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Article EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A FREEMASON. Page 1 of 9 →
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Episodes In The Life Of A Freemason.
EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A FREEMASON .
Sic me servavit Apollo . IT is not , perhaps , upon the whole , surprising that those , AA'ho are unacquainted AA'ith the mysteries and privileges of the Masonic Order should be so often found to express tlieir incredulity of the advantages , Avhich are commonly ascribed to an enrolment under the Banners of the Craft .
ihere are thousands of men , " says the sceptical unbeliever of tlie " outer xvorld , " " AA'I IO pass through life prosperously enough , and AVIIO frequently outstrip their Masonic competitors for the good things of this Avorld , without ever connecting themselves Avith this mysterious Fraternity ; the AvatchAvord of the Order contains no charm against the stern decrees of fate ; the gaunt
shape of poverty ancl the ghastly gripe of disease are found as unrelenting persecutors of the Mason as they are of their uninitiated felloAv creatures : in short , I can trace no benefit , either positive or othenvise , AA'hich can be claimed as the exclusive privilege of the Masonic bod y . " Undoubtedly , such home truths as these are not for a
moment to be denied ; the Mason shares alike the common lot of humanity xvith tlie rest of mankind , ancl neither claims nor desires any supernatural immunities ; but , at the same time lie xvell knoxvs the privileges to xvhich he is entitled , and there are but fexv among our Order , xxdiose personal experience cannot at some period or other vouch for the benefits attaching to it .
It is not , however , by any means a necessary inference that these advantages must be patent to the xvorld ; on the contrary , most of them are necessaril y unknoxvn to mankind in general , and it is only by the narration of isolated facts that they can ex'er become matters of public notoriety . With a xiexv of recording some curious incidents connected
xvith the Craft , xvhich it is hoped may not prove uninteresting to the readers of the Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine , aucl Avhich may perhaps seem to illustrate , for the non-Masonic portion of the community , the position xvhich has been laid doxvn , as to some of the advantages to be derived from belonging to the Order , these pages have been sketched out by the author , as containing the history of facts Avhich actually happened to a very dear friend and Brother , Avhose bright career Avas prematurely terminated in the very floAver of his age , and Avhose
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Episodes In The Life Of A Freemason.
EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A FREEMASON .
Sic me servavit Apollo . IT is not , perhaps , upon the whole , surprising that those , AA'ho are unacquainted AA'ith the mysteries and privileges of the Masonic Order should be so often found to express tlieir incredulity of the advantages , Avhich are commonly ascribed to an enrolment under the Banners of the Craft .
ihere are thousands of men , " says the sceptical unbeliever of tlie " outer xvorld , " " AA'I IO pass through life prosperously enough , and AVIIO frequently outstrip their Masonic competitors for the good things of this Avorld , without ever connecting themselves Avith this mysterious Fraternity ; the AvatchAvord of the Order contains no charm against the stern decrees of fate ; the gaunt
shape of poverty ancl the ghastly gripe of disease are found as unrelenting persecutors of the Mason as they are of their uninitiated felloAv creatures : in short , I can trace no benefit , either positive or othenvise , AA'hich can be claimed as the exclusive privilege of the Masonic bod y . " Undoubtedly , such home truths as these are not for a
moment to be denied ; the Mason shares alike the common lot of humanity xvith tlie rest of mankind , ancl neither claims nor desires any supernatural immunities ; but , at the same time lie xvell knoxvs the privileges to xvhich he is entitled , and there are but fexv among our Order , xxdiose personal experience cannot at some period or other vouch for the benefits attaching to it .
It is not , however , by any means a necessary inference that these advantages must be patent to the xvorld ; on the contrary , most of them are necessaril y unknoxvn to mankind in general , and it is only by the narration of isolated facts that they can ex'er become matters of public notoriety . With a xiexv of recording some curious incidents connected
xvith the Craft , xvhich it is hoped may not prove uninteresting to the readers of the Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine , aucl Avhich may perhaps seem to illustrate , for the non-Masonic portion of the community , the position xvhich has been laid doxvn , as to some of the advantages to be derived from belonging to the Order , these pages have been sketched out by the author , as containing the history of facts Avhich actually happened to a very dear friend and Brother , Avhose bright career Avas prematurely terminated in the very floAver of his age , and Avhose