Masonry V. Agnosticism*

Nihilists or Communists , " — -and " their ideas of what constitutes civilisation are immeasurably below those of the wildest American Indian . " It takes brave brain and brawn to cope with creatures like these , even for th & ir benefit ! No envied office , easy empire , or bed of roses , for the duty-doer , at best . So take we timely heed , trusty citizens , in custody of right liberty , to the Federal Union ! Sowingweedingwatchingreaping—what of . the harvest ?

, , , Then , " Yea , and why , even of yourselves , judge ye not what is right ? " asketh the Master . " Do men gather grapes of thorns , or figs of thistles ? " One thing here , though , thank God ! such alien caitiffs can never of right be Freemasons . To prove that Nihilists are out-and-out agnostics , we have but to quote briefly from what , thirty-three years ago , the ring-leading formulator declared of this Nihilismviz : " The gospel admits of no half-measures and hesitations .

, The old world must be destroyed and replaced by a new one . The lie must be stamped out and give way to truth . Now the beginning of all the lies which have ground down this poor world in slavery is God . Tear out of your hearts the belief in the existence of God , for as long as an atom of that silly superstition remains in your minds , you will never'know what freedom is ! The first lie is Godthe second lie is Riht . " And " once penetrated with a clear

, g conviction of your mi g ht , you will be able to destroy this mere notion of ri ght . " Thus , " when you have freed your minds from the fear of God and from that childish respect for the fiction of right , then all the remaining chains which bind you , and which are called science , civilization , property , marriage , morality , and justice , will snap asunder like threads . Let your own happiness be your own law !"

Your own " sweet will " only is what is meant in this selfish ostracism , and wholesale demolition of all common sense and decency even . But the Nihilgospel continues : " In order to get this law recognized , and to bring about the proper relations which should exist between the majority and minority of mankind , you must destroy everything which exists in the shape of state or social organisation ! Our first work must be the destruction and annihilation of everything as it now exists . "

" Neck or nothing ! To this " you must accustom yourself —actually to be an expert slayer , successful incendiary , and complete exterminator in general of everybody but yourself , and of all things but your own ! Mark well ! the very Nihil-inanclate of what vicious wantonness and thoroughly unprincipled import " to destroy everything—the good with the bad ; for if an atom of this old world remains the new will never be created . Take heed that no ark be allowed to rescue one atom of this old worldwhich we consecrate to

, destruction . " On the heels of the late Czar ' s assassination there were meetings at various principal American points , as in Chicago , Cincinnati , and New York , of Communists notably in active accord and sympathy with the Nihilists , gloatingover the murder of Alexander . From New York emanates the threat of an open Socialist publicated through the prints of the day : " In America , the fate

which has overtaken Alexander has a point . There are those in the United States who should heed the warning , for it bodes disaster to some among us in high places , " and there was still more of corresponding villainous intimation from this impious gangrene , of agnostic odour , marking its source . Not , I take it , that all Agnostics are Nihilists ; but , of their ignoring God , all Nihilists are agnostic ; and Nihilism , pregnant of agnosticism , is from the common matrix

of Infidelity;—corrupt spawn , as of the ephemerous mortal despiting the Divine eternal . Why the Most High One suffers it He only knows ; doubtless it is for some purpose in the economy of events beyond our limited ken , however strange to the world ; for His greater glory , and for the faithful to realise , ultimatel y , how much better his Maker is to that man than man to mankind . But , on this agnostic aspect of affairs , to afford " an idea of the terrible purpose which actuated their terrorising faction , " one of the Nihilists in the p