Middletown transcript., 1868-08-01
ElOWN NEW CASTLE COUNTY,

sions of their meetings." But this objec-
tion amounts to nothing-for our injunc-
tion of secresy includes only that which
relates to the origin and preservation of
the society. and the interesting events
connected Herewith (; and this it is which
constitutes our n,ysterissi All our invis-
ible machinery, all our secret terror, all
our creative power of mischief or evil
not one particle of it is in the least degree
connected, adversely, with the political,
moral, or religious interests or wellbeing
of the community, any more than mans
private friendships, or private opinions.
The Roman Senate enjoined secresy upon
the sons of the Senators who attended their
debates our own Senate holds its exec
utive sessions with closed doors. Lycur-
gus, it is said, taught the Spartans never
to permit word to pass out of the door
from feast and we know that the con-
ventional usages of polite society stamp
the mark of reprobatiOn upon the individ-
ual who betrays the secrets of a freside
conversation. Is there man of integrity,
honor, truth, who would wantonly babble
the secrets of his friend to the winds
Why, then, should Masons be blamed, or
branded as bad men, because they have
kept tho beautiful mysteries of the order
sacred from the rude impertinence of
vulgar and prurient curiosityY "But,
the lives of many Masons are not the
lives of good, but bad men-the Institu-
tion itself, therefore, must be bad one,
and therefore should not be encouraged"
And this wretched cant of the ignorant,
the contracted bigot, or the political trick
ster, has been so long echoed and re-echoed
by the fippant and the prejudiced-
calm, contemptuous silence misconstrued
into an admission of the charge, that it
must either be refuted, or the fallacy and
the falsehood must be longer endured.
We grant that many Masons are bad
men. This is too true, and bad men are
a drawback to any society, secret or pub
lie. But the fact itself does not prove the
Institution a bad one. In the twelve,
there was devil, but all the Apostles
were not bad men. There are bad men
in the Christian Church itself, l am sorry
to fear-but is the Christian Church bad
society? Their argument, then, is simp-
ly sheer nonsense. am sorry, l say, to
know and believe that we have had, and
have now, bad men In the Masonic frater-
nifty. But must we tear down the temple
because the sons af Belial have mingled
with the worshippers? Shall we shiver
classic column, because the crawling rep
tile has slimed its capital? No, rather
let Masonry wipe out this reproach as far
as she can, by permitting none to pass or
repass, but such as are duly qualified by
moral character, and whose lives, like the
reputation of Caesars wife, are above sus-
picion. Bad men are to be found every
where. in every society, under every form
of government-but would you disorgan-
ize society and throw 1t into primal chaos,
because Of the bad portion of its elements?
Then there is no cause of complaint against
the order, as such, that will not apply to
every organisation ON the face of the green
earth. But look on the other side Of the
picture, and see the names of good me,,
and true, who have adorned the order,
and shed lustre around the Masonic
character. o.. ,....
1 will not wander back the stream of
Masonic tradition-I will only point you
to that spot in Massachusetts,, whose sum-
nit crowned by the tall shaft that points
to the skies, reminds you that the blood of
Joseph Warren, the first Grand Master of
Masons in North America, baptised the
soil of Bunker Hill, as memorial of free
dom. / will point you to that young and |
chivalrous frenchman upon whose ear rose
the cry Of the Virgin Freedom in distress,
and, who leaving the luscious vintage of
his lovely France to be pressed by other
hands, gave up all-home, friends, family,
fortune, and shining ranks of proud no.
bility, and barred his lofty brow and his
manly breast to the storms of war, and
when men would decry Masonry, and pro-
nounce her sons bad men,--amid the
shouts with which proud old Bunker Hill
thunders the name of Joseph WARREN
Yorktown, with voice like the rush of
many waters, will chorus that of Lafayette
And then think of Benz Franklin, and
Edmund Randolph, and Chief Justice
Marshall, and Andrew jackson, and of
him who was " first in war, first in peace,
and first il the hearts Of his countrymen"-
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
We do not propose Masonry as a substi-
tute for Christianity-God Forbid-but as
an adjunct, handmaiden, doing her be-
hests, and coveting her approving smiles.
Masonry is neither religion, nor its substi-
tute, If she professed to be either the one
or the other, l would repudiate her with
scorn. She is not Christianity, she is hu-
man. / repeat it, she is not Christianity,
or its substitute. She does not, either in
her works or ways, attempt to supercede
the Christian Church; she cannot re-im-
press the Divine Image on the human
heart; she cannot pluck the sting from
death, or give victory over the grave. If
she professed to do any of these, would
write islying snspostare' on the columns of
her temples, and trample her symbols and
her jewels In the dust. She is not Chris
tianity, but beautifully has she carried out
the behests Of 0hristianity's founder. She
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