Blanchard J (anti-masonic) - Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated Part I

164 MA52~ER ELECT OP NINE.This, brother Joabert, I have just learned from astranger who is willing to conduct any I may appoint tothe place where this miscreant (or Abiram’) is hidden.My dear brother, this illustrious Chapter being fullyconvinced of your zeal, is much disposed to confer higherdegrees upon you, and as I have decreed that onlynine shall go with the stranger to the hiding place ofthe miscreant, and as eight of them have been selected,an opportunity now offers of your being one of thatnumber, to bring this criminal lo condign punishmentif possible, adequate to the enormity of his crime. Doyou find yourself disposed to vindicate the Royal Art,and sacrifice this traitor in honor of masonry; and doyou feel disposed to be one of that number?Candidate—I do.Most Sovereign-I must now inform you, brotherJoabert, that this man perhaps, is one of your acquaintances,perhaps a friend; nay, he may be one of yourmost intimate ones, but in such a case as this, everysentiment must give way to that of revenge, which, withyou, is to stifle every other consideration. Be assured ofno bad consequences attending your perpetrating the revenge.Besides this is the only opportunity that offersof making us sensible of your zeal by which you will headmitted into this degree. Again I will ask you do youfeel disposed to be one of that number?Candidate—I do.Most Sovereign—Faithful Joabert, I shall now selectyou as the ninth and last of the number. Pursue theNote YS.—”Abtrazn. One •f the traitoroug craftsmen. whaga act ofperfidy form. — important a part of the third dagree remivee in acmeof the high degftea the name of Abiram Akizep. Them word. certainLyhate a Hebrew look; hut the significant word. of Maaonzp have. in thelapse of time and in iheir tranamisalon through ignorant teachers. heecueso corrupted In form that it Ia aimoet impogaible to trace them to anyintelligent floot.”—Maeheya Zaeyeiepeeiia .1 I,aemaaeaay, isUela Abbam.INITIATION. 14murderer of our regretted Master Hiram Abiff, uwkhim, seize him and bring him here to suffer the penaltyof his horrid crime.Most Sovereign—Vengeance?A 11—Vengeance.Most Sovereign—Brother Adoniram, you will nowblindfold brother Joabert and let him be conducted byour stranger to the place where the criminal is.(Candidate is then blindfolded and conducted to thecave.)Captain of Guard—Brother Joabert, you will nowsuffer yourself to be seated, (seats him on a stone oppositethe cave.)Captain of Guard—Be not afraid brother Joabert, Iwill now leave you for a while.Master of Cerem6nies then shakes a parcel of chainsand groans as if under affliction and dread of punishment.Captain of Guard then places Joabert’s left handon the table and his head leaning on it, and his righthand on his thigh and says:6aptain of Guard—My dear brother Joabert, I mustleave you here alone, but you must promise me on theword of a man, that you will remain in this posture thatI now leave you, however alarmed you may be by anynoise you may hear. Attend brother Joabert to whatNote IS.—”Vangaanoe. A word used in the high degreca. flarr~el.Boblson and the other detractors of Freemasonry have sought to find inthis word a proof of the vIndictive character of the Inatitution. ‘in thedegree of Kadoab. say. Earroel (Meinoirea, ii. 810) the asaaaaln ofAdoniram hecomea the king, who must he alain to avenge the Orand?.ia.ater Malay and the Order of Masons, who are the aucceseora of theTempiarSNo calumny was ever fabricated with so little pretension to truth forit. foundation. The reference I. altogether hiatorical; it it the record ofthe puniabment which followed a crime, not an incentive to revenge.The word nakam is uaed in Masonry in preciacly the asme sense inwhich it it employed by the prophet Jeremiah (1. 15) when he apeaka ofaikemat Jehovah. “the vengeance of the Lord”—the puniabment whichGod will inflIct on evil-doera. ‘—Mackay’s Eaoyolopedla of U.aaaaeea,y.Art. vengasasa.