Lilly Work.

The lily work which is described as a part of the ornamentation of the two pillars in the
porch of Solomon's Temple is said to be, from the whiteness of the plant, symbolic of
purity and peace. Properly, it is lotus work. See Lily, Lotus, and Pillars of the Porch.
Net-Work.
One of the decorations of the pillars at the porch of the Temple. See Pillars of the
Porch.
Orders of Architecture, Egyptian.
The Egyptians had a system of architecture peculiar to themselves, which, says
Barlow, {Essays on Symbolism, p. 30,) "would indicate a people of grand ideas, and of
confirmed religious convictions." It was massive, and without the airy proportions of the
Greek orders. It was, too, eminently symbolic, and among its ornaments the lotus leaf
and plant predominated as a symbol of regeneration. Among the peculiar forms of the
Egyptian architecture were the fluted column, which suggested the Ionic order to the
Greeks, and the basket capital adorned with the lotus, which afterwards became the
Corinthian. To the Masonic student, the Egyptian stylo of architecture becomes
interesting, because it was undoubtedly followed by King Solomon in his construction
of the Temple. The great similarity between the pillars of the porch and the columns in
front of Egyptian temples is very apparent. Our translators have, however,
unfortunately substituted the lily for the lotus in their version.
Pillar.
In the earliesttimesitwas customary to perpetuate remarkable events, or exhibit
gratitude for providential favors, by the erection of pillars, which by the idolatrous races
were dedicated to their spurious gods. Thus Sanconiatho tells us that Hypsourianos
and Ousous, who lived before the flood, dedicated two pillars to the elements fire and
air. Among the Egyptians the pillars were, in general, in the form of obelisks from fifty to
one hundred feet high, and exceedingly slender in proportion. Upon their four sides
hieroglyphics were often engraved. According to Herodotus, they were first raised in
honor of the sun, and their pointed form was intended to represent his rays. Many of
these monuments still remain. In the antediluvian ages, the posterity of Seth erected
pillars ; " for," says the Jewish historian, "that their inventions might not be lost before
they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction, that the world was to be
destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence of water,
they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed their
discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the
flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and
also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them." Jacob erected
a pillar at Bethel, to commemorate his remarkable vision of the ladder, and afterwards
another one at Galeed as a memorial of his alliance with Laban. Joshua erected one at
Gilgal to perpetuate the remembrance of his miraculous crossing of the Jordan.
Samuel set up a pillar between Mizpeh and Shen, on account of a defeat of the
Philistines, and Absalom erected another in honor of himself The doctrine of gravitation
was unknown to the people of the primitive ages, and they were unable to refer the
support of the earth in its place to this principle. Hence they looked to some other
cause, and none appeared to their simple and unphilosophic minds more plausible
than that it was sustained by pillars. The Old Testament abounds with reference to this
idea. Hannah, in her song of thanksgiving, exclaims: "The pillars of the earth are the
Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them." (ISam. ii. 8.) The Psalmist signifies the
same doctrine in the following text: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are
dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it." (Ps. Ixxv. 3.) And Job says : " He shaketh the earth
out of her places, and the pillars thereof tremble." (xxvi. 7.) All the old religions taught
the same doctrine ; and hence pillars being regarded as the supporters of the earth,
they were adopted as the symbol of strength and firmness. To this, Dudley [Naology,
123,) attributes the origin of pillar worship, which prevailed so extensively among the
idolatrous nations of antiquity. " The reverence," says he, "shown to columns, as
symbols of the power of the Deity, was readily converted into worship paid to them as
idols of the real presence." But here I think he has fallen into a mistake. The double
pillars or columns, acting as an architectural support, were, it is true. Symbols derived
from a natural cause of strength and permanent firmness. But there was another more
prevailing symbology.