-
Articles/Ads
Article TREVILIAN ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 33 of 34 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
lisation . Such being the case , an argument is furnished in its favour , far stronger than any which language can enforce , or the most able pleader urge . We have , therefore , now only to deal with the question as to whether or not Major Trevilian has succeeded in affixing to Masonry that stigma which he woidd fain make the world believe ought to attach to itfor if it can be established that Freemasonry
; necessarily leads to Deism , or even if there be the slightest ground for supposing that anything connected with it has that tendency , there can be but one opinion as to the treatment it ought to receive at the hands of all Christian men . As for Major Trevilian's personal knowledge upon the subject , that goes absolutely for nothing ; for , with the exception of one solitary instance , and that an occasion
when he could observe but very little , he never crossed the threshhold of a loclge . Failing then to support his case , so far as himself is concerned , he enlists the opinion of others : here , again , he is at fault , for he cannot make it appear that those are one iota further advanced in Masonic knowledge than himself . He laid great stress upon a letter from the Very Reverend the Dean of Exeterwritten
, in August last , after a perusal of the work to which we have just alluded , and quoted an extract from that letter which , taken by itself , would lead to the inference that the Dean was convinced of the correctness of the position , taken by the Major . Mr . Moore , however , is too old a controvertialist to be entrapped after that
fashion , and in a letter addressed to one of our contemporaries , on the 11 th ult ., he called upon the writer to publish the whole letter , expressing an opinion that "few would be surprised to find the quoted opinion materially modified by the suppressed context . " Major Trevilian could not escape from this challenge ; ancl , therefore , we find in the Gazette , of last week , the entire letter , from which we make the following extract : —
" If the society consisted exclusively of men who called themselves Christians , the profession of Freemasonry would , in my judgment , be setting up a law of man above the law of God , and be a virtual abandonment of Christianity as a rule of life . But , consisting , as it docs , of men who profess every conceivable diversity of religious opinionI can well understand that menwho make the Gospel their
, , rule of life , may bring themselves to approve of the institution of Freemasonry , on the ground that it serves to bind together those who have no other bond of union , and to enforce the practice of universal benevolence on those whose differences of religious opinion would make them regard one another as enemies , and not as brothers . Leaving the Jew and the Samaritan to hold their peculiar
opinions , they may think it a point worth gaining to bring them into a society which obliges them to lay aside their enmity , and to do good to one another . As I am sure that there are among the Freemasons many very good Christians , I suppose that they must argue in some such way as this . Ancl , therefore , —though for the reasons which I have assigned , ancl for others which I need not VOL . i . v
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
lisation . Such being the case , an argument is furnished in its favour , far stronger than any which language can enforce , or the most able pleader urge . We have , therefore , now only to deal with the question as to whether or not Major Trevilian has succeeded in affixing to Masonry that stigma which he woidd fain make the world believe ought to attach to itfor if it can be established that Freemasonry
; necessarily leads to Deism , or even if there be the slightest ground for supposing that anything connected with it has that tendency , there can be but one opinion as to the treatment it ought to receive at the hands of all Christian men . As for Major Trevilian's personal knowledge upon the subject , that goes absolutely for nothing ; for , with the exception of one solitary instance , and that an occasion
when he could observe but very little , he never crossed the threshhold of a loclge . Failing then to support his case , so far as himself is concerned , he enlists the opinion of others : here , again , he is at fault , for he cannot make it appear that those are one iota further advanced in Masonic knowledge than himself . He laid great stress upon a letter from the Very Reverend the Dean of Exeterwritten
, in August last , after a perusal of the work to which we have just alluded , and quoted an extract from that letter which , taken by itself , would lead to the inference that the Dean was convinced of the correctness of the position , taken by the Major . Mr . Moore , however , is too old a controvertialist to be entrapped after that
fashion , and in a letter addressed to one of our contemporaries , on the 11 th ult ., he called upon the writer to publish the whole letter , expressing an opinion that "few would be surprised to find the quoted opinion materially modified by the suppressed context . " Major Trevilian could not escape from this challenge ; ancl , therefore , we find in the Gazette , of last week , the entire letter , from which we make the following extract : —
" If the society consisted exclusively of men who called themselves Christians , the profession of Freemasonry would , in my judgment , be setting up a law of man above the law of God , and be a virtual abandonment of Christianity as a rule of life . But , consisting , as it docs , of men who profess every conceivable diversity of religious opinionI can well understand that menwho make the Gospel their
, , rule of life , may bring themselves to approve of the institution of Freemasonry , on the ground that it serves to bind together those who have no other bond of union , and to enforce the practice of universal benevolence on those whose differences of religious opinion would make them regard one another as enemies , and not as brothers . Leaving the Jew and the Samaritan to hold their peculiar
opinions , they may think it a point worth gaining to bring them into a society which obliges them to lay aside their enmity , and to do good to one another . As I am sure that there are among the Freemasons many very good Christians , I suppose that they must argue in some such way as this . Ancl , therefore , —though for the reasons which I have assigned , ancl for others which I need not VOL . i . v