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Article Untitled Article ← Page 2 of 2 Article ON SPECULATIVE MASONRY. Page 1 of 7 →
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Untitled Article
honest citizens , upright men , to whose faith and lives Freemasonry was no anomaly , hut a valued privilege and an active principle . The last position is equally bold and baseless : — " Freemasonry recognises no church . Why should any church recognise Freemasonry ?"
Preemasonry recognises no church ? Who then are its Grand Chaplains here ? Are they promiscuously chosen from the many sects ^ that jar and wrangle around it . They are clergymen of the English church , yoke-fellows of the English Churchman . Nay , we believe the very P . G . M ., whose ceremonies at Newcastle so much
disagreed with our contemporary , to be actually a clergyman himself Do not Freemasons go to church en masse at their annual meetings ? and is a clergyman tabooed whenever he appears amongst them ? Happily there are English churchmen , clergy and laity , our brethren , whose lives testify that Catholic truth and Masonic principles , so far from being anomalous , are harmonious ingredients of a virtuous character .
When the former limb of the argument is thus destroyed , the latter is quite paralysed . " Why should any church recognise Freemasonry ? " is unmeaning stuff ; but we may observe , in passing , that Masonry ^ courts no such recognition ; unencumbered by anything without , it . will maintain an undeviating course , seeking no
proselytes , but giving due instruction to all who seek it , and tending , we humbly trust , to make Christians more useful in their sphere , and to disseminate amongst men of every creed and nation those principles of unity and charity , which will , we believe , form the ultimate basis of one Christian family over the face of the whole earth .
But the theme warns us of a duty to our Brethren . Our ancient Brethren silenced all cavils by their prominence for good deeds . Practically useful in their generation , their career was steadily consistent , earnest , real We should remember this now . When every class and
society is giving proofs of renewed vitality and active exertion , Preemasons must be something more than boon companions , or it will be left to the nineteenth century to witness the degradation of an Institution , which has successively illuminated , through adverse times , empires as great and intellects as lofty as ours , and , itself unshaken , has survived them all .
On Speculative Masonry.
ON SPECULATIVE MASO . NEY .
A PAPEK READ BY THE W . M . OE THE ITUMBER £ OnGE , NO . 65 , TO THE nilETUBEIST OE THAT IiODO-E . Iff treating of the subject of Speculative Masonry , I do not propose , in this paper , to enter upon the theme of the ' antiquity of the Order ; nor is it my intention to point out to you how , in " bygone ages , the Eoinish church , so long as she conceived it her interest so
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
honest citizens , upright men , to whose faith and lives Freemasonry was no anomaly , hut a valued privilege and an active principle . The last position is equally bold and baseless : — " Freemasonry recognises no church . Why should any church recognise Freemasonry ?"
Preemasonry recognises no church ? Who then are its Grand Chaplains here ? Are they promiscuously chosen from the many sects ^ that jar and wrangle around it . They are clergymen of the English church , yoke-fellows of the English Churchman . Nay , we believe the very P . G . M ., whose ceremonies at Newcastle so much
disagreed with our contemporary , to be actually a clergyman himself Do not Freemasons go to church en masse at their annual meetings ? and is a clergyman tabooed whenever he appears amongst them ? Happily there are English churchmen , clergy and laity , our brethren , whose lives testify that Catholic truth and Masonic principles , so far from being anomalous , are harmonious ingredients of a virtuous character .
When the former limb of the argument is thus destroyed , the latter is quite paralysed . " Why should any church recognise Freemasonry ? " is unmeaning stuff ; but we may observe , in passing , that Masonry ^ courts no such recognition ; unencumbered by anything without , it . will maintain an undeviating course , seeking no
proselytes , but giving due instruction to all who seek it , and tending , we humbly trust , to make Christians more useful in their sphere , and to disseminate amongst men of every creed and nation those principles of unity and charity , which will , we believe , form the ultimate basis of one Christian family over the face of the whole earth .
But the theme warns us of a duty to our Brethren . Our ancient Brethren silenced all cavils by their prominence for good deeds . Practically useful in their generation , their career was steadily consistent , earnest , real We should remember this now . When every class and
society is giving proofs of renewed vitality and active exertion , Preemasons must be something more than boon companions , or it will be left to the nineteenth century to witness the degradation of an Institution , which has successively illuminated , through adverse times , empires as great and intellects as lofty as ours , and , itself unshaken , has survived them all .
On Speculative Masonry.
ON SPECULATIVE MASO . NEY .
A PAPEK READ BY THE W . M . OE THE ITUMBER £ OnGE , NO . 65 , TO THE nilETUBEIST OE THAT IiODO-E . Iff treating of the subject of Speculative Masonry , I do not propose , in this paper , to enter upon the theme of the ' antiquity of the Order ; nor is it my intention to point out to you how , in " bygone ages , the Eoinish church , so long as she conceived it her interest so