found in the ark? A. A small vessel containing a
substance, which, after the Council had examined, and the High Priest
again read from the book of the law, Ex. xvi. 32-34, he pronounced to
be manna:

"And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded; fill
an omer of the manna to be kept for your generations, that they
may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when
I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto
Aaron, Take a pot and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay
it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be
kept for a token."

The High Priest then took a rod from the ark, which, after he had read
the following passage,

Numb. xvii. 10. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod
again before the testimony to be kept for a token."

He pronounced to be Aaron's rod, which budded and blossomed as the
rose.

Q. Was there anything further found in the ark? A. There was a key to
the ineffable characters belonging to this degree, as follows

--|--|--|
--|--|--|X

beginning at top of this diagram at the left hand angle. The upper
left angle without a dot is A, the same with a dot is B, etc.

[Illustration]

Q. What further was said to you? A. The High Priest read the following
passage:

Exodus vi. 2, 3. "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I
am the Lord, and I appealed unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I
not known to them."

He then informed us that the name of Deity, the divine Logos, or word,
to which reference is made in John i. 1-5.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God, the same was in the beginning with God, all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

That this Logos or word was anciently written only in these sacred
characters, and thus preserved from one generation to another. That
this was the true Masonic word, which was lost in the death of Hiram
Abiff, and was restored at the rebuilding of the temple, in the manner
we had at that time assisted to represent.

Q. What followed? A. We were reminded of the manner in which we were
swor