BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS GUARDED BY THE TILER'S SWORD
Let me introduce the speaker of the evening, although, as presiding officers
so often say, he hardly needs an introduction. I believe that most Masons know
him well and, after I describe him, you will easily recognize him. He is the
Tiler of his Lodge and a very interesting man to meet. You will find it worth
while cultivating his acquaintance.
I have met him wherever I have been privileged to visit lodge. He is a man of
uncertain age. He is old in wisdom, in his knowledge of Masonic Lore, and in his
understanding of human nature. He is young with that spirit of eternal youth
that comes with fulfillment of the sweet law of Brotherhood. He knows all the
Brethren intimately and never misses a meeting of his lodge. He has seen young
men hesitatingly enter the preparation room for the first time; he has seen them
passed and raised, watched their enthusiastic progress through the stations,
served under them as they sat in the Oriental Chair, and walker with drawn sword
at the head of the procession as they were carried to their last resting place.
His name is legion but I prefer to call him Peters, because everybody calls
him by his first name; and if your think tank is working tonight, you will
recognize the appropriateness of calling him Peter.
He does not get into the lodge room very often and would be particularly
embarrassed if called upon to make a speech. I have seen him come into the room
on large meeting nights to help the deacons purge the lodge. He will cast his
eyes carelessly over the crowd and then confidently couch for every man in the
room. I have sometimes wondered whether he possesses uncanny wisdom or whether
he is simply faking.
But let us go out into his little room that is furnished with a cast-off
table and some chairs that were used in the lodge room before it was remodeled;
let us light the cigar, cigarette or pipe that Masonic custom denies us in the
lodge, tilt our chairs back against the wall, lay our heads against that greasy
spot left by many heads that have rested there before ours, and listen to this
Masonic Philosopher.
"I have often wondered," says Peter, "about these Masonic Symbols. Generally
when you fellows are in there watching the work I am out here by myself, and so
you see I have lots of time to think. Sometimes I am puzzled by what the Ritual
says in its explanation of these symbols. Take for instance, those nine emblems
of the Third Degree. I suppose most of you fellows have forgotten all about them
because you generally come streaming out here and throw your aprons in a pile
for me to straighten out about the time the Master starts on his lecture. The
only time you stay is when the Master tells you there is going to be coffee and
sandwiches after the work, and then you hang around during the lecture.
"There is one of those emblems that has given me more trouble than anything
else in Masonry; it is the one in which you see a book lying on a velvet pillow
with a sword over the top. The Masters tells you that it is the Book of
Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's Sword, and that it reminds us to be ever
watchful and guarded in our thoughts, words, and actions, particularly when
before the enemies of Masonry, ever bearing in mind those truly Masonic
virtues,; silence and circumspection. Now, that never seemed just right to me.
"Those old boys who gave us this Ritual had pretty good ideas about
symbolism, and the things they used as symbols generally meant just exactly what
they told you about them. It is funny how much meaning they could get out of
such things as a trowel, a square or a level. True symbolism, you know, isn't
forced. It just comes naturally. The moment you hear the explanation, you say,
'Of Course! Why didn't I think of that before?' That is why I could never see
what there was about that book and sword to teach us to be watchful and guarded
in our thoughts, words and actions.
"You know the Chinese with their three monkeys, one with his hands over his
ears, the other with his hands over his eyes, and the third with his hands over
his mouth made a much better symbol of being watchful and guarded than our book
and sword, and the same thing holds true in regard to silence and
circumspection. If that is what we want to teach, we had better get rid of that
book and sword and throw a picture of the three wise monkeys on the screen.
"Some time ago I read a book written by a great man who had spent his life
studying Masonry. One thing that makes me want to study Masonry is that so many
great men have found it worthy of such deep study. This writer seemed to have
the idea that Masonry didn't always say just exactly what it meant. He said
something about the real truth of Masonry being hidden in the Ritual instead of
being revealed by it; that you had to search out the real meaning of the Masonic
Symbols for yourself. That always stuck by me. I was talking to one of the
brethren about it and he agreed with this Masonic writer. This brother said we
don't sell the secrets of Freemasonry; when a man pays for his degrees, we only
sell him the tools and he must use them to dig out the secrets for himself. And
so I dug away at the old book and sword trying to understand what it really
meant until the other night when one of these Service association fellows came
around and talked to us.
"He showed us how much the Masons had to do with the founding of this
government. He told us how Paul Revere's ride was organized among Masons and how
all the fellows that helped Paul Revere make that ride were his Brethren, while
Paul Revere himself was Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. He
told us of the Boston Tea Party, and how the little affair was arranged at the
Old Green Dragon Tavern, which was nothing more or less than a Masonic Temple.
He told us about John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Warren, Lafayette, and
George Washington; and ever so many more of those early patriots who were all
Masons, and how it was by working together as Masons that they carried out on
the Revolutionary War, and then afterwards built this nation of ours. he told us
about the constitution of the United States. You know the interesting thing
about that is not that these men were Masons, many of our prominent citizens
today are Masons, but that the same group of men who were leaders of our
Fraternity were also leaders of the nation at that time. And then he told us
how, because our Brethren had laid the foundation of this nation and because
that foundation was in accord with Masonic principles, it was our duty to build
the rest of the Temple to Liberty in America, and to watch over it and guard it
with our very lives.
"So I got the thinking about that old Book and sword and it seemed to me that
perhaps after all there was a real meaning behind it that was concealed rather
than revealed in the Ritual, as that Masonic writer that I told you about said;
and it seemed to me that Book of Constitutions, instead of being a symbol of
silence and circumspection, was a symbol of constitutional government such as we
have in this country. Our Book of Constitutions, you know, is our Masonic
fundamental law, just as the Constitution of the United States is the
fundamental law of our nation. So you see how naturally it becomes the symbol of
constitutional government.
"That Sword over the Book is this little old sword lying here on the table
beside me. You know, this sword isn't any good to hurt anybody with, but it is
just a symbol by which Freemasonry protects itself against cowan's and
evesdroppers. So it is just a symbol of Masonry on guard and, as the Book of
Constitutions is a symbol of constitutional government, the Tiler's Sword is a
symbol of Masonry on guard. Do you see what I'm getting at? I believe the Book
of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's Sword teaches us that Masonry should
always be the Guardian of Constitutional Government.
"I was telling another Brother about this the other night and he told me I
was wrong because Masonry was older than the United States government and the
symbol, he said, must be older than this country of ours. So I got to thinking
about that too and it came to me that much of this speculative Masonry that we
have today comes to us from England. Of course, I understand that Masonry as we
know it has been gathered together from nay countries. Some fellows say that we
get it direct from the boys that worked on King Solomon's Temple but it may be
that isn't quite right. Speculative Masonry, in its present form at least, did
have its origin in England, and you know that a lot of the ideas about
constitutional government that were accepted by us were first brought into
practice back in England before the United States became a free country. And so
I thought it very likely that even back then in those days our English Brethren,
just like our Revolutionary Brethren were fighting for constitutional government
and maybe they had as much to do with getting it in England as George
Washington, Paul Revere and the other boys had with getting it in this country.
"But I'm inclined to agree with Brother Mackey, who believed that our
monitorial definition of this emblem is a modern one, and was introduced by
Brother Webb. It does not appear in the first edition of Webb's Monitor, but I
found it in the second edition, printed in 1802. Mackey says, 'This
interpretation of Webb is a very unsatisfactory one. The Book of Constitutions
is the Symbol of constituted law rather than of silence and circumspection, and
when guarded by the Tiler's Sword it would seem properly to symbolize regard for
and obedience to law, a prominent Masonic duty.'
"So, until somebody shows me that I am wrong, I am going to believe every
time I see that book and sword on the screen that the book is the Constitution
of the United States and the sword is Freemasonry on guard; and instead of
teaching me to be watchful and guarded in all my thoughts, words and actions; it
is going to teach me to be ever watchful and guarded against the enemies of my
nation and its Constitution, so that when I get up into the Grand Lodge above
those old boys up there that built this nation are going to meet me with the
Lion's Paw, and vouch for me when the Supreme Grand Master of the Universe takes
the Pass."
That is Peter's story of the Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's
Sword. You may take it or leave it, but somehow or other I think he is right. At
least, ever since I heard tell that story I have had a new thrill while
listening to the Master explaining the nine Masonic Emblems in the Third Degree;
and I say to myself, "Well, that is all right for the candidate. We can't give
him all the light at once, because he would simply be blinded by its brilliance.
But, for myself, I have been out in the anteroom with Peters using our working
tools in a search for further Masonic light, and I know that sword and book mean
that it is up to me to fight the enemies of constitutional government and to
protect our Constitution from those seeking to destroy it. And with the help of
the Great Architect of the Universe, and my nearly three million Brethren, I am
going to do that little job!
back to top |
