setting of the sun, during the time that Joshua was fighting with the Amalekites in the valley of Rephidim. Another of these tokens was a word which referred to a celebrated battle in the Holy Land. LECTURE XLII. THE MIDDLE CHAMBER. "The watchful eye a length of time The glory and the power be thine, Which shall from age to age descend." DUNCKERLEY. "When you came to the middle chamber, what did you see? The resemblance of the letter G. What did that G denote ? One that is greater than you? Who is greater than I, that am a free and accepted Mason and the Master of a Lodge ? The Grand Architect and Contriver of the Universe, or He that was taken up to the top of the pinnacle of the Holy Temple."-A PRIMITIVE RITUAL. "May all who have witnessed the glories of the middle chamber live in unity and die in peace."-SECTIONAL CHARGE. THE Temple of Solomon was built of stone and timber, prepared at a distance from Jerusalem, so that there was neither axe nor hammer nor any metal tool heard in the house when the materials were put together. "How skilful," Bro. Scott exclaims, "must have been the Craftsmen ! Every stone had a place assigned to it before leaving the quarry. The timber was also prepared in the forest of Lebanon. Immense blocks of marble and large timbers were fitted for the builders' use, and the whole was put together with mathematical precision by the sole assistance of wooden mallets. And the building was covered in with radiant plates of gold. The magnificence of the structure was only surpassed by the grandeur of its worship. Freemasonry is connected with every apartment of Solomon's temple and its religious services. It is associated with that great building from its foundation to its last and crowning stone. It is a system of rites and ceremonies, made compact together by our ancient Masters; and as the Jewish religion was designed to be only preparatory to a future and better revelation, so before the advent of the Messiah our ancient Brethren perceived in Freemasonry traces of a full and perfect dispensation. If the Jewish religion contained promises of better things, each step in Masonry is an advance toward a greater light, and each degree preparatory to another and a higher.' " The cella of King Solomon's temple appears to have been surrounded on three sides by chambers in three stories, each story wider than the one beneath it, as the walls were narrowed or made thinner as they ascended by sets off of eleven inches on each side, which received the flooring joists, as no cutting was on any account permitted. Access to these apartments was given from the right hand side of the interior of the temple by a winding staircase of stone, such as may be seen in several ancient temples. The middle chambers, according to a ritual used in the last century, of each row over the porch, were totally dark, except the upper story, and were used as repositories for the tabernacle of Moses, which was there stored and hidden from the eyes the profane, as the ark was in the Holy of Holies; of but when the temple was finished, and a short time before its dedication, King Solomon permitted all the Fellow-crafts that became proselytes to inspect the contents of this upper row, in the centre of which was the middle chamber, which was symbolical of the Divine presence in that celebrated letter which appeared in the centre of its decorated ceiling ; although, according to Masonic tradition, while the temple was in the course of erection, the middle chamber was used as an office for the payment of wages to a privileged class of workmen, and was the place where candidates were prepared for the third degree of Masonry! Dr. Lightfoot, however, thinks that there were no chambers at all over the holy place, and that it was open to the roof. It is true that over the Sanctum Sanctorum there was an upper room of ten cubits high; but he believes that it was not accessible. And as for the side chambers that were on the outside of the house, there was no reason why they should be overlaid with gold, since they were places wherein their corn, and wine, and tithes, and first fruits, and such like things, were laid up. He, therefore, concludes that by the Hebrew word Eljoth we are not to understand upper chambers, but the upper floor or the roof of the holy and most holy places, which were overlaid with gold everywhere, both the floor on which they trod, and the walls round about, and the roof overhead. The middle chamber, which is so celebrated in the second degree of Masonry, was accessible, as we have seen, by the winding staircase or corkscrew flight of steps already mentioned, and was lighted by loop-holed openings in the wall. The ceiling of this room is said to have been ornamented by a diagram, consisting of a triangle and square inscribed within a circle, inclosing the letter G, as indicative of the presence of TGA OTU, with other elaborate designs, with which, as they are not based on authentic evidence, I shall not trouble you, although one of our Rituals affirms that "he who fully comprehends them hath wisdom enough, and may be truly said to have arrived at the ne plus ultra of Masonry.” But as the Triangle-Circle-Square form a triad peculiarly applicable to the second degree of Masonry, it cannot be passed over without a brief notice, because these elements jointly and severally point out the attributes and perfections of the deity. The former was denoted by the three principal officers of the Lodge called Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, constituting one chief governor; a triad referring to the Porch, Holy Place, Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple, which was the perpetual abode of the great I AM, the Past, Present, To Come. The same holy principle of the triad pervaded everything connected with the temple. It was built on mount Moriah, where the three great offerings were made which consecrate the floor of our Lodges. Three temples were successively constructed, each being furnished by the union of as many principles and powers. The first by Solomon and the two Hirams; the second by Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Jeshua, who filled the three great offices of king, prophet, and priest; the third by Herod, Hillel, and N |