Attacks On Freemasonry.

ATTACKS ON FREEMASONRY .

LONDON , SATURDAY , DECEMBER 2 ( 3 , 1863 .

A local obscurity appears to have delivered a lecture to the Young Men ' s Christian Association at Poole , last month , and , as Ms efforts do not seem to have been appreciated , according to bis own estimation of them , so ia order to . attract greater notoriety to himself , he has addressed a letter to the Poole ,

and South-Western Herald , under the catching title of " Freemasonry and Christianity , " in Avhich is repeated what he said- at the meeting . The letter is signed with the orator ' s name , but Ave shall not insert it because it is not our business to become an

advertising medium for such individuals , nor is the attack powerful enough to call for criticism or argument , it being but " sorry skimble skamble stuff . " A member of the lodge , at Bournemouth , has sent us the paper , admitting that it can do no harm amongst the Craft , but fearing its influence on the

uninitiated . We confess Ave do not share his apprehensions , and we had hoped we had done , for ever , with having to answer such oft-repeated nonsense ; nor would it be becoming in us to reply , in e . vlenso , to the local lecturer , as every assertion lie has made has been refuted over and over again in our pages ;

but , as our Bournemouth brother Avishes us to Avrite on the subject so that he may be prepared to answer any objectors to the Craft , amongst his OAATI circle , we reluctantly enter again on the question without , in any ivay , adopting the letter alluded to , as a theme—¦ for it is only suited to such audiences as those of Christian Young Men ' s Associations who are known

to be content Avith tenth-rate essays , if a large amount of intolerance is infused into them , —so that Ave pass over the lecturer ' s unappreciated labours , and select his heading for our remarks . Freemasonry and Christianity is adroitly chosen to convey a sting and make a sensation . It insinuates

that these subjects are antagonistic just as the opposite characters apply to right aud left , in and out , or up and doAvn . Like all narrow-minded sectarianism , it is an assumption of a foregone conclusion worthy only of a low churchman or dissenter . A Avriter of

catholic feelings would have put it , " Is Freemasonry Christianity ? " and then have done his best to prove his case one way or other ; but those who address the so-called Young Bf en ' s Christian Institutions , have no generosity outside their own circumscribed pale , and

find it necessary to bear out their assertions—for they do not argue but dogmatise — by placing their subject in the only view that their bigotry will permit , that is starting with that which will be acceptable to their disciples , whilst they brand those , whom they go out of the way to attack , with an implied difference of opinion as opposite as it is false .

Freemasonry is not religion . It is not sectarian , It does not claim to exercise any authority over the faith of its members . Ours is a society that does not interfere with a man ' s creed , but leaves that to be , as it always should be , unfettered , and a matter between each individual member and his Maker ;

Freemasonry is not an antagonist to Christianity , because it does not set up for a recognised teacher of religion—it does not , very properly , attempt to define any phase of faith because it is not endowed with such powers , hence it is no church , or sect , but an institution founded on the laws of morality and the

three great virtues of Faith , Hope , and Charity . In the popular sense , then , Freemasonry is not Christianity , for it Avas in existence ages before our Blessed Saviour came on earth to save and redeem

fallen man . But it is Christian in its precepts and practice . It is to Freemasonry that we are indebted for the spread of the doctrines of the Reformation . The Yaudois , the Albigenses , Luther , Huss , "Wicklif , and many scores of the earl y Reformers Avere Freemasons

—not under that name , for it is only a comparatively modern one—they were all members of a secret society practising a large number of degrees , scarcely changed m anything but language from those we use , and having amongst them the same Avords and signs . The Papal church knew this , and it accounts for

the excommunications hurled against Freemasons by various Popes whilst , in earlier ages , the brotherhood had been granted numberless indulgences as true sons of holy Church . It is a someAA'hat remarkable fact that the same post which brought us the South-Western Herald also brought us the Southern Chronicle of Limerick , and in it we meet with the following : —

We noticed m the last Reporter a letter signed ' Catholicus , ' in which the writer seeks to impugn the sublime principles of Freemasonry by bringing into his vile sarcasm the names of such exalted members of the brotherhood as tho Duke of Leinster . "We can only pity the desperate daring of an individual who attempts to ridicule a fraternity of which he is totally ignorant , —

Wc can assure him that the hallowed principles of tho Craft are far too ennobling and exalted to be influenced in the slightest degree by any petty taunts this anonymous penman may fling for the gratification of a sordid taste . They haA'o a shield to resist all tho poisoned darts of the wicked one . For the information of ' Catholicus * Ave assure him that these principles are not of human

origin : they are based on the angelic announcement' Glory to God in the highest , on earth peace , and good will to men , ' lo which every upright Mason inviolably adheres ; and if these tenets are not in unison with the feelings of the ivrifcer , he must only seek association with another class of angelic beings , equally bent on diffusing the same spirit of unkindlfeeling which he seeks to

y inculcate . The confraternity that he censures is based om the pedestal of Christian virtues , and is co-existent with , all ages and all time ; kings and potentates have gladly linked themselves by the ' mystic tie' with ihe humblest peasant , men of all ranks , and classes , and creeds , ' of every nation , and of every clime , ' the Christian , the phi-