“Symbolic masonry teaches the observances of the cardinal virtues admonishes to walk uprightly before God and man. In the asylum, a purely Christian institution, founded on the Christian religion, the Sir Knight, impressed with the spirit of chivalry, grounds his faith in the teachings of the Divine Master. If templarism has no “sectarian system of belief or worship,” if it proposes no creed, it does teach the necessity of a firm belief in the fundamental religious truths of Christianity. A frater, therefore-, may be a good templar, without being a member of a church of CHRIST; but he cannot be a devout, consistent Christian, and abjure the perceptive and comprehensive teachings of symbolic or templar masonry.”

— Sir Albert G. Brice, Grand Commander of Louisiana, 1889