THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
october 1919
volume 5 - number 10
THE PEACE CELEBRATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND
BY BRO. GEO L SCHOONOVER, P. G M, IOWA
Early last Spring, when the development of the armistice
proved that peace was shortly to be concluded between the Allied and the Central
Powers, and that the peace was to be a dictated peace, the Grand Lodge of
England invited the Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries of the Grand Lodges in
all English-speaking countries to participate in a celebration of the happy
event, during the week of June 23-29, 1919. It was not presumed at the time the
invitations were issued, that the final signing of the Peace Treaty would be
delayed as late as the above date. It was fortunate, and indeed striking, in a
way, that the signatures of the various plenepotentiaries were actually affixed
to the Treaty during the week selected.
Those brethren who represented our American Grand Lodges in
London in response to the invitation were as follows: Arizona, A. A. Johns,
P.G.M., Morris Goldwater, P.G.M.; California, William Rhodes Hervey, P.G.M.,
John Whicher G.S.; Colorado, C.M. Kellogg, G.M., Charles H. Jacobson, G.S.;
District of Columbia, Joseph H. Milans, G.M., A.W. Johnston, G.S.; Florida, T.
Picton Warlow, G.M.; Georgia, Robert G. Travis, G.M., Raymond Daniel, A.G.S.;
Iowa, George L. Schoonover, P.G.M.; Kentucky, John H. Cowles, P.G.M.; Louisiana
Rudolph Krause, G.M., John A. Davilla, G. S., Massachusetts, Frederick W.
Hamilton, P.G.M., G.S.; Michigan, Hugh A. McPherson, G.M., Lou B. Winsor, G. S.;
Montana Major Dr. R. E. Hathaway, S.G.W.; Nebraska, John Ehrhardt, P.G.M.,
Francis E. White, G. S.; New Jersey, Austin McGregor, G. M.; New York, W.S.
Farmer, G.M., Robert J. Kenworthy, G.S., Townsend Scudder, P.G.M.; West Virginia
George S. Laidley, G.M., John M. Collins, P.G.M., G.S.-a total of twenty seven.
There were also present representatives of the Grand Lodges
of Scotland and Ireland, British Guiana, Burma, Ceylon, Eastern Archipelago,
Gibraltar, Hong Kong and South China, Jamaica, Madras, Newfoundland, New
Zealand, Nigeria, Queensland, South America and Victoria (Australia), of
Britain's Overseas Dominions.
In the number present, and in representation from all parts
of the globe, it was undoubtedly the most representative and notable gathering
in the history of Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry, and as such deserves careful
consideration, because of its Significance for the future weal of Masonry, as
well as of all civilization.
SHALL FREEMASONRY, as represented in the English-speaking
Countries of the world, make a decided stand in the reconstruction period now
begun in behalf of those age-old principles which are its heritage, and endeavor
to convince the world of the necessity for their recognition as a method of
saving the future? Is the kind of Democracy in which Masonry believes and of
which it is in truth a pattern, to be preserved to coming generations, to the
end that the prophecies of the brotherhood of man shall not continue to be a
mirage ?
These are, in effect, the questions which it was intended
that the Peace Jubilee of the Grand Lodge of England should answer. No agenda of
the meeting was published, and no one ever spoke these questions publicly. But
it was taken for granted that Anglo-Saxons, representing all the
English-speaking countries of the earth, and closely in touch with the
world-problems pushed to the front as a result of the war, could by no chance
gather together in a joint conference, without answering them. Nor was it
intended that what visiting delegations should utter would be direct answers to
any such question. Yet it was as certain as anything human is certain, that once
this group of brethren assembled, loyalty to the mother- tongue and veneration
of a joint heritage of principles would compel that unity of spirit which alone
can settle these questions, and bring true brotherhood to a world thrown out of
joint.
It must have been something like this which inspired the
call for this meeting. It must have been a comprehension, perhaps more or less
dim, that some such significance would attach to the proposed meeting, which
caused representatives twenty-seven in number, hailing from sixteen States of
the American Union to leave their homes and their business to attend, at a time
when every American feels that his personal problems demand his individual
attention. Some good omen must have appeared in the sky. The attendance from the
States was much larger than those of us in touch with the probabilities of
things expected, only a few weeks previously. To those who attended, and to
those others who will hear from their lips the story of Masonic reconstruction
already begun, the prophecies will seem well fulfilled.
A glance at the program of the week will reveal little of
the significance which has been thus expressed. A reception dinner by Grand
Lodge, luncheons and dinners with nine or ten other London lodges, visits to The
Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and another to that conducted for Girls,
visits to various places of interest in and near the city of London, a dinner
with the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House, a three hour session of the Grand
Lodge itself, (this being the formal Peace Celebration proper,) and various
other courtesies these, with no mention whatever of any conference, do not
convey a real conception of what this week of Jubilee meant, or was intended to
mean.
For be it known that when your Englishman wants to talk
seriously with you, and has a real desire to get acquainted with you and measure
you, he does not tell you that this is his purpose. Instead, he invites you to
dinner. After dinner, you talk, briefly and to the point. If he gives you his
confidence, you are ready to deny all the stories you ever heard about him being
an "imperturbable person," for you find him, at least in Masonic circles, with
his guards down, and a real, living heart palpitating underneath. This, at
least, was the experience of the delegations from the United States. They met
the heads of English Masonry at these luncheons, under conditions most ideal,
not wishing to understand one whit more than the English Masons wanted to be
understood, and to understand us.
The discussions, if such may be called the exchanges of
opinion and of good will which characterized all these festivities, took the
form of after-dinner toasts. An English brother, after the formal toasts had
been responded to, would propose the health of "Our Visitors," and couple with
it the names of those American brethren who were designated to make the
responses. In every case the proposal of this particular toast was accompanied
by expressions of esteem, friendliness and a wish to understand us which must
needs be accepted at par. There could be no thought but that the proposer voiced
the genuine desire of the English brethren, or that the motive underlying his
remarks was a good motive. Frankly and openly were we greeted, not as "cousins,"
but as brothers enlisted in the cause of humanity. The hand of fellowship was
extended, palm opened upwards. The English Masonic leaders, understanding the
needs of the world as they saw them, wanted us to know and appreciate the spirit
in which they faced those problems, and did not hesitate to hope for an equally
frank expression of American opinion upon the same subjects.
Received in such a spirit, the American representative
could do no less than grasp the hand of fellowship so graciously tendered,
particularly when what had been said of welcome and of hopefulness for the
future was so exactly in accord with the things which we, too, have come to see
are the great needs of our Craft. And as the week wore on, friendships ripened
in a never to be forgotten manner. We began to understand and appreciate both
the men who preside over the destiny of England's Masonry, and their opinions.
Everything which a host could do to insure the happiness and tranquility of his
guest was done. Every word which would tend toward the elimination of reserve
was spoken. Consciously was this done at first the passage of the days caused
it to become unconscious. The Anglo-Saxon was coming into his own. He was
understanding himself, and his brethren.
No summary of the meetings held with the various London
lodges would be complete which did not take account of the admirable personality
of H. R. H. Lord Ampthill, Pro Grand Master, who performed the function of
Worshipful Master in one lodge and Installing Officer of another with no less of
grace and dignity than characterized his presiding over Grand Lodge itself.
Withal he was so human that for most of us at least, he ceased to be a part of
Royalty to us, we forgot all else save his breadth of understanding and his
gracious fellowship. We had no opportunity, unhappily, to meet the Grand Master,
the Duke of Connaught, for the reason that he was so indisposed physically as to
be unable to be present at any of the functions. A message from his own pen
expressed his regret for his illness, which was a source of great disappointment
to us all. His warm fraternal greeting to us was deeply appreciated, none the
less, and one of the prized souvenirs presented to us was a beautiful
colorgravure of the Duke himself.
Of the reception accorded us in the various London lodges,
one could not speak in appreciation without distinctions between them, and there
were none such. Warm and sympathetic and fraternal they all were, memorable to
all. If the joint meeting with "Antiquity No. 2" and "Royal Somerset House and
Inverness No. 4" had any characteristic more notable than the others, it was
only in the fact that neither is chartered by the Grand Lodge of England, nor
has a Warrant, because each is older than the Grand Lodge itself ! To sit in
these lodges is to realize something of what "time immemorial" means.
We had opportunity to Witness the installation of a
Worshipful Master, and took an extra breath when he calmly announced his
appointees, beginning with the Wardens and running through a list longer than
most of ours. The Master is the only elective officer in the English lodge, all
the others being appointive. We saw all of the three degrees conferred in full,
and were struck with the simplicity and brevity of the work. The approximate
time of conferring each of the degrees was, E. A., twenty minutes, F. C. about
the same, and the Raising occupied about thirty-five minutes. Let it be set down
that there was no emasculation of a single vital point or part. Nor was there a
mere rush of lip service. The work was done with dignity and solemnity, without
verbiage or redundance, or slurring of syllables. Leisurely and understandingly
it was done, and, while probably less than one-third as many words were used,
the essentials were in no wise neglected. Where as a rule our American rituals
are extended, theirs were condensed; where we dramatize, they explained. They
can teach us much in the matter of ritual.
It is not, however, the purpose of this article to argue
from the impressions gained. A chronicle of the events is asked, and a chronicle
it shall be, reserving perhaps for a further discussion, the tremendous themes
which were suggested by attendance upon these various functions.
If there is to an American visitor an apparent lack in the
intercommunication between the lodges of the various classes, a loss of
something which we in America dearly prize, it cannot be said that within the
lodges themselves there is anything but the closest, most intimate brotherhood.
Their numbers are few, but their tastes are similar, their understanding is
complete, and their meetings, formal though they may be, are satisfying in the
extreme. Again there is the temptation to speak in more detail, for it is in
matters of ritual and internal efficiency and fellowship that, with one
exception, we can learn most from our English brethren.
That one exception, however, overtops all the others. It is
in the matter of their charities. Whatever of social unity may be lacking
between the lodges which compose the Grand Lodge of England, certainly they are
one in their humanitarian instincts. Their financial support of their Boys' and
Girls' Schools makes our American efforts in this direction, even the most
pretentious, loom small in comparison. Consider their annual expenditures mount
to something like five dollars per capita on their entire membership - this sum
taking no account whatever of endowments - and you begin to realize what the
joint efforts of the lodges of England are accomplishing. These sums too, come
from individual pocketbooks, not from lodge treasuries.
We visited these Schools. They are not carried on in a way
to "institutionalize" the children. They are educated in civic duty, and account
is taken of the part which they are hereafter to play as men and women of the
Empire. The Arts and Sciences receive attention, along with practical
tradesmanship. Their teachers are as a rule products of the schools themselves,
this being particularly true of the Girls' School. The result is a family
relationship, and a family tradition, too, which makes for a splendid morale.
The climax of the entire week was the three hour session of
the Grand Lodge at Royal Albert Hall. The introduction of the twenty- five
visiting deputations, each under escort of two Grand Stewards, was itself
productive of a deep impression upon the visitors, and no doubt also upon the
nine thousand members of the Grand Lodge of England there assembled. As one of
the visitors, I confess my inability to describe the emotions which surged
through me when, after being for many presented to the Pro Grand Master, I was
directed to the seat assigned to me and faced the throng. The appeal to the eye
was in itself inspiring. Nine thousand brethren, dressed in the light blue
regalia designating the officers of the lodges represented, gathered together in
that enormous oval building, filling its main floor and the six surrounding
galleries; the Grand Stewards with their red collars, seated in two rows on the
main floor and forming a cross against the back ground in light blue symbolized
in a very real sense the Masonry of England. The knowledge that thousands could
not be assigned to seats bespoke the intense interest felt in the event. The
deep blue of the officials banked in rows upon the rostrum formed a harmonious
contrast indeed.
There was an appeal to ear. The voluminous melody from the
enormous organ had no sooner filled the great audience chamber than one realized
the awesome import of the world-derived gathering. Then those English brethren
sang. Their National Anthem our own in everything but the words employed "Now
thank we all our God" and "O God, our help in ages past." It was a unique
commentary upon the universal belief in the righteousness of the Allied Cause
that this latter song, long suppressed as unfraternal and unchristian, was
revived, and sung with the fervor of crusaders returned from the overthrow of
the antichrist. The business of the occasion was the Peace Jubilee, expressed in
the formalism of moving an address of loyalty to the King, unanimously carried,
of course, the unanimous passage of a resolution expressing the sentiments of
the Craft toward His Majesty's Forces, and a motion tendering the floor to M.W.
Bro. W. S. Farmer, Grand Master of New York, M. W. Frederick W. Hamilton, P. G.
M. of Massachusetts, and M. W. Bro. W. H. Wardrope, Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario. The addresses of the Pro Grand
Master, Lord Ampthill, and Brother Right Hon. T. F. Halsey, P. C., the Deputy
Grand Master, were upon a high plane, scholarly, refined and warmly fraternal in
their tone, and were ably responded to by the American and Overseas Dominions
representatives. Brief, one and all, modest, Anglo-Saxon to the core.
It is a peculiarity of the English that the one way in
which they give free expression to their emotions is through some formal,
prescribed method a ritual, or a song. The pleading or exaltation of the orator
they seem to disdain. But given a ritual, or a song, they will render or sing
it, as the case may be, with a dignity, expressiveness and whole-heartedness
which puts to shame the studied oration so common to our Western system. It
carries conviction to man; one must needs believe that the Most High is attuned
to such expression as well, for reverence colored the tone of the voices of the
throng, in a definite though indescribable manner.
Schooled as we had become in the methods of expression of
these people we could not misunderstand the music of English Masonry thus
presented to us. If it was awe-inspiring, it was heartrending, too, for the
hozannas were tinged with a great sorrow, though no suggestion of loved one
lying in Flanders fields was worn. The commemorative jewel of the occasion was
at one with the spirit of the day, and we who had come thousands of miles to
join in that day left the stupendous Albert Hall hushed and reverent and
chastened we had truly seen the great soul of English Masonry, and were to
carry its remembrance to the end of time.
----o----
THE PLAN OF FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. EDWARD B. PAUL. P.G.M. BRITISH COLUMBIA
The following article, written by the author of "The Column
of Beauty" published heretofore, takes a broad and philosophical view of
Freemasonry as a whole. One may study Masonry from the circumference to the
center, from the details to the general, and such is always worth while; he may
also study it from the center to the circumference, from the whole to the parts,
and this also is richly worth while, as the following essay will show.
TO MOST, if not all, of us, the recollection of our
Initiation, Passing, and Raising is fresh and vivid, and stands out from among
our subsequent Masonic experiences with a clearness to be explained by the
novelty of the situations in which we found ourselves, and by the solemnity of
the ceremonies in which we took part for the first time. We perceived, then,
that Freemasonry had a message for us, if we could only comprehend it, and we
relied on the knowledge of our more experienced brethren to explain to us the
many mysteries hidden beneath the ceremonies and symbols of the lodge. As we
continued carefully to imbibe the lessons emanating from the East, much that to
us had seemed dark became brighter; but we felt there was still much to learn.
It is true that each symbol and symbolic act in the lodge was separately
explained, and its moral and Masonic uses elucidated; but the detached parts of
Freemasonry were never, in our opinion, satisfactorily united into one
comprehensive whole, a knowledge of which is necessary in order that the "Noble
Science" may have the influence on our lives and conduct, which is its chief
end. My purpose, therefore, is to endeavour to demonstrate that the allegories
and symbols of the lodge have a correspondence with each other, and are in the
nature of hieroglyphics which can be pieced together and made to reveal, when
deciphered, the lessons they were intended to convey. But as symbols are, from
their nature, susceptible of various meanings, and as all investigators, no
matter how honest their intensions may be, are liable to assign forced
interpretations to some of them, in order that they may fit into a pre-conceived
plan, it is necessary that their pronouncements be submitted to the most
rigorous tests, lest Error and not Truth be the result.
The magnitude of my theme and the necessarily limited space
allotted to me for this lecture, have caused me to make condensations which
detract from the leanness of my arguments, which would require treatment beyond
the scope of a short address. However, I lay the results of my investigations
before you, begging your indulgence for presenting, in mere outline, a subject
of such immense importance.
With this explanatory foreword, I shall now proceed to the
subject matter of my lecture.
There are three aspects of Freemasonry to which I invite
your attention:
1. Freemasonry as Philosophy.
2. Freemasonry as Education.
3. Freemasonry as the Handmaid of Religion.
These three aspects are sufficiently wide in their scope to
deserve much more time for their individual development than is at present at my
disposal. A word or two, however, may help to explain my reason for placing them
Philosophy, Education, Religion in the order here presented.
Philosophy may be conceived as the science which lays down
the principles governing conduct that which states the Moral Ideal; Education,
as the means by which that ideal is attained, or, at least, approached; and
Religion as the outcome of the two the experience of the individual while
realizing, or partially realizing, the Ideal. While these conceptions, no doubt,
suggest my divisions of the subject of my lecture, and the order in which they
are placed, I fear that, in my treatment of them, I may frequently lose sight of
any method which is intended in my design. Indeed, I cannot pretend that this
lecture is worthy of being regarded otherwise than as the expression of random
thoughts arising out of the careful contemplation of our ceremonies and symbols,
and serious speculation as to their meanings.
FREEMASONRY AS PHILOSOPHY
To the philosophical student it will be obvious, in the
course of my remarks, that I use the word "Philosophy" in a very loose way. In
the first division of my subject I shall touch upon the ideal of life, the
nature of the self and the nature of knowledge. In the third the nature of God
and the Immortality of the Soul will be among the problems considered problems
which lie as much in the province of Philosophy as the three treated under the
first head. Perhaps it would have been better to have made a sharper distinction
and substituted "Ethics" or "Moral Philosophy" for the word "Philosophy"
employed here; but, if you will bear in mind this explanation, it seems to me
convenient to allow the term to stand.
"Philosophy is the pursuit of Truth." This is the first and
simplest conception and definition of Philosophy we can form. Can we, with
truth, substitute the word Freemasonry for Philosophy in that definition? Such a
question propounded in a Freemason's lodge can be answered only in the
affirmative. The pursuit of Truth, called by us the search for the Lost Word, is
indeed the sole aim and the chief end of all the teachings of Freemasonry.
But I do not forget that we are distinctly informed that
the "Chief Point of Freemasonry" is the promotion of the happiness of the
individual, and, consequently, of society. That is insisted on in the Charge to
the Brethren in the Installation Ceremony. The ancient Greek moralists also
considered that happiness is "the great end of man, that this is the highest
good, the end for which all beings live, the object which they all pursue." In
this respect, also, Freemasonry agrees with other philosophies in its definition
of the chief end of man.
It may be asked, then, What is the aim of Freemasonry? Is
it Truth or Happiness ? There seems to be no doubt that Happiness is the natural
concomitant of Truth, and that that is the explanation of the apparent
contradiction in the statement of the aims of Freemasonry. Truth and Happiness
would thus have the same relationship which Tennyson points out as existing
between duty and glory:
"He that walks the path of duty only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden roses."
Thus, the aim of Philosophy and of Freemasonry being the
same, you will see my justification in dealing with Freemasonry as a philosophy.
The nature of that philosophy cannot be clearly explained
without a short allusion to the Allegory of Freemasonry. In that allegory the
candidate is made to represent a human being in his progress from birth to
death, or, as the mental and moral development of a man from childhood to old
age closely corresponds to the mental and moral advancement of the race, he may
be said to represent human knowledge as it ascends from darkness to light.
This ascent is made by three steps. And may I be permitted
to digress a moment to point out that in nature many physical entities or
qualities occur in threes or triads. Thus we have Space and its three
dimensions, Length, Breadth, Thickness; Matter and its three states, Solid,
Liquid, Gaseous. Physical Magnitudes, Length, Mass, Time. Color, Red, Green,
Blue or Violet. Sound, Loudness, Pitch, Quality. Electric Current, Circuit,
Electro-motive Force, Resistance, etc., etc.
A three-fold division is also manifested in man's nature,
which is generally recognized as being made up of three distinct parts, namely,
Body, Mind, Spirit. Browning puts into the mouth of one of the patrons of
Freemasonry, St. John, the Divine, the following words, which beautifully set
forth this distinction:
This is the doctrine he was wont to teach,
How divers persons witness in each man,
Three souls which make up one soul; first, to wit,
A soul of each and all the bodily parts,
Seated therein, which works, and is what Does,
And has the use of earth, and ends the man
Downward: but, tending upward for advice,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the next soul, which, seated in the brain,
Useth the first with its collected use,
And feeleth, thinketh, willeth-is what Knows:
Which, duly tending upward in its turn,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the last soul, that uses both the first,
Subsisting whether they assist or no,
And, constituting man's self, is what Is-
And leans upon the former, makes it play,
As that played off the first; and, tending up,
Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the man
Upward in that dread point of intercourse,
Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.
What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man.
As may be expected, therefore, these three parts of man's
nature are fully recognized in Freemasonry, each of the three degrees
representing one the First degree, the Body (the material world or world of
sense); the Second, the Mind; and the Third, the Spirit, the Ego, of which the
other two are ministers. Abundant proof of this is to be found in the symbolism
of Freemasonry, and it is supported by the opinion of the ablest Masonic
writers. This distinction may be alluded to in each of the three divisions of my
lecture.
As has been mentioned above, the Pursuit of Happiness is
the "chief point" of Freemasonry as well as the aim of life as presented by
Philosophy, according to the ancient Greek moralists. All mankind, in every age,
from the darkest period of barbarism to the most civilized epoch the world has
ever seen, have been striving after happiness. They may differ in their
definition of the term, as well as the means by which they can attain their
object; but we may take it for granted that ultimately they have happiness in
view in all their schemes for the conduct of their lives.
Among savages, the gratification of their passions and
desires, without regard to future consequences, seems to them the "highest
good." This is also true, to a certain extent, in the case of children.
Philosophy, generally, and Freemasonry have nothing to do with that stage of
human existence, except in so far as it might be called a preparation period;
for the whole life of man may be said to be preparation for something higher the
period of darkness for the E. A., the E. A. for the F. C. and so on. It is,
therefore, necessary that, before proceeding further and higher, the human being
should be "duly and truly prepared."
It is not to be expected that a child or a savage can be
prepared at once to receive all the instruction necessary to the complete
development of his three-fold nature. He must advance by steps, from the
simplest to the most complex, from the concrete to the abstract. There is no
doubt that the idea of Mind, still more of Spirit, comes later than the
knowledge of the Body and other objects that can be perceived by the Senses.
Preparation, therefore, for education along the lines of such knowledge as can
be derived only from natural objects must be incomplete. Hence our candidate's
preparation is in the First degree confined to the left side. The symbolism of
the left side is well known. That side has always been regarded as the side of
less honour that the right, and, consequently, is appropriately used to
represent the Sensational part of man's nature, while the right side connotes
the Rational side.
Hence it is not difficult to conceive that Freemasonry, if
it is concerned at all with Philosophy, should make the First degree to
exemplify the Sensational, and the Second, the Rational School of Philosophy-the
two great schools of thought which have split thinkers into two opposing camps,
from the earliest times to the present day. Both systems agree that happiness,
in one form or another, is the great aim of man, and that the life according to
nature is virtue, because it leads us right to the end for which we were
destined by nature, viz., happiness. But they differ in their doctrines
respecting happiness and nature and virtue. Both agree that within certain
limits the appetites, passions and desires may be gratified, but the Sensational
school maintained that the limit was necessary for prudential reasons only, the
Rational that happiness springs from the limitation and subjugation of the
passions.
The connection between the First degree and the Sensational
School will be apparent if we recollect that "refreshment" in the old days was
not a mere banquet to be held or not held, after the ceremonies of the evening
were over, in a different room, but that it was an integral part of those
ceremonies, solemnized by the placing on the refreshment table of the Lights of
Masonry, by the prayers of the Master and the other ceremonies of "opening," but
"mingled with social mirth, and the mutual interchange of fraternal feeling." It
may be regarded, therefore, as a rite emblematical of the liberty of man to
gratify his appetites, desires and passions subject to the check of Temperance
and Prudence, the two Cardinal Virtues of the South and North, which we may
personify as standing unseen and silent on each side of the table, one behind
and one facing the Junior Warden. That check is represented also by the Common
Gavel, the symbol of Temperance, which must be used on the rough ashlar before
the Square of Morality can be made to fit its angles and faces.
I will not tax your patience by dwelling on the similarity
between the Second degree and the Rational School of Philosophy. But I may
remind you that happiness according to the latter consists in the limitation and
subjugation of the passions, while the emphasis laid by the former on Morality
and Virtue and the subjugation of the Passions seems to establish the parallel.
The Second degree also lays special stress on the study of Geometry representing
Mathematics which subject was regarded by the old Greek philosophers
particularly Pythagoras as the symbol of Pure Reason. In Architecture Geometry
is the science which determines the form of a structure, and which is more
concerned about that than about the substance or matter of which it is composed.
The form symbolizes the limit, and the materials, the appetites and passions,
the matter, in the Second degree, being completely subordinated to the former,
as has been shown to be the case in the tenets of the Rational School.
But Masonry does not, like some of the old Philosophies,
maintain the irreconcilable opposition of mind or soul and matter. The oblong
squares of the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft show that each degree
taken by itself is incomplete. It is only when each is blended with the other
that perfection is reached, as is shown in the "perfect square" of a Master
Mason, which is formed by the union of the other two squares. This is one of
many proofs in our symbolism that the Third degree is the summation of the other
two with the addition of further lessons on the Nature of God and Immortality.
The refreshment table of Freemasonry is symbolical not only
of our liberty, within the bounds of Temperance and Prudences to partake of the
material blessings lavished on us by God, but it is also an emblem of a
figurative table provided with materials for the satisfaction of our mental and
moral appetites. The viands are the thoughts of great and good men either
presented to us in books or by word of mouth, and the satisfaction we derive
from moral and virtuous actions.
Freemasonry has set limits to prevent our abuse of these
blessings; but in placing before us material as well as mental and spiritual
food, it effectually rebukes those who look on physical gratification, even
within lawful limits, as sinful, and who seek to obtain God's favour by neglect
and contempt of His temple, the human body.
"Let us not always say,
'Spite of this flesh today
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!'
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, 'All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps
soul!'"
FREEMASONRY AS EDUCATION
Plato states that "the aim of Education is to develop in
the body and in the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are
capable."
The question before us now is, Does Freemasonry interest
itself in the subject of Education, and, if so, does the aim of the Education
suggested by Freemasonry resemble the aim of Education as defined by Plato? I
think there can be no doubt that the question must be answered in the
affirmative. Freemasonry expressly deals with the development of Body and Soul
and leaves nothing in the matter of the education of its votaries that can be
improved upon; for it works in conformity to Nature, and in the order of Nature
in the matter of Education as in all other things in which it concerns itself.
In order to comprehend, then, its system, let me remind you
that the First degree is the degree of the material universe. The first step,
therefore, in Masonic Education is education through the senses. In the earlier
stages of a man's life, he takes cognizance only of such knowledge as can be
acquired through the senses. Nothing is real to him unless he can touch, taste,
smell, hear or see it. The most natural and, therefore, the most scientific
method of teaching the young is through the senses. The concrete must precede
the abstract. Such an education would be directed especially to the enlargement
and refinement of the receptive powers; of those powers, above all which are
directly relative to fleeting phenomena the powers of sensation and emotion.
What is called "practical education" the training of the
hand and eye to obey the directions of the mind; aesthetic education occupied
very largely with those aspects of things which affect us pleasurably through
the senses, including art and the finer sorts of literature; education of the
heart dealing with the love of Nature, animate and inanimate, above all, love
and charity towards our fellow men, which latter is the special lesson of an E.
A., and love to God, from Whom flows every good and perfect gift: all these,
without stretching the meanings of the symbolism, are inculcated in the first
degree of Freemasonry.
The candidate in the Second degree has made a further
advance. Abstract studies are set before him, having for their object the
development of all his intellectual faculties, the moral and spiritual elevation
of his character, and the further acquisition of truth and knowledge. Cut I must
remind you, here, that no degree stands by itself. Each "grows into and is again
grown into" by the other two. you must not understand, therefore, that mind and
intellect are not trained in the First degree, but that they are further greatly
developed in the Second.
The beautiful symbolism of the Winding Stairs represents a
synopsis of the Masonic system of education.
The first three steps I take to mean a mere reminder, such
as occurs, again and again, throughout all the ceremonies of the lodge, that
three parts, Body, Soul and Spirit, constitute the nature of Man; and they are
intended simply as an introduction or key to the Educational scale which
commences with the flight of five steps.
The first flight, then, refers to the five senses, and
alludes to the Education through the Senses, suggested in a former part of this
discussion.
The second flight of seven steps, referring to seven purely
abstract studies, is symbolical of Pure Reason, and shows an upward advance in
the candidate's intellectual progress.
But where is the third member of the triad in this ascent,
which the first three steps, according to the interpretation given above, has
led us to look for? To answer this we must ask another question, "What has been
the goal or aim of the candidate during his long and arduous pilgrimage?" To
which question there is only one answer, "The Truth." He does not yet find it;
but high up and suspended in the distance he descries the letter "G." a mere
initial, a glimmering hope that his labour has not been in vain, and that he has
at last seen, faintly indeed and indistinctly, an indication of the object of
his search. He has still far to go, he still has a rough and rugged road to
travel; but his Faith is now buoyed up by Hope, and he knows that he will reach
the goal if he continues true to his purpose.
There is another aspect of the Winding Stairs which has
struck me as beautiful and worthy of your consideration. If we imagine a spiral
line drawn round a conical hill, it will appear to be like a number of circles
narrowing in diameter, or growing closer to the centre the higher they rise,
till, at the top, the circumference disappears in the centre. So man, by labour,
virtue, and faith in God, may ascend, step by step, in his progress through
life, drawing nearer and ever nearer to Him, till finally, his earthly
pilgrimage over, his liberated spirit comes before His Holy Presence, and is
lost in the Light and Warmth of His infinite Intelligence and His inexhaustible
Love.
FREEMASONRY THE "HANDMAID OF RELIGION"
There is probably no society in this world more imbued with
the religious sense than the Fraternity of Freemasons. Questions of Morality and
Religion are freely and reverently discussed by them in their lodges, and
lectures on subjects bearing on the conduct of human life are listened to by
them with an interest and patience which shows that they are animated not so
much by fraternal courtesy as by sincere desire for self-improvement. Nor is
that to be wondered at when one considers the reverence which every member of
the Craft pays to the ceremonies of the lodge and to the excellent principles
which are always inculcated therein. An examination, therefore, into the
principles of Freemasonry which bring about this religious inclination among
Masons, which my experience assures me exists, is my purpose at this stage of my
lecture.
In the first place, a belief in God and Immortality is
required of every applicant for admission into a lodge. That is necessary for-
two reasons. First, as the name of God is so frequently invoked in our
assemblies, and as all our ceremonies and lectures tend to impress on our mind
His wonderful government of the world and our dependence on Him, the presence in
our midst of an atheist who would certainly not sympathize with, if he did not
actually scoff at our proceedings, would prove a source of discord in a society
so dependent on harmony as its "strength and support."
Another reason for requiring of an applicant a belief in
God, is that without such belief he would lack the very foundation on which the
lessons of Freemasonry are based, and would, consequently, finding himself out
of sympathy with our beliefs, either cease to associate himself with the
Fraternity, or, keeping up a nominal connection with it, lose no opportunity of
belittling the importance of our work, and of designating our symbolical
teaching as puerile and unworthy of the serious attention of any thoughtful man.
Thus he would not only derive no benefit himself, but would be likely to create
prejudice against us in the eyes of the profane. This he might be able to do
without violating the letter of his obligation.
The preparation for and symbolism of each of the three
degrees has, of course, the same significance when Freemasonry is discussed from
the point of view of its being ancillary to Religion, as it had when we were
dealing with its Philosophical and Educational sides. You will, therefore, not
require further explanation if, as I proceed, I refer to the Degree of Nature,
the Degree of Mind and the degree in which both the former are united into one
Degree of Perfection.
But, before proceeding to discuss this part of my subject I
propose to deal briefly with symbolisms which might be classified under each of
those three heads, but which it is more convenient to take by themselves, as
they throw light on what is to follow. And the first of these that I shall speak
about is the three knocks of the candidate seeking admission to a lodge open on
any degree. The first knock refers to the fundamental necessity of prayer. The
subject of prayer is the first lesson given the E. A. on his entrance into the
lodge; prayer is taught by example, in each of the Degrees; and prayer was the
last act of H. A. B. before his tragic death. "Ask and ye shall receive" is the
interpretation of the first knock, and that command, with its gracious promise,
is, further, beautifully symbolized on the Tracing Board of the E. A. The story
of Jacob's dream is familiar to you all and need not be told here. But I shall
give you what seems to be the Masonic significance of it. The ascending angels
bear to heaven the prayers and petitions of men, and the descending angels bring
back the answers from God in the form of bounties and blessings.
The second knock, we are told, means "Seek, and ye shall
find." Here is a direct injunction to search for Truth. That search is the
paramount duty of every Freemason; in fact it is the sole object of all the
teachings of Freemasonry.
"Knock and it shall be opened to you."
If with all your hearts you prayerfully and truly seek Him,
your admittance into the Grand Lodge Above will not be denied. Your search will
then be rewarded; you will find the Lost Word; in God's holy presence you will
discover the Truth.
Sacrifice, of which the altar is a symbol, is also one of
the requisites of Freemasonry. All that a Mason has property, even life--must be
given up for the "protection of innocence and virtue, and for the defense of
Truth."
The symbolism of the Sun is perhaps the most important
vehicle for the conveyance to our minds of Divine Truth. The Sun is the pattern
for the imitation of the Worshipful Master, because it is symbolical of certain
attributes of the Deity Love and Intelligence, Order and Harmony. The warmth of
the Sun is emblematical of Love, and his light of Intelligence or Mind. The
three Lesser Lights are said to represent the Sun, Moon and Worshipful Master.
The Sun symbolizes the attributes of God, Love and Intelligence. The Moon, which
reflects the light, but not the warmth, of the Sun Intelligence. The Worshipful
Master, Man, the most perfect of His works.
The Sun also represents the Immanence of God. Its warmth
pervades the Earth and is necessary not only for the comfort, but also for the
life, of all organic creatures. In like manner God is everywhere. In the
beautiful words of Mrs. Browning:
"Earth is crammed with Heaven
And every bush and tree
Afire with God. But only he
Who sees takes off his shoes."
His love is unfailing even to the lowest organism He has
made; and His intelligence is manifested in all the works of His hands, and acts
in the formation of a frost crystal as certainly and as beautifully as in the
growth of a blade of grass. "This deity," quotes Tagore from the Upanishad, "who
is manifesting himself in the activities of the universe, always dwells in the
heart of man as the supreme soul. Those who realize Him through the immediate
perception of the heart attain immortality."
One word more about Sun symbolism. The point within the
circle is the astronomical symbol of the Sun. The Sun is represented by the
central point, the circumference represents his rays. The compasses is the
instrument used for describing circles, the pivotal point representing the
central Sun, and the other point Light. Thus, in the Fellow Craft degree, when
one point has been elevated above the square, the meaning seems to be that a
certain measure of intellectual and moral light has been vouchsafed to the
candidate. But when the pivotal point is also placed above the square, he has
received the pure light and warmth of Masonry all the knowledge of the Truth
that "it is possible for him to obtain in a lodge of Master Masons."
But the most important assistance which Freemasonry lends
to Religion is when it teaches the Craftsman that the existence of God can be
deduced from His works.
And, first, Freemasonry shows that God is manifested in
Nature, which is His creation. "The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the
Earth showeth forth His handiwork." The works of our greatest poets are full of
this theme. Nay, even savages, in their own rude way, see a god in every
manifestation of nature. It is not wonderful, therefore, that Freemasonry should
say that "contemplating these objects" (of nature) "we are led to view with
reverence and admiration the wonderful works of Creation, and adore their Divine
Creator." All religions and most philosophies agree in the necessity of a First
Cause, or God. Freemasonry teaches us to study Nature, to admire its beauties,
to comprehend its wonderful harmony, to appreciate the marvellous adaptation of
every created thing to its environment and the purpose for which it was created,
and reverently to worship the Maker and Creator of all things.
Thus, and far too briefly, I have laid before you the
argument which deduces the Cause from the Effect in the material world. By our
objective consciousness we try to trace the Divine in Nature. But there is a
higher consciousness-the subjective-which deals with the Mind, and which traces
the Divine in Man. This part of my subject might also be presented to you under
the heading: "God as comprehended by the individual mind."
"Are the intelligence of God and the intelligence of man of
the same character ? Intelligence itself seems to constrain us to answer this
question in the affirmative. To suppose that the supreme intelligence has
nothing whatever in common with the human intelligence, is to suppose that one
of them is an intelligence, and that the other is no intelligence at all. It is
to dissolve the very ground on which we conceive both of them as intelligences.
This truth, then, in regard to the constitution of the human mind, and of all
minds, seems to be a necessary axiom of reason. In all intelligence there is an
essential unity of kind, however small the point of unity may be. . . . This
unity constitutes the very bond, and the only bond, between the Creator and the
creature. Deny this connection between the divine and human reason, and you
destroy the very possibility of religion." The preceding sentences, taken from
the philosophical works of Professor Ferrier, are, in short, the summary of his
argument for the connection between all finite minds and the infinite mind of
the Creator. The mind of Man, who, compared with the rest of Creation, is
physically insignificant, is the most wonderful phenomenon that exists in the
Universe. It traces the paths of comets and planets, and predicts their
appearance at any position in the sky to a fraction of a second; it calculates
the distances from the Earth and from each other of the most remote fixed stars;
it even can tell their weights, specific gravity, and the constitution of the
solid and gaseous matters of which they are composed. It harnesses the lightning
and the cataract and forces them into the peaceful service of humanity. No
object is too minute or too immense for its comprehension. And its steady and
daring progress in the past from one pinnacle of knowledge to another makes the
forecast of its further and greater triumphs logical and certain.
The achievements of the human mind are not confined,
however, to the discoveries of scientific truth. Too great homage cannot be paid
to the mighty minds of the men to whom such triumphs are due. But the unveiling
of the workings of the soul by poets, philosophers and other men of letters is
further and even greater testimony to the majesty of the human intellect. Well
might the great world-poet exclaim:
"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how
infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how
like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!"
Man, endowed with mental faculties which enable him to
comprehend the laws by which the Universe is governed and the harmony of
Creation, cannot fail, by comparison with the processes of his mind, to believe
that the natural objects whose secrets it has been able to discover, are
governed and regulated by a mind similar in nature to his own, and only
differing in degree. He perceives that other human minds are like his own, and
that mind is an indissoluble bond of union between man and God. Wordsworth, in "Tintern
Abbey," not only brings out the thought of union between God and Man, but also
emphasizes the bond of union between Nature and God, which I have already
discussed. Man, he says, has:
"A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and the mind of man,-
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."
God is thus revealed in Nature, and God is thus revealed in
Man. But there is another revelation recognized by Freemasonry in every degree
namely, the V. O. T. S. L. "the inestimable gift of God to Man as a guide to his
daily faith and practice." The religion of a Freemason is left to his own
conscience, but the sacred writings are always open in his lodge, a silent, but
eloquent, witness that Freemasonry is not only not indifferent to religion, but
that she expects every craftsman to be a religious man. In fact, she mentions
the "irreligious libertine" as a man who has no right to the privileges of the
Craft.
These are some, only, of the many arguments which prove
Freemasonry to be the Handmaid of Religion. Could any mistress be better served?
IMMORTALITY
We have given much time to the contemplation of the lessons
of the South and West. Have we no message from the North? Yes, indeed! The place
of darkness is a region not to be afraid of, but rather to be regarded with
affection and gratitude. For it is the place of "sleep and his brother, death."
"Now blessings light on him who first invented sleep!" says
Sancho Panza in Don Quixote, "It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a
cloak; it is meat for the hungry, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is
the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the
balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even."
What better eulogy could be written on Sleep than that? It
is rightly associated with refreshment in the first division of the
twenty-four-inch Gauge.
But, some one may say, "Sleep is a blessing, I grant you,
but how about Death? After sleep comes waking; but Death means the leaving all
that is near and dear to men, and the severing of every tie which binds them to
earth. Death is the end." Is it? If it is, then is the teaching of Freemasonry
vain; vain is the teaching of Religion. But we Freemasons are taught that Death
is not the end. Though all things are dark, and the knell of low-twelve is
sounding in our ears, though our brother's mangled body is lying covered only by
the rubbish of the temple; though our loving hands remove him from the grave
where he was "indecently interred," and the evidence of our nostrils gives
unmistakable evidence of physical dissolution, we know that all is well with
him, for the G.A.O.T.U. has taken him by the hand, and raised him to take his
place in another lodge a real lodge of Perfection where he is surrounded by the
dear ones who have preceded him there, and where he awaits the arrival of those
whom he dearly loved and by whom he was dearly loved, with perfect confidence,
for he knows the Truth. He has found the Master Mason's Word
----o----
PART IV ACTION OF STATE AND CHURCH AUTHORITIES AGAINST
FREEMASONRY
FROM THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
CURIOUSLY enough, the first sovereign to join and protect
Freemasonry was the Catholic German Emperor Frances I, the founder of the
actually reigning line of Austria, while the first measures against Freemasonry
were taken by Protestant Governments: Holland, 1735; Sweden and Geneva, 1738;
Zurich, 1740; Berne, 1745. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, measures against
Masonry were taken after 1738. In Bavaria Freemasonry was prohibited 1784 and
1785; in Austria, 1795; in Baden, 1813; in Russia, 1822. Since 1847 it has been
tolerated in Baden, since 1850 in Bavaria, since 1868 in Hungary and Spain. In
Austria Freemasonry is still prohibited because as the Superior Court of
Administration 23 January, 1905, rightly declared, a Masonic association, even
though established in accordance with law, "would be a member of a large
(international) organization (in reality ruled by the 'Old Charges,' etc.,
according to general Masonic principles and aims), the true regulations of which
would be kept secret from the civil authorities, so that the activity of the
members could not be controlled" (Bauhutte, 1905, 60). It is indeed to be
presumed that Austro-Hungarian Masons, whatever statutes they might present to
the Austrian Government in order to secure their authorization, would in fact
continue to regard the French Grand Orient as their true pattern, and the
Brothers Kossuth, Garibaldi, and Mazzini as the heroes, whom they would strive
to imitate. The Prussian edict of 1798 interdicted Freemasonry in general,
excepting the three old Prussian Grand Lodges which the protectorate subjected
to severe control by the Government. this edict, though juridically abrogated by
the edict of 6 April, 1848, practically, according to a decision of the Supreme
Court of Administration of 22 April, 1893, by an erroneous interpretation of the
organs of adminstration, remained in force till 1893. Similarly, in Gngland an
Act of Parliament was passed on 12 July, 798, for the "more effectual
suppression of societies stablished for seditions and treasonable purposes and
or preventing treasonable and seditious practices." By this Act Masonic
associations and meetings in general were interdicted, and only the lodges
existing on 2 July, 1798, and ruled according to the old regulations of the
Masonry of the kingdom were tolerated, on condition that two representatives of
the lodge should make oath before the magistrates, that the lodge existed and
was ruled as the Act enjoined (Preston, "Illustrations of Masonry," 251 sqq.).
During the period 1827-34, measures were taken against Freemasonry in some of
the United States of America. As to European countries it may be stated, that
all those Governments, which had not originated in the revolutionary movement,
strove to protect themselves against Masonic secret societies.
The action of the Church is summed up in the papal
pronouncements against Freemasonry since 1738, the most important of which are:
Clement XII, Const. "In Eminenti," 28 April, 1738; Benedict
XIV, "Providas," 18 May, 1751; Pius VII, "Ecclesiam," 13 September, 1821; Leo
XII, "Quo graviora," 13 March, 1825; Pius VIII, Encycl. "Traditi," 21 May, 1829;
Gregory XVI, "Mirari," 15 August, 1832; Pius IX, Encycl. "Qui pluribus," 9
November, 1846; Alloc. "Quibus quantisque malis," 20 April, 1849; Encycl.
"Quanta cura," 8 December, 1864; Alloc. "Multiplices inter," 25 September, 1865;
Const. "Apostolicae Sedis," 12 October, 1869; Encycl. "Etsi multa," 21 November,
1873; Leo XIII, Encycl. "Humanum genus," 20 April, 1884; "Praeclara," 20 June,
1894; "Annum ingressi," 18 March, 1902 (against Italian Freemasonry); Encycl. "Etsi
nos." 15 February, 1882; "Ab Apostolici," 15 October, 1890. These pontifical
utterances from first to last are in complete accord, the latter reiterating the
earlier with such developments as were called for by the growth of Freemasonry
and other secret societies.
Clement XII accurately indicates the principal reasons why
Masonic associations from the Catholic, Christian, moral, political, and social
points of view, should be condemned. These reasons are: (1) The peculiar, "unsectarian"
(in truth, anti-Catholic and anti- Christian) naturalistic character of
Freemasonry, by which theoretically and practically it undermines the Catholic
and Christian faith, first in its members and through them in the rest of
society, creating religious indifferentism and contempt for orthodoxy and
ecclesiastical authority. (2) The inscrutable secrecy and fallacious
ever-changing disguise of the Masonic association and of its "work," by which
"men of this sort break as thieves into the house and like foxes endeavour to
root up the vineyard," "perverting the hearts of the simple," ruining their
spiritual and temporal welfare. (3) The oaths of secrecy and of fidelity to
Masonry and Masonic work, which cannot be justified in their scope, their
object, or their form, and cannot, therefore, induce any obligation. The oaths
are condemnable, because the scope and object of Masonrv are "wicked" and
condemnable, and the candidate in most cases is ignorant of the import or extent
of the obligation which he takes upon himself. Moreover the ritualistic and
doctrinal "secrets" which are the principal object of the obligation, according
to the highest Masonic authorities, are either trifles or no longer exist (Handbuch,
3rd ed., I, 219). In either case the oath is a condemnable abuse. Even the
Masonic modes of recognition, which are represented as the principal and only
essential "secret" of Masonry, are published in many printed books. Hence the
real "secrets" of Masonry, if such there be, could only be political or
antireligious conspiracies like the plots of the Grand Lodges in Latin
countries. But such secrets, condemned, at least theoretically, by
Anglo-American Masons themselves, would render the oath or obligation only the
more immoral and therefore null and void. Thus in every respect the Masonic
oaths are not only sacrilegious but also an abuse contrary to public order which
requires that solemn oaths and obligations as the principal means to maintain
veracity and faithfulness in the State and in human society, should not be
vilified or caricatured. In Masonry the oath is further degraded by its form
which includes the most atrocious penalties, for the "violation of obligations"
which do not even exist; a "violation" which, in truth may be and in many cases
is an imperative duty. (4) The danger which such societies involve for the
security and "tranquility of the State" and for "the spiritual health of souls,"
and consequently their incompatibility with civil and canonical law. For even
admitting that some Masonic associations pursued for themselves no purposes
contrary to religion and to public order, they would be nevertheless contrary to
public order, because by their very existence as secret societies based on the
Masonic principles, they encourage and promote the foundation- of other really
dangerous secret societies and render difficult, if not impossible, efficacious
action of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities against them.
Of the other papal edicts only some characteristic
utterances need be mentioned. Benedict XIV appeals more urgently to Catholic
princes and civil powers to obtain their assistance in the struggle against
Freemasonry. Pius VII condemns the secret society of the Carbonari which, if not
an off-shoot, is "certainly an imitation of the Masonic society" and, as such,
already comprised in the condemnation issued against it. Leo XII deplores the
fact, that the civil powers had not heeded the earlier papal decrees, and in
consequence out of the old Masonic societies even more dangerous sects had
sprung. Among them the "Universitarian" is mentioned as most pernicious. "It is
to be deemed certain," says the pope, "that these secret societies are linked
together by the bond of the same criminal purposes." Gregory XVI similarly
declares that the calamities of the age were due principally to the conspiracy
of secret societies, and like Leo XII, deplores the religious indifferentism and
the false ideas of tolerance propagated by secret societies. Pius IX
(Allocution, 1865) characterizes Freemasonry as an insidious, fraudulent and
perverse organization injurious both to religion and to society; and condemns
anew "this Masonic and other similar societies, which differing only in
appearance coalesce constantly and openly or secretly plot against the Church or
lawful authority." Leo XIII (1884) says: "There are various sects, which
although differing in name, rite, form, and origin, are nevertheless so united
by community of purposes and by similarity of their main principles as to be
really one with the Masonic sect, which is a kind of centre, whence they all
proceed and whither they all return." The ultimate purpose of Freemasonry is
"the overthrow of the whole religious, political, and social order based on
Christian institutions and the establishment of a new state of things according
to their own ideas and based in its principles and laws on pure Naturalism."
In view of these several reasons Catholics since 1738 are,
under penalty of excommunication, incurred ipso facto, and reserved to the pope,
strictly forbidden to enter or promote in any way Masonic societies. The law now
in force (Const. "Apostolicae Sedis," 1869 Cap. ii, n.24) pronounces
excommunication upon "those who enter Masonic or Carbonarian or other sects of
the same kind, which, openly or secretly, plot against the Church or lawful
authority and those who in any wny favour these sects or do not denounce their
leaders and principal members." Under this head mention must also be made of the
"Practical Instruction of the Congreg. of the Inquisition, 7 May, 1884, 'de
Secta Massonum' " (Acta Sanctae Sedis, XVIII, 43-47) and of the decrees of the
Provincial Councils of Baltimore, 1840: New Orleans, 1856; Quebec, 1851, 1868;
of the first Councils of the English Colonies, 1854; and particularly of the
Plenary Councils of Baltimore, 1866 and 1884 (see "Collect. Lacensis," III, 1875
and "Acta et decr. Concil. plen. Balt. III," 1884). These documents refer mainly
to the application of the papal decrees according to the peculiar conditions of
the respective ecclesiastical provinces. The Third Council of Baltimore, n. 254
sq., states the method of ascertaining whether or not a society is to be
regarded as comprised in the papal condemnation of Freemasonry. It reserves the
final decision thereon to a commission consisting of all the archbishops of the
ecclesiastical provinces represented in the council, and if they cannot reach a
unanimous conclusion, refers to the Holy See.
These papal edicts and censures against Freemasonry have
often been the occasion of erroneous and unjust charges. The excommunication was
interpreted as an "imprecation" that cursed all Freemasons and doomed them to
perdition. In truth an excommunication is simply an ecclesiastical penalty, by
which members of the Church should be deterred from acts fhst are criminal
according to ecclesiastical law. The pope and the bishops, therefore, as
faithful pastors of Christ's flock, cannot but condemn Freemasonry. They would
betray, as Clement XII stated, their most sacred duties, if they did not oppose
with all their power the insidious propagation and activity of such societies in
Catholic countries or with respect to Catholics in mixed and Protestant
countries. Freemasonry systematically promotes religious indifFerentism and
undermines true, i.e., orthodox Christian and Catholic Faith and life.
Freemasonry is essentially Naturalism and hence opposed to all supernaturalism.
As to some particular charges of Leo XIII (1884) challenged by Freemasons, e.g.,
the atheistical character of Freemasonry, it must be remarked, that the pope
considers the activity of Masonic and similar societies as a whole, applying to
it the term which designates the most of these societies and among the Masonic
groups those, which push the so-called "anti-clerical," in reality irreligious
and revolutionary, principles of Freemasonry logically to their ultimate
consequences and thus, in truth, are, as it were, the advanced outposts and
standard-bearers of the whole immense anti-Catholic and anti-papal army in the
world-wide spiritual warfare of our age. In this sense also the pope, in
accordance with a fundamental biblical and evangelical view developed by St.
Augustine in his "De civitate Dei," like the Masonic poet Carducci in his "Hymn
to Satan," considers Satan as the supreme spiritual chief of this hostile army.
Thus Leo XIII (1884) expressly states: "What we say, must be understood of the
Masonic sect in the universal acceptation of the term, as it comprises all
kindred and associated societies, but not of their single members. There may be
persons amongst these, and not a few, who, although not free from the guilt of
having entangled themselves in such associations, yet are neither themselves
partners in their criminal acts nor aware of the ultimate object which these
associations are endeavouring to attain. Similarly some of the several bodies of
the association may perhaps by no means approve of certain extreme conclusions,
which they would consistently accept as necessarily following from the general
principles common to all, were they not deterred by the vicious character of the
conclusions." "The Masonic federation is to be judged not so much by the acts
and things it has accomplished, as by the whole of its principles and purposes."
----o----
A MEANS
Masonry is a means, not an end; and the reception of a
degree, whether it be the first or last of a Rite, does not in itself make the
recipient any better than he was before. It simply is the medium for broadening
his knowledge of his duties, and the application of those duties in his daily
walk and conduct.
To put it in another way, the degrees in Masonry are but
working tools whereby the man who receives them may shape his course in life,
and he is to be judged by the manner in which he has made those tools
Serviceable and profitable in his own betterment and in assisting those around
him to he better and more useful. -The Junior Warden.
----o----
Example is the School of mankind, and they will learn at no
other. -Burke.
----o----
JERRY JACKSON JASON
"ONLY A MASTER MASON”
There ne'er was truer
Mason than Jerry Jackson Jason
He delighted in its
mystery, antiquity, and history;
But he ne'er could be
persuaded that he should be higher graded
And of more degrees possessor than the fundamental three.
It was argued he'd be
apter with the knowledge of the Chapter
That he'd prove a
bright exemplar in the character of Templar,
While the
Thirty-Second brothers told of roadway 'round the others.
But he left no doubt
or question as to higher grade suggestion,
Or, to being "arched"
or "knighted," or to any others plighted,
For a Master Mason simply he was satisfied to be.
They declared that he
was foolish, even obstinate and mulish
To thus decline
advancernent which for them had such entrancement
But to him the title
"brother" was the acme of all other,
And the Lodge supremest honor as he understood its plan.
Its symbols with their
teaching they were to him far-reaching,
Beyond their surface
seeming what hidden truths were gleaming
The wisdom-store of
sages transmitted through the ages,
Every angle with its
story, every line a ray of glory
In the marvelous
design linking human to divine,
And man to man in brotherhood whate'er his race or clan.
The mystery of the scroll was the temple of the soul;
Integrity must build it, virtue ornament and gild it;
Truth's shining presence light its hope sustain and love
unite it,
Wisdom raise the dome
above it faith uplift the turret tall.
Such was Masonry's
ideal, and he strove to make it real-
Sanctified by loving
deeds prompted by a brother's needs.
To his course the
plumb applying, by the square his actions trying,
As the master hand of
duty shaped his ashlar into beauty,
More and more its
surface glowed through the good which he bestowed,
Freer grew from
earthly blemish, fitter for the Living Wall.
Was there sick or
suffering Mason thither sped good Brother Jason,
And the sunshine of
his face brightened many a cheerless place,
While his words were
so assuring, they did more than drugs toward curing,
And disease full oft
was baffled and the threatening crisis passed.
But if all was
unavailing and the stricken one fast failing,
Then he took the
wasted hand, voiced the thought of better land,
Which the worthy would
set eye on through the strength of Judah's Lion,
In the Father's house
on high when life's burden was laid by -
On the listener's
fading sight there had dawned celestial light,
And on face with
rapture beaming death had set his seal at last.
To the dead as to the living willing service ever giving
Ever 'mong the faithful found who a brother’s grave
surround,
And the last sad tribute pay to the lifeless form of clay
With acacia-sprigs proclaiming that his spirit liveth
still.
To the widow, orphan,
friendless, his good deeds 'twould seem were endless,
And affairs of self as
naught when their wants vrere in his thought.
His, the words fresh
courage woke when there fell misfortune's stroke
His, the hand that
help extended and despairing ones befriended:
His, the work beyond
compare, tested by the plumb and square
His, the wage of
fadeless glory over which the angels thriil.
Yet they'd say of Brother Jason, "He is only Master Mason!"
And implying, by the stress, that his rank was thereby
less!
Less than theirs, degree-entangled and befeathered and
bespangled,
And befogged beyond perception of the true Masonic light.
Vain and thoughtless brethren these, valueless are mere
degrees;
'Tis the lessons they impart and their lodgment in the
heart,
Which, if rightly understood, prove the measure of their
good.
Though a thousand such there be, they can ne'er eclipse the
three;
And the faithful, zealous Mason, such as Jerry Jackson
Jason,
Stands supreme 'mid glare and glitter, peerless in his
apron white.
- Lawrence N. Greenleaf, P.G.M., Colorado.
----o----
Be cheerful always.
There is no path but will be easier traveled, no load but will be lighter, no
shadow on heart and brain but will lift sooner for a person of determined
cheerfulness. - Willitts.
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN No. 31
DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY
Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood
THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE
MEETINGS AND STUDY CLUBS
FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE
THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of
Masonic information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph
is explained how the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's
Encyclopedia may be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each
installment of the Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.
MAIN OUTLINE:
The Course is divided into five principal divisions which
are in turn subdivided, as is shown below:
Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.
A. The Work of the Lodge.
B. The Lodge and the Candidate.
C. First Steps.
D. Second Steps.
E. Third Steps.
Division II. Symbolical Masonry.
A. Clothing.
B. Working Tools.
C. Furniture.
D. Architecture.
E. Geometry.
F. Signs.
G. Words.
H. Grips.
Division III. Philosophical Masonry.
A. Foundations.
B. Virtues.
C. Ethics.
D. Religious Aspect.
E. The Quest.
F. Mysticism.
G. The Secret Doctrine.
Division IV. Legislative Masonry.
A. The Grand Lodge.
1. Ancient Constitutions.
2. Codes of Law.
3. Grand Lodge Practices.
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges.
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.
B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization.
2. Qualifications of Candidates.
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising.
4. Visitation.
5. Change of Membership.
Division V. Historical Masonry.
A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.
B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making.
C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.
D. National Masonry.
E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study.
F. Feminine Masonry.
G. Masonic Alphabets.
H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.
I. Biographical Masonry.
J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.
THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS
Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother
Haywood, who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps" of
Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under this particular
subdivision. On page two, preceding each installment, will be given a list of
questions to be used by the chairman of the Committee during the study period
which will bring out every point touched upon in the paper.
Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence
Circle Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing upon the
particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his monthly paper. These
articles should be used as supplemental papers in addition to those prepared by
the members from the monthly list of references. Much valuable material that
would otherwise possibly never come to the attention of many of our members will
thus be presented.
The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the
Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than their
appearance. If this is done the Committee will have opportunity to arrange their
programs several weeks in advance of the meetings and the brethren who are
members of the National Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter
into the discussions after they have read over and studied the installment in
THE BUILDER.
REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS
Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly
papers in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of references
to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These references are pertinent to the
paper and will either enlarge upon many of the points touched upon or bring out
new points for reading and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee
to different brethren who may compile papers of their own from the material thus
to be found, or in many instances the articles themselves or extracts therefrom
may be read directly from the originals. The latter method may be followed when
the members may not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original
may be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.
HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS
The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably
of three "live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month, either
at a special meeting of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular
meeting at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be
transacted--all possible time to be given to the study period.
After the lodge has been opened and all routine business
disposed of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the
Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the
subject for the evening. All members to whom references for supplemental papers
have been assigned should be prepared with their papers and should also have a
comprehensive grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.
PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS
1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper
and the supplemental papers thereto.
(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members
of the lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or inquire
into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper similar to those used
in elections should be distributed among the members for this purpose at the
opening of the study period.)
2. Discussion of the above.
3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and
the supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and disposed of
in the same manner. 4. Question Box.
MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS
Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let
them understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and get
them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think of. Every one of
the papers read will suggest questions as to facts and meanings which may not
perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at the time these questions
are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference
material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory
answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when called upon, and
will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please remember, too,
that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and,
by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at
our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The foregoing information should enable local Committees to
conduct their lodge study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome all
inquiries and communications from interested brethren concerning any phase of
the plan that is not entirely clear to them, and the Services of our Study Club
Department are at the command of our members, lodge and study club committees at
all times.
QUESTIONS ON "THE TWO PILLARS"
I Where do you keep the pillars in your lodge room during
the time they are not in actual use? Has such position any particular
significance? In some jurisdictions we find them at either side of the entrance
from the preparation room; in others they stand in front of the Senior Warden's
station. Can you give a reason for either or both of these locations other than
"for convenienced? How did the pillars impress you when you first saw them ?
What do they mean to you now?
II Why did early peoples set up pillars before their places
of abode, about their villages and over the graves of their dead? What did they
believe such pillars to symbolize?
What did pillars portray to the Mayas and Incas? How were
they looked upon in bible times? By whom were monoliths most widely used? In
what manner, and for what purposes? In the course of religious development what
did they come to symbolize? What did the obelisk symbolize?
III Whence did the custom of placing pillars before temple
entrances proceed from Egypt? What did Hiram probably use as his models for the
pillars placed before Solomon's Temple?
What do the pillars used in the lodge room represent ? What
is the height of the pillars as given in the Book of Kings ? In the Book of
Chronicles? What is Brother Haywood's theory concerning these variations ? How
does Mackey describe the original pillars?
What was the shape and composition of the pillars ? What
was their combined weight? What were they respectively called and what were
their positions? How are these names interpreted Masonically ? What part did
they occupy during celebrations? Where were the pillars supposedly cast?
What should be the height of the pillars used in our lodge
rooms? What are the heights as adopted by American Grand Lodges? What was the
height of the pillars as now accepted by present-day authorities ? Is it
imperative that we know the actual height of the pillars to pursue our Masonic
studies? In what light should we consider them ?
What did the pillars symbolize to Preston ? To Caldecott?
To Covey- Crump ? To Mackey ? To the old Jewish Rabbis ? What is brother
Haywood's interpretation?
IV What two theories have been offered by Masonic Scholars
concerning the origin of the globes? How was the first theory suggested? What is
the symbol of the winged globe? What did its oval shape suggest or symbolize? Do
you accept this Egyptian theory? If so. why? If not, why not?
V Why does it appear that Preston modified the chapiters of
the pillars into globes? How is Preston's theory verified? Do you agree with
Brother Haywood that we of today have the same right to interpret the symbols in
our own way as did the ancients? If not, why not?
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
Mackey's Encyclopedia:
Globe, p. 298; Pillar, p. 565; Pillars of Cloud and Fire,
p. 566; Pillars of the Porch, p. 566.
THE BUILDER:
Vol. I. Globes on the Pillars, p. 10; Pillars, Height of,
pp. 192, 310.
Vol. II. Pillars, The Two, pp. 176, 222.
Vol. III. Pillars of the Porch, pp. 177, 200, 236.
Vol. IV.-Jachin and Boaz, pp. 21, 264; The Globes, p. 265;
The Lily-Work, p. 265; The Net-Work, p. 265; The Pomegranate, p. 266.
Vol. V. The Origin of the Pillars to King Solomon's Temple,
(this issue) C. C. B. p. 8; The Position of the Pillars, (this issue) C. C. B.
p. 6; The Two Pillars Standing in the Porch of the Temple, (this issue) C. C. B.
p. 5.
SECOND STEPS
PART VI THE TWO PILLARS
OF ALL objects which greet the eyes of the candidate as he
stands before the stairs leading to the Middle Chamber none are so conspicuous
as the two great pillars nor are any more deserving of careful study. They stand
there before him as if to guard the sanctum from the profane world while they
invite him into newer mysteries; so noble in proportion are they, so intricate
in design, so beautiful to see, they keep solemn watch above the scene and throw
a hush of awe about the soul that would mount to the Upper Room of the spirit.
What they mean, it is difficult, although not entirely impossible, to say. If
our Masonic students and savants have surrounded them with a host of theories
more intricate than the network and more multitudinous than the pomegranates it
is because so many hints of ancient wisdom and symbolism have been carved into
their capitals, their chapiters, and their bases. Our own study may lead to
apparently contradictory results; this need not disturb us; no symbol can walk
on all fours; a symbol which says hut one thing is hardly a symbol at all.
II It was the custom of many of the early peoples, as
Frazer describes so abundantly in his "Golden Bough," (six volumes on primitive
religion, etc.) to set up stone pillars before their huts, about their villages,
and over the graves of their dead. In some cases these stones were believed to
be gods or demons, or the abodes of gods or demons; in others they were believed
to be the homes of the ghosts of departed human beings; in many cases they were
looked upon as symbols of sex. Of the last named usage one competent historian
speaks as follows: "Pillars of stone, when associated with worship, have been
from time immemorial regarded as the symbols of the active and passive, the
generating and fecundating principles." In India at the present time one may see
almost anywhere the sacred "lingam," a stone pillar, emblem of the organs of
sex, and consequently the symbol of life forever renewing itself. Also, pillars
have often been used as emblems of stability; Dr. Newton, in his "The Builders,"
speaks as follows:
"In India, and among the Mayas and Incas there were three
great pillars at the portals of the earthey and skyey temple, Wisdom, Strength,
and Beauty. When man set up a pillar, he became a fellow worker with Him whom
the old sages of China used to call 'the first Builder.' Also, pillars were set
up to mark the holy places of vision and divine deliverance, as when Jacob
erected a pillar at Bethel, Joshua at Gilgal, and Samuel at Mizpeh and Shen.
Always they were symbols of stability, of what the Egyptians described as 'the
place of establishing forever' emblem of the faith 'that the pillars of the
earth are the lord's and He hath set the world upon them."'
"In all countries," remarks another writer, "as the
earliest of man's works we recognize the sublime, mysteriously-speaking, ever-
recurring monolith." By no peoples were these monoliths (the word literally
means "one stone") so venerated, or so widely used, as among the Egyptians:
originally, it is thought, they were used as astronomical instruments to mark
the time and to denote the stages of the movements of the heavenly bodies; also
they were employed to orient temples, that is, as markers through which the ray
of a star might pass at a given time. Connected with places of worship they were
at last connected with the gods and became in after time symbols of deity, as we
may learn from Professor Breasted's "History of the Development of Religion and
Thought in Ancient Egypt," in which interesting and helpful book he tells us
that the obelisk, as the solitary pillar came to be called, stood pre- eminently
for the great Sun God.
III From Egypt, scholars believe, the custom of placing
pillars at the entrance to a temple passed to Phoenicia: be that as it may we
know that a king of Tyre erected two great columns before his magnificent temple
at Melkarth, where Herodotus saw them five centuries afterwards. It was these,
perhaps, which served Hiram as models for the more famous pillars which he
erected before the Temple of Solomon.
It is these last named pillars, of course, of which copies
stand in our Masonic lodge room. Two descriptions of the originals are given in
the Old Testament, -one in the Book of Kings, another in the Book of Chronicles.
In the former record the height is given as 18 cubits, or (if a cubit is
believed to have equalled 18 inches) 27 feet; in Chronicles, the height is given
as 35 cubits, or 52 1/2 feet. This variation has occasioned much controversy but
it is thought that the Book of Kings gives the height of but one pillar while
Chronicles combines the two, making allowance for the sockets of the chapiters,
or head pieces. These last items are the conspicuous features of the pillars and
first challenge attention: Mackey has given a good description of the originals,
as good as our scant knowledge makes possible:
"Above the pillar, and covering its upper part to the depth
of nine inches, was an oval body or chapiter seven feet and a half in height.
Springing out from the pillar, at the junction of the chapiter with it, was a
row of lotus petals, which, first spreading around the chapiter, afterwards
gently curved downward towards the pillar, something like the Acanthus leaves on
the capital of a Corinthian column. About two-fifths of the distance from the
bottom of the chapiter, or just below its most bulging part, a tissue of network
was carved, which extended over its whole upper surface. To the bottom of this
network was suspended a series of fringes, and on these again were carved two
rows of pomegranates, one hundred being in each row."
The pillars were cylindrical in shape and were cast of
brass; their combined weight is estimated to have been no less than fifty-three
tons. one of them was called Boaz, the other Jachin: the former stood in the
northeast corner of the porch, the latter in the southeast. To one who stood
inside the temple looking out. Jachin stood at the right, Boaz at the left. What
these names signified nobody knows, but some think the High Priest was wont to
stand at one, the King at the other, on such occasions as when all the people
held high celebrations at the Temple. According to tradition the pillars were
cast in foundries situated between Succoth and Zeredatha, about thirty-five
miles northeast of Jerusalem; jewelers of the holy city still use clay brought
from that region.
The symbolical pillars employed in our lodges should be of
a size that best comports with their surroundings albeit there is a certain
fitness in making them of one height throughout. Some believe that a cubit was
only four inches in length; acting on this theory some American Grand Lodges
claim the pillars to have been just six feet in height; one that they were 30
cubits, and twenty- five insist that they were thirty five cubits. The best
authorities are now very sure that a cubit equalled eighteen inches according to
our measurements; inasmuch as the Temple itself was only ninety feet long and
thirty feet wide, thirty-five cubits would have been altogether out of
proportion! But such discrepancies as these need not trouble us for to us the
pillars are symbols only and quite as worthy of study when six feet high as when
thirty.
What do these pillars symbolize ? To Preston they stood for
the pillar of cloud and of fire which guided the Israelites through the day and
the night; to Caldecott they meant the principles of authority in religion and
in politics whereby all social organization is guided: to Covey-Crump they have
become the pictures of Space and Time, those two mighty monoliths through which
the mind passes into all truth; and Albert Mackey, our own encyclopedist, makes
them to stand for strength and stability. With these meanings we have no quarrel
but there is, we believe, a far truer interpretation, one that goes right back
to the Jewish Rabbis themselves who should have known the meaning of the symbols
if they ever had any meaning. One of them wrote of them as follows:
"The names of the pillars signified potency and perpetuity;
the pomegranates on their capitals or chapiters were symbols of generation."
This, I myself believe, is the true interpretation. The
pillars stand at the entrance to the Middle Chamber even as birth is the
entrance to life. To pass between them into the lodge room means that a man is
being born into the world of Masonry; to pass between them and on up the Winding
Stairs means that a man is being born into one of the higher and more spiritual
realms of the life Masonic, a thing high and noble for him that has a mind to
think.
Many of our ills come from a bad heredity; a man who
poisons his blood makes war on the unborn; he is anti-Masonic, whatever be the
watch-charm on his breast; he has placed rotten pillars before the house of
life, and causes his children to pass through them, as heathen Israelites made
their babes to pass through the fire to Moloch. What is true of birth into life
is true also of birth into any of the realms of man's life. If the pillars at
the entrance to the home be strong and straight the child will live a clean,
happy life; if wise men guard the doorway of the school our children can pass
into the Middle Chamber of a real education, untainted by superstition,
unpoisoned by bigotry. He who would become a wise master of life must learn the
secret of the beginnings; a little deflection at the start means a long way off
the path later on; he who begins aright and who perseveres until the end will
himself become strong, a pillar strengthened and strengthening, against which
kings and priests may lean, and past which others may safely go, seeking life.
woe be it to humanity if ever it neglects to give, in any of its spheres, right
birth to its children, its seekers, its learners !
IV On top of each of the two pillars thus described stand
two globes, one the celestial, representing the heavens; the other the
terrestrial, representing the earth. Whence came these, and what do they signify
?
In answer to the first of these questions our scholars have
offered two hypotheses first, that they are of Egyptian origin; second, that
they are a modified form of the chapiters or headpieces of the pillars. The
first of these theories was evidently suggested by the ancient Egyptian symbol
of the winged globe, often found on the entablature above a temple, surrounded
by a snake holding its tail in its mouth, and flanked by two wide outstretched
wings. So common was this device that it became at last one of the national
emblems, so that Isaiah speaks of Egypt as "the land of the winged globe." This
globe was in all probability oval in shape, to suggest the egg, symbol of life;
the serpent was the symbol of Infinity, the wings of power; combined, the figure
stood for the infinite life- giving power of Deity. If it be supposed that the
globe was a true circle then it may have represented the Sun, the first great
God of Egypt, but the meaning remains practically the same.
If our two globes could be made to serve as a modern form
of the Egyptian winged globe they might be enriched in meaning and interest, but
there is no evidence whatever that the older symbol ever transmigrated into
Masonry. The probability is all against it, for we have two globes instead of
one, and we do not have the serpent or the wings; besides, as actually
exhibited, our globes manifestly refer to the earth and the heavens as modernly
understood.
V The chapiters on the two pillars were spherical in shape
and always so represented. It would evidently seem, therefore, that the men who
framed our ritual, among whom Preston was chief, simply modified the chapiters
into globes. By why did they do this ? Because Preston and his school undertook
to transform the lodge into a school, and consequently required symbols for
geography and astronomy, two very important branches of the curriculum they
outlined. This theory is verified, it seems to me, by reference to the
Prestonian lectures, in which we find the following paragraphs, as slightly
modified by Webb:
"The sphere, with the parts of the earth delineated on its
surface, is called the terrestrial globe; and that with the constellations and
other heavenly bodies, the celestial globe."
"The principal use of the globes, besides serving as maps
to distinguish the outward parts of the earth and the situation of the fixed
stars, is to illustrate and explain the phenomena arising from the annual
revolution and the diurnal rotation of, the earth around its own axis. They are
the noblest instruments for improving the mind (this was Preston's motive -
H.L.H.) and giving it the most distinct idea of any problem or proposition, as
well as enabling it to solve the same."
Certain of our writers have ridiculed all this, arguing
that it is trite and schoolboyish and that the placing of two such globes on top
of two ancient pillars is a glaring anachronism. Granting as much, however, it
may be that Preston builded better than he knew, for the two globes do symbolize
a truth profound and fruitful of application; and if it be objected that this
symbolism is modem, we may reply, What of it ? Surely we moderns have as much
right to fashion symbolism as the ancients!
The monitors explain the globes as indicating the
universality of Masonry, a subject to which we have already adverted; and, as
inculcating reverence. This last is really a noble insight and not so banal as
it sounds, because it is the central idea in no less a work of genius than the
Book of Job, in which, as you will recall, the suffering patriarch learned to
trust and revere the Creator by a contemplation of the power and majesty of the
Creation. Beyond these monitorial interpretations my own mind discovers in the
two globes a symbol of the truth that we humans are citizens of two worlds, the
earthly and the heavenly, the temporal and the eternal, the material and the
physical. If it be charged that this is merely a private interpretation I am
willing to let the charge stand; for why were we released from the cabletow if
it were not to encourage us to follow our own Light?
THE TWO PILLARS STANDING IN THE PORCH OF THE TEMPLE
Next, in view, come the two famous Pillars which stood in
the Porch of the Temple; and were for Matter, Brass; for Form, Cylinders; for
Height, 18 Cubits a piece; for Compass, twelve Cubits; for Diameter, about four
Cubits, which is conceived to be the meaning of that expression, That they were
four Cubits in the Porch, that is, the Chapiters were four Cubits Diameter, and
so the Brass Cylinder under them, taking up so much ground-room in the Porch.
But some there be, who would have the meaning to be this, that the Lilly-Work,
which hung over the Pillars, was four Cubits deep round about the Chapiters.
Indeed, the Chapiters seem to be of an Oval Form; for, their Diameter, in their
middle, was four Cubits, and their Height five, if we compare the I King, 7:16
with the 19 ver. For having declared the measures of the Pillars, ver. 15, he
proceeds to describe the Measures and Ornaments of the Chapiters, and tells us,
v. 16, that the height of each was five Cubits; and then mentioning some of
their Ornaments, goes on to tell us, that the top of the Pillars (where they
were placed) was of Lilly-Work, and that the Chapiters thus situated on the top
of the Pillars, which had a compass of Lilly-work at their upper edge, were four
Cubits, that is, in their middle Dimetient Line, and so were about twelve Cubits
round, like unto the Pillar beneath. So that we may read and point the 19th
verse thus (And the Chapiters which were on the head of the Pillars of
Lilly-Work, were in the Porch four Cubits), that is, did comprehend in the Line
measuring their Belly, as much as would take up four Cubits on the Floor of the
Porch. So that Opus Lilii, is by apposition to be construed with Caput
Columnarum; and the two other words (Four Cubits in the Porch) are to delineate
the quantity of these Chapiters that stood on the Lilly-wrought head of the
Pillars. The Accounts for this Construction may be two-fold.
First, because this Verse aims not at the mention of the
Lilly-work on the Pillars: for if it did, then were it superfluous to mention it
again, as a particular work by itself, v. 22. Wherefore it seems, that this
verse aims rather at the Description of the Chapiters set upon that Lilly-work,
which are the principal things, and so more nicely described, the Lilly-work
being but an Ornament. But,
Secondly, if the hole of the Chapiter resting on the Pillar
with this Lilly-work sustaining it, were as large as the Pillar it self, as is
affirmed by some, to let in the top of the Pillar; and that this Lilly-work on
the top of the Pillar, in a circling Border, stood out four Cubits in the Porch,
at the bottom of the Chapiter, fastened to the top of the Pillar: then will
there arise twelve Cubits Diameter, that is, four of the Pillar, and four on
each side of this Lilly-work and so the pillars will be shut out of the Porch,
which was but ten Cubits abroad, I King, 6:3.
On the top of the Pillars then were two Chapiters, of five
Cubits higher then the Pillars with Nets of Checker-work; and each Pillar had
seven Wreaths of Chain-work, with two Rows of Pomegranates; in each Row, one
hundred; but ninety six only could be seen by those that stood upon the Pavement
of the Porch. So that there were on both Chapiters four hundred goodly
Pomegranates in all which were put upon Chains in two Rows. Both Pillars joined
together in their measure, were but thirty five Cubits high, that is twice
eighteen, bating one Cubit, because each Chapiter did sink half a Cubit within
the Socket of the Cylinder for their fastening. So that each Pillar, with its
Chapiter, was twenty two Cubits, and, 1/2 high. The Pillars seventeen, and 1/2,
and the Chapiter five: Whereas 'tis said each Chapiter was but three Cubits
high, it's to be understood of the stately embroidery, and Ornaments of
Net-work, Chains, and Pomegranates, which were at the beginning of the third
Cubit. Thus being fitted and prepared, they were placed within the Porch; the
Pillar on the right side that is, the South was called Jachin, (being the future
Hiphil from stabilize). He shall establish: noting the fixediness of this pillar
upon its Foundation, and that on the left hand, or on the North side, was called
Boaz, denoting the strength and firmitude of that stately piece of Brass. These
famous Pillars, though never so strong, were broken in pieces, and conveyed to
the City of Babylon; but Saints, that are Spiritual Pillars in the House of God,
shall go no more out of that Heavenly Temple.
From Lee's "Orbis Miraeulum," 1669.
I need do nothing contrary to my mind and divinity, since
no one can force me to act thus, or force me to act against my own judgment.
Marcus Aurelius.
THE POSITION OF THE PILLARS
BY BRO. JOHN T. THORP, P.M. QUATUOR CORONATI LODGE, ENGLAND
The author of this interesting paper is one of the veteran
Masonic scholars of England to whom THE BUILDER has been often indebted; he is
almost the last of the band of giants who composed the Quatuor Coronati group of
savants. Accepting the Old Testament record as he finds it, he has endeavored to
ascertain therefrom the position of the two great pillars with what results the
following essay will show- we hope that Brother Thorp will be yet spared to the
Craft for many years. Editor.
IN endeavouring to fix the respective positions of the two
brazen pillars at the Porchway-entrance of King Solomon's Temple, I must first
give a brief historical account, as well as describe the form and situation,
both of the original Tabernacle and also of the Temple itself, as a proper
understanding of these will materially assist in estimating the evidence that I
have to bring forward.
The Tabernacle was erected in the wilderness by Moses,
Aholiab and Bezaleel, by the special command of the G. A. O. T. U., according to
instructions given by Him to Moses on Mount Sinai the form, situation,
ornaments, and furniture being minutely given, and as minutely and faithfully
carried out by His faithful servants, as we find recorded in the Book of Exodus,
chapters 25, 26, 27. The word "Tabernacle" means 'tent of meeting," the place
where the Holy One meets with the congregation, and Whey with Him, and it was
the centre and seat of the Hebrew Theocracy. The theocracy was a kingdom, of
which God was King, and the Tabernacle was His palace or abode; the kingdom was
visible, so was the palace, so was at least the Presence of the King; there the
people had audience of the Monarch, and thence He issued commands in a way
cognizable by the senses for their guidance.
It will be best to proceed with the account of the
Tabernacle, (1) beginning from the outside and going inwards, as one would
naturally do who inspected it for the first time. The first object that would
present itself is the Court; this, although an important part of the whole
edifice, was, strictly speaking, no part of the Tabernacle, being merely a large
enclosure in the shape of a parallelogram, with the narrow ends situated east
and west; the only entrance to this Court was in the east. As confirmation of
this, take the following passage from Exodus, chapter 38:
"And he made the court: on the south side southward the
hangings of the court were . . . an hundred cubits their pillars twenty; and for
the north side an hundred cubits, their pillars twenty. And for the west side
fifty cubits, their pillars ten. And for the east side eastward fifty cubits;
the hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, their pillars
three; and for the other side of the court gate fifteen cubits, their pillars
three; and for the gate of the court twenty cubits, their pillars four."
Going into the outer court by the entrance at the east, and
proceeding westward, we come first to the Altar of Burnt Offering; passing this,
to the Laver, at which the priests washed their hands before entering the
Tabernacle, then immediately we reach the entrance of the Tabernacle itself.
The Tabernacle, like the outer Court, was of rectangular
form, having its entrance in the east, and at a point two-thirds of its length
from the entrance, was divided into two portions by a hanging vail; the larger
portion was called the Holy Place, the smaller portion, or westmost part, was
called the Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies. The Holy Place contained the
Altar of Incense, symbol of prayer and thanks, opposite the entrance, together
with the Table of Shewbread, symbol of holy deeds and works of faith, on the
north side; and the Golden Candlestick, symbol of heavenly light, on the south
side. The Holy of Holies contained only one object, viz.: a small gilt
rectangular chest, with a lid of solid gold, and on each end, attached to the
lid, a small winged human figure of solid gold. The chest was called the Ark of
the Covenant, and within it were deposited the two tables of the Law; the golden
lid was called the Mercy Seat, and the two figures Cherubim, and from between
them, on the Mercy Seat, the G.A.O.T.U. spoke to the High Priest. The whole of
the people were admitted into the Court, but Priests only into the Tabernacle,
whilst into the Sanctum Sanctorum the High Priest alone entered once a year,
after many washings and purifications, to make atonement for the sins of the
people.
The Tabernacle was completed and erected on the first day
of the first month of the second year of the Exodus, and it was carried about by
the Israelites during all their wanderings in the wilderness. After their
entrance into Canaan, it was first set up in Gilgal, afterwards at Shiloh, still
later at Gibeon and Jerusalem, and for a period of 447 years it was esteemed the
centre of the religious life and worship of the people; and it was not until the
Temple was erected by King Solomon that it ceased to be such, and until, as we
read in II. Chronicles, chap. 5, "that Solomon brought up the Ark and all the
holy vessels from the Tabernacle on Zion Hill, and placed them in the Temple
that he had made."
The incongruity of a settled people having only a tent for
the celebration of their splendid ritual service, first occurred to the mind of
David. It appeared unseemly to him that the Ark of God should still dwell
"between curtains," while he abode in a "house of cedar." He therefore proposed
to build a Temple, in which the worship of God might be more becomingly
conducted. The prophet Nathan was, however, commissioned to inform him that
having been engaged in constant warfare, and shed much human blood, he could not
be allowed to execute the design he had formed, which was to be reserved for the
peaceful reign of his son Solomon. This undertaking was, however, the principal
subject of David's thought and care during the remainder of his reign, and to it
he appropriated a large proportion of the immense treasure which his many
victories produced. He may be said to have provided all, or nearly all, the
materials before his death, secured the services of skilful mechanics and
artificers for every branch of the work, and furnished the design, plan, and
site of the building, so that more of the credit of this work seems due to David
than to Solomon.
The foundation of the Temple was laid B. C. 1012, being the
fourth year of Solomon's reign, and in seven years and a half it was completed,
during which time no less than 183,000 persons were employed in the work.
The Temple, (2) in its general idea, did not materially
differ from the Tabernacle; it was situated also due east and west, but had
three entrances, viz.: at the north, south, and east (referred to in the Masonic
Traditional History). The general form of the Tabernacle was retained in the
Temple, and like the Tabernacle, the Temple looked towards the east, having the
Most Holy Place at the extreme west. The principal entrance was at the east,
where there was a porch, adorned by two large brazen pillars. We have in the
volume of the S. L. two accounts of these pillars; one will ho found in I.
Kings. chap. 7. and is as follows:
"And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. . . .
And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work. For he east two pillars
of brass of eighteen cubits high apiece. (3) . . . And he made two chapiters of
molten brass to set upon the top of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter
was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits: and nets
of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon
the top of the pillars. . . And he set up the pillars in the porch of the
Temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and
he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. . . And he made a
Molten Sea. . . And he made ten bases of brass Then made he ten lavers of brass,
. . . and upon every one of the ten bases (placed he) one laver. And he put five
bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house;
and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the
south.
Again, in II. Chronicles, chapter 4:
"Also he made a Molten Sea of ten cubits. . . He made also
ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in
them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them;
but the sea was for the priests to wash in. And he made ten candlesticks of
gold, according to their form, and set them in the Temple, five on the right
hand, and five on the left. He also made ten tables, and placed them in the
Temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left. . . And he set the sea on
the right side of the east end, over against the south."
When finished, the Temple was dedicated with great
solemnity by King Solomon; but its day of glory was not of long continuance. The
revolt of the ten tribes in the next reign withdrew from it a large proportion
of the worshippers, and scarcely forty years had Passed when the Egyptian
Shishak spoiled it of many of its treasures. Successive plunderings followed
rapidly, till, by reason of the great wickedness of the people, the Holy City
and Temple were laid in ruins by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, after the
sacred building had stood about 416 years.
The second Temple was built by Zerubbabel, after the return
of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity; this Temple was as near as possible
a counterpart of the first, although greatly inferior to it in beauty and
splendour, and was completed about B. C. 516.
This Temple stood for about five hundred years, when Herod
the Great sought to rival, if not to exceed, the greatness of Solomon, by the
erection of the third Temple. He took the old one down piecemeal, and put up the
other in its place, so as to preserve the continuity of the edifice; and it was
said to be, except in respect of its magnificence and splendour, an exact copy
of the original Temple built by Solomon. Indeed the porchway entrance was still
called "Solomon's Porch," and is thus spoken of in the New Testaments
About this time there lived and flourished the great Jewish
historian, Flavius Josephus, a man of noble family, being descended on his
mother's side from the Asmonean princes, and on his father's side from the
highest of the priestly families, himself being also a priest. this Josephus
wrote a history of the Jews, under the auspices off the Roman Emperors,
Vespasian and Titus, and in this history he gives a full description of
Solomon's Temple.
Josephus was well acquainted with Herod's Temple, which it
must be remembered was an exact copy of Solomon's; he was accustomed to
officiate therein, and was an eye-witness of its destruction by the Romans under
Titus, A. D. 70.
This history of Josephus was written in Greek, and the
following description of the pillars is from a translation made by William
Whiston, professor in the University of Cambridge. It is as follows:
"Moreover, this Hiram made two pillars, whose outsides were
of brass, . . . there was cast with each of their chapiters lily-work, that
stood upon the pillars, and it was elevated five cubits, round about which there
was net-work interwoven with small palms, made of brass, and covered the
lily-work. To this also were hung two hundred pomegranates, in two rows. The one
of these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch, on the right hand, and
called it Jachin; and the other on the left hand, and called it Boaz. . . . He
also made ten large round brass vessels, which were the Savers, . . . and he set
five of the lavers on the left side of the temple, which was on that side
towards the north wind, and as many on the right side, towards the south."
And then he adds the following explanation:
"By the right hand is meant what is against our left, when
we suppose ourselves going up from the east gates of the courts, towards the
Tabernacle: whence it follows that the pillar Jachin, on the right hand of the
Temple, was on the south, against our left hand; and Boaz on the north, against
our right hand."
Here, then, we have the evidence of a man, who was
personally acquainted with Herod's Temple, which was a copy of Solomon's, and
who was familiar with the opinions of men of his time, as to the various parts
of the sacred edifice. His veracity and trustworthiness as a historian are
seldom questioned, and his statements therefore we may safely accept as facts.
I think that the three extracts I have given two from the
Vol. of the S. L. and one from the historian Josephus, settle the respective
positions of the two pillars, Boaz and Jachin.
(1) See cut "Plan A." (2) See cut "Plan B." (3) In II.
Chronicles, chap. 3, the height of the pillars is given as 35 cubits, which
included the pedestals on which the pillars stood, and also the chapiters. (4)
John x., 23; Acts iii., 11: Acts v., 12.
----o----
THE ORIGIN OF THE PILLARS TO KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
One thing is perfectly clear about the design of the
Temple, and that is that the plan of it was not an original one, for it was
designed to be only a copy on a larger scale of the Tabernacle. This want of
originality in design was also reflected in its ornamentation, for the King of
Tyre being appealed to for assistance, which was evidently lacking in Jerusalem
at the time, at.- artificer was sent from Tyre itself to supply those ideas
which were needed at the headquarters of the building. One can imagine Hiram the
Architect gazing at the plans which merely attempted to translate into the more
lasting form of stone the temporary woodwork of the Tabernacle, and wondering in
what way it could be improved. His thoughts would naturally turn to the Temple
which stood in Tyre itself, and which is thus described by Herodotus, the Greek
Historian (B. ii., c. 44), "And being desirous of obtaining certain information
from whatever source I could, I sailed to Tyre in Phoenicia, having heard that
there was there a Temple dedicated to Hercules; and I saw it richly adorned with
a great variety of offerings, and in it were two pillars, one of fine gold, the
other of emerald stone, both shining exceedingly at night." ache Temple was
probably open to the air, and the historian is picturing the magnificent view of
the pillars as they appeared by bright moonlight.
Hiram, when summoned to Jerusalem, might naturally have
bethought himself of these magnificent pillars of the Tyrian temple, and
designed two others of different shape and different materials, but yet intended
by him to be as noteworthy as those of his native city.
It will probably be remarked that Herodotus viewed the
Temple at Tyre in 443 B. C., or about 550 years after the temple at Jerusalem
had been built, but on this question he expressly tells us that the priests at
Tyre assured him that their temple had stood for 2,300 years, and consequently
it must have been in existence prior to King Solomon's time.
Whether the two pillars in King Hiram's temple had any
special religious significance, or were merely architectural necessities,
remains to be seen, but it is worthy of attention that amongst the Egyptians,
who were the earliest builders of the world, and from whom other peoples, and
probably also the Tyrians, derived their ideas, pillars were held in great
honour, and that the Egyptian great god Osiris was known as the "Lord of the
Pillars." One of the familiar scenes in Egyptian sculptures was the great
festival of "setting up the pillars," in which the Kings took a prominent part.
F. Armitage, A. Q. C., Vol. 1.
----o----
A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do
uninterrupted prosperity and Success qualify for usefulness and happiness. The
storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties, and excite
the invention, prudence, skill, and fortitude of the voyager. The martyrs of
ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a
loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and
security. Anon.
----o----
KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE AND A LEAGUE OF NATIONS
BY BRO. CHARLES B. SINDENT, BERMUDA
WITHOUT a League of Nations there would have been no King
Solomon's Temple. This is no idle Masonic boast, nor is it founded on tradition,
but a fact of history attested to by Holy Writ and the Jewish historian
Josephus. There can be no doubt of the former and the latter has long been
accepted as reliable. About the year 1050 B. C. we hear for the first time in
Phoenician history of a king on the throne of Tyre, Abibalus or Abi-Baal by
name, and he began to reign about the same time that David was acclaimed king by
the tribe of Judah at Hebron in Palestine. While David was still in the prime of
his career Abibalus was succeeded by his son Hiram, a prince of great energy and
keen statesmanship. In viewing the political conditions of his day he seems to
have realized that his neighbor was one worthy of friendship and one with whom
political and commercial relations would be beneficial. Acting on this judgment
we find him sending messengers to David at Jerusalem with a present of "timber
of cedar, with masons and carpenters to build him an house." 1 Chron. 14:1.
Later when David was assembling materials for the Temple "the Zidonians and they
of Tyre" i.e. subjects of Hiram "brought much cedar wood to David." 1 Chron.
22:14. This friendship continued until the close of David's reign "for Hiram was
ever a lover of David," 1 Kings 5:1. Immediately Hiram heard that Solomon had
succeeded to his father's throne, he sent an embassy to present his
congratulations, and this gave the opportunity sought by the new king to enter
into negotiations for the materials needed to realize the purpose of his father
David and erect the Temple to Jehovah. Correspondence ensued between these two
monarchs which resulted in the formation of a League or Covenant of Nations on
terms of very great intimacy. The letters which passed between the two rulers
were preserved in their respective capitals, and the Tyrian versions are said to
have been still extant in the public record office of the city in the first
century of the Christian era. Josephus Ant. Jud. VIII, 2, 6. "And they two made
a League" (1 Kings 5:12) is the terse summing up of the sacred writer but like
so many other brief passages, much is contained therein no less than an early
"League of Nations" which made possible peace and harmony between two great
nations and left to the world a glorious witness to this Covenant in that
magnificent structure on Mount Moriah.
The terms of the League are familiar to all Masons. The
wheat, barley, oil and wine so abundant in Palestine was given in exchange for
the timber of Lebanon and the labor of artificers, workers in metal, carpenters
and masons. The casting of the pillars known as "Jachin and Boaz" in the mud of
the valley of the Jordan, the "molten sea" standing on twelve oxen, and "the
lavers standing on wheels" are among the outstanding works of the Tyrian workmen
led by that other Hiram whom the king sent because of his skill. At the close of
the Temple building the following still closer "entente cordiale" was arranged.
The Tyrians possessed abundant ships and their sailors "had full knowledge of
the sea" and held practically the whole of the trade in the Mediterranean Sea.
King Solomon on his side controlled the Red Sea and the land routes leading to
it, and had access to the lucrative traffic with Arabia and possibly India. A
close commercial union was thus beneficial to both nations and was duly
arranged. Hiram admitted Solomon to a participation in his western traffic and
the two kings maintained a joint "navy of Tarshish" which "once in three years
came bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks." 1 Kings 10:22. In
return Solomon opened to Hiram the route to the East by way of the Red Sea, "and
King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the
shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his
servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with servants of Solomon. And
they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty
talents, and brought it to King Solomon." 1 Kings 9 :26. This League of Nations
continued happily during the life-time of the two kings and until the
disruptions which followed the death of Solomon and the domestic troubles of
Tyre caused it to pass into insignificance. After several generations a
descendant of Hiram, Ithobal by name, made an alliance with Israel by giving in
marriage his daughter Jezebel to King Ahab. But that is another story.
These historical facts prove that only by the union of
these two powers in a League or Covenant could the materials or workmen have
been gathered together for the construction of the temple. King Solomon had the
wealth and ambition and much labor but Hiram possessed the skilled workmen and
the metals, and only by harmonious agreement could these necessary men and
materials have been gathered together and the work completed. This League of
Nations, while not the first recorded in history, is worthy of note as so much
of it centres around the Temple. All Leagues and Covenants of necessity, if they
are to be abiding, must centre around the Temple. Not necessarily that Temple of
Solomon or any other king or nation but rather that spiritual Temple, "that
house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens."
The Temple held, and though for many years hidden, "that
which was lost" is the true secret of national harmony and individual greatness.
All true and worthy Masons believe this, and are seeking the establishment of
right principles in the world, all of which have their origin in Him to whom the
Temple was erected and in whom all these reconstructive principles can alone be
realized. A "League of Masons" is appearing and must undoubtedly come into
being. The spirit of the age and the trend of world affairs demand it. And what
shall be its contribution to the world narrow, exclusive, secret benefit only?
Far be such a purpose from Masonry! Our order exists for the betterment of
mankind and its tenets so beautifully taught in symbolism are those very
principles which will make possible an abiding League of Nations not only for
the abolition of war, but for the reconstructing of Society on an equitable
basis of justice and true brotherhood. Freedom of religious opinion and
political thought are the very essence of the right of self determination so
much talked of today between nations, and Masons well know what place these
principles hold among our Fraternity. Masonry has a glorious part to contribute
in this reconstruction period, and as her sons fought for Freedom and Truth in
the more strenuous days of war may her sons be equally aggressive, but in a more
peaceful manner, for the rebuilding of our social scheme and of putting a new
soul into this old world. Masonry holds to those principles of right represented
to the world by the Presence in the Temple, and as it was true that without a
League of Nations there could have been no Temple, so it is equally true that
without the Temple and its principles and Presence, there can be no League of
Nations.
----o----
THE OBELISK
The Pharaoh himself might reasonably expect that his
imposing tomb would long survive the destruction of the less enduring structures
in which his nobles were laid, and that his endowments, too, might be made to
outlast those of his less powerful contemporaries. The pyramid as a stable form
in architecture has impressed itself upon all time. Beneath this vast mountain
of stone, as a result of its mere mass and indestructibility alone, the Pharaoh
looked forward to the permanent survival of his body, and of the personality
with which it was so indissolubly involved. Moreover, the origin of the
monument, hitherto overlooked, made it a symbol of the highest sacredness,
rising above the mortal remains of the king, to greet the Sun, whose offspring
the Pharaoh was.
The pyramid form may be explained by an examination of the
familiar obelisk form. The obelisk, as is commonly known, is a symbol sacred to
the Sun-god. So far as I am aware, however, little significance has heretofore
been attached to the fact that the especially sacred portion of the obelisk is
the pyramidal apex with which it is surmounted. An obelisk is simply a pyramid
upon a lofty base which has indeed become the shaft. In the Old Kingdom
Sun-temples at Abusir, this is quite clear, the diameter of the shaft being at
the bottom quite one-third of its height. Thus the shaft appears as a high base,
upon which the surmounting pyramid is supported. This pyramidal top is the
essential part of the monument and the significant symbol which it bore. The
Egyptians caned it a benben (or benbenet), which we translate "pyramidion," and
the shaft or high base would be without significance without it. Thus, when
Sesostris 1 proclaims to posterity the survival of his name in his Heliopolis
monuments, he says:
"My beauty shall be remembered in his house, My name is the
pyramidion and my name is the lake."
His meaning is that his name shall survive on his great
obelisks, and in the sacred lake which he excavated. The king significantly
designates the obelisk, however, by the name of its pyramidal summit. Now the
long recognized fact that the obelisk is sacred to the sun, carries with it the
demonstration that it is the pyramid surmounting the obelisk which is sacred to
the Sun-god. Furthermore, the Sanctuary at Heliopolis was early designated the "Benbenhouse,"
that is the "pyramidion house." The symbol, then, by which the sanctuary of the
Suntemple at Heliopolis was designated was a pyramid. Moreover, there was in
this same Sun-temple a pyramidal object called a "ben," presumably of stone
standing in the "Phoenix-louse '; and upon this pyramidal object the Sun-god in
the form of a Phoenix had in the beginning first appeared. This object was
already sacred as far back as the middle of the third millennium B. C., and will
doubtless have been vastly older. We may conjecture that it was one of those
sacred stones, which gained their sanctity in times far back of all recollection
or tradition, like the Ka'aba at Mecca. In hieroglyphic the Phoenix is
represented as sitting upon this object, the form of which was a universally
sacred symbol of the Sun-god. Hence it is that in the Pyramid Texts the king's
pyramid tomb is placed under the protection of the Sun-god in two very clear
chapters, the second of which opens with a reference to the fact that the
Sun-god when he created the other gods was sitting aloft on the ben as a
Phoenix, and hence it is that the king's pyramid is placed under his protection.
From Breasted's "Development of Religion and Thought in
Ancient Egypt."
----o----
INTROSPECTION
BY BRO. GERALD NANCARROW, INDIANA
I dreamt that I went to the Temple
And came to the Tyler's door,
I was clothed and waiting to enter
And sit with my brothers once more,
When there came to my mind a summons
From a questioner in my soul:
"Let us pause outside for a reason
While the craft responds to the roll."
So I sat there with him who summoned
And he asked me to answer him
And say if full service I'd rendered,
Or whether my zeal had grown dim.
Can you, O my brother, and truly,
Say now that you've wrought as you could
On the block the Master has given?
Will He say your work has been good?
"Have you kept your tools in your bosom
All polished and sharpened and bright,
Or used them in Brotherhood's service,
So they must be whetted tonight ?
"The tools that the Master has given
Were placed in your hands to be used;
The talents He gave to His servant
To grow in the hearts He has fused."
And I to the questioner answered:
"O thou who my secrets can read
But let me go back to my hewing
To serve Him in truth and in deed.
"I will fill my years with His service,
I will use my tools ev'ry day,
Then be ready to serve on the morrow
By edging them all as I pray."
----o----
It is better to
admonish than to reproach; for the one is mild and friendly, the other harsh and
offensive; the one corrects the faulty, the other only convicts them. -
Epictetus.
----o----
Success is growing to
our full spiritual stature, under God's sky. - Thomas Carlyle.
----o----
EDITORIAL
AMERICA NEEDS US NOW
THE critical times
through which we are passing - the aftermath of war - is of immeasurable import
to every Mason in these United States. No one dare minimize the danger of what
we might term national disintegration that is confronting us. The hydra-headed
monster of discontentment looms up everywhere. Strikes, riots and revolutions
face us in small or great degree in every corner of the land. Social equilibrium
and sanity are wanting almost everywhere. Cupidity, fear and hatred are
enthroned after the dark night of sorrow for the whole world.
War, we were told, was
made to prevent war. And yet there are wars today that threaten the bulwarks of
civilization as persistently as they were threatened prior to the great
cataclysm. Idealism abroad has clad itself in the habiliments of terror and its
promises have left its votaries stranded on the sands of impotence. Class
consciousness, as a guide to those who strive for more humane conditions for
labor and life, has intoxicated its millions the wide world over with the wine
of selfishness that urges them to an inconsiderate action that cannot but breed
misery and sorrow for all should it be carried out. Indeed if there is to be a
continuation of this orgy of discontent it is a grave question whether some of
us will not live to see the ushering in of a new barbarism or worse savagery.
Dark forebodings
these. But who of thought upon the seriousness of national affairs is not
violently disturbed, when he reasons upon these questions. Yet from those who
think must we look for the expression of hope. The student of history may well
assure us that God is not dead and that ultimately all will be well. A power not
ourselves - but always using the human channel - has ever hitherto prevailed for
righteousness. Let us, then, as Masons who pride ourselves upon having in our
midst those who have learned to control their passions, reveal our sanity.
From every walk in
life we have men who have been admitted, passed and made masters of life by the
sublimity of Masonic teaching. Let us in these trying moments recall those
things that are large with importance for every Mason who loves his country.
Likewise let us not forget the noble part that Masonry, through her wisest and
best sons, has played in the past in the molding of the character of this
nation. While some of us are grappling with the realization for the world of a
league of nations let us not overlook our urgent need of realizing in our own
midst a league of Americans. May we not, indeed, declare that we are engaged in
this great land in the task of working out and demonstrating as practicable that
which many are asking for as a government for the whole world?
We Americans are
engaged in the greatest experiment that any people have engaged in since the
world began - demonstrating the validity of democratic institutions for the
service, comfort and uplift of man. We know no aristocracy save that which is a
landmark of our Institution - the aristocracy of character. From all lands did
our forefathers and many among us today come. From heath the heel of a Lord who
lived on a hill they came, each with a hope and a promise that within these
borders each should find a hill for himself. Antecedents were lost sight of in
the face of the opportunity for independence that brightened the horizon.
Americanism, a thing ever of the spirit, was born with the vision of new
possibilities, and no danger was tap great to be faced, no sacrifice too
exacting for the realization of a land where neither faiths nor castles were to
deny the honest effort for the attainment of the things worth living for.
The evil days that are
threatening, clouding our sky, engendered largely by a sort of national
paranoia, greed for wealth, have obscured the significance of the divine mission
of the people of these United States. We have loosely aped the habits and
customs and civilization of others instead of diligently working out the ideal
of an enlightened democracy that is commensurate of our abilities. We have
imported art and science, literature and religious faddism, and finally
Bolshevism. The house again is divided and cannot stand unless there is a
determined concentration of effort for the realization of a league of Americans.
We extracted sacrifice
from every citizen during the great struggle as the foundation of success for
the common cause. Now we must impose upon ourselves in this, the most trying
moment of our national history, that which we deemed to be right and just when
we contested for right on the field of battle.
Masons of high ideals
were the guarantors of this Republic at its inception, and today from every
lodge large and small must go Masons consecrated to keep this nation off the
rocks of disaster. Corporations and trades-unions have Masons among them. Their
Masonry can only be interpreted today in terms of patriotism. Wise restraint
must be exercised everywhere. Passion must give way to reasoning, hate to
dispassionate inquiry. The heart of the American people is sound, and woe betide
Masonry if its two millions, representing probably ten millions of souls, are
not revealing the Americanism of Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt.
As at the birth of
this nation Masons left lodge rooms imbued with the holiest purpose hitherto
known to men, so these days out of
our lodges must we go, missionaries
of true freedom, worthy of our traditions and of those of our sires who
kept faith with God and man, and by their labors and sorrows gave us this goodly
land of freemen. Away with class hatred and Bolshevism, away with our cupidity
and incompetent administrators and makers of law whether of high or low station!
On with a new America that will be a reflection of the dream of its founders and
a type of the City of God! Robert Tipton.
* * *
AMERICAN UNITY
Nations have been
disrupted by differences in languages. Differences in languages have caused more
wars than differences in religion; more unhappiness than all other causes
combined.
For the sake of the
Republic, we should plead for American Unity. Unity cannot obtain or be
preserved with foreign colonies fenced in and neighborhoods closed to callers
and with preaching and teaching in foreign languages.
Brethren, I would
break up all cliques in our Government. It is a big undertaking to govern this
people. Even now the forces of dissension and anarchy are beating upon our
shores and it will take the steadfast patriotism of all our people to drive them
back and to assure the life and perpetuity of this nation.
Here and at this time,
we should all possess the American spirit. Indulge in American Music; American
Art; American Literature; American Customs; American Ideals; American Education
and above all, we ought not to flatter everything which is brought here from
other countries, and whether that be humans or merchandise does not matter.
America cannot attain its highest standing among nations, half foreign and half
American.
All newspapers printed
in this country should be in English. All public speeches on national questions
should be on English. All telephonic and telegraphic communications in this
country should be in English.
Yes, every man should
be required to transact his business at the bank, the counting-house, at the
grocer, the tailor and all public places in the English language, not by reason
of spite or to annoy or harass but to adopt simply a wise precaution.
An alien language
gives the alien viewpoint and if this country is to endure, we must have nothing
but the American viewpoint.
If we all set to and
earnestly and faithfully follow these things, ere long we shall be cemented into
one complete and undivided people possessing one country, one flag, one
language, one contentment, one God.
William S. Farmers Grand Master, New York.
----o----
MASONRY IN DARK COUNTRIES
The brethren of San
Francisco have recently had brought home to them certain startling facts which
strongly illustrate the character of the opposition Masonry has to meet in some
countries where it is striving to raise the torch of enlightenment, in
propagating intelligent thought and liberty of action.
When a few months ago,
the Grand Master of Philippine
Masonry and a number of his brethren
passed through San Francisco on their way to Washington to appeal for the
absolute independence of the Philippine Islands, they stopped long enough in
this city by the Golden Gate to give an insight to our brethren of the obstacles
set in their path before American occupation. Under Spanish regime, to be a
Mason meant to be a traitor to his country; to be the possessor of a lambskin
apron, deemed in all ages an emblem of innocence, meant persecution and in the
words of one of our distant brethren, punishment perhaps worse than death -
deportation to far-off portions of the islands where radically different
climatic conditions were sure to undermine health and where barbarism was given
full sway.
Torn from those
nearest and dearest to him, such was his punishment for daring to aspire to see
the light; - to perform the duties he owed to God, his country, his neighbor and
himself, in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience!
To be caught at a
meeting clandestinely held, meant term of imprisonment, physical or mental
torture, in endeavors to extort from him, by force or otherwise, the manner of
teaching the most excellent tenets of Freemasonry - brotherly love, relief and
truth!
American occupation
changed all that, just as it changed the standard of living of nearly all the
inhabitants of the more than six hundred Philippine Islands. Instead of physical
and Financial exploitation and compulsion in religious belief, the pioneer of
"Farthest America" extending into thy wilderness was the bamboo school house!
Here was the original center of civilization, at first looked upon with extreme
suspicion, but when discovered to be harmless and helpful, flocked to by the
population, young and old.
By progressive
education and enlightenment, the Filipino mind was gradually brought to a sense
of responsibility which, in generations to come
will enable him to enjoy freedom of
thought and liberty of action, individually and collectively, in like proportion
as the white race in highly civilized countries has stricken off its fetters and
developed its spirit upward and onward.
But many countries of
the white race are still in the dark; teeming millions yet await the first
slender beam of light penetrating to them, to give them hope! These millions are
yet ill-prepared to assume control of their national burdens; relieved of the
iron shackles of autocracy, they yet are willing prey to the mental bondage of
religious hierarchy. There is yet hope for these peoples, but before they can be
accepted into a family of free nations, they must be first duly and truly
prepared. In this the task of Masonry is yet before it. Will she be equal to the
task?
That Masonry will be
equal to this task must never for a moment be held in doubt, for far greater
have been the emergencies through which her course from her dim, distant origin
has passed. But she must work conscientiously, breaking down barrier after
barrier of ignorance and persecution, until the true light reaches to the
uttermost limits of the most distant countries. Her path will not be easy, for
her most virulent opponents work under cover in the dark and never sleep;
therefore opposition from unexpected sources must be met at times both opportune
and inopportune. There must be rehabilitation, first of all of Masonry itself in
the war-stricken countries. Assured of its own sound future, it will help to
promulgate peace and purity of principles to what were recently enemy countries,
but from west to east the travels must continue, this time not to seek, but to
spread further light in Masonry!
Thus legitimate
propaganda will become effective in countries experiencing their first flight on
the wings of freedom and a new generation, like the Filipino during the recent
past, will bear aloft the same glorious golden tiara which has made our own
country the foremost leader of nationals and the unchallenged protector of
mankind. - The Junior Warden.
----o----
A fool with a good
memory is full of ideas and facts, but he can't draw sound conclusions from
them; everything turns upon that. - Vauvenargues.
----o----
THE LIBRARY
EDITED BY BRO. ROBERT TIPTON
The object of this
Department is to acquaint our readers with time-tried Masonic books not always
familiar; with the best Masonic literature now being published; and with such
non-Masonic books as may especially appeal to Masons. The Library Editor will be
very glad to render any possible assistance to studious individuals or to study
clubs and lodges, either through this Department or by personal correspondence;
if you wish to learn something concerning any book,what is its nature, what is
its value, or how it may be obtained - be free to ask him. If you have read a
book which you think is worth a review write us about it; if you desire to
purchase a book - any book - we will help you get it, with no charge for the
service. Make this YOUR Department of Literary Consultation.
AS THE winter
approaches studious Masons turn their thoughts to the great indoors. The nook
with a book, the fireside and lamp, the long hours of evening afford moments for
the courtship of the wisest and best that ever have walked the earth among men.
Wisdom, studiousness, thoughtfulness should be the virtues gracing the life of
the Mason claimed by the mighty passion of building the spiritual Temple, and he
should welcome the hour when the sanctum is open to his will and pleasure.
Were we to file an
indictment against the American Mason it would be that he had ceased to be a
thinker - a Masonic thinker. Verily we believe that even as we often discover
many ministers of religion are impoverished of books that would minister to
their power as leaders of men in religious activity, even so we believe that the
too frequent failure on the part of Masons to give intelligible interpretation
to Masonic thought, practice and idealism, is due to the lack of such valuable
information as is to be obtained through the channels of literature.
You will observe that
we say "literature," without any particular specification as to what kind of
literature. Let us accept as axiomatic that all literature that is constructive
in character building is of fundamental import. A serious mistake has been made,
we believe, in assigning to but certain classes of books the title "Masonic." We
often say at the making of a Mason whose character is such as to commend him to
our fellowship, that "he was already a Mason" and all that was needed was the
initiation into the fraternal ranks to complete his investiture. May we not say
the same things of the books which do not bear the legalized Masonic stamp, but
are ever constructively helpful in the building of the City of God?
The future policy of
this department will be the continuation of the purpose of bringing to the
notice of THE BUILDER readers those books that are constant in their telling of
things for the good of the Order. The searcher after truth can in no wise afford
to ignore the humble offering of the scholar to the enlightenment of the world,
and as those whose lives are consecrated by a solemn charge to the betterment of
the world it behoves us to consider deeply the theoretical contributions of
economists and sociologists whose work purports the amelioration of those evils
resultant from revolutionary world conditions. To be a scholar is imperatively
enjoined upon every Mason, and a scholar has said "The sage of concord is man
thinking.”
Life in order to be
progressive persists in demanding of us moments of retrospection. Such
retrospection ought to afford us the desirable view of our limitations and thus
consequently enable us to take the forward step that will warrant better things.
As Masons it is our purpose to view honestly what we believe to be our
limitations as evangels of a gospel for the common good. In older lands than
ours Masons are made, as a rule, when they are nearing the middle age period of
life. The time has then arrived apparently when they are capable of giving the
maturer consideration to the problems and subjects that are dear to the Masonic
heart. Let us abolish the tendency of regarding our lodge as a social center
established for club purposes. Let us insist that Masons young and old read
widely, think deeply, and act as Masons ever should. Even so it is the desire of
the editor of the Library department to lend such aid to the brethren through
the columns of THE BUILDER that will direct their attention to the consideration
of those books that are written with devout and earnest desire of ushering the
wider fellowship where the brotherhood of man will be realized.
* * *
"THE IFS OF HISTORY"
"The Ifs of History," by Joseph E. Chamberlain, published
by Henry Altemus Company, 1326 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
One thought-provoking
little volume on our desk is "The Ifs of History." To those interested in
whether this old world is advanced and governed by contingency, or by the
benevolent arbitrary ruling of Deity, the pages of this book will afford a great
deal of interest. The publishers announce its having had a great amount of
attention from many review editors. And we may well believe that it challenged
many astute thinkers who may have chanced to read it.
Among the many
questions asked are: What if Abraham Lincoln's father had gone South instead of
coming North? What if Washington had gone into the British Navy? What if Jackson
had not been helped by a pirate in the War of 1812? Enough is here suggested, we
believe, to indicate the character of this pertinent little book which embodies
a choice set of "Ifs" antedating Christ to the present moment.
* * *
"THE RIVAL PHILOSOPHIES OF JESUS AND PAUL"
"The Rival Philosophies of Jesus and Paul," by Ignatius
Singer. Open Court Publishing Company, 122 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill.
Of a different
character entirely from the foregoing is "The Rival Philosophies of Jesus and
Paul." The iconoclast is at work in this book. The scholar, however, is in
evidence throughout the volume, but we cannot but feel that his Pauline
criticisms tend to reveal the author out of his province. Orthodoxy is subjected
throughout to a caustic treatment. No doubt much of it is deserved, but the word
of the author will not yet suffice to demolish the Apostle Paul or his (Paul's)
conceptions of Christianity. While the author is eminently fair and certainly
enlightening in his gospel analysis and translations of sayings purported to
Jesus, one constantly feels that his pen has too much acidity in its temper
toward Paul.
A perusal of the book
will be well worth while, especially to those Masons interested in the
relationship of the Essenes to the Master. No finer picture, stripped of
theological millinery, has come from recent hands revealing that wondrous
humanity of Him who reveals the divine. While it will no doubt be a disturber of
the beliefs of many, yet we cannot but welcome its challenging observations.
* * *
RELIGION AND WAR
"The War and Preaching," by John Kelman, D. D., published
by The Yale University Press, 209 Elm Street, New Haven, Conn. Price $1.25 net.
"The Sword of the Spirit," by Joseph Fort Newton, published
at $1.25 net by Geo. H. Doran Co., 38 West 32nd St., New York.
We heartily commend
these two volumes to the readers of THE BUILDER. Both are pertinent and timely.
John Kelman served at the Front and his interpretation of the religion of the
soldier is remarkably worth while. Critics of the Church will find him a stout
defender, one conscious of her limitations but one, too, who speaks with
authority on her future purposes. Preacher Masons would do well to grace their
shelves with this little volume.
Our own beloved Newton
speaks in his usual admirable strain and the sermons of this volume of his go a
long way in confirming his ambassadorship from this land to the one across the
seas. True interpreter of the American spirit that he is, we feel through these
sermons that his labor of love will be abundantly blessed.
* * *
AN INTERESTING WORK ON SPIRITUALISM
"Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine," by J.
Arthur Hill, published by Geo. H. Doran Co., 38 West 32nd Street, New York, N.
Y. Price $2.00.
The War has without
question quickened our interest in the immortality of the soul. And from the
gleaning of this volume we doubt not but that many souls were comforted in their
bereavement through the channels of Spiritualism. The author of "Spiritualism:
Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine," is a remarkable Englishman, a member of
the Psychical Research Society of Great Britain and consequently has through
that institution been associated with some of the most prominent scientists of
our day who like himself are careful and studious investigators of
spiritualistic phenomena. The world, as this book amply reveals, can no longer
slight the convictions of men like Professor James of Harvard, Professor Hyslop
of Columbia and Sir Oliver Lodge of England, in this particular field Their
investigations are the work of men committee dispassionately to the weighing of
evidences in the research for truth.
The book is written in
a lucid style, free from any sort of dogmatic assertion, and probably presents
the question in as reasonable a light as any book on the subject. We confess to
having felt quite spooky as we read some parts of it.
* * *
THE EVOLUTION OF THE BIBLE
"How the Bible Grew," by Frank Grant Lewis. Published by
the University of Chicago Press, 58th St. and Ellis Ave., Chicago. Price $1.50.
Here we have a logical
account of the natural development of the Holy Book of our altar. It is
admirable from the point the Bible is revealed to be self interpretative in the
matter of its growth.
It is entirely free
from the academic strain that makes books of this character hard reading and
this little volume will lend invaluable assistance to the student of the Great
Light who desires to give an intelligible answer for the faith that is in him.
* * *
LETTERS FROM "A DEPARTED DEMOCRAT"
"Last Letters from a Living Dead Man," by Elsa Barker.
Published by Mitchell Kennerley, 15 East 40th St., New York, N. Y. $1.50.
A well written series
of letters, but try as we might we could not feel any pressure from beyond the
border in the perusal of the book. Once we were about persuaded that God must he
a Democrat judging from the warm praise that the departed California judge, the
sender of the messages, accords Mr. Wilson.
Throughout the volume,
however, there is a note of confident optimism for America and we would com mend
it for its sane patriotic utterances.
* * *
CAVE DWELLERS AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIPPERS
"Animism," by George William Gilmore. Published at $1.75 by
The Marshall Jones Co., 212 Summer St., Boston, Mass.
Those of the Craft who are interested in cave dwellers and
all sorts and conditions of primitive worshippers will find a fund of
interesting information in a hank entitled "Animism," by George William Gilmore.
The ample quotations and footnotes indicate
the breadth of the writer's researches.
We found the book of
gripping interest from beginning to end. The lucid fashion in which the author
reveals the growing consciousness of man and his tendency to project his own
experience into things inanimate which he comes to regard as gods to be appeased
or praised is alone commendation sufficient for the book. Those of
anthropological or ethnilogical bent will find it a very handy book for their
study.
----o----
BOOKS RECEIVED
Anatole France, by
Lewis Paget Shanks. The Open Court Publishing Co., 122 South Michigan Avenue,
Chicago. $1.50.
Education in Ancient
Israel, by Fletcher Harper Swift. The Open Court Publishing Co., 122 South
Michigan Ave., Chicago.
Religion of Old Glory,
Guthrie. Geo. H. Doran Co., 38 West 32nd Street, New York. $2.50.
Starvation (Alley)
Treatment of Diabetes, Hill Eckman. W. M. Leonard, 101 Tremont St., Boston.
The Evidences of
Freemasonry from Ancient Hebrew Records, by Bro. Rabbi J. H. M. Chumaceiro.
Bloch Pub. Co., 40 East 14th St., New York. 25 cents.
The Jews and Masonry
in the United States before 1810, by Samuel Oppenheim. Bloch Pub. Co., 40 East
14th St., New York. 25 cents.
Masonic Responses for
the Blue Lodge. A splendid compilation of chants and odes. Hinds Hayden,
Eldridge, New York.
Pacific History
Stories, Wagner Pub. Co., 239 Geary St., San Francisco, Calif.
----o----
OCTOBER BOOK LIST
1915 bound volume of THE BUILDER $ 3.00
1916 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.00
1917 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.00
1918 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.50
Mackey's Encyclopaedia, 1918 edition, two volumes, black
Fabrikoid binding 15.00
The Builders, a story and study of Masonry, by Brother
Joseph Fort Newton. 1.50
Philosophy of Masonry, by Bro. Roscoe Pound, Dean of the
Harvard Law School 1.25
Symbolism of Freemasonry, Mackey 3.15
True Principles of Freemasonry, Grant 2.00
Speculative Masonry, MacBride 2.00
Early History and Antiquities of Masonry, Fort
7.50
Concise History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould, English
Edition 4.50
1722 Constitutions (reproduced by photographic plates from
an original copy in the archives of the
Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids.) Edition limited to 1,000
copies 2.00
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," by P.G.M. Barry,
Iowa, red buffing binding, gilt lettering,
illustrated 1.25
"The Story of Old
Glory, The Oldest Flag," paper covers .50
Further Notes on the Comacine Masters, Ravenscroft,
illustrated .50
Symbolism of the Three Degrees, Street,
(pamphlet) .35
Symbolism of the First Degree, Gage, (pamphlet)
.15
Symbolism of the Third Degree, Ball, (pamphlet)
.15
Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, Waite, (pamphlet)
.15
----o----
THE QUESTION BOX
THE BUILDER is an open
forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its contributors writes under
his own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. Believing that a unity of
spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research Society, as such,
does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over against another, but
offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, leaving each to
stand or fall by its own merits.
The Question Box and
Correspondence Column are open to all members of the Society at all times.
Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects are earnestly invited from our
members, particularly those connected with lodges or study clubs which are
following our "Bulletin Course of Masonic Study." When requested, questions will
be answered promptly by mail before publication in this department.
GENERAL PERSHING'S MASONIC STATUS
Is General Pershing a
Mason? - W.W.D., Virginia.
John Joseph Pershing
(now General) petitioned Lincoln Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M., Lincoln, Nebr., for
the degrees on Nov. 6th, 1888. He received the Entered Apprentice degree on Dec.
4th, 1888, was passed to the degree of a Fellow Craft on Dec. 11th, 1888, and
raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on Dec. 22nd, 1888. He remained a
member of Lincoln Lodge until March 16th, 1900, when he was suspended for
nonpayment of dues. On Dec. 4th of the same year (1900) he was reinstated and
granted a dimit at the same meeting. It is presumed that he took his dimit from
Lincoln Lodge for the purpose of affiliating with a lodge in the Philippines
where he was located after leaving Lincoln, but Brother Newton C. Comfort, Grand
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the Philippine Islands, advises us that Brother
Pershing did not affiliate with any lodge in the Philippines, although he was
active among the Masons of that country in the early days and was at one time
President of "Bamboo Oasis," a Shriner's association. During the larger part of
his stay in the Islands he was in portions where there were no lodges. In a
recent conversation with one of the members of the Masonic Overseas Mission in
France he stated that he still carried his dimit.
* * *
A HISTORY OF THE CRYPTIC DEGREES
Are the degrees of
Cryptic Masonry (the Royal, Select and Super Excellent Masters' degrees) of
Scottish Rite origin ? Where can a history of them be obtained?
B. H. J., California.
In 1914 a committee of
Maryland Companions, of which Companion Gustav A. Eitel was chairman, prepared a
report for their Grand Council setting forth the claims of both the Scottish
Rite and those dissenting from the Scottish Rite theory of the origin,
introduction and dissemination of the Cryptic degrees which we expect to publish
in an early forthcoming issue of THE BUILDER.
Brothar Wm. F. Kuhn,
of Missouri, has been assigned the task of preparing an up-to-date history of
these degrees for presentation to the General Grand Council at their coming
Triennial Assembly and has promised us a copy of his.findings as soon as they
are prepared. We are also hopeful of an article from Brother Warvelle, of
Illinois, in the near future giving us the results of his latest studies of the
subject.
* * *
GRAND LODGES IN CANADA AND DATES OF THEIR ORGANIZATION
How many Grand Lodges
are there in Canada, and when were they respectively organized? R.J.T., Texas.
Alberta, 1905; British
Columbia, 1871; Ontario (Grand Lodge of Canada, having jurisdiction only in
Ontario), 1855; Manitoba, 1875; New Brunswick, 1867; Nova Scotia, 1866; Prince
Edward Island, 1874; Quebec, 1869; Saskatchewan, 1906.
* * *
CLARENCE M. BOUTELLE, AUTHOR OF “THE MAN OF MOUNT MORIAH”
A desire to learn
something of the history of the author of “The Man of Mount Moriah” prompts me
to put this question up to you: “Does Clarence Miles Boutelle still live and can
his bsography be secured?” C.A., Indiana.
Brother Boutelle died
at Marshall, Minn., September 16, 1903. A sketch of his life will be found in
Volume I of THE BUILDER, page 94.
* * *
THE SUPER EXCELLENT MASTER’S DEGREE IN KENTUCKY
Do the Councils of
Cryptic Masonry of the State of Kentucky confer the Super Excellent Masters
degree following the conference of the Royal and Select Master’s degrees?
W.P.M., Texas.
Yes. It can be
conferred by any Council in the State of Kentucky. Many of the smaller Councils
do not work the degree on account of the difficulty in securing a proficient
working team, but the members generally obtain the degree from the larger
Councils. A degree team from one Council will go to another Council and confer
the degree upon a large class of candidates from the local and surrounding
Councils. The work is generally done by the Councils located in Lexington,
Louisville, Newport and Covington.
Owing to the
elaborateness of the degree the same custom is followed, we believe, in the
majority of other Jurisdictions.
* * *
MASONIC CLUBS IN THE A.E.F.
Can you publish a list
of the Masonic Clubs that have been organized in France since our boys went over
there, and where such Clubs are located? F.R.B., Illinois.
We do not have a
complete list of these organizations but give the following from a Directory
published by the Trowel and Triangle Club, Paris:
Aix (Savoie) Masonic
Club; President, Senator Benson of California.
Beaune (Cote-d’Or),
American Masonic Club of Beaune; meets Friday; Secretary, A. Paterson, Y.M.C.A.,
A.P.O. 909.
Bitburg (Germany)
Middle West Masonic Club of the Third Army; Secretary, C.C. Kensick.
Blois (Loir-et-Cher)
Masonic Club; President, Captain E. Q. Jackson, A.P.O. 726.
Bordeaux (Gironde)
Masonic Club; Vice-President, Captain James D. Hatch, A.P.O. 705a.
Brest (Finistere)
Acacia Club; First Battalion, 110th Engineers, A.P.O. 911.
Brest (Finistere)
Masonic Club; Secretary, Corporal Henning H. Wallman, Motor Transport Corps,
Service Park Units, A.P.O. 71R
Brion-Sur-Ource (Cote-d’Or)
Stonewall Masonic Club; meets Tuesdays and Thursdays; Secretary, Corporal Young,
A.P.O. 791.
Camp Coetquidan (Morbihan)
Knights of the Forest 102 Masonic Club; Secretary, Sergeant F. W. Foss, 102d
Field Artillery, A.P.O. 709.
Camp de Souge (Gironde)
Masonic Club; meets Wednesdays; President, Sergeant Boas, A.P.O. 705.
Camp de Valdahon (Doubs)
140 Field Artillery Masonic Club; Secretary, Clarence B. Jones.
Camp Villebernier
Masonic Club; Secretary, Sergeant James H. Hay, 6th Company, 14th Grand
Division, A.P.O. 718.
Chateauroux (Indre)
Masonic Club of Base Hospital 63; Secretary, Second Lieutenant Harold B. Pool,
Sanitary Corps A.P.O. 738.
Chatillon-Sur-Seine
(Seine) Social Ten Brothers; Secretary, R. S. Karesh, 20th Company, 4th Motor
Mechanical Regiment Air Service, A.P.O. 730.
Chaumont (Haute-Marne)
Good Fellowship Masonic Club; meets first and third Tuesdays; President, Captain
A. C. Howard Post Quartermaster, A.P.O. 706.
Clamecy (Nievre)
Masonic Society; Secretary, H. C. Bishop, Army Field Clerk, Infantry School,
A.P.O. 786.
Coblenz (Germany)
Third Army Masonic Club; President, Major W. S. Solomon; Secretary, Lieutenant
Aldrich, A.P.O. 927
Genicart (Gironde)
Fellowcraft Club of the 58th Artillery; Secretary, F. A. H. Kampfer, A.P.O.
705a.
Gievres (Loir-et-Cher)
Trowel Club; President, W. R. Bristow, A.P.O. 713.
Gondrecourt ( Meuse )
Masonic Club; Secretary, Ray M. Dille
Grenoble (lsere)
Acacia Club of the Union; A.P.O. 923
Heather Hill Masonic
Club; Secretary, Sergeant First Ciass A. G. Wyant, Company B. 13th Engineers,
A.P.O. 907.
Issoudun (Indre)
Masonic Club; President, Captain Clayton
Is-Sur-Tille (Cote-d’Or)
Washington-Lafayette Masonic Club; Secretary, Sergeant Leonard A. Wilcox, Supply
Company, Quartermaster Corps 307, A.P.O. 712.
Laigne-en-Belin (Sarthe)
Masonic Club; meets Wednesdays; President, F. W. Butler, 103d Infantry, 76th
Division.
Langres (Haute-Marne)
Masonic Club, A.P.O. 714.
Le Mans (Sarthe)
American Masonic Club, President, H.
B. Mook, Y.M.C.A. Headquarters.
Libourne (Gironde)
Craftsmen Club; A.P.O. 911.
Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhone)
American Expeditionary Forces Masonic Club; Secretary, Second Lieutenant F. D.
Redwine, A.P.O. 752.
Mars-Sur-Allier (Nievre)
Masonic Society; A.P.O. 780.
Mayen (Germany)
Masonic Club; Secretary, Private George P. Eberle, Headquarters Company, 30th
Infantry, A.P.O. 740.
Mehun Masonic Club;
Secretary, Private R. L. Marsh, Section 2, Ordnance Company, U. S. Troops, A.P.O.
741.
Mon Rivage Square and
Compass Club.
Montierchaume (Indre)
Fellowcraft Club; President, T. J. Phillips, A.P.O. 738.
Montpellier (Herault)
Peyru Masonic Club; meets first and third Mondays; A.P.O. 949.
Nantes (Loire-Inferieure)
Masonic Club; Evacuation Hospital 1; Secretary, Joseph E. Hickman.
Neuenahr (Germany)
Forty-Second Masonic Club (Rainbow Division) .
Nevers (Nievre)
American Masonic Club; Secretary, Captain Frank A. Starr, Engineers Corps, A.P.O.
708.
Nice (Alpes-Maritimes)
Riveria Masonic Club; President, James C. Gipe, Y.M.C.A.
Paris Masonic Club;
meets Mondays; Governor, Lt. Colonel Whitney; Recording Secretary, Merwin W.
Lay; Corresponding Secretary, Cass Connaway; Treasurer, M. E. Waite; 10 Avenue
Victor Emmanuel III, Paris.
Pontenex-les-Forges (Landes)
Masonic Club of 503d Engineers, Service Battalion; Secretary, Private L. W.
Bowes, Company B. Base Section 1.
Romorantin (Loir-et-Cher)
Square and Compass Masonic Club; President, Captain Holmes, Barracks 1006, A.P.O.
713a.
Saint-Aignan Masonic
Club of Camp Hospital 26; Secretary, Sergeant Bernard Ettinger, A.P.O. 727.
Saint-Florentin (fonne)
Masonic Club of 66th Engineers; Secretary, Sergeant G. A. Collister, Company 73,
66th Regiment Transportation Corps, A.P.O. 702.
Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Inferieure)
Masonic Club; Secretary, Hall G. Van Vlack, Base Section 1, A.P.O. 701.
Souilly (Meuse)
Masonic Club; Secretary, Wm. Clark Seab, 114th Field Signal Battalion, A.P.O.
771.
Souilly (Meuse)
Twenty-Third Engineers Masonic Club; Chairman, A. W. Provost, A.P.O. 701.
Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)
University of Toulouse Masonic Club; Secretary, Louis S. Berlin.
Tours (Indre-st-Loire)
Acacia Club; Colonel George M. Newell, Quartermaster Corps, A.P.O. 717.
Verneuil (Nievre)
Masonic Club; President, Captain Van Hise, 303d Motor Transfportation Corps,
A.P.O. 772.
Vicenza (Italy) Square
and Circle Masonic Club; Secretary, Derval Jones, Adv,anced Base.
Vichy (Allier) Masonic
Club; meets Sundays; Base Hospital Centpr
5
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE
AN AUSTRALIAN GRAND MASTER APPROVES THE EFFORTS OF THE
OVERSEAS MASONIC MISSION
I have read with
intense interest the compiled facts and narrative of the magnificent effort made
by the American Craft to be permitted to discharge its duty without any expense
to the American Nation, or to the Allies outside of the War Area in Europe, and
deeply deplore that any Government, on its own initiative or as the result of
influence, should have curbed in any way the natural benevolent and humane
desires of the most loyal non-sectarian, non-political and most beneficient
non-secret Society ever known to the world, and I think THE BUILDER has added
another service to the Craft in publishing the irrefutable facts.
I see in at least two
places in the correspondence that Masonry is stated as being a secret Society.
Surely this is a mistake. Our lodges do not meet in secret: it is well known
where they respectively meet, and though we have secrets not disclosed to the
outsider, we in no way, I think, come under the category of a secret Society.
Alexander Corrie, District Grand Master,
District Grand Lodge
of Freemasons of England,
Queensland.
* * *
EVERY MASON IN THE UNITED STATES SHOULD READ THE REPORT OF
THE MASONIC OVERSEAS MISSION
The article in the
August number of THE BUILDER which relates the progress of the Masonic Overseas
Mission is one which cannot fail to interest all members of the Craft.
Under existing
conditions, no single subject of greater importance could be discussed in your
columns than that of the part which the Masonic Order endeavored to play in the
Great War.
At first glance it
seems pitifully small for brethren bound together by a tie such as ours - for a
fraternity based on a foundation of the noblest principles. One can but feel
that there was dereliction of duty somewhere, that an apathetic mist enshrouded
those who should have been first to aid in dispelling the gloom of dark war
clouds.
Here was a call to
labor worth while, our brothers-in-arms were confident that it would not remain
unanswered.
How few Masons know of
the stumbling blocks set in the path, so adroitly placed as to be well-nigh
invisible, and of the untiring efforts of the Mission to remove them.
First approved, then
set aside, later an attempt to antagonize the authorities of Grand Lodge and
Supreme Council, the wearying delays - all should be published for the
information of those 200,000 Masons who went "over there" and the almost
2,000,000 brethren "over here" who were eager to aid and assist. Curtis G.
Culin Jr., New Jersey
* * *
THE QUEST FOR GOLD FOR SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.
Referring to the query
of M. I. M. in the August Question Box as to a book on the sources of the gold
used for Solomon’s Temple, I am thinking that he may have in mind "The Voyage of
Ithobal," by Sir Edwin Arnold.
This work is based on the statement of Herodotus that
Neco, Pharaoh of Egypt, when he had
finished his canal from
the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, called for a volunteer from among the great sea
captains of his time who would lead an expedition into the southern waters and
the great unknown. He was to return by the Pillars of Hercules and the Northern
Sea.
The quest was
undertaken by Ithobal, a Phoenician, who returned after three years with much
treasure and wondrous experiences, the most incredible being that he had found a
land where the sun was on the right hand as he had voyaged westward, and made
the first journey around the African continent.
I venture to suggest
this book, because Masonry plays queer tricks at times, especially in
associating ideas of similar type. Then, too, the Phoenicians were the greatest
seafaring nation of the age in which Solomon is supposed to have lived, yet in
much reading of the legends which preserve the tradition of an Atlantian
continent, I do not remember any traceable to the enterprise in trade and
discovery of that nation. And it seems probable that they would attempt such a
voyage, for Solon has reported the statement made to him by priests of Egypt of
the great land far to the west of the Pillars of Hercules, which had been
destroyed by the wrath of the gods, and from which their own land in its
earliest history appears to have been colonized. N.W.J. Haydon, Ontario.
* * *
AN ENGLISH MASONIC CUSTOM WORTHY OF EMULATlON
During six months'
service at the U. S. Naval Base, Plymouth, Devon, England, I had the great
pleasure of frequent visits to a number of the thirty-five lodges in that city
of 210,000 population. Many of the customs of our English brethren struck me as
worthy of emulation.
The Masonic charities
are largely supported by contributions of individual members and are not
dependent upon large bequests or gifts, or lodge fund contributions. The charity
funds of the lodges are largely kept up by the penny collections taken at each
meeting, including those of the School, and to which all contribute whether
members or visitors.
The Provincial Masonic
funds, such as the Devon Widows’ Fund, Devon Educational Fund, Fortescue Fund,
etc., are all
supported by the monies collected by the Charity Stewards of the lodges. For
example, the Steward will ask for and collect from each member at each
communication the contribution of, say, not less than a shilling. For each
guinea, i.e.,
twenty-one shillings, so raised there is a vote at the annual meeting of the
Fund as to the beneficiary, and often the members draw lots for the honor of
voting. The well-to-do members will contribute a guinea or so each year, and
thus be entitled to a vote. On special anniversaries, such as the lodge's 25th,
or the 10th of the Provincial Grand Master, the lodge will celebrate by
contributing a guinea to each of the
Provincial Charity Funds.
Then, too, each member
of a lodge, physically able, is expected to attend every communication, or send
an excuse by letter or by another member, so the attendance is very high. The
membership of Devon lodges runs from as few as thirty-five in country lodges to
one hundred and fifty in several Plymouth lodges, and a local lodge having
nearly two hundred members was forming a new lodge from its membership. Dual
membership is permitted and is not uncommon.
There is no uniform
ritual prescribed by the Grand Lodge of England. The subordinate lodges install
always in the same month as their first installation, so that there are
installations every month of the year.
In Devon the Tyler
examines visitors and prepares the candidates.
As I was leaving
Plymouth aboard the U.S.S. Zeppelin on April 7th, my Christmas box arrived, and
I had just enough time to open it and send ashore in the mail, addressed to The
Devon and Cornwall Freemasons' Club, Princess Square, Plymouth, a souvenir album
of our Philadelphia Temple, some picture postals and booklets of the Masonic
Homes at Elizabethtown, Penna. On my return this trip to the U. S. A. I found a
letter of thanks from the Secretary of the Club, from which I take the following
extracts, which may be of interest to you:
"You certainly have a
magnificent structure, worthy of the best traditions of Masonry, atnd which
every Freemason must be proud to own. The brethren of every nationality must
share equally with yourselves the beautiful surroundings in which Freemasonry is
practiced, as we are taught the first place we are made a Mason is in "our
heart," consequently we are a universal brotherhood and should share in the joys
and sorrows of each and every Mason.
"Nothing has given the
brethren in the whole of England greater pleasure than that of entertaining and
holding out the hand of good fellowship to our American confreres during the
time you have been sojourning among us, and I am sure the hospitality of the
lodges in the western part of England has not only been a duty, but we have
profited by meeting such splendid specimens of the New World Freemasons.
"There is one great
thing which this World War has been instrumental in bringing about, and that is
the application of Freemasonry universal, as we have had members besides
yourselves from nearly every nation in the world, and we have been mutually
delighted at meeting each other. I am becoming more and more convinced that the
precepts of our Order, if carried out in their entirety, would bring about the
consummation of our highest hopes, that of a true and lasting Peace agreeable to
all."
Apropos to the article
in THE BUILDER last September, on the arrangement of the lesser lights, in Devon
they are placed on the pedestals of the officers, and the Secretary and
Treasurer use a long joint desk situated in the north near the east.
I have noticed in
several autobiographies of Englishmen that they do not neglect to state that
they were Masons, and in one autobiography nearly half a chapter is given to
accounts of various Masonic functions which they attended. On the other hand
Americans seem to avoid mention of their Masonic connections in their
biographies. A. H. Vail, Pennsylvania.
* * *
BLUE LODGE MEMBERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES
There has been so much
uncertainty in the minds of many of the members of the Fraternity as to the
actual number of members in the United States that I have taken the matter up
with the Grand Secretaries of the Grand Lodges in an endeavor to compile a
correct statistical table, and the following is the result:
|
State |
Members |
|
Alabama |
32,538 |
|
Arizona |
3,366 |
|
Arkansas |
24,000 |
|
California |
68,095 |
|
Colorado |
20,239 |
|
Connecticut |
29,417 |
|
Delaware |
4,169 |
|
District of Columbia |
11,857 |
|
Florida |
14,749 |
|
Georgia |
49,190 |
|
Idaho |
5,681 |
|
Illinois |
176,286 |
|
Indiana |
90,000 |
|
Iowa |
62,472 |
|
Kansas |
48, 157 |
|
Kentucky |
49,071 |
|
Louisiana |
20,588 |
|
Maine |
33,386 |
|
Maryland |
20,638 |
|
Massachusetts |
78,282 |
|
Michigan |
96,403 |
|
Minnesota |
35,377 |
|
Mississippi |
21,000 |
|
Missouri |
74,201 |
|
Montana |
12,463 |
|
Nebraska |
28,136 |
|
Nevada |
2,079 |
|
New Hampshire |
11,520 |
|
New Jersey |
49,788 |
|
New Mexico |
4,338 |
|
New York |
220,777 |
|
N Carolina |
28,500 |
|
North Dakota |
11,612 |
|
Ohio |
122,343 |
|
Oklahoma |
29,520 |
|
Oregon |
16,607 |
|
Pennsylvania |
141,693 |
|
Rhode Island |
9,832 |
|
S Carolina |
19 636 |
|
South Dakota |
13,526 |
|
Tennessee |
31,434 |
|
Texas |
83,600 |
|
Utah |
2,727 |
|
Vermont |
15,246 |
|
Virginia |
28,467 |
|
Washington |
25,536 |
|
West Virginia |
21,650 |
|
Wisconsin |
36,386 |
|
Wyoming |
4,081 |
|
Total |
2,040,659 |
Frank B. Ladd, California.
* * *
THE SECRETS OF MASONRY
To my mind the matter
of the secrets of Masonry presents a great field for the imagination of
different temperaments to draw upon. Perhaps no two get the same spiritual and
moral results out of the Order. What these two differentations may be
constitutes the margin of secrets as between them and whatever they both fail to
draw from its almost immeasurable supply comprises the margin of what is on
beyond them, but for them, the secrets of Masonry to them till their vision is
so addressed.
There is much in the
Masonic inner soul that is quite undefinable. It has its secret impressions upon
the mind according to the receptiveness of the receiver.
Few men, perhaps,
attain to the vision of what Masonry, by its Builders, was intended to
comprehend. It is in this field, this unlimited, this "unexplored remainder,"
wherein to most of us may be said to exist the real and the countless imagined
secrets of Masonry.
It might be said in a
broader way that the secrets of Masonry are those things that the initiate has
to learn and may learn in becoming a member of the Craft. This is what, more
than all else, comprises Masonry's pull upon the imagination of those seeking
its degrees and, in its way which is undefinable, holds its influence upon the
greater public.
It is truly of no use
to spin theories as to what the secrets of Masonry really are. Beyond the
practicability of the system few have any concern. But he who may set to his
vision the glass that may have been ground by some Masonic wizard may find that
there is much beyond the common view, and this margin may constitute what may be
as countless as the stars, the secrets of Masonry to most of the rest of us who
are merely mortal men.
L. B. Mitchell, Michigan.
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