Pawtucket Herald, And Independent Inquirer

THE LAW OF GOD AND THE LAW
OF MASONRY.
AS RESPECTS CHASTITY, COMPARED.

The law of God is—"Thou shalt not commit adultery." The law of Masonry is—"I promise and swear that I will not violate the chastity of a Master Mason's wife, mother, sister, or daughter, I knowing them to be such, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it."

Here the law of God is set aside and a substitution made of a law, to which the most tremendous sanctions are annexed, which virtually abrogates the Divine law in all cases but those particularly specified. Here is an evident and an awful distinction made between Master Masons and others, and between a certain portion of females, and the rest of the female world. A distinction which though it amounts to a prohibition in the one case implies an unlicensed liberty in the other. Does this masonic law accord with moral principles? Has God made this distinction? When he said "thou shalt not commit adultery," did he mean to include in the prohibition, master masons' female connexions only? The masonic law seems to be designed to render the law of God more binding in certain specified cases than it is in others. And hereby the framers of and the obligees to this law call in question the perfection and obligations of the Divine law.

Are the female connections of master masons as to chastity, more sacred than others? Is the security and protection of their chastity more sacred than the security of other females. May master masons take greater liberties in seducing and rendering infamous the wives and sisters of others, than those belonging to their own Order? If not why this oath? And yet Masonry is said to be a pure system of Religion.—Free Press.