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

doctors of divinity were slaveholders and were defending the institution. Because
a large portion of the church, of nearly every denomination, were involved in the
abomination. "They are good men," it was said; "they are great men--we must be
charitable."
And so, when this horrid civil war came on, these great and good men, that had
sustained the institution of slavery, sustained and stimulated the war.
Many of them took up arms, and fought with desperation to sustain the institution.
But what is thought now--at least throughout all the North, and throughout all the
Christian world--of the great and good men who have done this thing? Who does
not now admit that they were deluded? that they had anything but the Spirit of
Christ? that they were in the hands of the Devil all along?
The fact is, this has always been the device of those who have sustained any
system of wickedness. They have taken pains, in one way and another, to draw
into their ranks men of reputation for wisdom and piety, men of high standing in
Church and State. A great many of those who are claimed by Freemasons to be of
their number never were Freemasons at all. Others were entrapped into it, and
turned a "cold shoulder" upon it, and paid no more attention to it; but were ever
after claimed as Freemasons.
But there are great multitudes of Freemasons who have taken some of the degrees,
and have become heartily disgusted with it. But, knowing that Freemasons are
under oath to persecute and even murder them if they publicly renounce it and
expose its secrets; they remain quiet, say nothing about it, and go no further with
it; but are still claimed as Freemasons. As soon as public sentiment is enough
aroused to make them feel safe in doing what they regard as their solemn duty,
great numbers of them will no doubt publicly renounce it. At present they are
afraid to do so. They are afraid that their business will be ruined, their characters
assailed, and their lives at least put in jeopardy.
But it should be understood that, while it may be true that there are many pious
and wise men belonging to the Masonic fraternity, yet there are thousands of
learned and pious men who have renounced it, and thousands more who have
examined its claims, and who reject it as an imposture and as inconsistent either
with Christianity or good government
It is sometimes said: "Those men that renounced Masonry in the days of Morgan
are dead. There are now thousands of living witnesses. Why should we take the
testimony of the dead instead of that of the living? The living we know; the dead
we do not know."
To this I answer, first: There are thousands of renouncing Masons still living who
reiterate their testimony on all proper occasions against the institution. Many of
them we know, or may know; and they are not dead witnesses, but living. Now, if
it was wickedness that led those men to renounce Freemasonry and publish its
secrets, how is it that no instance has ever occurred in which a seceding
Freemason has renounced and denounced his renunciation, and gone back into the
ranks of Freemasons? I have never heard of such a case. It is well for the cause of
truth that this question has come up again before the Masons that renounced the