We regret to see that Bro. Rob Morris, Grand Master of Kentucky, is using his official position, as well as the influence of his paper, to destroy the universality of Masonry, by requiring a belief in the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. He lately gave an official opinion that the Master of a Lodge must entertain such a belief. To sustain his opinion, he produces no authority, and we unhesitatingly assert that he cannot produce any. In support of his opinion, he gives arguments which appear to us to be weak and fallacious. He says:

The solemn enunciation of immortal hopes and aspirations at the grave of deceased brothers, which the Master expresses in the burial service, is based solely upon our faith in the divinity of Scripture.

This we deny in toto. Suppose that Mahommedan Masons are burying a Brother, could they base their faith solely upon the "divinity of the Scriptures"? Certainly not. Masonry is not one thing in the United States and another in Turkey. It is the same all over the world. This is its pride and boast-its great characteristic. Again we quote:

Our prayers are scriptural, and they are of divine import because they are scriptural.

If the Bible is but a history, however interesting and ancient, our prayers are but historical expressions, without force or point, or hope or meaning. If the scriptural statements are but historical, it would be as well to pray in the words of Gibbon or Josephus, as those we use.

This is the first time that we were ever instructed that a man cannot appropriately pray in any language which expresses the aspirations of 7-VOL. V. NO. III.

his soul, whether that language be his own, that of Gibbon, of Josephus, or of the Scriptures. "Our prayers are scriptural, and they are of divine import because they are scriptural." This is merely begging the question by an unwarranted assertion.

Bro. Morris says:

The common sentiment of the Masonic Fraternity, which is even more an index to Masonic Philosophy than our written books, is shocked at the denial of the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. We may differ to some limited extent as to certain portions of the Bible. Some may believe that the Apochryphal books are genuine, some that the New Testament is genuine, and some may object to them both; but all Masons, everywhere, accredit the Pentateuchal books which contain the entire moral law of Masonry, as being the markings of the fingers of God. In an especial manner all Masons of every creed believe that the ten commandments are the very wisdom of Deity, engraved on the hearts of men, as a guide to the performance of all duties, whether relating to God, our country or ourselves. No person who doubts this ought to have control over the Craft.

We do not believe the common sentiment of the Fraternity, as Masons, is shocked at the denial of the divine authenticity of the Scriptures, however much the members, as Christians, may be shocked. We see no difficulty in any one, who denies the divine authenticity of the Bible, subscribing to the latter part of the quotation. Masonry teaches, in her system of practical morality, the truths enunciated in the commandments.

We make one more quotation :

But I base this edict of mine upon even stronger arguments, if possible, than those I have given. Your Master, in the solemn covenant made by him at his installation, publicly consented to the following belief in scriptural inspiration, as understood by Masons. "The holy writings, that great light in Masonry, will guide you to all truth; it will direct your feet to the temple of happiness, and point out to you the whole duty of man." (See Monitor, p. 126.)

Again, on p. 131, "the Holy Scriptures which are given as a rule and guide to your faith;" this language is too clear to be misunderstood, and, while I give credit to your Master for a candid and honest expression of his opinions, as a man and a Mason, I cannot excuse him for thus making a public assent, so plainly expressed in our printed Monitors, when, as he now declares, he did not believe them. There is but one other portion of this subject to which I allude, viz: that your Master now affirms his belief in Deity, although not in the divine authenticity of Scripture. This logic is not good. The only idea any of us have of Deity, as related to us in any moral sense, we gain from the Scriptures; outside of that, all knowledge of a future state and of

our responsibility to God is but a blank; outside of that, the wisest man in the world stands on the level of ignorance with the lowest.

We see no difficulty in a Master assenting to the charges in the Monitor, and yet doubting the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. The Bible may be holy in his judgment, as any truth is holy-as all truths are holy. By what authority is he to be deprived of his individual judgment in this matter?

As a Mason, we neither advocate nor deny the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. Masonry leaves each member to judge of the Bible in that respect as his sense of right and wrong dictates, and the efforts which are made to enforce different views and make our Institution a sectarian-a Christian one, are calculated to destroy it.

In connection with this subject we may say, that the Grand Lodge of Iowa, at its last session, repealed the resolutions previously passed, by the adoption of the following:

Resolved, That while the Grand Lodge of Iowa yields to none in its respect or affection for the Great Light, it considers all legislation on that subject an innovation. Therefore,

Resolved, That the 19th General Regulation, adopted by the Grand Lodge of Iowa at the Grand Annual Communication of 1855, held at Keosauqua, and to be found on page 116 of the 2nd Vol. of the Proceedings of this Grand Lodge, be, and the same is hereby rescinded.

A correspondent of the Mirror and Keystone wrote at the time respecting this action :

All the "old hands" and all the young ones who were opposed to innovations, were opposed to the resolution of 1855, and such was the readiness with which the Grand Lodge rescinded its error when pointed out, that out of some 200 members present, and nearly all of them deeply interested in the result, there were but four or six votes in opposition to the rescinding. * * * I feel that we have achieved a great result, that Iowa now stands upon the side of conservatism, and that the taunt of this great "beam in her own eye" cannot be thrown up to her.

Iowa has acted judiciously. Seeing that she took a wrong step, she has retraced it.

Old as Masonry is, it is yet but in its infancy, for it will probably live as long as the world shall exist.

"IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN."

[Selected.]

With heavy head bent on her yielding hand,
And half-flushed cheek, bathed in a fevered light-
With restless lips and most unquiet eyes,

A maiden sits, and looks out on the night.

The darkness presses close against the pane,

And silence lieth on the elm-tree old,

Through whose wide branches steals the white-faced moon,

In fitful gleams, as though 't were over bold.

She hears the wind upon the pavement fall,
And lifts her head as if to listen there;
Then wearily she taps against the pane,

Or folds more close the ripples of her hair;

She sings unto herself an idle strain,

And through its music all her thoughts are seen; For all the burden of the song she sings

Is, "O my God! it might have been!"

Alas! that words like these should have the power
To crush the roses of her early youth-

That on her altar of remembrance sleeps

Some hope, dismantled of its love and truthThat 'mid the shadow of her memory lies

Some grave, moss-covered, where she loves to lean, And sadly sing, unto the form therein,

It might have been-O God! it might have been !"

We all have in our hearts some hidden place-
Some secret chamber where a cold corpse lies-
The drapery of whose couch we dress anew,
Each day, beneath the pale glare of its eyes;

We go from its still presence to the sun,

To seek the pathways where it once was seen,

And strive to still the throbbing of our hearts
With this wild cry, "O God! it might have been!"

We mourn in secret o'er some buried love

In the far Past, whence love does not return,

And strive to find among its ashes gray

Some lingering spark that yet may live and burn; And when we see the vainness of our task,

We flee away, far from the hopeless scene, And folding close our garments o'er our hearts,

Cry to the winds, "O God! it might have been!"

Where'er we go, in sunlight or in shade,

We mourn some jewel which the heart has missed-
Some brow we touched in days long since gone by-
Some lips whose freshness and first dew we kissed;
We shut out from our eyes the happy light

Of sunbeams dancing on the hill-side green,
And, like the maiden, ope them on the night,
And cry, like her, "O God! it might have been!"

For THE ASHLAR.

BEGGING.

I FIND in the Ionia Gazette, a paper published in Ionia county, Michigan, of Sept. 28th, that one Dr. Carrea has already delivered some, and is to deliver more, lectures on the subject of life against death, the preservation of health, &c., charging twenty-five cents to each individual hearing the same. He comes recommended by several persons, signing themselves as W. M's of Lodges. Now Bro. Weston, I have nothing to say as to Dr. Carrea's being a Freemason, his private or public character, or his lectures. But I do wish to know if American Freemasonry upholds, or even countenances, such kind of begging. If it does, I am frank to confess that I have never been able to find it, in over thirty years' hard scratching and digging to find that which was lost. If I am correct, our Institution teaches, "Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth," or, in other words, "When thou givest alms, give in secret, and thy Heavenly Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee openly."

Some of those good and zealous Brethren who attached the W. M. to their signatures, I do know have never been elected to fill that office in any Blue Lodge, but are actually S. W's of the same, and should have put some other or more initials either before or behind. As Young Americanism is springing up in all societies, it is not surprising that we should have a little taste of it among us. I expect that some will say, I am an "old fogy." If the condemnation of such things as is found in the newspaper puffing above referred to, be old fogyism, I thank God I am numbered among that class.

Fraternally Yours,

MICHIGAN.

Ionia, Mich.