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

50 ALPHABET
ALTAR
Alphabet, Masonic . See Cip her Writing .
Alphabet, Number of Letters In . In
the Sandwich Island alphabet there are 12
letters ; the Burmese 19 ; Italian, 20 ; Bengalese,
21 ; Hebrew, §yrian, Chaldee, Phoenician,
and Samaritan, 22 each ; Latin, 23
Greek, 24 ; French, 25 ; German, Dutch, and
English, 26 each ; Spanish and Sclavonic, 27
each, Persian and Coptic, 32 each ; Georgian,
35 ; Armenian, 38 ; Russian, 41 ; Muscovite,
43 ; Sanskrit and Japanese, 50 each ; Ethiopic
and Tartarian, 202 each .
Alphabet, Samaritan . It is believed by
scholars that, previous to the captivity, the
alphabet now called the Samaritan was employed
by the Jews in transcribing the copies
of the law, and that it was not, until their return
from Babylon that they adopted, instead
of their ancient characters, the Chaldee or
square letters, now called the Hebrew, in
which the sacred text, as restored by Ezra,
was written . Hence, in the more recent rituals
of the Scottish Rite, especially those used
in the United States, the Samaritan character
is beginning to be partially used . For convenience
of reference, it is therefore here inserted .
The letters are the same in number as the Hebrew,
with the same power and the same
names ; the only difference is in form .
Aleph
Lamed
Beth
Mem
Gimel
Nun
Daleth q Samech
He • Ayin
Vau
Pe
Zain
Tsade
Cheth
Koph
Teth • Reach
Yod
Shin
Kaph Tau
c
•
Alpina . In 1836, and some years afterward,
General Assemblies of the Masons of
Switzerland were convened at Zurich, Berne,
and Basle, which resulted in the union of the
two Masonic authorities of that confederation,
under the name of the Grand Lodge Alpina .
The new Grand Lodge was organized at Zurich,
h,4by fourteen Lodges, on the 24th of July,
In 1910 it had 34 Lodges under its jurisdiction
with a membership of 3,842 .
Altar. The most important article of furniture
in a Lodge room is undoubtedly the
altar. It is worth while, then, to investigate
its character and its relation to the altars of
other religious institutions . The definition of
an altar is very simple . It is a structure elevated
above the ground, and appropriated to
some service connected with worship, such as
the offering of oblations, sacrifices, or prayers .
Altars, among the ancients, were generally
made of turf or stone . When permanently
erected and not on any sudden emergency,
they were generally built in regular courses of
Masonry, and usually in a cubical form . Altars
were erected long before temples . Thus,
Noah is said to have erected one as soon as he
came forth from the ark . Herodotus gives the
Egyptians the credit of being the first among
the heathen nations who invented altars .
Among the ancients, both Jews and Gentiles,
altars were of two kinds-for incense and
for sacrifice . The latter were always erected
in the open air, outside and in front of the
Temple . Altars of incense only were permitted
within the Temple walls . Animals were
slain, and offered on the altars of burnt-offerings
. On the altars of incense, bloodless sacrifices
were presented and incense was burnt
to the Deity .
The Masonic altar, which, like everything
else in Masonry, is symbolic, appears to combine
the character and uses of both of these
altars . It is an altar of sacrifice, for on it the
candidate is directed to lay his passions and
vices as an oblation to the Deity while he
offers up the thoughts of a pure heart as a
fitting incense to the Grand Architect of the
Universe . The altar is, therefore, the most
holy place in a Lodge .
Among the ancients, the altar was always
invested with peculiar sanctity . Altars were
places of refuge, and the supplicants who fled
to them were considered as having placed
themselves under the protection of the Deity
to whom the altar was consecrated, and to do
violence even to slaves and criminals at the
altar, or to drag them from it, was regarded as
an act of violence to the Deity himself, and was
hence a sacrilegious crime .
The marriage covenant among the ancients
•
was always solemnized at the altar, and men
• were accustomed to make all their solemn contracts
and treaties by taking oaths at altars .
•
An oath taken or a vow made at the altar was
considered as more solemn and binding than
one assumed under other circumstances .
• Hence, Hannibal's father brought him to the
Carthaginian altar when he was about to make
him swear eternal enmity to the Roman
power.
In all the religions of antiquity, it was the
usage of the priests and the people to pass
around the altar in the course of the sun, that
is to say, from the east, by the way of the
south, to the west, singing paeans or hymns of
praise as a part of their worship .
From all this we see that the altar in Masonr~
is not merely a convenient article of
furniture, intended, like a table, to hold a
Bible . It is a sacred utensil of religion, intended,
like the altars of the ancient temples,
for religious uses, and thus identifying Masonry,
by its necessary existence in our Lodges,
as a religious institution. Its presence should
also lead the contemplative Mason to view the
ceremonies in which it is employed with
solemn reverence, as being part of a really
religious worship .
The situation of the altar in the French and
Scottish Rites is in front of the Worshipful
Master, and therefore, in the East . In the
York Rite, the altar is placed in the center of