THE HOLY BIBLE
Upon the Altar of every Masonic Lodge, supporting the Square and Compasses,
lies the Holy Bible. The old, familiar Book, so beloved by so many generations,
is our Volume of Sacred Law and the Great Light in Masonry. The Bible opens when
the Lodge opens; it closes when the Lodge closes. No Lodge can transact its own
business, mush less initiate candidates into its mysteries, unless the Book of
Holy Law lies open upon its Altar. Thus the Book of the Will of God Rules the
Lodge in its labors, as the Sun Rules the Day, making its work a worship.
The history of the Bible in the life and symbolism of Masonry is a story too
long to recite here. Nor can any one tell it as we should like to know it. Just
when, where, and by whom the teaching and imagery of the Bible were wrought into
Freemasonry, no one can tell. Anyone can have his theory, but no one can be
dogmatic. As the Craft labored in the service of the Church during the
Cathedral-Building period, it is not difficult to account for the Biblical
coloring of its thought, even in days when the Bible was not widely distributed,
and before the discovery of printing. Anyway, we can take such facts as we are
able to find, leaving further research to learn further truth.
The Bible is mentioned in some of the old manuscripts of the Craft long
before the revival of Masonry in 1717, as the book upon which the covenant, or
oath, of a Mason was taken; but it is not referred to as a Great Light. For
example, in the Harleian Manuscript, dated about 1600, the obligation of an
initiate closes with the words: "So Help Me God, and the Holy Contents of this
Book." In the old ritual, of which a copy from the Royal Library in Berlin is
given by Krause, there is no mention of the Bible as one of the Lights. It was
in England, due largely to the influence of Preston and his fellow workmen, that
the Bible came to its place of honor in the Lodge. At any rate, in the rituals
of about 1760 it is described as one of three Great Lights.
No Mason needs to be told what a great place the Bible has in the Masonry of
our day. It is central, sovereign, supreme, a master light of all our seeing.
From the Altar it pours forth upon the East, the West, and the South its white
light of spiritual vision, moral law, and immortal hope. Almost every name found
in our ceremonies is a Biblical name, and students have traced about
seventy-five references to the Bible in the Ritual of the Craft. But more
important than direct references is the fact that the spirit of the Bible, its
faith, its attitude toward life, pervades Masonry, like a rhythm or a fragrance.
As soon as an initiate enters the Lodge, he hears the words of the Bible recited
as an accompaniment to his advance toward the light. Upon the Bible every Masons
takes solemn vows of loyalty, of chastity, and charity, pledging himself to the
practice of the Brotherly Life. Then he moves forward from one degree to
another, the imagery of the Bible becomes familiar and eloquent and its music
sings its way into his heart.
Nor is it strange that it should be so. As faith in God is the corner- stone
of the Craft, so, naturally, the book which tells us the purest truth about God
is its Altar-Light. The Temple of King Solomon, about which the history,
legends, and symbolism of the Craft are woven, was the tallest temple of the
ancient world, not in the grandeur of its architecture but in the greatest of
the truths for which it stood. In the midst of ignorant idolatries and debasing
superstitions the Temple on Mount Moriah stood for Unity, Righteousness, and
Spirituality of God. Upon no other foundation can men build with any sense of
security and permanence when the winds blow and the floods descend. But the
Bible is not simply a foundation rock; it is also a quarry in which we find the
truths that make us men. As in the old ages of geology rays of sunlight were
stored up in vast beds of coal, for the uses of man, so in this old book the
light of moral truth is stored to light the mind and warm the heart of man.
Alas, there has been more dispute about the Bible than about any other book,
making for schism, dividing men in sects. But Masonry knows a certain secret,
almost too simple to be found out, whereby it avoids both intolerance and
sectarianism. It is essentially religious, but it is not dogmatic. The fact that
the Bible lies open upon the Altar means that man must have some Divine
Revelation - must seek for a light higher than human to guide and govern him.
But it lays down no hard and fast dogma on the subject of revelation. It
attempts no detailed interpretation of the Bible. The great Book lies open upon
its Altar, and is open for all to read, open for each to interpret for himself.
The tie by which our Craft is united is strong, but it allows the utmost liberty
of faith and thought. It unites men, not upon a creed bristling with debated
issues, but upon the broad, simple truth which underlies all creeds and
over-arches all sects - faith in God, the wise Master Builder, for whom and with
whom man must work.
Herein our gentle Craft is truly wise, and its wisdom was never more needed
than today, when the Churches are divided and torn by angry debate. However
religious teachers may differ in their doctrines, in the Lodge they meet with
mutual respect and good will. At the Altar of Masonry they learn not only
toleration, but appreciation. In its air of kindly fellowship, man to man, they
discover that the things they have in common are greater than the things that
divide. It is the glory of Masonry to teach Unity in essentials, Liberty in
details, Charity in all things; and by this sign its spirit must at last
prevail. It is the beautiful secret of Masonry that all just men, all devout
men, all righteous men are everywhere of one religion, and it seeks to remove
the hoodwinks of prejudice and intolerance so that they may recognize each other
and work together in the doing of good.
Like everything else in Masonry, the Bible, so rich in symbolism, is itself a
symbol - that is, a part taken for the whole. It is a symbol of the Book of
truth, the Scroll of Faith, the Record of the Will of God as man has learned it
in the midst of the years - the perpetual revelation of Himself which God has
made, and is making, to mankind in every age and land. Thus, by the very honor
which Masonry pays to the Bible, it teaches us to revere every Book of Faith in
which men find help for today and hope for the morrow. For that reason, in a
Lodge consisting entirely of Jews, the Old Testament alone may be placed upon
the Altar, and in a Lodge in the land of Mohammed the Koran may be used. Whether
it be the Gospels of the Christian, the Book of the Law of the Hebrew, the Koran
of the Mussulman, or the Vedas of the Hindu; it everywhere Masonically conveys
the same idea - symbolizing the Will of God revealed to man, taking such faith
and vision as he has found into a great fellowship of the seekers and finders of
the truth.
Thus Masonry invites to its Altar men of all faiths, knowing that, if they
use different names for the "Nameless One of an Hundred Names," they are yet
praying to the one God and Father of all; knowing also, that while they read
different volumes, they are in fact reading the same vast Book of Faith of Man
as revealed in the struggle and tragedy of the race in its quest of God. So
that, great and noble as the Bible is, Masonry sees it as a symbol of that
eternal, ever-unfolding Book of the Will of God which Lowell described in
memorable lines:
Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, And not on paper leaves, nor leaves of
stone; Each age, each kindred, adds a verse to it, Text of despair or hope, of
joy or moan, While swings the sea, while mists the mountain shroud, While
thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud, Still at the Prophets' feet the
nations sit.
None the less, while we honor every Book of Faith in which have been recorded
the way and Will of God, with us the Bible is supreme, at once the mother-book
of our literature, and the master-book of the Lodge. Its truth is inwrought in
the fiber of our being, with whatsoever else of the good and the true which the
past has given us. Its spirit stirs our hearts, like a sweet habit of the blood;
its light follows all our way, showing us the meaning and worth of life. Its
very words have in them memories, echoes, and overtones of voices long since
hushed, and its scenery is interwoven with the holiest associations of our
lives. Our father and mothers read it, finding in it their final reasons for
living faithfully and nobly, and it is thus a part of the ritual of the Lodge
and the Ritual of Life.
Every Mason ought not only to honor the Bible as a great Light of the Craft;
he ought to read it, live it, love it, lay its truth to heart and learn what it
means to be a man. There is something in the old Book which, if it gets into a
man, makes him both gentle and strong, faithful and free, obedient and tolerant,
adding to his knowledge virtue, patience, temperance, self-control, brotherly
love, and pity. The Bible is as high as the sky and as deep as the grave; its
two great characters are God and the soul, and the story of their romance. It is
the most human of books, telling us the half-forgotten secrets of our own
hearts, our sins, our sorrows, our doubts, our hopes. It is the most Divine of
Books, telling us that God has made us for himself, and that our hearts will be
restless and lonely until we learn to rest in Him whose will is our peace.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Therefore
all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to
them; for this is the law and the Prophets." "Pure and undefiled religion before
God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted by the world." "For we know that if
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
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