Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Secret Doctrine.
2il
Neither Political nor Religious Hierarchy has ever
existed for any great length of time in the outer
world without becoming corrupt. The continuance
of power in such cases must always depend on the
ignorance of the people; therefore, the Hierarchy
will resist to the utmost the spread of true enlightenment.
It is for this reason that for many centuries
the Secret Doctrine and all of its students or expounders
have been under ban of the Church, and
of the State, whenever Ecclesiasticism has been able
to form an alliance therewith. Persecution in every
form, for opinions' sake, is ever the sign-manual of
worldliness and irreligion. It is the rule of Might
against Right, and the trampling under foot of the
weak and helpless by the strong and powerful ;
and
to complete the blasphemy, and monument the
cruelty, such persecution is generally enacted "in
the name of the Lord."
The Altars of Masonry have ever been the
Beacon-Lights of Liberty; and the Lodge a City of
Refuge; a Sanctuary of Knowledge and Protection
to the way-faring Brother of all Nations and
tongues. Patterning after the Sanctuaries of the
Ancient Mysteries, and founded on the principle
of the Universal and Unqualified Brotherhood of
Man, they have held aloft the Torch of Liberty.