IV.
(Continued from p. 220.)
MASONRY has been well described as “a system of faith and practice intended to bring man into right relations with God and maintain Him there, with no reference to the person or work of Jesus Christ,” and we might add, or the work of the Holy Spirit. This, we believe, sums up the matter in a nutshell. Man, according to Masonic teaching, is to be brought near to God by his own works. Ward, in his Second Degree Handbook, as quoted by the Rev. C. Penney Hunt, says—”This is the great lesson of the second degree that by ourselves and in ourselves we can discover and realise God.” That sentence is directly in the face of Scripture teaching. Wilmshurst defines faith as confidence in our ability to achieve moral perfection (Meaning of Masonry, p. 94). Mackey says:—”The Speculative Mason is engaged in the construction of a spiritual temple in his heart, pure and spotless, fit for the dwelling-place of Him who is the Author of purity, where God is to be worshipped in spirit and truth, and whence every evil thought and unruly passion are to be banished, as the sinner and the Gentile were excluded from the sanctuary of the Jewish Temple” (Manual of the Lodge p. 35). And he further adds:—”The speculative Mason, then, if he rightly comprehends the scope and design of his profession, is occupied from his very first admission into the order until the close of his labours and his life in the construction, the adornment, and the completion of this spiritual temple of his body” (Symbolism of Freemasonry, p. 162). And all this without Christ or the Holy Spirit. What a poor, miserable temple it will be!
Another quotation may be given from Daniel Sickles:—”The common gavel is an instrument made use of by operative masons to break off the rough corners of stones, the better to fit them for the builders’ use, but we as Free and Accepted Masons are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our hearts and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting us as living stones of that spiritual building, that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens” (Handbook, p. 86). The real character of the religion of Freemasonry could not be better stated than it is in a pamphlet by a Unitarian minister, who is also a Mason, the Rev. Elijah Alfred Coil. This pamphlet has been issued by the American Unitarian Association, under the title, “The Relation of the Liberal Churches and the Fraternal Orders.” We give the following quotations from it:— “That the fundamental difference in the principles embodied in the historic creeds of Christendom and those of our modern secret orders has not been clearly thought out is indicated by the fact that many pledge themselves to both. There are men who, in the churches, subscribe to the doctrine that ‘we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, by faith and not for our own works or deservings,’ and enthusiastically join in the singing of hymns in which that idea is embodied. Then in their lodge meetings they just as enthusiastically assent to the following declaration:—’Although our thoughts, words, and actions may be hidden from the eyes of men, yet that All-Seeing Eye whom the sun, moon, and stars obey, and under whose watchful care even comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will reward us according to our merits. . . . One of these declarations excludes the other. Men cannot consistently subscribe to both.”
The following statement by the same author is worthy of serious thought by every Christian who is striving to preserve the faith of our fathers in these days of worldliness and indifference. On page 18 of the above-mentioned pamphlet, Mr Coil says:—”I have been devoting much time to an investigation of the subject, and I say without fear of successful contradiction, that the liberal churches, from their beginning, have been developing in thought and sentiment along the same lines as those followed by most of our great modern fraternities. They have championed and advocated the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, immortality, and salvation by character, and these are the very principles for which nearly all the great fraternities stand. Taught these principles in childhood, as they should be taught them in the ‘Sunday’ schools and churches, people will not have to unlearn or deny them should they choose to identify themselves with almost any one of our present-day fraternities, as those brought up in orthodox ‘Sunday’ schools and churches have to unlearn, deny or ignore much that has been taught them if they become members of the lodge.”
Enough has been quoted to show that any religion Freemasonry has is not only Christless, but is, as was to be expected, a religion that stressed salvation by character. What else could it do when it got rid of the Son of God and had no need of the Holy Spirit? But is that the religion of the New Testament?
We come now to say something about the oaths, the dreadful oaths, of the Lodge. We do not purpose to give the various oaths for the different degrees; they will be found given at length in the Rev. John Levington’s “Essential Oneness of All Secret Societies” (Syracuse, N.Y.: Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Association), and in other publications. The applicant for membership in the Lodge signs a document in which he promises that “he will cheerfully conform to all the ancient established usages and customs of the fraternity.” One would think men of sense would be very careful to make such a promise without having the slightest knowledge what these “ancient established usages and customs of the fraternity,” for are they not all secret? But this is not enough; the Entered Apprentice takes a much more foolish step. Kneeling on his naked left knee, one hand under and the other on the open Bible, which has the square and compasses on it, he thus swears: “I —, of my own freewill and accord, in presence of Almighty God, and this worshipful lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, dedicated to God and held forth to the holy Order of St John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that I will always hail, ever conceal, and never reveal, any part or parts, art or arts, point or points, of the secrets, arts and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry, which I have received, am about to receive, or may hereafter be instructed in, to any person or persons in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother Mason, or within the body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such. And not unto him, nor unto them whom I shall hear so to be, but unto him and them only, whom I shall find so to be, after strict trial and due examination, or lawful information.
Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will not write, print, stamp, stain, hew, cut, carve, indent, paint, or engrave it on anything movable or immovable under the whole canopy of heaven, whereby, or whereon, the least letter, figure, character, mark, stain, shadow, or resemblance of the same may become legible, or intelligible, to myself or any other person in the known world, whereby the secrets of Masonry may be unlawfully obtained through my unworthiness. To all which I do most solemnly promise and swear, without the least equivocation, mental reservation, or self-evasion of mind in me whatever; binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in the twenty-four hours: So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.”
Fancy sensible men solemnly binding themselves by such a dreadful oath never to reveal things of which they have no knowledge at all! And what are we to say of professing Christians that defend such things? Far be it from us to leave on the mind of anyone that we regard the taking of a lawful oath as a matter of indifference. We hold when lawfully taken, “it binds to performance, although to a man’s own hurt” (Confession of Faith, chap. xxii. sec. iv.). But in regard to Masonic oaths, we do not regard them as lawful at all, and this because they run in the face of the plain teaching of the Confession of Faith that oaths are to be taken “touching anything that is good and just, being imposed by lawful authority,” and it will take a good deal of Masonic reasoning to convince us that the Lodge is a “lawful authority” according to the Confession. Besides it is expressly stated by the Westminster Divines—”Whosoever taketh an oath, ought duly to consider the weightiness of so solemn an act, and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully persuaded is the truth. Neither may any man bind himself by oath to anything but what is good and just, and what he believeth so to be, and what he is able and resolved to perform” (Confession, chap. xxii., sec. iii.). In the Lodge oaths are imposed not only by those who are not a “lawful authority,” but in connection with matters of which the person taking the oath has, as yet, no knowledge, and how then can he be fully persuaded that they are true? Those who have joined the Lodge without knowing what they were doing need have no troubled conscience in bidding it a long farewell. President Finney, who was a Mason himself in his youth, makes the following appeal to young men: — “I wish, if possible, to arouse young men who are Freemasons to consider the inevitable consequences of such a horrible trifling with the most solemn oaths, as is constantly practised by Freemasons. Such a course must and does, as a matter of fact, grieve the Holy Spirit, sears the conscience, and harden the heart. I wish to induce the young men who are not Freemasons ‘to look before they leap,’ and not be deceived and committed, as thousands have been, before they were at all aware of the true nature of the institution of Freemasonry” (Character and Claims of Freemasonry, Preface).
We do not propose discussing this subject further, but for the benefit of all those who wish to give it further study, the following books and pamphlets may be consulted by them with advantage:—Standard Freemasonry Illustrated, by President Blanchard (Cloth, \$2.00; paper covers, \$1.00); The Master’s Carpet, by Edmond Ronayne (\$1.25); Modern Secret Societies, by President Blanchard (paper, 50 cents.); Character and Claims of Freemasonry, by President Finney (paper, 50 cents.); Masonic Oaths Null and Void (40 cents.); Thirteen Reasons why a Christian should not be a Freemason, by Rev. Robert Armstrong (10 cents.); A Threefold Indictment of Secret Orders, with Special References to Masonry and Odd-Fellowship, by Adam Murrman (10 cents.); Congregationalism and Secret Associations (15 cents.). All these may be had from the National Christian Association, 850 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Ill., U.S.A., which will readily supply a list of their publications on Freemasonry on application. This Association, which exists for the purpose of exposing Secret Societies, issues a monthly periodical, “The Christian Cynosure,” which keeps one up to date on the doings of Freemasonry. Other books and pamphlets that may be mentioned include “The Essential Oneness of all Secret Combinations” (50 cents.), by the Rev. John Levington, and “The Christian’s Relation to Secret Societies” (10 cents.), by the Rev. F. A. Butterfield. Both of these may be had from The Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Association, 330 Onondaga Street, Syracuse, N.Y., U.S.A. Mention has already been made in our pages to the Rev. C. Penney Hunt’s “Menace of Freemasonry to the Christian Faith,” to be had from the author, Linden House, Manor Lane. Shipley, Yorks (price 9d). It is an eye-opening exposure of the religion of the Lodge.
We have now finished our examination of the religion of Freemasonry, and have shown—(1) That the God it acknowledges, the Great Architect of the Universe, is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; (2) that its religion is Christless—our Saviour’s name is not mentioned in any of its official prayers; (3) it rises no higher than Deism; (4) that it sets forth a salvation by character and merits and not by free grace. Its oaths are—(1) taken on trivial occasions, and it is trifling with the great Name to take oaths on such occasions; (2) these oaths are not lawfully administered by an officer of the State or Church; (3) the oaths are sinful, because the person swearing binds himself to do what he does not know. Oaths of this kind are not binding (see Confession, chap. xxii., sec. iv.).
We leave it with the consciences of our Free Presbyterian readers who may be connected with Lodges to say whether they can conscientiously continue the connection any longer, and as for professing Christians among us who may have joined Lodges, we are persuaded that they will follow the path of duty, and be done with the Lodge. The Americans have a saying which, we hope, will not be applicable to any Free Presbyterian worthy of the name—”Kick my Lodge and I will kick you. Kick my Church and I will help you.”