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Knight Rose Croix, Pt. 13

When this Degree had its origin, it is not important to inquire; nor with what different rites it has been practiced in different countries and at various times. It is of very high antiquity. It's ceremonies differ with the degrees of latitude and longitude, and it recieves variant interpretations. If we were to examine all the different cermonials, their emblems, and their formulas, we should wee that all that belongs to the primitive and essential elements of ther order, is respected in every sanctuary. All alike practise virtue, that it may produc fruit. All labor, like us, for the extirpation of vice, the purification of man, the development of the arts and sciences, and the relief of humanity.

None admit an adept to their lofty philosophical knowledge, and mysterious sciences, until he has been purified at the altar of the symbolic Degrees. Of what importance are differences of opinion as to the age and genealogy of the Degree, or variance in the practice, ceremonial and liturgy, or the shade of color of the banner under which each tribe of Israel marched; it all revere the Holy Arch of the symbolic Degree, first and unalterable source of FreeMasonry; if all revere our conservative principles, and are with us in the great purposes of our organization?

If, anywhere, brethren of a particula religious belief have been excluded from this Degree, it merely shows how gravely the purposes and plan of Masonry may be misunderstood. For whenever the door of any Degree is closed against him who believes in one God and the soul's immortality, on account of the other tenets of his faith, that Degree is Masonry no longer. No Mason has the right to interpret the symbols of this Degree for another, or to refuse him its mysteries, if he will not take them with the explanation and commentary superadded.

Listen, my brother, to our explanation of the symbols of the Degree, and then give them such further interpretation as you think it.

The Cross has been a sacred symbol from the earliest Antiquity. It is found upon all the enduring monuments of the world, in Egrypt, in Assyria, in Hindostan, in Persia, and on the Buddhist towers of Ireland. Buddha was said to have died upon it. The Druids cut an oak into its shape and held it sacred, and built their temples in that form. Pointing to the four quarters of the world, it was the symbol of universal nature. It was on a cruciform tree, that Chrishna was said to have expired, pierced with arrows. It was revered in Mexico.