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Article GLEANINGS FROM MASONRY. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Gleanings From Masonry.
final dissolution will intrude upon us , however we may endeavour to shun the contemplation ; and happy is he who can await the fatal moment , not only with fortitude , but with hope . In the beginning , God made the heavens and the earth ; enriched and beautified his works with everything which could minister to the happiness of his favoured creature—man , who , formed after his express image , and unstained by sinexperienced that felicity now only known around the throne of
, God . Days came ancl went , and left no mark of age—earth enjoyed a perpetual spring—ancl tears—save those of gratitude ancl joy— --were yet unknown . But man was disobedient , ancl the dreadful curse was pronounced , "Thou shalt die . ' ' " Death , and all the sad variety of pain , " a just , but horrible doom , ivas entailed on the disobedient , and his heirs , for ever . The seeds of sin , engendered in the mind of the first man , multiplied with the growth of the human family . Murder soon
followed disobedience , accompanied by impiety , and every species of depravity , until God ' s image was totally effaced from the human heart . But man might riot , ancl in the fulness of his pride and presumption , cry , " come , let us be merry . " It was but gilding the pathway to the tomb : the grave was the termination of their course . Whatever line was followed , the same fatal point was the termination . At length theanger of the Almighty was made manifestby an awful and general visitation .
, The fountains of the great deep were opened , the clouds poured down their watery stores , and all flesh , except one family , was choked in the watery deluge . Noah , a teacher of righteousness in his day and generation , ivas preserved , with his family , to repeople the devastated earth . The bow was fixed in the clouds , as a token that the earth should not
be again destroyed by a flood ; but death—inevitable death—was still the end of man ' s short p ilgrimage . Death ! from which no earthly wight could claim exemption . Death ! which appeared a total extinction of body and soul . Human nature lay prostrate and lifeless under the all-consuming curse . Morality and virtue strove in the work of regeneration . The human mind , purified by this moral regimen , shone , in many instances , with a brilliancy ivhose light is felt even now . Virtues were exemplifiedwhicli have not lost their effect
, , although thousands of years have passed over them . But the men who walked with virtue—the men who sought after her as for hidden treasure—failed to remove the curse . The grave , and its unfathomed gloom , was still the bourne ; the mighty phantom , whose dark wings overshadowed the end of man . The mysteries of nature , and the mighty powers of science were enlisted in the work . Nature was ransacked , to find some antidote—some specific—to render flesh impervious
to the shaft of death : science used its mighty energies to free the slave of sin from its inevitable consequence ; but in vain—death was unconquered ; and neither the beauties of morality , nor the exertions of the intellect , could RAISE the putrifying mass to fife . At length , in the fulness of time , He of whom God spake , by the mouth of his prophets , came into the world , to vanquish death and the grave , and lead captivity captive . The wono was made flesh—the word whichin the
, beginning , made all things , came—a day-spring from on high—to invigorate and restore that which sin had defiled , and placed under the ban of an offended Deity . He , who alone , could raise fallen nature to her original purity , descended from His throne , and was made man , like unto us—sin excepted—that He might make us the children of God , and joint-heirs with liimself . That which morality and science
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Gleanings From Masonry.
final dissolution will intrude upon us , however we may endeavour to shun the contemplation ; and happy is he who can await the fatal moment , not only with fortitude , but with hope . In the beginning , God made the heavens and the earth ; enriched and beautified his works with everything which could minister to the happiness of his favoured creature—man , who , formed after his express image , and unstained by sinexperienced that felicity now only known around the throne of
, God . Days came ancl went , and left no mark of age—earth enjoyed a perpetual spring—ancl tears—save those of gratitude ancl joy— --were yet unknown . But man was disobedient , ancl the dreadful curse was pronounced , "Thou shalt die . ' ' " Death , and all the sad variety of pain , " a just , but horrible doom , ivas entailed on the disobedient , and his heirs , for ever . The seeds of sin , engendered in the mind of the first man , multiplied with the growth of the human family . Murder soon
followed disobedience , accompanied by impiety , and every species of depravity , until God ' s image was totally effaced from the human heart . But man might riot , ancl in the fulness of his pride and presumption , cry , " come , let us be merry . " It was but gilding the pathway to the tomb : the grave was the termination of their course . Whatever line was followed , the same fatal point was the termination . At length theanger of the Almighty was made manifestby an awful and general visitation .
, The fountains of the great deep were opened , the clouds poured down their watery stores , and all flesh , except one family , was choked in the watery deluge . Noah , a teacher of righteousness in his day and generation , ivas preserved , with his family , to repeople the devastated earth . The bow was fixed in the clouds , as a token that the earth should not
be again destroyed by a flood ; but death—inevitable death—was still the end of man ' s short p ilgrimage . Death ! from which no earthly wight could claim exemption . Death ! which appeared a total extinction of body and soul . Human nature lay prostrate and lifeless under the all-consuming curse . Morality and virtue strove in the work of regeneration . The human mind , purified by this moral regimen , shone , in many instances , with a brilliancy ivhose light is felt even now . Virtues were exemplifiedwhicli have not lost their effect
, , although thousands of years have passed over them . But the men who walked with virtue—the men who sought after her as for hidden treasure—failed to remove the curse . The grave , and its unfathomed gloom , was still the bourne ; the mighty phantom , whose dark wings overshadowed the end of man . The mysteries of nature , and the mighty powers of science were enlisted in the work . Nature was ransacked , to find some antidote—some specific—to render flesh impervious
to the shaft of death : science used its mighty energies to free the slave of sin from its inevitable consequence ; but in vain—death was unconquered ; and neither the beauties of morality , nor the exertions of the intellect , could RAISE the putrifying mass to fife . At length , in the fulness of time , He of whom God spake , by the mouth of his prophets , came into the world , to vanquish death and the grave , and lead captivity captive . The wono was made flesh—the word whichin the
, beginning , made all things , came—a day-spring from on high—to invigorate and restore that which sin had defiled , and placed under the ban of an offended Deity . He , who alone , could raise fallen nature to her original purity , descended from His throne , and was made man , like unto us—sin excepted—that He might make us the children of God , and joint-heirs with liimself . That which morality and science