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Article PAPAL DENUNCIATIONS OF FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 2 Article PAPAL DENUNCIATIONS OF FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 2 →
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Papal Denunciations Of Freemasonry.
PAPAL DENUNCIATIONS OF FREEMASONRY .
WE are afraid the habit into which tho Romish priesthood has fallen of denouncing Freemasonry at intervals of time more or less frequent is a somewhat stale theme to write about . Many , indeed , will consider we have done enough in reproducing one of these denunciations in
onr columns and the severe criticism to which they were afterwards subjected by the local organ of the town in which they were uttered . But there is an expression which is doubtless familiar to our readers , and yet is not always sufficiently appreciated by them . It has been wisely said
that if you only throw dirt enough some of it is sure to stick , and the ignoble dirt-thrower is not unmindfnl of the truth of this saying when he is casting his unsavoury filth at other people whom he hates , but dares not meet openly in a fair field . His one object is to destroy or damage
the fair fame of worthy persons , and he is indifferent as to the means , if only be can succeed in his purpose . He is perfectly well aware that in every Society there are some black sheep , and his great anxiety is to reduce peoplo into
the belief that the black sheep are the rnlo and the white ones the exception . This is a trick of argument which the unscrupulous sophistic is fond of practising , because he knows it will delude those weak-minded who do most of
their thinking by depnty into adopting opinions which it is his business to circulate . There is also another point , the importance of which it' is unwise to put too low an estimate upon . This is the danger of imagining that people will take a * self-evident proposition for
granted . Where only honourable means are employed by rival disputants , no harm will follow if a mistaken opinion is passed by unnoticed , on the ground that it refutes itself . But Freemasonry in its resistance to bigotryfis not contending against a scrupulons opponent . Its struggle
ia against one which has never known the nature or influence of a scruple , and to which it has ever been a matter of supreme indifference whether the means it employed to
enforce its ends were fair or foul . It cannot , therefore , afford to allow the aspersions cast upon it by the Romish priesthood . to pass unresented ; there are so many people who will affirm that silence in the face of a nnmber of foul
charges or accusations is equivalent to an acknowledgment or their justice . No honourable or reasonable man will ever permit himself to believe that Freemasons are a Society of
monsters unfit to cumber the earth with their presence . Unhappil y , the number of men who are neither honourable nor reasonable is legion , and Freemasonry , therefore , | s bound to observe an offensive-defensive attitude when it
» s cruell y and untruthfully denounced as only a fraction of a degree less dangerous to religion and morality than the anthor and abettor of all evil himself . In short , with a priesthood perpetually flinging dirt at us , with the certain
nowled ge that some of it will succeed in sticking , and th f equally certain knowledge on our own part w N ^ P ^ which are nofc denounced or contradicted « 'II be considered by the unthinking many as -justifiable ,
-creemasous aro to a certain extent forced into a posin ot active resistance against our unscrupulous enemv . fed ° rather avoid the conflicfc > but if we do llofc dead ourselves , people will deny us even the courage of onr opinions . ne re is nothing new in Freemasonry being denounced
Papal Denunciations Of Freemasonry.
by the Pope and his subordinate priesthood , but the recent Encyclical of his Holiness and the utterances of his lessable and influential followers disclose , perhaps , a more than usually envenomed hatred of the Craft and its belongings . We notice , likewise , in it and them , that tho same inveterate
spirit of hostility is accompanied by the same or similar astuteness which has characterised previous denunciatory Bulls , but at tho same time the fallacies contained in these abusive documents are numerous and outwardly plausible enough to mislead the general public . The Pope has
declared that Freemasonry is mere Naturalism , that is , it takes human nature and human reason as its guide and rule in all things . This assertion is justified in the Sermon we published last week , by a description of the character of Freemasonry ns drawn by Bro . J . C . Parkinson P . G . D .
in a speech he made some time since at Sutton Coldfield . Said Bro . Parkinson : — " The two systems of Romanism and Freemasonry are nofc merely incompatible , they are radically opposed to each other . The first lesson taught to tho newly-instituted brother is that Masonry is free ;
freedom of thought and opinion and the broadest toleration in religious matters are the essence of Masonry . Masonry is in itself a religion of good works , and asks no priestly intermediary between man and his Maker . Its impressive ritual enforces the solemn truth that a man shall be judged
hereafter by his actions , and it enters not into differences between faith and creed . " The meaning of this is obvious , namely , that a man will be judged hereafter not by the particular form of religion he may have adopted or been brought up in , so much as by the character of the
life he lives . If a man recognises that there is a Supreme Being who rulefch and directeth all things , and endeavours to the best of his humble ability to live up to his ideal of what that Supreme Being has fixed apparently as the standard of a good man ' s life , it is of secondary
importance in what particular form of worship he may approach Him . It is an inversion of the natural order of things as well as a desecration of man ' s intelligence for any one , be he priest or layman , to suggest that our happiness in the hereafter depends primarily on our acceptance of
certain dogmas , and secondarily on our daily conduct . The Romish clergy , with the Pope at their head , very naturally decline to recognise this broad truth . If it were possible for them , by some almost miraculous process , to become converted from this narrow bigotry to broad and
liberal views of religion , they would find at once that they possessed a far more powerful influence for good , though it would he an influence as unlike as possible thafc which they now exercise and which is of the world worldly . A good Freemason respects religion both in the abstract and
fche concrete , that is to say , he recognises the almighty power of the Great Architect of the Universe and all His attributes ; but he does not think it essential his recognition of that power and those attributes should be particular in its character . Moreover , he concedes to others the
right he claims for himself , namely , the right to choose fcheir several modes of approaching the Deity . Nay , he goes further than this . When he finds there is a common ground , namely , belief in God , on whicb he and others can meefc together , be respects them as he respects himself , by
neither saying nor doing anything which is calculated to disturb their belief . Ifc is nothing to him that one of his associated brethren is a Mohammedan , another a Jew , and a third a Roman Catholic , a fourth a Christian of some Protestant denomination , and so on . He is content with
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Papal Denunciations Of Freemasonry.
PAPAL DENUNCIATIONS OF FREEMASONRY .
WE are afraid the habit into which tho Romish priesthood has fallen of denouncing Freemasonry at intervals of time more or less frequent is a somewhat stale theme to write about . Many , indeed , will consider we have done enough in reproducing one of these denunciations in
onr columns and the severe criticism to which they were afterwards subjected by the local organ of the town in which they were uttered . But there is an expression which is doubtless familiar to our readers , and yet is not always sufficiently appreciated by them . It has been wisely said
that if you only throw dirt enough some of it is sure to stick , and the ignoble dirt-thrower is not unmindfnl of the truth of this saying when he is casting his unsavoury filth at other people whom he hates , but dares not meet openly in a fair field . His one object is to destroy or damage
the fair fame of worthy persons , and he is indifferent as to the means , if only be can succeed in his purpose . He is perfectly well aware that in every Society there are some black sheep , and his great anxiety is to reduce peoplo into
the belief that the black sheep are the rnlo and the white ones the exception . This is a trick of argument which the unscrupulous sophistic is fond of practising , because he knows it will delude those weak-minded who do most of
their thinking by depnty into adopting opinions which it is his business to circulate . There is also another point , the importance of which it' is unwise to put too low an estimate upon . This is the danger of imagining that people will take a * self-evident proposition for
granted . Where only honourable means are employed by rival disputants , no harm will follow if a mistaken opinion is passed by unnoticed , on the ground that it refutes itself . But Freemasonry in its resistance to bigotryfis not contending against a scrupulons opponent . Its struggle
ia against one which has never known the nature or influence of a scruple , and to which it has ever been a matter of supreme indifference whether the means it employed to
enforce its ends were fair or foul . It cannot , therefore , afford to allow the aspersions cast upon it by the Romish priesthood . to pass unresented ; there are so many people who will affirm that silence in the face of a nnmber of foul
charges or accusations is equivalent to an acknowledgment or their justice . No honourable or reasonable man will ever permit himself to believe that Freemasons are a Society of
monsters unfit to cumber the earth with their presence . Unhappil y , the number of men who are neither honourable nor reasonable is legion , and Freemasonry , therefore , | s bound to observe an offensive-defensive attitude when it
» s cruell y and untruthfully denounced as only a fraction of a degree less dangerous to religion and morality than the anthor and abettor of all evil himself . In short , with a priesthood perpetually flinging dirt at us , with the certain
nowled ge that some of it will succeed in sticking , and th f equally certain knowledge on our own part w N ^ P ^ which are nofc denounced or contradicted « 'II be considered by the unthinking many as -justifiable ,
-creemasous aro to a certain extent forced into a posin ot active resistance against our unscrupulous enemv . fed ° rather avoid the conflicfc > but if we do llofc dead ourselves , people will deny us even the courage of onr opinions . ne re is nothing new in Freemasonry being denounced
Papal Denunciations Of Freemasonry.
by the Pope and his subordinate priesthood , but the recent Encyclical of his Holiness and the utterances of his lessable and influential followers disclose , perhaps , a more than usually envenomed hatred of the Craft and its belongings . We notice , likewise , in it and them , that tho same inveterate
spirit of hostility is accompanied by the same or similar astuteness which has characterised previous denunciatory Bulls , but at tho same time the fallacies contained in these abusive documents are numerous and outwardly plausible enough to mislead the general public . The Pope has
declared that Freemasonry is mere Naturalism , that is , it takes human nature and human reason as its guide and rule in all things . This assertion is justified in the Sermon we published last week , by a description of the character of Freemasonry ns drawn by Bro . J . C . Parkinson P . G . D .
in a speech he made some time since at Sutton Coldfield . Said Bro . Parkinson : — " The two systems of Romanism and Freemasonry are nofc merely incompatible , they are radically opposed to each other . The first lesson taught to tho newly-instituted brother is that Masonry is free ;
freedom of thought and opinion and the broadest toleration in religious matters are the essence of Masonry . Masonry is in itself a religion of good works , and asks no priestly intermediary between man and his Maker . Its impressive ritual enforces the solemn truth that a man shall be judged
hereafter by his actions , and it enters not into differences between faith and creed . " The meaning of this is obvious , namely , that a man will be judged hereafter not by the particular form of religion he may have adopted or been brought up in , so much as by the character of the
life he lives . If a man recognises that there is a Supreme Being who rulefch and directeth all things , and endeavours to the best of his humble ability to live up to his ideal of what that Supreme Being has fixed apparently as the standard of a good man ' s life , it is of secondary
importance in what particular form of worship he may approach Him . It is an inversion of the natural order of things as well as a desecration of man ' s intelligence for any one , be he priest or layman , to suggest that our happiness in the hereafter depends primarily on our acceptance of
certain dogmas , and secondarily on our daily conduct . The Romish clergy , with the Pope at their head , very naturally decline to recognise this broad truth . If it were possible for them , by some almost miraculous process , to become converted from this narrow bigotry to broad and
liberal views of religion , they would find at once that they possessed a far more powerful influence for good , though it would he an influence as unlike as possible thafc which they now exercise and which is of the world worldly . A good Freemason respects religion both in the abstract and
fche concrete , that is to say , he recognises the almighty power of the Great Architect of the Universe and all His attributes ; but he does not think it essential his recognition of that power and those attributes should be particular in its character . Moreover , he concedes to others the
right he claims for himself , namely , the right to choose fcheir several modes of approaching the Deity . Nay , he goes further than this . When he finds there is a common ground , namely , belief in God , on whicb he and others can meefc together , be respects them as he respects himself , by
neither saying nor doing anything which is calculated to disturb their belief . Ifc is nothing to him that one of his associated brethren is a Mohammedan , another a Jew , and a third a Roman Catholic , a fourth a Christian of some Protestant denomination , and so on . He is content with