Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1859-09-22
Masonic.
Amos Vii, IS.


This passage Of Scripture is much used in
the Fellow Craft Degree, but many, we fear,
fail to sec its proper Masonic application.
Gods people have wandered far from Him.
Under the wicked Jeroboam they had been
guilty of all manner ofsin They were gull
ty Of oppression, Of wantonness, Of hypocrisy
and idolatry. SO the Lord sent Amos, one Of
the herdsmen of Tekoa, to reprove and adj
monish them. They refused to turn from
their evil ways, and He sent judgments upon
them, which were diverted by the prayers OF
Amos. But though he stayed the plague OF
grasshoppers, and the judgment of fire at the
earnest prayer of the prophet, yet he showed
Amos that the end of Israel should surely
come because Of unworthness. The time
for repentance had passed. the iniquities Of
his people had overtopped His forbearance,
and says Amos:
"Thus he showed me and behold the Lord
stood upon wall made by plumb-line,
with plumb-line in his hand"
"And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
secst thou? And said plumb line. Then
said the Lord, behold, will set plumb-line
in the midst Of my people Israel: will not
again pass by them any more.
Syria had been condemned because she had
"thrcshed Gilead with instruments of iron, -
the Philstnes were doomed because they had
'carried away captive the whole captivity
to deliver them up to Edom," Tyrus be-
cause she had remembered not the brother
y covenant" Edom "bccause he did not pur-
sue his brother with the sword" Ammon be-
cause of his excesses, Moab for his sacrilese'
Judah "bccausc he had despsed the law OF
God, and had not kept his commandments"
and Israel, when he had ''sold the righteous
for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes, "
when his iniquities had caused the Lord to
exclaim by the mouth of Ills prophet, "Be-
hold am pressed under you As cart is
pressed that is full of sheaves,' was also de-
nounced and condemned, a plumb-lne' set
in the midst of the people, aud the solemn
declaration made, 81 WILL NOT pass by them
any more"
The Masonic application of this passage is
clear. lfthe brotherhood shall leave its land
marks, if faith, hope and charity are forgot
ten, if the ''brotherly covenant" is broken, if
in our beautiful temple, we introduce stones
that have not been hewn, squared and num-
bered in the quarries where they were raised,
then may we expect that the "plumb-line
will be "set" in our midst, and that tho God
of our fathers "wil not pass by us no more, !"
but will utterly destroy every IA brio we raise.
Tile Voice Of Masonry.
RG"THE Square is the theory of univer-
sal duty, and consisteth Of two right lines
forming an angle of perfect sincerity; the
longest side is the sum Of the lengths of the
several duties we owe to the Supreme Being;
the other is made up of the lengths of the
several duties we owe to all men. And eve.
ry man should be agreeable to this square
when perfectly finished
ExPELLED.-The Grand Commander OF
the Lodge Of Malta in Watervliet, N. Y, has
received an official notice of the expulsion OF
Hon. d. l.. Sickles from the order. 1t i:
said that the gravest charge preferred agains,
Sickles, and which led to his expulsion, wa.
the killing of Key, who, at the time of hi.
death, was the G.. r. j. A. of tho Washing.
ton Lodge.
To LOVE as brethren, to be ready TO com
municate, to speak truth one to another, sr,
the dictates of revelation; and they are like.
wise the fundamental and constituent part.
Of Freemasonry.