Freemasonry in the Holy Land Author:Robert Morris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DIVISION FIRST-FACING THE EAST. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the g... more »rave, whither thou goest . —Ecdes. ix. 10. Examine the condition of the Masonic institution, in the land of its nativity. Observe those unaltered customs of the Orientals, whose types are preserved in the rituals of our lodges. Inspect the traditional sites of Tyre, Gebal, Lebanon, Joppa, Succoth, Jerusalem, etc. Collect relics of ancient days and specimens of the natural productions of the land.—Numbers, xiii. 21. X30IN OF JERUSALEM : SHEKEL. CHAPTER I. CONCEPTION AND PREPARATIONS. VTERY one who has undertaken to instruct Freemasons, must many times have yearned to visit Palestine, the jjy mother-land of ancient affiliations,—the Orient,—the home of Abraham and David,—of Solomon and Zcrubbabel,—of Jesus and Mohammed,—the School of the Sacred Writings. So many references to that country are contained in the Masonic rituals, it is a marvel that no one of us had made explorations there prior to 1868. In common with my fellows in Masonic work, I had keenly experienced the Crusader's impulse " to precipitate myself upon the Syrian shore;" and often cast about me for the means to gratify the yearning. In the autumn of 1854, I came so near accomplishing this wish, that, by the favor of a loan of $1,000 from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, joined to the liberality of other friends, I reached New York, having my face earnestly "set towards Jerusalem." But here an unlucky accident frustrated my hopes, and turned me back to the Occident. Fire, which has so often proved my foe, consumed the Judson House, in which I was a lodger, and by destroying my papers and clothing, etc., so disarranged the scheme, that I ...« less