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Article TO MASONS,. Page 1 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To Masons,.
TO MASONS ,.
ON THE SCANDAL WHICH A LAXNESS IN THE DISCHARGE OF TIlEIli MORAL DUTIES , BRINGS UPON THE CRAFT . MASONRY is what it professes to be—a beautiful system of morality , pure as the unsullied atmosphere of Heaven ; fervent as the meridian blaze of Soland zealous as the teeming earthwhich is continuall
; , y laboring for our comfort and support . How then shall we account for the prejudice which , it must be confessed , exists against it ? The proneness which dwells in the mind of man to associate evil with secresy , cannot be assigned as a sufficient reason ; nor is the barrier interposed between our mysteries and the popular world so impassible , as to render it , in every sense , an exclusive secret . Our science is ever ready to receive just and upright men into her bosom of Charity : and one would
imagine that , at her bidding , all good men would hasten to enroll themselves as member ' s of so beautiful a system . What then deters them ? With shame be it spoken—the acts of Masons themselves . The uninitiated , being forbidden to enter the tyled recesses of our temples , can judge of Masonry only from its disciples . With plausibility they say , if Masonry be indeed the beautiful science it is represented to be , the fruits of that beauty will be developed in its professors ; by them we
shall see if the system be of good , or of evil . The justness of this means of arriving at truth I deny , although it must be confessed to have some force : but its correctness or incorrectness is foreign to my purpose ; I merely wish to show the means whereby a conclusion is arrived at , and
its effect . With the resolution , therefore , of passing judgment upon Masonry from the moral conduct of its professors , they watch them with the keen eye of scrutiny ; and how little will the lives and conduct of many calling themselves Masons , bear the test ! The evil deeds of the wicked are more glaring than the modest acts of Virtue , whose charity and truth oftener seek the sequestered vale than the glare of noon ; and even the weaknesses of good men are more apparent to the eye of
prejudice than their excellences . On this account we suffer in the estimation of many , who , poorly versed in the nature of man , seek for unsullied excellence , and are disappointed . But what shall we say to those Masons whose evil ways detract from the good opinion which the rectitude of others has won for Masonry ? What can be said , when deaf to her beautiful precepts , they shame themselves , and bring scandal on the Craft , by acts worthy only of the beasts that perish , and double shame
to them , who enjoy the twofold privileges of Christianity and Masonry ? Excommunication is a means of punishment which should only be resorted to in extreme cases ; but on no one ' s head could its thunders light more worthily than on those whose lives shame the religion they profess , whose deeds show them unworthy of its privileges , and whose slight proves them unworthy of her protecting arm . Seeing the great evil which the unworthiness of some brings upon the Craft in general , ' I would exhort others to take heed to their ways . Beholding how much the prosperity of our beautiful science depends upon the rectitude of our lives , let us study in all things to live as
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To Masons,.
TO MASONS ,.
ON THE SCANDAL WHICH A LAXNESS IN THE DISCHARGE OF TIlEIli MORAL DUTIES , BRINGS UPON THE CRAFT . MASONRY is what it professes to be—a beautiful system of morality , pure as the unsullied atmosphere of Heaven ; fervent as the meridian blaze of Soland zealous as the teeming earthwhich is continuall
; , y laboring for our comfort and support . How then shall we account for the prejudice which , it must be confessed , exists against it ? The proneness which dwells in the mind of man to associate evil with secresy , cannot be assigned as a sufficient reason ; nor is the barrier interposed between our mysteries and the popular world so impassible , as to render it , in every sense , an exclusive secret . Our science is ever ready to receive just and upright men into her bosom of Charity : and one would
imagine that , at her bidding , all good men would hasten to enroll themselves as member ' s of so beautiful a system . What then deters them ? With shame be it spoken—the acts of Masons themselves . The uninitiated , being forbidden to enter the tyled recesses of our temples , can judge of Masonry only from its disciples . With plausibility they say , if Masonry be indeed the beautiful science it is represented to be , the fruits of that beauty will be developed in its professors ; by them we
shall see if the system be of good , or of evil . The justness of this means of arriving at truth I deny , although it must be confessed to have some force : but its correctness or incorrectness is foreign to my purpose ; I merely wish to show the means whereby a conclusion is arrived at , and
its effect . With the resolution , therefore , of passing judgment upon Masonry from the moral conduct of its professors , they watch them with the keen eye of scrutiny ; and how little will the lives and conduct of many calling themselves Masons , bear the test ! The evil deeds of the wicked are more glaring than the modest acts of Virtue , whose charity and truth oftener seek the sequestered vale than the glare of noon ; and even the weaknesses of good men are more apparent to the eye of
prejudice than their excellences . On this account we suffer in the estimation of many , who , poorly versed in the nature of man , seek for unsullied excellence , and are disappointed . But what shall we say to those Masons whose evil ways detract from the good opinion which the rectitude of others has won for Masonry ? What can be said , when deaf to her beautiful precepts , they shame themselves , and bring scandal on the Craft , by acts worthy only of the beasts that perish , and double shame
to them , who enjoy the twofold privileges of Christianity and Masonry ? Excommunication is a means of punishment which should only be resorted to in extreme cases ; but on no one ' s head could its thunders light more worthily than on those whose lives shame the religion they profess , whose deeds show them unworthy of its privileges , and whose slight proves them unworthy of her protecting arm . Seeing the great evil which the unworthiness of some brings upon the Craft in general , ' I would exhort others to take heed to their ways . Beholding how much the prosperity of our beautiful science depends upon the rectitude of our lives , let us study in all things to live as