Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
America.
for reproach to an institution you profess to love . Masoniy receives the Bible as the word of God , as his inestimable gift to man , as a rule and guide to his faith and practice—the great light which is held as a " lamp to our feet and a light to our path . " Are not the tendencies of this for good 1 Freemasonry teaches us four great and essential dutiesand even
, a fifth , which we will notice as we go along . First , our ditty to God . — " To reverence His holy name , to implore His aid in all our laudable undertakings , to trust in him for protection , to esteem him as the chief good , and bow submissively to His will "—all these are taught and enforced by express command . Surely , none but the stupid atheist can conceive aught of evil in
any of these . Second , our duty to our neighbour . —" Masoniy enjoins us to admonish and reprove , to protect and defend him in his property , person , and character , and to aid , if possible , in his reformation from error ; to encourage his feeble energies , and to rebuke his presumptuous follies with thc kindness and courtesy of a brother , and ever to do unto him , in the true spirit of the golden rule , as we would have him do unto us . " Nor does his duty stop here ; for , after we have heaped " ashes to ashes , and dust to dust , " and faithfully committed the spirit to the God of the Mason , who " gave and
who taketh away , " our duty endeth not , nor can it until this mortality of ours shall put on immortality ; but lives to apologize for the weakness and foibles of a fallen brother , and to provide for and comfort , as far as possible , the distressed widow and helpless orphans . That this is a good , you surely will hot deny . Third , our duty to ourselves . — " It is our duty to avoid all irregularities of intemperance or excess that may impair the faculties of
the mind or body , " and this duty is so clearly and prominently set forth by Freemasonry , that a " wayfaring man , though a fool , need not err , and he that runs may read . By the fourth we are taught , that " in the state we are to be quiet and peaceable citizens , true to our government , and just to our country . " And by the fifth position , which we shall add , show that it unites
men of all countries and creeds , whether political , social , or religious , who acknowledge the same Supreme Being as the object of their faith and love , and who otherwise might have remained at a perpetual distance , softening the bigotted asperities which their peculiar creeds have engendered—teaching them the daily exercise of that forbearance towards each other which God extends to all his created beings . Is not this a goodand wherebut on the great
conserva-, , tive platform which Masonry has erected , are all the multiform and sectional feelings of our race presented as a living sacrifice to peace , friendship , and harmony 1 And yet , strange to tell , there are those still to be found , who
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
America.
for reproach to an institution you profess to love . Masoniy receives the Bible as the word of God , as his inestimable gift to man , as a rule and guide to his faith and practice—the great light which is held as a " lamp to our feet and a light to our path . " Are not the tendencies of this for good 1 Freemasonry teaches us four great and essential dutiesand even
, a fifth , which we will notice as we go along . First , our ditty to God . — " To reverence His holy name , to implore His aid in all our laudable undertakings , to trust in him for protection , to esteem him as the chief good , and bow submissively to His will "—all these are taught and enforced by express command . Surely , none but the stupid atheist can conceive aught of evil in
any of these . Second , our duty to our neighbour . —" Masoniy enjoins us to admonish and reprove , to protect and defend him in his property , person , and character , and to aid , if possible , in his reformation from error ; to encourage his feeble energies , and to rebuke his presumptuous follies with thc kindness and courtesy of a brother , and ever to do unto him , in the true spirit of the golden rule , as we would have him do unto us . " Nor does his duty stop here ; for , after we have heaped " ashes to ashes , and dust to dust , " and faithfully committed the spirit to the God of the Mason , who " gave and
who taketh away , " our duty endeth not , nor can it until this mortality of ours shall put on immortality ; but lives to apologize for the weakness and foibles of a fallen brother , and to provide for and comfort , as far as possible , the distressed widow and helpless orphans . That this is a good , you surely will hot deny . Third , our duty to ourselves . — " It is our duty to avoid all irregularities of intemperance or excess that may impair the faculties of
the mind or body , " and this duty is so clearly and prominently set forth by Freemasonry , that a " wayfaring man , though a fool , need not err , and he that runs may read . By the fourth we are taught , that " in the state we are to be quiet and peaceable citizens , true to our government , and just to our country . " And by the fifth position , which we shall add , show that it unites
men of all countries and creeds , whether political , social , or religious , who acknowledge the same Supreme Being as the object of their faith and love , and who otherwise might have remained at a perpetual distance , softening the bigotted asperities which their peculiar creeds have engendered—teaching them the daily exercise of that forbearance towards each other which God extends to all his created beings . Is not this a goodand wherebut on the great
conserva-, , tive platform which Masonry has erected , are all the multiform and sectional feelings of our race presented as a living sacrifice to peace , friendship , and harmony 1 And yet , strange to tell , there are those still to be found , who