Russell's speech about freemason.

San Francisco, California

THIS was another of our "big" appointments, and it was the
halfway point of our tour.

Brother Russell spoke twice, once to
the interested and once to the public. Seven hundred interested
were present and about 4,000 at the public meeting, and 408
requests were handed in for literature. We felt that our visit here
was indeed very profitable.

This new, modern city is nearly a
miracle in itself. Seven years ago the city, covering an area of
ten square miles, was destroyed by earthquake and fire. Today a
new San Francisco, at a cost of over $500,000,000, stands on the
sight of the old, and is graced with as fine a collection of
buildings as any city in the world. They contemplate holding a
World's Fair here in 1915.
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The Temple of God
MY TOPIC for this afternoon, dear friends, is found in the
Apostle's words, "For the Temple of God is holy, which temple
ye are." (1 Cor. 3:17.)
As Christian people, Bible Students from all denominations, it
would seem that we have something in our faith that is in
sympathy and harmony with each denomination, the world over.
Do our Presbyterian friends speak of the election? We more. Do
our Methodist friends have the doctrine of free grace? We more.
Do our Baptist friends understand the importance of baptism, to
some extent? We more. Do our friends of the Christian
denomination, and our Congregational friends, appreciate the
great privileges of individuality in church government? We
more. Do our Masonic friends understand something about the
Temple, and being Knights Templars, and so on? We more. Do
our Roman Catholic and Church of England friends believe in a
Universal church? We more.

In other words, it would seem as though the message of God's
Word has been more or less subdivided, and each denomination
has taken hold of a piece of the truth, and around that bit of truth
has gathered a good deal that we think is erroneous. But we are
glad they have that little bit of truth.
If they had not had some truth at least they never would have
had an existence at all. So one has taken a little line of truth, and
encircled it with theories and made a separate church. God never
said they should make a separate church. God never said to
make a Baptist church, or Presbyterian, or Methodist church,
etc.
The Lord intended to make one Church, and he intended that
one Church should have not merely a little scrap of the truth, but
all the truth. We are not finding fault with our neighbors and
friends --not at all; for we remember we had very similar ideas,
and not very long ago; but, without finding any fault with
anybody, we are glad that we are coming to see a more
reasonable and harmonious way, and, abandoning all church
creeds and fences that so long have separated God's people, we
come together upon the platform of the Bible, and everything
that is in the Bible, and the Bible only. Is not that very
happifying to us? Is not that what is bringing us so much
blessing in the study of God's Word, as International Bible
Students? It is.
So I am glad to address delegates especially here from the Bay
cities, and also including some thirty-five states represented in
the excursion party. I am very glad to have this particular
opportunity of saying a word about some of the things in which
we agree with our Masonic friends, because we are speaking in
a building dedicated to Masonry, and we also are Masons. I am
a Free Mason.  I  am a free and accepted Mason, if I may carry
the matter to its full length, because that is what our Masonic
brethren like to tell us, that they are free and accepted Masons.
That is their style of putting it. Now I am a free and accepted
Mason. I trust we all are. But not just after the style of our
Masonic brethren. We have no quarrel with them. I am not
going to say a word against Free Masons. In fact, some of my
very dear friends are Masons, and I can appreciate that there are
certain very precious truths that are held in part by our Masonic
friends.
I have talked to them at times, and they have said, How do you
know about all of these things? We thought nobody knew
anything about these things except those who had access to our
very highest logic. I said that I had been in conference with the
Great Master Workman, the Lord himself, and I have secret
information through the Holy Spirit and guidance in respect to
what the Bible says, and that contains all the truth, I believe, on
every subject. And so if we talk to our Masonic friends about the
Temple and its meaning, and about being good Masons, and
about the Great Pyramid, which is the very emblem they use,
and what the Great Pyramid signifies, our Masonic friends are
astonished. One who had been a Mason a long time recently
bought a lot of books that had the Great Pyramid discussed, and
sent them to I am sure a thousand Masons. He paid for them and
sent them out at his own expense. He wanted the Masons to see
something about the Great Pyramid. He knew they were greatly
interested in that.
But we are not going to discuss the Great Pyramid this
afternoon. We are going to discuss free and accepted Masonry--
the Bible Masonry, my dear friends. The Apostle Paul and the
Apostle Peter are our authority for saying that we are the
Temple of God, and that the Temple of God is holy. What does
the Lord mean by that? He means this: That God who
condemned the whole world as sinners, and declared he would
have no fellowship with sinners, has provided a way by which
these sinners can come back into harmony with him. And they
can only come back through the arrangement He has made in
respect to this great Temple.
Well, you say, where is the Temple by which the world can
come back to God? I answer, the Temple that God purposes is
not yet built. It must be a Great Temple, Brother Russell--all of
these centuries and the building not built yet? That is so. The
Great Master Craftsman of our High Order of Free and
Accepted Masonry, the Lord Jesus Christ, laid the foundation of
it all; as the Bible says, Other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, Jesus Christ. He has the foundation for high
and acceptable masonry, and all that pertains to it. And what has
been going on since Jesus' day?
St. Peter says that God is selecting living stones to be parts of
that great Temple he intends to construct. Who are the living
stones, and what does it mean? You may be one of the living
stones, and I may be one; St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, St. James,
and all the holy people of God from their day down, have been
invited to come in and be living stones in this great Temple
which God is erecting.
And this great Temple had its figure back in Solomon's day. The
Temple which Solomon erected was a figure, or picture, of the
great Temple which God is erecting. The Temple Solomon built
had its peculiarities. One very especial peculiarity was that the
great stones were taken out from right underneath the site. I was
in that quarry once and saw it myself; and some stones were
lying there that had been partly prepared and apparently
abandoned. But the Temple was built of those stones brought
from right near where it was built.
And Solomon's Temple, you remember, had the peculiarity that
our buildings of today have; namely, that each stone when it is
numbered is made exactly to fit the place in which it is to be
located. And then it is marked definitely for that place with
signs which the builders understand, and when they come to the
construction one stone goes upon another, and everything goes
up quietly and orderly, and no confusion about it. Just so it was
in the building of that
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Temple, which is the first building we know of in the world's
history that was built along the lines of our modern masonry.
That great Temple of Solomon's was built and came together,
every stone fitted to its place, and not the sound of a hammer;
they did not need to chisel or do anything of the kind; it was not
a particle out of true.
What does that represent? That represents you and I; we are the
living stones, the Apostle says. And what about our chiseling,
and polishing, and branding, for our places? You can see the
fitness of it, dear brethren. I need not particularly dwell on that.
The trials and difficulties of life are the chiselings that come to
all of these stones that God is dealing with. The quarry is the
world in general. We are taken out of the world, separated from
the world, but we are chiseled in the quarry, made ready for our
positions and then taken to the proper place.
And that has proceeded for how long? For 1,800 and more
years, this work of chiseling and preparation. Brother Russell,
don't you mean longer than that? No, my dear brother. Were
there no living stones before that? No, Jesus was the foundation
stone; there were no stones chiseled out before he came; none
could be accepted before that. He did the great work of founding
this great order to which we belong, the order of Free and
Accepted Masonry.
He is the Grand Master, and we are not to recognize any other.
We may indeed recognize assistants in the work, and
superintendents in this, that or the other division in the quarry,
or in the building, etc., but there is the one Grand Master who
has the supervision of the whole matter. He is our Lord and all
ye are brethren; one is your Master, even Christ.
You know what experiences you have had in the way of
separating you from the world; it was a difficult matter to block
out your character first of all and come to the place where you
would be separated from the other surroundings of the present
time. It was still more difficult perhaps in some respects that you
should receive the chiselings, blow after blow, experience after
experience, trial after trial, in order that you might be fitted and
shaped and prepared for a place in the glorious Temple that is
yet to be constructed.
The polishing process is also going on. The polishing properly
comes last, I presume. I trust you are getting some of the
polishing now. You know we get most of the polishing with