RELIGION. " Speculative Masonry is so far interwoven with religion as to lay us under obligations to pay that rational homage to the Deity which at once constitutes our duty and cur happiness. It leads the contemplative mind to view with reverence and admiration the glorious works of creation, and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfection of his divine Creator." That Freemasonry should be spoken of as a religious institution, or as imparting religious instruction, undoubtedly sounds strange to those who think religion must necessarily be confined to a partic ular set of theological dogmas, or, in other words, be secta rian. But why should it be thought necessary to make religion traverse simply the narrow circle of sectarian ideas ? Is it not a degradation to confino it to so limited a sphere ? The Masonic idea is that religion is absolute, everlasting and unchanging; that it is not a dogma, or a collection of dogmas, but rather reverence and humility before the awful Ideas of Infinity and Eternity ; a sense of subjection to the great law of Justice which stretches through the universe, and of obligation to love and serve • man on earth, and God in heaven. The ideas of God, retri bution, a future life—these great facts of religion are not the property of any one sect or party; they form the ground work of all creeds. Religion, we have said, is everlasting and immutable. It is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.. Sectarianism is but the material framework, changeable and perishable, which men in different ages and countries have raised around it. This material and human investiture of sectarian dogmas changes with the times and seasons ; but that religion, in the light of which all Masons, whatever their particular creed, desire to walk—that religion, sent forth into the world with the awful sanction of the DEITY upon it, which, as an Ancient says, " is to visit the widow and the fatherless in their afflictions, and keep one's self unspotted from the world"—that religion, the essence of which is to love God supremely and our neighbors as we love ourselves, can never change; being absolute, it can never pass away, and it may be taught, with all its obligations, duties and hopes, and all its beautiful applications to life, without being trammelled by any sectarian dogmas whatever.
About religion, in its absoluteness, neither men nor sects ever dispute or quarrel. No; it shines over the human soul clear and bright, like the eternal stars, visible to all; and always, and everywhere, has her voice been heard, consoling the sorrowful, fortifying the weak, and bidding the sons of men aspire • to a celestial communion. Such is the Masonic idea of religion. Freemasonry recognizes God as iramanent in all created things, working in each blade of grass, and swelling bud, and opening flower, and looks upon all the sciences as so many divine methods through which the In finite Artist reveals his mysteries to man. Should any Masonic brother, or any other, think that we are claiming too much for Freemasonry in this respect, we have only to ask him to turn to the " charges" and " lectures" published in our books, to find abundant proofs of what we assert. There we read : " The universe is the temple of the Deity whom we serve: Wisdom, Strength and Beauty are around his throne, as pillars of his works; for his wisdom is infinite, his strength is omnipotent, and his beauty shines forth through all his creation." Ancient Freemasonry invariably united all the sciences to the religious sentiment. Of Arithmetic it says: " All the works of the Almighty are made in number, weight, measure, and, therefore, to under stand them rightly, we ought to understand arithmetical calculations, and be thereby led to a more comprehensive knowledge of our great Creator." "Astronomy," it says, " is that sublime science which inspires the contemplative mind to soar aloft and read the wisdom and beauty of the Creator in the heavens. How nobly eloquent of God is the celestial hemisphere, spangled with the most magnificent symbology of his infinite glory." Discoursing of Geometry, it says, " By it we discover the power, wisdom and goodness of the Grand Artificer, and view with delight the order and beauty of his works and the proportions which connect all parts of his immense universe." Freemasonry, therefore, in the spirit of true reverence, consecrates all to God— the worlds with their sublime mysteries, and the human mind with its mighty powers and the sciences which it has dis covered and e::plained.