Character of Masonry: The Oath Examined
By S. A. Gilley
CHARACTER OF MASONRY.—NO. 5.
From the oath taken in the Master Mason’s degree, we extract the following as the most offensive sentences: “That I will not give the grand hailing sign of distress of this degree, except I am in real distress, or for the benefit of the Craft when at work; and should I see that sign given, or hear the words accompanying it, I will fly to the relief of the person so giving it,” &c. “That I will not be at the initiating, passing, or raising, of an old man in dotage, a young man in nonage, an atheist, irreligious libertine, madman, woman, or fool.” “That I will not violate the chastity of a Master Mason’s wife, mother, sister, or daughter, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it, I knowing them to be such.” “That a Master Mason’s secrets, given to me in charge as such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his, MURDER AND TREASON ONLY EXCEPTED; and they left to my own election.” “Under no less penalty than to have my body severed in two in the midst and divided to the north and south, my bowels burnt to ashes in the center, and the ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven, that there might not remain the least track or trace among men or Masons of so vile and perjured a wretch as I should be,” &c. Can this be reconciled with Christianity? Look first at the oath, to fly to the relief of a person giving the sign of distress. What if that person give the sign in court as a criminal, or from behind prison bars? the oath is, “I will fly to his relief.” Again, look secondly at the large class sworn to be forever excluded from the benefits of this very (?) charitable institution; and remember that to those referred to in the oath must be added all the poor who are unable to pay the fees and dues. How unlike Christianity, which offers its benefits to all! Thirdly, is not this oath of partial virtue a bid on immorality? To insult, violate, ruin, a female, is here plainly declared to be no Masonic crime, unless, forsooth, the female is known to be the relative of a Master Mason. Members of the two first degrees, with all outsiders, should “read, mark, and inwardly digest,” this clause; and determine why their friends are not entitled to equal safety at Masonic hands. Look, fourthly, at the concealment of crime aimed at in the oath to keep a Master Mason’s secrets, “murder and treason only excepted.” (In the seventh, or Royal Arch, degree, it is “murder and treason not excepted.”) Who can tell how much of crime and guilt are covered by this oath to-day? Can Christians be parties to such concealment? Fifthly, the penalty here invoked is such as a heathen would blush at, but still is far, very far, from the scene of cruelty and sin reached in the higher degrees. As our object in this writing is not to give a detailed account of the manner in which a man is made a Mason, nor yet to explain the “grips, signs, passwords,” &c., of the order (this having so often been done already by others), we will pause here to ask if we have not now sufficient proof that Masonry is Antichristian in its character. The rites, ceremonies, and oaths, that we have noticed, with others like them, constitute the whole fabric of Free Masonry; indeed, Masonic authors tell us, “The oath makes the Mason.” Now, if this horrid blending of Bible readings, Christless prayers, and partial virtues, with shameful indecencies, “cut-throat” oaths and barbarous penalties, is not only unchristian, but ANTICHRISTIAN, then who will tell us what its true character is? “But,” says the Masonic sympathizer, “you make too much of their ceremonies and oaths; you take in earnest what they do in jest.” To this we would reply that if these rites and obligations were but a jest, such jesting is sinful in the extreme. But, readers, this is no mere jesting; these oaths are taken to be carried out; and carried out they often are, with all their fearful penalties, as shown in the murder of many for divulging them to the world. The worst of all is that out of this “abomination of iniquity” is produced a religion. “Tell it not in Gath,” so low have men fallen that on the practice and observance of these things, they risk their hopes of Heaven. Turning away from the religion of the Bible, with the blessed associations that gather about it here and the untold glories it presents for the future, they “make lies their refuge,” and yet dare to dream of Heaven. Of its anti-republican character, though masked, we have said little; but at present I would only say that the government of the Lodge is an absolute despotism, controlled by the few in their own interests, against the masses. Bringing the husband into a circle of thought and action from which the wife is forever excluded thus barring out mutual sympathy and interest, it becomes decidedly anti-social; so that in it we have a triad of evils. In concluding, I would say, I have no malice in my heart toward any Mason or Masons, as men; but while thinking highly of many of them, I have come to feel their institution to be only evil; and I consider myself bound to God and my fellow-men to do what I can to expose and oppose it. “With charity toward all, with malice toward none, with firmness in the right, as God gives to see the right,” I would in this work do “what my hands find to do, with my might.” S. A. GILLEY.