Skip to main content
Museum of Freemasonry

Masonic Periodicals Online

  • Explore
  • Advanced Search
  • Home
  • Explore
  • The Freemason's Chronicle
  • Nov. 14, 1891
  • Page 5
  • TRY YOURSELF BY THIS.
Current:

The Freemason's Chronicle, Nov. 14, 1891: Page 5

  • Back to The Freemason's Chronicle, Nov. 14, 1891
  • Print image
  • Articles/Ads
    Article TRY YOURSELF BY THIS. ← Page 2 of 2
    Article TRY YOURSELF BY THIS. Page 2 of 2
    Article Untitled Page 1 of 1
Page 5

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Try Yourself By This.

Not one syllable did Christ say for the tradition . 1 ism which in his day passed for tho only orthodoxy ; not oue word did He say in favour of all the elaborate ablutious , vestmentsfringes , phylacteries , feasts and fasts , and long

, prayers , whioh then passed for the indispousablo ceremonial ; but whilo ho was the friend of sinners , and forgave the penitent harlot , and approved of tho prayer ot the publican ; Ho blighted tho more professing religionist with flash after flash of his terrible denunciation .

And the teaching of every one of His apostles was the very antithesis of the spirit of externalism . They seemed to treat that wifch sovereign disdain , as though it belonged to the infinitely little . Their language is identical with that of the great prophets . " Circumcision "—then

regarded as the very first of necessary ordinances— " Circumcision , " said Saint Paul , " is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the keeping of the commandments of God . " What was the summary of Saint Paul ' s teaching ? Two words : " In Christ , " and two words more : " -Faith , "

" works . " What was tho sum of Saint James ' teaching ? Two words : " Compassion , " " uuworldliness . " What was the teaching of Saini John ? Oao word : "Love . " He

explains his apparent truism , " He that doeth righteousness ia righteous , " by that deep account of what true righteousness moans : "He that doeth righteousness is born of God . "

When Christ was asked what was the one test by which you could know true teachers from false , was it : " By their doctrine ye shall know them , " as men have most fatally taught ? Nothiug of the sort . It was : "By their fruits yo shall know them . " To preach these principles is to preach tho very essential heart of the

scriptural morality ; but yot it is a preaching that invariably makes religionists angry . For its importance lies in this : that it ia the very touchstone which

discriminates between true and false religion , and which sweeps away , at any rate , tho exaggerated importance attached to the adjuncts , the scaffoldings , the traditions and ordinances of men , which to so many make up the

whole of their religion . Now , you , my friends , are religions people . Your presence here shows thafc you profess religion . Nothing is more important than that you should know whether your religion is a sincerity or a sham . The Bible teaches you

—as I have shown , aud can show over and over againthat righteousness aud holiness aro the inmost essence , aud tho only outcome of true religion , that they are the very end and object of life : that if you have attained to them , you may stand free iu the liberty wherewith Christ hath

made you free—freo from all morbid scrnpulosities , iroui all carnal ordinances , freo from all wtak oi \ d beggarly elements , from all priestly domination , freo from all petty rules about things which polish iu tho using . If you do

not possess this purity ot heart aud righteousness or lite , tho orthodox •opinions and fche most elaborate -ritual in the world are nofc oue whit mure pleading to God than sounding brass or a tinkling cynibtd , and will weigh no moro in favour than the small dust _ f the balance .

Are you , as 1 have asked before , in God ' s sight , not deceiving yourself , but going up into tho tribunal , of your own conscience aud then seating yourself before yourself ? Are you in truth , each of yon , a good man ? If you are , then , though every Pharisee who ever lived should hate

you , and though every church in the world should excommunicate you , and though every priest that ever lived should hurl at you his separate anathema , as they

once did afc tho King of Saints , yefc to you the golden gates of heaven shall open harmonious on their golden hinges , and you shall be folded forever under the wings of eternal love .

But if you aro nofc simply in God's sight a good mat-, then , like a Saint of old , you ruay torture yourself lor lon ,. ; years , together with fasts and miseries ; or , like another , you may make your boasfc thafc you -daily offer seven hundred prayers , aud after ali this you may say to Christ

Have we nofc prophesied in Thy name , and iu Thy name wrought miracles , aud in Thy name done many wonderful works ? Bat * f , in spite of this externalibra and profession , you have not truly loved God , and have not been true to your neighbour , true by God ' s standard , and not by the

conventional standard of the world on one hand , or of churches and party on the other—ii , I Bay , you hsive not been thus essentially true to God and man , then shall He say unto you : " I never knew you . " I know veiy well thafc this ia un old lesson . You have

Try Yourself By This.

heard it before , for I have tried to insist on it bafora , and may have to do so again , for ifc is the one ltsson whioh popular religionism tries to escape , and the one lessou to which it must bo bound down by the sword point of the Word of God .

What God wants is not so-called orthodoxy , but " truth in the inward parts . " What will avail you is not any amount of religiosity , but righteousness . There are thousands of religions persons who would attach immense importance to such small mutters as to

whether a clergyman does this or that trumpery little thing , which is supposed to be tho badge of party , or whether we define Christ ' s presence in the elements materially or spiritually , or whether we hold the Bible to ba verbally dictated , or to contain the revelation of God .

Well—I tell you plainly , my brother , that all this may or may nofc bo important as opinion , and may or may nofc be important as ritual ; but your opinion and your ritual , ono way or tho other , is of quite infinitcsimd value as regards the saving of your soul .

Almighty God does not care for your opinions at all , if only they be honest ; Ho does not caro about your ritual ; but He does require your goodness . Without thafc goodness , without that kindness , without purity and honesty ,

without truthfulness and that rarest of all virtues , the love of truth , unselfish humility—without these , all your opinions and rituals may only mean thafc your leprosy is white as snow .

The reason why it ia necessary to insist on this is that eternity pharisaism of the human heart , which prefers formalism to spirituality , aud which causes a constant recrudescence of Judaism iu the heart of Christianity . Very early , from entire ignorance of the real relation of

the Old Testament to the New , there arose , in spite of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews , a disastrous confusion between the Christian ministry and the Jewish priesthood . And there followed a rapid glorification of shibboleths and ordinances .

The sacraments were soon regarded as magic amulets , and Christ ' s presence was thought to be nearer if it was localised ia the sacred bread . Tho grace of the Spirit was confined to mechanical transmission ; none were called religious unless they went to deserts or monasteries , or

tortured themselves with fasting and scourging ; but if all this teaching in Scripture which I havo read be true , all this is not what God requires , f ir all this , for whatever ifc may be valuable , is , at auy rate , valueless for salvation . Aud things grow worse .

The conceit of infallible opinion became a horrible curse to mankind ; the blood of hundreds of martyrs is ou its head , and the bitterness of broken hearts lies at its door . VViiafc was called orthodoxy , whafc was called catholicity ,

wu _ oftou hideous error , despicable for its ignorance , and oxecrabie for its cruelties . Men were massacred by wholesale for supposed mistaken tenets , while vice and villainy flaunted in high places unrebuked .

A . pope steeped to the lips in infamy founded the Inquisition ; murderers and adulteresses died in the odour of sauctity if they professed zeal for orthodoxy and subservience to the priests . Charles V . and Philip II ., men grossly immoral in personal character , doomed eighteen

hundred innocent victims to the scaffold and the stake , in tho Netherlands aloue , for such crimes as eating meat in Lent , or reading the Psalms in their native tongue . When Greece arose from the dead , with a Now Testament in her hand , when the bright and blissful Reformation , by

Divine power , struck through tho black and settled nighfc of ignorance and anti-Christian tyranny , and the sweet odour of tho returning Gospel invaded men ' s souls with the brilliancy of heaven , there was a brief bursting of this iron network of false traditions . But the yoke was soon

reimposed in other forms , because mon who love moral licence love also spiritual serfdom , and at this very d _ y there are many—whom I do nofc wrong in saying it , for tuey make ifc thoir open boast—there are manySwho are

frying to undo , as far as thoy dare , the work of the Reformation . But the Reformation was nothing but the sweeping away of accumulated falsities and mountainous corruptions . ( To be continued . )

Ar00502

r £ JHES-A _ S properly carried out and personally attended in f . ondon and Country , by Bro . G * . A . HUT TOM " , 17 Mewcastle 3 troet , Strand , W . C . Monuments erected . Valuations made .

“The Freemason's Chronicle: 1891-11-14, Page 5” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 21 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/fcn/issues/fcn_14111891/page/5/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
SUBURBAN FREEMASONRY. Article 1
INVASION OF JURISDICTION. Article 1
GRAND LODGE OF SCOTLAND. Article 2
DORSET MASONIC CHARITY. Article 3
TRY YOURSELF BY THIS. Article 4
Untitled Article 5
Untitled Article 6
MASONIC LECTURE AT NORWICH. Article 7
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Ad 8
Untitled Article 9
FREEMASONRY IN WILTSHIRE. Article 9
FREEMASONRY IN MADAGASCAR. Article 9
Untitled Ad 9
JUBILEE OF THE M.W.G.M. Article 10
" THE BASOCHB." Article 10
THE MASONIC "COMIC." Article 10
THE THEATRES, &c. Article 11
Untitled Ad 11
Untitled Ad 11
Untitled Ad 11
DIARY FOR THE WEEK. Article 12
INSTRUCTION. Article 12
Untitled Ad 13
Untitled Ad 13
Untitled Ad 13
Untitled Ad 13
FREEMASONRY, &c. Article 14
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
Untitled Ad 15
THE THEATRES, AMUSEMENTS, &c. Article 15
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Ad 16
Untitled Article 16
Page 1

Page 1

3 Articles
Page 2

Page 2

3 Articles
Page 3

Page 3

2 Articles
Page 4

Page 4

2 Articles
Page 5

Page 5

3 Articles
Page 6

Page 6

2 Articles
Page 7

Page 7

2 Articles
Page 8

Page 8

10 Articles
Page 9

Page 9

5 Articles
Page 10

Page 10

4 Articles
Page 11

Page 11

4 Articles
Page 12

Page 12

4 Articles
Page 13

Page 13

7 Articles
Page 14

Page 14

2 Articles
Page 15

Page 15

10 Articles
Page 16

Page 16

14 Articles
Page 5

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Try Yourself By This.

Not one syllable did Christ say for the tradition . 1 ism which in his day passed for tho only orthodoxy ; not oue word did He say in favour of all the elaborate ablutious , vestmentsfringes , phylacteries , feasts and fasts , and long

, prayers , whioh then passed for the indispousablo ceremonial ; but whilo ho was the friend of sinners , and forgave the penitent harlot , and approved of tho prayer ot the publican ; Ho blighted tho more professing religionist with flash after flash of his terrible denunciation .

And the teaching of every one of His apostles was the very antithesis of the spirit of externalism . They seemed to treat that wifch sovereign disdain , as though it belonged to the infinitely little . Their language is identical with that of the great prophets . " Circumcision "—then

regarded as the very first of necessary ordinances— " Circumcision , " said Saint Paul , " is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the keeping of the commandments of God . " What was the summary of Saint Paul ' s teaching ? Two words : " In Christ , " and two words more : " -Faith , "

" works . " What was tho sum of Saint James ' teaching ? Two words : " Compassion , " " uuworldliness . " What was the teaching of Saini John ? Oao word : "Love . " He

explains his apparent truism , " He that doeth righteousness ia righteous , " by that deep account of what true righteousness moans : "He that doeth righteousness is born of God . "

When Christ was asked what was the one test by which you could know true teachers from false , was it : " By their doctrine ye shall know them , " as men have most fatally taught ? Nothiug of the sort . It was : "By their fruits yo shall know them . " To preach these principles is to preach tho very essential heart of the

scriptural morality ; but yot it is a preaching that invariably makes religionists angry . For its importance lies in this : that it ia the very touchstone which

discriminates between true and false religion , and which sweeps away , at any rate , tho exaggerated importance attached to the adjuncts , the scaffoldings , the traditions and ordinances of men , which to so many make up the

whole of their religion . Now , you , my friends , are religions people . Your presence here shows thafc you profess religion . Nothing is more important than that you should know whether your religion is a sincerity or a sham . The Bible teaches you

—as I have shown , aud can show over and over againthat righteousness aud holiness aro the inmost essence , aud tho only outcome of true religion , that they are the very end and object of life : that if you have attained to them , you may stand free iu the liberty wherewith Christ hath

made you free—freo from all morbid scrnpulosities , iroui all carnal ordinances , freo from all wtak oi \ d beggarly elements , from all priestly domination , freo from all petty rules about things which polish iu tho using . If you do

not possess this purity ot heart aud righteousness or lite , tho orthodox •opinions and fche most elaborate -ritual in the world are nofc oue whit mure pleading to God than sounding brass or a tinkling cynibtd , and will weigh no moro in favour than the small dust _ f the balance .

Are you , as 1 have asked before , in God ' s sight , not deceiving yourself , but going up into tho tribunal , of your own conscience aud then seating yourself before yourself ? Are you in truth , each of yon , a good man ? If you are , then , though every Pharisee who ever lived should hate

you , and though every church in the world should excommunicate you , and though every priest that ever lived should hurl at you his separate anathema , as they

once did afc tho King of Saints , yefc to you the golden gates of heaven shall open harmonious on their golden hinges , and you shall be folded forever under the wings of eternal love .

But if you aro nofc simply in God's sight a good mat-, then , like a Saint of old , you ruay torture yourself lor lon ,. ; years , together with fasts and miseries ; or , like another , you may make your boasfc thafc you -daily offer seven hundred prayers , aud after ali this you may say to Christ

Have we nofc prophesied in Thy name , and iu Thy name wrought miracles , aud in Thy name done many wonderful works ? Bat * f , in spite of this externalibra and profession , you have not truly loved God , and have not been true to your neighbour , true by God ' s standard , and not by the

conventional standard of the world on one hand , or of churches and party on the other—ii , I Bay , you hsive not been thus essentially true to God and man , then shall He say unto you : " I never knew you . " I know veiy well thafc this ia un old lesson . You have

Try Yourself By This.

heard it before , for I have tried to insist on it bafora , and may have to do so again , for ifc is the one ltsson whioh popular religionism tries to escape , and the one lessou to which it must bo bound down by the sword point of the Word of God .

What God wants is not so-called orthodoxy , but " truth in the inward parts . " What will avail you is not any amount of religiosity , but righteousness . There are thousands of religions persons who would attach immense importance to such small mutters as to

whether a clergyman does this or that trumpery little thing , which is supposed to be tho badge of party , or whether we define Christ ' s presence in the elements materially or spiritually , or whether we hold the Bible to ba verbally dictated , or to contain the revelation of God .

Well—I tell you plainly , my brother , that all this may or may nofc bo important as opinion , and may or may nofc be important as ritual ; but your opinion and your ritual , ono way or tho other , is of quite infinitcsimd value as regards the saving of your soul .

Almighty God does not care for your opinions at all , if only they be honest ; Ho does not caro about your ritual ; but He does require your goodness . Without thafc goodness , without that kindness , without purity and honesty ,

without truthfulness and that rarest of all virtues , the love of truth , unselfish humility—without these , all your opinions and rituals may only mean thafc your leprosy is white as snow .

The reason why it ia necessary to insist on this is that eternity pharisaism of the human heart , which prefers formalism to spirituality , aud which causes a constant recrudescence of Judaism iu the heart of Christianity . Very early , from entire ignorance of the real relation of

the Old Testament to the New , there arose , in spite of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews , a disastrous confusion between the Christian ministry and the Jewish priesthood . And there followed a rapid glorification of shibboleths and ordinances .

The sacraments were soon regarded as magic amulets , and Christ ' s presence was thought to be nearer if it was localised ia the sacred bread . Tho grace of the Spirit was confined to mechanical transmission ; none were called religious unless they went to deserts or monasteries , or

tortured themselves with fasting and scourging ; but if all this teaching in Scripture which I havo read be true , all this is not what God requires , f ir all this , for whatever ifc may be valuable , is , at auy rate , valueless for salvation . Aud things grow worse .

The conceit of infallible opinion became a horrible curse to mankind ; the blood of hundreds of martyrs is ou its head , and the bitterness of broken hearts lies at its door . VViiafc was called orthodoxy , whafc was called catholicity ,

wu _ oftou hideous error , despicable for its ignorance , and oxecrabie for its cruelties . Men were massacred by wholesale for supposed mistaken tenets , while vice and villainy flaunted in high places unrebuked .

A . pope steeped to the lips in infamy founded the Inquisition ; murderers and adulteresses died in the odour of sauctity if they professed zeal for orthodoxy and subservience to the priests . Charles V . and Philip II ., men grossly immoral in personal character , doomed eighteen

hundred innocent victims to the scaffold and the stake , in tho Netherlands aloue , for such crimes as eating meat in Lent , or reading the Psalms in their native tongue . When Greece arose from the dead , with a Now Testament in her hand , when the bright and blissful Reformation , by

Divine power , struck through tho black and settled nighfc of ignorance and anti-Christian tyranny , and the sweet odour of tho returning Gospel invaded men ' s souls with the brilliancy of heaven , there was a brief bursting of this iron network of false traditions . But the yoke was soon

reimposed in other forms , because mon who love moral licence love also spiritual serfdom , and at this very d _ y there are many—whom I do nofc wrong in saying it , for tuey make ifc thoir open boast—there are manySwho are

frying to undo , as far as thoy dare , the work of the Reformation . But the Reformation was nothing but the sweeping away of accumulated falsities and mountainous corruptions . ( To be continued . )

Ar00502

r £ JHES-A _ S properly carried out and personally attended in f . ondon and Country , by Bro . G * . A . HUT TOM " , 17 Mewcastle 3 troet , Strand , W . C . Monuments erected . Valuations made .

  • Prev page
  • 1
  • 4
  • You're on page5
  • 6
  • 16
  • Next page
  • Accredited Museum Designated Outstanding Collection
  • LIBRARY AND MUSEUM CHARITABLE TRUST OF THE UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 1058497 / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2025

  • Accessibility statement

  • Designed, developed, and maintained by King's Digital Lab

We use cookies to track usage and preferences.

Privacy & cookie policy