Page:Oration Delivered on the Occasion of the Dedication of the New Hall of Cooper Lodge.djvu/14

12 make an enemy, or repel a human heart, and alienate a human mind? When and where? Echo answers, when and where? And when and where did selfishness and pride, bigotry and persecution, political and religious, make a friend, soften the heart into love, and the mind into affection and esteem? Echo again, in a low response, answers, when and where? And to illustrate and enforce this great truth, let me refer you to the Bible—the Mason’s chart and guide; who, of all the sinful race of a fallen world, would have loved God, if He had not first loved us.

And now, brethren, may the Hall we dedicate to-day, be, while it stands, exclusively sacred and devoted to these great principles of charity,—brotherly kindness and truth. These are the pillars of Masonry, of christianity, and of the universe. Let no bigotry enter here. Let no sectionalism, political or religious, disturb the peaceful sanctity of your Hall. However you may differ in all other things, differ as brethren: but as the Turks, when they enter their mosques for prayer, leave their sandals and slippers at the door; thus leave all your peculiar opinions and prejudices outside. Meet there as brothers meet. Meet as the thousand ThebeanTheban [sic] warriors met, to stand by each other, to assist, defend, and, if necessary, to die for each other. Oh! my brethren, I call upon you this day to exclude, as they have ever been excluded, from the halls of Masonry, political and religious intolerance, fanaticism and bigotry. Bigotry, the child of perdition, malignity and darkness; that in the name of Heaven marks the deeds of the infernal pit. Bigotry, that respects nothing, pities nothing and spares nothing; neither the parent the child, nor the child the parent, nor the brother the sister, nor the sister the brother. Bigotry, that respects not the sanctity of wedded love; that intrudes into the domestic circle, as Satan did enter Eden, and there blights all, blasts all, and curses all, with the mildew of death and hell. Bigotry, that enters into the earthly sanctuary of the Most High, and entwines its slimy folds around the altar; and gathers more virulence and venom there, to issue again through the walks of social and political life, more fatal to the peace and