Malevolent Utterances Rebuked.

Malice writes with invisible ink between the lines what was never in tho mind of the writer of tho lines , and to impute which to him is a libel . Then it breathes upon its writings , and tho words become visible and legible—to itself—and so it reads them between the lines .

Does not Masonry in some things adhere too closely and bigotedly to the old law of Operative Masonry ? A single examp le will give sufficient answer . In many of onr State jurisdictions it will refuse its degrees to a man , every way worthy , because of tho tip of one of his thumbs having been cut off .

Has it not changed ? When were its present lectures made ? And in how much do they resemble those of 1723 ? Have the Grand Masters lost none of the prerogatives that the first Grand Masters had ? What rights of Apprentices aud Fellows do these now possess ? Waa not the English Freemasonry onco strictly Trinitarian ?

This skilful reader between the lines may with profit to himself meditate upon this maxim of the son of Sirach " Blame not before thou hast examined the truth . Understand , and then rebuke . Answer not before thou hast heard tho cause . Strive not in a matter that concerneth thee not . "

Let the hen not cluck too often , to call her chicks to cover , when no hawk is hovering near . There is a more pregnant lesson of the same old writer , that a gentleman should not need to have repeated to him " Rehearse not unto another that which is told to thee , and thou shalt fare never the worse . "

What I am about to quote and comment upon , I do not notice because it alludes to me , but because I could not have done what I am said to have threatened to do , unless I had the power to do it under our Constitutions and laws ,

and to make it the act of the Supreme Council , and commit the whole Brotherhood to it . And I was never quite silly enough to threaten to do what I had neither right nor power to do .

A Chairman of the Committee on Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Illinois , at its last or a recent session , said this in the Committee ' s Report :

What we are about to say is not evidence , and may be it was wholly untrue ; but we recall it in order that it may be denied . During the service of George Frank Gouley as Grand Commander of the Knights Templars of Missouri , it was current talk that Bro . Pike

threatened , in case Bro . Gouley took any steps to enforce among the Templars of Missouri his alleged opinion that it was inconsistent with a Templar ' s fealty to his vows to participate in the conferring of the Rose Croix Degree in the Scottish Rite , ho ( Bro . Pike ) would establish Blue Lodges in Missouri .

This , the reader between tho lines , in support , I suppose , of his reading , copied into and published as part of his report . I had never seen it until I read it there , and have never seen it auywhore else .

I suppose that he , also , " recalled it that it might be denied . " I admire his delicate and refined sense of honour . I suppose it may , for the same generous purpose , continue to bo "recalled , " time without end , by every scribbler .

I never knew that there was any such " current talk . " Until I read the Pennsylvania report I was profoundly ignorant that any human being bad ever originated or repeated the preposterous lie . I never threatened , either in j that controversy of twenty-thi'eo years ago , or ever ,

that I would establish a Blue Lodge in Missouri or anywhere else . Human credulity is equal to any demand that knavery may make upon it , and always honours the drafts ; and it is possible that tho brace of " recallers of a falsehood , in order that it may be denied , " believed that the

supposed " current talk " was trne ; but if neither of them did , he would have been none the less ready , I fancy , to "recall it in order that it might be denied . " It is a cleanly and chivalrous occupation . The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite has neither

inducement nor inclination nor power to work any manner of harm to the Symbolic Masonry . It is a decent , decorous , unostentatious Rite , which attends very punctually to its own business ; and prospers therebv . There is

no conflict of interests between itself and that Masonry . It receives no one into its household who is not a member of a Blue Lodge ; and requires of its initiates always to do their duty as Blue Masons , and to vow that they will not vote to admit any one who does not do it .

# It instructs those to whom its doors open and wbo enter in , and abide with it , . in the principles of Symbolic Masonry , develops its moralit y into a uoblar aud loftier

Malevolent Utterances Rebuked.

code , expounds its great religious symbol ? , a' : d so proves to them that it is of a higher and more in t ellectual nature , aud has larger right to the consideration and appreciation of men and precedence amongst all tho Order :-, ( ban they

had known while they were Master Masons on ' y . Thoy are made to know that no one who has protended to disclose tho mysteries of Freemasonry has over even lif ' . cd a corner of tho veil that conceals its real ones ; for these were never known to themselves .

But if tho Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite had its heart set upon harming and humiliating tho Ancient Craft Masonry , moved to it by an inextinguishable hatred ; if the inducement to do so of profit to be reaped were strong ; if it were endowed with all the powers , mo ins and

resources to that end , of the Roman Papacy ; and i ' , putting all these to use , it should never for an instant tans sight of its object , nor relax its efforts to attain it , it could

not , nor can the Papacy itself , with all its unscrupulousnesp , malignity and craft , so greatly , so permanently , s : > irrepirably injure the Ancient Craft in Pennsylvania and Illinois as these two promoters of Masonic opinion have done .

" Exitiuin damnumque ferentes . Thanks to their pestilent and persistent labours , a wall unscaleable , impenetrable as adamant , though invisible , a

wall of non-intercourse , of excommnnicatiou and of interdict has been built up between tho Pcnnsylvanian and Illinoisian Mason and all the Masons of all the Latin countries of the world .

The Church of Rome could have no more efficient

allies . They have taught their Grand Lodges and the Masonic people of their States to believe that every Grand Orient and every Supreme Council in the world , which governs Blue Lodges , is " clandestine" : that every Blue Lodge

created by or of the obedience of either is " clandestine : that if in any country such Lodges assume entire independence , with or without the consent of the governing Grand Orient or Supreme Council , and form a Grand Lodge , it is " clandestine , " because they are . And having thus

disposed of the supposed Freemasonry of all the Latin countries of Europe , and that of Mexico and tho Republics of Central and South America , one and all , I learn from the South Australian Freemason , through the London Freemason , that the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania bolds that no

Body is entitled to be recognised as a Grand Lodge , unless it holds jurisdiction over every Lodge in its district : and accordingly it does not recognise the Grand Lodgo of South Australia . The decree of illegitimation must include the Grand Lodges of New South Wales , Now Zealand and Quebec .

Whether the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania has been followed by the Grand Lodge of Illinois in this last ruling , I do not know : but it marches abreast with it in

demolishing Grand Orients and Supremo Councils . To have the right to claim relationship of brotherhood with the great and good men who have died , to have the right to think aud speak of them as " our own dead , " is a

high privilege and a precious estate . It is even more so , it seems to me , when they were of other lands and spoke other tongues than ours . For tho Great Dead of our own land who were Masons are no more " our own Dead " than

they are the Dead of all the " Children of Wisdom m the world . Their glories are not reflected npon us alone . Their memories are not in our exclusive keeping . The Worthies of the Order , dying , devise to it their memories , their honours , their glories , in which all the brethren

everywhere are equal shareholders . Do not the Freemasons of other lands repeat with pride that Washington was a Freemason ? Onco the Masons of Pennsylvania and Illinois could so speak of the illustrious Masons of tho Latin countries of the world , whose lives and deeds had

magnified and whose names had glorified Freemasonry ; and many of whom suffered martyrdom for being Freemasons , —surely a price amply sufficient to give them good title to the name " Freemason . " Then , these were all acknowledged as genuine Freemasons by the whole body

of English , Irish , Scottish , and American Freemasonry , all over the world . Living , they wero its lamps of light : dead , they are " the very own Dead' * of all the Freemasons

dispersed over the surface of the earth , saving only Illinois and Pennsylvania . The stars tha ' . look down upon the lands of Europe are not strangers to our own skies . But now , for all the Masons of those States , these holy Dead

are nought . They we clandestine" pseudo-Masons ,