connection in the inspired words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (xxii, 24) :
As I
live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim King of Judah
were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee hence.
The
prophet Haggai (chap, ii, verse 23) uses the designation signet to
indicate a specially chosen instrument, in the following words:
In
that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, Ο Zerubbabel, my
servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a
signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.
The Freemasons have adopted the signet of Zerubbabel as one of the symbols of the Royal Arch, the seventh masonic degree.42
The
monogram of Christ appears on a signet made for a Christian lady of
Roman times, AElia Valeria. Of this sacred symbol St. John Chrysostom
wrote that the Christians of his time always inscribed it at the
beginning of their letters, and he gives as a reason for this that
wherever the name of God appeared there was nothing but happiness.
Undoubtedly the shape of the Greek X ( Ch), forming part of this
monogram, suggested a form of the cross, and gave an added significance
to the monogram, especially in view of Chrysostom's statement that the
Christians of his time painted or engraved a cross on their houses and
made the sign of the cross over their foreheads and their hearts.43
"Albert
G. Mackey, "The Book of the Chapter: or Monitorial Instructions in the
Degrees of Mark, Past and Most Excellent Master and the Royal Arch,"
New York, 1858, p. 128.
43 " Le Cabinet de la Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève," by the Rev. Father Claude du Molinet, Paris, 1692, p. 3, pi. 8, fig. 5, impression of seal ; the letters are rather irregularly disposed.
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