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Article CORRESPONDENCE. ← Page 6 of 8 →
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Correspondence.
itself unseemly . '" Surely , of all logic , such reasoning is most illogical ; ancl of all Scripture misapplication , the above text is the most mal-a-propos it ever fell to my lot to read . That argument is followed up by an insinuation which is rather of a provoking nature . " True Masons , " the reviewer proceeds , "instead of calumniating , cannot evince sufficient gratitude to God ' s ancient people . " In the name of sober and common senseMr .
, Editor , where , and in what particular expression , can you discover calumny ? Verily , if any one has reason to complain of having been made the victim of calumny , I am the man . Probably the above passage is also included in that which your reviewer could not " really understand . " If so , why did he not leave it alone altogether ? But at last conies an argument of a very serious naturebecause
, founded on Biblical criticism , but , at the same time of a very repz-ehensible character . " Our Rev . Brother , " observes the reviewer , " would have done well if he hacl consulted the Old Testament , where he would have found many examples of a pure Masonic spirit , worthy of Christian imitation . Ben-hadad , the Syrian monarch , who was conquered by the Israelites 900 years before Christand whose discomfiture is assigned to the Assyrians having
, said 'that the Lord was God of the Mils and not of the valleys , ' owed his life to his compassionate conqueror and Brother ! in the following manner ( 1 Kings xx . 30 ) : — 'And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber . And his servants said unto him , Behold now , we have heard that the kings of the house
of Israel are merciful kings : let us , I pray thee , put sackcloth on our loins , and ropes upon [ over ] our heads , and go out to the king of Israel ; peradventure he will save thy life . So they girded sackcloth on their loins , and put ropes on their heads , and came to the king of Israel , and said , Thy servant Ben-hadad saith , I pray thee , let me live . And he said , Is he yet alive ? He is my brother . Now the men did diligently observe whether anything would eome from him ,
and did hastily catch it . [ This could only be a . Masonic sign . ] Ancl they said , Thy brother Ben-hadad . [ Of course they returned the sign . ] Then he said , Go bring him : and he caused him to come up into the chariot . And Beu-hahad said unto him , The cities which my father took from thy father I will restore , and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus , as my father made in Samaria : Then said AhabI will send thee away with this covenant . So he
, made a covenant with him , and sent him away ! ' " You observe , Mr . Editor , that I have transcribed the above in all its integrity , with the problematic italics , ancl gratuitous brackets . I have often heard the passage made use of , viva voce , to prove Benhadad a Freemason , and I have always endeavoured to point out the egregious absurdity which such an exposition produced ; but I never thought that any sound-minded Brother could actually sit down
and write it out for the press , and then deliberately revise the proof-sheet , and allow it to be published . I certainly hitherto believed that even a schoolboy knew perfectly well that those words in the English Bible , which are printed in italics , are not to be found in the original Scriptures , and therefore nothing could be proved from them . Now what could any one conclude , on consulting the Old Testament , on that point , and finding that the words " any-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Correspondence.
itself unseemly . '" Surely , of all logic , such reasoning is most illogical ; ancl of all Scripture misapplication , the above text is the most mal-a-propos it ever fell to my lot to read . That argument is followed up by an insinuation which is rather of a provoking nature . " True Masons , " the reviewer proceeds , "instead of calumniating , cannot evince sufficient gratitude to God ' s ancient people . " In the name of sober and common senseMr .
, Editor , where , and in what particular expression , can you discover calumny ? Verily , if any one has reason to complain of having been made the victim of calumny , I am the man . Probably the above passage is also included in that which your reviewer could not " really understand . " If so , why did he not leave it alone altogether ? But at last conies an argument of a very serious naturebecause
, founded on Biblical criticism , but , at the same time of a very repz-ehensible character . " Our Rev . Brother , " observes the reviewer , " would have done well if he hacl consulted the Old Testament , where he would have found many examples of a pure Masonic spirit , worthy of Christian imitation . Ben-hadad , the Syrian monarch , who was conquered by the Israelites 900 years before Christand whose discomfiture is assigned to the Assyrians having
, said 'that the Lord was God of the Mils and not of the valleys , ' owed his life to his compassionate conqueror and Brother ! in the following manner ( 1 Kings xx . 30 ) : — 'And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber . And his servants said unto him , Behold now , we have heard that the kings of the house
of Israel are merciful kings : let us , I pray thee , put sackcloth on our loins , and ropes upon [ over ] our heads , and go out to the king of Israel ; peradventure he will save thy life . So they girded sackcloth on their loins , and put ropes on their heads , and came to the king of Israel , and said , Thy servant Ben-hadad saith , I pray thee , let me live . And he said , Is he yet alive ? He is my brother . Now the men did diligently observe whether anything would eome from him ,
and did hastily catch it . [ This could only be a . Masonic sign . ] Ancl they said , Thy brother Ben-hadad . [ Of course they returned the sign . ] Then he said , Go bring him : and he caused him to come up into the chariot . And Beu-hahad said unto him , The cities which my father took from thy father I will restore , and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus , as my father made in Samaria : Then said AhabI will send thee away with this covenant . So he
, made a covenant with him , and sent him away ! ' " You observe , Mr . Editor , that I have transcribed the above in all its integrity , with the problematic italics , ancl gratuitous brackets . I have often heard the passage made use of , viva voce , to prove Benhadad a Freemason , and I have always endeavoured to point out the egregious absurdity which such an exposition produced ; but I never thought that any sound-minded Brother could actually sit down
and write it out for the press , and then deliberately revise the proof-sheet , and allow it to be published . I certainly hitherto believed that even a schoolboy knew perfectly well that those words in the English Bible , which are printed in italics , are not to be found in the original Scriptures , and therefore nothing could be proved from them . Now what could any one conclude , on consulting the Old Testament , on that point , and finding that the words " any-