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

But why do Freemasons take this course? Why do they decline to discuss, and
resort to threats of violence? I answer first, for the same reason that slaveholders
did the same.
Many years ago John Randolph, with a shake of his long finger, informed the
Congress of the United States, that slavery should not be discussed there. At the
South they would not allow tracts to be circulated, nor a word to be spoken
against the institution. They resorted to every form of violence to prevent it. And
who does not know the reason why? Their abominable institution would not bear
the light, and they knew it right well. Freemasons know very well that they can
not justify their institution before an enlightened public. I mean, those of them
who are well-informed know this.
Multitudes of them are so ignorant as to feel quite sure that they are right, and that
their institution is what it professes to be. The well-informed among them know
better; and those who would naturally be expected to discuss the question, if it
were discussed, know that they can not stand their ground. They can not justify
their horrid oaths, with their barbarous penalties. They know that they can not
establish their false claims to great antiquity.
The ignorant or dishonest among them will vapor, and set forth their ridiculous
pretensions to antiquity; and will try to persuade us that God was a Freemason
when He created the Universe, and that all the ancient worthies were Freemasons.
But the well-informed among them know perfectly well that there is not the
shadow of truth in all this pretension, and that their claim to great antiquity is a
lie, and nothing but a lie, from beginning to end. They know also that the claims
of the institution to benevolence are false, and can not be sustained, and that there
is not a particle of benevolence in their institution;
Again, they know very well that the claim of Masonry to be a saving religion is a
false claim; and that its claim to be substantially the Christian religion is without
the least foundation. They know also that its professions are false in regard to the
truth of history; and that its claim to be a depository of the sciences and arts is
without foundation.
They know very well that Masonry has no just claims to be the light of the world
in regard to any of its pretensions. They know that the secrecy which it enjoins
can not be defended, and that it has no right to exist as a secret, oath-bound
institution. They know that this oath-bound secrecy can not be justified before an
enlightened public; that there is nothing in Freemasonry to justify their oaths or
penalties, and that there is nothing in it that deserves the respect of the public.
They are well aware that they can not justify their pompous titles, their odious
ceremonies, their false teachings, their shameful abuses of the Word of God; and
they are ashamed to attempt to justify the puerilities on the one hand, or the
blasphemies that abound on the other.
Any one who will examine Richardson's "Masonic Monitor," will find in it
diagrams of the lodges and of many of the ceremonies; and if anybody wishes to
see how ridiculous, absurd, and profane many of their ceremonies are, let him
examine that work.