gation to the Grand Architect, for with the Mason
_laborare est orare_--labor is worship.

The importance of masonic labor being thus demonstrated, the question next
arises as to the nature of that labor. What is the work that a Mason is
called upon to perform?

Temple building was the original occupation of our ancient brethren.
Leaving out of view that system of ethics and of religious philosophy,
that search after truth, those doctrines of the unity of God and the
immortality of the soul, which alike distinguish the ancient Mysteries and
the masonic institution, and which both must have derived from a common
origin,--most probably from some priesthood of the olden time,--let our
attention be exclusively directed, for the present, to that period, so
familiar to every Mason, when, under the supposed Grand Mastership of
King Solomon, Freemasonry first assumed "a local habitation and a name" in
the holy city of Jerusalem. There the labor of the Israelites and the
skill of the Tyrians were occupied in the construction of that noble
temple whose splendor and magnificence of decoration made it one of the
wonders of the world.

Here, then, we see the two united nations directing their attention, with
surprising harmony, to the task of temple building. The Tyrian workmen,
coming immediately from the bosom of the mystical society of Dionysian
artificers, whose sole employment was the erection of sacred edifices
throughout all Asia Minor, indoctrinated the Jews with a part of their
architectural skill, and bestowed upon them also a knowledge of those
sacred Mysteries which they had practised at Tyre, and from which the
present interior form of Freemasonry is said to be derived.

Now, if there be any so incredulous as to refuse their assent to the
universally received masonic tradition on this subject, if there be any
who would deny all connection of King Solomon with the origin of
Freemasonry, except it be in a mythical or symbolical sense, such
incredulity will, not at all affect the chain of argument which I am
disposed to use. For it will not be denied that the corporations of
builders in the middle ages, those men who were known as "Travelling
Freemasons," were substantial and corporeal, and that the cathedrals,
abbeys, and palaces, whose ruins are still objects of admiration to all
observers, bear conclusive testimony that their existence was nothing like
a myth, and that their labors were not apocryphal. But these Trav