all architects love to trace back and perpetuate symbolic forms in their buildings, making a church a true " poem in stone." The church was indeed at one time called "the house of the dove," symbol of the Love goddess as Tertullian in the third century speaks of the church as Columbus Domus. The church has always been prone to symbolical stories, as when it makes the dove religion come to Scotland through "Saint " Columba (Latin for dove), and practise it at Iona (Greek for dove), and carry it to the mainland at Morven, the Gaelic name for Mary, Catholic Queen of Heaven, whose symbol is the dove. These names are quite foreign to Scotland as are all ecclesiastical names-a Jewish or Babylonian religion having been imposed upon us by Rome. Even when we ceased to be under the rule of Roman arms we remained her slave in letters, as when they could no longer enslave us by the sword they did so by superior cunning, and imposed an ecclesiastical yoke upon us in place of a civil bondage. Even our Alfred the Great, who, however, ruled only a small country south of the Thames, and died in obscurity, was a protegé of Rome, and by Roman help usurped the throne pertaining to his elder brother.

The Saxon name church or kirk was derived from the old cult of stone circles, such as were set up by the Druids or by Joshua to celebrate the passing of the Ark over Jordan. The circle or ring is, as we will remember, the Persian door of life. The C and K are identical; in fact, C was written IC, so Circle is also Kirkle and Chirchel, as C is still pronounced as our Ch (in church) in Italy to-day, so church and kirk are the old stone circles. In Germany it is a compromise of spelling kirche. Chaucer lets us see a part of the transition, as he spells it chirche. All circles are feminine; we remember Yima in Persia was given a ring and a dart (our egg and dart ornament) to produce all creation, and the ring was the door to the garden which held all the seeds of life.

All hollow things were arks, so the Hebrew ark was an oblong box of wood about three feet six long and about twenty-seven inches broad and twenty-seven inches deep. This description is repeated again and again, as this. was the arcanum of the tribe. Long before there was any ark, while the Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt, Moses had fled to the land of Midian, after killing an Egyptian, and married Jethro's daughter Zipporah-one of

the usual holy number of seven daughters. While there a rod seems to have come miraculously into his hand, and an apparently new god suddenly gave this rod miraculous powers and called it the Rod of Jové, Yové, or lové. I say a new god, because Moses did not know his name, and on asking his name was told that it was Ehye asher EhyeI am who I am-like the Egyptian Nuk pu Nuk, or the Latin Ego qui Ego (Exodus iii., 14, iv., 20, xvii., 9; Numbers xx., 8).

Then after a discussion, still in Midian, about Moses being a poor speaker, Jové decides that Aaron will do the talking, "be "the spokesman, and thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs." "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass" (a goodly burden for an ass), " and he returned to the

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land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of "God in his hand." With this wonderful "Rod of God" he did all his miracles. But this rod of God has special symbolic features connected with it, and it seems to have passed long after into the care of the house of Levi, who were the official priests. In Numbers xvii., 8, we are told that when a dispute arose about who was holy among children of Israel,

a rod with Aaron's name, no doubt the rod of God, was put with rods of the discontented men "before Jové in the Tabernacle of "witness," " and behold the rod of Aaron for

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the house of Levi was budded and brought "forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." "And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before "the testimony to be kept for a token," so "witness" and " testimony were the same thing. Now, before there is any mention of an ark or a tabernacle there was still a testimony," and the testimony, the witness, and the Jové seem to have been the same thing. At first Jové had only followed or led the children of Israel as a "cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night;" he had no ark or tabernacle yet. But the Testimony in this case is the equal of Jové, and is written with a capital T, showing divinity like Jové. When later it is attempted to make out that the Testimony is a covenant or the two tables of the law, it is always spelt with a small t, showing no divinity. We find, further, that the ark and the tabernacle were specially made as a resting place and a shelter for Jové, and for his alter ego, the "Testimony." We thus learn that Jové or the Testimony (called

the Eduth, Heduth, or Geduth in Hebrew) was much more important than the ark, as the ark was made specially for it. Therefore, before going further in our ark investigations, we must examine this miracle-working almond and bud producing "Rod of God," and how it came to be called the testimony or witness.

The rod of God brought forth "buds,' "blossoms," and "almonds." Next to the ark in importance seems to have stood the seven-branched candlestick, and here we find exactly the same symbolical things used to decorate it (Exodus xxxvii., 19). "Three "bowls made after the fashion of almonds in

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one branch, a knop, and a flower," "and "in the candlestick were four bowls like "almonds, his knops and his flowers." Jeremiah, a late prophet when phallism is weakening, in introducing his prophecies, makes Jové ask him, "What seest thou?" and he answers, "I see Rod and Almond," not "I see a rod and almond," a sort of Freemason's sign of an almond tree," as King James translator dishonestly translates it-again rod that this prophet still wrote under the "Be fruitful and multiply " dispensation (Jeremiah i., 11). Knop means bud, especially lotus buds, and lotus buds are a univer