Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

HAS0X1C OATH. 139"
white aprons, red sashes, and tremendous grand titles; this
would be more honest, and equally sensible.
And then does she say that " bad members have been
Bxpelled; but they keep the secrets with which they have
been intrusted 1 Neither the power of gold, which has
often betrayed kings and princes, and sometimes overthrown
states, empires, and kingdoms; nor the most cruel punishment,
whidi the most malignant tyrants could devise, ever
extorted the secrets of Free Masonry, even from the weakest
member of the fraternity*"*—New Man. p. 78.
That is only her word for it; and she can, one day, take
the life of a member, for having exposed her nakedness;
and brag of her divinity the next, of her impenetrable my*tery,
of her virgin sanctity. The insinuation conveyed in
this extract from the Monitor, and the fact assumed by
many orators, for the glory of Masonry, that her mysteries
have never since creation been revealed, except to a lawfully
initiated brother, is a mistake, having seen them before
I took a Mason's oath. Which oath, the novice is assured,
before it is dictated, contains nothing counter to his duty to
God, and to his country.
Query; taken under such circumstances, and being
afterwards found to cover, much which is contrary to
truth, subversive of social confidence, and hostile to the name
of the Lord Jesus, and thus counter to his duty to God and
to his country; is it obligatory upon the confiding candidate T
Without deciding the question for others, I shall decide,
(though perfectly impressed in the night of the oath, with
the importance of the saving clause,) that it ought, as far as
possible, by me, to be kept It runs, u ever conceal, and
never reveal, any part or parts, art or arts, point or points,
of the secret art* and mysteries of ancient Free Masonry,"
* Honeyed* in the state of New-York openly acknowledge the correctness
of Morgan'* book, and very many have done it under their hand in the
pubtic'prmU.