The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-11
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Monument. The first of Cross Monitors
were mere reprints of webb. Concerning,
however the idea of "improving" his book
and of making it more attractive by illus
trations, he happened while bordering over
his project to visit the burying ground of
Trinity Church, New York, where his fancy
was struck by one of the monumental stones.
This he copied, put it into his Monitor, and
since that time Masonic tradition informs
us all about its origin and purpose.
The spirit in which the first publication
OF these facts by the original investigators
was received, was that which always greets
the efforts of those who engage in the, for
the time, ungracious and thankless task of
showing men that they have been mistaken,
The writer's were looked on with suspicion,
and by some denounced as iconclasts whose
work was simply destructive, leading but to
one possible result, that of bringing dis
credit upon Masonry
Now all this was perfectly natural. New
truths alwas meet with this reception, and
its proclaimers must suffer more or less,
according to the age in which they live, for
their alleged infdelity. But the day Of
their reward comes,
| For humanity sweeps onward where to-day
the martyr stands,
| on the morrow crOuches Judas with the silver
In his hands,
| Far in the front the cross stands ready and the
cracking fagOts burn,
| While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent
awe return
| To CLEAN up the scattered ashes into TistoryB
| golden urn.
SO with the Fraternity to day the anger
of yesterday has given way, and thoughtful
Masons everywhere are beginning to see
that discrediting and disprovng the ro-
mances of those who have so long been
drawing upon their imaginatous for their
facts, is quite different thing from bringing
discredit uppn the Fraternity itself. They
see that there can be no surer way of ac-
comprising the latter than to claim for the
institution that which has no foundation
either in fact or probability.
The perpctuaton of error never yet gave
strength to any organization. The truth
| alone can make us strong. just in proper
ton as we get at the true history of Mason
ry, will it be easy for us to get back closer
to those broad principles in whose simplic-
| ity lies its true strength. Only as we get
at its true history can we know what is
landmark and what is not and he who
helps us to get at it, no matter how many
idols he may break in the process, is no
| I,, 80, ia.
stitution. Such are these modern workers
in the field of Masonic history. Many
thoughtful Masons have long felt that there
| were features in our rituals which did not
belong there, because they initiated against
the universally of the institution, were op-
posed to its general spirit and to the letter
of those ancient charges which constituted
our Magma Charta. OF such are the dedi-
cation of lodges to the Saints John and the
@'"i..- H.. they were patrons of Masonry
Directors to these features have been me
with the claim that they were of equal anti
guilty with the Old Charges themselves and
possessed the character of veritable land
marks. The fallacy of this claim has been
demonstrated by the men whom we call
iconoclasts. Though we are not yet, and
perhaps may never be ready to. slough of
all that is adventurous, yet we shall gradu-
ally get rid of what is most Objectionable,
and then we shall hail as our benefactors
those who have proved to us that not these
features which tend to divide and contract,
but those only which tend to unity and
broaden, belong to the original plan of Ma
| sonry.