinctive one belonging
to the noblest aspirations of our human nature
; and hence we find Christian Masonic
writers indulging in it to an almost unwarrantable
excess, and, by the extent of their
sectarian interpretations, materially affecting
the cosmopolitan character of the Institution .
This tendency to Christianization has, in
some instances, been so universal, and has prevailed
for so long a period, that certain sym-
bola and myths have been, in this way, so
deeply and thoroughly imbued with the Christian
element as to leave those who have not
penetrated into the cause of this peculiarity,
m doubt whether they should attribute to the
symbol an ancient or a modern and Christian
origin
Chromatic Calendar. "The Five
Points ." In the great Temple, usually
known as the Ocean Banner Monastery, at
Honam, a suburb of Canton, China, we find
four colossal idols occupying a large porch,
each image being painted a different color .
Ch'i-kwoh, who rules the north and grants
pro itious winds, is dark ; Kwang-muh is red,
and to him it is given to rule the south and
control the fire, air, and water ; To-man'
rules the west, and grants or withholds rain,
his color being white ; while Chang-tsang,
whose color is green, rules the winds and keeps
them within their proper bounds, his supreme
control being exercised over the east . The old
custom of associating colors with the four
quarters of the globe has probably led to the
habit of describing the winds from these respective
points as possessed of the same colors .
The fifth, the earth, the central remaining
point, still is conjectural . Thus, we also find
m China a set of deities known as the five
rulers ; their colors, elements, and points may
be thus represented :
1 . Black. Water. North . Back.
2. Red . Fire . South. Breast .
3. Green . Wood . East . Mouth .
4. White . Metal. West. Knee .
5. Yellow. Earth . Middle. Foot .
These again are in turn associated with the
planets, and the study of Chinese and Babylonian
planet-colors is full of curious points of
similarity .
BLACK, typifying the north, has two direct
opponents m symbolic colors, and these are
red and white . The first as implying ignorance
arising from evil passions, the second indicating
ignorance of mind. Red-black is called in
Hebrew G11, Heum, from which comes Heume,
an enclosing wall . Black from white, in Hebrew,
is 1710, sehher, signifying the dawn of
light to the mid of the Masonic profane . The
hand to back, as the words of wisdom are about
to be spoken .
In the Egyptian, the black Osiris appears
at the commencement of the Funereal Ritual,
representing the state of the soul which passes
into the world of light . Anubis, one of the sons
of Osiris, who weighs the soul in the scales of
Amenti, and is the god of the dead, is black .
The Conductor, or Master of Ceremonies,
Thoth Psychopompe, has the head of the
black Ibis . (See Truth .)
RED. In Hebrew, the fire of love, which
burns in the south, is 1 , are, to burn. On
Egyptian monuments, and in their temples,
the flesh of men is painted red, and that of
women, yellow . The same difference exists
between the gods and goddesses, except where
specially otherwise defined. Man's name in
Hebrew signifies red, and as the image of fire