Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Part Of A Charge Lately Delivered To A Society Of Free Masons On An Extraordinary Occasion*.
The country where we dwell in security calls aloud for our ardent love and active support . If it gives us consequence by a powerful and illustrious patronage , we have still a further obligation to loyalty . To prove this , a simple observation will suffice . Our meetings could not be held were they to be open to indiscriminate inquiry and impertinent curiosity . Secrecy is their very essential princi ple . That
government therefore which permits those meetings must have a confidence in them , that nothing passes therein offensive to reli g ion , to good manners , or . that tends to weaken the pillars of the state . On this ground then , if from no better motives , the fathers of the order expressly banished by their laws all political questions from masonic assemblies . Butnot content with this kind of obediencethe order goes farther
, , , and enjoins the most active loyalty on all its members . This is kept alive . not only in the sentiments that prevail , but in the signs that are practised among us . Disobedience is represented throughout all the gradations of the institution under such forcible marks of condemnation , and in such lively expressions , that a man who loses sight of its turpitude becomes an apostate in the instant , and is odious in
the sight of God and man . When I consider to what we have devoted ourselves , and how peculiarly strong the bond of social duty presses upon us by our voluntary and generous engagements , 1 confess that my soul trembles at the idea of verging beyond the bounds of that liberty and indulgence which wisdom has marked out for us . Are we not Masons ? Then let us carefully keep within the circle
of temperance and peace ! Little should we deserve the name of the sons of Peace , if we violated our allegiance as subjects : much less should we merit the protection of the Legislature , if we gave the slightest encouragement to machinations against the national tranquillity , or to the poisonous breath of seditious calumny . Plots and conspiracies are as unfitting and as detestable among men
connected and engaged as we are , as they are among those who are devoted to the pure service of the altar itself . Have we not stood forth as in the presence of the supreme Architect , and have we not taken upon ourselves a willing engagement to . labour in his temple , to the advancement of universal happiness ? Will not this fall on our heads as an insupportable condemnation ,
¦ if we fly from our vows , and endeavour to destroy any part of that Temple , by adding to the miseries of our fellow creatures , in giving encouragement to sacrilege and rebellion ? On the contrary , let everyone remember carefully his station , and that it is his indispensible duty , as a good man and true , to be active in the maintenance of peace and good order .
And when attempts are made to destroy the national tranquillity , it then behoves us to go still farther , and even to set our faces with a zealous warmth against those who are so nefariously corrupt as to . endeavour the destruction of government . We should , in such a case , be the lively copyists of those loyal and religious rebuiklers of the temple , who , when their rebellious and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Part Of A Charge Lately Delivered To A Society Of Free Masons On An Extraordinary Occasion*.
The country where we dwell in security calls aloud for our ardent love and active support . If it gives us consequence by a powerful and illustrious patronage , we have still a further obligation to loyalty . To prove this , a simple observation will suffice . Our meetings could not be held were they to be open to indiscriminate inquiry and impertinent curiosity . Secrecy is their very essential princi ple . That
government therefore which permits those meetings must have a confidence in them , that nothing passes therein offensive to reli g ion , to good manners , or . that tends to weaken the pillars of the state . On this ground then , if from no better motives , the fathers of the order expressly banished by their laws all political questions from masonic assemblies . Butnot content with this kind of obediencethe order goes farther
, , , and enjoins the most active loyalty on all its members . This is kept alive . not only in the sentiments that prevail , but in the signs that are practised among us . Disobedience is represented throughout all the gradations of the institution under such forcible marks of condemnation , and in such lively expressions , that a man who loses sight of its turpitude becomes an apostate in the instant , and is odious in
the sight of God and man . When I consider to what we have devoted ourselves , and how peculiarly strong the bond of social duty presses upon us by our voluntary and generous engagements , 1 confess that my soul trembles at the idea of verging beyond the bounds of that liberty and indulgence which wisdom has marked out for us . Are we not Masons ? Then let us carefully keep within the circle
of temperance and peace ! Little should we deserve the name of the sons of Peace , if we violated our allegiance as subjects : much less should we merit the protection of the Legislature , if we gave the slightest encouragement to machinations against the national tranquillity , or to the poisonous breath of seditious calumny . Plots and conspiracies are as unfitting and as detestable among men
connected and engaged as we are , as they are among those who are devoted to the pure service of the altar itself . Have we not stood forth as in the presence of the supreme Architect , and have we not taken upon ourselves a willing engagement to . labour in his temple , to the advancement of universal happiness ? Will not this fall on our heads as an insupportable condemnation ,
¦ if we fly from our vows , and endeavour to destroy any part of that Temple , by adding to the miseries of our fellow creatures , in giving encouragement to sacrilege and rebellion ? On the contrary , let everyone remember carefully his station , and that it is his indispensible duty , as a good man and true , to be active in the maintenance of peace and good order .
And when attempts are made to destroy the national tranquillity , it then behoves us to go still farther , and even to set our faces with a zealous warmth against those who are so nefariously corrupt as to . endeavour the destruction of government . We should , in such a case , be the lively copyists of those loyal and religious rebuiklers of the temple , who , when their rebellious and