Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

228
FEEK MASONRY.
the Deity•, is a very common thing in the services of Ma>
sonry. How can that be managed with harmony among
so discordant believers, so heterodox worshippers ? Simply
by reducing every form of expression to pure Deism: by
worshipping under the name of the Deity, the unknown
God of the Greeks, or any other which may be in the heart
of the supplicant Christians, Mahometans, and Jews, unite
in one name, and agree in the lodges to call on that name ;
but that is more in the spirit of personal accommodation,
than in obedience to the true principles of Free Masonry;
for should a Brahmin or Chinese be present, he would at
once complain of the exclusive spirit, the proselyting spirit
of his masonic brethren, while they addressed prayers to the
God of the Patriarchs and Prophets: and that will never
do; the harmony of the lodge is no more, under such circumstances,
to boast of, than the union of Christians; and to accommodate
the Chinese, who arc a great people, we must
call on u the Deity," and then they can believe Fo is meant,
or the emperor.
Though three great classes of men do agree in the lodges
to worship a particular name, eontrary to the true spirit of
Free Masonry, and at the risk of offending their half civilized
and savage brethren; yet, they must, for the sake of
harmony, sink all differences amqng themselves; neither
the Saviour of the world, nor the false prophet, may be
named, without offence to the Jew, and to either Turk or
Christian. To offer a petition in his name who is our Advocate
with the Father, to call on his name to whom Stephen
committed his departing spirit, and besides vyhom,
crucified, Paul would know nothing, serving to bonds and
death; this would interrupt the harmony of the masonic
system, the concord of the Turk, Jew, and Christian, and,
therefore, must be dispensed with; and, sorry to say, it is
dispensed with; the name of die Lord Jesus is banished, as
from a system of pure Deism.
In the forms of two funeral services, given at full length
in the Book of Constitutions, and in the Free Mason's Li-