I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy
is more regarded than virtue; and the Scriptures assure me that at
the last day we shall not be examined what we _thought_, but what
we _did_; and our recommendation will not be that we said, _Lord!
Lord_! but that we did good to our fellow-creatures. See Matt. xx.
"As to the free masons, I know no way of giving my mother a better
account of them than she seems to have at present (since it is not
allowed that women should be admitted into that secret society).
She has, I must confess, on that account, some reason to be
displeased with it; but, for any thing else, I must entreat her to
suspend her judgment till she is better informed, unless she will
believe me when I assure her that they are in general a very
harmless sort of people, and have no principles or practices that
are inconsistent with religion and good manners.
"B. FRANKLIN."
His sister also, later on, in her great anxiety for his spiritual
welfare, wrote to him, and he replied as follows:
"PHILADELPHIA, July 28, 1743.
"_Dearest Sister Jenny_,--I took your admonition very kindly, and
was far from being offended at you for it. If I say any thing about
it to you, 't is only to rectify some wrong opinions you seem to
have entertained of me; and this I do only because they give you
some uneasiness, which I am unwilling to be the occasion of.
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