Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of FreemasonryPike, Albert
Religion
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Pike, Albert
Freemasons
PRINCE OF JERUSALEM.
We no longer expect to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. To us it has
become but a symbol. To us the whole world is God's Temple, as is every
upright heart. To establish all over the world the New Law and Reign of
Love, Peace, Charity, and Toleration, is to build that Temple, most
acceptable to God, in erecting which Masonry is now engaged. No longer
needing to repair to Jerusalem to worship, nor to offer up sacrifices
and shed blood to propitiate the Deity, man may make the woods and
mountains his Churches and Temples, and worship God with a devout
gratitude, and with works of charity and beneficence to his fellow-men.
Wherever the humble and contrite heart silently offers up its adoration,
under the overarching trees, in the open, level meadows, on the
hill-side, in the glen, or in the city's swarming streets; there is
God's House and the New Jerusalem.
The Princes of Jerusalem no longer sit as magistrates to judge between
the people; nor is their number limited to five. But their duties still
remain substantially the same, and their insignia and symbols retain
their old significance. Justice and Equity are still their
characteristics. To reconcile disputes and heal dissensions, to restore
amity and peace, to soothe dislikes and soften prejudices, are their
peculiar duties; and they know that the peacemakers are blessed.
Their emblems have been already explained. They are part of the language
of Masonry; the same now as it was when Moses learned it from the
Egyptian Hierophants.
Still we observe the spirit of the Divine law, as thus enunciated to our
ancient brethren, when the Temple was rebuilt, and the book of the law
again opened:
"Execute true judgment; and show mercy and compassion every man to his
brother. Oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger nor the
poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart.
Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of
Truth and Peace in your gates; and love no false oath; for all these I
hate, saith the Lord.
"Let those who have power rule in righteousness, and Princes in
judgment. And let him that is a judge be as an hiding-place from the
wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place;
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Then the vile person
shall no more be called liberal; nor the churl bountiful; and the work
of justice shall be peace; and the effect of justice, quiet and
security; and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of the times.
Walk ye righteously and speak uprightly; despise the gains of
oppression, shake from your hands the contamination of bribes; stop not
your ears against the cries of the oppressed, nor shut your eyes that
you may not see the crimes of the great; and you shall dwell on high,
and your place of defence be like munitions of rocks."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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