Newspapers / Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.) / Jan. 13, 1876, edition 1 / Page 6
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BB ■f: ; t ■.' 5 rv '.'K'.t' S-Jf.l i I*'« * 1^; i:ir;;‘ ;j;i- ;'. ' jji '1 '"’j i4‘ ,‘ , ,1 ‘ :- . M ■ :#i!:.W:|. ; ■ «•, I -i.... ‘m,.. •l i. ■ . ? ial.; ':i ;, ' . it ' p; i ..i.i; -r P ||t^' i .i -j i.xll II Mic' Jt itfiss 1 THE MASONIC JOURNAL The Church Party in France. A letter from Paris contains the follow ing : F-r some time past clerical orators and writers have been indulging in the most violent invectives against the Freema sons. Nothing will suit them but that .Freemasoiii'}’ is instituted in order to overthrow thrones and religion. A pamphlet called “The Freemasons— What. Aie They ?" issued bv the library of the Military Hospital of Toulouse, i.s now being circulated by thousands through France. The author declares that the Freemasons are possessed of a secret which is the secret ot the devil, and that they perform ihe devils mass “oil an altar ligated by six candles. Every one, after having spit on the cru- cifi.iti traiu[iles it under toot, the dia- Jiolical ceremony terminating by every one a.s..euditig the altar and striking the liply .saciament with a poinard. The pami hlet. declare.s that there are female Free:ua>ons, who.se morality it calls in ipuestioi). ;\ great deal is said about the secret, which i.s strongly condemned. Bene XIV, in the bull 'Providus," as.serte.l that there was an impenetrable seciv: whi'di wa.s al.so immoral, and the autl'.or of the pamphlet imitates the pon tiff in (pie.stioti in condemning what he Kiio.vs nuttiing about. Kasonry in the Civel War, The ellicacy of the ‘.sign of the mystic tic” wa.s never better illustrated than bv a-n incident tiiatoccured on the field that morning, which was related to me at Harper's Ferry four months after by the chief .i.itor in it, a captain in New Hamp shire regiment, who had 'then jlist been •xcnanged. He wa.s wounded ameng the first, li'efore daylight, and was too badly hurt lo be taken from the field. The first .lino or the Confederates swept past him in t..e jnirsuil witlioiit observing him, and he vVics first seen uy s surgeon who fol lowed in ihe rear At this time his woun l was bleeding cojiiously, he was tui mmjted with thirst, and hi.s condition was cnti..;al. He called out to the sur geon as he passed to help him. “Where are you hart?' the latter c uele sly ask ed '1 am hurt, in three ditfereiit places." was rue reply, and the sutl'erer mention ed them, making an appropriate sign for aach The surgeon iu.stantly recognized a Brother of that Order whose disciples are found in every land under the sun ; he stopped, gave him the best attention and relief that the time and place ad mitted of, had him conveyed to the rear at the first opportunity, and w.is unre mitting in his attentions and good offices from that time until he had procured bis Second.—A Class consi,stii.g of men w'ho are the moral and Masonic aiiti podes of the first. These make tlieir ap plication for ajjmi.ssion prompted, as the ritual requires, “by a favorable opinion conceived of the institution, and adesiie of knowledge." As soon as they are in itiated, they see in the ceremonies tiirougb whicli they liave jiawsed a phil osophical meaning worthy of the trouble of inquiry. They devote themselves to this inquiry ; make tliemselves acquaint ed witli the history of tlie Association ; in vestigate its origin and its ultimate de sign ; and explore the liiddeii sense ol its symbols and acquire the luterpretatioii. ISncli IMasons are always ustul and liono,* able members of the Order, and very Ire- queiitly become its shining lights. Third.—A class between tbe two above mentioned, consisting of Mason.s wli . join ed the society with unobjectionable mo tives, and, perhaps, the best intentions ; but they have failed to carry these inten tions into effect. Tiiey have supposed that initiation was all that was requisite to make tlipm Masonn. and that any further i-tudy was entirely unnecessary, ■And vet there i.s no want of Masonic am bition III any of them ; but tlieir ambi tion is not in the right direction. They have no thirst for knowledge, but tliey have a very great thirst for office or for de gree.s. t hese men do great injury to Ma sonry. Tliey have been called its drones Tiiev aie more ttiaii tiiat—tlie wasps, the deadly enemies of tlie indu.stiious liees. Tlie Doctor .savs that tlie ultimate sue ce.ss of Masonrv depends on the intelli gence of her disciples. The Congress at Lousanne- Mr Max Muller has lieen otfjred a pcolessorship iii Florence at a liigher sal ary than any ever offered before to a pro feisor in Italy. Prot. Basil L. Gildersleeve, of tlie Uni versity of 'Virginia, has accepted the chair ot Greek in the John Hopkins Universi ty at Baltimore, at a salary of $5,000, a vear. Daniel and James Prince, twins, and (we lielieve) brothers, living at Goshen .Mass., arc each 91 ye.irs of age They are supposed to be the oldest twins in existence, and Heaven only knows what time of life they might have reached it they had been triplets.—Inter Ocean. exchange. Different Classes of Masons. In an article in the June Voice, Dr. Mackey .divides Masons into three class es 1 First.—Tho.se who made their applica • tion for initiation not from a desire of knowledge, but from some accidental mo tive not always honorable. Such men have been led to seek reception either be cause it was likely, in the opinion, to fa cilitate their business oierations, or to advance their political prospects, sr in some other way to personally benefit them. Their nbjeot having been attain ed, or having failed to attain it, these men become indifferent, and, in time, fall into the rank of the non-affiiiatcs Of such Masons there is no hope. They are (laid trees, having no promise of fruit. Let them pass as utterly worthless, and incapable of improvemont. The editor of the Columbus (Ga.) Timts has met with that rara avis—a young pi inter out of debt He made this year 2,000 bushels of oats on one bun dred and fifty acres, corn and meat in plenty, and 12 bales of cotton. He em ployed only two regular hii-.ds hiring others when necessary by the day. He has made money, and says if he had hired eighteen hands and planted his plantation in cotton, the place would have been heavily involved in debt. Sensible fellow. A Washington special say.s the treasu ry department is preparing to make a general ex-aminalion of the books of all railroad companies, in order to ascertain whether they are indebted to the govern ment for taxes, accrued and withheld during the period embraced between Sept. 1st, 1863, and Dec, 31st, 1871, when the Internal revenue tax upon earnings and gross receipts of railroad companies ceased by limitation. Where taxes are found to be due, a demand will be made for payment. Companies reported to be so indebted will be offered an opportuni- tv to show that they are not so indebted. Should the companies reported as owing taxes decline to make payment when de mand is made, suit will he instituted by the United States for the amount return ed by the officer, together with the 50 per cent penalty, and one per cent inteiest per montZi prescribed by the Internal Bevenue Law and several amendments therelCK Vie have in a previous article referred to the meeting of a World s Masonic Con gress at Lausanne, Switzerland, and to tlie fact that the governing bodies on the North American continent lacked the moral courage to be represented. It will, doubtless, he said that the Congress was called under the auspices of the An cient and Accepted Rite, and, tlierefore, that Grand Lodges not professing any grade beyond that, of Master Mason, could not consistently lake interest in the deliberations of a body to which their rejire.seiitatives could not be admitted. Granted, hut rhis does not militate against the fact that every Grand Lodge is rep- re.“ented by some of its leading members in tiie Su)-reme Council, and tliat hence if the governing bodies of Ancient Craft Maionry in this country had wislied to ore,sent their views on topics of vital in terest to tlieir prosperity and continuance to this Congress, representing a majority of the Masonic powers in the world, they Could have done c-o through the Supreme Councii, and thus gained a hearing they may not, and probably will not again, tiave for many years. But tlie fact is, the Supreme Councils themselves, both North and South, lack tlie moral and Ma sonic courage to send from among their members some one or more Brethren who would have stood up before the congre gated universe, let alone the Congress, and liave declared tiieir convictions of .Masonic right and justice—have de manded that their right to govern mason ry within the limits of their respective jurisdictions sliould be held indefeasible. For fear, however, that some minor and altogether unimportant question might he agit.ited, and they he committed to it, ilie/ quietly folded their hands and al lowed the major question to go by default, or to lie decided against them because they were not heard on the merits, or in deed at all. It seems to be tlie prevalent idea in this country tl.al when a Masonic legislative body has met and passed upon tlie business before it, the world stands aoaj e tojliear t..e news, and that when its proceedings are puhlislied. men of every nation will hasted to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest tliem’’ as miracles ol wisdom. The tact is, however, that the voluminous pamphlets annually issued by the Ma.sonio [lowers aie rarely, if ever, read by any one in this country not ob liged to do so, and in Europe not at all. The consequence is, tliat in sfiite of our- .-.elves, all we have written, printed, pub lished, and declaimed on the subject of Grand Lodge jurisdiction, has been, jirac tically, just so much sawing of the air. so much time and money wasted ; simply because the .Europeans, not understand ing our language, in many instances can not, in more will not, take the trouble to read what we liave to say, or to under stand our reasons fc-r asving that, while we accord to all others the right to man age their own business in their own way, we be allowed a like privilege. We have reason to believe, ami do most earnestly and sincerely believe, that the presence of one or two representative men to speak for us in the presence of the Congress, would have brought about a better state of feelings and appreciation. It seems almost a liopeless case to in cline men to shake off the rust from their compositions and assume a position level with the rights and reqiiirementg of a constituency representing a majority of all the Craftsmen in tbe world. Never theless, it must be done, or, after all our labor, such Ishmaelites as the Grand Lodged Hamburg and the Grand Ori ent of Erance will step in and garner the harvest we have p anted and nursed ready for their buocaneeiingsickles. The Masonic press is largely to blame for this cowardly aputy, for had its con ductors been willing to study and [mint out the merits of tiie case, we should not have been left as we have been to fight ih's battle single handed. Their united influence would have been felt and ac hy Grand Lodges and. other bodies, exercising authority in tb and instead of trembling at their e Craft 0*11 shadow like a conventicle of olrl of l.oof 1 I they would at least have had thecosragi knowledge i to claim ownership in their own eoul and to have said to the advancing w,/’ of European invasion, “Stand back 1 be no longer Brethren of ours,'' 'rp' last neglect i.s of a piece willi the rest l" if it have the effect of awakeningthMioti born of wasted op[iortunity, [.erliap, ji may not yet be too late to retrieve H error. But lo return. We starred out totj, that the Congress was held at the jj' pointed time in September last, and >1 though its full jiroceedings have no[ reached us, we have the deciaration of principles adopted by it, which we sub. join, and in which even the most liu^j old lady among us will find it difficult to jioint out anything to winch Ameritju Masons are not ready and willing to con mit themselves. Freemasonry proclaimed, the e.xisleuci of a Creative [)riiici['al under the named' the Great Architect of the Universe, She im[i08es no Jimit to the seaicb af ter truth, and it is to guaiaiitee this lib erty to ail that she exacts Iroiu ail—n,|. eration. Freema.soiiry is, therelore,optii to men of eveiy nation, race and Lei ef, In her assemblies -lie forbids ail rtligi. oils or political disou.'isions, glad))’ reewv iug an apiilicant, wliatever inav he bit leligiuus or political u[iin'oiis—*nb which she has nothing to do--) rovului he he free and of good report. The object of Freemasonry ia to strivi against intolerance in ail Us ionna, u u a mutual school, the lebson.s ot which mu; he thus summed up : to obey the lawj d one’s country ; to live Lonerahly ; loU just and love one's neighhor ; to wcikiij. ceasingly for the good of humaniti aid its peaceful and progressive utvejq. ment. Such is the doctrine of iiabcnq, and the doctrine to be aUupieUhjHli who wish to belong to the Ciall. But alongside of these [irincijiles Iht Congress desires to [iroolaim the habwea which Masonry rests that all may tnos them. To raise man jn his own sight, lu mah him worthy of his misson on earth, M- sonry declares as a principle thattbehi- preme Creator has given to man as bit most precious inlierUance—liheit)! lib erty as a celestial ray of light no po*er can extinguish or dim, and wliicU ibihi source of every senument of honor auJ dignity. From the first to the last degreeoi 11a- sonry’the one indispensable cunditinii oi candidacy is that the BS[iirant shidi Lava an indisputable reputation lor honor ani honesty. To men for whom religiouii the supreme consolation. Masonry bays; Follow the dictates of your own on- cience ; Freemasonry is not a lel'giuii, and has no form of worship, the iloei desire secular education. Her whuie.ii- Ktruotion i.'- summed up in the admOuitioD, “Love thy neighbor V" To those who reasonably fear jiolilidl dissensions. Masonry says: All [iciilital debates are forbidden in our atseialuieo Be a faitliful and devoted servant ol yuur country, and you liave no accouiit Id render us. Love of country accords \iitb the practice of every virtue. Our morality is the purest and moat sacred, for it is based on humanity; lb* true Mason seeks to do good to all, aai to relieve the distressed, whoever tbey may he. To him immorality can never be congenial. Such are the foundations on wticli Freemasonry reposes, and which assurs to all the members of our great laniily t“* most intimate union, notw ithstanding tb®’ various countries tbey inhabit—a uiiioc of fraternal love. This truth is atte.-teil by the meeting of this Congress. I"' known to anotlier, coming from various countries, hardly had we exchanged tbe first words of greeting than an lutiinalj union was establislied among us, naiid grasped hand fraternally, and our most important resolutions have been sdopeiL in loving harmony and with unanimous assent. Freemasons of all nations, citizens of all eouutiie.s, such are the piecepts,-*"* laws, the mysteries of Freemasonry- Against it the efforts of calumny are po*' erless and without response. Marching, peacefully from victory to victory, dsf by day, she extends the sphere of bfj’ moial and civiliziag influence—A •f'' Dispatch.
Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 13, 1876, edition 1
6
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