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

truth in regard to an institution which is aiming to overshadow the whole land,
and to have everything its own way! as the writer of the letter from which I have
just made an extract says, that a man's character is not safe if he speaks the truth
concerning Freemasonry. Is not this abominable?
So well do I understand that Masons are sworn to persecute, and to represent
every one who abandons their institution as a vile vagabond, and to say all
manner of evil against him, that I do not pretend to believe what they say of that
class of men.
When the question of Freemasonry was first forced upon us in our church, and I
was obliged to preach upon the subject and read from Bernard's "Light on
Masonry," I found before I got home that EIder Bernard had been so
misrepresented and slandered that people were saying, "He is not a man to be
trusted." Who does not know that whoever has dared to renounce that institution,
and publish its secrets to the world, has either been murdered, or slandered and
followed with persecution in a most unrelenting manner?
CHAPTER XIX.
RELATIONS OF MASONRY TO
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
We are now prepared to consider the question of the relation of Freemasonry to
the Church of Christ. On this question I remark:
lst. God holds the church and every branch of it, responsible for its opinion and
action in accordance with the best light, which, in his providence, is afforded
them. This, indeed, is law universal, equally applicable to all moral agents, at all
times and in all places. But at present I consider its application to the Church of
God. If any particular branch of the church has better means of information, and
therefore more light on moral questions, than another branch, its responsibility is
greater, in proportion to its greater means of information. Such a branch of the
church is bound to take a higher and more advanced position in Christian life and
duty, to bear a fuller and higher testimony against every form of iniquity, than that
required by less favored and less informed branches of the church. They are not to
wait till other branches of the church have received their light, before they bear a
testimony and pursue a course in accordance with their own degree of
information.
2d. While Masonry was a secret, the church had no light, and no responsibility
respecting it. Although individual members of the church, were Freemasons, as a
body, she knew nothing of Masonry; therefore she could say nothing of it, except
as its results appeared to be revealed in the lives of individuals; and, in judging
from this source of evidence, the church could not decide, if the lives of the
members were good or bad, whether it was Freemasonry that made them so;