G
Even a stranger, entering a Masonic Lodge Room, as he may do on a public
occasion, must be struck by a mysterious Letter which hangs over the chair of
the Master in the East. No one need tell him of its meaning; it is a letter of
light and tells its own story.
Yet, no stranger can know its full meaning, much less how old it is. Indeed,
few Masons are aware of all that it implies, either as a symbol or history.
There it shines, a focus of faith and fellowship, the emblem of the Divine
Presence in the Lodge, and in the heart of each Brother composing it.
When the Lodge is opened, the mind and heart of each member should also be
opened to the meaning of the Great Symbol, to the intent that its light and
truth may become the supreme reality in our lives. When the Lodge is closed, the
memory of that Divine initial and its august suggestions ought to be the last
thought retained in the mind , to be pondered over.
In English Lodges its meaning and use are made clearer than among us. There
it shines in the center of the ceiling of the room, and the Lodge is grouped
around it, rather than assembled beneath it. Below it is the checkerboard floor,
symbol of the vicissitudes of life, over which hangs the whiter light of the
divine guidance and blessing, so much needed in our mortal journey.
Also, in the Degrees its use is more impressive. In the First and Second
degrees the symbol is visible in the roof, or sky, of the Lodge Room, like a
benediction. In the Third Degree it is hidden, but its presence is still
manifest - as every Masons knows - since the light of God is inextinguishable
even in the darkest hours. In the Royal Arch it becomes visible again, but in
another form, and in another position, not to be named here.
Thus, in the course of the degrees, the Great Letter has descended from
heaven to earth, as if to show us the deep meaning of Masonry. In other words,
the purpose of initiation is to bring God and Man together, and make them one.
God becomes man that man may become God - a truth which lies at the heart of all
religion, and most clearly revealed in our own. At the bottom, every form of
faith is trying to lay hold of this truth, for which words were never made.
In all the old houses of initiation, as far back as we can go, some one
letter of the alphabet stands out as a kind of Divine initial. In the Egyptian
Mysteries it was the "Solar Ra," a symbol of the Spiritual Sun shining upon the
mortal path. In the Greek Mysteries at Delphi it was the letter "E" - Eta - the
fifth letter of the Greek alphabet; five being the symbol of man, as evidenced
by the five senses.
Hence also the pentagram, or five-pointed star. In olden times Fellowcraft
Masons worked in groups of five, and five Brethren now compose one of their
Lodges. Plutarch tells us in the Greek Mysteries. the Letter Eta was made of
wood in the First Degree, of bronze in the Second Degree, and of Gold in the
Third - showing the advance and refinement of the moral and spiritual nature, as
well as the higher value to the truth that was unfolded.
Many meanings and much history are thus gathered into the Great Letter, some
of it dim and lost to us now. In our Lodges, and in the thought of the craft
today, the Letter "G" stands for Geometry, and also as the initial for our word
for God. Now for one, now for the other, but nearly always for both, since all
Masonry rests upon Geometry, and in all its lore Geometry is the way of God.
Of the first of these meanings not much needs to be said. In the oldest
Charges of the Craft, as in its latest interpretations, it is agreed that
Masonry is moral geometry. What was forfelt by philosophers and mystics in
ancient times is now revealed to us by the microscope. It is an actual fact that
Geometry is the thought- form of God in nature, in the snowflake and in the
orbits of the stars.
Since this ancient insight is confirmed by the vision of science, in the most
impressive manner the great Letter may stand as the initial of God, not alone by
the accident of our language, but also and much more by a faith founded in fact.
There is no longer any secret; it cannot be hid, because it is written in the
structure of things, in all forms which truth and beauty take.
Nor does Masonry seek to hide the fact that it rests in God, lives in God,
and seeks to lead men to God. Everything Masonry has reference to God, every
lesson. every lecture; from the first step to the last Degree. Without God it
has no meaning, and no mission among men. It would be like the house in the
parable, built on the sand which the floor swept away. For Masonry, God is the
first truth and the final reality.
Yet, as a fact, Masonry rarely uses the name of God.
It uses, instead, the phrase; "The Great Architect Of The Universe." Of
course such a phrase fits into the symbolism of the Craft, but that is not the
only - nor, perhaps the chief - reason why it is used. A deep, fine feeling
keeps us from using the name of Deity too often, lest it lose some of its awe in
our minds.
It is because Masons believe in God so deeply that they do not repeat His
Name frequently, and some of us prefer the Masonic way in the matter. Also, we
love the Masonic way of teaching by indirection, so to speak; by influence and
atmosphere. Masonry, in its symbols and in its spirit, seeks to bring us into
the presence of God and detains us there, and that is the wisest way.
In nothing is Masonry more deep-seeing than in the way in which it deals with
our attitude toward God, who is both the meaning and the mystery of life. It
does not intrude, much less drive, in the intimate and delicate things of the
inner life - like a bungler thrusting his hand into our heart-strings.
No, all that Masonry asks is that we confess our faith in a Supreme Being. It
does not require that we analyze or define in detail our thought of God. Few men
have formulated their profound faith; perhaps no man can do it, satisfactorily.
It goes deeper than the intellect, down into the instincts and feelings, and
eludes all attempts to put it into words.
Life and love, joy and sorrow, pity and pain and death; the blood in the
veins of man, the milk in the breast of woman, the laughter of little children,
the coming and goings of days, all the old, sweet, sad human things that make up
our mortal life - these are the bases of our faith in God. Older than argument,
it is deeper than debate; as old as the home, as tender as infancy and old age,
as deep as love and death.
Men lived and died by faith in God long before philosophy was born, ages
before theology had learned its letters. Vedic poets and penitential Psalmists
were praising God on yonder side of the Pyramids. In Egypt, five thousand years
ago, a poet King sang of the unity, purity and beauty of God, celebrating His
Presence revealed, yet also concealed, in the order of life.
No man can put such things into words, much less into a hard and fast dogma.
Masonry does not ask him to do so. All that it asks is that he tell, simply and
humbly, in Whom he puts his trust in life and death, as the source, security and
sanction of moral life and spiritual faith; and that is as far as it seeks to
go.
One thinks of the talk of the old Mason with the young nobleman who was an
atheist, in the Tolstoi story, "War and Peace." When the young count said with a
sneer that he did not believe in God, the old Mason smiled, as a mother might
smile at the silly saying of a child. Then, in a gentle voice, the old man said:
"Yes, you do not know Him, sir. You do not know Him and that is why you are
unhappy. But he is here, He is within me, He is within you, even in these
scoffing words you have just uttered. If He is not, we should not be speaking of
Him, sir. Whom dost thou deny?" They were silent for a spell, as the train moved
on.
Something in the old man touched the count deeply, and stirred in him a
longing to see what the old man saw, and to know what he knew. His eyes betrayed
his longing to know God, and the old man read his face, and answered his unasked
question:
"Yes, h exists, but to know him is hard. It is not attained by reason, but by
life. The highest truth is like the purest dew. Could I hold in an impure vessel
that pure dew, and judge of its purity? Only by inner purification can we know
God."
All these things - all this history and hope and yearning which defies
analysis - Masonry tells us in a shining Letter which hangs, up in the Lodge. It
is the wisest way; its presence is a prophecy, and its influence extends beyond
our knowing, evoking one knows not what memories and meditations. Never do we
see that Great Letter, and think of what it implies, that we do not feel what
Watts felt:
O God, our help in ages past, Our hope in times to come, Our shelter from the
stormy blast, And our eternal home. "SO MOTE IT BE"
back to top |
