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Article MASONRY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. ← Page 2 of 2 Article MASONRY A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. Page 2 of 2
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Masonry A Universal Religion.
and found himself surrounded by friends j he was offered tempting viands from delicate bands—he rested on luxurions couches—he ascended into the watch tower and beheld beautiful gardens of flowers , with mossy banked strenms winding through ; be was en . chanted , and veturnedUo toll a stnvy disputed by the first , and the third contradicted both . The honour of three great , kingdom * was
at stake , and three great kings engaged in war ; each soon to learn that the owl , and the whipp rwill , and the darkness , belonged to the forest and the night , not to the castle—that a distant and exterior view reflects no beauty from within , bnt that all the « e things go to mako up the magnificence of a sylvan castle . The exterior views were half views , and so the truths of Buddhism and Confucianism
may be half truths , while the owls and the darkness may be excrescences of Christianity . Truth is absolute , whether found in the creed of the Jew or the Greek , the Christian or tho barbarian . Bat truth in creeds is too often like the traditional needle in the hay stack ; it is the mustard sped of truth enveloped in a great bundle of error . Creeds and dogmas are not the essentials of religion ; creeds engender strife .
" One thinks on Calvin heaven's own blessings fell , Another deems him instrument of hell : If Calvin feels heaven ' s blessings or its rod , This cries thero is , and that there is no God ; What shocks ono part will edify the rest . Nor with one system can they all be blessed , The very best will variously incline , And what rewards your virtue punish mine . "
Who is to determine which see clearly , and which darkly ? Brothers and sisters do not always agree in the minor details of family affairs ; how , then , expect all men to conform to a single standard ? Though one should cast out devils in the name of Beelzebub , he is not against us , and , therefore , for us . If my brother cannot accept
my opinion for his own , all must agree that I have no right to compel him to do so . It is this prinoiple of toleration which is the great Bonz of Masonry , aud as brothers disagree and are brothers still , so I conceive that we who profess the Christian religion sacrifice no title of our holy faith when wo clasp hands with all nations and peoples in the great , grand
brotherhood which springs from human charity . Masonry is so noble a principle , so grand , so elevated , that it overrides all creeds and sects , and embraces all who acknowledge the brotherhood of man , and tho fatherhood of God . The fondest dream of my boyhood days , was that I should live to establish a church whose creed should be no creed , whoso foundation
principles should be born of a charity so broad , that not only the churches , but the citizens of every state , and the peoples of every nation under the blue dome of this earth temple , should meet upon common ground in unity and concord . It was au idle fancy , and yet , as the distinctive colours of the rainbow blended iu one become the purest white , so may the creeds of earth , though distinctive still , bo
blended in the bonds of charity . The secret of my first love for the institution of Masonry was its enlightened toleration of opposite opinions . There is no exact standard or measurementof human life and conduct ; who , then , shall have tho audacity to erect a single standard and proclaim it the onl y true way ?
" What would happen , do you suppose , If the mignonette should say to the rose : The pride of roses I hate to see ; Why don't you keep near the ground like me ? What if the rose should say to the phlox , My form and colour are orthodox ; To please your Maker , yon've got to be Precisely , in all respects , like me ?
What if a grape should say to a pear , What are you flaunting about up there ; Beware of swinging alone and free , You ought to cling to a trellis like me ? What if a swan should say to a crow , You belong to a race of so and so ; It ' s a deadly sin for yon to be free , Your only hope is in serving me ?
What if a goose should teach a wren , Or an eagle try to follow a hen ? What if the monkeys should all agree That there ought to be uniformity ? What if a man shonld say to another , Differ with me and you ' re not my brother ; I have the truth , as the oracles tell , Go with me , or you'll go to hell ?"
I believe m the religion and dogma of Christianity ; and , like my brother here , I am not ashamed to confess its illustrious and divine Founder as my ideal and my hope . But when a man comes to me and Bays , " See here ! you're a miserable Qnnker dog ! you can ' t sing the doxology ! and I ' m going to take a little of that Quaker spirit out of
you ! " I ask you , candidly , if yon would not think the man was a little over-zealous for his ology . What profound logic the bigots of every age have had with which to support their positions . Truth is absolute—tho opposite of truth is error . We teach the truth ; therefore , you are in error . It is all very well till you get to the third premise , and then I lose
wy patience . If I owe a man one hundred dollars , and pay him fifty , I may say I have paid him ; I tell no lie , but I leave you to infer a falsehood . And wheu any man or church says , " I teach the truth , you do not teach what I teach ; therefore , yon are in error , " the first premise is a half-truth , and the conclusion a lie . And when any church or pontiff says , " I am infallible , I cannot
Masonry A Universal Religion.
err , I speak and command in truth , all else is falsehood , " he clamours for the life-blood of liberty ; and why ? because he proclaims his opinions as yonr master and mine—becanse ho pnts an embargo on free thought—becanse he may take yonr wealth and mine , or destroy vnur life and mine , if only it is done in the name of religion . Religion , forsooth ! a theocracy of tbe dovil ! Satan clothed as au angel of light ! a wolf in sheep ' s clothing , seeking whom he may devour ?
I am not ignorant of the power which T oppose , nor of its source . I am aware that tho blasphemous assumption of panal infallibility is supported by oath , bound bi-ihops , priests , and Jesuits , and that through their influence the edicts and docrees of the imbecile charlatan of Rome wonld , if possible , become the stiprome rule for human conduct . Kings would be deposed , princes murdered ,
governments subverted and destroyed , adultery sanctioned , treason en . conraged , and God blasphemed , to satisfy tho solfhh greed of this vampiricnl excrescence which fattens npon the blood and treasure of the human race . I read somewhere , recently , of a hideous monstrosity , a man whose tongue was a snake ' s head ; when the man slept the snake
lay quiet within , but bis broathing was a low and ominous hiss , nnd when he awoke and tried to speak the monster thrnst itself out , hissing and spitting venom . And when I read T transferred the application of the legend to the church of Rome in its relations to tho institution of Freemasonry . "Thoy have sharpened their teeth like a serpent ; adder's poison is under their lips . "
I have no patience with any man ' s religion which assails tho religion of another . There is much truth in the teachings of Romanism —there is truth in Buddhism and Confucianism ; and there probably never was an ism which had only error for its foundation . Bnt no religion has a right to say to another , in terms of reproach , " Stand aside , I am holier than thou . " And the religion of our Jesus is false
if it be not a religion of love . I tell yon it is charity that men need in this world—Masonio charity , which admits tho test of conscience—and then tho discords of life wonld become the harmony of tbe world . The hardest lesson to learn is that of toleration of faiths more per . feet or imperfect than our own . The Masonio philosophy
is" Intolerance to none . Whatever form the pious rite may bear , Not ' even the poor pagan ' s homage to the sun Would I scorn , lest even there I spurned some element of Christian prayer , "
Throughout the life of tbe world , the religions of the world have failed to satisfy the craving instincts of humanity . In the fanatical blunders of men after a more perfect system , th ° y have ovor-ridden the correlative and benevolent instincts of the race , and in the end have given us too much of the isms of men , wh ' ch have sometimes proved to be only fair apples of ashes . I borrow a thought in saying ,
" What a man wnnts is a religion in which all the svstems of hnmanity may meet as in a field of the cloth of gold , to adorn it with their piety , their mysticisms , their mythology , their subtlety of thought , their splendour of ceremonial , their adaptability of progress , their elasticity of organisation , and mepting may exhaust their resources in the building of a common temple for the common good . " This is the grand philosphy of Freemasonry , which rises above
words , and grips , and signs , and makes the institution worthy the patronage of the great and good . The history of the human race has been a history of blnndprs and excesses—a history of a want of charity among men ; but it ia also a history of progress . Wo may mourn the processes through . which we have passed , yet we can bnt observe that God has turned all to good account ; He hasbnilded better than man knew , and made the wrath of man to praise Him ; and why not ?
" If plaque 3 and earthquakes break not heaven ' s design , " Why should the violent clashing of interests and opinions among men ? The blessings God sends upon men are sometimes the core of a great trouble ; what is a great mishap to a single man may be a greater blessing to millions left behind . " The spears which rushed through Arnold ' s heart "
Were thus made defenceless against the surging wave of libert y . The flood which drowns the brood of fledglings , discovers the worm to the mother . The shower which quickens the verdure of my pastnres destroys my neighbour ' s grain . In the same manner the angel which bears avvny my darling child may have foreseen her bereft of homo and friends ; the victim of want and sorrow , and in mercy
plucked the opening rose and carried it as a garland to the bronr of the All-Father . A mother sat over her darling boy and held the quickened pulse , bathed the parched lips and feverish brow , and struggled with the messenger from the spirit world . It was not in her heart to say , "Thy will be done , " but , only this , " I cannot let him go . " Death
fled without his prize , but left behind a muttering speech and idiotic face . The evils of the unseen were close at hand , the scylla of death was passed , but the charybdis of distorted lifo appenred instead . Men cannot perceive the relation of things . From the height of heaven God overlooks the landscape of earth , and what to man is hideous deformity , is to him but an excrescence in the development of the rue . A man from a mountain top vi ws the landscape ; it is
a vivid picture of beauty and harmony , but he knows that iu the valley are gnarled aud deaden trunks , scraggy under-brflsh , and stagnant pools . The ignorance aud blunders of the child are the anxiety of the mother . She notes with pleasure its development , and observes that its most painful experience , its falls , its bumps , its brnises , become its best and lasting lessons . The discipline of pain is the angel of progress . ( To be continued . )
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonry A Universal Religion.
and found himself surrounded by friends j he was offered tempting viands from delicate bands—he rested on luxurions couches—he ascended into the watch tower and beheld beautiful gardens of flowers , with mossy banked strenms winding through ; be was en . chanted , and veturnedUo toll a stnvy disputed by the first , and the third contradicted both . The honour of three great , kingdom * was
at stake , and three great kings engaged in war ; each soon to learn that the owl , and the whipp rwill , and the darkness , belonged to the forest and the night , not to the castle—that a distant and exterior view reflects no beauty from within , bnt that all the « e things go to mako up the magnificence of a sylvan castle . The exterior views were half views , and so the truths of Buddhism and Confucianism
may be half truths , while the owls and the darkness may be excrescences of Christianity . Truth is absolute , whether found in the creed of the Jew or the Greek , the Christian or tho barbarian . Bat truth in creeds is too often like the traditional needle in the hay stack ; it is the mustard sped of truth enveloped in a great bundle of error . Creeds and dogmas are not the essentials of religion ; creeds engender strife .
" One thinks on Calvin heaven's own blessings fell , Another deems him instrument of hell : If Calvin feels heaven ' s blessings or its rod , This cries thero is , and that there is no God ; What shocks ono part will edify the rest . Nor with one system can they all be blessed , The very best will variously incline , And what rewards your virtue punish mine . "
Who is to determine which see clearly , and which darkly ? Brothers and sisters do not always agree in the minor details of family affairs ; how , then , expect all men to conform to a single standard ? Though one should cast out devils in the name of Beelzebub , he is not against us , and , therefore , for us . If my brother cannot accept
my opinion for his own , all must agree that I have no right to compel him to do so . It is this prinoiple of toleration which is the great Bonz of Masonry , aud as brothers disagree and are brothers still , so I conceive that we who profess the Christian religion sacrifice no title of our holy faith when wo clasp hands with all nations and peoples in the great , grand
brotherhood which springs from human charity . Masonry is so noble a principle , so grand , so elevated , that it overrides all creeds and sects , and embraces all who acknowledge the brotherhood of man , and tho fatherhood of God . The fondest dream of my boyhood days , was that I should live to establish a church whose creed should be no creed , whoso foundation
principles should be born of a charity so broad , that not only the churches , but the citizens of every state , and the peoples of every nation under the blue dome of this earth temple , should meet upon common ground in unity and concord . It was au idle fancy , and yet , as the distinctive colours of the rainbow blended iu one become the purest white , so may the creeds of earth , though distinctive still , bo
blended in the bonds of charity . The secret of my first love for the institution of Masonry was its enlightened toleration of opposite opinions . There is no exact standard or measurementof human life and conduct ; who , then , shall have tho audacity to erect a single standard and proclaim it the onl y true way ?
" What would happen , do you suppose , If the mignonette should say to the rose : The pride of roses I hate to see ; Why don't you keep near the ground like me ? What if the rose should say to the phlox , My form and colour are orthodox ; To please your Maker , yon've got to be Precisely , in all respects , like me ?
What if a grape should say to a pear , What are you flaunting about up there ; Beware of swinging alone and free , You ought to cling to a trellis like me ? What if a swan should say to a crow , You belong to a race of so and so ; It ' s a deadly sin for yon to be free , Your only hope is in serving me ?
What if a goose should teach a wren , Or an eagle try to follow a hen ? What if the monkeys should all agree That there ought to be uniformity ? What if a man shonld say to another , Differ with me and you ' re not my brother ; I have the truth , as the oracles tell , Go with me , or you'll go to hell ?"
I believe m the religion and dogma of Christianity ; and , like my brother here , I am not ashamed to confess its illustrious and divine Founder as my ideal and my hope . But when a man comes to me and Bays , " See here ! you're a miserable Qnnker dog ! you can ' t sing the doxology ! and I ' m going to take a little of that Quaker spirit out of
you ! " I ask you , candidly , if yon would not think the man was a little over-zealous for his ology . What profound logic the bigots of every age have had with which to support their positions . Truth is absolute—tho opposite of truth is error . We teach the truth ; therefore , you are in error . It is all very well till you get to the third premise , and then I lose
wy patience . If I owe a man one hundred dollars , and pay him fifty , I may say I have paid him ; I tell no lie , but I leave you to infer a falsehood . And wheu any man or church says , " I teach the truth , you do not teach what I teach ; therefore , yon are in error , " the first premise is a half-truth , and the conclusion a lie . And when any church or pontiff says , " I am infallible , I cannot
Masonry A Universal Religion.
err , I speak and command in truth , all else is falsehood , " he clamours for the life-blood of liberty ; and why ? because he proclaims his opinions as yonr master and mine—becanse ho pnts an embargo on free thought—becanse he may take yonr wealth and mine , or destroy vnur life and mine , if only it is done in the name of religion . Religion , forsooth ! a theocracy of tbe dovil ! Satan clothed as au angel of light ! a wolf in sheep ' s clothing , seeking whom he may devour ?
I am not ignorant of the power which T oppose , nor of its source . I am aware that tho blasphemous assumption of panal infallibility is supported by oath , bound bi-ihops , priests , and Jesuits , and that through their influence the edicts and docrees of the imbecile charlatan of Rome wonld , if possible , become the stiprome rule for human conduct . Kings would be deposed , princes murdered ,
governments subverted and destroyed , adultery sanctioned , treason en . conraged , and God blasphemed , to satisfy tho solfhh greed of this vampiricnl excrescence which fattens npon the blood and treasure of the human race . I read somewhere , recently , of a hideous monstrosity , a man whose tongue was a snake ' s head ; when the man slept the snake
lay quiet within , but bis broathing was a low and ominous hiss , nnd when he awoke and tried to speak the monster thrnst itself out , hissing and spitting venom . And when I read T transferred the application of the legend to the church of Rome in its relations to tho institution of Freemasonry . "Thoy have sharpened their teeth like a serpent ; adder's poison is under their lips . "
I have no patience with any man ' s religion which assails tho religion of another . There is much truth in the teachings of Romanism —there is truth in Buddhism and Confucianism ; and there probably never was an ism which had only error for its foundation . Bnt no religion has a right to say to another , in terms of reproach , " Stand aside , I am holier than thou . " And the religion of our Jesus is false
if it be not a religion of love . I tell yon it is charity that men need in this world—Masonio charity , which admits tho test of conscience—and then tho discords of life wonld become the harmony of tbe world . The hardest lesson to learn is that of toleration of faiths more per . feet or imperfect than our own . The Masonio philosophy
is" Intolerance to none . Whatever form the pious rite may bear , Not ' even the poor pagan ' s homage to the sun Would I scorn , lest even there I spurned some element of Christian prayer , "
Throughout the life of tbe world , the religions of the world have failed to satisfy the craving instincts of humanity . In the fanatical blunders of men after a more perfect system , th ° y have ovor-ridden the correlative and benevolent instincts of the race , and in the end have given us too much of the isms of men , wh ' ch have sometimes proved to be only fair apples of ashes . I borrow a thought in saying ,
" What a man wnnts is a religion in which all the svstems of hnmanity may meet as in a field of the cloth of gold , to adorn it with their piety , their mysticisms , their mythology , their subtlety of thought , their splendour of ceremonial , their adaptability of progress , their elasticity of organisation , and mepting may exhaust their resources in the building of a common temple for the common good . " This is the grand philosphy of Freemasonry , which rises above
words , and grips , and signs , and makes the institution worthy the patronage of the great and good . The history of the human race has been a history of blnndprs and excesses—a history of a want of charity among men ; but it ia also a history of progress . Wo may mourn the processes through . which we have passed , yet we can bnt observe that God has turned all to good account ; He hasbnilded better than man knew , and made the wrath of man to praise Him ; and why not ?
" If plaque 3 and earthquakes break not heaven ' s design , " Why should the violent clashing of interests and opinions among men ? The blessings God sends upon men are sometimes the core of a great trouble ; what is a great mishap to a single man may be a greater blessing to millions left behind . " The spears which rushed through Arnold ' s heart "
Were thus made defenceless against the surging wave of libert y . The flood which drowns the brood of fledglings , discovers the worm to the mother . The shower which quickens the verdure of my pastnres destroys my neighbour ' s grain . In the same manner the angel which bears avvny my darling child may have foreseen her bereft of homo and friends ; the victim of want and sorrow , and in mercy
plucked the opening rose and carried it as a garland to the bronr of the All-Father . A mother sat over her darling boy and held the quickened pulse , bathed the parched lips and feverish brow , and struggled with the messenger from the spirit world . It was not in her heart to say , "Thy will be done , " but , only this , " I cannot let him go . " Death
fled without his prize , but left behind a muttering speech and idiotic face . The evils of the unseen were close at hand , the scylla of death was passed , but the charybdis of distorted lifo appenred instead . Men cannot perceive the relation of things . From the height of heaven God overlooks the landscape of earth , and what to man is hideous deformity , is to him but an excrescence in the development of the rue . A man from a mountain top vi ws the landscape ; it is
a vivid picture of beauty and harmony , but he knows that iu the valley are gnarled aud deaden trunks , scraggy under-brflsh , and stagnant pools . The ignorance aud blunders of the child are the anxiety of the mother . She notes with pleasure its development , and observes that its most painful experience , its falls , its bumps , its brnises , become its best and lasting lessons . The discipline of pain is the angel of progress . ( To be continued . )