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Article MASONIC DIDACTICS; ← Page 3 of 3
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Masonic Didactics;
influence to the tantalising elusion of some tormenting fiend , who , in the tales of fiction , hurries on his eager victim through a labyrinth of odoriferous shrubs and fairy scenes , seductive to the senses and fascinating to the imagination , till suddenly emerging upon the brink of a frightful precipice , he leaves him no resource , but , either to plunge headlong into crimes and scenes of a darker hue , or abandon the path he has been lately treading with such delusive rapture and
self-abandonment to every call of duty and morality . However mortifying the reflection , a self-accusing conscience , which is ever at work in the civilised and not utterly depraved , will do its honest and resolute work . It will attain the ascendancy over the corrupt affections of our evil nature , despite all efforts to silence its reproofs . It will tell us what is right , although we are persisting in doing wrong . And , therefore , though man be obstinate in committing an offence against religion ,
reason , and nature , he stands a self-condemned culprit before the bar of his own conscience , which will be to him the " worm that never dieth , and the fire that is unquenchable . " No human being is or can be perfect now while tabernacling this " vale of tears . " Vitium sequimur , virtutem fugimus , such is the moral blindness of man . But we may learn to discriminate between what is lawful and what is expedient , striving to better our species by each avoiding that which is evil , and doing that which is well .
IMPORTANCE OP RELIGION TO SOCIETY . — " Few men suspect , perhaps no man comprehends the extent of the support given by religion to the virtues of ordinary life . No man . perhaps , is aware how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain ; how powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God ; how palsied would benevolence be , were there not the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it ; how suddenly the whole social fabric would
quake , and with what a fearful crash it would sink into hopeless ruins , were the ideas of a Supreme Being , of accountableness , and of a future life , to be utterly erased from every mind . Once let men thoroughly believe that they are the work and support of chance , that no superior intelligence concerns itself with human affairs , that all their improvements perish for ever at death ; that the weak have no guardian , and the injured no avenger ; that there is no recompense for sacrifices to
uprightness and the public good ; that an oath is unheard in Heaven ; that secret crimes have no witness but the perpetrator ; that human existence has no purpose , and human virtue no unfailing friend ; that this brief life is every thing to us , and death is total everlasting extinction * , once let men thoroughly abandon religion , and who can conceive or describe the extent of the desolation which would follow ? We hope , perhaps , that human laws and natural sympathy would hold society together . As reasonably might we believe , that were the sun quenched in the Heavens , our torches could illuminate , and our fires quicken and fertilize the earth . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics;
influence to the tantalising elusion of some tormenting fiend , who , in the tales of fiction , hurries on his eager victim through a labyrinth of odoriferous shrubs and fairy scenes , seductive to the senses and fascinating to the imagination , till suddenly emerging upon the brink of a frightful precipice , he leaves him no resource , but , either to plunge headlong into crimes and scenes of a darker hue , or abandon the path he has been lately treading with such delusive rapture and
self-abandonment to every call of duty and morality . However mortifying the reflection , a self-accusing conscience , which is ever at work in the civilised and not utterly depraved , will do its honest and resolute work . It will attain the ascendancy over the corrupt affections of our evil nature , despite all efforts to silence its reproofs . It will tell us what is right , although we are persisting in doing wrong . And , therefore , though man be obstinate in committing an offence against religion ,
reason , and nature , he stands a self-condemned culprit before the bar of his own conscience , which will be to him the " worm that never dieth , and the fire that is unquenchable . " No human being is or can be perfect now while tabernacling this " vale of tears . " Vitium sequimur , virtutem fugimus , such is the moral blindness of man . But we may learn to discriminate between what is lawful and what is expedient , striving to better our species by each avoiding that which is evil , and doing that which is well .
IMPORTANCE OP RELIGION TO SOCIETY . — " Few men suspect , perhaps no man comprehends the extent of the support given by religion to the virtues of ordinary life . No man . perhaps , is aware how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain ; how powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God ; how palsied would benevolence be , were there not the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it ; how suddenly the whole social fabric would
quake , and with what a fearful crash it would sink into hopeless ruins , were the ideas of a Supreme Being , of accountableness , and of a future life , to be utterly erased from every mind . Once let men thoroughly believe that they are the work and support of chance , that no superior intelligence concerns itself with human affairs , that all their improvements perish for ever at death ; that the weak have no guardian , and the injured no avenger ; that there is no recompense for sacrifices to
uprightness and the public good ; that an oath is unheard in Heaven ; that secret crimes have no witness but the perpetrator ; that human existence has no purpose , and human virtue no unfailing friend ; that this brief life is every thing to us , and death is total everlasting extinction * , once let men thoroughly abandon religion , and who can conceive or describe the extent of the desolation which would follow ? We hope , perhaps , that human laws and natural sympathy would hold society together . As reasonably might we believe , that were the sun quenched in the Heavens , our torches could illuminate , and our fires quicken and fertilize the earth . "