GIFTS OF THE MAGI
“. . . and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto
him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 21:11)
“A young man asks, ‘What will I receive from Freemasonry if I become
a member? My father was a Mason, and I’d like to be, but I want to
know what the Order has to offer me.’”
Freemasonry “offer” nothing. The petitioner requests; the Lodge may,
or may not, give. But the question is entirely legitimate; any young
man sufficiently thoughtful to want to know something of the Craft
which he expresses a desire to join, is good material for a Lodge,
and should receive a satisfying answer.
The first gift of Freemasonry is that of standing in the community.
To pass the investigation of a competent committee, and the secret
and unanimous ballot of a Lodge, is to be stamped with the earmark of
a good character. Freemasons have an enviable reputation. To become
one is to share in that reputation, since acceptance as a Freemason
marks recognition of character by men well thought of in the
community. Cicero said: “To disregard what the world thinks of us
is not only arrogant, but utterly shameless.” If his Freemasonry
makes the world think better of a man, it is worth all it may cost in
time and effort.
The young man who becomes a Freemason has the privilege of giving
charity and relief to those less fortunate, in a way which is
beautiful, because it is secret and unselfish. Addison wrote:
“Charity is a virtue of the heart and not of the hands.” As all know
who are concerned in Masonic charity, it is truly of the giving
spirit.
The young Mason has also the privilege of receiving charity and
relief for himself, should he need it. It is to be emphasized that
Freemasonry is not primarily a charity and relief organization.
These are incidental to her practice and ac result of her teachings.
No Freemason has a right to either, but he has certainty of receiving
both, should he, or those dear to him, be in need.
This gift of the Craft makes a greater appeal to men as they grow
older. To the young man just facing the world, with the future
stretching hopefully before him, the possibility of needing the
comfort of a hand on his shoulder, a check for a ton of coal, a
helping hand for a penniless widow, seem remote. But he receives the
precious privilege of giving to those who have traveled further on
life’s pathway.
Gifts of Freemasonry are the opportunities she provides for service
other than charity; service in friendships, service to the ill,
service to brethren in trouble, service to the Lodge. Nor care that
the service to be rendered may not be great. Wordsworth sang: “Small
service is true service while it lasts The daisy, by the shadow that
it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.”
As all know who have lived, service to others generates the greatest
happiness. He who lives for himself alone, lives miserably. He who
lives somewhat for others finds that peace which passeth
understanding.
The Ancient Craft gives her sons a liberal education in the difficult
art of character building. World activities are founded upon
ramifications of character. We travel in a railroad train at
dizzying speeds, secure in the belief that the engine is controlled
by a man of “character;” sober, reliable, industrious, careful,
cautious and able. We never see him; we do not know him personally;
but we believe that he could not be where he is, had he not
demonstrated character. Business is done on credit, which is only
faith in a man’s word. We accept as money a piece of paper with a
name on it, certain that the character of the maker of the check and
the officials of the bank, will secure to us the money for which the
checks calls for. We have faith in the character of the doctor, our
lawyer and the judge in the court. Character is the foundation of
our civilization. Freemasonry offer such opportunities for the
development and the increase of the stature of character as can be
found nowhere else in like amount.
“Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground
finished first; but that part which soars towards heaven, the turrets
and spires, forever incomplete.” Beecher’s simile need not apply to
Freemasonry; he who does not finish his turret and his spire of
character in the Fraternity fails because he will not, not because he
cannot.
To the Freemason the Lodge offers the gift of intelligent patriotism.
Not the “one hundred per cent American, America first and the devil
take the hindmost” patriotism of the demagogue, but the real
patriotism of genuine love of country, which comes to those who
genuinely try to make their country lovable. The history of
Freemasonry in this nation is inextricably intermingled with the
stirring events and the deathless deeds of literally hundreds of
Masonic patriots without whose devotion the United States might not
have been a nation. Paul Revere, Warren, Washington, Marshall,
Jefferson, Lafayette and Franklin - pages might be filled with
immortal names of great men in our history who have known and loved
and used the Ancient Craft for the betterment of the nation.
“For how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the Temples of his Gods?”
It is this patriotism which Freemasonry teaches; we may not keep the
bridge with old Horatius, but in the Lodge we can and do learn to
reverence the “ashes of our fathers” and the Temples of our liberties
and our traditions.
Freemasonry gives to her sons the gentle gift of fellowship. Our
fiends are those we know well, who love us, perhaps, as much because
of our faults as in spite of them. Those with whom we fellowship we
may see only once, and yet, because of our common bond, we know them
as men who might become friends, did opportunity offer; it is to be
hoped that they fell thus of us. The spirit of fellowship in a Lodge
cannot elsewhere be found. We come to the tiled door a stranger;
when passed within we are not among strangers, but brethren. William
Morris phrased it thus:
“Forsooth, brethren, fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is
hell; fellowship is life and lack of fellow-ship is death; and the
deeds that ye do upon earth, it is for fellowship’s sake that ye do
them.”
Freemasonry stops not with fellowship. She gives the gracious gift
of the most favorable opportunity to make friends which can come to
any man.
“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life
he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his
friendships in constant repair.”
Samuel Johnson’s philosophy might have been written of his who finds
the Lodge the cradle of new friendships. The initiate is vouched for
to his fellows. This is a “man,” so the committee has said. He is
worthy. He is well qualified. His reputation suffers not under the
tongues of his friends. He is honest, upright, of good character.
What the committee has said of him to the Lodge which accepts him,
other committees and the Lodge have said of every member the newly-
made brother will greet. Surely no happier beginning to friendships
could be imagined. The young Master Mason who cannot find in his
Lodge the men who will later become the friends of his heart - surely
is he fortunate in his choice of a Lodge!
The Lodge gives the gentle gift of innocent recreation to her sons.
The initiate will find here a conception of “good time” quite
different from that of the world without. The “good time” of a Lodge
smoker, banquet, informal picnic, entertainment, ladies’ night,
concert, Masonic talk or what-have-you; has a charm all its own quite
distinct from similar functions arranged by other bodies. “Pleasure
the servant. Virtue looking on,” wrote rare Ben Johnson, almost as if
he had learned the phrase in the pleasures of refreshment in Lodge.
The “camaraderie” of the social hour of the Lodge cannot be equaled
elsewhere. Within these portals where men upon the level and part
upon the square, the “good time” is not confused by questions of “who
is he?” or “what does he do?” Men enjoy Lodge functions not only
because of the “innocent mirth” which the Old Charges enjoin, but
because of the freedom and happiness; one must accept all others in
the Lodge at face value.
A great gift of the Fraternity is that of home in a strange place.
That “The Mason is never homesick” is a truism. In practically any
town in the land - aye, in thou-sands of towns the world over - are
Freemasons and Freemason’s Lodges. Come to any Lodge a stranger and
knock on the door. If the knocker can prove that he is a member a
royal welcome awaits, warming to the heart, easing the pain of
loneliness, comforting to him who is far from those he loves and
knows. One thinks naturally of Byron’s:
“Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, And will
look brighter when we come.”
and Shakespeare’s:
“His worth is warrant for his welcome.” Nor is this “home for the
homeless” all sentiment.
Many a Mason has been stranded in a strange place - and been speeded
to his destination by brotherly hands. Many a man in a town he does
not know has entered it a stranger and departed with new friends upon
his list. The Mystic Tie is a “real” tie, too strong for breaking,
be the strain put upon it never so great.
A gift of the Fraternity which it is good to take from the box of
memory and muse upon is that of kinship with the old. To do as all
good brothers and fellows have done who have passed this tiled door
before is inspiring to all but the most practical minded. To kneel
where George Washington knelt; to take the obligation which was
sacred to Benjamin Franklin; to sit, in fancy, with the first Grand
Master in London; to be initiated with Elias Ashmole; to look over
the shoulder of the unknown priest whose careful penmanship lives to
this day on our Regius poem; to gather with Athelstan and the great
Assembly in York a thousand years ago - to go back, back, and still
further back, through the Roman Collegia, Ancient Mystery, into Egypt
and perhaps the very birth of the legend of Isis and Osiris - be
spiritually one of a long line of brethren who have knelt at this
Altar, taken these vows, lived this life and loved these teachings -
that is a gift all Freemasons may have for the taking, and which none
take but value.
“O, there are Voices in the Past
Links of a broken chain;
Wings that can bear me back to times
Which cannot come again;
May God forbid that I should lose
The echoes that remain.” (Proctor)
A companion gift is the kinship with the present day.
More than three million men in this nation are now living who have
taken the Masonic obligations, and who hail the new brother, as he
may hail them, with that dearest of titles given by man to men -
“Brother!” These three million - more than four millions in the
world - will look upon the work you may do in the Lodge as important.
Anciently it was written “Laborare est orare” - to labor is to pray.
He who accepts the responsibilities of Masonic membership will learn
to pray by unselfish labor; labor on committees, labor on fellowcraft
teams, perhaps labor in conferring degrees. Labors of love, all, but
all bringing their own reward. Not the least of her gifts is this
opportunity the Ancient Craft puts before her sons, that they may
work for the common good.
One of Freemasonry’s most precious gifts to those who seek her light
is her emphasis on religion. Freemasonry is not a religion -
Freemasonry is “religion,” which, without the qualifying article, is
quite a different matter. A Religion is a method or mode of worship
of God as conceived in that system. “Religion”, with no qualifying
article, is knowledge of, obedience to, dependence on and utter
belief in Deity. The Freemason mat worship any God he pleases, and
name as he will; God, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Primordial Urge
or Great First Cause. Freemasonry’s term for Deity is “The Great
Architect of the Universe,” but she cares no whit what her sons may
call Him in their prayers.
For a thousand reasons men may wish to “become” Freemasons, but the
great reason why men “remain” Freemasons, devoted to the principles
and teachings of the Order. is vitally concerned with this non-
doctrinal, non-sectarian, non-dogmatic teaching of religious truths
which neither conflict not interfere with the tenets and practices of
any religion; nay, which buttress and uphold the teachings of the
Church.
All men at heart are religious and desire kinship and communication
with a Supreme Power. Many men do not phrase this need to
themselves; many never think of it. Yet it is within all, as truly
as hunger and thirst for material food and drink are present.
Freemasonry satisfies this hunger in men who cannot, or do not,
appease it in church; Freemasonry adds to the hunger, and therefore
to the satisfaction, of men who “do” find in the church the
gratification of a spiritual need the stronger that they may not put
it into words.
In a Lodge emphasis is everywhere upon an Unseen Presence. Lodges
are erected to God. Freemasons open and close Lodges with Prayer. A
candidate receives the benefit of Lodge prayer and later must pray
for himself. The number three is everywhere in Lodge - three
degrees, three stations, three principal officers, three Great
Lights, three Lesser Lights, three steps on the Master’s Carpet,
three pillars . . . and three is the numerical equivalent of the
triangle, most ancient symbol of Deity. The initiate may learn of
this as he will; he cannot escape the implications of the Letter “G”
whether he will or no. As millions have learned before him, he will
come to the conviction that there is a “Winding Stair,” which “does”
lead to a “real’ Middle Chamber the Letter in the East stands for a
“reality,” to know and understand which is the end and aim of life.
The young man petitions a Lodge, is passed by the committee, receives
a favorable ballot of his fellows, and lives thereafter with the
proud privilege of wearing a Masonic apron and saying to those who
ask, “I am a Master Mason.” For a little space he walks forward up
the hill; then he turns his steps downward on the sunny side, facing
the western sun. At long last the shadows fall and he steps into the
sunlight beyond the horizon.
Then he has that precious heritage which is for all Masons, and only
for Master Masons - to be laid to rest with the tears of his
brethren, the white apron of initiation the only decoration on his
bier, the solemn words of the comforting Masonic service in the ears
of his relatives and friends, and, at the end, peace under the Sprig
of Acacia of immortal hope. Surely this is not least among the gifts
which the gentle Craft has for those who love her and whom she loves.
The greatest gift? It is, of course, a matter of opinion. To some
it will be one, to others another of those here so slightly sketched.
Sadly sang the great Persian poet:
“There was a Door to which I found no key
There was a Veil through which I might not see;
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was - and then no more of Me and Thee.”
To many, her greatest gift is this; Freemasonry gives to her sons a
Key. Many never fit it to the door. Others turn the Key, but never
push the portal wide. Some there are who swing the gate on its
hinges to enter the “foreign countries” of Freemasonry, there to
wander and to ponder, to study, and to learn, to delve and to dig
into the foundations, the symbolism, the history, the inner meaning
of the old, old society. For these are the gifts transcending gold
and frankincense and myrrh; gifts of spiritual satisfaction, of
knowledge gained, of understanding won.
For many pleasures of this life man has invented names,; the glory of
music, the loveliness of painting, the beauty of sculpture, the
satisfactions of the body, the happiness of unselfishness. For
others, more ethereal, no words have yet been coined. But the Key
leads to the door, beyond which stretches the path to knowledge of
those unknown, unnamed joys which only the possessors understand.
In Freemasonry, as in the Great Light, it is said:
“Ask and ye shall receive; Seek and ye shall find;
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
He who asks, seeks and knocks, in Freemasonry will receive gifts as
beautiful as they are indescribable, as desirable as they are
imponderable. And here the word of those older and wiser in the
Craft, since it is not given to any man to catalog in words that
which no words may limn.
Say to the you man who asks you what he will find in Freemasonry;
“You will receive what you expect and all you expect.” Say to him:
“If you expect little and give much, you will receive far more than
tongue may tell.” Finally, sat unto him: “Ask of Freemasonry what
you will - and it shall be given to you, even the gifts of the Magi.
But ask of her nothing, unless you come with a heart open first to
give.”
“FOR THAT, AND THAT ONLY, IS BROTHERHOOD!”
back to top | 
