CHAPTER XXIV. FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY. THE three great principles upon which our Order is founded, are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, and their importance is inculcated in our Lectures. The first renders us affectionate and kind, the second generous, and the third just. In Craft Masonry the supporting pillars of the Lodge, as already described, are the three architectural columns denominated Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty; these, in the Ancient and Accepted Rite, are displayed by three others of triangular form, and representing the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. In his second Epistle, St. Peter exhorts his readers to the practice of what we are accustomed to call the cardinal virtues : "add to your faith virtue; to virtue knowledge; to knowledge temperance; to temperance patience; to patience godliness; to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” These virtues are enforced in various parts of the rituals, and enlarged upon in the first lecture of Craft Masonry. A more wide extension is, however, given to them in those degrees that have especial reference to Christianity (the degrees being not antagonistic to the Craft Degrees, but in reality an expansion of them). The great duties of man to God, his neighbour, and himself, are the precepts most strongly enforced; hence the points to direct the steps of the aspirant to higher honours are Faith, Hope, and Charity. FAITH. FAITH is the basis of all Christian virtues, and is defined to be a disposition of mind by which we hold for certain the matter affirmed. The Faith that produces good works gives life to a righteous man. It may be considered, either as proceeding from God, who reveals his truths to man, or from man, who assents to and obeys the truths of God. Faith is taken also for a firm confidence in God, by which, relying on his promises, we address ourselves without hesitation to Him, whether for pardon or other blessings. Faith is a reliance on testimony: if it be human testimony, in reference to human things, it is not entitled to reception until after examination and confirmation. Human testimony, in reference to divine things, must also be scrupulously investigated before it be received and acted upon, since the grossest of all deceptions have been imposed on mankind in the Name of God. Nor is testimony assuming to be Divine, entitled to our adherence, or affection, or obedience, until its character is proved to be genuine and really from Heaven. The more genuine it is, the more readily it will undergo and sustain the trial, and the more clearly will its character appear. But after a testimony, a maxim, or a command is proved to be Divine, it does not become a creature so ignorant and so feeble as man, to doubt its possibility, to dispute the obedience to which it is entitled, or to question the beneficial consequences attached to it, though not immediately apparent to human discernment. Faith is the full assurance or personal conviction of the reality of things not seen; it looks backward to past ages as well as forward to futurity. By Faith we believe that the world was originally created by God; though we can form no conception of, much less can we see, the matter out of which it was composed. By Faith we believe in the existence of ancient cities, as Jerusalem, Babylon, &c.; also of distant places, as Egypt, &c.; also of persons formerly living, as Abraham, David, T Jesus Christ, &c. Faith anticipates things never seen as yet: so Noah by Faith built the ark, although no general deluge had ever then been witnessed; so Moses, actuated by Faith in the descent of the Messiah from Israel, quitted the honours and pleasures of Egypt; and so every pious man, believing what God has promised He is able to perform, looks forward with realizing belief in the existence of heaven and hell; of rewards and punishments beyond the grave, not such as are restricted to this world, but such as coincide with the immortality of the soul, and with the power and wisdom of the Supreme and Universal Judge. St. Paul's words in the original are, "Faith is the firm and assured expectation of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Those things not seen by sense, and yet made manifest, are the being of God, and the rewards of the life to come. Faith is that firm conviction of the promises and threatenings of God, and the certain reality of the rewards and punishments of the life to come, which enables a man in spite of all temptations to obey his Creator in expectation of an invisible reward hereafter. "Faith, like a simple unsuspecting child, Securely resting on its mother's arm, Sleeps on his bosom, and expects no harm: 'Receives with joy the promises He makes, Nor questions of his purpose or his power; The Lord has said it, and there needs no more. "However deep be the mysterious word, However dark, she disbelieves it not: And It is written,' answers every doubt. "As evening's pale and solitary star But brightens while the darkness gathers round, НОРЕ. Hope is distinguished from Faith by its desire of good only, and by its reference to futurity. Faith contemplates evil as well as good, and refers to things past as well as to things future; but this is not the case with Hope. We are therefore said to be “saved by hope," by the hope, or conviction, or desire, of unseen things; and we read of the "full assurance of hope," which may be taken as synonymous with cheerful and earnest expectation. In the New Testament it is generally taken for hope in the Messiah, hope of eternal blessings, hope of a future resurrection. Experience produceth hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." 66 Hope, which is a confident expectation of future good,-like all other graces, admits of degrees; it is sometimes feeble, but when it is the result of experience, it is confident and proof against shame or hesitation; it is sometimes limited to things near or to things likely; but it also extends beyond this world, to possessions laid up in heaven, to glory, immortality, and eternal life. It is repeatedly connected with patience, with waiting, with expectation, with rejoicing, and with reason; for the hope of a pious man, however it may refer to Divine things, or be founded on Divine promises, or be derived from, or promoted by, the Sacred Spirit, is yet a reasonable hope, and combines purity of heart and life, that is, obedience, with devout and firm reliance on the promises and perfections of God. The hope of Israel was, the end of the Babylonish Captivity, the Coming of the Messiah, and the happiness of Heaven. The 66 prisoners of hope (Zech. ix. 12) are the Israelites who were in captivity, but in hopes of deliverance. The Lord is the Hope of the righteous, 'their hope shall not be confounded;" "the hope of the ungodly shall perish," it shall be without effect, or they shall live and die without hope. The poet Young is eloquent in its commendation :— 66 Hope, of all passions, most befriends us here; Like the fair summer evening, mild and sweet. The Greek fable is too instructive to be omitted :— "In the house of Epimetheus there was a large box which an oracle had forbidden to be opened. Pandora, full of curiosity, lifted the fatal lid, and immediately all evils issued forth, and spread themselves over the earth. The terrified female at length regained sufficient presence of mind to close the lid, and Hope on this was alone secured. There is a curious analogy between this more ancient tradition and the account of the fall of our first parents, as detailed by the inspired penman. Prometheus, forethought, may denote the purity and wisdom of our early progenitor before he yielded to temptation; Epimetheus, afterthought, indicates his change of resolution, and his yielding to the arguments of Eve; which the poet expresses by saying, that Epimetheus received Pandora, after he had been cautioned by Prometheus not to do it. The curiosity of Pandora violates the injunction of the oracle, as our first parent Eve disregarded |