Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

60 EMBLEMS OF FREE MASONRY.
A white apron is a very innocent thing in itself, and if one
can learn purity of life from it, let him wear it by night and
by day.
But this disposition to draw in the Lamb that taketh away
sin, to the support of Masonry; and to call Heaven's Majesty
by the heathenish names of a secret society; and to
set the pleasures which God has prepared for those that
love him, before cold moralists in damask aprons, deserves
reproof; I cannot away with it The bragging which follows,
that this white apron is more honourable than any
thing in the gift of kings, or princes, or people, is too childish
to move indignation.
" Let coxcombs grin, and critics sneer,
" While we are blithe and jolly;
* Let fops despise the badge we wear,
« We laugh at all their folly."
Preston, Lon. ed. 1792. p. 396.
The moral attached to these emblems, is not often rehearsed
in the lodge; very seldom. How impressively,
when it is done, let Masons decide. It is a vain attempt
to feed the immortal mind with chaff for bread; to inculcate
a never dying hope on the sandy foundation of selfrighteousness
; to prepare men for the retributions of eternity,
by the morality of a temporal law, and thus to plant
itself in the way of the true faith, and to turn men aside
from the sure hope, the bright realities, and the searching
doctrines of the gospel.