FINNEY ON FREEMASONRY

Finney was a reformer, not because he enjoyed battles or loved revolution, He was essentially a man of peace. But he had a heaven-implanted passion for souls. He had a deep and abiding loyalty to the kingdom of God. He struck at anything and everything that crossed his path or stood in the way of establishing that kingdom in the hearts of men, When he was past seventy-five years old he struck at Freemasonry as a hindrance to the spread of the cause of Christ. I shall take the liberty to quote from the Preface, the Table of Contents, and the Introduction, and the conclusion of his book, which will show its drift and purpose and the prayerful decision which he reached.

PREFACE

"In a few words I wish to state what are not, and what are, my reasons for writing this book.

"1. It is not that I have any quarrel or controversy with any member of the Masonic Order. No one of them can justly accuse me of ill-will.

"2. It is not because I am fond of controversy. I am not. I have always dreaded and endeavored to avoid the spirit, and even the form, of controversy.

"3. It is not because I disregard the sensibility of Freemasons upon the question of their pet institution, and am willing to arouse their enmity by exposing it.

"4. It is not because I am willing, if I can dutifully avoid it, to render any member of the Fraternity odious.

"But my reasons are:

"1. I wish, if possible, to arrest the spread of this great evil by giving the public at least so much information upon this subject as to induce them to examine and understand the true character and tendency of the institution.

"2. I wish, if possible, to arouse the young men who are Freemasons to consider the inevitable consequences of such a horrible trifling with the most solemn oaths as is constantly practiced by Freemasons. Such a course must, and does, as a matter of fact, grieve the Holy Spirit, sear the conscience, and harden the heart.

"3. I wish to induce the young men who are not Freemasons 'to look before they leap,' and not be deceived and committed, as thousands have been, before they were at all aware of the true nature of the institution of Freemasonry.

"4. I, with many, have been remiss in suffering a new generation to grow up in ignorance of the character of Freemasonry as it was fully revealed to us who are now old. We have greatly erred in not preserving and handing down to the rising generation the literature upon this subject, with which we were made familiar forty years ago. For one, I must not continue this remissness.

"5. Because I know that nothing is wanting but correct information to banish this institution from wholesome society. This has been abundantly proven. As soon as Freemasons saw that their secrets were made public, they abandoned their Lodges for very shame. With such oaths upon their souls, they could not face the frowns of an indignant public, already aware of their true position.

"6. Freemasons exhort each other to maintain a dignified silence, and are exhorted not to enter into controversy with opposers of Freemasonry. The reasons are obvious to those who are informed. We know why they are silent, if they are so, and why they will not enter the field of controversy and attempt to justify their institution. I greatly desire to have the public, and especially the Church of Christ, understand what Freemasonry is. Then let them act as duty "requires."

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 -- Introduction

Chapter 2 -- Scrap of History

Chapter 3 -- How Known

Chapter 4 -- Credibility of the Books Revealing Masonry

Chapter 5 -- Examination of the Books Revealing Masonry

Chapter 6 -- Master's Degree

Chapter 7 -- Royal Arch Degree

Chapter 8 -- Sworn to Persecute

Chapter 9 -- Awful Profanity of Masonic Oaths

Chapter 10 -- Perverse and Profane Use of the Bible

Chapter 11 -- Freemasonry Imposes on the Ignorant

Chapter 12 -- Masonry Susceptible of Change Only by Addition

Chapter 13 -- Its Claim to Antiquity is False

Chapter 14 -- The Boasted Benevolence of Masons a sham

Chapter 15 -- Freemasonry is a False Religion

Chapter 16 -- The Argument that Great and Good Men have been and are Freemasons Examined

Chapter 17 -- Masonic Oaths are Unlawful and Void

Chapter 18 -- Why Freemasons Resort to Threats and Refuse to Discuss Their Principles

Chapter 19 -- Relations of Masonry to the Church of Christ

Chapter 20 -- Conclusion

CHAPTER I. -- INTRODUCTORY

"It is high time that the Church of Christ was awake to the character and tendency of Freemasonry. Forty years ago we supposed that it was dead, and had no idea that it could ever revive. But, strange to tell, while we were busy in getting rid of slavery, Freemasonry has revived, and extended its bounds most alarmingly. I propose to write a series of articles giving my views of the character and tendency of the institution. I know something about it, for I have been a Freemason myself. Soon after I was twenty-one years of age, and while in Connecticut at school, an old uncle of mine persuaded me to join the Freemasons, representing that, as I was away from home and much among strangers, it would be of service to me, because, if a Freemason, I should find friends everywhere.

"The Lodge in that place was but a Master's Lodge. I therefore took three degrees, or as far as what they call 'the Sublime Degree of Master Mason.' When I returned to the State of New York, to enter upon the study of law, I found at Adams, where I resided, a Masonic Lodge, and united with them. I soon became secretary of the Lodge, and met regularly with it. When I took especially the Master's Degree, I was struck with one part of the obligation, or oath, as not being Sound either in a political or moral point of view.

"However, I had been brought up with very few religious privileges, and had but slight knowledge on moral subjects; and I was not, therefore, greatly shocked, at the time, with the morality of anything through which I passed. The Lodge where I took my degrees was composed mostly of professed Christians. But when I came to join the Lodge at Adams, I found that the Master of the Lodge was a Deist. At this distance of time I can not he certain whether he was Master when I joined; but I am certain that Deism was no objection to any man becoming a member or a- Master of this Lodge. There were in that Lodge some as thoroughly irreligious as I have ever associated with anywhere, and men with whom I never would have associated had they not been Freemasons. There were some very profane men who belonged to it, and some very intemperate men.

"As I paid the strictest attention to what they called their lectures and teachings, I became what they call 'a bright Mason;' that is, as far as I went, I committed to memory their oral teachings, for they had no other. The oaths were familiar to me, as was everything else that belonged to those three degrees that I had taken.

"I had belonged to the Lodge in Adams nearly four years when I was converted to Christ. During the struggle of conviction of sin through which I passed I do not recollect that the question of Freemasonry ever occurred to my mind, The season that I call properly my conviction of sin was short. My exercises were pungent, and I very soon obtained hope in Christ.

"Soon after my conversion, the evening came for attendance upon the Lodge. I went. They, of course, were aware that I had become a Christian, and the Master called upon me to open the Lodge with prayer. I did so, and poured out my heart to the Lord for blessings upon the Lodge. I observed that it created considerable excitement. The evening passed away, and at the close of the Lodge I was requested to pray again. I did so, and retired, but much depressed in spirit. I soon found that I was completely converted from Freemasonry to Christ, and that I could have no fellowship with any of the proceedings of the Lodge. Its oaths appeared to me to be monstrously profane and barbarous.

"At that time I did not know how much I had been imposed upon by many of the pretensions of Masons. But, upon reflection and examination, and after a severe struggle and earnest prayer, I found that I could not consistently remain with them. My new life instinctively and irresistibly recoiled from any fellowship with what I then regarded as 'the unfruitful works of darkness.'

"Without consulting any person, I finally went to the Lodge and requested my discharge. My mind was made up. Withdraw from them I must; with their consent, if I might; without their consent, if I must. Of this I said nothing; but somehow it came to be known that I had withdrawn from them. This created some little feeling' among them. They therefore planned a Masonic festival, and sent a committee to me, requesting me to deliver an oration on the occasion. I quietly declined to do so, informing the committee that I could not conscientiously, in any wise, do what would manifest my approval of the institution or sympathy with it. However, at that time, and for years afterward, I remained silent, and said nothing against the institution; for I had not then so well considered the matter as to regard my Masonic oaths as utterly null and void, But from that time I never allowed myself to be recognized as a Freemason anywhere. This was a few years before the revelations of Freemasonry, by William Morgan, was published. When that book was published, I was asked if it was a true revelation of Freemasonry. I replied that it was, so far as I know anything about it; and that, as nearly as I could recollect, it was a verbatim revelation of the first three degrees as I had myself taken them. I replied in this way, because I saw, of course, that as the thing was published, and no longer a secret, I could not be under any obligation to keep it a secret, unless I could be under an obligation to lie, and to lie perpetually by denying that that which had been published was truly Freemasonry.

"I knew that I could be under no obligation to be guilty of a perpetual falsehood, and that I really made no revelation of any secret when I frankly acknowledged that that which had been published was a true account of the institution, and a true exposure of their oaths, principles, and proceedings. After I considered it more thoroughly, I was more perfectly convinced that I had no right to adhere to the institution, or appear to do so, and that I was bound, whenever the occasion arose, to speak my mind freely in regard to it, and to renounce the horrid oaths I had taken.

"On reflection and examination, I found that I had been grossly deceived and imposed upon. I had been led to suppose that there were some very important secrets to be communicated to me, But in this respect I found myself entirely disappointed. Indeed, I came to the deliberate conclusion, and could not avoid doing so, that my oaths were procured by fraud and misrepresentations, and that the institution was in no respect what I had previously been informed it was; and as I have had the means of examining it more thoroughly, it has become more and more irresistibly plain to my convictions that the institution is highly dangerous to the State and in every way injurious to the Church of Christ."

In the concluding chapter of the book he makes the following point:

"V. Judging from these revelations, how can we fail to pronounce Freemasonry an antichristian institution? For example: 1. We have seen that its morality is unchristian; 2. Its oath-bound secrecy is unchristian; 3. The administration and taking of its oaths are unchristian, and a violation of the positive command of Christ; 4. Masonic oaths pledge its members to commit

most unlawful and unchristian deeds:

"a. To conceal each other's crimes.

"b. To deliver each other from difficulty, whether right or wrong.

"c. To unduly favor Masonry in political actions and in business transactions.

"d. Its members are sworn to retaliate and persecute unto death the violators of Masonic obligations.

"e. Freemasonry knows no mercy, but swears its candidates to avenge violations of Masonic obligations unto death.

"f. Its oaths are profane, the taking of the name of God in vain.

"g. The penalties of these oaths are barbarous, and even savage.

"h. Its teachings are false and profane.

"i. Its design is partial and selfish.

"j. Its ceremonies are a mixture of puerility and profanity.

"k. Its religion is Deistic.

"l. It is a false religion, and professes to save men on other conditions than those revealed in the gospel of Christ.

"m. It is an enormous falsehood.

"n. It is a swindle, and obtains money from its membership under false pretenses.

"o. It refuses all examination, and veils itself under a mantle of oathbound secrecy.

"p. It is a virtual conspiracy against both Church and State. No one, therefore, has ever undertaken, and for the plainest reasons none will undertake, to defend Freemasonry as it is revealed in these books. Their arguments are threats, calumny, persecution, assassination. Freemasons do not pretend that Freemasonry, as revealed in these books, is compatible with Christianity. I have not yet known the first Freemason who would affirm that an intelligent adherence to Freemasonry, as revealed in these books, is consistent with a profession of the Christian religion. But we know, if we can know anything from testimony, that these books do truly reveal Freemasonry. We have, then, the implied testimony of Freemasons themselves that the Christian Church ought to have no fellowship with Freemasonry as thus revealed, and that those who adhere intelligently and determinately to such an institution, have no right to be in the Christian Church, In our judgment, we are forced to the same conclusion; we can not escape from it, though we wish it were otherwise. We, therefore, sorrowfully but solemnly pronounce this judgment.

"And should the question be asked, 'What shall be done with the great number of professed Christians who are Freemasons?' I answer, Let them have no more to do with it; let Christian men labor with them. Let it be distinctly pressed upon their consciences that all Masons above the first two degrees have solemnly sworn to conceal each other's crimes, murder and treason alone excepted, and all above the sixth degree have sworn to conceal each other's crimes without an exception. All above the sixth degree have sworn to espouse each other's cause and to deliver them from any difficulty, whether they are right or wrong. If they have taken those degrees where they swear to persecute unto death those who violate their obligations, let them be asked whether they intend to do any such thing. Let them be distinctly asked whether they intend still to aid and abet the administration and taking of these oaths; if they still intend to countenance the false and hypocritical teachings of Masonry; if they mean to countenance the profanity of their ceremonies, and practice the partiality they have sworn to practice. If so, surely they should not be allowed their places in the Church.

"Can a man who has taken and still adheres to the Master's oath, to conceal any secret crime of a brother of that degree, murder and treason excepted, be a safe man with whom to intrust an office? Can he be trusted as a witness, a juror, or with any office connected with the administration of justice?

"Can a man who has taken, and still adheres to the oath of the Royal Arch Degree, be trusted in office? He swears to espouse the cause of a companion of this degree when involved in any difficulty, so far as to extricate him from the same, whether he be right or wrong. He swears to conceal his crimes, murder and treason not excepted. He swears to give a companion of this degree timely notice of any approaching danger that may be known to him. Now, is a man bound fast by such an oath to be intrusted with office? Ought he to be accepted as a witness, a juror, when a Freemason is a party, in any case -- a sheriff, constable, marshal; ought he to be trusted with the office of judge or justice of the peace? Gentlemen, you know he ought. not, and you would despise me should I not be faithful in warning the public against intrusting such men with office.

"But take the large class of men who have sworn, under the most awful penalties, to take vengeance on all who violate Masonic obligations; to seek their condign punishment; to kill them; to persecute them; and to ruin them by representing them wherever they go as worthless vagabonds, -- is a man who is under a most solemn oath to kill or seek the death of any man who shall violate any part of the Masonic oaths a fit person to be at large among men? Ought Freemasons of this stamp to be fellowshipped by a Christian Church? Ought not such an one to be regarded as an unscrupulous and dangerous man? I appeal to your conscience in the sight of God, and I know that your moral sense must respond Amen to the conclusions at which I have arrived."

It seems to me that an institution about which this great and wise man could truthfully say such things should be most thoroughly let alone by all holiness people, and by all who ever hope to be holy.

After he wrote the book, he received letters containing threats of killing him, He only playfully remarked, "I guess I am worth more to kill than for anything else." But God's angels kept him in peace.