A Ritualistic Attack Upon Freemasonry.

amongst those who hold that such a condemnation is right , true , and timely . The slight and slender correspondence which has taken p lace in our own columns on this subject , has been eminently shallow ; and the defender _ of Freemasonry , a correspondent who signed

himself "Audi Alteram Partem , " entirely misses the point of the very practical objection of " Oxoniensis , " whom lie endeavours to answer . In our columns the consideration of Freemasonry has been accidentally mixed up with the A . P . U . C ., because , when it became necessary to

elect a new President some few years ago , Lord Elliot , a high-princip led and experienced peer , as well as a very hearty English Churchman—but a Freemason—was appointed to that important post . Several persons ( certainly hearty friends of the Re-union movement ) regretted this election , solely on the ground ( if his Lordship

belonging lo the Freemasons ; being confident , as they asserted , the Church public would soon find out , and as it is now fully and p lainly discovered , that no Roman Catholics could henceforward honestly be expected to join the association , of which the Head and Chief was a Freemason . And of course no Roman Catholics ( or next to none ) have joined it . The A . P . U . C . is far weaker . than it was .

For ourselves , not being Freemasons , wc know nothing whatever about the system , except what every outsider may know . The following fact , however , is evident to all outsiders , that Freemasonry is a system that sets up in the ivorld an unity utterly distinct from , and whollii independent

of if not directly antagonistic to , the Church or Famil y oj Jesus Christ . The sacred bond of baptism , the principle of Christian fellowship is ignoied , and a new and unknown principle ( but a very real and energizing one ) is adopted , which is common at once to lax Christians and

heathens . As a practical example of what we mean we may just put on record the following remarks , made in France by Abd-el-Kader , a Mason but a heathen : " In my opinion every man who does not profess Freemasonry ( which I consider to be the first institution in

the world ) is an incomplete man . " At a banquet of Masons of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire a certain Dr . Bowles , an English clergyman , commenting on the Pope ' s well-known Allocution against Freemasonry , in quoting the above with approbation remarked : " It seems to

me that Abd-el-Kader , Infidel though he be , is a far better Christian than the Pope . " Thus Dr . Bowles avowedly prefers , and glories in preferring , the liberty of the Infidel to the exclusiveness of Christianity—in other words ,

Humanitananism to the Faith , by and through the princple ( whatever it be ) of Freemasonry . This is our chief and great objection to it , and to every believer in the Incarnation it ought to be sufficient to warn him from having anything whatsoever to do with such an Institution . On this

point an outsider is perfectl y competent to express an opinion . But we have further objections , and they are these : Freemasonry is notoriously founded on a basis of religious indifference . No matter what a man ' s religion is , he may become " a member

of the Craft . " Now , as faith , as the necessity of holding certain tenets and of believing certain dogmas , is of the essence of Christianity , so the very antithesis of this true and good principle—a stolid and steady indifference to all reli gious doctrine , the hearty welcome and formal reception of True

and False alike into the bosom of Freemasonry is to thatsystematoncetheconditionandcauseofitsexlstence . Hence it is perfectly idle of our correspondent to write about " immense sums known to be annuall y expended among Masons in private charity . " Charity does not and cannot exist

amongst Masons—philanthropy may ( and possibl y does ) , but philanthropy aud charity have different roots , different stems , and , by consequence , different fruits . A leading English Mason allowed us to take clown the following from his lips , only last week : — " If to myself , as a Freemason , two persons in equally distressed

circumstances came lor temporal relief , the one being a Christian and the other a Brahmin ; and if the Brahmin signified that ho belonged to our fraternity and the Christian did not , I should be bound to relieve the Brahmin in preference to the Christian , In that rests the beauty and value of our benevolence and true charity ^' ^^

A Ritualistic Attack Upon Freemasonry.

One is Pagan and Heathen : the other is Christian . No matter , then , how benevolent its intentions and deeds may be ( if benevolent they arc ) , Freemasonry is absolutely and altogether incompatible with Christianity . Its essential

and leading principle ( as an outsider can see , and as no Mason can deny ) , is Indifterentism . " It does not matter one iota of what religion you are . One is as good as another , —or as bad as another—if people like to put the question in

that form . Mahometanism to a Mason is as good as Christianity , and Christianity as Budd histn . We have Mahometan Masons , Protestant Masons , Buddhist Masons , and Deistical Mascns . It is all one with us . Each is welcomed . They

are all fish which come to the wide-meshed net of Freemasonry . " And this , we need not say , is naked Indifterentism . Now speculative Indifferentism leads directly to Pantheism . A Mason and a Christian , therefore , if each be true to his

Creed , can no more mix than fire and water . Furthermore , the Masonic principles of equality , of liberty , and of universality , tend to destroy civil authority , the obedienceof subjectsand patriotism . In France , during the last century , Voltaire ,

D'Alembert , and Diderot notoriously used the lodges of Masonry for preaching and proclaiming their huminitarian dogmas of Liberty , Fraternity , and Equality , —with what result we need not stay to point out . As the French revolution followed

quickly upon the Masonic Congress , held in France . \ . r > . 1785 , so the numerous well-planned continental revolutions of 1848 , followed within twelve months upon the Strasburg Congress of Masons in 1847 . We might say more in detail , but this suffices . Let our readers work out the

problem and its results . Here in England some of the Lodges may be harmless as regards action ; but none can be untouched or untainted by the false principle already set forth , which is at the root of the

subject . Masonry substitutes humanitarianism for Christianity , using Christians to cover its designs and aid its purposes . To belong to any lodge , therefore , a man must practically foreswear the Church and deny Christ : or ( we are

charitable in our alternative ) act in invincible ignorance of the leading and avowed principles of the Croft . Authority in the Roman Church has spoken , and spoken plainly ; and , if we English

Churchmen would seek and pray for union , we must not act in opposition to known principles , nor ignore patent facts when Re-union is being laboured for .

In Italy and Belgium it is notorious that abandoned women have been sent by the Freemasons to early mass , to commit an awful sacrilegious theft , so that the more political and darker Masonic sects may perpetrate at their dark orgies

the most diabolical blasphemies—blasphemies which could only come direct from the lodge whose Grand Master is Satan . Finally . Do our readers forget that when Wilkes was initiated into the Masonic " Hell-fire Club " he

pretended to give Communion to an ape ? We by no means assert that all Masons are like those of Italy , Belgium , and Medtnenham

Abbe } ' . But the principle of Masonry being inherently and essentially anti-Christian , its darker developments follow as a matter of course , when men are ripe for them .

What do our readers now think of this choice article on Freemasonry , by a professed Church of England newspaper ? We leave out the whole of the so-called '' indifferentism " argument , as it is far too important to treat in itself briefly

and imperfectly as our space only allows , and we will simply advert to the most painful aspect of the case , represented by these astounding allegations and animadversions , namely the apparent insensibility to the need and importance ol truth .

First of all we decline any connection Masonicall y with the " leading English Freemason , " put forward so pompously by the Church Herald , as an

irrefragable witness in the matter . We do not believe in the existence of this " Bro . Harris , " and we entirely repudiate his ( after dinner evidently , ) remarks and assertions , No " leading

A Ritualistic Attack Upon Freemasonry.

English Mason " could possibl y talk such nonsense , or palm off on our Order , or any one else , his ridiculous parody alike of our acts , and our tenets . In the next place it is lamentable to find

a professedly educated man , a member avowedly of the Church of England too , repeating the Jesuit rubbish of the last century , and mixing up Voltaire , and D'Alembert and Diderot , with the

lodges of French Freemasons , with whom we believe they had as little to do as the " Man in the Moon . " Will some well-informed brothet enlighten us on the " Masonic Congress of

1785 , " or the " Strasburg Assembly , of 1847 , " from the former of which proceeded clearly the French Revolution , and from the latter the Parisian Emeute of 1848 ? Now these are

uncontestable facts of history , according to the Church Herald ! And if we smile sadly at this foolish writer , his ignorance of history , and his childish and purely fictitious inferences ,

what can we say of those two dreadful lies , ( we can use no other words ) , with which he closes this mournful outpouring of the " vials of wrath , " from a professed or a Si-jret Jesuit ?

Can any of our Italian or Bel gian brethren tell us where this fearful falsehood , ( for we feol well it is one ) , of religious profanity has arisen : Probably from some unscrupulous asst . ilant of

Freemasonry , little caring for truth , and less for Christianity . For how can we characterize the last unblushing mendacity of all , tint the Mcdmenham orgies had anything to do with

Freemasonry or Freemasons ? Anything more wicked , or more malevolent as a falsehood in itself , or more disgraceful as a proof of hopeless ineptitude and crass ignorance we have never before

perused . Surely a sell ; uui ~ ki bring their , own answer . They are so deplorably discreditable to him who makes them , and so obviously untrue and unjustifiable , that they fall at once from their

own inherent corruption , falsity , and indecency . We can only pity a religious school of thought and practice , whose supporters in the press can

use such language , disgraceful to any one , but above all to a journal which professes to b ^ , bona fide , a journal of the kindly and tolerant Church of England .

Verbum Sat Sapienti.

VERBUM SAT SAPIENTI .

Wc published in our impression of last week a letter signed " Verbum sat Sapienti , " which we felt bound to allow to appear in our pages , though it savoured greatly of personal attack and

personal incrimination . We thought that in this hour of doubt and anxiety , ( when our iato Grand Master has departed from us we cannot hel p feeling and regretting , with but

scant words of fraternal regard and sympathy , ) that the minds of Masons , despite the reassuring announcement of the acceptance of the rulership of the Craft by our Royal Brother the Prince of

W ales , are in a state of considerable anxiety and excitement ; we thought , we repeat , that such a question , if asked bona fide , and on reasonable grountls , might fail l y be put , and as fairly answered

111 The Freemason . No persons in the world object more to anything like personality than we do , and we should be the first to decry and discourage any morbid taste for idle gossip or mischievous slander , merely for sensational purposes . V . S , S .