"Masons say that the order is founded on the Bible--that is, unlearned Masons say so. Geo. Wingate Chase, in the Digest of Masonic Law, says: 'The Jews, the Turks, each reject either the New Testament or the Old or both, and yet we see no good reasons why they should not be made Masons. In fact, Blue Lodge [first three degrees] Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Bible. It is not founded on the Bible. If it were, it would not be Masonry; it would be something else.' "Sickles says in speaking of the third, or Master Mason's degree, 'There are characters impressed upon it which can not be mistaken. _It is thoroughly Egyptian_.' He further says that the tradition is older by a thousand years than Solomon. 'That our [Masonic] rites embrace all the possible circumstances of man, moral, social, and spiritual, and have a meaning high as the heavens, broad as the universe, and profound as eternity.' Sickles in Gen. Chiman Rezon. "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....