llowing is taken from Masonic Salvation by
Fred Husted:

"Warburton says: 'Each of the Pagan gods had (beside the public and
open) a secret worship paid unto him, to which none were admitted but
those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies called initiation.
This secret worship was called "the mysteries."'

"Mackey, another member of this order, says: 'These mysteries existed in
every country of heathendom, in each under a different name, and to some
extent under a different form, but always and everywhere with the same
design of inculcating (teaching) by allegorical and symbolical teachings
the great Masonic doctrines of the unity of God and the immortality of
the soul. This one important proposition and the fact which it
enumerates (states) must never be lost sight of, in any inquiry into the
origin of Freemasonry; for the Pagan mysteries were to the spurious
Freemasonry of antiquity precisely what the Masters' lodges are to the
Freemasonry of the present day.'

"This is certainly a frank statement, coming as it does from a man who
is an acknowledged and highly esteemed authority in matters pertaining
to the craft. Daniel Sickles says, 'In Egypt, Greece, and many other
ancient nations Freemasonry, that is, the Mysteries, was one of the
earliest agencies employed to effect the improvement and enlightenment
of man.' Pierson says, 'The identity of the Masonic institutions with
the ancient Mysteries is obvious,' which means clearly to be seen,
manifest to any and all.

"Masons say that the order is founded on the Bible--that is, unlearned
Masons say so. Geo. Wingate Chase, in the Digest of Masonic Law, says:
'The Jews, the Turks, each reject either the New Testament or the Old or
both, and yet we see no good reasons why they should not be made Masons.
In fact, Blue Lodge [first three degrees] Masonry has nothing whatever
to do with the Bible. It is not founded on the Bible. If it were, it
would not be Masonry; it would be something else.'

"Sickles says in speaking of the third, or Master Mason's degree, 'There
are characters impressed upon it which can not be mistaken. _It is
thoroughly Egyptian_.' He further says that the tradition is older by a
thousand years than Solomon. 'That our [Masonic] rites embrace all the
possible circumstances of man, moral, social, and spiritual, and have a
meaning high as the heavens, broad as the universe, and profound as
eternity.' Sickles in Gen. Chiman Rezon.

"The write