T.G.A.O.T.U.
The
Builder - June 1921
FREEMASONRY offers no doctrine as to the
nature and attributes of God. It has no theory to propound, no
philosophy to promulgate, as to His relations to men and to the
universe. The Craft assumes that God is a reality, a sacred and
unquestioned reality, in the mind of every man who proposes
himself for membership in a lodge, and it leaves to that man
the prerogative of fashioning his own theological and
philosophical theories. A man may believe in the Trinity or
deny the same; he may believe in the deity of Jesus or not; he
may hold that God created the universe out of nothing or he
may prefer to think that the universe is co-existent with God;
and he may, whether he be of one persuasion or another,
remain a good Mason. But this does not mean that to
Freemasonry God is unreal; far from it. Many of the things
and persons most real to us, friendship, truth, father, mother,
friend, are none the less real for not being defined, or even
capable of being defined. There is no desire herein to
preach to the reader, for that is not the function of these
columns, but even at the risk of so doing, there is something to
be said about God which it is well for all to ponder. That
something is this: Masonry does not demand that we define, or
accept any definitions of Him, but it does demand that He be
real in every Masonic life. During the solemn moments of
initiation the candidate, of his own free will, confesses that
his faith is in God, and this confession is accepted by the
Master with instant and cordial approval. He assumes his
obligations as in the presence and name of God, and acknowledges
his inability to fulfill the same except that God help him. His
various journeys in search of light, wherein he is confronted by
many dangers and conflicts, are undertaken in prayer, both by
himself and the Master. If, with a free mind and a clear
consciousness, the man does all this as if it were only so much
meaningless show, and if he goes away from so solemn an
experience to think of it all as merely an interesting piece of
acting in which he himself has been a participant, the man is a
hypocrite who, by such trifling with the things that are the
most solemn to every soul, endangers the very integrity of his
spiritual nature. If his initiation is to be real to him, then
must he ever feel that it has been a genuine pact between him
and his Creator. Unless the man is genuinely sincere while
accepting such a rite as Masonic initiation, it is far better
for his character and his happiness as a man that he never seek
it at all. By the same token God must be real to the lodge,
else its very existence must become a mockery. Its center is an
altar; its great light is a Book that symbolizes the revelation
of the Divine Will; God is the center of the ritual as the sun
is in the midst of its planets; He is the guarantor of its
principles; and all its teachings are made in His name. Unless
He be real the whole thing falls to pieces as a sham, and
Masonry itself were better out of existence. At the
present moment a wave of new life is sweeping across American
Masonry which is best compared to eras of spiritual awakening
wherein new religions are born, and new epochs of culture are
initiated. Never before have so many men thronged the gates of
the Fraternity, or so many able men gladly volunteered to accept
the burdens of management and leadership. A new dawn is upon the
great Order, and mighty things are destined to be done. In all
its branches Masons are working at Masonry to strengthen and to
renew it, to understand, and to promulgate it. In this revival
of interest, when lodges vie with each other in efforts to make
Masonry become all that it can become to state and individual
those leaders will be wisest and their work will be most
enduring who ever remember that the cornerstone of it all, in
all its senses, is T.G.A.O.T.U. back to top
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