r was informed when the charges were given him 'that our
ancient brethren worshiped in high hills and in low vales, and that
guards were placed to keep off cowans or eves-droppers.' By referring to
Scripture we at once find the character of those who worshiped in high
hills and low vales, and why they needed a guard to keep off
eves-droppers. 'Thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high
hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.'
Jer. 2:20; 3:6. 'Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the
nations which ye shall possess served other gods, upon the high
mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree.' Deut. 12:2.
'Enflaming themselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the
children in the vales under the clifts of the rocks.... Even thither
wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.' Isa. 57:5-7. They were not afraid
of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Kings 7:10; 1 Kings 14:23), and they grew and
multiplied in their reigns, and in the reigns of all those of whom it is
recorded that 'they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.'
Some of the kings of Israel and of Judah destroyed their high places for
them and were highly favored of God for so doing.

"Again, 'The precepts of Jesus could not have been made obligatory upon
a Jew. A Christian would have denied the sanction of the Koran. A
Mohammedan must have rejected the law of Moses, and a disciple of
Zoroaster would have turned from all, to the teaching of his
Zend-Avesta. The universal law of nature, which the authors of the old
charges have properly called the moral, is therefore the _only law_
suited in every respect to be adopted as the Masonic code.' Mackeys'
Textbook, Masonic Jurisprudence. If the statements just quoted do not
place the secret society of Masonry on a footing decidedly Pagan, it is
difficult to say just where it does stand....

"Tammuz, or Osiris of Egypt, who is declared to be the original of Hiram
Abiff the temple-builder, is still mourned for. Ezek. 8:14. See Young's
Analytical Concordance or any standard Greek Mythology. Now see
Piersons' Traditions of Freemasonry. 'The Masonic legend stands by
itself, unsupported by history, or other than its own traditions. Yet we
readily recognize in Hiram Abiff the Osiris of the Egyptians, the
Mithras of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks [god of drunkenness,
or feasts and the like], the Dionysis of the fraternity of artificers,
and the Atys of th