MASONRY AND RELIGION
Every brother must decide for himself whether freemasonry has, or has
not, is or is not, a religion.
Without argument pro or con a few thoughts are here set forth by
which such decision may be illuminated; doubtless he who decides in
the negative will herein find support for his position, and perhaps
he who finds joy in the belief that Freemasonry is more than a
Fraternity, and that the ancient Craft is not alone of this, but of
two worlds, may be comforted.
To discuss any subject intelligently it is necessary that those who
speak and those who listen have a common understanding of the terms
used. It will hardly be necessary here to define Freemasonry
although many have phrased many definitions. But it does seem
essential that the reader and the writer have one mind as to what is
meant by religion.
The terms has many meanings in many minds. For instance: “What is
the religion of the Unite States?” is a question intelligently
answered by: “On the whole, Protes-tant,” by those who think of
religion as made up of modes of worship which may be Episcopalian or
Catholic, Jewish or Mohammedan, Baptist or Buddhist. But change the
tense and ask: “What are the “Religions” of the United States,” and
the only complete answer will be a catalog of all the faiths followed
in this country.
There is, then, a difference between “the religion” and “the
religions.” Carried a step further, there is a great distinction
between “a religion” and “religion.” Any qualifying article seems to
connote a special variety of theology; it is only when we forget that
“a” and “the” that we come to that experience of the heart which is
essential religion.
Some deny that in Freemasonry is “anything” religious, let alone
religion. “Freemasonry as we know it was born in a tavern in London;
how can it be religious?” has been asked by those who forget that
lilies bloom on a dung hill and that the carpenter who walked by
Galilee was born in a stable. But to those to whom Freemasonry is
but a social order these words are not addressed; he who can avow a
belief in God, kneel at his Altar, take vows in His name, receive the
teachings of the Lodge and deny “any” kinship with worship of the
Great Architect is not within the reach of words here to be printed.
Religion is most emphatically not theology; more’s the pity, the two
are all too frequently confused. Religion is consciousness of,
kinship with, worship for a Supreme Being; theology is the means, the
method, the science of such worship. Theology is the manual of
astronomy, but it is the stars in the sky towards which we reach;
theology is the craft of mixing colors, but man thrills to the sunset
without knowing even the names of its hues.
Nor is it necessary here to say that Freemasonry inculcates no
theology. Every Freemason must affirm the existence of Deity; he is
an unhappy Freemason indeed for whom a life to come is not a fact,
but nowhere about the Altar of the Great Architect in a Lodge, in no
words of any Masonic ritual, is there a symbol or phrase setting
forth by what ways or means a brother is to claim kinship with the
Unseen Presence.
Millions of reverent men never even heard of the term “theology,”
still less know its meaning. But there lives no man who does not
know of God - aye, even if he knows but to deny him. R.W. Brother
Joseph Fort Newton, of the Golden Pen and understanding heart, who
sees more in life and religion and Freemasonry than is given to many
a brother formed of more common clay; has written:
“There is in human nature a spiritual quality, by whatever name it is
described; to express which some contrive theologies, others write
rituals and others sing anthems. It is a part of our human
endowment, at once the foundation of our faith and the consecration
of our labor. It emerged with man, revealing itself in love and
birth, joy and woe, pity and pain and death; in the blood in the
veins of men, the milk in the breasts of women, the laughter of
little children, in the ritual of the seasons - all the old, sweet,
sad and happy human things - adding a rhythm and pathos to mortal
life. Older than all creeds, deeper than all dogmas, it is the voice
out of the heart of the world; the account which life gives of itself
when it is healthy, natural and free.”
It is this sense of one-ness with an invisible Absolute, of a touch
with matters spiritual none the less true that they are too ethereal
to phrase; of the reality of that which is the more all embracing
that it is unseen, unheard, untouched and unknown; which is here
meant by the term “religion,” with no qualifying article to fence it
into the narrow confines of any creed or special faith. It is “that
natural religion in which all men agree” as the wise fathers but it
in the first of the Old Charges of a Freemason.
Modern science teaches us that what we see and taste and touch and
feel is but the shadow of reality. In the eyes of science the common
chair on which we sit is a vast space filled with vibrating electrons
and protons, too small to conceive, too speedy to envisage. The
space we know and move in is but a phase of time; the intervals we
measure on a clock face are but parts of a “space-time continuum.”
In somewhat the same way, neither Freemasonry nor religion are really
as we see them; they are but shadows of a greater reality behind. In
a certain theatrical produc-tion it was necessary to introduce the
Christ. To do so with a reverence which should offend no one, the
producer showed His presence merely by a glory of light which came,
and passed, and went. Religion is such a glory - a light from One
Passing Unseen. In all reverence, Freemasonry too, is a hidden sun
of which we know only the shadows cast by brethren as they move
against it.
It will be news to none that Freemasonry has secrets; but to some the
concept will be new, that the greatest secret is one which none need
take an obligation never to reveal. It is one each man must learn
for himself; for its words have not been coined, so he cannot tell it
if he would.
So has religion her secret - it is written large in many a holy book,
yet never the tongue which may read it aloud. It is painted in the
rainbow and the aurora, but never the artist has lived who could limn
it. It sounds in the music of great composers, but never has a
harmonist translated it in words formed by the lips.
So religion and Freemasonry alike tell their simple, profound
secrets, to all who will learn, by the use of symbols.
Freemasons are bound each to each by the Mystic Tie; define it,
explain it, put it pinto words! It may not be done, for there are no
words. Some say it is the Cabletow, confusing the symbol with the
thing symbolized. The cabletow is no more the Mystic Tie than the
umbilical cord is the mother love. Yet the Mystic Tie is real;
brethren braid it in the Lodge, twist its strands together in
fellowship, lay cord on cord to form it in pity and charity and
relief. The friendly word ties a knot in it; the familiar background
of mutually lived Lodge life keeps its end from fraying. Those who
meet on the level and part upon the square, who listen together to
the old, old words of the old, old ritual, tie it tighter, and
tighter about them . . .but cannot tell of it; only feel it, know
it, love it. A great Masonic poet wrote:
“What is it in the wild things that calls to little wild things?
What secret sacred things do the mountains whisper to the hillmen, so
silently yet so surely that they can be heard above the din and
clatter of the world? What mystery does the sea tell the sailor, the
desert to the Arab, the arctic ice to the explorer, the stars to the
astronomer? When we have answered these questions; mayhap we may
define the magic of Masonry - who knows what it is, or how, or why,
unless it be the long Cabletow of God running from heart to heart?”
Religion cannot exist without the human race, since - at least as far
as we know - the beast of the field do not worship.
And the contrary is true - the race could not have been, without
religion. Wise scientists “prove” that worship of an Unseen Presence
is an outgrowth of a primal fear of the unknown causes of natural
phenomena; thunder, lightning, earthquake, wind storm, tidal waves
and so on. But others as wise point to the instincts through which
alone the race has survived and grown - love and protection of the
weak, care of the infant, mutual helpfulness, the formation of tribes
on the foundation of the greatest good to the greatest number; all of
which, during the slow years, have evolved into justice, liberty,
unselfishness, courage and the giving spirit.
Even the beasts of the jungle know love of offspring and occasionally
the spirit of helping one another; without them, no species could
survive.
Religion, then, rests on the certainty that there “is” a meaning to
life. Without it, our very existence is chaos. No man is so
Godless, no character so vile, but what some within is a
consciousness of “meaning.” The completely selfish person who live
solely for himself cannot survive. Nor confuse this with that queer
doctrine which says that all that is lofty and fine in humanity is
but “enlightened selfishness.; that the courageous man who faces
death for his friend is doing that which pleases him better than
living securely without risk; that he who devotes himself to service
to others at personal sacrifice prefers that life, and therefore, but
please his own desires; that the missionary who faces torture and
death to spread the gospel thinks only that in such a life will he
find his greatest joy. For if that doctrine is carried back to the
Great Teachers - Jesus and Moses, Confucius and Buddha - it becomes
blasphemy.
Religion knows there is meaning to life; Freemasonry is as definite
in her dependence upon the rationality of the Universe, the define
justice in which brethren have most faith when understanding it
least. Without creed or dogma, Freemasonry is predicated upon an
utter belief that in the universe man has his place, and in the
reality of spiritual value. Here Freemasonry and religion are so
close they seem to become one. Yet even when two theories of living
coalesce there is no proof that one possesses, or is possessed by the
other.
Religion should not be required to submit to any process of
“proving.” Proofs are for the mind; religious conviction transcends
the mind. Proofs are of man; religion in man’s heart is of God.
Proofs are what we see with the eye and touch with the hand;
religion’s certainties are not of the earth, earthy.
Theologies and dogmas, rites and churches, creeds and faiths have
complicated religion for the common man by a multiplicity of details,
a hard and fast hewing to some one line, conceived by some -
doubtless human and mistaken - mind. Religion, as distinct from “a”
religion or “the” religions, teaches only by the simplest of symbols
- so does Freemasonry. The parables of the Carpenter of Nazareth are
all concerned with every day things; the symbols of religion - home,
fireside, a building, a lost sheep, a father’s love - are simple.
The symbols of Freemasonry which teach the most are the simplest -
the square, the compasses, the letter “G, the sprig of Acacia, a
Great Light to shine. . .
Tear aside the dark veil that hangs between today and the dim and
distant past when men worshipped fire on a pile of stones - a group
of half naked men and women and children in solemn procession pass
from east to west by way of the south about the godhead burning
merrily, casting in the flames the roots which, ignited, give out the
sweet odor, laying on the coals what was to become the “burnt
offering” of the days of Moses, all with the dim idea of
propitiation.
Tear from a “high” church the veil of formality and austere ritualism
which enshrouds its truths - a group of men and women kneel humbly to
partake of the bread and wine by which they offer contrite hearts to
the Unseen Presence.
Finally, tear aside the covering of mystery and ritualistic
observance which conceals a Masonic Lodge at labor from a profane
world - a group of men who pass from the east to the west by way of
the south to gather about an Altar, there to lay their hands and vow
themselves to mutual service, offering their gifts to the Great
Architect of the Universe in gratitude for the fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man, and of the old, old Craft. . .
Every brother must decide for himself whether Freemasonry has or has
not, is or is not a religion.
But before he decides let him read, in the Great Light of Masonry,
Matthew, Chapter XVIII, verse 20.
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