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The Theological Ladder.
THE THEOLOGICAL LADDER .
An oration by Brother E . Flamilton , delivered publicly at the Court House , Wagoner ( Indian Territory ) , in the presence of the members of the Grand Lodge and a large number of ladies and gentlemen—citizens of the City of Wagoner—1 5 th August 1900 .
THE religion of . humanity through all the ages ha . s never varied in its basic princip les . In matters of detail divisions have arisen , controversy has flourished round doctrine , in questions of interpretation a multitude of leaders and would-be leaders have endeavoured to force their views
upon mankind . But under every form of belief the princip les have ever remained the same . In the Babel of languages , in the conflict of races it would seem that the prevailing law was " Many men , many minds , and the common opinion was emphatically expressed in that most infelicitous of all
terms , the word Protestant , " one who protests against everybody else ' s belief . On the surface the history of human opinion is a story of cross purposes , it is a battle ground at once discordant and disgraceful . Men pursue shadows , forgetting realities ; principles are ignored and details of no
importance made paramount . Truth is in eclipse , and around its varied names are ranged the children of darkness , ready to battle and if need be to die for their Shibboleth . The Chinese Boxer is the present day representative of Torquemada , the Dominician . priest , and the " foreign devils" m
the Middle Kingdom are the objects of hate of an Oriental Holy Office of the Inquisition . History repeats itself . The legations at Pekin remind us of the shambles of St . Bartholomew and the Sicilian Vespers ; machine guns and Mauser rifles have taken the place of the amphitheatre and the
Numidian lions ; modern death-dealing instruments have superseded frying on gridirons , boiling in oil , the thumb screw , and the rack ; and the hapless minority is done to death as in the times of Diocletian the Tyrant . In the strife of tongues , the clash of opinions and the changing of creeds ,
Masonry , the elemental religion , stands calmly looking on . In the great work of Humanity ' s reconciliation , Masonry assembles the sons of Light around a common and universal altar , and enforces a common and universal duty . Outside is the fierce and inhuman strife of competition , politics and
religions , with its uncertainties , its doubts and its will-o ' -thewisp chasing ; around the altar of Masonry are perfect calm , peace and love of mankind through faith in God . This system of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols , is a religion in the true sense . Religion is a bond
of union , not an element of discord ; religion binds men together as a band of brothers , and cannot and ought not to separate the children of men . Religion being universal , as well suited to proclaim righteousness to the wandering Arab of the desert as to the cultured product of civilisation ,
should therefore have in it no element that will appeal to one race and not to another , to one age and not to the next . Among the many symbols of the ancient Craft that teach morality , the primaeval religion , the Theological Ladder is the clearest in conception , and the most perfect in its
development of truth . Clear in conception , for the simplest mind may grasp it in its fulness , perfect in its development of truth , for it holds the key to the problems that men in all ages of history have endeavoured to solve . Let me quote : " Heaven , where all good Masons
hope at last to arrive by the aid of that Theological Ladder that Jacob in his vision saw ascending from earth to Heaven , the three principal rungs of which are Faith , Hope and Charity , and which admonish us to have faith in God , hope in immortality and charity to all
mankind . Faith may be lost m sight , hope ends in fruition , but charity extends beyond the grave to the boundless realms of eternity . " The three greatest moral forces , says Bro . Albert Pike , " are Faith , which is the only true wisdom and the foundation of " ' all government ; Hope , which is
strength and insures success ; and Charity , which is beauty and alone makes animated united effort possible . " The first invocation pronounced at the initiation of a candidate for Masonry , appeals to the Almighty Father of the Universe . The Deity is not hailed as the God of the Saxon , the Latin
or the Mongolian ; Fie is not invoked as being attentive to one race and careless of the other . He is the All-Father , the Almighty Father of all the children of men . The prayer may fall on unheeding ears , its breadth of vision , its comprehensiveness may be lost on the audience , but it is a summary of Masonic belief ,
The Theological Ladder.
" Father of all—in every age , In every clime adored , By saint , by savage , and by sage , Jehovah , Jove or Lord . " I do not wish to be understood as implying that the idea of
God is the same everywhere and to all men , but I do insist that the faith in God which is the foundation of Masonry is not a belief in a restricted God , in a limited God , in . a circumscribed God . Faith too frequently is a profession in a being who loves a sect , who is bolstered up by a creed , who is
delighted by a certain hedged-in ceremonial faith , is too often understood as implying acceptance of one race and the rejection of the other , and still too frequently as the arraying of one class of men against their Brethren as good and as honest as they . The history of human faith is a record of
blood . Hate has been the animating principle instead of love , and men speak of religion only to abuse each other . Faith , in the common understanding of it , is responsible for the majority of the wars that have devasted the world . From the murder of Cain to the assassination of Christian
Chinese , from the earliest pages of human history to the newspaper annals of to-day , faith in a God has been the paramount issue productive of human suffering , bloodshed , and death . So Masonry assembles the sons of Light around a common altar , where controversy can never find entrance ,
where differences of opinion are silenced , where creeds are dumb , where all tongues , and races , and classes , where all the ages can worship , and cries out .- — " Almighty Father of the Universe—we do not invoke Thee because Thou lovest
us and hatest Thy other children , because Ihou hast revealed Thyself to us and not to others ; but realising that the greater the knowledge the greater the responsibility , the greater the light the greater the positive duty , we assemble here , and call Thee Father , the Father of all the children of men . "
" To Him on high , no great , noi small , He fills , He bounds , connects , and equlals all . " It was this faith that led Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees , that made Moses the deliverer of the enslaved makers of bricks without straw : it was this faith in the
All-Father that has animated the reformers , the prophets , the Saviour of mankind . This faith is the only true wisdom . I have no desire to enter into the question of the evidences of the Divine existence , for I am addressing a body of men who believe in ± lim , to every one of whom it has been said
on their confession of Him : " Your trust being in God , your faith is well founded , " but 1 wish to consider the human side of this great truth . And this leads me to the second rung of the Theological Ladder—Hope—which has been defined as an anchor sure and steadfast that enters within the Veil of
the Floly Place . Hope is another Faith—faith in self by reason of faith in God—from wisdom comes strength . The Supreme Architect of the Universe , the Uncreated Wisdom , has left nothing to chance . His purposes are tirom everlasting and His plans are devised of old . " Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing , yet not one of them shall fall without your Father knowing it . The hairs of your head are numbered . If God so clothe the grass which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven , how much more will he clothe ye ? Ye are of more value than many sparrows . "
This is the language of the Great Li ght in Masonry , telling us of the great care and love of the Almi ghty Father , and it makes men strong . Flave faith in yourself , my Brother , because God lives . You have been taught that you are a man and a Mason , and given in charge ever strictly
to walk as such towards the great destiny of immortality that awaits you . " No one , " says Richter , ¦ " is so much alone in the world as a denier of God . " To this statement I would add another : No one is so much alone in the world as a denier of man . Man , the heir erf all the ages , if he
know himself , his destiny , his power , his opportunities , if to this knowledge are added the activity , the resolution , the courage , the hope that springs therefrom , man is a ruler , the master . But if he ignores all this—if life be but a struggle for physical existence and comparative comfort , a
ship without a rudder or compass on an unknown sea , drifting in the darkness to an unknown shore—the very creation is in league against him to make him unhappy . No man can succeed in life who does not believe in himself
I can say this in no spirit of Pharasaism , but in the hope of setting forth an exact truth . We are what we think ; we act according to our own estimate of the greatness or littleness of life . This is the key to success or failure . A man
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Theological Ladder.
THE THEOLOGICAL LADDER .
An oration by Brother E . Flamilton , delivered publicly at the Court House , Wagoner ( Indian Territory ) , in the presence of the members of the Grand Lodge and a large number of ladies and gentlemen—citizens of the City of Wagoner—1 5 th August 1900 .
THE religion of . humanity through all the ages ha . s never varied in its basic princip les . In matters of detail divisions have arisen , controversy has flourished round doctrine , in questions of interpretation a multitude of leaders and would-be leaders have endeavoured to force their views
upon mankind . But under every form of belief the princip les have ever remained the same . In the Babel of languages , in the conflict of races it would seem that the prevailing law was " Many men , many minds , and the common opinion was emphatically expressed in that most infelicitous of all
terms , the word Protestant , " one who protests against everybody else ' s belief . On the surface the history of human opinion is a story of cross purposes , it is a battle ground at once discordant and disgraceful . Men pursue shadows , forgetting realities ; principles are ignored and details of no
importance made paramount . Truth is in eclipse , and around its varied names are ranged the children of darkness , ready to battle and if need be to die for their Shibboleth . The Chinese Boxer is the present day representative of Torquemada , the Dominician . priest , and the " foreign devils" m
the Middle Kingdom are the objects of hate of an Oriental Holy Office of the Inquisition . History repeats itself . The legations at Pekin remind us of the shambles of St . Bartholomew and the Sicilian Vespers ; machine guns and Mauser rifles have taken the place of the amphitheatre and the
Numidian lions ; modern death-dealing instruments have superseded frying on gridirons , boiling in oil , the thumb screw , and the rack ; and the hapless minority is done to death as in the times of Diocletian the Tyrant . In the strife of tongues , the clash of opinions and the changing of creeds ,
Masonry , the elemental religion , stands calmly looking on . In the great work of Humanity ' s reconciliation , Masonry assembles the sons of Light around a common and universal altar , and enforces a common and universal duty . Outside is the fierce and inhuman strife of competition , politics and
religions , with its uncertainties , its doubts and its will-o ' -thewisp chasing ; around the altar of Masonry are perfect calm , peace and love of mankind through faith in God . This system of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols , is a religion in the true sense . Religion is a bond
of union , not an element of discord ; religion binds men together as a band of brothers , and cannot and ought not to separate the children of men . Religion being universal , as well suited to proclaim righteousness to the wandering Arab of the desert as to the cultured product of civilisation ,
should therefore have in it no element that will appeal to one race and not to another , to one age and not to the next . Among the many symbols of the ancient Craft that teach morality , the primaeval religion , the Theological Ladder is the clearest in conception , and the most perfect in its
development of truth . Clear in conception , for the simplest mind may grasp it in its fulness , perfect in its development of truth , for it holds the key to the problems that men in all ages of history have endeavoured to solve . Let me quote : " Heaven , where all good Masons
hope at last to arrive by the aid of that Theological Ladder that Jacob in his vision saw ascending from earth to Heaven , the three principal rungs of which are Faith , Hope and Charity , and which admonish us to have faith in God , hope in immortality and charity to all
mankind . Faith may be lost m sight , hope ends in fruition , but charity extends beyond the grave to the boundless realms of eternity . " The three greatest moral forces , says Bro . Albert Pike , " are Faith , which is the only true wisdom and the foundation of " ' all government ; Hope , which is
strength and insures success ; and Charity , which is beauty and alone makes animated united effort possible . " The first invocation pronounced at the initiation of a candidate for Masonry , appeals to the Almighty Father of the Universe . The Deity is not hailed as the God of the Saxon , the Latin
or the Mongolian ; Fie is not invoked as being attentive to one race and careless of the other . He is the All-Father , the Almighty Father of all the children of men . The prayer may fall on unheeding ears , its breadth of vision , its comprehensiveness may be lost on the audience , but it is a summary of Masonic belief ,
The Theological Ladder.
" Father of all—in every age , In every clime adored , By saint , by savage , and by sage , Jehovah , Jove or Lord . " I do not wish to be understood as implying that the idea of
God is the same everywhere and to all men , but I do insist that the faith in God which is the foundation of Masonry is not a belief in a restricted God , in a limited God , in . a circumscribed God . Faith too frequently is a profession in a being who loves a sect , who is bolstered up by a creed , who is
delighted by a certain hedged-in ceremonial faith , is too often understood as implying acceptance of one race and the rejection of the other , and still too frequently as the arraying of one class of men against their Brethren as good and as honest as they . The history of human faith is a record of
blood . Hate has been the animating principle instead of love , and men speak of religion only to abuse each other . Faith , in the common understanding of it , is responsible for the majority of the wars that have devasted the world . From the murder of Cain to the assassination of Christian
Chinese , from the earliest pages of human history to the newspaper annals of to-day , faith in a God has been the paramount issue productive of human suffering , bloodshed , and death . So Masonry assembles the sons of Light around a common altar , where controversy can never find entrance ,
where differences of opinion are silenced , where creeds are dumb , where all tongues , and races , and classes , where all the ages can worship , and cries out .- — " Almighty Father of the Universe—we do not invoke Thee because Thou lovest
us and hatest Thy other children , because Ihou hast revealed Thyself to us and not to others ; but realising that the greater the knowledge the greater the responsibility , the greater the light the greater the positive duty , we assemble here , and call Thee Father , the Father of all the children of men . "
" To Him on high , no great , noi small , He fills , He bounds , connects , and equlals all . " It was this faith that led Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees , that made Moses the deliverer of the enslaved makers of bricks without straw : it was this faith in the
All-Father that has animated the reformers , the prophets , the Saviour of mankind . This faith is the only true wisdom . I have no desire to enter into the question of the evidences of the Divine existence , for I am addressing a body of men who believe in ± lim , to every one of whom it has been said
on their confession of Him : " Your trust being in God , your faith is well founded , " but 1 wish to consider the human side of this great truth . And this leads me to the second rung of the Theological Ladder—Hope—which has been defined as an anchor sure and steadfast that enters within the Veil of
the Floly Place . Hope is another Faith—faith in self by reason of faith in God—from wisdom comes strength . The Supreme Architect of the Universe , the Uncreated Wisdom , has left nothing to chance . His purposes are tirom everlasting and His plans are devised of old . " Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing , yet not one of them shall fall without your Father knowing it . The hairs of your head are numbered . If God so clothe the grass which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven , how much more will he clothe ye ? Ye are of more value than many sparrows . "
This is the language of the Great Li ght in Masonry , telling us of the great care and love of the Almi ghty Father , and it makes men strong . Flave faith in yourself , my Brother , because God lives . You have been taught that you are a man and a Mason , and given in charge ever strictly
to walk as such towards the great destiny of immortality that awaits you . " No one , " says Richter , ¦ " is so much alone in the world as a denier of God . " To this statement I would add another : No one is so much alone in the world as a denier of man . Man , the heir erf all the ages , if he
know himself , his destiny , his power , his opportunities , if to this knowledge are added the activity , the resolution , the courage , the hope that springs therefrom , man is a ruler , the master . But if he ignores all this—if life be but a struggle for physical existence and comparative comfort , a
ship without a rudder or compass on an unknown sea , drifting in the darkness to an unknown shore—the very creation is in league against him to make him unhappy . No man can succeed in life who does not believe in himself
I can say this in no spirit of Pharasaism , but in the hope of setting forth an exact truth . We are what we think ; we act according to our own estimate of the greatness or littleness of life . This is the key to success or failure . A man