Ebook FREEMASONRY - SECRET OR NOT SECRET
Many people are of the opinion that Masonry is a secret society, but I hope to dispel this misconception. There is much that may be told to wife or mother, father or friend - told to the glory and the help of the Ancient Craft with no violation of the solemn pledge sacredly to keep secret that which is secret.
It is no secret that he who becomes a Freemason joins an order which
reverences womanhood, which upholds law and constitutional government, which cares for the widow and the fatherless, which inculcates the highest moral and religious principles, which fosters patriotism, which instructs in toleration and obliges conscientiousness in human relations.
The most careful brother may tell. his wife that in his Lodge the Holy Bible lies open upon an Altar. The fact is written in a thousand volumes, and is proclaimed in Masonic books of the law.
The manuals and monitors of many Grand Lodges set forth the prayers which
are uttered in the degrees -- what is printed by a Grand Lodge cannot in its
very nature be a secret from any one. That all Lodges are opened and closed with prayer -- that every Lodge has a Chaplain -- is a secret from no one.
It has been well said that Freemasonry is not a secret society, but a society with secrets. A secret society is one of which only its members know; a society with secrets may be one of which the world knows much.
Grand Lodges publish "Proceedings" in which the actions of the Grand Lodge at annual and special communications are set forth. Many of these contain the names of every man who is a Freemason. To be found in Libraries the world over -- these are no more secret documents than is a telephone or city
directory.
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