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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. ← Page 6 of 6
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The Freemasons' Repository.
mantled the light to shine out of darkness , hath shined m your hearts to o-ive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ . 't It is the Word of the Gospel , which is . best able to build you up ; to cement and join you together as Christians and masonic brethren ; to strengthen and increase in you the knowledge of God , and of spiritual things ; to confirm and establish your confidence in the Divine promisesand to purify and refine the love of
, God and . your fellow creatures . It is by the sacred contents of your Bible , that your faith must be regulated ; it is in the Bible that you must look for the objects of your Plope . There also you will find the most transcendent instances of Charity ; the brig htest examples to animate your zeal , and the strongest inducements to the practice of thisand even- other virtue . I must repeat it—JESUS CHRIST IS THE
, FOUNDATION . " Other foundation can no man lay . " And these three leading graces of his religion—faith , hope , and charity—are the keystone oi ' that spiritual fabric , whose maker and builder ( with the willing co-operation of his free , rational creatures ) is God . 'AsFaitb is the measure of ourfear and love ofthe Supreme Being ; as Hope exercises itself in the confident expectation of the promised
rewards of well doing in a . future state ; so Charity is that virtue and disposition of the soul , by which we afford the best possible proof ofthe sincerity of all our religious professions , in an affectionate , tender , and lively . solicitude for the comfort and happiness of our species . " If any man say , I love God , and hateth his brother , he is a liar . " ! And it is emphatically said of all those , who gladly contribute to the
wants and necessities of the poor , that in so doing they lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come . ' § ' Carefully tile your hearts , then , to the utter exclusion of that crowd of rude and boisterous assailants , which is ever pressing upon yon . Hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , envyings , drunkenness , revellings—the } ' must all be ever peremptorily repelled , and rejected . In society like this , ye-can in no wise obtain " an inheritance with all them that are sanctified . " Your
associates , your inmates must be love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , goodness , faith , meekness , temperance . These , and such as these , can alone introduce you into those blissful mansions—into that heavenly lodge , towards which we anxiously look with meek and steady eye ; where the Almighty himself eternally sits as Grand Master ; and for admission into which , were it not for the light of the glorious gospel of Christ that hath shone upon us ( thanks be to God for his boundless mercies !) we—brothers , free and accepted masons , Were but poor , bewildered , blind candidates . *
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
mantled the light to shine out of darkness , hath shined m your hearts to o-ive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ . 't It is the Word of the Gospel , which is . best able to build you up ; to cement and join you together as Christians and masonic brethren ; to strengthen and increase in you the knowledge of God , and of spiritual things ; to confirm and establish your confidence in the Divine promisesand to purify and refine the love of
, God and . your fellow creatures . It is by the sacred contents of your Bible , that your faith must be regulated ; it is in the Bible that you must look for the objects of your Plope . There also you will find the most transcendent instances of Charity ; the brig htest examples to animate your zeal , and the strongest inducements to the practice of thisand even- other virtue . I must repeat it—JESUS CHRIST IS THE
, FOUNDATION . " Other foundation can no man lay . " And these three leading graces of his religion—faith , hope , and charity—are the keystone oi ' that spiritual fabric , whose maker and builder ( with the willing co-operation of his free , rational creatures ) is God . 'AsFaitb is the measure of ourfear and love ofthe Supreme Being ; as Hope exercises itself in the confident expectation of the promised
rewards of well doing in a . future state ; so Charity is that virtue and disposition of the soul , by which we afford the best possible proof ofthe sincerity of all our religious professions , in an affectionate , tender , and lively . solicitude for the comfort and happiness of our species . " If any man say , I love God , and hateth his brother , he is a liar . " ! And it is emphatically said of all those , who gladly contribute to the
wants and necessities of the poor , that in so doing they lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come . ' § ' Carefully tile your hearts , then , to the utter exclusion of that crowd of rude and boisterous assailants , which is ever pressing upon yon . Hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , envyings , drunkenness , revellings—the } ' must all be ever peremptorily repelled , and rejected . In society like this , ye-can in no wise obtain " an inheritance with all them that are sanctified . " Your
associates , your inmates must be love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , goodness , faith , meekness , temperance . These , and such as these , can alone introduce you into those blissful mansions—into that heavenly lodge , towards which we anxiously look with meek and steady eye ; where the Almighty himself eternally sits as Grand Master ; and for admission into which , were it not for the light of the glorious gospel of Christ that hath shone upon us ( thanks be to God for his boundless mercies !) we—brothers , free and accepted masons , Were but poor , bewildered , blind candidates . *