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Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and
earth.
And Abraham said to the king of Sodom (verse 22),
I have lifted up my hand to the Most High God."

The Most High God is the true God, and this is He in whom Melchizedek and Abraham believed, and whom they adored. And this Melchizedek was king of Salem, one of the "heathen" nations, as they are termed !

If the Most High God is not the "true God," then where are we to find such a Being?

This Melchizedek was a priest, a priest of the "true" God, an officer of the state, and of religion, before Abraham had any posterity, and therefore was not a priest under the law, which was given four hundred years after this date. The Hebrews had priests and elders before the law was given. "Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses's father-inlaw before God." (Exod. xviii. 12.) Midian was a country east of the Red Sea, in Arabia Petræ. Now here appears another priest, Jethro, the priest of Midian, who, in the presence of Aaron and the This was the God Moses worelders of Israel, sacrificed to God. shiped-the "true God." He was the father-in-law of Moses, who kept his flocks for years. After Moses was educated in Egypt, he fled, and spent forty years with the priest of Midian, and married his daughter; and before the giving of the law, or as soon as the Israelites had passed the Red Sea, Jethro met him, and acting as priest for Moses, he there sacrifices to God, and they did eat together before God, with Aaron (afterwards priest) and the elders. So we find priests and elders before the law, and consequently not so created by the law.

Before the giving of the law, (Exod. xix. 22,) the priests were commanded not to approach the base of Mount Sinai. So again in the 24th verse: "Let not the priests break through to come up unto the Lord."

Again. Jethro, the priest of Midian, arranged the government of the Israelites for Moses before the law, and said to him, "Be thou to the people God-ward, and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws. (Exod. xviii.)

The "elders of Israel" are mentioned twice in the 17th chapter of Exodus. They are mentioned while the Hebrews were still in Egypt. (Exod. xii. 24.) "Then Moses called for the elders of Israel."

Moses instituted the Sabbath (Exod. xvi. 23) several months before the enunciation of the law.

We have mentioned these facts for the purpose of showing that all the ancient nations embraced religion, and that the Israelites were organized into a national compact, having elders and priests, and a prophet (Moses), before the law was given. The elders were rulers, and the priests officiated in religious matters, offering up sacrifices to God, just as did the priests of other nations, especially the Egyptians. Religion has ever been an universal sentiment among mankind.

Masonry thus unites men, believing in God the great Creator, and Source of all life, blessed forevermore. Masonry, thanks be to God, unites in friendly ties the fur-clad Greenlander and the sun-tanned Moor, without any "Act of Conformity" in the minor matters of their religion. Bigotry is ever intolerant. Truth never was created for bigots. They never investigate. Masonry never says to a Brother, "I believe in the true God, and you trust a false deity, and ought to expiate your crime at the stake."

When John Huss saw an old lady toiling and sweating to drag a heavy faggot to his stake, he exclaimed, "O sancta simplicitas."

Bigotry, by means of the "Holy Inquisition," has destroyed about one million of heretics; in Europe over thirty thousand of them by the tortures of the flames. All this, because these persons were honest enough to refuse assent to that which they did not believe.

That the Hebrews recognized the same God the Egyptians did, is evident from their sacrifices, priests, and prayers. In proof, we copy the prayer of Rameses, (Pharaoh,) as translated from the Sallier Papyrus, written before the law of Moses was given, and exhumed in 1798. It was made on the occasion of his great battle with the Che

tas:

"What, then, is the intent of my Father, Ammon? Is it a Father who would deny his son? Or have I trusted to my own thoughts? Have I not walked according to Thy word? Has not Thy mouth guided my goings forth? and Thy counsels, have they not directed me? * * * I invoke Thee, O my Father! I am in the midst of a throng of unknown tribes, and I am alone before Thee. No one is with me. * * * But I prefer Ammon to thousands of archers, to millions of horsemen, and to myriads of young men, arrayed in phalanx. * * * Have I not obeyed the order of Thy lips, and Thy counsels have they not guided me? Have I not given glory to Thee, to the ends of the earth?”

This prayer, or the prayer of which this is a part, was written five or six hundred years before the prayers of David; and in his prayers we find the same style, and even sentences which are verbatim. There is nothing in the name addressed. If it be objected that the name Ammon is mentioned in the prayers of Pharaoh, and consequently he

addressed a false deity, (a thing that has no existence,) it might with equal justice be affirmed that we do not address the true Deity when we say God, because the Hebrews used the word Jove, or Jehovah, or Jah, and theirs was the true One. Mahomet, in his Al Koran, has repeated one truth hundreds of times, when he says, "There is no god but God." There is no such a being in the universe as a false god. God is the true God, and there is none other, no odds what name we call him.

Being. And if this

"Let

But it is objected that the Hindoos and Egyptians believed in more than one God. We answer, they believed in only ONE Supreme objection is of any weight against Hindoos and Egyptians, it must also overthrow the worship of the Hebrews. “God said, let us make man." "The man is become as one of us." us go down and confound their language." The first time the name of God is used in the Hebrew Bible, it occurs in the plural number. "In the beginning, ELOHIM created." EL is God, in the singular number, and Elohim in the plural. The phrase, BARA-ELOHIM— the Gods created-occurs more than thirty times in the short history of the creation. (Tomlin's Theology and Hebrew Bible.)

The term, JEHOVAH ELOHIM,-the Lord Gods,-occurs at least one hundred and thirty times in the law of Moses. It is true that the word Jehovah is not used in the first chapter of Genesis, as Bishop Colenso has recently shown in his very literary works. The Hebrews recognized but one Supreme Deity, and He was their God.

man.

They applied the word God to a superior being, to an angel, or a

"And the Lord said unto Moses, I have made thee a God unto Pharaoh." (Exod. vii. 1.)

"Thou shalt not revile the Gods." (Exod. xxii. 8.)

"The Lord judgeth among the Gods." (Ps. lxxxii. 2.)

While the Hebrews believed in but one God, the same is equally true of the Hindoos and Egyptians. The VEDAS of the Hindoos, in the narration of the creation of the world, begin thus: "In the beginning there was an only God, self-created and self-sustaining. After passing an eternity in the contemplation of his being, he desired to exhibit his perfections beyond himself, and created the matter of the world," etc. Here is a recognition of only one God. Now by what means have bigots learned that the God of the Vedas is not the true God? That the God of Melchizedek and of Jethro was any other than He?

Prior to the exhumation of the Egyptian books of the Papyrus by the French commission, in 1798, and subsequently, the Hebrew writings, sacred and historical, were considered the oldest writings

extant.

BRETHREN IN DISTRESS.

NEVER in the history of our country, if indeed in the history of the world, has there been a parallel to the devastating fires which have swept over the Northwest like a besom of destruction since our last issue. But a few weeks ago and our people were rejoicing over one of the most productive harvests that was ever gathered, and the demand for the products of the soil, which gave promise of brisk trade and plenty of money. Chicago then stood forth in all her glory, the most prominent city, the center of trade and wealth. No city could boast such a growth. It was the pride of the west, and indeed of the entire country. Within the easy recollection of people not yet advanced in years, Chicago was a comparatively small village, situated on low, marshy grounds, and remarkable only for its exceedingly muddy streets and extravagant hotel charges. The writer can well remember those days. When he visited Chicago the first time it was a large village of mushroon growth, nearly made up of shanties. At that time the marshy grounds south of the city, within plain sight of the court house square, could have been purchased at government price. And few who visited the place had confidence that it would ever amount to much; much less that it would ever become one of the first cities of the nation. But at length railroads were constructed, connecting it with eastern cities, and also with the rich prairies surrounding it. From that time the growth of Chicago was without a parallel. The muddy village soon gave place to one of the most beautiful and wealthy cities of modern times. Its massive, business blocks, its palatial residences, its mammoth hotels, its printing houses, railroad depots, schools, churches, lodge halls, all these bore testimony to the superior taste and enterprise of its people. But alas, alas! The Chicago of a few days ago is no more. Its majestic business blocks and palatial residences, in a few brief hours have been all consumed, and this beautiful proud city lies in smouldering ruins, and her independent wealthy people are driven out from their beautiful homes into the chill autumnal blasts without a roof to shelter them, or clothing or food except as they are sent them by the generous and charitable of more favored portions of our couutry.

An adequate description of the city in flames will probably never be so written as to impress the reader with the awful reality. We have read several accounts which were truly appalling, but are told by those who witnessed the awful scence, that it beggars all description. We subjoin the following given by an eye-witness:

CHICAGO, October 9, 1871-4 P. M.

This city has been visited with one of the most awful and devastating conflagrations which has occurred in the history of the world since the great fire of London. It was but yesterday that Chicago stood proud and erect, the great commercial emporium of the west, with railroads centering here from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and from Lake Superior and the Gulf of Mexico, filling her storehouses and granaries with the products and wealth of a continent. To-day the entire city is absolutely and literally obliterated from the face of the earth, and nothing remains of this great, proud and prosperous city but a fringe of scattering dwelling houses in the suburbs of the city. It is utterly impossible to particularize or give the names of places burnt, as to do so, would be to give the entire business directory of the city.

The fire which occurred here on Saturday night, and which has been previously reported, burnt over an area of about twenty acres, principally covered with tenement houses, machine shops, and wood and coal yards. The total loss was about $500,000. One woman was also burned to death.

This fire had been subdued and no apprehensions of further danger had been felt until 9:30 Sunday night, when a fire broke out at the corner of Canalport avenue and Halsted streets, in the southwestern part of the city, about 14 miles from the court house square, and half a mile south of the fire of the previous night. As this was an extensive pork-packing and lumber district, and the wind was blowing strong directly towards the court house square and the centre of the city, the devouring element soon got beyond the control of the firemen, who were promptly on the spot and battled heroically, but were obliged to retreat from square to square rapidly. In less than one hour the flames had spread over half a mile and crossed the canal into the extensive lumber yards and storehouses near Polk street. Here the flames spread with fearful rapidity, and the wind, increasing with the flames, threatened the destruction of the entire city, as all efforts of every fire engine of the city were absolutely powerless. The water thrown on on the flames seemed only to add to their fury. By this time the streets became blocked with thousands fleeing before the fiery element, unable to save anything, vast numbers with bare feet and with nothing but their night clothes on, filling the air with cries and wailings for children and friends whom they feared were burnt in the flames. The fiery fiend spread rapidly over the southern part of the city, and by 1:30 Monday morning, the new court house and the immense blocks of marble buildings surrounding it on the west and south sides, including the chamber of commerce, were one mass of flames. Here the scene

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