Lectures of Masonry, which moralized on "the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of Man." And this faith is acknowledged in our Rituals as a motive for the observance of the Theological and Cardinal Virtues, and the performance of all other moral duties which are there particularized as being essentially necessary to work out the character of a good and worthy Mason, who is desirous of passing through this life as a stranger and a sojourner, like the patriarch Abraham, seeking for a better country.

LECTURE X.

THE SECOND GRAND OFFERING.

"The numbering of the people was a thing contrary to the fundamental promise made by God to Abraham, that his seed shall increase so as to be like the stars for multitude; which is given as a reason why the number of the people was not taken exactly, and seems to imply that there was a general notion among the Jews, that, since God promised to increase them beyond number, none ought to go about to take the number of them, for this might seem to savour of infidelity and mistrust of God's promise."—BISHOP PATRICK.

THE framers of our Ritual were evidently anxious to impregnate it with the genuine principles of morality. They had no intention of establishing a new religion, or of recommending to the Craft a sectarian mode of worshipping the Most High, but simply to adapt Freemasonry to that mode of faith which prevailed throughout the whole Christian world at the time when the Constitutions of Athelstan were originally promulgated. And their labours have been singularly effective, although direct quotations from the New Testament were very sparingly introduced. The three Grand Offerings display the goodness of God to his fallen creatures, by the tendency which they equally possess of demonstrating unmistakable tokens of his acceptance, when the worship is performed according to the rites which he himself had

specially prescribed. The first was a type, the second a judgment, and the third a triumph,-all being honoured with the Divine presence in the Shekinah of cherubic-flame consuming the sacrifice.

The second Grand Offering records an act of disobedience committed by our traditional Grand Master, David, which was punished by a heavy judgment summarily inflicted. There are some differences of opinion respecting the actual offence which he had committed in numbering the people, because the same thing had been done by Moses, not only with the approbation of God but by his express command. Some think it was because he did not levy the tax for the service of the sanctuary, by which every census was directed to be accompanied. Others believe it to have arisen from counting the people by heads, like sheep, contrary to the precept which ordered them to be counted by means of half shekels. Some attribute it to David's numbering them through pride and vainglory, for the purpose of ascertaining how many subjects he had under his rule. There are those who suggest that the half shekel was collected, but that the king put it into his own treasury instead of handing it over to the priests. Others again fancy that David took this census from a distrust of the promise which God made to Abraham when he offered his son on the altar, that his posterity should be innumerable as the stars of heaven, and therefore in the pride of his heart he was determined to know the actual number. If such was his intention he disgracefully failed, after all his trouble and all his anxiety, as we shall soon see.

I

agree with Matthew Henry in thinking that it was a proud conceit of his own greatness in having the command of so numerous a people; as if their increase had been owing to any conduct of his, which was to be ascribed purely to the blessing of God; and also a proud confidence in his own strength. By publishing among the nations the number of his people, he hoped to appear more formidable; and doubted not, if he should have any war, that he should overpower his enemies with the multitude of his forces, trusting to an arm of flesh more than he should have done who had written so much of trusting in God only.

1

This was his sin; committed in a period of weakness, when overpowered by the suggestions of the evil spirit; for we have sufficient authority for asserting that it was Satan that tempted David to number Israel; 1 and he unfortunately succeeded, as he did on a more recent occasion, when he induced a chosen apostle to betray his Master. The temptation was so powerful that he resisted the advice of his councillors and great officers of state to dissuade him from his purpose. All argument was in vain-he determined that it should be done, and it was done -but not effectually. At the end of nine months the returns were confessedly imperfect; and thus his ambitious views were miserably frustrated, for his agents numbered only those males who exceeded twenty years of age. And it further appears that during the long period which was occupied in taking

1 1 Chron. xxi. 1.

the census, he seriously reflected on what he had done, and became conscious that he had committed a grievous error. Accordingly, when the population tables were presented to him, he turned to the Lord-humbly confessed his sin, and prayed for pardon; hoping by that means to escape the punishment which he felt that he had wantonly incurred. But he soon discovered his mistake: the prophet Gad was the bearer of the sentence, and David submitted to the stroke without a murmur.

It is remarkable that the punishments which were submitted to David's choice consisted of a triad of triads, viz. three years famine; three months' unsuccessful war; or three days' pestilence. David wisely preferred the latter alternative. He thought it better to fall into the hands God than into those of man, for he knew that the former possessed the attributes of mercy and loving-kindness, while the latter, when elated with victory, was cruel and vindictive. The pestilence was, therefore, sent; and though it had lasted only nine hours instead of three days, when its progress was arrested, 70,000 men fell victims to its fury. An awful attestation of the Divine hatred of sin. Joab was nine months in numbering the people, and the Most High half decimated them in as many hours. Jerusalem, however,

2 It is true that the account in 2 Samuel (xxiv. 13) is seven years' famine; but in the book of Chronicles only three years are mentioned, which is far more likely, because it agrees better with the three months' flight before his enemies, and the three days' pestilence; therefore, not only Grotius, but many others, read three years as being the true interpretation.