If, anywhere, brethren of a particular 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 fit. The _Cross_ has been a sacred symbol from the earliest Antiquity. It is found upon all the enduring monuments of the world, in Egypt, 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. But its peculiar meaning in this Degree, is that given to it by the Ancient Egyptians. _Thoth_ or _Phtha_ is represented on the oldest monuments carrying in his hand the _Crux Ansata_, or _Ankh_, [a Tau cross, with a ring or circle over it]. He is so seen on the double tablet of Shufu and Noh Shufu, builders of the greatest of the Pyramids, at Wady Meghara, in the peninsula of Sinai. It was the hieroglyphic for _life_, and with a triangle prefixed meant _life-giving_. To us therefore it is the symbol of _Life_--of that life that emanated from the Deity, and of that Eternal Life for which all hope; through our faith in God's infinite goodness. The ROSE was anciently sacred to Aurora and the Sun. It is symbol of _Dawn_, of the resurrection of Light and the renewal of life, and therefore of the dawn of the first day, and more particularly of the resurrection: and the Cross and Rose together are therefore hieroglyphically to be read, _the Dawn of Eternal Life_ which all Nations have hoped for by the advent of a Redeemer. The _Pelican_ feeding her young is an emblem of the large and bountiful beneficence of Nature, of the Redeemer of fallen man, and of that humanity and charity that ought to distinguish a Knight of this Degree. The Eagle was the living Symbol of the Egyptian God _Mendes_ or _Menthra_, whom _Sesostris-Ramses_ made one with _Amun-Re_, the God of Thebes and Upper Egypt, and the representative of the Sun, the word RE meaning _Sun_ or _King_. The _Compass_ surmounted with a crown signifies that notwithstanding the high rank attained in Masonry by a Knight of the Rose Croix, equity and impartiality are invariably to govern his conduct.