Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-01-01
1.-The Truth shall make Won free"

1.-The Truth shall make you free"
81. John s. 81.
There is surely great significance in
the fact that these memorable words OF
Jesus Christ were delivered in the Temple
of Jerusalem. True it was not the Tenn
pie of solomon, hut of Herod, yet the
associations of that spot were many and
varied; il was the site of Gods own
choosing; the Hill of Sion which He loved;
a place sanctihcd by the devotions of
centuries; the focus and meeting point of
countless multitudes ofworshippers. And
as all the ancient Truth of the Children
of Abraham centred around the Temple,
so from the Divine Temple. not made
with hands, Jesus Christ, the Lord of the
earthly Temple, deeper and more per-
manent Truth was to radate and be the
religious likelihood, not of the Jews alone,
hut of all the children of God. For us as
Freemasons the Temple at Jerusalem has
its peculiar memories and associations
never to be forgotten. To the people of
the days of Solomon it meant the She
kinah, or visible presence of the Deity; to
us it represents the sensible corporate
communion between Divinity and HUI
mainly. TO them it suggested the daily
offering of sacrifice; to us it signifies a
death bravely met rather than a periured
and dishOnored life. To them the Temple
carried the idea OF forgiveness; to us it is
type of the essential value OF morality.
To both it means perfection, but pertec-
ton through suffering. Even the service
ofGod must be accompanied by tragedy.
Still the Truth of the Temple was sutfi-
cient in it's degrees to make men free, but
the larger the Trulh the broader the free
dom, and the deeper the Truth the great
er its influence for nobility of life. And
that higher and deeper Truth Jesus Christ
gave us. And while. as | say, Masonic
teaching and ritual has much in common
with the ideas of Jehovah's Temple, yet
the essence of our doctrines is OF greater
the thought or practice of one particular
epoch or century.
The Truth of Christ and the Truth OF
Masonry are, as we shall presently see,
identical i'll nature, although differing
perhaps in expression. For just as
Christ, standing in the porch of the TEN,
Il. 1. I
us free; so in Ike manner Masonry takes
as it were its stand on the Temple and
makes the same proclamation. Christ
was anterior to the Temple, SO was Free,
masonry. The Truth of the Temple was
existent before the Temple, and has de
veloped since the Temples destruction
into greater truth. And this everlasting
Truth, that is, the ideas of which the
building was a visible but only partial
expression, (for it must be remembered
that this creation of Solomon was a
gigantic petritied thought, this Truth
was and is Freemasonry. Let us make
this clear and explicit. The Jewish relig
ion contained much that was true and
elevating. But Truth is eternal, there.
fore that which was true in their system
of worship is ever existent, before and
Since Moses and Solomon. Jesus Christ
came not to destroy but to fulfill, that is
to develop that degree of Truth which
Judaism possessed. In like manner every
detail of the Temple expressed an idea
or Truth. This Truth the Freemasons
guarded. Yet they did not exhaust their
ideas in the building, but rather left them
capable of indefinite expansion. The
evolution of these ideas is the work o.
the Order. How this has taken place
and what the ultimate governing princi
pie is, and how it comedies with Chris
tianity we shall now proceed to examine
The origin of Freemasonrv is lost in
the mists of dim antiquity. When il
energies into the light we find certain
great truths far in advance of the general
thought of the age, religiously guarded
and secretly transmitted. Around this
body of spiritual ideas we trace the
gradual growth of an elaborate ritual
borrowed from almost all the known re-
ligions Of the world; and in course o.
time we observe these ideas in outward
form, visible to all men, in the hand
work of Architects or Masons. Where
the idea originated is, as we have said, a
mystery. Modern science is fast reduc.
ing the phenomena of the world to thei,
primitive forms; language, tradition, re
l'gion, all are being traced to their differ
ent sources, and so probably the deeper
thoughts of Masonry may be referred
back to the primal revelation from Goo
to man. Certainly we find similarity o
teaching in some OF the mysteries OF the
ancient religions. Abundant evidence goes
to prove that in ancient days one doctrine
was delivered to the Priests and another
believed by the people. The latter might
worship the creature rather than tn,
Creator if they choose to do so, but the
theology of the Egyptian hierarchy, fo
example, was infinitely more exalted
The Elusinian mysteries of Greece, which
had their origin in the land of the Pharo
abs, are the first to arrest our attention
The conditions ofinitiation were matur
ity of years, purity of life and voluntar,
presentation. On the coincidence O
these rules with Masonry ! need MOI
dwell But would direct your atten
ton to the permeating thought of thi
initiation, namely. the personal cousci