From the Loudou Freemason.
Some of the Peculiarities of An
cient Craft Masonry.
WEBB JUNIOR.
It has loHg been conceded that Free-
itiasonry an institution peculiar, nay,
wonderf',',1, in many respects—is a subject
worthy of the attention of the moralist,
the statesman and the philosopher.
Others, too, who are not entitled to
these high designations, may study this
oldest and strongest of human institu
tions with advantage.
There are some peculiarities of this
Institution which will early attract the
attention and awaken the interest of the
Masonic student and which we may briet-
3y consider.
Our attention may be first directed to
the universality claimed for the Order.
The Monitors say ;
From East to West, and between
North and South, Freemasonry, extends,
and in every clime are Masons to be
found,
'And the learned Dr. Mackey states that
“Over the whole habitable globe are
our lodges disseminated. Wherever the
wandering steps of civilized man have
left their foot-prints, there have our tem
ples been established. The lessons of
Masonic love have j-enetrated into the
wilderness of the West, and the red man
of our soil has shared with his more en
lightened brother the mysteries of our
science, while the arid sands of the Afri
can desert have more than once been the
scene of Masonic greeting.
The claim of universality is, indeed,
not an idle boast.
Reports on foreign correspondence,
foreign publications, of the Order, sta
tistics, the narrative of travelers, and
other documents too numerous and elab
orate to quote here, all bear testimony to
the existence of Masonry in all paits of
the world. And while the number of
Masons in any one community, or dis
trict, may be, and unusually is, small in
proportion to the whole population of
such district, yet there are few localities,
indeed, of any considerable size where
some members of the Order are not to be
found.
Freemasonry, in its organization, prin-
pies, methods of teaciiing, and in its ob
jects, has, and from the facts above stat
ed, must have the elements necessary to
a cosmopolitan institution. For example,
it recognizes no political systems of theo
ries, save only the rights of man hy the
law of nature; knows nothing of reli
gious creeds or sectarian dogmas as such,
■save a belief in God, the ©bligations of
the moral law, and the immortality of
the soul—fundamental truths about
which all men may agree. An eloquent
writer truthfully says:
It exists in Pagan, Jewish, Moslem and
Papal countries. Some of its members
worship the sun, and others the shek-
inah ; some fall before the crescent and
others before the cross; but it has
taught them to respect and tolerate each
other.
Its universality is a peculiar charac
teristic of Freemasonry. Every man
belongs to some nationality by birth or
ad-iption, and is an alien in all other
lands than his own. Other societies, re
ligious or secular, are, in the main, con
fined to certain localities or countries.
But Freemasonry is a universal republi ■
can Brotherhood, which knows no inter
national boundaries, no race, no country,
but has the whole earth for its territory.
It is, essentially, the Same institution
wherever found, providing for certain
wants of men, of all races, and in all con
ditions of life, and possessing a universal
language of signs and symbols under
stood by its members in all countries.
For convenience there are lodges, or
places of assembly, in oitie.s, villages, and
other localities, and separate general and
local jurisdictions ; but be who becomes
a member in one lodge, or jurisdiction, is
a Mason, not only there but everywhere.
A Mason in one country is a Mason in
all countries, and is recognized as a
brother entitled to certain rights and
privileges, by the mysterious language he
speaks, in all lauds. Have we not just
cause to be proud of this peculiar feature
of our Order?
Another peculiarity of Freemasonry is
its elaborate and beautiful system of
teaching by symbols, allegories, types
and emblems, being the oldest method of
imparting instruction known to the
world. By this system a large class of
important truths and principles are
brought within the comprehension of
even the most illiter,ate, and are impress
ed upon the mind in a manner unequal
ed by any other method of instruction,
but now preserved only in Freemasonry,
as a complete system, and in the Romish
church partially. It is a system the
beauty and value of which becomes more
and more apparent the better we study
its history and philosophy.
Our attention is called also, to the sys
tem of government of our Order, by a
Master and two Wardens, in Grand and
subordinate Lodges, and certain funda
mental and unchangeable rules, known as
landmarks, all forming a system of gov
ernment, originai and peculiar, and
found nowhere else, except by adoption.
It is a perfect and absolute power, with
representative democracy and
the preservation of individual rights by
immutable laws. And right here we
meet another, and most valuable, peculi
arity of Freemasonry,—that is its most
permanent, unchangeable character. In
Its system of government, in its land
marks, in its fundamental principles and
objects, no changes or innovations are
necessary to adapt it to the wants anil
conditions of men in all countries, and in
all times; nor are any changes or inno
vations permitted. No power exists
anywhere within or without the Order to
make such changes. Sere, indeed is per
mananoe. No perversion of purposes; no
“shifting sands of doctrine.” We know
what we have. It is, indeed, gratifying
to discover that amid the ever changing
and ephemeral associations instituted by
men, from time to time, for various pur
poses, there is, at least, one which is
steadfast. Is it too much to say that
Freemasonry is the only permanent con
servator among the chances and changes
of time, of those fundamental laws and
principles of human rights and those
moral obligations which are binding on
all men ?
A peculiar feature of Freemasonry is
its silence and unobtrusiveness. A lodge
may exist in our midst for years, and we
hardly recognize the fact. It interferes
with no person, sect, part}', or opinion,
and never asks any favours or special
privileges from community, church or
State. It raises no disputes, argues no
questions, and strives to live in quietness
and peace with all men. Unlike other
societies, it ever maintains ' its dignity
and reserve. It seeks not the popular fa
vour; it does not proselj te ; it sends out
no propagandsits, and pays nothing to re
cruits ; and while the worthy who knocks
at its doors are seldom denied, they are
never urged to seek admission.
The equality of all men Oefore God and
in natural light and in natural right iu
the lodge-room, as taught in Masonry, is
peculiar to thi-s institution. Other socie
ties, secular and even religious, grant
preferment and favours much according
to social, pecuniary, and civil distinc
tions. But Masonic equality is real—
not merely theoretical. The Ancient
Charges declare that “all preferment
among Masons is grounded upon real
worth and merit only.” The Order re
gards no man for his worldly worth or
honours. Prince and peasant, plebian
and patrician meet upon the same level.
The day'labourer, the farmer, the me
chanic, as has frequently been the fact,
may be Master or Grand Master, while
the rich man, the professional man or the
highest civil or military functionary
may be and often is, but a private , mem
ber. And this is so because Masons as
semble in a higher character, or upon a
higher plane than that made by merely
conventional distinctions,—they meet as
men and brethren.
We may add, in cone u.sion, that,
while Masonry knows nothing of politi
cal parties, yet in all countries and in all
times the Order has taught its disciples
the fundamental doctrine of Liberty,
p'rateniity, and Equality, and these prin
ciples Masonry taught before modern re
publics had existence. Liberty, regulat
ed bylaw; obedience to established au
thority ; the fatherhood of God; the
brotherhood of man, and tolerence of
private 1 eiigious and political opinions,
are of the very essence of Freemasonry.
And the thought comes to ns here—
should it not have long since have come
to the prejudiced and short-siglited op
ponents of Masonry—what other institu
tion known among men presents, has al
ways presented, such a powerful, such a
successful bulwark to the insidious en
croachments of ecclesiastical and politi
cal de.spotisms, which ivould re-instate
and are labouring to re-instate the intel
lectual darkness, the intolerance and
iiigotry and the religious dogmas of the
Middle Ages?
Despotic power in Church and in State
to-day, as for ages past, hates Freemason
ry -vith an undying hate. What does it
mean ?
May not the friends of civil and re
ligious liberty, of morality of toleration,
of fraternity, in all lands, ponder on the
question how great and good a work has
Freemasonry been silenty, but surely, do
ing in the centurit-s gone by ? What
mission has this Order, so old, so strong,
so peculiar in its charactei', to fulfil in
the centuries to come ?
PEJf AND SCISSORS.
The Sioux Indians number 60,000.
Vermont employs 4000 school teacli-
ei'S.
Squirrels are unusually abunclaiit in
Wisconsin.
A Virginia fiii-mer eauglit ids pigs
sucking his co-vs.
A house built in 1686 is still standing
in Nantucket.
Large wolves roam through tlie streets
of Greeley, Col.
.... Boston has had an unusual number of
drowning cases this year.
Cork helmets are to adorn the lieads of
tlie London police.
The sale of American patent medicines
is to be stopped iu Pai'is.
.... Mr. Moody’s revival sermons liave been
piiiited in ttie Madagascar language.
.... Mrs. Bobb, of Corpus Cliristie, owns
2d,Q00 acres ofland and 1,1,000 liead of cattle.
.... Forty one cities of the United States
have an aggregate debt of .almost .$600,000,-
000.
Wisconsin produces 100,000 bushels of
cranberries annually. Tliis must be Cranber
ry Centre.
.... Near the Sandwich Islands the tem-
per.ature affects tlie water for 200 fatlioms In
deptU-
.... A Birmingliam (Conn.) man ims set up
for a -whistling instructor, and has formed
two classes.
Ore effect of cutting down the trees in
Canada lies been to deplete tlie streams of
speckled trout.
Tnith, courage and justice are the lion
virtues tliat siiould stand around tlie tliroue
of national greatness
.... Tliei-e are no !e.ss than 1200 Cliristian
congregations in the Island of Madagascar,
numbering 260,000 worshippers.
.... The teacher who govei II s well gains
tpoi'e by ivaiting than talking. Many words
are an indication of weakness, not of strength.
.... Benevolence is not merely a feeling,
but a principle; not a dream of rapture to in
dulge in, but a business for the liand to ex
ecute
.... Itliaca young ladies are wearing as an
ornament a little gold broom. There must be
some significance to it, of course, but we can't
imagine wh,at it is.
.... A Saratoga girl writes lioine: “Tlierc
are plenty of males here—lisping, silly, hair-
]iarted in the middle swells—but O, for the
sight of one genuine man!”
The Presbyterian Board of Foreign
Ilisdoiis was made $10,000 riclieraday or two
ago ijy a Boston man, who said lie would
rather pay Ins legacy wiiile he M as alive.
A cree]iing vine on the Church of the
Ascension, in New York, lias taken such leaps
in growth this summer that it is now climbing
tlie higlie-t turret, 100 feet in air.
.... Jom-nalisls fare hard in Japan. The
least critici.-^m of tlie Government is severely
punished. Many editors liave recently been
condemned to imprisonment and otiiers fined.
Tlie story comes from Nevada tliat a
maramliiig band ofgi-asslioppers were turned
aside from a certain village by the fact that a
new brass band was practicing tiiere as they
approached it.
.... The city government of Buffalo lias
proliibited the firing of cannon in the city at
political ceiebrations, on tlie ground tiiatlt is
“a useless waste of money, a iniisaiice, and of
no use to ci'.lier party.”
It is a serious question in Sioux city
whether tlie Mayor of that town looks more
dignified with Ills pants sliovcd into his boot
legs than he does going around with three
houndsbciiind iiim.—Ddro'.t Free Press.
Mrs. Barber, of Ovid, Mich., was hit-
tenby a rattlesnake Monday. Her moiitli
and back I iirned perfect ly black in a few mo
ments, but a pliysician packed lier body in
salted mud and administered antidotes in
large quantities and slie will recover.
A little girl in Reading, I'a., rccentiy saiv
an old drunken man lying on a door.steji, tlie
perspii'iitioii pouring off ids lace, and a crowd
of chiUlreii preparing to make fun of him.
Slie took her little apron and wiped ids face,
and tlien looked up so pitifully (o the rest and
made this remark; “Oli, say, don't laut liini.
lie’s somebody’s grandpa.”
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