Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sermon,
forming to the indispensable custom of guarding our doors agaiust intrusion . How , then , " would the ungodly triumph , " if male and female were to meet so guarded ? Some have laughed us to scorn for having , as they suppose , no secrets ; and this supposition they draw from the probability that , if we had any , they would , long ago , have been divulged . But it is not every Freemason who could divulge them , if he ivould : for it would
require more time than many are willing to take for the performance of the infamous task , and they who know our secrets best , respect them most—not that we rejoice because they are secrets , for they are too worthy of being known ; but as secrets we receive them , as secrets we must keep them , ancl the moment they cease to be secrets , will immediately be followed by the dissolution ofthe society . No institution can be expected to subsist , after the fundamental principle of it lias been subverted .
Why , then , did it originate in secrecy ? For wise and good reasons ; and ^ though the same reasons no longer conduce to the continuance of it , the virtuous obligation to it remains the same , and woe to that brother ivho can deliberately attempt the profanation of any virtue ! But some brethren disgrace themselves , and bring obloquy upon the Order , by vices as shameful and notorious as those of other men . Some return home on a Lodge-night in a state of intoxication . Take noticehowever
, , that we do not profess to meddle ourselves with the free agency of man ; and if we did , our influence as Freemasons is much less extensive than that we possess as Christians , and how inadequate the latter is to the reformation of the thoughtless , the vicious , and the stubborn , I need not mention . A lodge is , in most places , holden at an inn ; for our funds are generally applied to more disinterested and public than that of building lod-rooms for
purposes ge ourselves ; and it is only at an inn where we can freely exercise the duties of our mysterious calling , though , I am free to confess—where it can be had—I prefer a private house . Yet , at an inn , if any Brother chooses to continue there , ancl drink to excess , after the lodge is closed , he is no longer under our controul . Why are there not more persons of liberal education , talents , learning , professional celebrity , wealth , and rank , among us ? It is one of avowed
our principles to recognise no other distinction between the candidates for our mysteries than that of moral worth ; and we prefer the acquisition of one brother on that ground to the acceptance of a thousand , howsoever accomplished , fortunate , or exalted , ou any other consideration . Indeed , all men profess to act according to the like rule ; but , I confess , tbat I have seldom seen those professions so beautifully and completely realised as in a lodge . If persons of opulence or hih descent too to
g are proud hold intercourse with their inferiors , the fault is not ours . If they choose to learn how to do it without degradation , we are ready to teach them that useful lesson . In this brief apology for Freemasonry , I have not studied to be eloquent . Our institution requires no aid from artifice ; and if it did , I should unfeignedly despise it . My object has been to prove as lainland satisfactorily as I couldfrom the princiles which '
p y , p we maintain , in common with our fellow-subjects and fellow-Christians the purity of those which it is our duty to conceal . If there be any truth in my text—and if there be not , there is no truth in Scripture—a day will come , when ours , and all other secrets .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sermon,
forming to the indispensable custom of guarding our doors agaiust intrusion . How , then , " would the ungodly triumph , " if male and female were to meet so guarded ? Some have laughed us to scorn for having , as they suppose , no secrets ; and this supposition they draw from the probability that , if we had any , they would , long ago , have been divulged . But it is not every Freemason who could divulge them , if he ivould : for it would
require more time than many are willing to take for the performance of the infamous task , and they who know our secrets best , respect them most—not that we rejoice because they are secrets , for they are too worthy of being known ; but as secrets we receive them , as secrets we must keep them , ancl the moment they cease to be secrets , will immediately be followed by the dissolution ofthe society . No institution can be expected to subsist , after the fundamental principle of it lias been subverted .
Why , then , did it originate in secrecy ? For wise and good reasons ; and ^ though the same reasons no longer conduce to the continuance of it , the virtuous obligation to it remains the same , and woe to that brother ivho can deliberately attempt the profanation of any virtue ! But some brethren disgrace themselves , and bring obloquy upon the Order , by vices as shameful and notorious as those of other men . Some return home on a Lodge-night in a state of intoxication . Take noticehowever
, , that we do not profess to meddle ourselves with the free agency of man ; and if we did , our influence as Freemasons is much less extensive than that we possess as Christians , and how inadequate the latter is to the reformation of the thoughtless , the vicious , and the stubborn , I need not mention . A lodge is , in most places , holden at an inn ; for our funds are generally applied to more disinterested and public than that of building lod-rooms for
purposes ge ourselves ; and it is only at an inn where we can freely exercise the duties of our mysterious calling , though , I am free to confess—where it can be had—I prefer a private house . Yet , at an inn , if any Brother chooses to continue there , ancl drink to excess , after the lodge is closed , he is no longer under our controul . Why are there not more persons of liberal education , talents , learning , professional celebrity , wealth , and rank , among us ? It is one of avowed
our principles to recognise no other distinction between the candidates for our mysteries than that of moral worth ; and we prefer the acquisition of one brother on that ground to the acceptance of a thousand , howsoever accomplished , fortunate , or exalted , ou any other consideration . Indeed , all men profess to act according to the like rule ; but , I confess , tbat I have seldom seen those professions so beautifully and completely realised as in a lodge . If persons of opulence or hih descent too to
g are proud hold intercourse with their inferiors , the fault is not ours . If they choose to learn how to do it without degradation , we are ready to teach them that useful lesson . In this brief apology for Freemasonry , I have not studied to be eloquent . Our institution requires no aid from artifice ; and if it did , I should unfeignedly despise it . My object has been to prove as lainland satisfactorily as I couldfrom the princiles which '
p y , p we maintain , in common with our fellow-subjects and fellow-Christians the purity of those which it is our duty to conceal . If there be any truth in my text—and if there be not , there is no truth in Scripture—a day will come , when ours , and all other secrets .