A MASTER’S WAGES
“. . . travel in foreign countries and receive Master’s Wages.”
Our Operative brethren received their Master’s Wages in coin of the
realm.
Speculatives content themselves with intangible wages - and
occasionally some are hard pressed to explain to the wondering
initiate just what, in this practical age, a Master’s Wages really
are.
The wages of a Master may be classified under two heads; first, those
inalienable rights which every Freemason enjoys as a result of fees,
initiation and the payment of annual dues to his Lodge; second, those
more precious privileges which are his if he will but stretch out his
hand to take.
The first right of which any initiate is conscious is that of passing
the Tiler and attending his Lodge, instead of being conducted through
the West gate as a preliminary step to initiation. For a time this
right of mingling with his new brethren is so engrossing that he
looks no further for his Master’s Wages. Later he learns that he
also has the right of visitation in other Lodges, even though it is a
“right” hedged about with restrictions. He must be in good standing
to exercise it. It will be denied him should any brother object to
his visit. If he is unaffiliated, in most Jurisdictions, he can
exercise it but once in any one Lodge. If private business (such as
election of officers or a lodge trial, etc.) is scheduled, the Master
of the Lodge he would visit may refuse him entrance. But in general
this right of visiting other Lodges is a very real part of what may
be termed his concrete Master’s Wages, and many are the Freemasons
who find in it a sure cure for loneliness in strange places; who
think of the opportunity to find welcome and friends where otherwise
they would be alone, as wages of substantial character.
The opportunities to see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of
Freemasonry, to take from them again an again a new thought, are
wages not to be lightly received. For him with the open ears and the
inquiring mind, the degrees lead to a new world, since familiarity
with ritual provides the key by which he may read an endless stream
of books about Freemasonry.
The Craft has a glorious history; a symbolism the study of which is
endless; a curious legal structure of which law-minded men never
tire’ is so interwoven with the story of the nation as to make the
thoughtful thrill; joins hands with religion in the secret places of
the heart in a manner both tender and touching. These “foreign
countries” have neither gate nor guard at the frontier . . . the
Master Mason may cross and enter at his will, sure of wages wherever
he wanders within their borders.
Master’s Wages are paid in acquaintances. Unless a newly-made Master
Mason is so shy and retiring that he seeks the farthest corner of his
Lodge Room, there to sit and shrink into himself, inevitably he will
become acquainted with many men of many minds, always an interesting
addition to the joy of life. What he does with his acquaintances is
another story, but at least the wages are there, waiting for him.
No honest man insures his house thinking it will burn, but the
insurance policy in the safe is a great comfort, well worth all that
it costs. It speaks of help should fire destroy his home; it assures
that all its owner has saved in material wealth will not be lost
should carelessness or accident start a conflagration.
No honest man becomes a Freemason thinking to ask the Craft for
relief. Yet the consciousness that poor is the Lodge and sodden the
hearts of the brethren thereof from which relief will not be
forthcoming if the need is bitter, is wages from which comfort may be
taken.
Freemasonry is not, “re se,” a relief organization. It does not
exist merely for the purpose of dispensing charity. Nor has it great
funds with which to work its gentle ministrations to the poor. Fees
are modest; dues are often too small rather than too large. Yet, for
the brother down and out, who has no coal for the fire, no food for
his hungry child, whom sudden disaster threatens, the strong arm of
the Fraternity stretches forth to push back the danger. The cold are
warmed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the jobless given work,
the discouraged heartened.
Master’s Wages, surely far greater than the effort put forth to earn
them.
Relief is not limited to a brother’s own Lodge. In most
Jurisdictions there is a Masonic Home, in which, at long last, a
brothers weary body may rest, his tired feet cease their wandering.
No Freemason who has visited any Masonic Home and there seen old
brethren and their widows eased down the last long hill in peace and
comfort; the children of Masons under friendly influences which
insure safe launching of little ships on the sea of life; comes away
thankful that there is such a haven for him, should he need it, even
if he hopes never to ask for its aid.
Stranded in a strange place, no Freemason worries about getting aid.
In all large centers is a Board of Masonic Relief to hear his story,
investigate his credentials and start the machinery by which his
Lodge may help him. In smaller places is almost invariably a Lodge
with brethren glad to give a sympathetic hearing to his troubles. To
the brother in difficulty in what to him is a “foreign country,”
ability to prove himself a Freemason is Master’s Wages, indeed.
Freemasonry is strong in defense of the helpless. The Widow and the
orphan need ask but once to receive bounty. All brethren hope to
support their own, provide for their loved ones, but misfortune comes
to the just and unjust alike. To be one of a world wide brotherhood
on which widow and child may call is of untold comfort, Master’s
Wages more precious than the coin of gold.
Finally is the right of Masonic burial. At home or abroad no
Freemason, know to desire it, but is followed to his last home by
sorrowing brethren who lay him away under the apron of the Craft and
the Sprig of Acacia of immortal hope. This, too, is Wages of a
Master.
“Pay the Craft their Wages, if any be due . . .”
To some the practical wages briefly mentioned above are the important
payments for a Freemason’s work. To others, the more intangible but
none the less beloved opportunities to give, rather than get, are the
Master’s Wages which count them.
Great among these is the Craft’s opportunity for service. The world
is full of chances to do for others, and no man need apply to a
Masonic Lodge only because he wants a chance to “do unto others as he
would others do unto him.” But Freemasonry offer peculiar
opportunities to unusual talents which are not always easily found in
the profane world.
There is always something to do in a Lodge. There are always
committees to be served - and committee work is usually thankless
work. He who cannot find his payment in his satisfaction of a task
well done will receive no Master’s Wages for his labors on Lodge
committees.
There are brethren to be taught. Learning all the “work” is a man’s
task, not to be accomplished in a hurry. Yet it is worth the doing,
and in instructing officers and candidates many a Mason has found a
quiet joy which is Master’s Wages pressed down and running over.
Service leads to the possibility of appointment or election to the
line of officers. There is little to speak of the Master’s Wages
this opportunity pays, because only those who have occupied the
Oriental Chair know what they are. The outer evidence of the
experience may be told, but the inner spiritual experience is
untellable because the words have not been invented.
But Past Masters know! To them is issued a special coinage of
Master’s Wages which only a Worshipful Master may earn. Ask any of
them if they do not pay well for the labor.
If practical Master’s Wages are acquaintances in Lodge, the enjoyment
of fellowship, merged into friendship, is the same payment in larger
form. Difficult to describe, the sense of being one of a group, the
solidarity of the circle which is the Lodge, provides a satisfaction
and pleasure impossible to describe as it is clearly to be felt. It
is interesting to meet many men of many walks of life; it is heart-
warming continually to meet the same group, always with the same
feeling of equality. High and low, rich and poor, merchant and
money-changer, banker and broom-maker, doctor and ditch-digger all
meet on the level, and find it happy - Master’s Wages, value
untranslatable into money.
Ethereal as a flower scent, dainty as a butterfly’s wing, yet to some
as strong as any strand of the Mystic Tie all Freemasons know and
none describe, is that feeling of being a part of the historic past.
To have knelt at the same Altar before which George Washington
prayed; to have taken the same obligation which bound our brethren of
the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717; to be spiritually kin with Elias
Ashmole; to feel friendly with Oliver, Preston, Krause, Goethe, Sir
Christopher Wren, Marshall, Anthony Sayer to mention only a few; to
be a brother of Craftsmen who formed the Boston Tea Party; to stand
at Bunker Hill with Warren and ride with brother Paul Revere; to be
an apprentice at the building of St. Paul’s; to learn the Knot from a
Comacine Master; to follow the Magister in a Roman “Collegium,” aye,
even to stand awed before those mysteries of ancient peoples, and
perhaps see a priest raise the dead body of Osiris from a dead level
to a living perpendicular - these are mental experiences not to be
forgotten when counting up Master’s Wages.
Finally - and best - is the making of many friends.
Thousands of brethren count their nearest and their dearest friends
on the rolls of the Lodge they love and serve. The Mystic Tie makes
for friendship It attracts man to man and often draws together
“those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.”
The teachings of broth-erly love, relief and truth; of temperance,
fortitude, prudence and justice; the inculcation of patriotism and
love of country, are everyday experiences in a Masonic Lodge. When
men speak freely those thoughts which, in the world without, they
keep silent, friendships are formed.
Count gain for work well done in what coin seems most valuable; the
dearest of the intangibles which come to any Master Mason are those
Masonic friendships than which there “are” no greater Master’s Wages.
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