The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1841-07-03
vored of Heaven.

Such was the commencement of the
Christian era.-And from that moment,
down TO the present time, in every civil
zed age and nation, at each recurring an
niversary of his birth the memory of
SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, the great har-
blnger of this glorious era,--the distin.
gulshed bulwark of Free Masonry has
been celebrated, honored and revered by
the brotherhood, and hallowed by the
mystic ceremonials of the Order. And
on this day, and at this hour, the crafty
ing and sublime spectacle is exhibited, OF
the whole united body of our time honor
ed Fraternity, clothed in the habiliments
and emblems of their high vocation, as
sembling to do honor to the memory of
the illustrious dead, and to rejoice in the
enjoyment of their peculiar privileges.
1t is for like purpose, fellow citizens,
that we have again assembled together,
and again exhibit before you the symbols
and paraphernalia of our institution. But
why this display3-Why these repeated
exhibitions of Masonic pageantry? What,
in fact, are the origin and objects of Free
Masonry?-These questions have fur
nlshed fruitful themes for the poet and
orator, the essayist and historian, in all
ages and nations, since the creation Of the
Order. Speech after speech has been
made-volume after volume has been
written, and still the same prolific field
for discussion and investigation is ex-
tended before us. On the one hand we
have seen the institution made the subject
Of the most fulsome and extravagant
eulogies--on the other, the walls of ha-
tired, vituperation and detraction have
been unsparingly poured out upon it.
Despotism has sought to trample it in the
dust, and to blot out forever, every hui
man record gifts existence. The secret
and powerful shafts Of the Inquisitlon
have been repeatedly hurled against it,
Popular fanaticism, assuming the garb Of
patriotism and religion, has boldly en-.
tered the lists, and, with furious zeal
and fendish malignity, has declared
against it war of uncompromising ex
termination. Yet Free Masonry still
exists. Interrupted by the extrava.
gance of its friends its vital energies
untouched by all the powers Of earth thai
have been leagued against it, it still
flouriShes, fresh and luxuriant, as the
holy religion to which opportunities
and like that religion, even amid perse
cution and oppression, it teaches forgive
ness and charity, and shines forth radiant
with the celestial virtues, on which it is
based.
The origin of Free Masonry is cnvelo
ped in clouds and darkness, which the
eye of the initiated scarce can penetrate
Yet to the learned historian, wide visit;
through the surrounding gloom is oper
to many bright vestiges of it's existence
in the early periods Of antiquity. In the
beautiful proportions, the wonderful sy
metry and magnificent structure of the
ancient Temple at Jerusalem, we be
hold the power and influence Of the Ma
sonic art We trace it in the mighty
ruins that are scattered over Egypt anC
Persia. The magnificent cities of an
cient Greece bear incontestble evidence
gifts presence and its power. And when
at the fall of the Roman Empire, ligh
and knowledge seemed to have fled from
the face Of the earth--when the works o
art, the results Of science, the emanation
of genius, had been Frustrated by barba
rlan ferocity;--when all that was grand
and sublime, and beautiful in the work
of man had
"GOne-glimmering through the dream O
things that were ~
when religion and learning had fled &c
the cloister of the monk and the hermit
when ignorance and supersttionhung lik
2 pail over the face of the earth; eve
then, Free Masonry survived. Its ligh
shone steady, constant, and unobscured
amidst the universal darkness around i
an oasis in desert Of gIoom--a bea
, con-light on wide ocean of doubt an
obscurity, to guide the historian through
the clouds of the middle ages, to the re
hottest periods of antiquity. Thus, how
$ ever obscured to our vision NAV he i