CHAPTER III.

FREEMASONRY AND THE CHURCH.
The two most effectively organized bodies of men in the world to-day, are the Catholic Church and Free- masonry. Both have a supreme head or ruler, whose rule is law for all subordinates. An edict issued by the head of the Church, the Pope of Rome, finds its way to the Catholic member, the highest as well as the poor- est, wherever dispersed on the face of the globe. Just so, but even more effectively, does an order emanating from the head of Masonry reach every member of that organization on earth. The Church has effective moral means and spiritual weapons to secure observance of its mandates. Masonry has more effective material weapons and means with Avhich to secure obedience.
Each trying to rule the intellectual and moral life of the human race, an antagonism of life and death must necessarily exist between the two. ^ The great commis- sion or charter of the Church is given in these "vsords of our Lord : "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (Matt, xxviii, 19, 20.)
"In these words are contained ffve points :
1st. — The perpetuity and universality of the mission of the Church as the teacher of mankind. ,
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2d. — The deposit of the Truth and of the Com- mandments, that is, of the Divine Faith and Law en- trusted to the Church.
3 a. — The office of the Church, as the sole interpreter of the Faith and of the Law.
4th. — That it has the sole Divine jurisdiction upon earth, in matters of salvation, over the reason and the will of men.
5th. — That in the discharge of this office our Lord is with His Church always, and to the consummation of the world.
The doctrine of faith and the doctrine of morals are here explicitly described. The Church is infallible in this deposit of revelation. And in this deposit are truths and morals both of the natural and supernatural order ; for the religious truths and morals of the natural order are taken up into the revelation of the order of grace, and form a part of the object of infallibility.
The phrase then "Faith and Morals," signifies the whole revelation of faith; the whole way of salvation through faith ; or the whole supernatural order, with all that is essential to the sanctifi cation and salvation of man through Jesus Christ." (Cardinal Manning, the Vatican Council, pp. 65, ()6,)
It is the will of God, that no one should be saved unless through Jesus Christ; that is, through faith in His doctrine, through hope in His merits, through charity toward God and all men, through the sacraments and prayers, as means of grace, and through obedience to His orders. In order to maintain the divine truths which Christ has taught mankind in their entire purity, and to secure them from all change and distortion. He has
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established in His holy Church the office of infallible teaching, and has promised to it and given to it His pro- tection and the assistance of the Holy Ghost for all time. As He sent the Apostles whom He had chosen Himself from the world, as He Himself had been sent by the Father, so He willed that there should ever be p'astors and teachers in His Church to the end of the world.
Leo XIIT, in his letter of November 1st, 1900, says: '^By the ministry of the Church, so gloriously founded by Him, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by the Father, and having on the one hand con- ferred upon her all effectual aids for human salvation, He ordained with the utmost emphasis on the other, that man should be subject to her as to Himself, and zealously follow her guidance in every department of life: *He that heareth you heareth ^le ; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me.' So the law of Christ is always to be sought from the Church, and, therefore, as Christ is for man the way, so likewise is the Church the way. He in Himself and by His proper nature, she by commis- sion and by a share in His power. On this account those who would strive for salvation apart from the Church, wander from the way and strive in vain."
Man being wholly dependent upon God, as upon our Creator and Lord, and created reason being absolutely subject to uncreated truth, we are bound to yield to God, by faith in His revelation, the full obedience of our in- telligence and will. And the Catholic Church teaches that this faith, which is the beginning of man's salva- tion, is a supernatural virtue, whereby, inspired and assisted by the grace of God, we believe that the things
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which He has revealed are true; not because of the in- trinsic truth of the things, viewed by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Him- self who reveals them, and Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Freemasonry, on the other hand, denies the super- natural, the revealed Word of God; the fall of the human race in Adam and Eve, and, as a consequence, the whole mystery of Eedemption, the Incarnation and Divinity of Jesus Christ, His establishing a Church and teaching a religion differing from v^hat up to His time had been taught. All the Masonic teachings are based on the natural order and the supernatural is carefully excluded. Hence the use of natural means to obtain the end of man. Naturalism is their teaching called, because nature is good, so they say, and whatever is natural is just and right, and there is no such thing as sin in the sense of the Church. Masonry, according to its votaries, is a universal system, and teaches the relative and social duties of man on the broad and extensive basis of philanthropy.
What the head of the Church thinks about Ma- sonry is expressed in the Encyclical of Leo XIII., dated April 20, 1884, called "Humanum Genus,'' and published in this book. For the present chapter the following is to the point : "At this period . . . the partisans of evil seem to be combining together and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of
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Holy Church publicly and openly; and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christen- dom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. ... As soon as the constitution and the spirit of the Masonic sect was clearly discovered by manifest signs of its actions, by cases investigated, by the publications of its laws, and of its rites and ceremonies, with the addition often of the personal testimony of those who were in the secret, this Apostolic See has denounced the sect of the Freemasons and publicly declared its constitution as contrary to law and right; to be pernicious no less to Christianity than to the State ; and it forbade anyone to enter the society under the penalties which the Church is wont to inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons.'"
Albert Pike, for many years the head of Masonry, in a book published by him and used in an able article in the ^•'American Ecclesiastical lieview, December, 1899,'' by the Rev. Charles Coppens, S. J., has this to say about his Order:
^'It is the province of Masonry to teach all truths — not moral truth only, but political and philo- sophical, and even religious truths, — so far as con- cerns the great and essential principle of each.'' In the fourteenth degree, that of the "Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime ^lason," we read (on page 218) : "That Pite (the Scottish) raises a corner of the veil, even in the degree of Apprentice ; for it de- clares that ^lasonry is a worship. . . . Masonry does not inculcate her truths; she states them once and briefly; or hints them, perhaps darkly; or interposes a
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cloud between them and eyes that would be dazzled by them/'
On page 208 we read : "The Supreme, Self-existent, All- wise . . . Creator was the same by whatever name He was called, to the intellectual and enlightened men of all nations ... as Moloch or Maleck, he was but an omnipotent monarch, a tremendous and ir- responsible will; as Adonai, only an arbitrary Lord and Master."
On page 38 it is said : "Catholicity was a vital truth in its earliest ages, but it became obsolete; and Prot- estantism arose, flourished, and deteriorated. The doc- trines of Zoroaster were the best which the ancient Per- sians were fitted to receive; those of Confucius were fitted for the Chinese; those of jMohammed for the idolatrous Arabs of his age. Each was truth for the time. Each was a Gospel preached by a Reformer."
Pike writes on page 231 : "The Mason does not war wdth his own instincts, macerate the body into weakness and disorder, and disparage what he sees to be beautiful, knows to be wonderful, and feels to be unspeakably dear and fascinating. He does not put aside the nature which God has given him, to struggle after another which He has not bestowed."
Page 139 has this : "Masonry does not ... ex- hort us to detach our hearts from this earthly life, as empty, fleeting, 'and unworthy, and fix them upon Heaven as the only sphere deserving the love of the loving and the meditation of the wise. . . . Man is sent into this world, not to be constantly hankering after, dreaming of, preparing for another ; but to do his duty and fulfill his destiny here on earth ; to do all that
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lies in his power to improve it, to render it a scene of ele- vating happiness to himself, to those around him, to those who are to come after him. His life here is part of his immortality; and this world also is among the stars. . . . The Unseen cannot hold a higher place in our affections than the Seen and the Familiar. The law of our being is Love of Life, and its interests and adorn- ments, love of the world in which our lot is cast, en- grossment with the interests and affections of earth."
(Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Kite of Freemasonry, Prepared for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ignited States, and published by its Authority, cniarlestou, A. M. 5(;-iL)*
Can any toacliing ])e more contrary to that of the Catholic Cliurch than tlie tcacliiug of Freemasonry?
In his letter to Cardinal Gibbons of January 22d, ]899, Leo XIII says: ''Christ is the Teacher and the example of all sanctity, and to His standard must all those conform who wish for eternal life."
"Freemasonry is the mother of all secret societies in fact as well as in name." (Cyclopedia of Fraternities by A. C. Stevens.)
From the Washington Star, April 30, 1872.
"MASOXIC BAPTISM."
A KE:\rARKABLE CEREMONY — CONSECRATION TO VIRTUE AND TRUTH — THE AVARDS OF THE LODGE.
The first public Masonic baptism of children which has ever taken place in the District, was performed last night in the chapter chamber. Masonic Temple, in the
* Since the above was in the hands of the printer, I obtained a copy of (lid book.
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presence of a large number of Masons, their wives and daughters. The children were an infant son of Dr. Joseph W. Nairn, 32d degree, and a son of Mr. E. B. MacGrotty, 18th degree, who were baptized in Mithras Lodge of Perfection, Ancient Scottish Rite, which is the Con- sistory of this Masonic Jurisdiction. The rite was per- formed by Thrice Illustrious P. G. M. Albert Pike, as- sisted by Illustrious J. 0. Sinclair, S. G. W. ; Illustrious