"The greatest disease of the Soul is ungodliness and ignorance of God." VOL. XI. -JOHN DAVID CHAMBERS. MARCH, 1893. No. 3. The Secret Discipline and Freemasonry. BY JOHN YARKER, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. Hutchinson's "Spirit of Masonry Spirit of Masonry" is a very valuable work on Freemasonry in the north of England, but I am afraid we cannot place much reliance on the arguments used for the words in question (NOTES AND QUERIES, Vols. VIII, 427; IX, p. 41; X, p. 319). According to Cardinal Newman, "The Arcane Discipline" spread from Alexandria in the second century, and was the introduction of Neo-Platonic forms into Christianity. Now Platonism was the doctrine of the mysteries carried into minor schools, without the show and dramatic accessories of the great mysteries. It had its trance death, by which the spiritual nature of man was awakened; a state which passed also into the Christian church, as we may gather from the fathers, and we even find it amongst the Culdees in Ireland until a comparatively mcdern era. Christianity was the state religion of Britain as early as the second century, and I think there is sufficient evidence to prove that the doctrine of these Britons, or Culdees, was that of The Arcane Discipline. Their priests existed at York in the time of King Athelstan (938), and even into Norman times. Architecture at this period was in the control of the clergy, hence we are bound to find that all church symbolism is impossible in the Discipline, and that there was a Freemasonry which had reference to it in MATHEMAICAL DISCOVERY. An instrument which squares the ci cubes the sphere, and rectifies the curve. Of use to every draug man, mechanic, architect, surveyor, navigator, astronomer, etc. a toy for a child. "The Solving Triangle and Protractor" is th strument. All explanations accompany each instrument. As sit to apply as a T-square. For terms to agents, prices, etc., address inventor, Charles De Medici, 60 West 22d St., New York City. The Astrology of the Old Testament. A volume replete with interest, with instructions in Astrology, plified by tables calculated by Karl Anderson, Professor of Astro so that any one of common education can cast a nativity and the figure. This work is especially recommended to all Free Mas students, and men of science of whatever persuasion. By the sci of Astrology, purely magnetical and mathematical, the well-pract adept can read every event of the past and predict the future. the foundation of all things, and the only true guide for man and man. The mother of Navigation, Astronomy, and Surveying source of all knowledge, prophecy, and wisdom of the ancient peop and of the ten great religions of the past, Cloth, 8vo., illustrated 502. Price, $5.00, postage, 25 cents. Address Karl Anderson, Tremont Street, or Colby & Rich, 9 Bosworth Street, Boston, M "The greatest disease of the Soul is ungodliness and ignorance of God." VOL. XI. -JOHN DAVID Chambers. MARCH, 1893. No. 3. The Secret Discipline and Freemasonry. BY JOHN YARKER, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. Hutchinson's " Spirit of Masonry" is a very valuable work on Freemasonry in the north of England, but I am afraid we cannot place much reliance on the arguments used for the words in question (NOTES AND QUERIES, Vols. VIII, 427; IX, p. 41; X, p. 319). According to Cardinal Newman, "The Arcane Discipline" spread from Alexandria in the second century, and was the introduction of Neo-Platonic forms into Christianity. Now Platonism was the doctrine of the mysteries carried into minor schools, without the show and dramatic accessories of the great mysteries. It had its trance death, by which the spiritual nature of man was awakened; a state which passed also into the Christian church, as we may gather from the fathers, and we even find it amongst the Culdees in Ireland until a comparatively mcdern era. Christianity was the state religion of Britain as early as the second century, and I think there is sufficient evidence to prove that the doctrine of these Britons, or Culdees, was that of The Arcane Discipline. Their priests existed at York in the time of King Athelstan (938), and even into Norman times. Architecture at this period was in the control of the clergy, hence we are bound to find that all church symbolism is impossible in the Discipline, and that there was a Freemasonry which had reference to it in Saxon times. The crypt of York Minster is early Roman work, and we know for a fact that in those early times there was one or more temples at York erected to the Osirian worship of Egypt under the Greco-Roman name of Serapis. The fathers charged the mysteries generally with using a symbolic death. The symbol of the cross, and the mystery of bread and wine, with other resemblances to Christian worship and doctrine-hence the later emperors suppressing the mysteries to get rid of the evidence. In Freemasonry we have quite sufficient evidence, I consider, to show that early Saxon Freemasonry was Serapian, transformed into Christian. The earliest of these doctrines is a Christian system, and there is not one word in this version that would tend to show that the initiates supposed that their forefathers had wrought at the Temple of Solomon. The documents inform us that their constitution had been sanctioned by Athelstan upon an Egyptian model. The legends dealing with a Solomonic source are of the fourteenth century, though dating no doubt into the thirteenth century, and coming to us through a Palistinian and Norman channel by way of France. Freemasonry of today is a union of this. Saxon and Norman Freemasonry, or Christian or Saracenic rites, made in this country about 1356, and I believe that we may find the early Saxon Mastership in the grades of Heredom, Rosy Cross, Knight of the Eagle, Knight of St. Andrew, etc., that grade having passed under various names. This would lead us to believe, though Hutchinson's view is worth consideration, that Hebrew words are of thirteenth century introduction, the old form of recognition being one of "Salutation." In France, the Christian and the Judaic system have been kept distinct from early times to the present day under the general designation of the Compagnionage. The doctors of the Sorbonne in 1648 used very strong language against the Christian system, in terms almost identical with those which the fathers made against the Serapian and Mithraic mysteries. I have just written a small book, containing a short summary of all the evidence known to the present time, upon the great antiquity of our Speculative Freemasonry. I find traces of it in the ancient Turanian civilization, when building was in the hands of the priestly mysteries, such as the Cabiric, which have extraordinary resemblances to the modern system. Out of this system sprang the Aryan and |