Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Charge Delivered To The Faithful Lodge, No. 499,
A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE FAITHFUL LODGE , No . 499 ,
AT BIDEFORD , DEVON . BY JOHN WATKINS , L . L . D . and R . W . M .
BRETHREN , ON a day * of such hig h signification among Masons , and which is usually appropriated , and justly , to the most solemn celebration , and to the most important services in all their Lodges , I cannot do better , considering the province to which you have called me , than to dwell a little upon truths which constitute the essence of our Art , and thereby endeavour to excite in your minds a nobler relish for studies , which have every thing in them to recommend them to the notice of the sensible , the generous , and
the humane . Wisdom , says the wisest of sages , is the principal thing , therefore get Wisdom . A deference to his authority highly becomes ns as Masons ; even thoug h we owed no respect to his memory in any other character . But what is Wisdom f and what is it to gain Understanding ? These are questions undoubtedly of the highest conse" . Let us attend to their investigation with that attention
quence they deserve . Some have considered the great increase of Letters , and the improvement of the Arts and Sciences , but as so many steps to a greater corruption of human nature , by opening and setting in action those springs of vice which have lain dormant , or have been but partially exerted in a state of simplicity . Not to enter , however , into the merits of so complicated and
very difficult a question ; I shall , at present , confine myself to considerations of a more general . nature , and in which there cannot possibly be such a risk of deception through prejudice or malevolence . Let us fix our attention to that Wisdom only which is the ennobler of human nature , by calling forth it ' s powers into a liberal activity—that Wisdom without which we are reduced beneath a worse than even brutal depravity , and to an ignorance even below contempt .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Charge Delivered To The Faithful Lodge, No. 499,
A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE FAITHFUL LODGE , No . 499 ,
AT BIDEFORD , DEVON . BY JOHN WATKINS , L . L . D . and R . W . M .
BRETHREN , ON a day * of such hig h signification among Masons , and which is usually appropriated , and justly , to the most solemn celebration , and to the most important services in all their Lodges , I cannot do better , considering the province to which you have called me , than to dwell a little upon truths which constitute the essence of our Art , and thereby endeavour to excite in your minds a nobler relish for studies , which have every thing in them to recommend them to the notice of the sensible , the generous , and
the humane . Wisdom , says the wisest of sages , is the principal thing , therefore get Wisdom . A deference to his authority highly becomes ns as Masons ; even thoug h we owed no respect to his memory in any other character . But what is Wisdom f and what is it to gain Understanding ? These are questions undoubtedly of the highest conse" . Let us attend to their investigation with that attention
quence they deserve . Some have considered the great increase of Letters , and the improvement of the Arts and Sciences , but as so many steps to a greater corruption of human nature , by opening and setting in action those springs of vice which have lain dormant , or have been but partially exerted in a state of simplicity . Not to enter , however , into the merits of so complicated and
very difficult a question ; I shall , at present , confine myself to considerations of a more general . nature , and in which there cannot possibly be such a risk of deception through prejudice or malevolence . Let us fix our attention to that Wisdom only which is the ennobler of human nature , by calling forth it ' s powers into a liberal activity—that Wisdom without which we are reduced beneath a worse than even brutal depravity , and to an ignorance even below contempt .