Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon

Freemasons, both in Great Britain and in A merica, to previous attempts to place on record some very plain proofs that we are justified in saying in our Masonic Ritual that we came from theE ast and proceeded to theW est. The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of theM iddle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student, and this seems to betoken an unwilH ngness to credit Masonry with an existence of more than two or three hundred years at most. It is painful to those who, like myself, take a justifiable pride in the antiquity of Masonry, far exceeding that of any other religion in the world known to mankind, to hear it so frequently condemned as completely legendary. In the following pages I have attempted to bring together, from a very large number of sources, reliable evidence as to the prevalence amongst the inhabitants, ancient and modern, of Syria in general and the mountains of theL ebanon in particular, of various ceremonial rites, manners and customs. These, with the accompanying initiations, signs, pass-words and grips, together with the allegorical and symbolical language employed, seem to me to point to an extremely remote origin, and I hope some of my readers, at least, may be equally convinced.