Trading On Freemasonry.

TRADING ON FREEMASONRY .

A" PRETTY thing" m mining prospectuses has been commented upon in various quarters , the prime mover making use of his association with Freemasonry in order to bring the scheme under the notice of fellow members of the Craft . Freemasonry was never intended to be used for such

^ a purpose , and we hope the Brother who so attempted to trade on the Order has found out by this time that it is a mistake to do so . If members of the Craft receive glowing accounts of projects specially recommended to them as

Masons , we hope their Masonic tuition will stand them in good stead , and induce them to display that caution which is so continuously impressed upon tbem in their earlier association with the Order . Gold mines are splendid things

in their way , but those which are any good do not require Freemasonry as a side issue to bolster them up , while those fchat are of questionable character only bring discredit on the Craffc when attempts are made to associate the two . Apart

from this latter consideration we think it may be taken as a maxim : always use especial care in entering into any business arrangement promoted on the basis of Masonic Brotherhood . There is no reason why Masons should not help each other

in the affairs of everyday life , but precautions should be taken such as will relieve Freemasonry of any odium if failure results , and had this care been exercised more generally in

days gone by we should have fewer Brethren now around us regretting they had been defrauded by men in whom they placed more than ordinary trust—because they came to them as Brother Masons .

A Romish "Code Of Honour."

A ROMISH " CODE OF HONOUR . "

r I IHE letters lately addressed to the " Tablet , " in regard to - * - what their writers choose to term " English Freemasonry , " have afforded us no small amount of amusement , and really it is very funny to read some of the rubbish these good men are told ,

and seem to believe as gospel truth , in regard to Freemasonry . If the tales some of them—apparently men of education and knowledge—tell were repeated by the class of wanderers who go from place to place professing to tell fortunes , these same

gentlemen would be among the first to denounce them as impostors and cheats , striving to make money out of the ignorant servant girls who know no better : but because the tales are used for a

professedly religious purpose we are asked to regard them from a different standpoint , and believe them as though they were unanswerable .

One of the more recent writers asks what the Marquis of Ripon , late Grand Master of England , has to say of his former associates and brethren , and remarks that someone told him in

apology for the silence of the Marquis * . "He ' s a gentleman . " But , says the writer , " even gentlemen can disclose secrets when there ia a sufficient cause , nay , are bound to reveal them . If Freemasonry be half as bad as it is said to be , the common good

A Romish "Code Of Honour."

requires thafc ifc should be unmasked , all promises and so called gentlemanly codes of honour to the contrary notwithstanding . " What a disreputable state of mind one must be in to argue on such lines , and what a beggarly cause it must be that can only hope to live by such underhand tactics as are here advocated .

Let us suppose for one moment that our former Grand Master was to recount in detail all he knew of Freemasonry , and we believe the majority of the English Brethren would readily give him permission to do so if it would put a check on the

senseless and absurd abuse levelled against us by the Eomish Church , how many of its fanatics would believe the Marquis ? The truth would not coincide with their ideas of what takes place within the portals of the Masonic Lodge , and they would only

abuse the Marquis of Ripon , or any other ex-member of our Order for matter of that , who did not manufacture lies enough to endorse the nonsense already palmed off upon them by designing schemers , as the works and teachings of English Freemasonrv .

Freemasonry And Devil-Worship.

FREEMASONRY AND DEVIL-WORSHIP .

riT-lHE Masonic Journals seem to be almost unanimous in I ignoring the subject of my heading , but I am of opinion that you do good service to Masonry in opening your columns to a free discussion of the matter . Though we know the innocence of the Order , and the thorough absurdity of the charges brought

against us , we must yet bear in mind that the Roman Catholics are a powerful body , who either believe , or pretend to believe , in our Devil Worship , and that the subject ; and object have the approval of all the great Catholic pi-elates from the Pope downwards , and that these lying Revelators have received the Apostolic Benediction .

As a term , so-called Devil Worship is of great antiquity , and is often enough applied to sects who differ from the general orthodoxy of any particular country . The Turks term a sect of Kurds Devil Worshippers , and a close enquiry into their creed will show that they practice the magical beliefs of their

forefathers , the old Assyrians . Equally Freemasonry as a pre-christian , or so supposed , system , can hardly expect to escape similar calumny ; in common with the protestant sects who are " led by the Devil" to reject the doctrine of fche Real Presence . In such general sense I should scarcely be offended

at being termed a Luciferian , ancl in writing recently to a Reverend Father on an attack he made against myself and a few high grade Masons in which , pace the Abbe Larudan , he asserted that Freemasonry was founded by Faustus Socinius , I did so reply as an antiquary rather than a theologian , and informed

him that whilst I preferred the discipline of my own church , I was inclined more , as regards doctrine , to his own ; Christianity being mainly a Jewish version of the Osirian worship as we find it in fche Book of the Dead and other Sacred literature of fche Egyptians , and in further proof of this the only profane record

( not to mention the manipulated Sepher Toldoth ) of the founder of our faith , is the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds which allege that Jesus the Son of Ben Panther received his education from a persecuted Cabalis ' c . named Rabbi Joseph , who took his charge into Egypt where he received priestly initiation , and upon his return to Jerusalem was stoned to death for teaching this

doctrine to the people . There seems good ground for saying that early Christianity was a secret society from which equally sprang Roman orthodoxy and Gnostic heterodoxy by divergence , and I told the Reverend Father that his Church ought to be the last to east its stone against Freemasonry , since everything connected with his faith could be shown to be Pagan from turret to foundation stone .