Post by Tamrin on Oct 10, 2008 12:30:07 GMT 10
The Origin of Freemasonry
by Robert Longfield, February 14, 1857
[Excerpt - Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon - Linked Above]
by Robert Longfield, February 14, 1857
[Excerpt - Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon - Linked Above]
Time does not permit me to full up this outline by the details of minute and striking coincidences between Freemasonry and the ancient mysteries to which I have averred. My object, indeed, was rather to present you with a general sketch of these nearly-forgotten fraternities, to exhibit only those leading features and the prevailing motives acting on the human mind, from which all originated, and rapidly to trace through our Christian era the decline of the old, and the rise of the modern and more known system of Freemasonry, into which the ancient has been changed. I trust, however, that even this rapid and cursory outline of the origin of Freemasonry may have awakened an interest in the minds of some of my brethren as to the evidences of the great antiquity of our Order; that they may feel some glowing connection with the most illustrious dead of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; that a feeling like pride of noble lineage and untarnished ancestry may elevate their minds, and induce them to aspire to elevate the Order also, to that consideration it once deservedly enjoyed. Then, indeed, might we boast that Freemasonry was the humble handmaid of our Pure Religion, and thus prove its identity with those associations of men who, in dark ages, ere the Day-star from on high had visited this earth, endeavoured to walk uprightly, by the dim light still retained of the religious impressions originally implanted and "left as a guide," and who, in centuries long gone by,
"Kept the truth so firm of old,
When our forefathers worshipped stocks and stones."