chapter let me quote you from "Morals and Dogmas," page 524:

" We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by any one, of any faith. We do not tell the Moslem that it is only important for him to believe that there is but one God, and wholly unessential whether Mahomet was his prophet. We do not tell the Hebrew that the Messiah whom he expects was born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago ; and that he is a heretic, because he will not so believe. And as little do we tell the sincere Chris- tian that Jesus of Nazareth was but a man, like us, or his history but the unreal revival of an older legend. To do either is beyond our juris- diction. Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time ; of no one religion it finds its great truths in all."
Every religion had a common origin, and underwent changes, from time to time, to suit the people of the various epochs in which they lived.
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY. 459
It was during the reign of Constantine, that the believers in the ancient teachings, were compelled to abandon their old faith and adopt the New when all records of the Ancient Wisdom were sought for in order to destroy them.
The Secret Doctrine Avas the fountain and source of the Wisdom- Religion itself, whose doctrines were taught in the Ancient Mysteries, of which our own beloved Scottish Rite is a lineal descendant. All relig- ions in existence to-day have descended from, and are related to, the Wisdom-Religion of India, which was the Primitive Wisdom Religion of the Ancient World. Masonry has preserved the sublimely beautiful teachings of this profound Wisdom in the various parts of her Ineffable and Philosophical Degrees, and evidences of the Truth of this statement are to be found in the Holy Doctrine and Royal Secret, and proves the antiquit}^ of our most Illustrious Fraternity, and its relationship to the Indian, Mazdean and ancient Egyptian Mysteries.
We can trace the descent of the various Christian Sects, and prove they had a common origin, and that they all contain the same grand Truths, only clothed in different garments. Therefore, how foolish it is for men to quarrel over fictitious narratives, supposed to have happened in the early days of Christianity. They should be more charitable to the beliefs of others, more certain of their own, and should never, under any circumstances, dictate to any man what he should or should not believe. Masonry most assuredly does not claim an 3' right to alter the belief of any Brother be he Jew, Gentile, Moslem or Hindu.
GE. Balding 33 '^N
GRAND OFFICERS OF THE NORTHERN JURISDICTION.
'Fogaging up ii)t Nile— (!B.\aminhig Com^s antr CentpIrs—^Jaintincjs— gjculpturcs.
461
QIc have passed over cities in song renowned; Silent they He with the desert around; Hie have passed o'er the river whose tide hath rolled, Hll dark with the warrior-blood of old.
— F. Hemans.
462
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY. 463