Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

PHILOSOPH ICAL ANALYSIS
TWENTY-FIrTH fluoaza, OR KNIGHTS OF THE
BRAZEN SERPENT.
The Goodneas and Severity of God—False Ugbla on ibe Coaat of Christen-
—~~Satan~a Ignes ratul, to Swamp Men Kternall’—Quotea the
Bibie as Satan Did to Deceive Men—MI Eeilgion but Holinema and
Justice.
In discussing these degrees, why use harshness and
severity? The wisdom from above is “pure,” “peaceable,”
“gentle,” “full of mercy.” Paul himself was
“genthe,” as a nurse among children. And Moses, but
especially Christ, was “meek.” Ans.: In dealing with
teachiers of false religion, and corrupters of the true,
the severity of Christ, the prophets and apostles knew
no bounds but the limits of language. Thus Peter:
“Thy money perish with thee I” Paul: “Thou ehihd
of the devil !“ John: “Serpents, and the seed of serpents
!“ Christ uttered~ the ~same words. And Moses,
who was ruler and law-giver, as well as teacher, said of
a dealer in “wond~rs” and false mysteries: Thiough
thine own brother, son, daughter or “wife of thy
bosom,” whoever should entice into msn-made religious
rites, like this Scottish Rite: “thou shalt surely k11
him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to
death; and, afterwards, the hand of all the peophe.”
(Deut. 13, 1-9.) And though in warring against
demon-worships, the Christians’ weapons are “not carnal,
but spiritual,” the treatment of sorcerers by Paul
and Peter, and the fate of Ananias and Sapphira, show
what estimate God puts on Ramsay and his Jesuits,
Morin and his Jews. and their abettors, who framed
FALSE LIGHTS ON THE COAST OF CHRISTENDOM. 159
~jg~ 330 degree rite, for money and worldly advantage.
A high Masonic authority says: “If history speaks correctly,
Morin and his coadjutors found the manufacturing
of Masonic degrees and the sale of Masonic dignities
a very profifable and lucrative undertaking. They pursued
it diligently, making all the money they could
from the traffic.” (Folger’s Ancie’nt and Accepted
Scott i.gh Rite, p. 88.) This is high Masonic testimony
concerning the founding of this Rite, which now rules
the Masonic world. And there is nothing like it in
the catalogue of human crimes and sins. The guilt of
wreckers and sea-thieves who hold out false lights to
lure ships on rocks, to drown passengers in order to get
their goods, is slight, compared with that of the inventors
and sellers of these Masonic degrees. Christ is
come a light into the world. And here are thirty-three
false lights hung out along the whole coast of Christendom,
by men whose fathers sold Christ for thirty pieces
of silver, to lure men on the “slippery rocks” of perdition.
Let none say this is exaggeration. Dr. Mackey,
in his “Ritualist,” the authoritative liturgy of the lodges,
says that the Entered Apprentice is “seeking the new
birth, and asking that light which restores fallen man
to his Maker ;“ which light, he says, “the lodge alone
can give I” And he refers to the same thing in Note
£89 of this degree. “A Mason always travels from west
to east in search of light.” “The shock of entrance is
the symbol of ‘The New Birth,’” which, he says, the
Apprentice “appears before our portals seeking.” Every
time the blinder falls, which is thirty-three times in
these degrees, this same thing i3 repeated. The blinded
and bewildered candidate is brought to the “light,”
discovers the “word,” etc., both which are Satan, as an