from Light, Charity, and Morality, was elevated into a science capable of forming vast designs, and of astonishing mankind by the perfection and rapidity of their execution. Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids ; Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall. Young. There was also a subordinate Grand Lodge of Operative Masons, in which Beauty presided in the person of Hiram Abiff, and his Wardens were the noble princes Tito Harodim and Adoniram; who were placed at the head of the levies from Jerusalem. The Masters of the twelve tribes were appointed by King Solomon to superintend the work. Joabert presided over the tribe of Judah. Stolkyn Terry These twelve presidents rendered a daily account of their respective tribes, and received the power of punishment and reward according to desert. They were also the medium for distributing the workmen's wages. The apprentices, fellow crafts, and masters, were partitioned into Lodges, and the utmost regularity was preserved throughout the whole undertaking. In the quarries of Tyre were two Lodges of Superexcellent Masters, as Supervisors of the work; over which Tito Zadok, the High Priest, presided: these were the Harodim. There were also six Lodges of Excellent Masters; eight Grand Architects, and sixteen Architects-men of superior talent, who had been selected for their proficiency in the sciences, and placed as superintendents over the workmen. This was a necessary provision; for thus they were enabled to regulate the proceedings, and to preserve order and arrangement in the several departments which were assigned to them. There were three classes of Masters in thirty-six Lodges, called the Menatzchim; and 700 Lodges of Ghiblim, or Operative Fellow Crafts, under Hiram Abiff, their Grand Master. The number of persons employed in every department amounted to 113,600, besides 70,000 labourers.1 In the forest of Lebanon the same classes were arranged, although varying in numbers, with the addition of 10,000 Entered Apprentices, in 100 Lodges; over which Adoniram was constituted Grand Master. It will be observed that each of the above degrees had its distinguishing signs, words, and tokens ; without which confusion and disorder could scarcely have been prevented. The Apprentices messed by seven in a company, and the Fellow Crafts by five. The Masters and Wardens of all these Lodges were men of enlightened minds and matured understandings, well skilled in geometry and the rules of proportion. They trained their respective brethren and fellows to the practice of blending moral virtue with the pursuits of science; and inculcated Charity or Brotherly Love as the distinguishing feature of their profession. Nor were the Cardinal and Theological Virtues omitted in their dispositions. What were the results of this moral and scientific training? Why, it produced an inviolate adherence to order, and a spirit of Fraternal union, which gave energy and permanence to the institution; and enabled it to survive the wreck of mighty empires, and even to resist the destroying hand of time. Hence, 'midst the ruins of three thousand years, Woods. Thus was constituted the united system of Speculative and Operative Masonry, a system which, in all ages, has 13 Jos. Ant. Jud. b. viii. c. 2. 14 There may appear a discrepancy in this estimate of numbers. Some think that the only actual Freemasons who were present at this building were the 3,300 overseers mentioned, 1 Kings v. 160, added to the 300 who were called Ghiblimites, and were in fact masters over the rest. This account, therefore, gives 300 Masters, 15,000 Fellow Crafts, and 2100 Entered Apprentices in 300 Lodges. But I am inclined to think that the statement in the text is more in unison with ancient masonic belief. refined the feelings, and purified the heart, which has been productive of human happiness, and led the enquiring brother from the works of nature up to nature's God. When a sufficient quantity of stone and timber had been provided, the brethren were assembled in the extensive plains between Succoth and Zarthan, where the whole materials were arranged, squared, and carved; having been first carefully measured under the architect's own eye, and the shape delineated by dark lines; each Lodge having its particular mark and number, that specimens of imperfect workmanship might be known and submitted to general reprobation. These preliminaries being completed, the workmen were at length conducted to the summit of Mount Moriah; and with materials thus scientifically prepared, the building was completed without the assistance of axe, hammer, or metal tool; that nought might be heard amongst the workmen of Zion but harmony and peace. No workman's steel, no pondrous axes rung, Heber. There appears to have been a peculiar idea of pollution in the use of iron tools about the holy structure of a temple. In the directions given by the Almighty to Moses from Mount Sinai, respecting the construction of the tabernacle, and more particularly about the altar, the use of metal tools is prohibited in the strongest terms.15 And David, in the prospect of the temple's desecration by unsanctified hands, complains,16 as the greatest aggravation of insult which the adversary could offer, that the carved work thereof was broken down with axes and hammers. But while specimens of imperfect labour were marked with censure, superior merit was rewarded by a public testimony of approbation. This formed a passport to favour and employment in other countries when the temple at Jerusalem was finished. Nothing could have a stronger tendency to rouse dormant talent, or to excite virtuous emulation, than the system of reward which was adopted on this occasion. A number of gold medals were provided, of the size of a Shekel, with the word FREE impressed on both sides. These were presented to deserving men, and worn by them as proud trophies of merit. And they constituted an undeniable certificate of qualification for great undertakings which required the united aid of genius, learning, and experience. During the preparation, according to the legends of Freemasonry, the workmen's wages were paid daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly, in their respective Lodges; and when the temple was nearly completed, they were paid in the Middle Chamber. This celebrated apartment was accessible by a winding staircase of stone; the foot of which was guarded by the Junior Warden, and the summit by the Senior Warden of a Fellow Crafts' Lodge. And how were these wages paid? Without fear or scruple, says the legend, because their employers were entitled to their unlimited confidence. And if an unauthorised hand was stretched out to receive the remuneration of a Craftsman, punishment was summary and certain, so strictly were the arrangements of discipline enforced. The coin in which they were paid was a Shekel of silver, which weighed about half an ounce, and was of the value of two shillings and sixpence of our present currency. It bore an one side a pot of manna, circumscribed SHEKEL OF ISRAEL, and on the reverse, the budded rod of Aaron, and the legend JERUSALEM THE HOLY." The 17 "Some of these Shekels were in the possession of Maimonides, and the Rabbi Azarias among the Jews, and of Morinas, Montanus, Villipandus, and others among the Christians. The mark on one side is supposed to have been Aaron's miraculous rod budding for the almonds; and on the other, the pot of manna. The letters over this last, not being amount paid to each individual was equal to the number of his Degree squared. Thus the Apprentices received one Shekel per day. Those who had attained the second or Fellow Craft's Degree were paid 2×2=4 Shekels. The third Degree, 9 Shekels. And advancing in the same graduated scale to the highest, or Superexcellent Degree, which was the ninth, each brother received 9 x 981 Shekels, or £10 2s. 6d. of our money. The aggregate amount of wages paid for this splendid edifice is said to have been nearly equal to £100,000,000 of our present money. "The whole expense of this building," says Prideaux, "was so prodigious as gives reason to think that the talents, whereby the sum is reckoned, were another sort of talents of far less value than the Mosaic talents; for what is said to be given by David, and contributed by the princes towards the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, if valued by their talents, exceeded the value of £800,000,000 of our money, which was enough wherewith to have built all that temple of solid silver."" 9918 How were these vast sums raised? Villipandus assertsalthough I confess that his authority is not of much value that David left behind him treasures, to the amount of £911,416,207; and we know that the princes of Israel presented a greater sum than David. In addition to these treasures, Solomon devoted the greater part of his immense riches to the same purpose. Every voyage to Ophir produced 450 talents, which amounts to £3,240,000 sterling of our present money." 19 20 plain enough, are variously conjectured to stand for the name of God, of Israel, David or Jerusalem; as for the inscriptions round the two sides, except a small variation of the character and orthography between those extant coins, they plainly answer to those in the modern Hebrew; on the one side, Skekel Israel;-and on the reverse, Jerushalaim Hakadosha." (Univ. Hist. vol. 2. p. 212.) 18 Prid. Con. vol. 1. p. 6. 191 Chron. xxii. 14. 20 Agathercides (p. 60.) tells us that "the Alileans and Cassandrians in the southern parts of Arabia had gold in that plenty amongst them, that they would give double the weight of gold for iron, triple its weight for brass, and ten times its weight for silver; and that in digging the earth they found it in gobbits of pure gold, which needed no refining, and that the least of them were as big as olive stones, but others much larger. No other author speaks of any other place in the world where it was ever found in the like plenty." (Prid. Con. vol. 1. p. 10.) The Dean further says, that the sum amassed towards building the temple by David exceeded all the specie now to be found on the face of the earth. (Ibid. vol. 2. p. 406.) |