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

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARWhat has been regarded as the original surfacehas been found to be debris from 70 to 90 feet deep.With pickaxe and shekel British explorers havebeen down to the original foundations. Fallen columnshave been met with and avoided, or a wayblasted through them. The cinders of burnt Jerusalemhave been cut through and turned up to thelight rich moulds deposited by the treasures ofJewish pride. The seal of Haggai, in ancient Hebrewcharacters, was picked up out of the siftings ofThe first courses of stones deposited bythis deposit.Phoenician builders have been reached, lying on theliving rock. Quarry-marks, put on in vermilion,have been copied known to be quarry-marks by thetrickling drops of paint, still visible only they areabove the letters, showing that when they werewritten the stones lay with the underside uppermost.The whole of Mount Moriah has been found to befairly honeycombed with cisterns and passages.One of the cisterns, known as the Great Sea, wouldcontain two millions of gallons, and all together notless than ten millions. The wall of Ophel has beenexposed at the present time 70 feet high thoughburied in debris; and the remains of towers andhouses have been lighted upon belonging to the ageof the kings of Judah.The seven successive objects that have occupiedthis sacred ridge, to which a Mason's attention isdirected,are:1. The Altar of Abraham.2. The Threshine-floor of Oman.3. The Altar of David.4. The Temple of Solomon.53