> the masonic roots shining through
Familial and sympathetical ones at the very least.
"The Temple of God .. Do our Masonic friends understand something about the Temple, and being Knights Templars and so on? We more .. 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 .. 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 after the style of our Masonic brethren. We have no quarrel with them. I am not going to say a word against 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 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.. We are going to discuss free and accepted Masonry - the Bible Masonry, my dear friends.. for you know the Head of the Pyramid is a perfect pyramid itself, and all the stones under that simply come into line with the top stone; and that top stone is what the Bible declares Jesus is - the chief cornerstone. The Temple will not be completed until every living stone is there. And then what? The next thing will be that which our Masonic friends make so much of, and which we make so much of namely: the glorification of the temple. That is a grand thing in Masonry. They picture how Solomon the wise, the type of Jesus - offered the sacrifice, and how God accepted it, and the glory of the Lord came into the Temple. Just so our Temple, the Church in glory, will not be the Temple of God until the Heavenly Father himself shall have recognized it.. A thousand years during which these Knights Templar are to scatter blessings to all the families of the earth.. If you feel that you want to become a member of the Free and Accepted Order of Masonry, and do not feel free and masonic enough as a follower of Christ, God bless you, use your own judgement; that is yours to decide not mine. But now I am talking about this great order of masonry of which Jesus is the Grand Master. This Order is to be entered in a peculiar way. There are certain conditions - the low gate, the narrow way, the difficult path.. Although I have never been a Mason, I have heard that in Masonry they have something which very closely illustrates all of this.. Our Masonic friends have it down very fine. I do not know where they got it so well. I have often wondered where they found out so many of the secrets of our High and Accepted Order of Masonry. From the time you come in to be a member of the Royal Priesthood, a living stone, a member of the craft of Masonry, from the Lord's stand-point .. if any man will be a living stone in the Temple, if any man will be a member of this High, Free and Accepted Masonry - let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.. Do you mean that the Lord's Church is a secret order? Yes, surely it is .. Did the world know the great Mason when he was here? No. Did the world slay the great Master Mason? Yes. So you and I as under-masons are waiting for the return of our Master Mason, who gave his life on this very account in connection with this secret of the construction of the Temple, the Church.. we must go on to higher degrees, because those who are in the first degree practically know very little.. Not everybody has the hearing ear and the seeing eye. It is only those who have come into this divine masonry that have this spiritual insight, and this spiritual guidance, and may know the things that are freely given unto us. It is something that is freely given to one class, and not intended for anybody else.. You know our order is so secret we cannot know each other always. Is not that wonderful? I find that is so with Masons also. Many Masons shake hands with me and give me what I know is their grip; they don't know me from a Mason. Something I do seems to be the same as Masons do, I don't know what it is; but they often give me all kinds of grips and I give them back, then I tell them I don't know anything about it except just a few grips that have come to me naturally.. Now have you taken the first step of humility to acknowledge your sins? Have you acknowledged you have nothing in your hand to bring to make you worthy to be accepted of God? Have you acknowledged that you are trusting in the precious blood of Jesus? Have you taken these degrees? Have you said, Simply to Thy cross I cling? Have you taken that degree? Have you gone on then to say, Lord, I give myself to Thee? And have you received the initiation into this high degree in which you may be called a Priest, a saint of God, a member of the Royal Priesthood? I hope you have.. robe of Christ's righteousness .. All his past is under the blood; Jesus has made him whole; he is accepted as a member of this spiritual Masonry. Thank God!.. All of these spiritual Masons should know each other, not after the flesh but after the spirit."
-1913SV13 120-7
Other amazing claims in this speech by Russell to the Freemasons are that the Apostle Paul was a thirty-second degree Mason in the Lord's order and bore the marks - of which masons are ignorant - to prove it, and that there exists a secondary class of Christians, the 'Great Company', not as spiritual as the 'Royal Priesthood', but nonetheless also with the heavenly hope and therefore superior to the 'Great Crowd'!
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