Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Thoughts On The Distress In Scotland And Ireland.
svith some soothing necromancy of passing thought , and to reject those very emotions svhich make the unseen heart , obedient to its heavenly office , heave svith sympathy and sorrosv . During the progress of mental improvement , Freemasonry has thus never lost sig ht of its leading theoretical princip le—Charity . The divine nature of this attribute has ever been preserved svith religious fidelity in the archives of the Craft—has animated the eloquenceand
, , influenced the lives of its numerous follosvers , through all the various stages of mental darkness until man ' s educated nature has attained , by the instrumentality of Masonic principles and routine , tlie full perfection of intellectual light . Although the solemnity svhich characterises our initiatory rites , impresses every properly constituted mind with the majestic nature of moral truth and justice , and our subsequent ceremonies afford the most striking illustration of man ' s natural depenstratum of the Masonic
dence , there is running through the svhole ground-work , a rich vein of universal brotherhood svhich induces an active agency in the mitigation of those evils that ignorance entails upon the human race , or those ills svith svhich physical sufferings bend , if not break , the energies of man , or those more extended visitations of Providence svhich deprive offspring of their natural protectors at that early dasvn of life ' uncertain ilgrimagesvhen the youthful mind rather than
s p , to become familiar svith the lacerating grief svhich haunts the chamber of death , requires the check of parentage , and is most desirous to cherish svith fervent veneration all those domestic affections svhich under the councils of those sve love , svith the strength of early passion , inevitably induce a cultivation of the hig hest incentives to public duty , honour
and distinction . In modern times , Freemasonry has ceased , in a great measure , to be the nursery of that artistic civilization of society , —that operative craftsvork , svhich in preceding ages reared in svisdom and strength and beauty , many of those lofty ecclesiastical tosvers and invulnerable baronial p iles that nosv adorn this land of churches ; and its aim has been confined to the promotion , amongst ssvorn disciples , of those sound fraternal considerations and human virtues that can alone keep pace svith
the advancing benevolence and Catholic spirit of an age like our osyn . It has ever been the great duty of those svho are wisely entrusted svith the control of Masonic affairs , constantly to impress upon the Brethren at large the paramount necessity of reducing to practice the universal charity which studs , as with brilliant gems , the diadem of Masonic Sovereignty . In this sense , the metropolitan institutions originating with , and almost exclusively supported bymembers of this " ancient and honourable
, fraternity , "—among whom have ever been the gravest moralists and the svisest divines , —are , in themselves , so many fountains of charity , in which old and young , blind , halt , and decrepid , bathe in " sovereign waters , " and are strengthened against many forthcoming evils that struggle alike svith youthful and generous spirits , and aged forms , svhose previous connexion svith worldly vicissitudes has damped the ardour that marks mindsFrom all these various sources of reliefcasual
younger . , distress , by means of the wide ramifications of the general body , have ever been met by the Grand Lotlge svith pecuniary grants , through which many hundred Brethren svho once shared svith their compeers , in moments of svorldly prosperity and comfort , the rich and inexhaustible bounty of our mysteries , " have been enabled to resume thencareer of industrious citizenship , under circumstances of cheerfulness VOL . V . E
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Thoughts On The Distress In Scotland And Ireland.
svith some soothing necromancy of passing thought , and to reject those very emotions svhich make the unseen heart , obedient to its heavenly office , heave svith sympathy and sorrosv . During the progress of mental improvement , Freemasonry has thus never lost sig ht of its leading theoretical princip le—Charity . The divine nature of this attribute has ever been preserved svith religious fidelity in the archives of the Craft—has animated the eloquenceand
, , influenced the lives of its numerous follosvers , through all the various stages of mental darkness until man ' s educated nature has attained , by the instrumentality of Masonic principles and routine , tlie full perfection of intellectual light . Although the solemnity svhich characterises our initiatory rites , impresses every properly constituted mind with the majestic nature of moral truth and justice , and our subsequent ceremonies afford the most striking illustration of man ' s natural depenstratum of the Masonic
dence , there is running through the svhole ground-work , a rich vein of universal brotherhood svhich induces an active agency in the mitigation of those evils that ignorance entails upon the human race , or those ills svith svhich physical sufferings bend , if not break , the energies of man , or those more extended visitations of Providence svhich deprive offspring of their natural protectors at that early dasvn of life ' uncertain ilgrimagesvhen the youthful mind rather than
s p , to become familiar svith the lacerating grief svhich haunts the chamber of death , requires the check of parentage , and is most desirous to cherish svith fervent veneration all those domestic affections svhich under the councils of those sve love , svith the strength of early passion , inevitably induce a cultivation of the hig hest incentives to public duty , honour
and distinction . In modern times , Freemasonry has ceased , in a great measure , to be the nursery of that artistic civilization of society , —that operative craftsvork , svhich in preceding ages reared in svisdom and strength and beauty , many of those lofty ecclesiastical tosvers and invulnerable baronial p iles that nosv adorn this land of churches ; and its aim has been confined to the promotion , amongst ssvorn disciples , of those sound fraternal considerations and human virtues that can alone keep pace svith
the advancing benevolence and Catholic spirit of an age like our osyn . It has ever been the great duty of those svho are wisely entrusted svith the control of Masonic affairs , constantly to impress upon the Brethren at large the paramount necessity of reducing to practice the universal charity which studs , as with brilliant gems , the diadem of Masonic Sovereignty . In this sense , the metropolitan institutions originating with , and almost exclusively supported bymembers of this " ancient and honourable
, fraternity , "—among whom have ever been the gravest moralists and the svisest divines , —are , in themselves , so many fountains of charity , in which old and young , blind , halt , and decrepid , bathe in " sovereign waters , " and are strengthened against many forthcoming evils that struggle alike svith youthful and generous spirits , and aged forms , svhose previous connexion svith worldly vicissitudes has damped the ardour that marks mindsFrom all these various sources of reliefcasual
younger . , distress , by means of the wide ramifications of the general body , have ever been met by the Grand Lotlge svith pecuniary grants , through which many hundred Brethren svho once shared svith their compeers , in moments of svorldly prosperity and comfort , the rich and inexhaustible bounty of our mysteries , " have been enabled to resume thencareer of industrious citizenship , under circumstances of cheerfulness VOL . V . E