e ordered
guards to be placed at the different passes on the banks of the river
Jordan, and commanded, if the Ephraimites passed that way, that they
should pronounce the word SHIBBOLETH; but they, being of a different
tribe, pronounced it SIBBOLETH, which trifling defect proved them
spies, and cost them their lives; and there fell that day, at the
different passes on the banks of the river Jordan, forty and two
thousand. This word was also used by our ancient brethren to
distinguish a friend from a foe, and has since been adopted as a
proper pass-word, to be given before entering any well-regulated and
governed Lodge of Fellow Craft Masons.

Q. What did you next discover? A. The inner door of the middle chamber
of King Solomon's Temple, which I found partly open, but closely tyled
by the Senior Warden.

Q. How did you gain admission? A. By the grip and word.

Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be
conducted to the Worshipful Master in the East, who informed me that I
had been admitted into the middle chamber of King Solomon's Temple for
the sake of the letter G.

Q. Does it denote anything? A. It does; DEITY--before whom we should
all bow with reverence, worship, and adoration. It also denotes
Geometry, the fifth science; it being that on which this degree was
principally founded.

Thus ends the second degree of Masonry.

* * * * *

THE THIRD, OR MASTER MASON'S DEGREE.

The traditional account of the death, several burials, and
resurrection of Hiram Abiff, the widow's son (as hereafter narrated),
admitted as facts, this degree is certainly very interesting. The
Bible informs us that there was a person of that name employed at the
building of King Solomon's Temple; but neither the Bible, the writings
of Josephus, nor any other writings, however ancient, of which I have
any knowledge, furnish any information respecting his death. It is
very singular that a man so celebrated as Hiram Abiff was, and arbiter
between Solomon, King of Israel, and Hiram, King of Tyre, universally
acknowledged as the third most distinguished man then living, and in
many respects, the greatest man in the world, should pass off the
stage of action, in the presence of King Solomon, three thousand,
three hundred grand overseers, and one hundred and fifty thousand
workmen, with whom he had spent a number of years, and neither King
Solomon, his bosom friend, nor any other among h