THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

ansacking the whole Old and New Testaments for striking passages from which
they could construct new degrees, thus leaving the impression that Masonry was a
divine institution, and founded upon the Bible.
If professed Christians who are Freemasons will really examine this subject, they
will see that a Masonic lodge is no place for a Christian.
But suppose it should be asked, may we not innocently take those degrees that are
founded upon the Bible, and that recognize the Christian religion as of divine
authority? I answer, Christians cannot be hypocrites. Let it be distinctly
understood, that all these higher degrees are shown to be an imposture; and that
this Christianizing of Freemasonry has consisted in heaping up a vast mass of
falsehood, and of palming it off upon the fraternity as truth and as ancient
Freemasonry.
Can Masonic orators be honest in still claiming for Speculative Masonry great
antiquity, divine authority, and that it is a saving institution? Masons are
themselves now showing that the whole fabric of Speculative Freemasonry is an
enormous falsehood. Stone Masonry, doubtless, had its simple degree, and its
pass words and signs by which they knew each other. It also had its obligations.
But upon that little stem have been engrafted a great number of spurious and
hypocritical degrees.
This does seem to be undeniable. Now will Freemasons be frank enough to
acknowledge this, and to say frankly that they have been imposed upon? Will they
come out from all fellowship with such an imposture and such a swindle?
It has then come at last to this, that the highest authority among Freemasons has
taken the ground that the Freemasonry which has been so eulogized throughout
the length and breadth of the land, and which has drawn in so many professed
Christians and ministers, is nothing less than an enormous cheat. That those
behind the curtain, who have manufactured and sold these degrees--those Grand
Chapters and Encampments and Commanderies, and all those pompous
assemblies--have been engaged in enticing the brotherhood who had taken the
lower degrees, to come up into their ranks and pay their money, that they may line
their pockets. Now remember that these positions are fully sustained by Masons
themselves, as their views are set forth in this number of the Masonic Monthly.
I do most earnestly entreat Freemasons to inform themselves on this subject; and
not turn around and tell us that they, being Freemasons, know more about it than
we do ourselves. The fact is, my friends, many of you do not. You do not read. I
have myself recently conversed with a Freemason who admitted to me that he was
entirely ignorant of what was being said in Masonic periodicals on this subject. I
do not believe that one in twenty of the Masonic fraternity in this country is aware
of the intense hypocrisy with which all the higher degrees of Masonry have been
palmed off upon them, and upon the whole fraternity. Can men of honor and of
principle allow their names and influence to be used to sustain such an enormous
mass of false pretension?
But again, no one can read Bernard on Masonry through, or any of these authors,
without perceiving the most unmistakable evidence that most of the degrees in