Kishkumen wrote:...
Thanks for the leads, Uncle Dale. This is very fascinating material indeed!
It might be helpful, at this point, to review
a portion of Elder Reed C. Durham's address:
"Is There No Help For The Widow's Son?"
(as preserved in a copy made by the late Melvin B. Hogan):
>...in the pre-existence, there was a special Secret Doctrine that was
>given by Deity, and it was given down to the earth first to Adam.
>Adam then was to carefully guard this Secret Doctrine because it
>contained all the Mysteries. It contained the knowledge of God, and
>the name it contained was the sacred name of God. Adam then bestowed
>it ("the Secret Doctrine," M. B. Hogan note) upon his son, Seth,
>who guarded it very carefully - only among the inner circle of
>believers - and then it was handed down until it came to Enoch.
>
>And, Enoch is the central figure in the legend.
>
>It is with Enoch that the remarkable resemblance with Joseph Smith
>and Mormon history become disconcertingly clear. The major details
>of the legend are outlined as follows:
>
>Enoch, seventh in the line of patriarchs from Adam, was 25 years old
>when he received his call and vision.
>
>He was taken up in vision onto a hill called Moriah.
>
>In vision he saw a cavern in a hill, a sacred vault In the bowels
>of the earth. The cavity was symbolized as being a container for
>sacred treasures, like an holy ark, and it had a lid on it.
>
>In vision, Enoch perceived a shiny gold plate containing unknown
>engravings and symbols.
>
>He recognized the letter "M" upon the gold plate, which designated
>the name of the hill
>
>He further saw the sacred name of God, which had been lost to all
>mankind, and he was commissioned by Deity to preserve this knowledge.
>
>He foresaw that a flood would come to destroy all mankind. Therefore,
>he felt it was his duty to preserve the Sacred Mystery.
>
>He placed two pillars inside the hill:
> -- a. One of marble upon which, written in Egyptian hieroglyphics,
> were found the historical events connected with the tower of Babel,
>and
>
> -- b. One of brass, which contained the history of creation and the
>Secret Mysteries. These records were placed in the hill along with the
>treasure of the gold plate.
>
>This brass pillar had a metal ball on its top, within which were
>contained maps, and directions of the world and of the universe,
>and which also acted as a sort of oracle.
>
>Enoch then placed a stone lid, or slab, over the cavity into the hill.
>
>Enoch predicted that on the other side of the deluge an Israelitish
>descendant would discover anew the sacred buried treasure.
>
>As predicted after the flood, a great king, named Solomon, came to power
>and desired to build a sacred house for the in-dwelling of the divine
>presence.
>
>Solomon and his builders, the Masons, while building and excavating for
>the temple at Mt. Moriah, discovered the cavern and the sacred treasure.
>
>After three attempts to obtain the treasure, they were finally successful.
>Those Masons were very rejoiceful upon receiving these preserved Mysteries.
>
>But. three wicked men intervened and committed a horrible crime. They
>attempted to force one of the Masons, one of the faithful Masons who had
>discovered the treasure. Hiram Abif; or Hiram, the widow's son, to reveal
>the hiding (place) and the contents of the hidden treasure.
>
>He would not reveal his knowledge and therefore they killed him.
>
>While being slain, Hiram. with uplifted hands, cried out, "Oh Lord,
>My God, is there no help for the widow's son?" This has since become a
>general Masonic distress call.
>
>Then three loyal Masons, seeking revenge, pursued the three evil ones.
>
>One of the three faithful Masons overtook one of the arch-villains. He
>was asleep with his sword, or knife, nearby.
>
>The Mason slew the villain with his own knife by cutting off his head.
>
>In Masonic ceremonies, the words "strike off his head" were employed.
>
>Also in Masonic ceremonies, in revolutionary France, the re-enacting of
>the killing of this villain. the tyrant's name was King Philippe le Bel
>(Philip IV... who destroyed the Knights Templar. M. B. Hogan note)
>
>The loyal Mason was rewarded by King Solomon.
>
>The recovered treasures then became part of the temple treasury. It
>consisted of the brass records, the gold plate, the metal ball, the
>breast plate and the urim and thummim.
>
>Such is the Masonic legend of the Secret Doctrine, or the sacred
>treasure in the sacred hill, or the treasure of the widow's son.
In another of Hogan's unpublished paper, he provides this information:
>In lighting him [Joseph Smith] to bed one night [April
>1843] he showed me his garments and explained that they
>were such as the Lord made for Adam from skins, and gave
>me such ideas pertaining to endowments as he thought
>proper. He told me Freemasonry, as at present, was the
>apostate endowments, as sectarian religion.
>[B. F. Johnson autobiography]
>
>This was not a new thought. It has been discussed in
>varying degrees and from differing points of view since 1723
>when the Reverend James Anderson, D.D., introduced the theme
>in his historic _Constitutions_ of that year.
The relevant information from Anderson's 1723 edition (online)
is found in his opening remarks:
>Adam, our first Parent, created after the Image of God...
>must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry,
>written on his Heart; for even since the Fall, we find the
>Christ. Principles of it in the Hearts of his Offspring,
>and which, in process of time, have been drawn forth into
>a convenient Method of Propositions...
>
>No doubt Adam taught his Sons Geometry, and the use of it,
>in the several Arts and Crafts convenient, at least, for those
>early Times; for Cain, we find, built a City, which he call’d
>Consecrated, or Dedicated, after the name of his eldest Son Enoch;
>and becoming the Prince of the one Half of Mankind, his Posterity
would ***IMITATE*** his royal Example...
>
>Nor can we suppose that Seth was less instructed, who being the
>Prince of the other Half of Mankind, and also the prime Cultivator
>of Astronomy, would take equal Care to teach Geometry and Masonry
>to his Offspring, who had also the mighty Advantage of Adam's living
>among them. *
>
>...Noah, and his three Sons, Japhet, Shem, and Ham, all Masons true,
>brought with them over the Flood, the Traditions and Arts of the
>Ante-deluvians, and amply communicated them to their growing Offspring...
>
>... {Freemasonry] was especially preserved in Shinar and Assyria, where
>Nimrod, the Founder of that Monarchy, after the Dispersion, built many
>splendid Cities, as Ereck, Accad, and Calneh, in Shinar; from whence
>afterwards he went forth into Assyria, and built Niniveh...
>
>And, no doubt, the Royal Art was brought down to Egypt by Mitzraim,
>the second Son of Ham, about six Years after the Confusion [of tongues]
>at Babel, and after the A. M. Flood 160 Years, when he led thither his
>Colony... Edifices of that Country, and particularly the famous Pyramids,
>demonstrate the early Taste and Genius of that ancient Kingdom....
>
>And surely the fair and gallant Posterity of Japhet, (the eldest Son
>of Noah) even such as travell'd into the Isles of the Gentiles, must
>have been equally skill'd in Geometry and Masonry; though' we know little
>of their Transactions and mighty Works, until their original Knowledge
>was almost lost by the Havock of War...
Note that in Anderson's version of primorial history, the "Enoch" who
transmits an IMITATED (my emphasis) version of Freemasonry on down to
the Assyrians and Egyptians, is NOT the 7th generation descendant of
Adam, who is so lauded and honored in modern Masonry. Contrarily, THAT
other Enoch seemingly transmits a perverted vesion of the SECRET LORE
down through his lineage.
The TRUE MASONRY is passed down through Seth, Enoch, and Noah --
though it too became perverted and apostate in later ages.
Enoch's True Masonry is carried to the "Isles of the Gentiles" by
some of Noah's descendants -- and where those "Isles" began and
ended, is left totally obscure. -- Perhaps even to the Americas.
At any rate, the history of Masonry's spread so far afield from
Noah's landing spot on Ararat has been "ALMOST LOST" due to the
consequences of "WAR" among the apostate Masonic brethren residing
amongst the "Isles of the Gentiles."
NOW -- FOR THE Mormon VERSION OF THINGS:
1. The great Patriarch Enoch lived in the Americas, where the
original Garden of Eden was located.
2. This Enoch wrote down the original sacred scriptures -- lost
to the world at the time of Noah's Flood (unless Noah happened
to have carried a copy of the Book of Enoch with him on the Ark).
3. This Enoch and his Holy City of archaic Christians was lifted
into the Heavens -- and thus Enoch never died. He will presumably
still be residing in that celestial Zion when it descendsa to
earth, as the New Jerusalem, in Jackson County, Missouri.
4. Enoch's Secret Mysteries were re-discovered by Solomon in the
Old World land of Palestine --- but what about America (remember,
that in the Mormon version, Enoch resided in North America)?
5. Whatever truth might be preserved by the Freemasons, dating
back to the era of Solomon's Temple, thus cannot be the FULLNESS
OF THE MASONIC GOSPEL, as practiced by the living Enoch, who is
presumably the never-dying Prophet of the Celestial Zion.
6. Even the basic truths known to Solomon, Hiram Abiff, Jesus,
Jacques de Molay, etc., have become apostate perversions in
recent ages. Freemasonry thus requires a modern restoration.
7. Since Freemasonry began in the Americas and was developed
there -- and its secrets written down there by Enoch -- it will
be in America that the True Masonry will be Restored in these,
the Latter Days.
Recall now, what President Smith said to Elder Johnson:
"his garments...were such as the Lord made for Adam
from skins... [he] gave... such ideas pertaining to
endowments as he thought proper... Freemasonry, as
at present, [just as much] apostate endowments, as
sectarian religion [is an apostate gospel]...
UD
