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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 9 →
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On Freemasonry.
tevprise of man , aided by the li g ht of science , should lay bare her mi ghty womb . How vast had been the crimes o ' f the past world ! how sad its desolation !—With a humbled heart and chastened spirit , Noah erected his rude altar at the foot of Ararat , and offered sacrifice to the Creator and Preserver , of every clean creatureboth of earth ancl air .
, Perfected in the glorious science of Masonry , and the arts necessary for human civilization which it embraced , Noah , with his family , erected the first city after the flood , called by Josephus , who speaks of it as existing in his time , A . m ^ a .-ritfin ; which signifies the place ofthe descent . Ptolemy calls it Naxuana . Here the mysteries of the Craft were
exercised ; and the crude g ifts of nature , the stone and ductile metal , fashioned b y the skilful mason ' s hand into the means of shelter from the inclemency of the storm , and implements of agriculture for their " mutal support . Here God made his first covenant with Noah , that b y water he would never more destroy the world ; and laced
p his bow in the heavens in token of the inviolability of his promise . This solemn pledge and the preservation of the great father of mankind are still commemorated and moralized in certain degrees and ceremonies of the Masonic order .
Regardless of the awful judgment they had witnessed , Ham and his descendants , in whom the evil princi ple prevailed , fell from the worshi p of that God , by whose mercy they had been preserved amid the destruction of mankind : their unnatural conduct and hideous vices called down upon him and his descendants the prophetic curse of
Noah—" and he said , cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren . " Gen . ch . ix . v . 25 . Canaan , the name of the son of Ham , is here used to show that the curse should descend , and be fulfilled in his posterity , which has been accomplished to the very letter ; for the Canaanites were driven forthand treated as slaves b
, y the descendants" of Shem , who , under their Grand Master Joshua , took possession of the promised land . The Syrians were destroyed by the victorious Alexander , a descendant of Japheth , and the Carthaginians vanquished by the legions of Rome . The vast continent of Africa , peopled by the idolatrous descendants of Ham , is still the nursery of slaves ,
and the effect of Noah ' s curse visible even at the present hour . Driven forth by the patriarch's malediction , Ham and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
tevprise of man , aided by the li g ht of science , should lay bare her mi ghty womb . How vast had been the crimes o ' f the past world ! how sad its desolation !—With a humbled heart and chastened spirit , Noah erected his rude altar at the foot of Ararat , and offered sacrifice to the Creator and Preserver , of every clean creatureboth of earth ancl air .
, Perfected in the glorious science of Masonry , and the arts necessary for human civilization which it embraced , Noah , with his family , erected the first city after the flood , called by Josephus , who speaks of it as existing in his time , A . m ^ a .-ritfin ; which signifies the place ofthe descent . Ptolemy calls it Naxuana . Here the mysteries of the Craft were
exercised ; and the crude g ifts of nature , the stone and ductile metal , fashioned b y the skilful mason ' s hand into the means of shelter from the inclemency of the storm , and implements of agriculture for their " mutal support . Here God made his first covenant with Noah , that b y water he would never more destroy the world ; and laced
p his bow in the heavens in token of the inviolability of his promise . This solemn pledge and the preservation of the great father of mankind are still commemorated and moralized in certain degrees and ceremonies of the Masonic order .
Regardless of the awful judgment they had witnessed , Ham and his descendants , in whom the evil princi ple prevailed , fell from the worshi p of that God , by whose mercy they had been preserved amid the destruction of mankind : their unnatural conduct and hideous vices called down upon him and his descendants the prophetic curse of
Noah—" and he said , cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren . " Gen . ch . ix . v . 25 . Canaan , the name of the son of Ham , is here used to show that the curse should descend , and be fulfilled in his posterity , which has been accomplished to the very letter ; for the Canaanites were driven forthand treated as slaves b
, y the descendants" of Shem , who , under their Grand Master Joshua , took possession of the promised land . The Syrians were destroyed by the victorious Alexander , a descendant of Japheth , and the Carthaginians vanquished by the legions of Rome . The vast continent of Africa , peopled by the idolatrous descendants of Ham , is still the nursery of slaves ,
and the effect of Noah ' s curse visible even at the present hour . Driven forth by the patriarch's malediction , Ham and