Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1868-04-08
Woman and Masonry.

Woman and Masonry.
1T is with reverence akin to awe that
approach this subject, knowing that, foi
ages, there has hung between the sex that i
represent and the subject of which | would
speak, veil of deep, ,impenetrable mystery
"a mystery that is as sacredly guarded to
day as it was thousands of years ago, when
the mantle of silence shrouded the germ Of
the mystic brotherhood, and will be for ages
to come, so long as two hands are left or
earth to meet in the clasp of fraternal love-
Though this veil must hang before us through
all alltime-shroudiDg from our unworthy eyes
the ''Hely of Holes, though no woman S
foot may ever tread the sacred aisles-no
woman's eye gaze on the glories of the in
ner Shrine-yet we are not entirely shut out.
The glory of the Shecina shines afar-even
on the brow of womanhood. Though ad-
mitted to the outer courts-to the vestibule
of the Temple, whose foundation is charity
whose pillars are Wisdom, Strength, and
Beauty. and whose summit is the approach
ing smile of God himself, it is meet that
one should tell what Masonry has done for
woman. And she who proudly boasts of
the title of 'Mason's Daughter now
asks the privilege to be that one.
1t is folly to attempt to tell you what
Masonry is. You, who hold all its myster-
les in your bandits secrets inyour heart
and with your eye can trace through all its
labarynth of ways and means. Masonry, that
il as incomprehensible to us as the vital
principle of Life-but, like Life, is known
10 US by results. By their fruits ye shall
knOp then," and it is the fruits of Masonry
that woman eats, while the labor and toll
are spared her. She basks safely in the sun
shine of its blessings, guarded and watched
over by band of more faithful than, lover,
brother or husband.
There is strange faclnation to US, who
naturally love the wonderful. the brave, the
SO innumerable in action. Like the religion
of Jesus, on which the principles of Mason
ry are founded, it has marched with steady
footsteps down the long vista of years, and
has made every obstacle a stepping-s stone to
its present glory. Christianity went alone
and insulted from the hill of Calvary to the
tomb of Joseph, land now waves her sceptre
over the world when the tomb of the Ca-
sars has mouldered back into dust. Mason
ry, her more earthly sister, with hushed
breath and noiseless footstepwalked scathless
through fires of oppression, and storms of
prejudice and falsehood, and now divides
With her the sceptre of the world.
The Church has many false brethren--in
Masonry this is impossible. The one, being
the nursery of the spiritual, necessarily
more intangible In its creeds, and often re-
ceives within its folds the vilest impostors,
whose only merit is their power to deceive.
The other, though founded upon Divine
Laws, is human institution, and deals
with human attributes-thiBgs that can be
seen and heard, and known by men-that
can be grasped by the great over ruling
power, and so held up before the guilty one,
that though on the awful stiffness of that
dread tribunal there falls no whisper OF re-
proach, his life condemns him to his very
face, and he yields unansweringly to thejust
decree.
Show me a tie on earth more binding than
the boon of Masonry. There is none. The
Christian may forget his sacramental vows,
aud turn his back upon the Saviour who
has died for him the husband may turn
from the wife of his bosom, whom he has
sworn before high Heaven to cherish, even
to the portal of the grave the father may
forget his child, whose blue eyes once held
all Heaven for him !; the brother may ne
glect the tender sister that shared the era
die of his infancy, the mother s good
hight kiss, and the gambol around the faith
ers knee, son may even look coldly upon
the mother that bore him; 6ut the Uo.o
ncOrn at ttis altar can nerer be revoked
lime or distance cannot annul it; and the
,Sretch who would seek to violate, would be
branded with sign more indellible than
that of Cain. No land would be remote
fsnOqgh s for his escape, no jungle wild enough
iior his retreat, no cavern deep enough TO
AIDE him from the eye of vengeance. /
There is something sublime in this that
calls forth Woman 8 ardent admiration but
mother view of the subject awakens deep |
ltude.
Christianity is our guide to the vague,
saad0wy portals of the unknown future
.SOrld-Masonry our shield and support
Trough the dangerous realities of this.
! Let woman be united by the slightest tie to
.ae great heart of Masonry, and she never
more may deem herself friendless and alone.
pOes want stand at her door? A hundred
lands are outstretched to relieve her. Does
2rfow oyershadow her? A hundred hearts |
1--WE kindly sympathy-which women only
NOW how much We need Does tempta-