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Article AN OLD MASON'S ADVICE TO HIS NEPHEW. ← Page 2 of 6 →
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An Old Mason's Advice To His Nephew.
our established rites allow , must be destructive of the principle of universality , which is our great claim on the goodwill of all mankind . " ^^ Freemason ^ J ^ uga ^ This opinion is rather loosely worded , and contains scarcely a fair representation of the point in dispute ; but as I shall have much to say oh it hereafter I pass it over , and proceed to your third authority ,
whowrites under the w ^ & j ? few of a An "Dniyersalist , " and he is still more explicit , His words are : ^ During the Roman Catholic period of English history , and whilst the church of Rome fostered the Craft , it was natural to expect that Masonry should be formally Christian , and therefore Roman Catholic ; not that Roman Catholicism wds the only form of Christianity , but the only form then recognized and tolerated . We might expect to find therefore , duringthat period in the , history of English Masonry , Catholic symbols
interwoven with the older signs , and older symbols interpreted according to the prevailing form of Christianity- — wrongly , no doubt , but naturally . . . ,, When it was found that Christianity included some pious and good men , who accepted Christ as the Redeemer and the Saviour , but as man merely , or as a superhuman being , not Godwhen it was seen to be manifestly unjust to exclude them , any more than other professing Christians , from the bounds of the Craft , the Lodge of 1813 well and wisely left out from the lectures and ceremonies all phrases which such Christians might conscientiously object ¦ ¦ ¦
to .- —Freemajscms Magazine , 1858 ^ -p \ x G 59 yQ 60 . The same writer , according to ¦ your representation , asks , " Pray where does Masonry teach that the Redeemer is the G . A . O . T . U ? To those who think so , well ; but Masonry does not teach it . I , for instance , do not at all understand that I invoke the Redeemer under the name of the G . A . O . T . TL "
From these authorities you rather hastily conclude that although it is freely admitted in the new school that Masonry was originally a Christian institution , and retained that character for many centuries , down to the year 1813— -yet the time honoured barriers were then removed , and the institution divested of all its former Christian
attributes for this extraordinary reason—because it was . found that Freemasonry included some pious and good men who accepted Christ as the Redeemer and the Saviour , but as a man merely , or as a superhuman being , and not God . "
Heavens , what a mighty discovery for the nineteenth century ! Is it recorded as an honour to Freemasonry that its Grand . Lodge decided in 1813 that Christ is not God ? Areyche sacred scriptures then untrue ; for they tell us that none but God can forgive sins ? Yet Christ
forgave sins ( See Matt . i . 2 ; Luke vii . 48 ) . Therefore our ancient Brethren piously concluded that Christ is God . It was reserved for the new school of Masonry to make this most miraculous discovery that the divinity of Christ was an error and delusion from beginning to end ! Rut the writer of the above pithy sentence , you tell me , s ubsequently drow in his horns , like the sensitive helix , and narrowed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Old Mason's Advice To His Nephew.
our established rites allow , must be destructive of the principle of universality , which is our great claim on the goodwill of all mankind . " ^^ Freemason ^ J ^ uga ^ This opinion is rather loosely worded , and contains scarcely a fair representation of the point in dispute ; but as I shall have much to say oh it hereafter I pass it over , and proceed to your third authority ,
whowrites under the w ^ & j ? few of a An "Dniyersalist , " and he is still more explicit , His words are : ^ During the Roman Catholic period of English history , and whilst the church of Rome fostered the Craft , it was natural to expect that Masonry should be formally Christian , and therefore Roman Catholic ; not that Roman Catholicism wds the only form of Christianity , but the only form then recognized and tolerated . We might expect to find therefore , duringthat period in the , history of English Masonry , Catholic symbols
interwoven with the older signs , and older symbols interpreted according to the prevailing form of Christianity- — wrongly , no doubt , but naturally . . . ,, When it was found that Christianity included some pious and good men , who accepted Christ as the Redeemer and the Saviour , but as man merely , or as a superhuman being , not Godwhen it was seen to be manifestly unjust to exclude them , any more than other professing Christians , from the bounds of the Craft , the Lodge of 1813 well and wisely left out from the lectures and ceremonies all phrases which such Christians might conscientiously object ¦ ¦ ¦
to .- —Freemajscms Magazine , 1858 ^ -p \ x G 59 yQ 60 . The same writer , according to ¦ your representation , asks , " Pray where does Masonry teach that the Redeemer is the G . A . O . T . U ? To those who think so , well ; but Masonry does not teach it . I , for instance , do not at all understand that I invoke the Redeemer under the name of the G . A . O . T . TL "
From these authorities you rather hastily conclude that although it is freely admitted in the new school that Masonry was originally a Christian institution , and retained that character for many centuries , down to the year 1813— -yet the time honoured barriers were then removed , and the institution divested of all its former Christian
attributes for this extraordinary reason—because it was . found that Freemasonry included some pious and good men who accepted Christ as the Redeemer and the Saviour , but as a man merely , or as a superhuman being , and not God . "
Heavens , what a mighty discovery for the nineteenth century ! Is it recorded as an honour to Freemasonry that its Grand . Lodge decided in 1813 that Christ is not God ? Areyche sacred scriptures then untrue ; for they tell us that none but God can forgive sins ? Yet Christ
forgave sins ( See Matt . i . 2 ; Luke vii . 48 ) . Therefore our ancient Brethren piously concluded that Christ is God . It was reserved for the new school of Masonry to make this most miraculous discovery that the divinity of Christ was an error and delusion from beginning to end ! Rut the writer of the above pithy sentence , you tell me , s ubsequently drow in his horns , like the sensitive helix , and narrowed