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Article CORRESPONDENCE. ← Page 3 of 6 →
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Correspondence.
made on the mind of the candidate on thc day of his initiation , tends very materially to establish his views with regard to the principles of the Order . The Lodge in which I was initiated was numerous and well-conducted , " all things were done decently and in order , " as much so as in any place of worship . The prayer , by which the blessing of Heaven was invoked on my initiation , was most beautiful and appropriate to the occasion , and its antiquity is confirmed by the " Freemason ' s Lexicon . " It was as follows : — " 0 Lord Godthou great and universal Mason of the worldand first builder
, , of man as it were a Temple , thou hast promised that when two or three are gathered together in thy name , thou wilt be in the midst of them . Be with us , 0 Lord , and bless us in this aud all our undertakings begun , continued , and ended in Thee . Grant that this our friend may become a true and faithful Brother amongst us . Let grace and peace he multiplied unto him through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ , and grant , 0 Lord , that as he puttetli forth his hand * to thy Holy Word , he may also put forth his hand to serve a Brother , that by this most excellent gift of charity sown in his heart , and springing up
in his actions , he may realise thy great and precious promises , and be made a partaker of thy Divine nature , escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust . 0 Lord God , add to our faith virtue , and to virtue knowledge , and to knowledge temperance , and to temperance prudence , and to prudence patience , and to patience Godliness , and to Godlines . s Brotherly love , and to Brotherly love charity . f And grant , 0 Lord , that Masonry may be blest throughout the world , and thy peace be upon us . And grant that we may be all united as ono fold , through our Lord Jesus Christ , who liveth and rcigneth for ever and ever . ( Candidate ) Amen . ( Chaplain ) So mote it be . " Now I can only say , that , had Major Trevilian been initiated in the same
Lodge , and upon the same occasion as myself , it would have been morally impossible that he could have imagined , after the recital of the above invocation , that Masonry was a system of pure Deism , or could have arrived at any other conclusion than that to which I have arrived . After the ceremony of my initiation , the W . M ., as was his wonted custom , delivered several sections of the Lodge lectures , explanatory of various portions of the ceremony which I had just undergone . That significant part which arrested my attention at the very threshold ( the only mode by which I could hope to gain admission to an
earthly Lodge ) , was adopted , he said , in allusion to that venerable exhortation uttered by the lips of the Saviour , and recorded in that sacred volume on whicli I had recently sealed my Masonic vows , " Seek and ye shall find , & c . " The allegory struck me forcibly , and I saw at once that the design of the originators of our system was , to remind the initiated that as the exhortation which fell from the lips of the Saviour in this instance , was adopted by us , symbolically , as an introduction to an earthly Lodge , so a diligent attention to his solemn injunctions in general , was indispensible to our gaining admission to that Grand Lodge above
where the world ' s Great Architect lives and reigns for ever . The W . M ., pursuing his lecture , drew my attention to that most conspicuous object in tho Lodge , Jacob ' s Ladder , pointed out as the Masons only path to Heaven . It did not , of course , require any argument to make me understand that I was not to look to the material ladder as the only means by which I might gain access to Heaven ; I could very plainly see that this ladder was but a symbolical allusion to the Saviour , of whom it is recorded , " Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open , and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Han , the antitype of this ladder . " This ladder , which Jacob in a vision saw ( thc W . M . continued ) , the foot of which rested upon the earth while the top reached to Heaven , partook thereby of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Correspondence.
made on the mind of the candidate on thc day of his initiation , tends very materially to establish his views with regard to the principles of the Order . The Lodge in which I was initiated was numerous and well-conducted , " all things were done decently and in order , " as much so as in any place of worship . The prayer , by which the blessing of Heaven was invoked on my initiation , was most beautiful and appropriate to the occasion , and its antiquity is confirmed by the " Freemason ' s Lexicon . " It was as follows : — " 0 Lord Godthou great and universal Mason of the worldand first builder
, , of man as it were a Temple , thou hast promised that when two or three are gathered together in thy name , thou wilt be in the midst of them . Be with us , 0 Lord , and bless us in this aud all our undertakings begun , continued , and ended in Thee . Grant that this our friend may become a true and faithful Brother amongst us . Let grace and peace he multiplied unto him through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ , and grant , 0 Lord , that as he puttetli forth his hand * to thy Holy Word , he may also put forth his hand to serve a Brother , that by this most excellent gift of charity sown in his heart , and springing up
in his actions , he may realise thy great and precious promises , and be made a partaker of thy Divine nature , escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust . 0 Lord God , add to our faith virtue , and to virtue knowledge , and to knowledge temperance , and to temperance prudence , and to prudence patience , and to patience Godliness , and to Godlines . s Brotherly love , and to Brotherly love charity . f And grant , 0 Lord , that Masonry may be blest throughout the world , and thy peace be upon us . And grant that we may be all united as ono fold , through our Lord Jesus Christ , who liveth and rcigneth for ever and ever . ( Candidate ) Amen . ( Chaplain ) So mote it be . " Now I can only say , that , had Major Trevilian been initiated in the same
Lodge , and upon the same occasion as myself , it would have been morally impossible that he could have imagined , after the recital of the above invocation , that Masonry was a system of pure Deism , or could have arrived at any other conclusion than that to which I have arrived . After the ceremony of my initiation , the W . M ., as was his wonted custom , delivered several sections of the Lodge lectures , explanatory of various portions of the ceremony which I had just undergone . That significant part which arrested my attention at the very threshold ( the only mode by which I could hope to gain admission to an
earthly Lodge ) , was adopted , he said , in allusion to that venerable exhortation uttered by the lips of the Saviour , and recorded in that sacred volume on whicli I had recently sealed my Masonic vows , " Seek and ye shall find , & c . " The allegory struck me forcibly , and I saw at once that the design of the originators of our system was , to remind the initiated that as the exhortation which fell from the lips of the Saviour in this instance , was adopted by us , symbolically , as an introduction to an earthly Lodge , so a diligent attention to his solemn injunctions in general , was indispensible to our gaining admission to that Grand Lodge above
where the world ' s Great Architect lives and reigns for ever . The W . M ., pursuing his lecture , drew my attention to that most conspicuous object in tho Lodge , Jacob ' s Ladder , pointed out as the Masons only path to Heaven . It did not , of course , require any argument to make me understand that I was not to look to the material ladder as the only means by which I might gain access to Heaven ; I could very plainly see that this ladder was but a symbolical allusion to the Saviour , of whom it is recorded , " Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open , and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Han , the antitype of this ladder . " This ladder , which Jacob in a vision saw ( thc W . M . continued ) , the foot of which rested upon the earth while the top reached to Heaven , partook thereby of