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Article THE APPROACHING ELECTION FOR THE GIRLS' SCHOOL. ← Page 2 of 2 Article FREEMASONRY'S RELIGION. Page 1 of 2 Article FREEMASONRY'S RELIGION. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Approaching Election For The Girls' School.
also among the candidates at the last election , when three votes were recorded in her favour . There are three children dependent in this case , which is
accredited to the Province of Durham , where the father was initiated , in the Marquis of Granby Lodge , No . 124 , of which he became a Past Master , as also
a Provincial Officer . No . 62 , Lena Sybil Kassell , is one of five children , left by a member of the Aire and Calder Lodge , No . 458 , West Yorkshire , who
subsequently joined Nos . 910 and 1542 , in which latter he passed the chair . No . 71 , Fanny Gertrude Williams , js also one of five parentless children . Her father
was a member and Junior Warden of the St . John ' s Lodge , No . 761 , Gloucestershire , and subscribed thereto until his death last year . No . 72 , Edith Jane
Cooper , is one of four children left to the care of friends . Her father was initiated in the Mount Lebanon Lodge , No . 73 , London , and he also died in
the autumn of last year , after having subscribed to his Lodge for 11 £ years . We have thus specially referred to thirteen of
the cases out ot the list ot seventy-tour . Seven oi them are last applications , and the other six have lost both their parents . Either of these conditions
are , we imagine , sufficient to entitle the children to the special notice of the Craft , and it is to be hoped they mav each receive such support as will place
them among the successful at the approaching election . Of the other cases much might be said , but
m accordance with our custom we think it best to leave their particular merits to be made known by the friends and others interested in their admission
to the Institution . Fortunately the number of vacancies to be declared is large , and their proportion to
the number of candidates most satisfactory . All we can hope , in conclusion is , that the most deserving may be successful , and that those who are not
fortunate in securing a scholarship on this occasion may have later opportunity of competing , and that all , in course of time , maybe received into the School at Battersea Eise .
Freemasonry's Religion.
FREEMASONRY'S RELIGION .
THE MASONIC IDEAL OF RELIGION AND OF LIBERAL CULTURE . " Q < PECULATIVE Masonry is so far interwoven with lO religion as to lay us under obligations to pay that rational homage to the Deity which at once constitute our duty and onr happiness . It leads the contemplative to
view , with reverence and admiration , the glorious works of creation , and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfection of his divine Creator . " "Of all the human sciences , that concerning man is
certainly most worthy of the human mind , and the proper manner of conducting its several powers in the attainment of Truth and Knowledge . " These extracts from the venerable teachings of
Freemasonry show that it takes note , at the samo time , of both religion and education—nay , that it brings them together in a most intimate relationship . In the sublime lecture on the sciences and arts , which is contained in the second section of the second degree , this appears in a remarkable manner .
That Freemasonry should be spoken of as a religious
institution , or as imparting religious instruction , undoubtedly sounds strange to those who think that religion must necessarily bo confined to a particular set of theological
dogmas ; or , in other words , be sectarian . But why should it be thought necessary to make religion traverse simply the narrow circle of sectarian ideas ? Is it not a degradation to confine it to so limited a sphere ? The Masonic
ideal is that religion is absolute , everlasting and unchang
ing ; that it is not a dogma , or a collection of dogmas , but rather reverence and humility before the awful ideas of Infinity and eternity—a sense of subjection to the great law of Justice which stretches through the universe , and of obligation to love and serve man on earth and God in heaven . The ideas of God , retribution , a future life—these
Freemasonry's Religion.
great facta of religion—are not the property of any one sect or party ; they form the groundwork of all creeds .
Religion , we have said , is everlasting and immutable . It is the same yesterday , to-day , and for ever . Sectarianism is bnt the material framework , changeable and perishable ,
which men , in different ages and countries , have raised around it . This material and human investiture of sectarian dogmas changes with the times and seasons ; but
that religion in the light of which all Masons , whatever their particular creed , desire to walk—that religion sent forth into the world with the awful sanction of the Christ
upon it—which , as an ancient says , " is to visit the widow and fatherless in their afflictions , and keep ourselves unspotted from the world ; " that religion , the essence of
which is to love God supremely , and our neighbours as we love ourselves , can never change ; being absolute , it can never pass away—and it may be taught with all its obligations , duties and hopes , and in all its beautiful application
to life , without being trammeled by any sectarian dogmas whatever . About religion , in its absoluteness , neither men nor seota ever dispute or quarrel . No : it shines over the human
soul , clear and bright , like the eternal stars—visible to all , and always and every where has her voice heen heard , consoling the sorrowful ; fortifying the weak , and bidding the sons of men aspire to a celestial communion .
Tbe Girard College is founded on this idea ; and although that institution , and the distinguished Mason whose noble charity established and endowed it , have often been abnsed and charged with infidelity , we do not hesitate to affirm
that instruction in that school is as thoroughly religious as in any other school in the country . It was not religion ,
but . sectarianism , which Mr Girard desired to exclude from it . He wished to adopt , in a degree , the ancient method
of instruction , which was eminently religious . With the ancient educators of our race , all the sciences ' were revelations from heaven—were all holy . Art was holy ,
literature was holy , and these were all parts of one vast philosophy or religion , which addressed itself not to one merely , bnt to the entire of the human faculties . All education , with them , was religious and moral . It was the deep , earnest and positive faith of the ancient
teachers , in the unseen and spiritual , which led them to blend in this manner—unfortunately so , to our modern habits of thinking—the ideas of science with those of
religion . And here we moderns fall far below the ancients . We have divorced science and philosophy from religion , and seem to regard them as quite different and distinct
things . On the other hand they contemplated the universe from the religious point of view . All the phenomena of life—all the motions of the heavenly bodies—the whole
stupendous spectacle of the world—revealed to them the presence of an unseen Intelligence . Hence their religion embraced all the facts of physical science , as well as those
ideas which relate exclusively to the nature and destiny of the soul . With them , science and art and philosophy
were necessary parts of religion , and reposed on a spiritual basis . Hence instruction , with them , we have said , waa religious and moral . And were they not right .
The ancient mysteries were established for human instruction , and there all the sciences were studied with reference to a higher sphere of thought . Nature , with all her laws , her motions and her mysteries , which science
attempts to explain , was , in their view , only a shadow , reflex , or projection of the more substantial verities of the unseen—the eternal world . Philosophy itself was religion ; hence the dramas , represented in the mysteries and the
rites of initiation , and all the symbols there displayed , have reference to that awful beauty which smiles upon man from every sublime and maiestic form in nature . And
because these dramas and rites shadowed forth some of the phenomena of nature and the motions of the heavenly
bodies , we are not to infer , as some infidels have done , that they had no spiritual reference at all , but rather that those old Grecians and Egyptians were men of profound faith ,
who saw , in all the wonders of nature , all the motions of the starry spheres , and in all the miracles of the world , the
dread shadow of that mysterious One , who , although infinite and indivisible , yet in some manner incomprehensible to human intelligence , individualizes Him to every human thought , and localizes Himself in every place .
Such was the ancient ideal of religion and education , and such is the Masonic ideal to-day . Freemasonry teaches by symbols , aud all symbols shadow forth the infinite and everlasting . It recognises God as imminent in all created
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Approaching Election For The Girls' School.
also among the candidates at the last election , when three votes were recorded in her favour . There are three children dependent in this case , which is
accredited to the Province of Durham , where the father was initiated , in the Marquis of Granby Lodge , No . 124 , of which he became a Past Master , as also
a Provincial Officer . No . 62 , Lena Sybil Kassell , is one of five children , left by a member of the Aire and Calder Lodge , No . 458 , West Yorkshire , who
subsequently joined Nos . 910 and 1542 , in which latter he passed the chair . No . 71 , Fanny Gertrude Williams , js also one of five parentless children . Her father
was a member and Junior Warden of the St . John ' s Lodge , No . 761 , Gloucestershire , and subscribed thereto until his death last year . No . 72 , Edith Jane
Cooper , is one of four children left to the care of friends . Her father was initiated in the Mount Lebanon Lodge , No . 73 , London , and he also died in
the autumn of last year , after having subscribed to his Lodge for 11 £ years . We have thus specially referred to thirteen of
the cases out ot the list ot seventy-tour . Seven oi them are last applications , and the other six have lost both their parents . Either of these conditions
are , we imagine , sufficient to entitle the children to the special notice of the Craft , and it is to be hoped they mav each receive such support as will place
them among the successful at the approaching election . Of the other cases much might be said , but
m accordance with our custom we think it best to leave their particular merits to be made known by the friends and others interested in their admission
to the Institution . Fortunately the number of vacancies to be declared is large , and their proportion to
the number of candidates most satisfactory . All we can hope , in conclusion is , that the most deserving may be successful , and that those who are not
fortunate in securing a scholarship on this occasion may have later opportunity of competing , and that all , in course of time , maybe received into the School at Battersea Eise .
Freemasonry's Religion.
FREEMASONRY'S RELIGION .
THE MASONIC IDEAL OF RELIGION AND OF LIBERAL CULTURE . " Q < PECULATIVE Masonry is so far interwoven with lO religion as to lay us under obligations to pay that rational homage to the Deity which at once constitute our duty and onr happiness . It leads the contemplative to
view , with reverence and admiration , the glorious works of creation , and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfection of his divine Creator . " "Of all the human sciences , that concerning man is
certainly most worthy of the human mind , and the proper manner of conducting its several powers in the attainment of Truth and Knowledge . " These extracts from the venerable teachings of
Freemasonry show that it takes note , at the samo time , of both religion and education—nay , that it brings them together in a most intimate relationship . In the sublime lecture on the sciences and arts , which is contained in the second section of the second degree , this appears in a remarkable manner .
That Freemasonry should be spoken of as a religious
institution , or as imparting religious instruction , undoubtedly sounds strange to those who think that religion must necessarily bo confined to a particular set of theological
dogmas ; or , in other words , be sectarian . But why should it be thought necessary to make religion traverse simply the narrow circle of sectarian ideas ? Is it not a degradation to confine it to so limited a sphere ? The Masonic
ideal is that religion is absolute , everlasting and unchang
ing ; that it is not a dogma , or a collection of dogmas , but rather reverence and humility before the awful ideas of Infinity and eternity—a sense of subjection to the great law of Justice which stretches through the universe , and of obligation to love and serve man on earth and God in heaven . The ideas of God , retribution , a future life—these
Freemasonry's Religion.
great facta of religion—are not the property of any one sect or party ; they form the groundwork of all creeds .
Religion , we have said , is everlasting and immutable . It is the same yesterday , to-day , and for ever . Sectarianism is bnt the material framework , changeable and perishable ,
which men , in different ages and countries , have raised around it . This material and human investiture of sectarian dogmas changes with the times and seasons ; but
that religion in the light of which all Masons , whatever their particular creed , desire to walk—that religion sent forth into the world with the awful sanction of the Christ
upon it—which , as an ancient says , " is to visit the widow and fatherless in their afflictions , and keep ourselves unspotted from the world ; " that religion , the essence of
which is to love God supremely , and our neighbours as we love ourselves , can never change ; being absolute , it can never pass away—and it may be taught with all its obligations , duties and hopes , and in all its beautiful application
to life , without being trammeled by any sectarian dogmas whatever . About religion , in its absoluteness , neither men nor seota ever dispute or quarrel . No : it shines over the human
soul , clear and bright , like the eternal stars—visible to all , and always and every where has her voice heen heard , consoling the sorrowful ; fortifying the weak , and bidding the sons of men aspire to a celestial communion .
Tbe Girard College is founded on this idea ; and although that institution , and the distinguished Mason whose noble charity established and endowed it , have often been abnsed and charged with infidelity , we do not hesitate to affirm
that instruction in that school is as thoroughly religious as in any other school in the country . It was not religion ,
but . sectarianism , which Mr Girard desired to exclude from it . He wished to adopt , in a degree , the ancient method
of instruction , which was eminently religious . With the ancient educators of our race , all the sciences ' were revelations from heaven—were all holy . Art was holy ,
literature was holy , and these were all parts of one vast philosophy or religion , which addressed itself not to one merely , bnt to the entire of the human faculties . All education , with them , was religious and moral . It was the deep , earnest and positive faith of the ancient
teachers , in the unseen and spiritual , which led them to blend in this manner—unfortunately so , to our modern habits of thinking—the ideas of science with those of
religion . And here we moderns fall far below the ancients . We have divorced science and philosophy from religion , and seem to regard them as quite different and distinct
things . On the other hand they contemplated the universe from the religious point of view . All the phenomena of life—all the motions of the heavenly bodies—the whole
stupendous spectacle of the world—revealed to them the presence of an unseen Intelligence . Hence their religion embraced all the facts of physical science , as well as those
ideas which relate exclusively to the nature and destiny of the soul . With them , science and art and philosophy
were necessary parts of religion , and reposed on a spiritual basis . Hence instruction , with them , we have said , waa religious and moral . And were they not right .
The ancient mysteries were established for human instruction , and there all the sciences were studied with reference to a higher sphere of thought . Nature , with all her laws , her motions and her mysteries , which science
attempts to explain , was , in their view , only a shadow , reflex , or projection of the more substantial verities of the unseen—the eternal world . Philosophy itself was religion ; hence the dramas , represented in the mysteries and the
rites of initiation , and all the symbols there displayed , have reference to that awful beauty which smiles upon man from every sublime and maiestic form in nature . And
because these dramas and rites shadowed forth some of the phenomena of nature and the motions of the heavenly
bodies , we are not to infer , as some infidels have done , that they had no spiritual reference at all , but rather that those old Grecians and Egyptians were men of profound faith ,
who saw , in all the wonders of nature , all the motions of the starry spheres , and in all the miracles of the world , the
dread shadow of that mysterious One , who , although infinite and indivisible , yet in some manner incomprehensible to human intelligence , individualizes Him to every human thought , and localizes Himself in every place .
Such was the ancient ideal of religion and education , and such is the Masonic ideal to-day . Freemasonry teaches by symbols , aud all symbols shadow forth the infinite and everlasting . It recognises God as imminent in all created