Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Brief Analysis Of A Few Points Advanced In A Late Attack Upon Freemasonry.*
A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF A FEW POINTS ADVANCED IN A LATE ATTACK UPON FREEMASONRY . *
" UolUouas e ' . vasle as ice , as y-ure as snow , thou Shalt not escape calumny . " Sn . VKsi'i-: iti .: . To mercilessly attack a person who , from peculiar circumstances , is unable to defend himself from the violence , is a thing so dastardly , as to be stamped with the universal detestation of mankind . Of a piece with it is the calumny thrown upon Masonry by many who arc fully aware that the Brethren are bound by their obligation to a secrecy which
would be broken were they to attempt to disprove the slander which is thrown upon their doctrines ; a slander not fixed upon them with even the semblance of justice , but hurled with blind and bigoted fury against a system of which the slanderers know nothing , and can have , therefore , no just grounds for either praise or censure . I am sure that no man , endowed with that beautiful charity so eloquently dilated upon by St . Paul could , or would , raise his voice against the internals of a
systemof which he is ignorant—whose externals all must acknowledge to be founded upon the plain and evident will of God , as revealed in His Hol y Word . " Pure religion , and undefiled before God and the Father , " says St . James , " is this—to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep himself unspotted from the world . " Who will deny that this is the very basis on which Masonry is founded ? Let him who would do so , look to our schools for the nurture of the young , our asylum for the shelter of the aged , and the countless acts of individual
charity whose very fount and spring is Masonry . To him who does deny it , the tongue of the widow and fatherless—the voice of destitute age , and unprotected youth , snatched from misery , ruin , and despair , and fostered in the maternal bosom of Masonry , will rise above the futile effort atdetraction , and cry , "Thouliest !"—knowingly and wantonl y —in the face of facts which he who runs may read ; may see stamped upon every stone of that beautiful fabric , whose pinnacles glitter in the
sun to the glory of our God , and the benefit of our fellow men . " Is Freemasonry unconnected with Christ ? does it reject the Lord Jesus , as some would intimate ? I deny it firmly , zealously , truly . Does the Christian divine leave unread , and unstudied , the Old Testament , with its hallowed poetry , its splendid imagery , and mystic types , the forerunners of that more full and perfect day which was to dawn upon the benihted heart of man ? No ! useful—pre-eminently so—is
g that record of God ' s dealings with his people , to the proper understanding of his infinite grace , and man ' s great salvation . The science of Masonry stands in the same relation to Christianity ; or perhaps , more correctly speaking , it is the spiritual essence of the old law , not extending to the height and sublimity of the new covenant , but a step in advance —not in the spiritual meaning of the old law , but of man ' s interpretation of it : a more spiritual , and therefore more correct reading
of it than that followed by the mass of the people , who looked more to the letter , and understood not that fulfilling of the law , as defined by Christ , when he declared the law broken by him who even gazed on a woman to lust after her . If they to whom this exceeding knowledge
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Brief Analysis Of A Few Points Advanced In A Late Attack Upon Freemasonry.*
A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF A FEW POINTS ADVANCED IN A LATE ATTACK UPON FREEMASONRY . *
" UolUouas e ' . vasle as ice , as y-ure as snow , thou Shalt not escape calumny . " Sn . VKsi'i-: iti .: . To mercilessly attack a person who , from peculiar circumstances , is unable to defend himself from the violence , is a thing so dastardly , as to be stamped with the universal detestation of mankind . Of a piece with it is the calumny thrown upon Masonry by many who arc fully aware that the Brethren are bound by their obligation to a secrecy which
would be broken were they to attempt to disprove the slander which is thrown upon their doctrines ; a slander not fixed upon them with even the semblance of justice , but hurled with blind and bigoted fury against a system of which the slanderers know nothing , and can have , therefore , no just grounds for either praise or censure . I am sure that no man , endowed with that beautiful charity so eloquently dilated upon by St . Paul could , or would , raise his voice against the internals of a
systemof which he is ignorant—whose externals all must acknowledge to be founded upon the plain and evident will of God , as revealed in His Hol y Word . " Pure religion , and undefiled before God and the Father , " says St . James , " is this—to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , and to keep himself unspotted from the world . " Who will deny that this is the very basis on which Masonry is founded ? Let him who would do so , look to our schools for the nurture of the young , our asylum for the shelter of the aged , and the countless acts of individual
charity whose very fount and spring is Masonry . To him who does deny it , the tongue of the widow and fatherless—the voice of destitute age , and unprotected youth , snatched from misery , ruin , and despair , and fostered in the maternal bosom of Masonry , will rise above the futile effort atdetraction , and cry , "Thouliest !"—knowingly and wantonl y —in the face of facts which he who runs may read ; may see stamped upon every stone of that beautiful fabric , whose pinnacles glitter in the
sun to the glory of our God , and the benefit of our fellow men . " Is Freemasonry unconnected with Christ ? does it reject the Lord Jesus , as some would intimate ? I deny it firmly , zealously , truly . Does the Christian divine leave unread , and unstudied , the Old Testament , with its hallowed poetry , its splendid imagery , and mystic types , the forerunners of that more full and perfect day which was to dawn upon the benihted heart of man ? No ! useful—pre-eminently so—is
g that record of God ' s dealings with his people , to the proper understanding of his infinite grace , and man ' s great salvation . The science of Masonry stands in the same relation to Christianity ; or perhaps , more correctly speaking , it is the spiritual essence of the old law , not extending to the height and sublimity of the new covenant , but a step in advance —not in the spiritual meaning of the old law , but of man ' s interpretation of it : a more spiritual , and therefore more correct reading
of it than that followed by the mass of the people , who looked more to the letter , and understood not that fulfilling of the law , as defined by Christ , when he declared the law broken by him who even gazed on a woman to lust after her . If they to whom this exceeding knowledge