182 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
182 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.X April, 1932 No.4
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THE STUPID ATHEIST
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by: Unknown
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The first of the Old Charges, “Concerning God and Religion” begins:
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“A Mason is obliged, by his tenure, to obey the moral law; and, if he
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rightly understands the art, will never be a stupid atheist***.”
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That all petitioners for the degrees express a belief in Deity is a
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fundamental requirement.
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That all elected candidates who receive the entered Apprentice degree
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publicly express a belief in deity is a fundamental requirement.
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No lodge would accept the petition of any man unwilling to profess
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his faith in Deity.
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We are taught tat no atheist can be made a Mason, and the reason
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usually assigned is that, lacking a belief in Deity, no obligation
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can be considered binding.
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The real reasons for the non-acceptance of atheists into the
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Fraternity goes much deeper. We are not entirely accurate when we
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say that no obligation can be binding without taking an oath. Our
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courts of law permit a Quaker to “affirm” instead of taking an oath
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to tell the truth, inasmuch as a Quaker’s religious belief does not
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permit him to swear. Yet a Quaker who tells an untruth after his
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affirmation is as subject to the penalty for perjury as the devout
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believer in God who first swears to tell the truth, and then fails to
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do so. The law holds a man truthful who affirms, as well as one who
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swears to tell the truth.
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No atheist can be made a Mason, far less from lack of binding power
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of the obligation taken by such a disbeliever, than from
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Freemasonry’s knowledge that an atheist can never be a Mason “in his
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heart.” Our whole symbolism is founded on the erection of a Temple
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to the Most High. Our teachings are of the Fatherhood of God, the
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brotherhood of man founded on that fatherhood, and the immortality of
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the soul in a life to come. A disbeliever in all these could by no
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possible chance be happy or contented in our organization.
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What is an atheist?
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The question has plagued many a Masonic scholar and thousands of men
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less wise. It is still a matter of perplexity to many a man who
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fears that the friend who has asked him to sign his petition is an
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atheist.
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It is possible to spin long-winded theories about the word, draw fine
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distinctions, quote learned encyclopedias and produce a fog of
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uncertainty as to the meaning of “atheist” as hopeless as it is
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stupid, From Freemasonry’s standpoint an atheist is a man who does
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not believe in Deity.
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Which immediately brings out the far more perplexing question: “What
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is this Deity in which a man must believe?”
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Here is where all the trouble and the worry comes on the scene.
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Man’s idea of God differs with the man, his education, his early
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religious training. To some, the mental picture of God is that of a
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commanding, venerable figure with flowing white hair and beard - the
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great artist Dore so pictured God in his marvelous illustrated Bible.
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Such a conception fits naturally in a heaven of golden streets,
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flowing with milk and honey. White clothed angels make heavenly
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music on golden harps, the while Deity judges between the good and
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the evil.
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Such an anthropomorphic God, derived from descriptive passages in the
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Bible, added to by the drawings of artists and crystallized in an age
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of simple faith, have given such a conception to many who find it
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adequate.
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Others conceive of Deity as a Bright Spirit, who moves through the
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universe with the speed of light, who is “without form” because
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without body, yet who is all love, intelligence, mercy and
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understanding.
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The man who believes in the anthropomorphic God describes his
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conception, then asks the brother who believes in a Bright Spirit:
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“Do you believe in my God?” If the answer is in the negative, the
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questioner may honestly believe him who answers to be an atheist.
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The Deity of a scientist, a mathematician, a student of the cosmos
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via the telescope and the testimony of geology, may be neither
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anthropomorphic nor Bright Spirit, but a universally pervading power
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which some call Nature; others Great First Cause; still others Cosmic
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Urge.
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Such a man believes not in the anthropomorphic God, not in God as a
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Bright Spirit. Shall he call his brethren who do so believe,
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atheists? Have they the right so to denominate him?
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To the geologist, the very handwriting of God is in the rocks and
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earth. To the fundamentalist, the only handwriting of God is in the
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Bible. Inasmuch as the geologist does not believe in the chronology
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of the life of the earth as set forth in the Bible, the
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fundamentalist may call the geologist an atheist. Per contra, the
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geologist, certain that God has written the story of the earth in the
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rocks, not in the Book, may call the fundamentalist an atheist
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because he denies the plain testimony of science.
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One is a right, and each is as wrong, as the other! Neither is an
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atheist, “because each believes in the God which satisfies him!”
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You shall search Freemasonry from Regius Poem, our oldest document,
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to the most recent pronouncement of the youngest Grand Lodge; you
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shall read every decision, every law, every edict of every Grand
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Master who ever occupied the Exalted East, and nowhere find an ukase
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that any brother must believe in the God of some other man.
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Nowhere in Freemasonry in England, its Provinces, or the United
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States and its dependent Jurisdictions, will you find any God
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described, cataloged, limited in which a petitioner must express a
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belief before his petition may be accepted.
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For Masonry is very wise, she is old, old and wisdom comes with age!
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She knows, as few religions and no other Fraternity has ever known,
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of the power of the bond which lies in the conception of an unlimited
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God.
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A witty Frenchman was asked once: “Do you believe in God?”
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He answered: “What do you mean by God? Nay, do not answer. For if
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you answer, you define God. A God defined is a God limited, and a
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limited God is no God!”
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From Freemasonry’s gentle standpoint, a God defined and limited is
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not the Great Architect of the Universe. Only God unlimited by
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definition; God without meets and bounds;
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God under any name, by any conception, is the fundamental concept of
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the Fraternity, and to believe in Whom is the fundamental requirement
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for membership.
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In her Fellowcraft Degree Freemasonry teaches of the importance of
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Logic. It is perfectly logical to say that the finite cannot
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comprehend the infinite; a truism as exact as to say that light and
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darkness cannot exist in the same place at the same time, or that
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sound and silence cannot be experienced at the same moment. A mind
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which can comprehend infinity is not finite. That which can be
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comprehended by a finite mind is not infinite.
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Therefore it is logical to say that no man can comprehend God, since
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the only mind he has is finite.
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But if a man cannot comprehend the God in Whom he must express a
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belief in order to be a Freemason, it is obviously the very height of
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folly to judge his belief by any finite comprehension of Deity.
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Which is the best of reasons why Freemasonry makes no attempt at
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definition. She does not say: “Thus and such and this and that is
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my conception of God, do you believe in HIM? She says nothing,
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allowing each petitioner to think of Him as finitely or as infinitely
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as he will.
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The agnostic frankly says: “I do not know in what God I believe, or
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how he may be formed or exist. I only know that I believe in
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something.”
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Freemasonry does not ask him to describe his “something.” If it is
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to him that which may be named God, no matter how utterly different
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from the God of the man who hands him the petition, Freemasonry asks
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nothing more. He must “believe.” How he names his God, how he
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defines or limits Him, what powers he gives Him - Freemasonry cares
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not.
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It is probable that the majority of those who profess atheism are
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mistaken in their reading of their own thoughts. An atheist may be
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an honest man, a good husband and father, a law abiding, charitable,
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upstanding citizen. If so, his whole life contradicts what his lips
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say. In the words of the poet:
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“He lives by the faith his lips deny, God knoweth why!”
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Many a man has reasoned about faith, heaven, infinity and God until
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his brain reeled at the impossibility of comprehending the infinite
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with the finite, and ended by saying in despair: “I cannot believe
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in God!” Then he has taken his wife or his child in his arms and
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there found happiness, completely oblivious to the most profound, as
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the most simple fact of all faiths and all religions; where love is,
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there is also God!
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But Freemasonry does not go behind the spoken or written word. With
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a full understanding that many a man who defiantly denies the
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existence of God is actually not an atheist “in his heart” our Order
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nevertheless insists upon a plain declaration of belief. There is no
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compromise in Freemasonry; her requirement are neither many nor
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difficult, but they are strict.
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Having accepted the declaration, however, Freemasonry asks no
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qualifying phrases
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“Nor should any of us question a declaration.”
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It is not for us to let our hearts be troubled, because a
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petitioner’s conception of Deity is not ours. It is not for us to
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worry because he thinks of his God in a way which would not satisfy
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us. Freemasonry asks only for a belief in a Deity unqualified,
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unlimited, undefined. Her sons cannot, Fraternally, do less.
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When the great schism in Freemasonry ended in 1813, and the two rival
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Grand Lodges, the moderns (who were the older) and the Ancients (who
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were the younger, Schismatic body) came together on St. John’s Day to
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form the United Grand Lodge, they laid down a firm foundation on this
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point for all time to come. It was later declared to all by this,
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the primary, Mother Grand Lodge of all the Masonic World:
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“Lets any man’s religion or mode of worship be what it may, he is not
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excluded from the Order, provided he believes in the glorious
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Architect of Heaven and Earth, and practices the sacred duties of
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morality.”
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What a Mason thinks about the glorious Architect, by what name he
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calls Him. how he defines or conceives of Him, so far as Freemasonry
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is concerned may be a secret between Deity and brother, kept forever,
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“in his heart!”
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