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Correspondence.
CORRESPONDENCE .
We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Cor . respondents . All Letters must bear the name and address of the Writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .
MORALS AND DOGMA . To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIK AND BROTHER , —Our mutual friend , Bro . John Constable , showed me a cartoon bordered with the pictures of all the playing cards in the pack . The story annexed to it was , that a soldier waa brought before a magistrate charged with having amused himself with a pack of cards while in church during divine service .
The soldier , however , assured the magistrate that he used the pack of cards as an almanac , prayer book , bible , indeed , anything but playing cards . The ace , said he , reminded him of one God ; the deuce , of Father and Sou , the tray , of tbe Trinity ; the four , of the four Evangelists , and so he continued to the end of the pack . Bro . Singleton , G . S . of the D . C , delights iu similar flights of
symbolising . In the Voice of Masonry he endeavours to enlighten bis readers , —that the doctrine of the Trinity is taught in the three degrees of Masonry , and goes on to enumerate " three de . greea" — "faith , hope , and charity , " —" brotherly love , relief , and truth , " & o . And our high degree Christianising Masonio writer seems to think that he has made an entire new discovery . I can , however ,
point to a dozen shallow-minded Masonio writers who have reasoned in the same way before ; but , as Bro . S . headed his article with " Dogma" I was , therefore , induced to examine Bro . Albert Pike ' s big book , viz ., " Morals and Dogma , " designed for the high degrees of the southern jurisdiction of the United States . As to tbe best of my belief the said book has never been noticed in your periodical ,
I thongbt that a fesv remarks thereon wonld do no harm . Briefly , the book is a compound of immense learning , sophistry , conceit , some good ideaa , and very dnbions historical assertions . To give an idea of Bro . Pike ' s learning I glean from a very few pages at random the following names , subjects , & c . Strabo , Philo , the Sohar , Moses , Mahomet , Nimrod , Lucifer , the
Apocalypse , Plato , Sepher Yezriah , Occultism , Kabalab , Aristophanes , Cicero , Hermes , Prometheus , Poseidon , Zeus , Sabazius , Zareus , Theraputici , Dionnsos , Sphinx , Triads , & c . This will suffice to give you an idea of Bro . Pike ' s extensive information , and next for a specimen of high degree sophistry ; but as the paragraph is accom . panied with an engraved cube , the reader mnst place before him a
" perfect ashlar , " with a corner of the stone facing tbe observer ' s nose , then look at the stone , or imagine that be is looking at the stone , in the position above described . And now for Bro . Pike ' s high degree philosophy . " If we delineate a cube on the plain surface we have visible three faces and nine external lines drawn between seven points . The
complete cube has three more faces , making six ; three more lines , making twelve , and one more point , making eight . As the number 12 includes the sacred numbers 3 , 5 , 7 , and 3 times 3 , or 9 , while its own two figures 1 2 , the unit monad or duad , add together , make the sacred nnmber 3 , it was called the perfect number , and the cube became the symbol of perfection . "
Comment on the above is superfluous . The reader will doubtless regard it as very sublime . And now for Bro . Pike's historical in-Formation . Bro . Gould refers to tbe prophet Jeremiah inoculating Ireland with Freemasonry . Bro . Pike tells something equally startling . He says : — " The first Masonio legislator whose memory ia preserved to us by
history was Baddah , who about a thousand years before the Christian era reformed the religion of Manous . " Again , " The Essenes were of the eclectic sect of philosophers , and held Plato in high esteem . Tbe great festivals of tbe Solstices were observed in a distinguished manner by the Essenes . " Unfortunately Bro . Pike gave no indication where he found tbe
above information ; but anyhow it proves that the Essenes were Johannite Masons , and after this new revelation by Bro . Pike , why , of course , every high degreer of the southern jurisdiction of the U . S . is bound to observe the two St . John ' s days , though they are not quite the Solstioial days . The next , however , consists of something like common sense . Bro . Pike says ,
Man never had a right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God , and condemn and punish another for his belief . Born in a Protestant land , we are of that faith . If we had opened oar eyes to the light under the shadow of St . Peter's at Rome we should have been devout Catholics ; bora , in a Jewish quarter of Aleppo we should have contemned Christ as an impostor ; in Constantinople we should have
cried " Allah il Allah—God is great and Mahomet is his prophet . " Birthplace and education gives ns our faith . Few believe in any religion because they have examined the evidence of its authenticity and made np formal judgment upon weighing the testimony . Not one man in ten thousand knows anything about tbe truths of his faith . We believe what we are taught , and those are most fanatical
who know least of the evidences on which their creed is based . Facts and testimony are not , except in very rare instances , the groundwork of faith . It is an imperative law in God ' s economy , unyielding and inflexible as Himself , that man shall accept without question the belief of those among whom he is born and reared . The faith so made a part of his nature resists all evidence to tbe contrary ,
and he will disbelieve even the evidence of his own senses rather thnn yield up the religions belief which has grown up with him , flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone . " What is truth to me is not truth to another . Tbe same arguments and evidences that convince one mind make no impression on another , * * No man ia entitled positively to assert that he is
Correspondence.
right where other men , equally . intelligent and equally well informed , hold directly the opposite opinion . Each thinks it is impossible for tho other to be sincere , aud each aa to that ia equally in error . * * # Here is a man superior to myself in intellect and learning , and yet he sincerely believes what seems to me to be too absurd to merit con . fa tn tion , and I cannot conceive and sincerely do not believe that he is
both sane and honest , and yet be is both . His reason ia as perfect as mine and he is as honest as I . " Therefore no man hath or ever had a right to persecute another for his belief , for thero cannot be two antagonistic rights ; and if one can persecute another because he himself is satisfied that the belief of that other is erroneous , the other has , for tho same reason ,
equally as certain a right to persecute him . " Masonry is not a religion . He who makes it a religious belief falsifies and denaturalises it . The Brahmin , the Jew , the Mahometan , the Catholic , the Protestant , each professing bis own peculiar re . lipion * * # * mnst needs remain in it , and cannot have two religions ; for the social and saored laws adapted to usages , manners
and prejudices of particular countries are tbe work of men . " The sincere Moslem has as muoh right to persecute us as we to persecute him ; aud , therefore , Masonry wisely requires no more than a belief in One Great , All-Powerful Deity , the Father and Pre . server of the Universe . Therefore it is she that teaches her votaries that toleration is one of the chief duties of every good Mason , a
component part of that charity without which we are mere hollow images of true Masons , mere sounding brass and tinkling symbols . " I conld extract dozens of pages with repetitions of the above ideas from Bro . Pike ' s book , but sufficient haa been given to show , 1 st . That Masonry requires of its votaries belief in God only ; and 2 nd . That dogmas have no connection with morality . Nay , I can even prove
that dogmas are antagonistic to morality . Thus , morality has always been the same , is the same , and will continue tbe same . While , on the other hand , dogmas have always differed , differ now , and will continue to differ . Morality never caused religious persecution . But dogmas were not only the cause of suoh persecution , but very religious saints taught that it was " moral to deceive and lie in order
to promote the interest of the Church . " And our Bro . Pike well knows that in American Lodges the morality of lying and deceiving is the rule . He knows that every W . M . here lies when he initiates a Jew . And also that our American Grand Lodges , without exception , sanction and uphold lying for the sake of tbe Church as a virtue . If , therefore , Bro . Pike ' s liberal utterances had been sincere he should
have been foremost in rebuking against our American Masonio fraud . This he never did . But to prove his crookedness , after asserting that " Masonry requires no more " than belief in God , he further tells us that" The Holy Bible , square and compasses , are not only styled Great Lights in Masonry , but they are also technically called the furniture
of the Lodge . And , as you have seen , it is held that there is no Lodge without them . This has sometimes been made a pretext for excluding Jews from our Lodges , because they cannot regard the New Testament as a Holy book . The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge . The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Lodge , and the Koran in a Mahometan one , belongs to the altar , and one of
these and the square and compasses , properly understood , are the Groat Lights by which Masons walk and work . No one explained more forcibly the fact that dogmas are impressed npon every one by his early education and surroundings , and when once so impressed , it is almost impossible for any one to change his dogmas for others j and , in short , there is no free will about belief or
disbelief in dogmas . Now , I assert , that neither Christian , Jew , or Mahomedan joins Masonry for the purpose of adopting as their respective Great Lights either the Bible , Pentateuch , or Koran . The Church , Synagogue and Mosque had already impressed each of the above-named religionists with the importance of their respective sacred books . But while each sect professes to believe in the Father .
hood of God and the Brotherhood of man , in reality , however , their Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man they apply exclusively to their respective sects . Hence , the dominant sect everywhere persecuted the weaker sects . In 1658 , or so , the Royal Society , by its regulations , opened its doors wide for scientists of all nations and all religions . In short , they adopted the idea— " Let a man's religion
be what it may , " if well qualified , he shall not be excluded from membership of their society . In 1723 the then members of the Masonio fraternity adopted the same idea and incorporated it into tbeir Charges . Now , without a sectarian book in the Lodge , the scheme of uniting the good and true of all denominations into a Brotherhood might have succeeded to perfection . ' Indeed , the Royal
Society prohibits all sectarian notions from discussion daring its meetings . But Freemasonry requires a sacred book to lay ou its altar . Hence , according to Bro . Pike ' s admission , instead of uniting all sects into one Lodge , we must have here a Church Lodge ; there a Synagogue Lodge ; and elsewhere a Mosque Lodge . The sectarian book , then , is the cause of dividing instead of uniting . In short ,
Masonry merely reproduces the old arrangement , viz ., Church , Synagogue , Mosque , & c . The mischief of the old system arose from the perverted teachings of the respective Priesthoods . Each taught that virtue and goodness was monopolised by his own sect , and that pre * judice will never be exterminated from the minds of each and all until they can meet in one and tbe same Lodge , when every one can
have the opportunity of satisfying his mind that there are just as good true and upright men in other sects as there are in his own . Then , and then only , will the grand truth of the Fatherhood of God and tbe Brotherhood of man be properly nnderstood and appreciated . But such a consummation is only possible where all kinds of sectarian books and sectarian hints and allusions are excluded from the ritual .
Let ns , however , take a retrospective look at the time when our Freemasonry was born and compare it with the present . Tben the law for burning witches was still on the English statute book . The Copernican system of astronomy was under the Papal ban , and I doubt whether it wastaught in Oxford . Geology was a mere embryo , and " evolution " was unknown . In addition to the numerous scientifio discoveries which conduced to undermine the old orthodox faith
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Correspondence.
CORRESPONDENCE .
We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Cor . respondents . All Letters must bear the name and address of the Writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .
MORALS AND DOGMA . To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIK AND BROTHER , —Our mutual friend , Bro . John Constable , showed me a cartoon bordered with the pictures of all the playing cards in the pack . The story annexed to it was , that a soldier waa brought before a magistrate charged with having amused himself with a pack of cards while in church during divine service .
The soldier , however , assured the magistrate that he used the pack of cards as an almanac , prayer book , bible , indeed , anything but playing cards . The ace , said he , reminded him of one God ; the deuce , of Father and Sou , the tray , of tbe Trinity ; the four , of the four Evangelists , and so he continued to the end of the pack . Bro . Singleton , G . S . of the D . C , delights iu similar flights of
symbolising . In the Voice of Masonry he endeavours to enlighten bis readers , —that the doctrine of the Trinity is taught in the three degrees of Masonry , and goes on to enumerate " three de . greea" — "faith , hope , and charity , " —" brotherly love , relief , and truth , " & o . And our high degree Christianising Masonio writer seems to think that he has made an entire new discovery . I can , however ,
point to a dozen shallow-minded Masonio writers who have reasoned in the same way before ; but , as Bro . S . headed his article with " Dogma" I was , therefore , induced to examine Bro . Albert Pike ' s big book , viz ., " Morals and Dogma , " designed for the high degrees of the southern jurisdiction of the United States . As to tbe best of my belief the said book has never been noticed in your periodical ,
I thongbt that a fesv remarks thereon wonld do no harm . Briefly , the book is a compound of immense learning , sophistry , conceit , some good ideaa , and very dnbions historical assertions . To give an idea of Bro . Pike ' s learning I glean from a very few pages at random the following names , subjects , & c . Strabo , Philo , the Sohar , Moses , Mahomet , Nimrod , Lucifer , the
Apocalypse , Plato , Sepher Yezriah , Occultism , Kabalab , Aristophanes , Cicero , Hermes , Prometheus , Poseidon , Zeus , Sabazius , Zareus , Theraputici , Dionnsos , Sphinx , Triads , & c . This will suffice to give you an idea of Bro . Pike ' s extensive information , and next for a specimen of high degree sophistry ; but as the paragraph is accom . panied with an engraved cube , the reader mnst place before him a
" perfect ashlar , " with a corner of the stone facing tbe observer ' s nose , then look at the stone , or imagine that be is looking at the stone , in the position above described . And now for Bro . Pike ' s high degree philosophy . " If we delineate a cube on the plain surface we have visible three faces and nine external lines drawn between seven points . The
complete cube has three more faces , making six ; three more lines , making twelve , and one more point , making eight . As the number 12 includes the sacred numbers 3 , 5 , 7 , and 3 times 3 , or 9 , while its own two figures 1 2 , the unit monad or duad , add together , make the sacred nnmber 3 , it was called the perfect number , and the cube became the symbol of perfection . "
Comment on the above is superfluous . The reader will doubtless regard it as very sublime . And now for Bro . Pike's historical in-Formation . Bro . Gould refers to tbe prophet Jeremiah inoculating Ireland with Freemasonry . Bro . Pike tells something equally startling . He says : — " The first Masonio legislator whose memory ia preserved to us by
history was Baddah , who about a thousand years before the Christian era reformed the religion of Manous . " Again , " The Essenes were of the eclectic sect of philosophers , and held Plato in high esteem . Tbe great festivals of tbe Solstices were observed in a distinguished manner by the Essenes . " Unfortunately Bro . Pike gave no indication where he found tbe
above information ; but anyhow it proves that the Essenes were Johannite Masons , and after this new revelation by Bro . Pike , why , of course , every high degreer of the southern jurisdiction of the U . S . is bound to observe the two St . John ' s days , though they are not quite the Solstioial days . The next , however , consists of something like common sense . Bro . Pike says ,
Man never had a right to usurp the unexercised prerogative of God , and condemn and punish another for his belief . Born in a Protestant land , we are of that faith . If we had opened oar eyes to the light under the shadow of St . Peter's at Rome we should have been devout Catholics ; bora , in a Jewish quarter of Aleppo we should have contemned Christ as an impostor ; in Constantinople we should have
cried " Allah il Allah—God is great and Mahomet is his prophet . " Birthplace and education gives ns our faith . Few believe in any religion because they have examined the evidence of its authenticity and made np formal judgment upon weighing the testimony . Not one man in ten thousand knows anything about tbe truths of his faith . We believe what we are taught , and those are most fanatical
who know least of the evidences on which their creed is based . Facts and testimony are not , except in very rare instances , the groundwork of faith . It is an imperative law in God ' s economy , unyielding and inflexible as Himself , that man shall accept without question the belief of those among whom he is born and reared . The faith so made a part of his nature resists all evidence to tbe contrary ,
and he will disbelieve even the evidence of his own senses rather thnn yield up the religions belief which has grown up with him , flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone . " What is truth to me is not truth to another . Tbe same arguments and evidences that convince one mind make no impression on another , * * No man ia entitled positively to assert that he is
Correspondence.
right where other men , equally . intelligent and equally well informed , hold directly the opposite opinion . Each thinks it is impossible for tho other to be sincere , aud each aa to that ia equally in error . * * # Here is a man superior to myself in intellect and learning , and yet he sincerely believes what seems to me to be too absurd to merit con . fa tn tion , and I cannot conceive and sincerely do not believe that he is
both sane and honest , and yet be is both . His reason ia as perfect as mine and he is as honest as I . " Therefore no man hath or ever had a right to persecute another for his belief , for thero cannot be two antagonistic rights ; and if one can persecute another because he himself is satisfied that the belief of that other is erroneous , the other has , for tho same reason ,
equally as certain a right to persecute him . " Masonry is not a religion . He who makes it a religious belief falsifies and denaturalises it . The Brahmin , the Jew , the Mahometan , the Catholic , the Protestant , each professing bis own peculiar re . lipion * * # * mnst needs remain in it , and cannot have two religions ; for the social and saored laws adapted to usages , manners
and prejudices of particular countries are tbe work of men . " The sincere Moslem has as muoh right to persecute us as we to persecute him ; aud , therefore , Masonry wisely requires no more than a belief in One Great , All-Powerful Deity , the Father and Pre . server of the Universe . Therefore it is she that teaches her votaries that toleration is one of the chief duties of every good Mason , a
component part of that charity without which we are mere hollow images of true Masons , mere sounding brass and tinkling symbols . " I conld extract dozens of pages with repetitions of the above ideas from Bro . Pike ' s book , but sufficient haa been given to show , 1 st . That Masonry requires of its votaries belief in God only ; and 2 nd . That dogmas have no connection with morality . Nay , I can even prove
that dogmas are antagonistic to morality . Thus , morality has always been the same , is the same , and will continue tbe same . While , on the other hand , dogmas have always differed , differ now , and will continue to differ . Morality never caused religious persecution . But dogmas were not only the cause of suoh persecution , but very religious saints taught that it was " moral to deceive and lie in order
to promote the interest of the Church . " And our Bro . Pike well knows that in American Lodges the morality of lying and deceiving is the rule . He knows that every W . M . here lies when he initiates a Jew . And also that our American Grand Lodges , without exception , sanction and uphold lying for the sake of tbe Church as a virtue . If , therefore , Bro . Pike ' s liberal utterances had been sincere he should
have been foremost in rebuking against our American Masonio fraud . This he never did . But to prove his crookedness , after asserting that " Masonry requires no more " than belief in God , he further tells us that" The Holy Bible , square and compasses , are not only styled Great Lights in Masonry , but they are also technically called the furniture
of the Lodge . And , as you have seen , it is held that there is no Lodge without them . This has sometimes been made a pretext for excluding Jews from our Lodges , because they cannot regard the New Testament as a Holy book . The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge . The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Lodge , and the Koran in a Mahometan one , belongs to the altar , and one of
these and the square and compasses , properly understood , are the Groat Lights by which Masons walk and work . No one explained more forcibly the fact that dogmas are impressed npon every one by his early education and surroundings , and when once so impressed , it is almost impossible for any one to change his dogmas for others j and , in short , there is no free will about belief or
disbelief in dogmas . Now , I assert , that neither Christian , Jew , or Mahomedan joins Masonry for the purpose of adopting as their respective Great Lights either the Bible , Pentateuch , or Koran . The Church , Synagogue and Mosque had already impressed each of the above-named religionists with the importance of their respective sacred books . But while each sect professes to believe in the Father .
hood of God and the Brotherhood of man , in reality , however , their Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man they apply exclusively to their respective sects . Hence , the dominant sect everywhere persecuted the weaker sects . In 1658 , or so , the Royal Society , by its regulations , opened its doors wide for scientists of all nations and all religions . In short , they adopted the idea— " Let a man's religion
be what it may , " if well qualified , he shall not be excluded from membership of their society . In 1723 the then members of the Masonio fraternity adopted the same idea and incorporated it into tbeir Charges . Now , without a sectarian book in the Lodge , the scheme of uniting the good and true of all denominations into a Brotherhood might have succeeded to perfection . ' Indeed , the Royal
Society prohibits all sectarian notions from discussion daring its meetings . But Freemasonry requires a sacred book to lay ou its altar . Hence , according to Bro . Pike ' s admission , instead of uniting all sects into one Lodge , we must have here a Church Lodge ; there a Synagogue Lodge ; and elsewhere a Mosque Lodge . The sectarian book , then , is the cause of dividing instead of uniting . In short ,
Masonry merely reproduces the old arrangement , viz ., Church , Synagogue , Mosque , & c . The mischief of the old system arose from the perverted teachings of the respective Priesthoods . Each taught that virtue and goodness was monopolised by his own sect , and that pre * judice will never be exterminated from the minds of each and all until they can meet in one and tbe same Lodge , when every one can
have the opportunity of satisfying his mind that there are just as good true and upright men in other sects as there are in his own . Then , and then only , will the grand truth of the Fatherhood of God and tbe Brotherhood of man be properly nnderstood and appreciated . But such a consummation is only possible where all kinds of sectarian books and sectarian hints and allusions are excluded from the ritual .
Let ns , however , take a retrospective look at the time when our Freemasonry was born and compare it with the present . Tben the law for burning witches was still on the English statute book . The Copernican system of astronomy was under the Papal ban , and I doubt whether it wastaught in Oxford . Geology was a mere embryo , and " evolution " was unknown . In addition to the numerous scientifio discoveries which conduced to undermine the old orthodox faith