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

oaths oblige them to practice is anti-Christian, and opposed to both the law and
Gospel of God. It is partial. And here let me again appeal to the dear young men
who have been persuaded to join the Masonic fraternity under the impression that
it is a benevolent institution. Do not, my dear young men, suffer yourselves to be
deceived in this respect. If you have well considered what the law and Gospel
require, you will soon perceive that the benevolence and morality required by
your Masonic oaths is not Gospel morality or true benevolence at all; but that it is
altogether a spurious and selfish morality. Indeed, you yourselves are aware that
you joined the lodge from selfish motives; and that the morality inculcated by
Masons is an exclusive, one-sided, and selfish affair altogether. In some of the
lectures, you are aware that occasionally the duty of universal good-will is, in few
words, inculcated. But you also know that your oaths, which lay down the rule of
your duty in this respect, require no such thing as universal and impartial
benevolence; but that they require the opposite of this. That is, they require you to
prefer a Mason because he is a Mason to a Christian because he is a Christian;
and, instead of requiring you to do good especially to the household of faith, your
oaths require you to do good especially to those who are Freemasons, whether
they belong to the household of faith or not. But this you know to be anti-
Christian, and not according the Gospel. But you know also that Christians devote
themselves to doing good to Masons and to those who are not Masons, to all
classes and descriptions of men. And this they do, not on the principle, as I have
said, of a mutual insurance society, but as a mere matter of benevolence. They
deny themselves for the sake of doing good to the most lowly and even to the
most wicked men.
Do not allow yourselves, therefore, to suppose that there is any good in Masonry.
We often hear it said, and sometimes by professed Christians and Christian
ministers, that "Masonry is a good thing."
But be not deceived. If by good is intended morally good, the assertion is false.
There is nothing morally good in Freemasonry. If there are any good men who are
Freemasons, Freemasonry has not made them so; but Christianity has made them
so. They are good not by virtue of their Freemasonry, but by virtue of their
Christianity. They have not been made good by anything they have found in
Freemasonry; but, if they are good, they have been made good by Christianity, in
spite of Freemasonry. I must say that I have always been ashamed of Freemasons
whenever I have read, in their orations, or in the sermons of ministers who have
eulogized it, or in their eulogistic books, the pretense that Freemasonry is a
benevolent institution. Many have claimed it to be religion, and true religion. This
question I shall examine in another place. But the thing I wish to fix your especial
attention upon in the conclusion of this article is, that Freemasonry has no just
claims to Christian morality or benevolence; but that in its best estate it is only
partiality, and the doing in a very slovenly manner the work of a mutual insurance
company. I do not claim that as a mutual insurance company it is necessarily
wicked[,] but I do insist that, being at best a mutual insurance company, it is
wicked and shameful to flaunt their hypocritical professions of benevolence
before the public as they constantly do. How long shall an intelligent people be
nauseated with this pretense? How can they expect us to have the least respect for