The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARRameses the Great, of Egypt, was succeeded byKing Menepta, who is now generally accepted byhistorians as the Pharaoh**)f the exodus of Israel.The story of this remarkable race begins with thecall of Abraham from his home at Ur,* the city ofhis birth, usually called "Ur of the Chaldees," nearthe Euphrates, in the northwest part of Mesopotamia,*to his promised abode in Canaan.* (Seemap. )Abraham was a son of Terah, a descendant ofShem, and born in 1996 B. C. In 1922 B. C. hewent to Haran,* in Mesopotamia (a region northeastof the Euphrates), accompanied by his father,his wife Sarai, his brother Nahor, and his nephewLot* (Gen. xi. 26-32). His father dies soon after,and he takes his wife and nephew and enters theland of promise, or Canaan, as a nomad or wanderingshepherd. Sojourning for a time at Shechem,*he built here, as was his custom, an altar to theLord. Removing from place to place for convenienceof water and pasturage, he was at lengthdriven by a famine into Egypt. Returning toCanaan in 1918 B. C., rich in flocks and herds, heleft Lot to dwell in the fertile valley of the lowerJordan on the plain of Sodom, and pitched his owntents in Mamre: the same is Hebron* in the landof Canaan (Gen. xii., xiii.). Here his descendantsmultiplied to the fifth generation. He becamegreatly renowned for piety and wisdom, and wascalled a friend of God. Sarai his wife, being barren,gives Hagar, her Egyptian handmaid, to Abram,and in 1910 B. C. Ishmael was born (Gen. xvi.n, 12). God covenants with Abram, changes hisname to Abraham, institutes circumcision, and19