Several Masonic Assembly Speeches

searchers and admirers, who seek to promote their happiness through the glorification of their Creator and the application of their gathered knowledge for the welfare and benefit of their fellow human beings and themselves, amidst the noise and bustle of this world, in silence and solitude.

I have merely intended to touch upon the three aforementioned points, as they are the most significant accusations burdened upon us; the others seem far too insignificant to me for a response to be necessary. Even the idea frequently held against us—that we wish to form a state within a stateoriginal Latin: "statum in statu." This was a common 18th-century political charge against secret societies, accusing them of forming a private government that bypassed the laws of the land.—is in itself so ridiculous that one would waste time dwelling on it. Before God, we can testify that the words of our divine Master: Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s etc.original: "2c." (et cetera). A reference to Matthew 22:21, emphasizing political obedience. and be subject to the authorities etc.A reference to Romans 13:1, a standard biblical defense of a citizen's duty to the state. are written far too deeply in our hearts for us to tolerate even the thought of acting against them.

Furthermore, I ask my esteemed readers for kind indulgence regarding the following speeches. They are intended merely to be feelings of the heart, not a warehouse of well-chosen, artificial rhetorical phrases; and I also believe for certain that the former (at all times) lose something when combined with the latter (—). For the harmony of both in a way,