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

I might quote numerous instances in which good men have at first hesitated, and
finally refused to go any further in Masonry, and have threatened to expose the
whole of it to the world. Whoever will read Elder Stearns' little books on Masonry
will find examples of this.
But why should Freemasons lay so much stress on the fact that many good men
have been Freemasons? It has always been the favorite method of supporting a
bad institution to claim as its patrons the wise and good. This argument might
have been used with great force, and doubtless was, in favor of idolatry in the
time of Solomon and the prophets. Several of the kings of Israel were idolaters, as
well as the queens and the royal family generally.
The great mass of the prophets, and religious teachers, and great men of the
nation, lapsed into idolatry. Nearly all the learning, and wealth and influence of
the whole nation could be appealed to as rejecting Christ. Those who received
him were but a few fishermen, with some of the lowest of the people. Now what a
powerful argument was this! If the argument of Masons be of any value, how
overwhelming an argument must this have been against the claims of our Lord
Jesus Christ!
Why the rejecters of Jesus could quote all the great men of the nation, and the
pious men, and the wise men, as decidedly opposed to his claims! The same was
true after his death and resurrection for a great while. The question would often
arise: "Do any of the rulers believe on him?"
An institution is not to be judged by the conduct of a few of its members who
might have been either worse or better than its principles. Christianity, e.g., is not
to be judged by the conduct of particular professed Christians; but by its laws, its
principles, by what it justifies and by what it condemns. Christianity condemns all
iniquity. It abhors covering up iniquity. In the case of its greatest and most
prominent professors, it exposes and denounces their sin, and never justifies But
Masonry, on the other hand, is a secret work of darkness. It requires its members
to take an oath to cover up each other's sins. It requires them to swear, under the
most awful penalties, that they will seek the condign punishment of every one
who in any instance violates any point of their obligation. It, therefore, justifies
the murder of those who betray its secrets.
Masons consistently justified the murder of Morgan, as everybody in this country
knows who has paid any attention to the subject.
This is not inconsistent with their principles. Indeed, it is the very thing
demanded, the very thing promised under oath.
But again: This same argument, by which Masons are attempting to sustain their
institution, was always resorted to to sustain the practice of slaveholding.
Why, how many wise and good men, it was said, were slaveholders. The churches
and ecclesiastical bodies at the North were full of charity in respect to them. They
could not denounce slaveholding as a sin.
They would say that it was an evil; but for a long time they could not be
persuaded to pronounce it a moral evil, a sin. And why? Why, because so many