Page:Oration Delivered on the Centennial Day of Washington's Initiation into Masonry (1852).djvu/7

Rh or religious: although there may be but few, if any such acceptations, in which truth, more or less, is not found, but often “cribbed, coffined and confined,” with her light obscured, her power restrained, her energies repressed, her glory dimed, and her office changed, so that instead of being free to direct and lead men and nations, along the ascending path of life, and infinite progression, she is placed under guardians and restrictions, directed whether to go and where to stop, and what to do and how much. We use the term in its most comprehensive sense, comprehensive as the being of God and of nature, comprehensive as the nature and wants of man, and comprehensive as the powers and progress of the immortal mind. And all that meets the necessities, and supplies the wants of man; all that removes the evils, incident to his fallen nature, in his organic condition, as a physical, intellectual and moral agent; and in his accidental conditions, as child, son or daughter, husband, wife or parent, subject, magistrate or state, to promote and secure his highest welfare in time, and his hopes in eternity, is truth. Man the subject, truth the means and the highest state of happiness, in all these several conditions, the end. And all this truth, God has consigned to man, freely and fully; and man’s duty is, to search for it; his privilege is, to use it, and his right is, to enjoy the fruits of his labor and this privilege. And he, who neglects this duty, this right and this privilege, is recreant and false to his God and himself; and, for this recreancy, the loss of honor, peace and happiness is the sure and inevitable penalty. This truth is diffused throughout all nature; but its best, and most transcendent forms are contained in the Bible, the platform and directory of Masons and of Masonry. And the most essential and important feature and principle of truth, is liberty—liberty of mind, of thought, to search after this truth; for, without this, truth is valueless, inoperative and dead, like the gold and other precious metals deposited in the earth, which are of no value, until discovered and put to use. And it is upon this first and most essential feature, and principle of truth—this heavenly grant to man—his divine right, that the whole burden of man’s obligation, duties, and the responsibilities, is founded. The liberty to know himself, whence he came, and his ultimate destiny, and the means, by which the honor and happiness of that destiny can best be secured—that means is truth. But man has ever failed to exercise this principle of heaven-born liberty—this divine right of man—failed to meet the high and solemn duties, and responsibilities, that rest upon it, and are, inseparably, connected with it: and neglected to value his rights, and his privileges; and hence the cause and source of all his wrongs and wretchedness. And this has been done in three ways. In the first place—which is, perhaps, the most general way—this first and greatest of all duties is neglected; man shrinks from the toils and labors, and the