THE SWEDISH Rite of Freemasonry is a state institution. A Mason in Sweden is a man of note and of influence in the community. He is in a class apart and, in effect, belongs to a species of nobility. It was for the purpose of weakening the old nobility, and enhancing the power of the crown, that the present system was devised. Gustavus III, to further his political purposes, broke down the power of the old nobility, determined, among other things, to create an Order, a new kind of nobility, composed of men in all walks of life, irrespective of birth. He wanted a class of high-minded, successful, intellectual and learned men, of all professions and industries, who would wholly rely upon him for their leader. There was to be a chance for any of them to obtain the highest offices and the greatest honors in the nation. They could become nobles of high degree. Like Napoleon's soldiers, each of whom carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack, each of them would carry a patent of nobility in his pocket, which when unfolded, so that all could see, entitled him to a seat among the mighty and the great. It is probable that his brother, the Duke of Sundermania, who was inclined to mysticism and who had given much study to the "isms" of that time, had much to do with preparing the ritual, and of conducting the Order. Gustavus was too great a man, with too many great things to do, to pay attention to such things. When the Duke came to the throne as Charles III, he rounded out the system by creating the Knightly Order of Charles III. Gustavus III, King of Sweden, was born January 24, 1746, a son of King Adolphus Frederick and Louise Ulrich, of Prussia, a sister of Frederick the Great. He was shot in the back by an assassin in the opera house in Stockholm on March 13, 1792, and died thirteen days later. He was one of the greatest of the European kings of the 18th century. He was interested in every branch of literature and art. He created the Swedish theater. He was the patron of poets and artists. His natural gifts were great; his manners charming. He was a great statesman and soldier. He found his country in anarchy, steeped in corruption, ruled by arrogant nobles fighting one another to see who could get the most, and left it a consolidated, great nation, prosperous and well governed. When he came to the throne its power had nearly reached the vanishing point. When he left it its power was supreme. He found his country one of no moment in the affairs of Europe. He left it one of the great powers of the Continent. IT WAS only by a revolution created by himself that a new constitution was obtained that secured for him some real power and turned what was really a disunited republic of nobles into a strong, but limited monarchy. This was accomplished on August 20, 1772, by the estates giving in, as they had to, to Gustavus and his tried soldiers. Thus was Sweden released from what is known as the Northern System, with Russia as the controlling power. Sweden again entered into the natural stream of European progress. The administration was reformed. The appalling corruption was stopped. The whole course of judicial procedure was changed and torture in legal investigations abolished. Liberty of the press was proclaimed. The natural defenses of the country were developed, and the navy enlarged and made one of the greatest in Europe. Free trade in corn was had, and export tolls abolished. The poor law was reformed and absolute religious liberty proclaimed. A wise foreign policy was pursued. But it was not till February 17, 1789, that Gustavus was enabled, by a second coup d'etat, finally to crush the Russophile nobility. The old nobility was ever after his bitter enemy. But they could not resist so great, talented and popular a king. They finally brutishly assassinated him. The loss to Sweden was irreparable. He left Sweden happy and prosperous, and one of the mighty powers of Europe. And so the last great monarch of Sweden passed to the great beyond to meet that other great monarch, Gustavus the Great, (Vasa), who when he died, in 156o, left the kingdom peaceful and civilized. The rite is Christian in character. The story is that Jesus told secrets to some of his apostles that he did not tell to others, and, also, told secrets to the Essenes, of whom he was one; that these secrets were handed down as a mystery through the Essenes, and that at the time of the Crusades they were greatly oppressed by the Saracens, and while seven of them, Syric Christians, were fleeing from the Saracens they were rescued by the Knights Templars. They stayed with them in Jerusalem and imparted to the Templar priests their secrets. These were handed down in this Order till it was abolished and the priests dispersed. They were not molested to the extent that the seculars were, and with their secret knowledge they kept their secret writings. Some of them fled to Scotland, where they founded a priory, and from there their secrets gradually spread to the continent of Europe, and finally reached Sweden. The exact story in regard to the Templarism in the Rite is that they are descended from the Templars by way of the real Order of Christ of Portugal, and that Beaujeau, a nephew of DeMolay, took his uncle's ashes to Stockholm, buried them there and established the Swedish Templar system. The Rite, besides Freemasonry proper, is a mixture of Strict Observance Templarism, Rosicrucianism and Swedenborgism. STRICT OBSERVANCE Templarism became a power in the Masonic world in Germany about 1750. It is claimed that the time had come to revive the Order of the Templar, which had only been dormant, and to have it restored to its former power and glory. It was claimed that the Templars founded Freemasonry, and that all of the mighty and mysterious secrets of the ancient past were deposited with them and were now in their possession. Rosicrucianism dates from the early part of the 17th century. Those who believed in it were moral and religious reformers, who used the sciences of that day to further their opinions. It savored of mysticism, occultism and hidden secrets, only known to the reformers. The story is that Charles Rosenkreuz, in the 15th century, in his travels, discovered the secret wisdom of the East, and brought it with him to Europe. It had very little influence on real Freemasonry, but it helped to make the so-called "high degrees." Swedenborgism, however, has so interwoven itself with the "high degrees" of all systems, and by this I mean those degrees above that of Master Mason, and below the Knights, that it cannot be passed over lightly or explained in a few words. It must be understood to understand this so-called part of Freemasonry. Emmanuel Swedenborg was born at Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29, 1688. He lived to be 104 years old. His father was a Bishop of the Lutheran Church and a professor in the University of Upsula. Swedenborg, after graduating from the university, traveled extensively over Europe. His original name was Swedberg, but on account of his great contributions to science and philosophy he was ennobled. There was added to the first part of his name an "en," the equivalent of the German "von," and the latter part was changed to "borq." As a scientist he was astonishingly ahead of his time. His work in geology and paleontology is enough alone to perpetuate his name. His theory of light and cosmic atoms are astounding for their correctness. He was the first to attempt to establish a system of crystallography. He invented a method of determining longitude at sea by observations of the moon among the stars. He was the first to employ mercury for the air pump. He experimented with the power of ship models, invented an ear trumpet, and improved the common stove. He studied machine guns and turned his attention to flying machines, and many of his ideas and conclusions square with the results of today. He tried to discover the nature of the soul and spirit by studying human anatomy, and contended that the divine spirit ruled all. Professor Neuberger, of Vienna, in 1901, stated that Swedenborg anticipated the modern view of the functions of the brain, the magnitude of which is not now realized. He announced the modern view that the activity of the brain is the combined activity of the individual cells. Modern scholars agree with him as to the physiological action of the spinal cord. And, strange as it may appear, his views as to the ductless glands are those that we are coming to find out now. AS SWEDENBORG neared the age of fifty years a great change came over him. Up to this time he had been a true scientist and philosopher - one of the greatest in the world. He now became a mystic, and all of his attention thereafter was given to psychical and spiritual research. He commenced to have visions and averred that he talked with God. He stated that the Lord appeared to him and said: "I am the God, the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold the spiritual sense of the Holy Scripture. I will Myself dictate to thee what thou shall write." He wrote some fifty volumes. He founded no church. He called his doctrines that of the New Church, in which all members of all denominations could unite. Some of his followers, however, organized the New Jerusalem Church, now of small membership, but found in nearly all parts of the world. The doctrines of the New Church are as follows: