The Bottineau courant., October 13, 1905, Image 6

About The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
THE SYMBOLISM
(Continued from first page)
its beauty, color and perfume. Chris
tianity in itH source goes back to Juda
ism but it is broad enough to teach,
mould and transform instead of ex
clude. The Christian religion is not
what it was five centuries ago in the
thoughts of the people. Nor is Masonry
what it was in the beginning. Hu
manity but cries as the dying uian of
old, "More light." "More light."
Boman Catholics have rejected Masonry
because it was not Catholic, Protes
tants have rejected it because it was
not protestant, I accept it because it
promotes the interest of humanity. My
sphere of brotherhood is not large
enough if I think only of my church,
my lodge, my nation. Christianity
is building the Temple that is broad
enough to include all.
"There need not one be left behind
For God hath bidden all mankind.''
"God sees with equal eye as God
o'er all,
The hero perish or the sparrow fall.''
"Honor and fame from no condi
tions rise,
Act well your part there is where
honor lies.''
After the builders had leveled down
the summits and dug down to the solid
rock they laid upon it the chief corner
stone. Solomon commanded that the.v
bring a great costly hewn stone and
lay it upon the rock for the corner
stone. It was difficult to find a cor
ner stone for two reasons. First its
size and second its quality made it a
rare stone. Josephus says that some
of the stones in Solomon's temple
were forty cubits. If he means com
mon cubits they were sixty feet long,
if he means sacred they were eighty
feet long. Dr. Kitto says he saw
stones in Baltic sixty feet long. Mr.
Warren says of the southwestern cor
ner stone that was uncovered a few
years ago. "that it was eighty feet
long. Bishop Newman speaking of
what he saw while visiting the holy
land, "The corner stone is of superior
quality and we do not know how they
handled them but they were certainly
handled for they are there now.'' The
chief corner stone of Solumon's Tem
ple is symbolical of what? Should
not every Christian want to know
It refers to the Precious Stone and
Bare Stone in the spiritual Temple.
That Living Stone, that Chief Corner
Stone is Christ. He was the rare
stone. We see this by two tests. First
He was tried and tested as no other
man yet he was lound true and trustv.
in every walk of life, in childhood,
youth and manhood, in the Wilder
ness, at* Jerusalem, in the civil court,
at the Brow of the Hill in Gethsamane,
on the Mount, at the Cross. Was there
ever such fortitude, integrity and
truth manifested by moral man. He
went bravely on to death rather than
be untrue. He died. Buffians took
him and killed him. The horrible
deed is done. Judas came back and
said 'I have betrayed innocent blood.''
He is tallen, yielding up life, surren
dering all that the world holds dear,
life, power, riches, everything. O
rare integrity, O fortitude most grand.
To Him will countless thousands raise
their songs of praise and laud His
name in after years. In the second
place He showed His rare qualities in
that He conquered death. Had He
remained in the grave after genera
tions could never have found out the
way. The word of eternal life would
have been forever lost, for He only has
the words of eternal life. Seeing that
He has been tried and tested, died and
risen again. He becomes the chief cor
ner stone in the spiritual temple. His
name has become the pass word by
which man is admitted into the well
governed congregation of the saved.
Hence it is written, "In his name
shall the nation trust." Without
Christ the work in the spiritual tem
ple must stop. By the Lion of the
Tribe of Judah we shall ne delivered,
become living stones in the spiritual
temple. There is no other name given
among men whereby we can be saved.
In erecting the temple one stone was
placed upon another, three stones mak
ing the height of a story. The first
three completing the foundation.
Paul speaking of this symbolism
said, "And are built upon the apost
les and prophets, Jesus Christ being
the chief corner stone.''
Let us look at the material that
went into the temple. In its natural
state it was not in readiness. It was
in a state of unreadiness. Do we see
this meaning Little of Masonry or
Christianity do we see unless we see
this, the stones had to be prepared.
Where were they prepared 1 The story
is told of a preacher who had no sym
pathy with the revival meetings, say
ing to one who was conducting them
that he made too much noise and that
in the building of King Solomon's tem
ple there was no noise, not even the
sounding of an iron tool.
But replied the enthusiastic revival
ist, "We are not building temples we
are blasting rock.'' The reason why
there was no noise at the building of
the temple was because each stone was
prepared before the building com
menced. They had to be uncovered,
lifted up out of the earth, their rough
coats and edges taken off and then
with chisel and square they weri
squared. Each one had to be divest
ed of irregularities, reduced to a prop
er size, shape and marked. This had
to be done before they could go into
the temple. What does this symol
ize? "Take heed and govern your
selves accordingly". It teaches that
in our natural state, we are not pre
pared and that we must be duly and
truly prepared, worthy and well qual
ified before we can enter into the spir
itual temple and be passed on by the
Master's hand to the temple in the
skies. Each stone was lifted up, cut,
hewed, chiseled and polished before it
was ready. This hewing, cutting,
squaring, chiseling and squaring sym
bolizes whatV Had not we ought to
know V It symbolizes the changes of
discipline, regeneration and training.
Nothing false must be permitted to go
into the temple. As the stones could
not lift themselves up so you and I
cannot lift ourselves up out of the
quarry of sin of natural and carnal life
into spiritual life and law. The sym
bolism is plain. We are free moral
agents and while we cannot change
ourselves we must consent, it must be
of our own free will and accord. We
must be prepared not in the temple but
outside of the temple and we must be
prepared in our hearts first. There
must be no mental reservation whatev
er, we must trust in God, consent,
desire more light, if we do that the
Master will lift us up into spiritual
life and power. This is the first reg
ular upright step of the Christian.
This step must be taken or none is
taken. The bible calls it new birth,
conversion and other descriptive
words. The stones not only had to be
lifted up they had to be squared.
This symbolizes the second step of
moral discipline. The stones not only
had their coats and irregularities tak
en off but they were squared, then
they were made perfectly square.
This symbolizes the third step in the
Christian life. The bible calls it
perfection, sanctification and abund
ant life. It is not mature character
it is perfect. The baby may be a
parfect baby but it is a child and
far from maturity. What does all
this symbolize V This, that we must
be duly and truly prepared, worthy
and well qualified before we can
enter into the Temple in the Skies.
Many people get wrong ideas of Chris
tianity. Grades of knowledge vary
indefiintely. No two men in this
world possess exactly the same degree
of moral intelligence but if a man is
prepared in his heart to seek the light
and live up to the light as far as he
knows, he will be saved. Conver
sion, new birth, regeneration and
similar words do not express so much
God's relation to us as our relation to
God. The Pagan will not be con
demned because he never beard the
gospel, if he lives up to the light he
has he will be saved. You and I
have a higher degree of knowledge
that is we have seen the light and
God will require more of us. The an
cient temple was the local habitation
of God so the church is pereminntley
God's dwelling place. The church is
broader than the Boman Catholic
Church, it is broader than the Pro
testant chruch. No denominational
church ever existed that comprised all
the christian people. There is the
visible and the invisible church,
There are some of the visible church
who are not members of the invisible
household and there are some outisde
of the visible church who belong to
the spiritual temple. Ceremonies
amount to but little. Baptism is on
ly a symbol, baptism does not make
man a christian. Belonging to the
church does not make a man a christ
ian. Marriage is a form. If the peo
ple married are not first piepared in
their hearts it is not a true marriage.
If a person is baptised and is not pre
pared in his heart to be a Christian,
the baptism will not save him. Christ
said, "On this rock I build my
church. not on Peter as a man but
on a man with the inspiration of
Heaven in his soul. He that hath the
spirit of Christ is of Christ. If a jja
gan has the spirit of Christ he is a
member of the spiritual temple. Cor
nelius received the spirit of Christ be
fore Peter baptized him and he belong
ed to the invisible church before Peter
received him into the visible church.
Petei was a narrow minded bigoted
church man, before he went down to
see Cornelius but Cornelius taught
him some things. When Peter saw
that he had received the Holy Ghost,
he said, "What doth hinder him to
be baptized seeing he hath received
the Holy Ghost as well as we.'' The
Pagan can teach us some things. The
bible is the light of the world. As
the work of "King Solomon's Tem
ple" could not go on without any de
signs on the 'tracing board" neither
can we go forward without the Bible,
everything would be thrown into con
fusion, if we rejected the bible. God
gave Hid plan to David and be to Sol
omon. Solomon governed himself ac
cordingly. He has given to us
through the prophet and apostles His
revelation, the Bible, it is the only
revelation of God's plan and you and
1 must govern ourselves according to
that plan. The bible is the great
light of the church. It is the aim of
the church to fit. square and polish
man, it ought to be the aim of any in
stitution which takes the bible for its
first great light. Any Christianity
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which requires less than the bible
teaches is defective. The badge of
the Mason is white. The christian
must be pure. Now if Masonry em
ploys the symbols of Christianity she
must insist on the perfections of the
christian and the Christianity. If she
does not do this she perverts her own
precepts, abolishes her own symbols
and repudiates her own teachings
wich are her glory, her honor and
her strength. If a man follows the
Bible, he will have a reverence for
God which will make him watchful
for the breaking of any truth be
yond the horizon of the seen, he will
participate in our human confession
of religious need, even if he cannot
affirm all th« popular creeds teach of
religion, neither can he deny the hu
man dependence and sense of need
therefore if he follows the light, he
will unite as far as he can with others
in that attitude of reverence and
humble acknowledgement of human
dependence which is expressed in pub
lic worship. For if a man withdraws
from all participation in the religious
worship of the community that fact
might prove to be as mnch if not
greater misrepresentation of his true
religious position than would be in
volved in an apparant accommodation
to the religious worship of the com
munity. Such an obligation of an in
dividual carries with it also the obli
gation of the church to meet men and
not to close the door of entrance to
any whom the spirit of the christian
household should receive. The
church must be broader. The two re
quirements Jesus made were repen
tance and faith. These were the first
conditions of discipleship that our
Lord required.
But time flies. I must close. I have
not exhausted my subject. I have
just begun. I have refrained from
JNIEW Yl)i
giving prominence to Masonry beacuee
of the prejudice of some people. But
I will say prejudice is a weakness and
it is usually weak people who are
troubled with it. It is the duty of
every Christian to get rid of it as
soon as possible. Prejudice is a house
plant, get it out in the sunshine and it
will wither. It has made millons re
ject truth and no man has a right to
reject truth. He has the power to do
it but not the right. We have no
right to reject truth and if a man re
jects^ unwittingly and unintentionally
he shall suffer loss though ke himself
may be saved. Even though he builds
on a good foundation, hay or stubble.
The fire will try every man's work
and if it burns he shall suffer loss ev
en though he himself shall be saved
as by fire.
The faults of masonry like the faults
of the church are the faults of human
ity and not of the principles and
teaching of the institution. The fact
is toe many cease to work at their
trade. I have known Methodists to
cease to work at their trade, the same
can be said of Presbyterians, Baptists
and members of every church, they
forget to promote life, and breed, an
imosity.
Bouncing Bargains
in
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WE HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE OF THE EXCELLENCE OF OUR DRY GOODS DEPART
MENT AND THE SUPERB QUALITY OF OUR GROCERIES BUT
THE HALF HAS NOT BEEN TOLD.
Ertresvaag Go.
I have a word for church members.
I charge yon before God and man
to live up to your profession. I have
a word for Masons, I charge yeu be
fore God and man ever to walk, act
and live as just and upright Masons.
I have a word for my church mem
bers. I will say that I invited the
Masons to come and hear this dis
ourse that I might do good. I hope
I have accomplished my purpose. I
hope we will all go out to study our
bibles more. That ouc sympathies
will be widened and deepened. The
need of humanity is sympathy. Let
us be broad in our sympathy. "For
Bottineau, North Dakota
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case of love at first sight.
Don't forget that our store carries the famous Wilson Bros, shirts, leaders everywhere,
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the love of God is broader than the
measure of man's mind." Let us
continue to trust in God and to pray
that He will bless us in all of our
laudable undertakings, that we may
know and serve him right and that all
of our actions may tend to his glory
and our advancement in knowledge
and virtue. May we so practice the
precepts of the bible that through the
merits of the Bedeemer we may finally
obtain the promise and find an en
trance through the gates into the tem
ple and city of our God.
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Described as the N ^W 11 and
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Groceries! Phone No. 70 when you
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