“The writer was informed when the charges were given him ’that our ancient brethren worshiped in high hills and in low vales, and that guards were placed to keep off cowans or eves-droppers.’  By referring to Scripture we at once find the character of those who worshiped in high hills and low vales, and why they needed a guard to keep off eves-droppers.  ’Thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.’  Jer. 2:20; 3:6.  ’Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served other gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree.’  Deut. 12:2.  ’Enflaming themselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the vales under the clifts of the rocks....  Even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.’  Isa. 57:5-7.  They were not afraid of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Kings 7:10; 1 Kings 14:23), and they grew and multiplied in their reigns, and in the reigns of all those of whom it is recorded that ‘they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.’  Some of the kings of Israel and of Judah destroyed their high places for them and were highly favored of God for so doing.

“Again, ’The precepts of Jesus could not have been made obligatory upon a Jew.  A Christian would have denied the sanction of the Koran.  A Mohammedan must have rejected the law of Moses, and a disciple of Zoroaster would have turned from all, to the teaching of his Zend-Avesta.  The universal law of nature, which the authors of the old charges have properly called the moral, is therefore the only law suited in every respect to be adopted as the Masonic code.’  Mackeys’ Textbook, Masonic Jurisprudence.  If the statements just quoted do not place the secret society of Masonry on a footing decidedly Pagan, it is difficult to say just where it does stand....

“Tammuz, or Osiris of Egypt, who is declared to be the original of Hiram Abiff the temple-builder, is still mourned for.  Ezek. 8:14.  See Young’s Analytical Concordance or any standard Greek Mythology.  Now see Piersons’ Traditions of Freemasonry.  ’The Masonic legend stands by itself, unsupported by history, or other than its own traditions.  Yet we readily recognize in Hiram Abiff the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks [god of drunkenness, or feasts and the like], the Dionysis of the fraternity of artificers, and the Atys of the Phrygians, whose passions, deaths, and resurrections were celebrated by these people respectively.’  Thus it is clearly shown that each of these ancient nations had its counterfeit Savior and Redeemer, and it is here proved by the words of Masonic Grand Masters, authors, and authorities, that Masonry is of Pagan origin.”