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Article FREEMASONRY IN GIBRALTAR. ← Page 2 of 5 →
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Freemasonry In Gibraltar.
rare that the merits of those who receive them will stand the test of any other than a very friendly and partial scrutiny . As regards the first , it does not become me to say more of our motives than to assure you , that they consist in a grateful belief in the second , and in your righ t to receive an offering of thankfulness at our hands . Of your solid title to our gratitude it may not , perhaps , be thought inappropriate if I say a very
' On your arrival amongst us , you found us a Lodge not wholly undeserving of yom- care as our Chaplain ; but still—my Brethren will pardon me if I speak plainly—unlearned in the science of our Craft ; a Lodge m winch kindl y feeling and brotherly harmony existed , but in which there was no one to instruct the rest in the higher and more abstruse mysteries of Freemasonry . I am quite sure , Sir , that there are many around me to whom , as to me , your lectures opened an untrodden heldwho taught b to set value
; were y you a new on Freemasonry , as disclosing to them a hidden inlet to the deep things of olden time and presenting them , as it were , with a key to the cypher in which the lore of former ages were concealed from vulgar sight . Had your precepts and instructions , however , been confined to a mere lettered insight into our Craft , it might have rendered us wiser , but it would not have left us better . You , however , went further , and showed us how little connexion there was between Freemasonry and convivial meetings ; and how opposed our Craft is to sensual intemperance . This refined as wpll
as instructed us , and we have had the still further advantage of seeing your lectures carried out in your practice , and your precepts confirmed by your example . Neither have your instructions been confined to your Masonic lectures , nor your precepts limited to the Brethren of a Lodge . We have found in you a zealous defender of our society abroad nor has any one either ridiculed or reviled our Craft in your presence without convincing answer or grave rebuke . ' " Your zeal in our common has not been exerted in
cause ordinary social intercourse alone : even in the church we have heard you uphold and defend our Order , while you explained the prophecies and doctrines of the Bible ; and many is the sentence which has fallen from your lips in the pulpit , which , while it caused respect and admiration in the uninitiated , warmed the heart of a Mason towards his Brother Mason . " In the peace and quietness which this community has until latelv
enjoyed , mere lias been scarcely an occasion on which you could step forward as a defender of an injured Freemason ; but very lately such an occasion did occur . " A poor , but respectable Roman Catholic , was refused the common act of humanity—Christian burial—because he was a Freemason ! and his corpse was insultingly ordered to be taken out of the Roman Catholic church as a contamination to the holy place . This insult , offered to an ancient and respectable the
society , through unresisting medium of a poor man ' s corpse , you , Sir , avenged , in a manner which did honour to your feehngs as a man , and to your principles as a Christian pastor—in a manner , of which we all as Freemasons , whether Catholic or Protestant , have great reason to be proud . You voluntarily rendered to the deceased , a stranger to your religious community , the rites which his own church had refused him ; and while , on the one side , he was rejected by his own prelate because he happened to belong to us ; on the other side , you performed for him those sacred offices to which he had no
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasonry In Gibraltar.
rare that the merits of those who receive them will stand the test of any other than a very friendly and partial scrutiny . As regards the first , it does not become me to say more of our motives than to assure you , that they consist in a grateful belief in the second , and in your righ t to receive an offering of thankfulness at our hands . Of your solid title to our gratitude it may not , perhaps , be thought inappropriate if I say a very
' On your arrival amongst us , you found us a Lodge not wholly undeserving of yom- care as our Chaplain ; but still—my Brethren will pardon me if I speak plainly—unlearned in the science of our Craft ; a Lodge m winch kindl y feeling and brotherly harmony existed , but in which there was no one to instruct the rest in the higher and more abstruse mysteries of Freemasonry . I am quite sure , Sir , that there are many around me to whom , as to me , your lectures opened an untrodden heldwho taught b to set value
; were y you a new on Freemasonry , as disclosing to them a hidden inlet to the deep things of olden time and presenting them , as it were , with a key to the cypher in which the lore of former ages were concealed from vulgar sight . Had your precepts and instructions , however , been confined to a mere lettered insight into our Craft , it might have rendered us wiser , but it would not have left us better . You , however , went further , and showed us how little connexion there was between Freemasonry and convivial meetings ; and how opposed our Craft is to sensual intemperance . This refined as wpll
as instructed us , and we have had the still further advantage of seeing your lectures carried out in your practice , and your precepts confirmed by your example . Neither have your instructions been confined to your Masonic lectures , nor your precepts limited to the Brethren of a Lodge . We have found in you a zealous defender of our society abroad nor has any one either ridiculed or reviled our Craft in your presence without convincing answer or grave rebuke . ' " Your zeal in our common has not been exerted in
cause ordinary social intercourse alone : even in the church we have heard you uphold and defend our Order , while you explained the prophecies and doctrines of the Bible ; and many is the sentence which has fallen from your lips in the pulpit , which , while it caused respect and admiration in the uninitiated , warmed the heart of a Mason towards his Brother Mason . " In the peace and quietness which this community has until latelv
enjoyed , mere lias been scarcely an occasion on which you could step forward as a defender of an injured Freemason ; but very lately such an occasion did occur . " A poor , but respectable Roman Catholic , was refused the common act of humanity—Christian burial—because he was a Freemason ! and his corpse was insultingly ordered to be taken out of the Roman Catholic church as a contamination to the holy place . This insult , offered to an ancient and respectable the
society , through unresisting medium of a poor man ' s corpse , you , Sir , avenged , in a manner which did honour to your feehngs as a man , and to your principles as a Christian pastor—in a manner , of which we all as Freemasons , whether Catholic or Protestant , have great reason to be proud . You voluntarily rendered to the deceased , a stranger to your religious community , the rites which his own church had refused him ; and while , on the one side , he was rejected by his own prelate because he happened to belong to us ; on the other side , you performed for him those sacred offices to which he had no