Strange Revelations.

STRANGE REVELATIONS .

LONDON , SATURDAY , MAY 20 , I 860 .

RELIGION AND FREEMASONRY . A pamphlet . , entitled " The Issues of Religious Rivalry : A Narrative of Five Tears' Persecution , " by the Rev . Charles Rogers , LL . D ., F . S . A ., has lately come into our hands ; and it is of such an

extraordinary character , as regards the allegations that it makes respecting some who occupy elevated positions in the so-called " religious world /' and is , indeed , altogether , so start-ling a production , as to induce us to devote a special article to its examination .

There is , moreover , another reason , and a weighty one , that inclines us to give this pamphlet a more than passing notice—the author is a Freemason , and that fact has been made the ground of one ofthe charges brought , against him !

" Well / ' we can fancy our reader exclaiming , " this is too had ! Why should the Pope dare to persecute a British Freemason ? " " Tou are mistaken , my good brother ; the Pope , in this instance , is a Protestant one—no less exalted a

personage than George Henry Davis , Esq ., LL . D . ( late the Rev . G- . H . Davis , Baptist Minister ) , Secretary to the Religious Tract Society ! " Dr , Rogers writes : — " I am held up to public disfavour by Dr . Davis because I was ' Master of the

Stirling Freemasons . ' I know not whether Baptist Ministers such as Dr . Davis join the Roman Pontiff in opposing Freemasonry , but I am sure all Christian men who know what Freemasonry really is , will not regard me as an object of obloquy because I accepted the unanimous election of the Stirling . Freemasons to become Master of

their Lodge . Nor do I fear to acknowledge that I obtained the restoration of the Royal Arch Chapter of Stirling , believed to be the most ancient in the kingdom—that I ain in very heart a Freemason , and that it is my earnest desire and prayer

that the principles of Masonry , so distasteful to Dr . Davis , may spread wider and more wide ,

until" Man to man , the ivhole world o'er , May brothers be . " Let us now inquire who this person , that has had the audacity to charge our Pi , ev . brother with the heinous crime of being a Freemason , is . Be it premised that Ave know nothing of him save and except his name , and office in a society which

we have hitherto regarded as respectable and particular as to the selection of its officers . Assuming that the statements of Bro . Dr . Rogers are correct—and his statements are , it appears to us , abundantly supported by documentary

evidencewe learn that Dr . Davis seems to have been actuated by a desire to crush a society for the distribution of Religious Tracts , of which Dr . Rogers was the founder . Let Dr . Rosrfc'Vs describe in his own words one of the methods" adopted hy this

ex-Reverend to effect this object : — " In the second week of January a person called at my house . He represented himself as interested in tract distribution , and requested that he might have a shilling ' s worth of the different tracts . By

a member of my family he was informed that she had no authority to sell tracts , but that he should have a supply . He insisted on paying his shilling . f May I ask if you are a minister ? ' said my friend . ' I am not , ' was the reply . ' Who shall I say

called , when Dr . Rogers returns ? ' ' Henry / said the stranger . ' Has Dr . Rogers a committee ?' ' He has ; there is the list . ' I never heard of any of them / said the stranger . "

This Mr . Henry was no other than Dr . Davis , Secretary of the Religious Tract Society , who considers that the fact of a clergyman being a Mason may be alleged as a charge against him ! It appears that Dr . Davis obtained some very

important evidence from this little inquisitorial proceeding . " He saw , " says Dr . Rogers , during his incognito visit , a bust which he was informed was one of myself . He was particular in referring to this . Some , of course , might believe that I

was encouraging art and gratifying my own corrupt vanity by making such an acquisition at the cost of the society's funds . " Well , what is the history of the bust ? It' appears from the letter of the donor , Andrew Currie , Sculptor , that it was

presented by him as a mark of respect for Dr Rogers ' s integrity , unselfishness , and patriotism . This affair of the bust is quite on a par with the other wretched charges that have been made against Bro . Rogers . We have always had a

horror of religious dissentions and bickerings , but if any one wishes to be thoroughly disgusted with the odium theologicum and pious hatred , he . has only to read Bro . Rogers ' s pamphlet .

Verily , as the honest sculptor to whose letter reference has been made above says , " I have yet to learn how men who profess to be the spiritual guides of others can live in the commission of the