rn; but rather to persist in sustaining the glory of our order,
and the truth of our laws, principles, and mysteries, in like manner
as our Respectable Father Hiram Abiff, who deserved to have been
buried there for his constancy and fidelity. We have also another
example in the firmness of "Galaad," the son of "Sophonia," chief of
the Levites, under Surnam, the High Priest, as mentioned in the
history of perfection. Learn in this moment, my dear brother, what you
are to understand by the figures of Solomon, Hiram, King of Tyre, and
St. John the Baptist. The two first exert you, by their zeal in the
royal art, to follow the sublime road of which Solomon was the
institutor, and Hiram of Tyre, the "supporter;" a title legitimately
due to that king, who not only protected the order, but contributed
with all his might to the construction of the temple (furnishing stone
from Tyre, and the cedars of Lebanus) which Solomon built to the honor
of the Almighty.

The third, or St. John the Baptist, teaches you to preach marvellous
to this order, which is as much as to say, you are to make secret
missions among men, which you believe to be in a state of entering the
road of truth, that they may be able one day to see her virtues and
visage uncovered.

HIRAM ABIFF was the symbol of truth on earth. Jubelum Akirop was
accused by the serpent of ignorance, which to this day raises altars
in the hearts of the profane and fearful. This profaneness, backened
by a fanatic zeal, becomes an instrument to the religious power, which
struck the first stroke in the heart of our dear Father, Hiram Abiff;
which is as much as to say, undermined the foundation of the celestial
temple, which the Eternal himself had ordered to be raised to the
sublime truth and his glory.

The first age of the world has been witness to what I have advanced.
The simple, natural law rendered to our first fathers the most
uninterrupted happiness. They were in those times more virtuous; but
as soon as the "monster of pride" started up in the air and disclosed
herself to those unhappy mortals, she promised to them every seat of
happiness, and seduced them by her soft and bewitching speeches, viz.:
That "they must render to the Eternal Creator of all things an
adoration with more testimony, and more extensive, than they had
hitherto done," etc. This Hydra with a hundred heads, at that time
misled, and continues to this day to mislead men who are so weak as to
submit to he