Blanchard J (anti-masonic) - Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated Part I

84 DESTROYING THE SUPREME COUNCIL’S RECORDS.Masonic Union officers cleared him!The Rebel was a true Mason. The Surgeon was apatriot. Like instances to this are at hand, which wouldfill a moderate volume. There were Masons and RomanCatholics who~ were good men and patriots; as therewere, in the New Testament, pagan centurions who receivedChrist. But neither the lodge or the confessionalis Chriutiaqi or American.We have seen from its history, given by its own authors,that this “Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,”is not “ancient,” but modern; not “accepted,” but invented;not “Scottish,” but French; and so one continuousfalsehood. But its most revolting features are yetto be drawn.Destroying records is confessing crime. Its writerscomplain that the early English lodge records were destroyed;doubtless lest their secret proceedings shouldbe brought into the courts. But the Charleston SupremeCouncil destroyed its proceedings, for more than half acentury. From 1801 to 1860 no records exist.In his address before his Council in 1878, Albert Pikesaid: “I am often asI~ed why we do not publish our oldtransactions? to ~whichI am compelled to reply,that we have none to publish. We have no records ofthe transactions at Charleston from 1801 to 1860. Whatminutes we had were destroyedduring thewar.”The above is taken from the speech of Edwards, commanderin chief of the Minnesota Grand Consistory,Nov. 12, 1885.Those records covered the period of Nullilcation andthe rise of the Rebellion, and were doubtless ghastlywith treason, with attempts to burn down northern cities,ABOMINATIONS AND DEMON WOIlSilIp.3582nd poison inhabitants; for such things were attempted.But the records of the Northern Council were preserved,and its Historian, Folger, says: “It is to be regrettedthat from its very commencement its progressin this co~intry has been marked with bitter contentionsand constant quarrels.” Folger.. p. 15. These quarrelshave most of them arisen between the old York Rite,of three degrees, and the French Jesuit degrees, whichhave finally conquered and swallowe4 the less viciousBlue Lodge, which was first opened in this country inBoston in 1833.In New England the whole secret lodge was lookedon with loathing and abhorrence. The grandfather ofDr. Richard’ Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., and Dr. Willistonof East Haven, had a saying, “a Freemason is handin-handwith the devil.” Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, R. I.,in Dr. E. A. Parks’ Memoir of Emmons, says, “the lodgebelongs to the Kiiigdom of Satan.” Later, the wholeAndover Faculty, Woods, Stuart and Emerson, denouncedit in unmeasured terms. The ground idea ofCongregationalism, .since Bradahaw, rejects as “unlawful”all rites not enjoined by the word of God, whichincludes lodges, which are “inventions of men ;“ and afull half million of Christians in other depominationsregard secret lodges as Synagogues of Satan to be disfellowshippedby the children of God. A carefulreading of the analysis of the degrees of this Rite willconvince all candid minds, that they are the “abominations”and demon-worship of the Scriptures which preventthe coming of Christ.