The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-12
: AMONG THE ORDERS
HOWARD YOUNG. GRAND RE-
CORDER KNIGHTS OF MALTA
WRITES A LETTER
EXPLANATORY OF THE ORDER.
5 HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE A.
p. A, ORANGEMEN Or OTHER
SOCIETY.
MINNEAPOLIS AND THE pYTHrANs.
to Conference Next Week
Other Societies.

To the Editor Daily Globe: The ques-
I ton has beer asked me by parties not
members of the knights of Malta if
the order was in any way connected
with the order known as the A p A,
or Orangemen. i answer most en-
phatically, no, and to try ard enlighten
all such l will try and explain in
very bTief letter to the public through
your valuable paper. To visit the sick
and care for them, bury the dead edu-
cate the orphan and protect the widow
= and tatherless children of a deceased
companion is the great calling of our
ancient and illustrious order. Nay,
more, to protect innocence and virtue
and defend such with our lives and
fortune, if needs be. The order of
knights of Malta dates back to 104S,
and is the most ancient knightly order
in existence today.
The order Of the Knights of Malta
is body Of men banded together I'M
der the most binding forms to comfort
one another in the practice of the
! christian religion, to offer mutual as
slstance in time of need, to promote
Protestant unity and to defend the
Protestant faith against all foes what
soever. Graded in the Holy Land
amid the scenes of our Blessed Sayior's
life, passion and triumphant resurrec-
ton, its whole being became intensely
Christian. During the Crusades it's gil
gantie blows, pro fido in Christie for
the faith as it is in Christi, shook the
world, and thrones, principalities and
I powers trembled at its battling ad-
vance. Without the history of the
knights of st. John or Hospitallers the
age of chivalry is half unwritten. All
things have a center. Love is the CEN
trial thought of Malta knighthood. What
the keystone is to the arch, or the
main spring to the watch, or the soul
TO the body, so is love in our great and
growing fraternal ard militant order.
remove the keystone and the beauti-
full, symmetrical arch will fall in ruins.
Let the main spring be broken and the
best adjusted and finest mechanism in
chronometer will be motionless.
Without the soul the body, however
strong, brawny, well knit and beauti-
ful, will dissolve in death and become
q prey to corruption
Love binds our order as an institu-
tlon together, and is the moving
power and secret of that rapid, ag-
gressfve progress that marks Maltaism
and Is the very lifeblood of our splen-
cid organization. From the first hour
the novice enters our military ranks
on through all the degrees, for there
are twelve, until he stands throned
and sceptered in Jerusalem, the golden
love is taught as the all in all of Malta
knighthood God is love- and there
fore the nearer any organization APP
rroXlmates to Him in character and
spirit must succeed. Our ultimate
destiny in the new dawn of the TWEEN
ueth century is to be in the front rank
of all the fraternal orders in this great
republic. The one fact that all our
teachings are calculated to inspire SUI
preme love to God and devotion to
all the best interests of our fellow
men, the purity and prosperity of the
( family, the social veal and wealth of
: the state, a high order of citizenship,
protecting the civil and religious lib
critics of all, assures this destiny of our
beloved order. 1t is ancient yet young
ancient as to origin-but holds the
sturdy strength of young America to
advance its interests 1t is Christian
knighthood, and unlike mere deistical
bodies, it is rooted and grounded in
living faith in our holy Christianity
The same flaming zeal that animated
the geodly knight in the commence
ment of the Crusades to defend with
heroic valor Christian religion against
Turk and inf1del will not now and
never will permit the destruction of
Professionalism. True Malta knight
hood protests against ignorance, vice
and crime, and any and all allies to
such a trinity of evils. 1t protests
against any system that would assail
our glorious heritage of freedom and
destroy the bulwark of our liberties
the common schools of our country.
For pure philanthropy. an evangeli-
cal system of truth, we'll drilled mill
! tary discipline, growing numerical
strength, generous fraternal unity, ami
mated and prevailed with the love of
God and our glorious Redeemer, Malta
knighthood stands today without
rival in America! Its ritualistic work
and degrees are as full of profound re-
ligious significance well calculated to
head men to higher types of manhood
as can be found in any human institu-
tion-Yea, I hesitate not to say, can
not be equaled in any human organized
body. For pure evangelical Christian
knighthood none can rank with the
= ancient and illustrious order Knights
of Malta. We are not sectarian
body. All persons, by whatever name
known, who believe in the trinity and
the maintenance of the protestant
faith whose character will bear strict
scrutiny, are eligible for admission to
our ranks and while we strongly up-
hold Professionalism, we do not antag-
oniZe any other creed as such, but in
SO far as it encroaches upon our rights
rs freemen. We. are not a temperance
organization, although if we be true
Knights of Malta our conduct will
Show unto all the world that we are
= followers Of our great captain and
elder brother, Jesus Christ. We are
not a patriotic society in the strict