1 781] KEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 55 



unparalleled degree, all the glory, beauty and sublimity of Masonry; 

 there being no fewer than * three thousand six hundred Master Masons, 

 eighty thousand Fellow Craftsmen, and seventy thousand Labourers, 

 employed in this magnificent and Heaven-conducted work. 



But above all the rest, our Grand Master Hiram shone superlatively 

 great, as chief Director, and the most accomplished Mason upon earth. 

 For to this character of him the holy Scripture gives testimony, in the 

 recommendatory letter which Hiram, King of Tyre, sent with him to 

 King Solomon, — "And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with 

 understanding, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan ; and his 

 father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, 

 in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple, in blue and in fine linen, and 

 in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every 

 device which shall be put to him with thy cunning men and with the 

 cunning men of my Lortl David, thy Father." "j" 



Thus we see that our great Master Hiram was accomplished in almost 

 every art and science then known upon earth ; as all those should aspire 

 to be, who wish to become useful Masons, the- Masters of Lodges, and 

 the Rulers or Instructors of others. It is here further to be observed, 

 that so highly was this Chief of Masons honoured by his master the 

 King of Tyre, that in all probability he had called him Hiram, or 

 Huram, after his own royal name. 



It would be foreign to our present design (as already hinted) to men- 

 tion the illustrious Masons that in all ages, from the building of Solo- 

 mon's Temple down to the ages of general darkness and barbarity, have 

 adorned the different countries of the world ; as Syria, Mesopotamia, 

 Assyria, Chaldea, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Arabia, Africa, lesser Asia, 

 Grecia, Rome, &c., «Scc. The remains of temples, pyramids and mighty 

 towers, yet declare their builders' glory; and, even in Gothic ages, the 

 chief monuments of taste and grandeur are to be seen in the works of 

 Masonry and Architecture. 



Seven hundred years ago, AVilliam, called the Conqueror, built the 

 Tower of London; his son, William Rufus, built Westminster Hall; 

 which, as one room or Lodge, is said to be the largest in the known 

 world; — which grand monuments of Gothic Architecture were all raised 

 in the taste and spirit, delivered down from those ancient Craftsmen 

 and learned Masons sent into England, at the request of the Saxon 

 Kings, by Charles Martell, King of France, more than one thousand 

 years ago. 



But I'or the further instruction of the reader, concerning the founda- 

 tion and antiquity of what is called York Masonry, the following record, 

 written in the reign of Edward IV. of England, viz., three hundred 



* I Kings V. 15; 2 Chion. xi. iS. i 2 Chron. ii. 13, 14. 



