FREEMASONRY.

Marlborough Express, Volume VI, Issue 293, 20 May 1871, Page 6

FREEMASONRY.

Sir —As it is nob often that the public are favored with communications relating to the “Art” from Master Masons, it would seem but due to the “Master Mason” who favored us in your last issue, that what he has been pleased to tell us should be taken notice of. I have no intention to enter into the argument which “History” has broached in your contemporary the Hews, but will just notice One or two of a “ Master Mason’s” observations. To begin, I will take his last first. “I am proud, sir, to subscribe myself not only a Christian but a Master Mason.” Now the assurance and egotism of such a statement is something astounding. To venture to believe oneself a Christian has been and is the hope of some of the best minds which human nature has developed ; but so high is the standard of Christian excellence that the best doubt whether they are entitled to call themselves Christians. Not so, however, with “A Master Mason.” He is a Christain ; says so himself. And further tells us that he is “ Not only a Christian, but a Master Mason.” What is this ? The words are so staggering that one feels doubtful if one has read them aright. Had he said I am a Master Mason and a Christian as well, it would have been sufficiently egotistical —affirming that he was so far advanced as to be entitled to say he was a Christian. But that is nothing to a “ Master Mason.” To be a Christian is a mere trifle, that is only to be enrolled under the standard of a system which it took God Almighty to plan and inaugurate ; but he is a “Master Mason” something which evidently transcends being a Christian. For, says he “I am proud, sir, to subscribe myself not only a “ Christian, but a Master Mason.” Mark the contrast. He is a Christian, but he is also something much more important, and that is a “Master Mason.” The nature of the expression clearly indicates that in the writer’s estimation the latter is the higher virtue. Leaving the subject for the present, I shall be glad if your correspondent will take an early opportunity of showing us how and why being a “ Master Mason ” is superior to being a “ Christian.” I have the honor to subscribe myself not a Free Mason, but A Free Man. Blenheim, May 11, 1871.

[With the consent of the writer of the foregoing letter, the insertion of which was unavoidably delayed, we sent a proof-slip to “ A Master Mason,” in order that his reply might appear in this issue.— Ed. M. E.]

Sir —lf a “ Free Man” will read the letter of a ‘ ‘ Master Mason” again, he will not fail to see that the assertion he carps at, namely, that he was a Christian, was the antithesis to the charge of “ History” that all Masons are infidels, &c., and after proving that such could not possibly be, states that he is proud to acknowledge himseif, or profess to be, both a Christian—and therefore not an infidel—and a Mason of such a degree as to be qualified to judge what Masonry is, and give the denial to the gross misstatements of “ History” as to its objects and ritual. A “Free Man” cannot be a sincere and earnest seeker after truth, or he would not have written upon so puerile a matter, the meaning of which was evident to a child.

I may as well add here, in reference to “ History,” that it is not every man who vaunts himself a Mason who is really one, just as many men who call themselves Christians, and profess to belong to various bodies, show us by their actions that they are infidels of a very bad kind, and traitors into the bargain. As for his last and future letters, they will receive no notice from me ; they are basely untrue, but harmless. —I am, &c., A Mastkr Mason.