“Though the punishment of the cross,” says the _Asiatic Researches_, “be unknown to the Hindus, yet the followers of Buddha have some knowledge of it, when they represent Deva _Thot_ (that is, the god _Thot_) crucified upon an instrument resembling a cross, according to the accounts of some travellers to Siam.” “Christianity,” says Oliver, “or the system of salvation through the atonement of a crucified Mediator, was the main pillar of Freemasonry ever since the fall.” Let me point your notice now to some _consequences_ of that mysterious fact. I begin by asking-- How happened it, that, of all places in the world, Ireland was that which gave the readiest countenance, and the most cheering support, to the Gospel of Christ, on its first promulgation? This question you will consider of no trivial tendency. It is, in itself, worth a thousand other arguments. To solve it, I must premise that, besides the many ancient appellatives, already given you, for this country, there was one, which characterised it, as anticipating that event? _Crioch-na-Fuineadhach_[393] was this name. Its meaning is, _the asylum of the expectants_: or, _the retreat of those looking forward_. To what, you ask?--To the consummation, I reply, of that prophecy, which was imparted to Israel through another source, saying, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until _Shiloh_ come.”[394] Numerous intimations have, from time to time, been conveyed to man as harbingers of an event which was to crown their species with universal blessings. In the Puranas, it was prophesied, that “after three thousand and one hundred years of the Caliyuga are elapsed, will appear King _Saca_, to remove wretchedness from the world.”[395] I have given an abstract of the history of this remarkable personage at pp. 293 and 294, and shortly after, at p. 296, I presented you with the effigy of his crucifixion. As to the era of his appearance, as deducible from the Yugas, I shall confine myself to the opinion advanced by Mr. Davis, in the _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 243, where he states: “It may further with confidence be inferred, that _Mons. Anquetil du Perron’s conclusion, with respect to the late introduction of Yugas_, which are the component parts of the Calpa, into the Hindu astronomy, _is unfounded; and that the invention of those periods, and the application of them to computations by the Hindus, must be referred to an antiquity which has not yet been ascertained_.” In another age was promised another Redeemer; and of him I copy what Mr. Wilford transmits, as follows, viz.:--