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Article THE BURNING BUSH. ← Page 2 of 3 Article THE BURNING BUSH. Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Burning Bush.
crowned him king of mind , the source and treasure of tho knowledge of man . It came to a thousand singers ant ! poets , to reformers and thinkers , to philanthropists and
teachers , and the world has been lifted up ancl civilisation has moved on its splendid march , because they lived and died in the discharge of their mission for humanity .
The Burning Bnsh teaches the lesson of reverence . In the present age great forces are opposed to reverence , and hinder its culture . There is a spirit of irreverence which p laces its image and superscription on all things . Life has
a larger scope , and the means of gratifying its tastes and desires are easily within its power . Material things , the pleasures of sense seem to be the highest things , and these weaken the grasp of the mind on moral truth ancl turn the whole stream of reverence into irreverence or
indifference . There is a cherished dislike to all that would control and guide ; a freedom which in art , society , politics , morals , religion , touches the very lines of license . The old landmarks are breaking up , the tasteless waters of
old forms , old modes of thinking , old modes of working , are turned as by a powerful word into the wine of a new and more highly flavoured living and acting . Mystery is no longer the study of a refined scholarship and true
philosophy . All the . great verities are questioned , and with sandalled feet , there is the vulgar treading on and gaze into the most sacred things . A spirit of boldness , of reliance on self , a spirit of aspiration and independence
in all things , is to a large extent the spirit of the age . The moral tone of men has changed . They once had faith , and with noble , toiling hands built up ; now they lack faith , and with irreverent hands pull down . Once they
brought thought into practice , now they reduce it to false philosophy or nothing . They may have increased in knowledge , in learning , in science , but wisdom has not come with the increase , and there is too much of the
sneering spirit of the fiend Mephistopheles m them and about them . Life , courage , self-mastery , heroism , are full of faults and lack all goodness . And while in some things there is much that is noble , much that gives
a wider culture and breadth to the mind , and scopo to its achievements , still there is evil in it . The good , it is true , is daily coming more and more to light . Creation is unfolded to the eye and the mind of man . Each day is the
record of a fresh discovery and a new use of power for the wants of society . Man is receiving from science new continents with splendid possibilities , just as he received from Columbus and the great discoverers of the past new lands
on which to build nations . This wide , heaving sea of life is explored everywhere to bring gain and honour and power for human use . Common objects assume great attributes and record a thousand things for investigation ,
and serve as a stimulus to further thought . Machinery is the hand and foot of man , and its swift wheels bear man ' s inmost wishes far and wide . The round earth , the allpresent air , are filled with treasures for him to take and make his own .
But side by side with this , like the fiend in the German story , is a spirit of evil and a doubt of truth and virtue in humanity . Science claims not alone to be a means to investigate truth , but to be the very truth of truths . Reason
claims to be God and man . Life is only a process of going on , moving , acting , flowing toward some destiny by a force of its own creation . And so , reason and faith being the same , the Personality of Him that spoke in the Bush is destroyed . He is not the creator and ruler of nature and
man . Law is God and sways the world by powers that are not the outgoings of an intelligent will , but only a force self-creative and self-existent . Man is robbed of his power of will and choice . The spirit from which all this flows
insinuates by unseen but most potent force , doubt as to all things which man has decreed above him . There is through all confusion , the breaking up of that fixity of faith , that confidence in the institutions which mark the
moralit y and are the glory and strength of the highest civilisation . The intellectual strength is set in battle array against the spiritual ; strong powers are at work to deny even the claims of the human spirit over matter and to
ignore its very being . The royalties of this great human spirit are not valued and cherished as if there was something in them to reach beyond the earth . And we know that all this is opposed to the secret
feelings , those grand aspirations of our humanity . Every mode of thought which tends to weaken a belief in a God who wills and creates , every form of doubt which darkens the law of right in the soul , which undermines truth
The Burning Bush.
morality , purity , is at its foundation utterly wrong , and is antagonistic to the deepest and truest and divinest conceptions of man's inmost nature . lb needs no philosophical argument to show that it is evil in its origin , in its
issues , and destructive of all upon which society rests . It will take from the soul all its high aspirations , and give no force for real and abiding achievement , for the progress of man in the material , the mental and the spiritual . Denials
and doubts are not the things that achieve , but only aro the forerunners of darkness , evil and destruction . Doubt builds no cities , no ships , no railroads , or things of use for society or nations . Doubt only pulls down . It is not
progress , it is not freedom , it is not any great thing . This evil is potent in the world , and the age , grand as it is in the supremacy of man over nature , is largely an irreverent
ancl doubting age , and crushes out reverence as a dying superstition . And so there is needed the vision of the Burning Bush , the tender , unconsuming flame that destroys no leaf or bud on that thorn tree . There is needed the
obedient heart that yields to the voice which speaks , that turns aside with unsandalled feet to see that glorious sight . " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet , for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground . " " I am the God of thy
Father , the God of Abraham , of Isaac and of Jacob . " For so only by reverence can we truly look upon the mysteries of life , the mysteries that brood around us , and read out their true secret and find that which will help to fill the aspirations of man .
And the voice of Him who speaks to us out of that flame bush , and the vision that is revealed to us in our inmost spirit , will place all the manifold objects that are in the world in their true relations to us as regards our own
position and beliefs and the progress of humanity . Still , as of old , out of the Bush that burns , out of that sacred flame , the voice speaks to man as it spoke to Moses , and we can hide our face in token that reverence is the way to
higher revelations , to the knowledge that unfolds our work and mission in life , and that faith transformed by the nearer presence of the divine , is the most marvellous power to achieve and bring all human motives and actions to
splendid results . In an age like this , we need to be lifted out of ourselves to an ideal such as the Burning Bush can inspire . That vision at Bethel is not a thing of the vanished past , but a
reality of this great present . It shows us as it showed Moses , that God is not a material thing , that this earth on which we walk , in the possibilities it sets before us , is holy ground , and our manhood is given us to work out these
possibilities . This knowledge will open to us the ideal after which we most aspire , and lead us to higher endeavour and effort to carry to its true issues that faith in all the divine gifts which God has implanted in the soul . For
just as the nature within us grows stronger under the influence of a great ideal , or great thought , or some good thing which is ours to impart to men , so will our higher being be transformed and strengthened for larger duties
and grander results . This will be the consecration of our lives , for true and worthy efforts for ourselves and others Until our aim is lofty and our aspirations noble , we cannot
work out that mission which will change the world , and send forces into the wider or narrower circle of society and Masonry , a glory ancl a power , not to die , but to live with the ages .
In our life ' s work there will be a Burning Bush , if only we open our eyes to see , and our ears to hear the voice that speaks to us . Whatever our work , whether it is great or small , it can take to itself attributes of dignity and
power . If only we make it a work for Him who speaks to us , a true work for ourselves and society , there will be a force borne in upon it that will transform it . We become strong by working towards the grand ideals which may be
every man ' s , by working for humanity . Again and again we must go to Horeb that we may reflect and see , that we may hear the voice that is lost in the noise and manifold sounds of this busy world . We shall catch gleams of
power to quicken our powers , and feel a new strength to make our work a larger influence ancl a blessing , even a Burning Bush on which others may work and be strong . For this is the law of our being , that we grow like that on
which , in our moral and mental nature , we feed . As we look to Him who speaks out of the Bnsh , we shall grow more and more like Him . He shall be revealed to us as we learn more truly to see Him by our cleansed spiritual nature . We shall find that He is the revelation of all—¦ that mystery we call life . Too often we walk as in a
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Burning Bush.
crowned him king of mind , the source and treasure of tho knowledge of man . It came to a thousand singers ant ! poets , to reformers and thinkers , to philanthropists and
teachers , and the world has been lifted up ancl civilisation has moved on its splendid march , because they lived and died in the discharge of their mission for humanity .
The Burning Bnsh teaches the lesson of reverence . In the present age great forces are opposed to reverence , and hinder its culture . There is a spirit of irreverence which p laces its image and superscription on all things . Life has
a larger scope , and the means of gratifying its tastes and desires are easily within its power . Material things , the pleasures of sense seem to be the highest things , and these weaken the grasp of the mind on moral truth ancl turn the whole stream of reverence into irreverence or
indifference . There is a cherished dislike to all that would control and guide ; a freedom which in art , society , politics , morals , religion , touches the very lines of license . The old landmarks are breaking up , the tasteless waters of
old forms , old modes of thinking , old modes of working , are turned as by a powerful word into the wine of a new and more highly flavoured living and acting . Mystery is no longer the study of a refined scholarship and true
philosophy . All the . great verities are questioned , and with sandalled feet , there is the vulgar treading on and gaze into the most sacred things . A spirit of boldness , of reliance on self , a spirit of aspiration and independence
in all things , is to a large extent the spirit of the age . The moral tone of men has changed . They once had faith , and with noble , toiling hands built up ; now they lack faith , and with irreverent hands pull down . Once they
brought thought into practice , now they reduce it to false philosophy or nothing . They may have increased in knowledge , in learning , in science , but wisdom has not come with the increase , and there is too much of the
sneering spirit of the fiend Mephistopheles m them and about them . Life , courage , self-mastery , heroism , are full of faults and lack all goodness . And while in some things there is much that is noble , much that gives
a wider culture and breadth to the mind , and scopo to its achievements , still there is evil in it . The good , it is true , is daily coming more and more to light . Creation is unfolded to the eye and the mind of man . Each day is the
record of a fresh discovery and a new use of power for the wants of society . Man is receiving from science new continents with splendid possibilities , just as he received from Columbus and the great discoverers of the past new lands
on which to build nations . This wide , heaving sea of life is explored everywhere to bring gain and honour and power for human use . Common objects assume great attributes and record a thousand things for investigation ,
and serve as a stimulus to further thought . Machinery is the hand and foot of man , and its swift wheels bear man ' s inmost wishes far and wide . The round earth , the allpresent air , are filled with treasures for him to take and make his own .
But side by side with this , like the fiend in the German story , is a spirit of evil and a doubt of truth and virtue in humanity . Science claims not alone to be a means to investigate truth , but to be the very truth of truths . Reason
claims to be God and man . Life is only a process of going on , moving , acting , flowing toward some destiny by a force of its own creation . And so , reason and faith being the same , the Personality of Him that spoke in the Bush is destroyed . He is not the creator and ruler of nature and
man . Law is God and sways the world by powers that are not the outgoings of an intelligent will , but only a force self-creative and self-existent . Man is robbed of his power of will and choice . The spirit from which all this flows
insinuates by unseen but most potent force , doubt as to all things which man has decreed above him . There is through all confusion , the breaking up of that fixity of faith , that confidence in the institutions which mark the
moralit y and are the glory and strength of the highest civilisation . The intellectual strength is set in battle array against the spiritual ; strong powers are at work to deny even the claims of the human spirit over matter and to
ignore its very being . The royalties of this great human spirit are not valued and cherished as if there was something in them to reach beyond the earth . And we know that all this is opposed to the secret
feelings , those grand aspirations of our humanity . Every mode of thought which tends to weaken a belief in a God who wills and creates , every form of doubt which darkens the law of right in the soul , which undermines truth
The Burning Bush.
morality , purity , is at its foundation utterly wrong , and is antagonistic to the deepest and truest and divinest conceptions of man's inmost nature . lb needs no philosophical argument to show that it is evil in its origin , in its
issues , and destructive of all upon which society rests . It will take from the soul all its high aspirations , and give no force for real and abiding achievement , for the progress of man in the material , the mental and the spiritual . Denials
and doubts are not the things that achieve , but only aro the forerunners of darkness , evil and destruction . Doubt builds no cities , no ships , no railroads , or things of use for society or nations . Doubt only pulls down . It is not
progress , it is not freedom , it is not any great thing . This evil is potent in the world , and the age , grand as it is in the supremacy of man over nature , is largely an irreverent
ancl doubting age , and crushes out reverence as a dying superstition . And so there is needed the vision of the Burning Bush , the tender , unconsuming flame that destroys no leaf or bud on that thorn tree . There is needed the
obedient heart that yields to the voice which speaks , that turns aside with unsandalled feet to see that glorious sight . " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet , for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground . " " I am the God of thy
Father , the God of Abraham , of Isaac and of Jacob . " For so only by reverence can we truly look upon the mysteries of life , the mysteries that brood around us , and read out their true secret and find that which will help to fill the aspirations of man .
And the voice of Him who speaks to us out of that flame bush , and the vision that is revealed to us in our inmost spirit , will place all the manifold objects that are in the world in their true relations to us as regards our own
position and beliefs and the progress of humanity . Still , as of old , out of the Bush that burns , out of that sacred flame , the voice speaks to man as it spoke to Moses , and we can hide our face in token that reverence is the way to
higher revelations , to the knowledge that unfolds our work and mission in life , and that faith transformed by the nearer presence of the divine , is the most marvellous power to achieve and bring all human motives and actions to
splendid results . In an age like this , we need to be lifted out of ourselves to an ideal such as the Burning Bush can inspire . That vision at Bethel is not a thing of the vanished past , but a
reality of this great present . It shows us as it showed Moses , that God is not a material thing , that this earth on which we walk , in the possibilities it sets before us , is holy ground , and our manhood is given us to work out these
possibilities . This knowledge will open to us the ideal after which we most aspire , and lead us to higher endeavour and effort to carry to its true issues that faith in all the divine gifts which God has implanted in the soul . For
just as the nature within us grows stronger under the influence of a great ideal , or great thought , or some good thing which is ours to impart to men , so will our higher being be transformed and strengthened for larger duties
and grander results . This will be the consecration of our lives , for true and worthy efforts for ourselves and others Until our aim is lofty and our aspirations noble , we cannot
work out that mission which will change the world , and send forces into the wider or narrower circle of society and Masonry , a glory ancl a power , not to die , but to live with the ages .
In our life ' s work there will be a Burning Bush , if only we open our eyes to see , and our ears to hear the voice that speaks to us . Whatever our work , whether it is great or small , it can take to itself attributes of dignity and
power . If only we make it a work for Him who speaks to us , a true work for ourselves and society , there will be a force borne in upon it that will transform it . We become strong by working towards the grand ideals which may be
every man ' s , by working for humanity . Again and again we must go to Horeb that we may reflect and see , that we may hear the voice that is lost in the noise and manifold sounds of this busy world . We shall catch gleams of
power to quicken our powers , and feel a new strength to make our work a larger influence ancl a blessing , even a Burning Bush on which others may work and be strong . For this is the law of our being , that we grow like that on
which , in our moral and mental nature , we feed . As we look to Him who speaks out of the Bnsh , we shall grow more and more like Him . He shall be revealed to us as we learn more truly to see Him by our cleansed spiritual nature . We shall find that He is the revelation of all—¦ that mystery we call life . Too often we walk as in a