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Article BENEVOLENCE: ITS REWAED AND SOURCE. Page 1 of 8 →
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Benevolence: Its Rewaed And Source.
BENEVOLENCE : ITS EEWAED AND SGUECE .
The following excellent address was delivered in All Saints Church , Maidstone , at the Provincial Grand Festival ,.. on- Monday , the 14 th of June , by the Eev . F . S . Batchelor , Provincial Grand Chaplain for Kent . The reverend gentleman , taking as his subject the story of Ebedmelecli ( Jer . xxxviii . and xxxix . ) , proceeded to say : —
My Brethren , —We are assembled here to day not merely because it is customary to attend an annual meeting which the wisdom of our Order has appointed , but from a still more generous and a nobler motive . We have met at Maidstone to observe a festival which comprehends the worship of the Great Architect of nature—which is calculated to make us forget the inequalities of human condition , to soften the asperities-of . life , to perpetuate brotherly love , and to convey the balm of existence to otjiers who need our prayers , sympathy , and support .
Tile religion which every Mason professes , teaches him to he piously disposed towards God , and charitably disposed towards man ; and , although it instructs him to stretch out the arm of assistance to his Brethren in particular , it no less teaches him to be kindly affectioned towards all , and thus to imitate that Beingwho sends his rain upon the just and upon the unjust , and causes his sun to shine upon the evil and
upon the good . These , my brethren , you know to be our principles , and I do not allude to them to teach you , but to guard our Order from misrepresentation , and fearlessly to proclaim to the world that there is ; nothing we observe or do incompatible with that rational godliness which ascribes glory to the Deity , and which is the harbinger of peace and good-will to his intelligent creatures .
I have often thought , my brethren , that were I asked by anyone unacquainted with our mysteries briefly to define Masonry , I should designate it " the religion of benevolence ; " and looking upon ifi in this light has induced me to select a passage of scripture from that book whose authority we acknowledge , which affords us a beautiful example of that glorious and godlike virtue . Suffer me then , this afternoon , to direct your attention to benevolence , its reward , and its origin , as exemplified in the history of Ebedmelecli , one of the eunuchs of King Zedekiah .
The book of the sacred law acquaints us that the prophet Jeremiah predicted that Jerusalem should he taken , and given into the hand of the king of Babylon . This unpleasant prophecy seems to have given great offence to the princes of Zedekiah , king of Judah , and they determined at least to silence the prophet ; and so Jeremiah was taken , bound with cords , and cast into a dungeon , where there was no water , but only mire and dirt . Whether , when his feet were sunk in the mire , he eomj > osed , as some think , those doleful Lamentations of his , we shall not venture an
opinion ; but , certain it is ( Lam . iii , 55 ) that when in the dungeon he invoked the assistance of God , and the Lord sent Mm deliverance from his holy hill . The benevolent person who came to his rescue was Ebedmelecli , an Ethiopian , " one of the eunuchs which was in the king ' s house . " In all probability this eunuch was a slave , for , according to Josephus , among other merchandize , slaves were formerly brought to Judea from Ethiopia *
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Benevolence: Its Rewaed And Source.
BENEVOLENCE : ITS EEWAED AND SGUECE .
The following excellent address was delivered in All Saints Church , Maidstone , at the Provincial Grand Festival ,.. on- Monday , the 14 th of June , by the Eev . F . S . Batchelor , Provincial Grand Chaplain for Kent . The reverend gentleman , taking as his subject the story of Ebedmelecli ( Jer . xxxviii . and xxxix . ) , proceeded to say : —
My Brethren , —We are assembled here to day not merely because it is customary to attend an annual meeting which the wisdom of our Order has appointed , but from a still more generous and a nobler motive . We have met at Maidstone to observe a festival which comprehends the worship of the Great Architect of nature—which is calculated to make us forget the inequalities of human condition , to soften the asperities-of . life , to perpetuate brotherly love , and to convey the balm of existence to otjiers who need our prayers , sympathy , and support .
Tile religion which every Mason professes , teaches him to he piously disposed towards God , and charitably disposed towards man ; and , although it instructs him to stretch out the arm of assistance to his Brethren in particular , it no less teaches him to be kindly affectioned towards all , and thus to imitate that Beingwho sends his rain upon the just and upon the unjust , and causes his sun to shine upon the evil and
upon the good . These , my brethren , you know to be our principles , and I do not allude to them to teach you , but to guard our Order from misrepresentation , and fearlessly to proclaim to the world that there is ; nothing we observe or do incompatible with that rational godliness which ascribes glory to the Deity , and which is the harbinger of peace and good-will to his intelligent creatures .
I have often thought , my brethren , that were I asked by anyone unacquainted with our mysteries briefly to define Masonry , I should designate it " the religion of benevolence ; " and looking upon ifi in this light has induced me to select a passage of scripture from that book whose authority we acknowledge , which affords us a beautiful example of that glorious and godlike virtue . Suffer me then , this afternoon , to direct your attention to benevolence , its reward , and its origin , as exemplified in the history of Ebedmelecli , one of the eunuchs of King Zedekiah .
The book of the sacred law acquaints us that the prophet Jeremiah predicted that Jerusalem should he taken , and given into the hand of the king of Babylon . This unpleasant prophecy seems to have given great offence to the princes of Zedekiah , king of Judah , and they determined at least to silence the prophet ; and so Jeremiah was taken , bound with cords , and cast into a dungeon , where there was no water , but only mire and dirt . Whether , when his feet were sunk in the mire , he eomj > osed , as some think , those doleful Lamentations of his , we shall not venture an
opinion ; but , certain it is ( Lam . iii , 55 ) that when in the dungeon he invoked the assistance of God , and the Lord sent Mm deliverance from his holy hill . The benevolent person who came to his rescue was Ebedmelecli , an Ethiopian , " one of the eunuchs which was in the king ' s house . " In all probability this eunuch was a slave , for , according to Josephus , among other merchandize , slaves were formerly brought to Judea from Ethiopia *