THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
december 1920
volume 6 - number 12
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO
WERE MASONS
GENERAL MORDECAI GIST
BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
MORDECAI GIST was born
in Baltimore on the twenty-second of February, 1742, the anniversary of the
birthday of Washington. His ancestors were wealthy and distinguished people
whose names are often found in the annals of the French and Indian wars.
Mordecai Gist was
educated for an Episcopal clergyman, but on the outbreak of the War of the
Revolution he joined the first company recruited in Maryland, and became its
Captain.
In 1776 he was
promoted to Major of a Maryland Battalion which was prominent in the battle of
Long Island. He saw considerable service in the North, and was promoted to
Brigadier General and commanded the Second Brigade of Maryland soldiers. In 1779
he was transferred to the South, and at the Battle of Camden, S.C., where De
Kalb lost his life in 1780, he was conspicuous for valor and for splendid
generalship.
He was then assigned
to recruiting and securing supplies and clothing for the Army, and was eminently
successful in that trying time. This duty completed, he returned to the field
and took part in the expulsion of the enemy from the Southern States, and was
present at the siege and capture of Yorktown. He was, at that time, at the head
of a Light Corps and rendered eminently effective service at that critical
period of the war. He was accorded the credit of saving the day by a gallant
charge in the Battle of Combahee.
When the war had
ended, General Gist purchased a plantation near Charleston, S.C., where he lived
during the remainder of his life. He was buried in the Church Yard of Old Saint
Michaels Church (Episcopal), and the memorial shown in the frontispiece was
placed over his grave by the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
General Gist was the
first Vice President of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati, which was
instituted by General Knox at the close of the war. His Masonic record is given
in the Annual Report of the Grand Lodge of Maryland for 1911. It reads:
“On the twenty-seventh
of April, 1780, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania granted a charter for Army Lodge
No. 27 to the Masons of the Maryland Line in the Revolution. Its officers were
General Mordecai Gist, Worshipful Master; Colonel Otho Holland Williams, Senior
Warden, and Major Archibald Anderson, Junior Warden. ., . .”
The writer would like
to invite attention to the neglect of our distinguished dead, and to the fact
that the young, and still small Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
is doing the work of erecting memorials which we Masons should have done long
ago.
SYNOPSIS OF THE FINAL REPORT OF THE MASONIC OVERSEAS
MISSION
BY BRO. TOWNSEND SCUDDER, P.G.M., NEW YORK
To the Masonic Grand
Jurisdietions of the United States participating in the efforts to secure
governmental permission for the Masonic Overseas Mission to engage in War Relief
service overseas:
THE MISSION which you
dispatched in January, 1919, to Freemasons in the United States Forces Overseas
begs leave to submit the following report:
A report in writing of
the negotiations of the Mission with the United States Government for passports,
bearing date December 31, 1918, has heretofore been made. Thereafter, an
opportunity having been presented for affiliation with the A.E.F.Y.M.C.A. as a
Masonic Unit, and, having been accepted, pursuant, in part to the suggestion of
the President and of Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick that we ally ourselves “with a
recognized relief agency,” arrangements were perfected, so far as they could be,
and passports applied for through the Y.M.C.A. Further difficulty in obtaining
passports was then experienced, which was solved, however, by a visit to
Washington, and passports were actually issued and delivered to us on the 21st
day of January, 1919. We immediately sought transportation by the first
available steamer. The long delay goaded us to get to our destination at the
earliest possible moment, and learning that the “Aquitania” of the Cunard Line
was to sail from Halifax February 1, still a troopship in the service of the
British Admiralty but carrying passengers on that voyage, we succeeded in
securing passage on that steamer and left New York January 30 for Halifax by
rail. Each member of the Mission carried hand luggage and in addition each had a
small service trunk; we took along, also, a large trunk containing stationery,
typewriter and supplies. On arriving in Boston one of the party accompanied the
trunks crosstown in an express wagon to safeguard their arrival at the North
Station, and saw them aboard the seven o'clock train for Halifax on the Boston &
Maine Railroad. This being accomplished we were reasonably confident that our
luggage would be duly delivered at our destination because transported on the
same train with ourselves, but on arriving at Halifax after midnight February 1,
we were dismayed to find that but two of the six trunks were on the train, the
others, including the large trunk referred to, having been lost somehow en
route. The steamer was due to sail 9 A. M., and the next train to arrive from
St. John which could bring the trunks was scheduled to arrive at the same hour.
The agent of the line, to whom we appealed, was most sympathetic and promised to
do all that he could for us but feared the worst since the ship, being still a
troopship, was under the control of the Government, and he doubted that her
sailing could be delayed.
Pending the results of
his efforts we had determined that two of the Mission whose trunks had not
arrived should remain ashore and, in the event of their failure to arrive in
time to sail, that they should return to New York, and thence sail on the next
available steamer.
However, by great good
fortune and the kind offices of the agent, Mr. Barrow, the steamer's sailing was
delayed an hour and a half. Three of us went aboard, leaving the other two
ashore, and well within the time appointed they joined us on board with all our
property, and thus we sailed, according to plan, with Mission and impedimenta
intact.
The ship was dingy and
rusty, with partitions removed and furnishings very scanty; she had not been
overhauled for months. All the ports were blackened to prevent lights being seen
without. The passenger list was small and varied, but our accommodations, in the
circumstances, comfortable. We were booked to land at Liverpool, but, for
reasons of state, the ship was diverted to Glasgow, where we arrived at noon of
Friday, February 7, and that evening left by rail for London, having previously
wired for accommodations. Labor in both Scotland and England at the time of our
arrival was in a turmoil, and a railway strike was on effecting the London
tubes. We had reason to apprehend an extension of the disorder, and, therefore,
sought to make all haste to push forward toward our destination.
Arriving in London on
the morning of February 8, we drove to the hotel to find it crowded and no
accommodations awaiting us. London was overcrowded; the many hotels, diverted to
Government purposes, had greatly depleted available room for visitors. We were
fortunate, however, in finding shelter at The Thackeray in Great Russell Street,
where we were comfortably established during our stay, if one can do without
heat, warm baths, and hot water, difficult to get anywhere in those times.
We thought it
advisable, while in London, to learn of the activities of the Grand Lodge of
England in war work and service; also to lay before those in authority in that
Grand Lodge the hopes and purposes of the Masonic Service Association of the
United States, recently projected, and other matters of importance connected
with our Mission. One of our members having been taken ill, the days of his
convalescence were profitably employed in conferences with Sir Alfred Robbins,
P. Colville Smith and other Grand Lodge Officers, and in inspecting Masonic
Relief Service, and studying the activities of the A.E.F. - Y.M.C.A. in and
about London, to the end that we should be somewhat familiar with the method of
operating “Y” huts and the relation of that service to the men when we should
undertake such work ourselves, in accordance with the terms of the arrangement
which we had made with the “Y” before leaving New York. We had engaged to take
over and operate such hut or huts as might, in a conference at Paris between the
“Y” authorities there and the War Department, be mutually deemed advisable, the
same to be maintained as “Y” enterprises for all men in the service, but
designated by an appropriate tablet as Masonically supported. It was further
understood that all purely Masonic service should be outside such quarters. This
arrangement, it was calculated, would afford us a maximum of liberty and freedom
of action and, at the same time, of economy of expense and organization in the
matter of movement throughout the A.E.F.
Our interviews in
London were highly satisfactory, and the cordial reception which we had at the
hands of our English brethren will long and pleasantly be remembered. We there
had the additional privilege of attending the consecration of the Woodford Lodge
in East London by a ceremonial most impressive and in many particulars
unfamiliar. Our reception at the dinner following the consecration, attended by
a large body of average English Freemasons - business men of the City of London
- and the hearty response to our brief remarks, was wonderfully stimulating.
We had learned that
Paris was not less congested than London and therefore endeavored to make sure
of accommodations when we should arrive there. The work in London being
finished, and arrangements to travel to Paris via Folkestone-Boulogne having
been effected through the Movement Order Department of the “Y” (a very difficult
route over which to obtain permits to travel in war times, we found), we left
London February 15, and arrived in Paris the same evening, in a steady downpour
of rain. London had been intensely cold and disagreeable, but dry. Heat in
hotels and public buildings was unusual and deficient, and the discomr fort of
living conditions intense. Food was expensive and meagre, and we were assured
that food, at least, would be more abundant, and less expensive, in Paris. We
were disillusioned. Fortunate to a degree in being received at the hotel with
which we had communicated (an old French establishment familiar to one of the
Mission) we found Paris not less uncomfortable than London, no heat, little
food, higher prices, great congestion, and continuous, dreary daily rain.
We promptly sought
opportunity with the “Y” authorities to discuss our business, and to effect
plans for the work which we had projected, and, though we were met with
cordiality by the officers of that institution, the very conditions under which
work was done in Paris and the circumstances of the war, made progress
agonizingly slow. For nearly four weeks we worried along, making little headway
and not knowing whether we should be able to pursue our work and perform the
service which we had hoped to render, or should have to fold our tents and
return home.
That time of
uncertainty was by no mean wasted; it was devoted to the full, and every minute
of it, to canvassing the Masonic situation in the A.E.F., and planning and
arranging ways and means for undertaking and pursuing our work, as soon as a
foothold should be established.
We had carried with us
from home a large number of letters from Masons with the A.E.F., inquiring about
Masonic activity, existent or projected. Responses to these letters were
prepared on the steamer, and mailed on our arrival at Glasgow. Replies to our
letters, which had announced our expected arrival in France about February 15,
and given an address there, began to arrive before the end of February, and thus
we started a chain of active correspondence.
We had understood,
before leaving home, that a considerable proportion of the Secretaries in the
service of the “Y” were Masons, but observation, contact, and the records which
were subsequently opened to us, led us to believe that not less than 70 per
cent. of the “Y” Secretaries were members of the Craft. We had been in
correspondence with a Masonic organization in the “Y.” composed of “Y”
Secretaries, called the Trowel and Triangle Club, which had existed for some
months, and whose main purpose seemed to be an occasional dining together, and
the entertaining of persons of interest or distinction. It had no other apparent
activity; but we saw in it a means, effectively and economically, to extend our
influence, and by combining effort, to reach and serve the members of the
Fraternity in the service.
Its officers and
members we found to be intelligent, zealous, keenly alive Freemasons, some of
them hailing from our own State. We promptly got in intimate contact with these
brethren, told them the story of our efforts to get Overseas and to serve, all
which stimulated in them prompt sympathy and desire to cooperate. This resulted,
gradually, in the formation of a plan for the reorganization of that Club,
ramifying, as it did, throughout the entire A.E.F., and comprising, in its
membership, a very large number of the Secretaries at training camps, leave
areas and with various units of the army all over France and in Germany, and the
utilization of the Club, and, through it, of the Secretaries, members of it,
throughout the A.E.F., as the connecting link between Masonic life in the A.E.F.
and the Mission, with its headquarters in Paris. Through the Trowel and Triangle
Club, to membership in the Board of Governors of which one of the members of the
Mission was elected, and with all of whose administration the Mission was
intimately in touch, we advertised promptly for the names and addresses and the
officers of all Masonic Clubs or other organizations in the A.E.F., with the
result that, within approximately two weeks, we were in receipt of a large
volume of mail and in close touch with the Masonic pulse of the Forces, and
equipped with intimate and reliable information regarding most, or all, of the
Masonic Club life, which then existed, and some of which had become dormant or
extinct by reason of the departure or impending departure for home of the units
with which connected. Conspicuous among our co-laborers in this service were
Sidney Morse, in charge of the Records Bureau of the A.E.F.-Y.M.C.A.. John
Garland Pollard of the Board of Discipline, Cass Connaway, Chief Counsel,
William L. Hartman of Denver, Colorado, and J. M. Crouch of West Virginia, in
charge of Paris Warehouse.
On March 11, 1919, the
“Y” offered us the hut known as the “Officers and Men's Club,” 31 Avenue
Montaigne, Paris, which we immediately accepted. The offer contemplated our
taking it over and operating it as a “Y” hut, bearing all expense thereof.
Investigation proved it to be the original headquarters of the “Y,” a palace,
charmingly located, and capable, we thought, of great development. It was
serving, at the time, approximately 110 officers and men, some of whom - about
25 - were accommodated with rooms, and all with luncheon and dinner at prices
materially below the prevailing prices of similar accommodations. The use of the
building for months had, of course, resulted in deterioration and the existence,
we thought, of the restaurant, led to conditions of untidiness which were better
avoided. We found, also, that the restaurant was a serious expense, all out of
proportion, we thought, to the service rendered. The method of its management
seemed calculated to pamper a few, instead of to serve many, and we concluded
promptly to eliminate the restaurant and to develop the usefulness of the
institution to the greatest possible extent. On March 14th, letters were
exchanged covering the agreement to take that property over, which we were
fortunate in arranging not to involve liability on our part for damage to
property (a familiar invariable consequence of the relation of landlord and
tenant in France), and that we should be at liberty to abandon the enterprise at
any time on thirty days' notice.
The figures of its
operation for a year previous, which were furnished us, showed an annual loss or
excess of outgo over income of approximately $30,000. The management of this
enterprise we had no hesitation in undertaking, in view, not only of the ditty,
as weconceived it, of keeping our bargain, but the necessity, as we found it -
or then saw it - of our having a definite status with the “Y” in the A.E.F., in
order to maintain our position and render any kind of service, Masonic or
otherwise, to the men with the colors.
Fortune, however, was
kind. It chanced that certain devoted women had been interested in the conduct
of that hut from its inception and the thought of it being taken out of their
control distressed them. We were asked, first, to reconsider our proposal to
abandon the restaurant, to which we consented, temporarily. The agreement
covering its operation by the Mission was modified at our instance, by providing
that we should conduct it in any case from April 1st until June 30 (the end of a
rent period; at which time the tenant, under the lease, would have the right to
abandon), with the privilege, however, of abandoning it then on thirty days'
notice to the “Y” and, if continued thereafter by us at its instance, with the
privilege of abandoning it at any time during that continuance, on thirty days'
notice.
Notwithstanding, the
movement in “Y” circles to withdraw the offer of the hut progressed, without
interference on our part. Awaiting the final decision we pursued our activities
intensively in every direction.
The hut was not turned
over to us, and we incurred no expense in connection therewith, but by mutual
consent we were relieved from the duty of carrying on operations of that
character or of devoting our time or energy to such activities. Gradually we
drifted into a service of a purely Masonic character, and no question was raised
or exists as between any party to the original agreement, regarding the
soundness of our position, or the propriety of our conduct.
Meanwhile, we
undertook also, the reorganization of the local Masonic Club in Paris, and the
placing of it in a position of usefulness. This involved further advertising for
local Masons, particularly among the officers stationed in or near Paris and
resulted, most happily, in procuring the consent of Col. H. H. Whitney, Chief of
Staff of the Paris Division, to act as President, and Major Otto H. Lee,
Assistant Judge Advocate, and Capt. Keely, Q.M.C., as Governors, thus assuring
to the Club not only the patronage of officers, which was essential to its
usefulness, but also their keen interest in its welfare, with the result that
its sessions were greatly popularized.
Brother J. M. Crouch
was actively interested in the Trowel and Triangle Club, and one of its
Governors. He was also an intimate friend of Judge George Fleming Moore and
deeply interested in his enterprise at 10 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III. It was
natural that Brother Crouch, whose friendly interest in the activities of the
Mission was early manifested, should suggest the propriety of the Trowel and
Triangle Club Governors holding their meetings, and the members of the Overseas
Masonic Club their sessions, in the quarters at 10 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III,
and as spontaneously and in the same kindly spirit as the suggestion was made,
it was accepted. The Mission had maintained its headquarters at the Hotel
Peiffer, 6 Passage de la Madeleine. It had been planned to transfer headquarters
to the hut at 31 Avenue Montaigne, but late in March Brother Charles W. Connery,
the manager of the American Masonic Headquarters, 10 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III,
offered to the Mission the use as offices, without charge, of the entresol rooms
in that building, and to decorate them for that purpose. The offer was
gratefully accepted and our quarters appropriately furnished by the Mission, and
these quarters were from early April, 1919, used by the Mission as a convenient
place to meet Masons seeking information and advice, relief and Masonic service.
This cooperation
between the Mission and Brother Connery was most genuine and comfortable, and
reacted promptly in a marked increase in the attendance of visitors at the
building, 10 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III, and the extension of its usefulness. It
grew to be in fact as well as in name the American Masonic Headquarters in Paris
and France.
Continuously, members
of the Mission were in the field. The occupied territory at Coblenz and its
neighborhood was visited, as well also the leave areas, General Headquarters at
Chaumont and its neighborhood, the seaports - Marseille, Bordeaux, St. Nazaire,
Brest and Le Havre - and the intervening country in central France, where most
of our forces were camped or billeted. The time of the members of the Mission
was devoted to visiting Clubs and addressing the men, encouraging the formation
of Clubs where none existed, furnishing Masonic information to interested
inquirers, and generally rendering all and any assistance to Freemasons, which
was within our power to render. We early established pleasant relations with
Major W.S. Solomon, 417th Telegraph Battalion, Signal Corps, stationed in
Coblenz, who hails from Rhode Island, and who had undertaken the reorganization
of the Third Army Masonic Club at Coblenz. At the time we came in touch with
him, the membership of that Club was about 500. We aided him in every way in our
power, and he was, by great fortune, aided also by the presence and active
cooperation of two “Y” Secretaries in his neighborhood, Past Grand Master Davis
of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, and Deputy Grand Master Collins of the same
jurisdiction, with both of whom we had the most delightful and profitable
relations. Before we left, the membership of that Club was about 2,000, and
included two sub-Clubs, one made up of Ohioans, and the other of New Yorkers,
each of which numbered over 125.
Soon after the arrival
of the Mission in France there commenced a regular system of granting leave to
soldiers to visit Paris for a period of three days, and approximately 300 - 900
men daily arrived in Paris on leave. Shortly thereafter the Government
inaugurated an educational program, the purpose of which was to occupy usefully
the men awaiting the determination to evacuate France, and their transportation
home, and considerable numbers of men were assigned to the University of Paris,
to the Sorbonne, and other Paris and French educational institutions, and many
were assigned also to educational institutions in England. The plan involved a
change in their pay system and a transfer to a different paymaster, and
commutation of housing and rations amounting to the equivalent, with their pay,
of approximately $3 per day, not, however, payable in advance.
The Mission found
opportunity for most useful service in directing visiting doughboys to places of
interest, hotels, amusement places, etc., in Paris, and furnishing general
information, for which at the time no adequate provision had been made.
Soon, the problem of
loaning funds to officers and soldiers, members of the Craft, was sharply
presented. The cost of living in Paris was excessive, and they were in many
instances short of funds, expecting pay and with funds at home which they were
unable to avail of. At one time the American Red Cross had served in the matter
of cashing checks. The Y.M.C.A. had rendered similar service, but both had been
discontinued. In this situation the Mission realized that both an opportunity
and a duty were presented, and endeavoring to exercise discretion and
discrimination, during its entire stay in France, made loans, cashed checks,
made advances and assisted financially many members of the Fraternity engaged in
the service. That this service was appreciated by the beneficiaries thereof goes
without saying, and the loans were in most cases repaid promptly. But few
thereof are outstanding.
About the time of the
arrival of the Mission in France the withdrawal of our troops Mom the front, and
from billets, at the instance of the French Government, had begun, and
thereafter rapidly progressed. The expansion of Le Mans as a concentration
district for our troops thus withdrawn and prior to their dispatch to the
seaboard for embarkation for home, was undertaken, and a capacity of 350,000 men
was planned. Early in March Brothers Moore, Lay and Goodrich were commissioned
to visit the Le Mans area after a conference at Paris with Brother Harry B. Mook,
Regional Financial Director of the A.E.F.-Y.M.C.A. in that area, and we
determined to aid and sustain an American Masonic Club in that district. This
Club was established with Bro. Harry B. Mook as President, occupying the
building at 45 Rue Chanzy, the rent of which the Mission paid, and its
membership approximated 900, besides which it served a very large number of men,
visitors to that area, or temporarily therein.
On March 10th, Brother
Goodrich visited Lyons to inspect that field from a standpoint of Masonic
service, and from there proceeded to Dijon, returning to Paris.
On March 11th,
Brothers Moore and Lay visited Marseille, attended the weekly meeting of the
American E.F. Masonic Club, which met in the temple of the lodges of the Grand
Orient at 24 Rue Piscatoris, and enjoyed fraternal intercourse with both
American and French brethren. They proceeded on March 13th to Nice, an important
leave area, where the situation was canvassed with Bro. James G. Gipe, Y.M.C.A.
Secretary, and arrangements made to foster a Masonic Club in that area, and to
guarantee its rent and necessary expenses. From there they returned to Paris.
On March 17th Brother
Prime visited Chaumont, investigated conditions in that area, including the
former aviation base at La Trecey; also Neuchateau; and addressed Goodfellowship
Masonic Club presided over by Capt. A. C. Howard.
On March 22, Bro. Lay
visited Saumur, and attended a banquet held at the Budan Hotel by Villebernia
Masonic Club, located at Camp Strathcona and Mt. Royal, a few miles outside
Saumur, 68 members of the Fraternity were present. The members of the Club for
the most part were officers and men from the First Company, 14th Grand Division,
and the 31st Engineers. The camp had been a permanent one, with little change in
its personnel since June, 1918. They were engaged in the operation of the
railroads in connection with the S.O.S.
On March 24th, Bro.
Lay visited Tours, attended a meeting of the Acacia Club with Col. George E.
Newell of Virginia in the chair, the meeting of which was held in the Y.M.C.A.
Headquarters.
On March 25th, Brother
Goodrich visited Chaumont; also Neuchateau, and neighborhood, with a view to
ascertaining what service, if any, the Mission could perform in that area.
On March 26th, Brother
Lay visited Sunset Overseas Club at St. Aignan, at which camp approximately
10,000 men were quartered, and addressed over 250 men.
On March 26th, Brother
Moore visited Coblenz and the occupied territory, and attended a dinner of the
N. Y. Club on March 28th, and of the Third Army Club on March 31st. He also
visited the Masonic Club at Mayen, and generally inspected the district.
On March 27th, Brother
Lay proceeded to Bourges, and investigated with members of the Fraternity the
desirability of establishing a Club at that point.
On March 28th, he
attended a meeting in the Central Records office of Bourges, and they then
decided to form a Club which the Mission undertook to support. There were no
social service attractions at that city, except a K. of C. hut.
On March 28th, he went
from Bourges to Marmagne near Mehun, a camp of 5,000 men. Espoir Masonic Club
meets on Wednesday nights, using the Y.M.C.A. hut, and performing an important
service.
On March 29th, the
Masons in Camp at Bourges held a banquet at the City Prefecture with Lieut. Col.
Smith presiding, which Brother Lay attended.
On March 31st, he
proceeded to Gievres, the great warehouse camp of central France, which joins
and coordinates with the air station at Pruniers, better known as Romorantin,
and attended the East sub-Post Masonic Club meeting. It had a membership of over
400 men and used a hut furnished by the Camp Commandant in the officers'
barracks.
On April 1st, he
visited the Square and Compass Club at Gievres, which met in the Jewish Welfare
Hut. 200 men were present. He was also able, through the “Y” Secretary, to
arrange with the Commanding Officer for a hut for the use of the Club. He there
met Bro. Charles H. Huntley, a “Y” Secretary, who was an active worker, and the
originator, with Brother Porter, of the S.O.L., a very popular so-called side
degree, returning thence to Paris.
On April 5th, Brother
Prime visited Bordeaux, accompanied by Brother James D. Collins, Deputy Grand
Master of Rhode Island, who was planning to embark for home from Bordeaux, and
with him visited Camp De Souge, 15 miles out of Bordeaux, and there conferred
with offlcers, members of the Fraternity, regarding the Masonic situation, and
the possible service to be rendered by the Mission. They also met a delegation
from the Camp De Souge Masonic Club at Camp De Souge who were planning to visit
Liberation Lodge at Bordeaux (holding obedience to the Grand Loge National) that
afternoon, and conferred with Major Gilbert in charge of the hospital at that
point. Returning to Bordeaux with Brother Collins, he attended a session of
Liberation Lodge in the Masonic Temple occupied by the Loge Anglais, founded in
1734, under dispensation by the Grand Lodge of England, and at various times
thereafter holding obedience to the Grand Orient, or the Grand Lodge of England,
but now holding obedience to the Grand Loge National, and being one of the
constituent lodges which formed that Grand Body in the autumn of 1913. He took
part in conferring the Masonic degrees on four members of the A. E. F. in the
afternoon, and on eight in the evening. He also conferred with Capt. John D.
Hatch and associates regarding the establishment of a Masonic Club in Bordeaux,
which was shortly thereafter established with the zealous aid and support of
Bro. Collins.
Proceeding on April
6th to Nimes he investigated that leave area from a Masonic point of view, and
determined that it would close so shortly thereafter as to require no service
from the Mission. Proceeding to Marseille that afternoon, he conferred with
Bros. Charles M. Conant, Captain A. C. Gilbert and other brethren regarding the
American Masonic Club at Marseille. The following day he attended a meeting of
the American Masonic Club at Marseille held in conjunction with Heather Hill
Masonic Club of the 13th Engineers (which was about to return home) at the
Macaroni Factory in Camp Covington outside Marseille, and addressed about 400
brethren. Proceeding that night to Beaune by way of Lyons, he arrived there on
April 11th, conferred with Bro. Mark E. Penney regarding the needs of that Camp,
of approximately 14,000 men, and visited the A. E. F. University, an extensive
establishment which had taken over a base hospital of many buildings on a
plateau overlooking the Rhone, situated about four kilometres outside Beaune,
and that evening attended a meeting of the newly organized Masonic Club, and
addressed about 200 members, leaving at midnight for Paris.
On April 9th Bros.
Moore, Lay and Goodrich visited Le Mans, and addressed large gatherings of
Brethren, besides performing other important Masonic work.
On April 14th Bro. Lay
visited Nevers and the American Masonic Club at that place. He learned that the
Club had raised a fund of over 5,000 francs for the placing of art glass windows
in the Protestant Chapel at Nevers as a memorial to the American Masons in the
A. E. F., and attended the regular meeting of the Club on April 15th. He
proceeded to Bourges again on April 16th in connection with the Club at that
point, and arranged for quarters to accommodate them.
On April 16th, he
again visited Espoir Club at Camp Marmagne.
On the 17th, he
proceeded to Gievres, and visited the Trowel Club which meets in the Y.M.C.A.
hut.
On the 18th, he
visited the Square and Compass Club at Pruniers, where arrangements were made to
decorate the graves of Masons on Easter Sunday, and he attended the memorial
service.
On April 19th, he
visited Issoudun, and conferred with the officers of the Felloweraft Club of
Montierchaume Camp near Chateauroux, and conferred also with Lieut. Poole,
Secretary of Base Hospital No. 63, organized in 1913 at Caen, and finally
located at Chateauroux. He also met representatives from four Clubs at Gievres,
and Romorantin, regarding Masonic work at Romorantin.
On April 20th, Easter
Sunday, he attended the decoration of graves in the American Cemetery at Gievres
by the Trowel Club. 100 men marched to the Cemetery. Six graves of Masons were
decorated and photographs taken to be sent home. That afternoon he attended a
banquet of the Square and Compass Club at Romorantin, with 175 men present, and
in the evening attended Masonic Memorial Services under the auspices of the
Trowel Club in the main auditorium hut of the “Y,” with 800 men present, and Red
Cross and Y.W.C.A. women present by special invitation.
On April 16th, Brother
Moore of the Mission was compelled to return to New York by reason of important
business matters. He left regretfully, after serving faithfully the entire
period for which he generously had volunteered.
From the time of his
arrival in France until April 16th the Chairman of the Mission was constantly in
Paris in charge of the affairs of the Mission and daily occupied with
correspondence, conferences, assisting brethren, and generally superintending
the Mission's affairs. Excepting as indicated in the above analysis of
activities, Brother Prime also was occupied assisting the Chairman, and
attending to correspondence. The first few months the Mission employed no Clerk,
its voluminous correspondence being attended to by the members.
On April 16th, the
Chairman departed for Switzerland on an important mission, arriving again in
Paris on April 23rd.
In his absence
Brothers Goodrich and Prime were constantly in Paris.
The Grand Master of
New York had cabled the Chairman requesting him to return in time for Grand
Lodge, which was to sit May 6th, and great difficulty was experienced in
arranging transportation home. However, accommodations were secured for the
Chairman and Brother Prime, who left Paris on April 26th, and Havre the same
day, arriving in New York May 5th, the day before the Grand Lodge convened.
Brothers Goodrich and Lay remained in charge. On the voyage home, we volunteered
as Troop Secretaries, and served 252 casuals and 17 officers.
On May 1st all passes
for American soldiers to be in Paris were withdrawn, and all Americans in
uniform were ordered to remain off the streets. Not a wheel turned in Paris. All
cars, taxicabs, subways, and all means of transportation remained idle. All
stores, restaurants, and places of business were closed. Troops were brought
into Paris, and thoroughfares leading to central points were closely guarded in
anticipation of labor disturbances.
Provision was made at
the headquarters at 10 Avenue Victor Emmanuel III from possible danger to
American women in Paris, particularly Red Cross and Y.W.C.A. women, for whom
cots and blankets were provided. A large number of American women gathered there
On May 3rd, Brother
Lay proceeded to the A. E. F. University at Beaune.
On May 6th, he
proceeded to St. Nazaire, and attended a meeting of Masonic Club No. 1 which was
organized July 8, 1918.
On the following day
he visited the Montoir Masonic Club near St. Nazaire, and Base Hospital No. 1.
At that time two
ottier Masonic Clubs were in process of formation in the St. Nazaire area, and
to meet the needs of the Clubs he assigned Brother Charles H. Huntley as General
Secretary for Masonic Clubs in that area, his salary to be borne by the Mission.
He also arranged for a distribution of cards to all home-coming soldiers.
The Labor Department
of the Government had been anxious for our cooperation in reaching homecoming
soldiers with information and advice to proceed, promptly on arrival, to their
home towns and not to linger in cities or near the seaboard, and respecting
re-employment. We gladly afforded all aid in our power in this endeavor.
On April 25th a
delegation of doughboys from St. Aignan, headed by Sergeant Starkey, visited
Paris and presented the situation of upwards of 100 doughboys, members of the
Fraternity, at that camp, about to be commissioned officers, requiring uniform
and equipment as a condition of receiving their assignments, and without funds
to purchase same, and solicited the aid of the Mission in their behalf. St.
Aignan was a casual camp, to which all men for any reason detached from their
units were assigned; also replacement troops sent from home awaiting assignment;
also men awaiting sentence after trial by court martial, and doughboys awaiting
commission after examination for promotion. It was dubbed “St. Agony,” an
obviously appropriate term. Lieut. Col. Oliver S. Perry, a member of the
Fraternity, was in charge of the camp, and he, as well as other officers,
members of the Fraternity, had exhausted their resources in relieving and
assisting Brethren in the service, situated as reported by Bro. Starkey. The sum
of 50,000 francs was requested, for use as a revolving fund to relieve these
brethren in their emergency. It was represented that they were possessed of
funds at home or of funds in the hands of friends, neither of which were readily
available, or at all, excepting after great delay, and we were satisfied that a
rare opportunity for service was here presented. We desired, however, to be sure
of our ground, and requested Brother Starkey to return to St. Aignan, canvass
the situation most carefully and advise the minimum amount which would afford
the relief desired.
On May 9th, Brothers
Lay and Goodrich proceeded to St. Aignan and there conferred with Col. Perry and
other officers, members of the Fraternity, and with Bro. Starkey. They presented
a list of 74 candidates and commissioned Second Lieutenants in financial need.
It appeared further that immediately a man received his commission, his findings
as private stopped, and he was required to pay his food at 10 francs per diem,
and often was short of funds until next pay day. Careful investigation
established the worth of the applicants, and the Mission deposited with Col.
Perry 25,000 francs to be distributed by him, Major McCatharan and Brother
Starkey among the men deemed worthy by them, in sums not to exceed 300 francs
each, for which their obligations were to be given, payable to the Mission.
These obligations were met with almost uniform promptness, and but a few
thousand francs of the total amount remain outstanding. The fame of this
service, and its signal influence, spread rapidly throughout the A. E. F. No
other institution or organization was prepared to, or endeavored to, furnish any
similar service.
Brothers Lay and
Goodrich returned to Paris, where they remained in charge of the Mission's
activities until their departure for home on June 28th, constantly occupied
during the entire day from early in the morning until late at night in the
office of the Mission in conferences with, and assisting, members of the
Fraternity seeking aid and advice.
On May 19th, they
mailed letters to all Masonic Clubs enclosing greetings from the Mission and
literature prepared by the National Superintendent of Bureaus for returning
soldiers and sailors.
On May 28th, they
distributed among the Masonic Clubs memorial aprons contributed by the Bee Hive
Lodge of Chicago, Ill.
The services of the
members of the Mission were called for several times in the conduct of Masonic
funerals.
On May 29th, Wor.
Brother C. D. Brooks, of Uncas Lodge, No. 949, Syracuse, who had been engaged in
the educational activities of the Y.M.C.A., and had planned to take part in the
educational work of the A. E. F. University at Beaune, was buried with Masonic
services in the Suresnes Cemetery outside Paris, conducted by Brother Lay.
May 30th, Memorial
Day, Brother Lay proceeded to Montrichard, and there delivered a Memorial Day
address. From there he proceeded to St. Aignan for a conference with Col. Perry
regarding loans and other matters.
On June 20th, the
Mission gave a dinner in honor of Col. H. H. Whitney, President of the Overseas
Masonic Club of Paris, at the Laurent Restaurant. General Pershing had been
requested to attend this function, and wrote an appreciation, of which he
afterward authorized publication.
The correspondence is
as follows:
(On the letter-head of the Mission)
10 Avenue Victor-Emmanuel III,
Paris, France.
June 13, 1919.
General John J. Pershing,
G.H.Q., Chaumont, France. Dear Sir and Brother:
On Friday evening, June 20th, the Masonic Overseas Mission
is giving a dinner in honor of Colonel H. H. Whitney, President of the Paris
Masonic Club at the Restaufant Laurant, on the Champs Elysees, at 6:30 P. M.,
and would deem it a great honor if you could arrange to be present.
Trusting that this may be possible, I am,
Cordially and fraternally yours,
GEO. S. GOODRICH,
Of the Mission.
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
Office of the Commander-in-Chief
France, June 14, 1919.
Mr. George S. Goodrich,
10 Ave. Victor Emmanuel III, Paris. Dear Mr. Goodrich:
I have received your cordial invitation of June 13th to
dine with the Overseas Mission to the Freemasons on June 20th.
I am indeed sorry that
my military duties force me to be absent on that date, and so I cannot have the
pleasure of dining with you. I wish to express my extreme regret as nothing
would have given me greater pleasure. I have heard nothing but the highest
praise of the results of your generous efforts in the American Expeditionary
Forces, and desire to express to you personally my hearty thanks for the
consistently helpful attitude you have assumed.
Sincerely yours,
(Sinned) JOHN J. PERSHING.
He did not attend the
dinner. However, among those attending were Col. H. H. Whitney, Majors Martin
and Robinson, Cass Connaway, General Counsel of the Y.M.C.A., Charles W.
Connery, Manager of the American Masonic Club, Sidney Morse, in charge of the
Records Department of the Y.M.C.A., John Garland Pollard of Virginia, member of
the Board of Discipline of the Y.M.C.A., Ex-Governor Dunn of Indiana, Brother
Newby of the Grand Commandery of the United States, Major Ross Corbin, of the
Red Cross, Sherif Pasha, a Turkish Mason, and many others. Anticipating the
return of Brothers Lay and Goodrich, Brother Erastus C. Knight, who had been
originally designated a member of the Mission, but had taken up active duties in
New York in connection with the activities of the War and Relief Administration,
and particularly in connection with the care of wounded brethren during their
presence in and near New York at the various debarkation and Base Hospitals, was
dispatched, and arrived in Paris on June 13th in time to gain from Brothers Lay
and Goodrich, before they left, an intimate understanding of the various
activities of the Mission, it being planned that he should remain indefinitely
after they left, and as long as the need required. The fund raised by the
American Masonic Club at Nevers for stained glass memorial windows in the
Protestant Chapel at Nevers was turned over to the Mission, the glass ordered,
and under its auspices and supervision installed. The Chairman of the Mission
returned to Paris, after visiting London and attending the Peace Session of the
United Grand Lodge of England, and arrived in Paris, July 3rd, remaining there
to close up the various activities of the Mission, its relations with the
Y.M.C.A., and with Headquarters, No. 10 Avenue Emmanuel III, also to settle all
bills or arrange for same. When he departed he left Bro. Knight to oversee the
final details. He sailed from Havre about the middle of August. Brother Knight
left Paris Aug. 30,1919, and arrived in New York with the records and other
property of the Mission.
You will remember that
at the conference of Grand Masters held at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, November 24th to
28th, 1918, which resulted in the adoption of the tentative organization of the
American Masonic Service Association of the United States, the project of
dispatching the Mission overseas was brought before the assembled Grand Masters,
and it was unanimously voted that the Chairman of the Mission be appointed the
representative of the Masonic Service Association of the United States overseas.
The original plan by New York for Masonic Service overseas contemplated
impartial service to all Freemasons in the United States forces whencesoever
they hailed, and the Masonic Service Association of the United States at the
conference referred to adopted the Mission also as its Mission to Freemasons in
the United States forces overseas, and undertook to share pro rata in the whole
expense thereof. We bore letters of credit for fifty thousand dollars, in
addition to travelers checks, aggregating $5,000, in all $55,000. The total
expenses of the Mission, including outstanding loans but not including the
depreciation in the value of the franc, are approximately $35,600, of which New
York will pay her proportionate share, our sister jurisdictions joining in this
service having requested that they each pay on a proportionate basis equal to
what the membership of each bears to the total membership of all contributing.
In closing this
report, it is fitting that sincere acknowledgment should be made of the cordial
relations which at all times prevailed between the Mission and the
A.E.F.-Y.M.C.A. as well as of the great service and assistance which that
organization afforded us. All our transportation in France and England was
obtained through its Movement Order Department, and Masonic Secretaries were
assigned and transferred freely at our request. Motor vehicles, mechanics,
building material, hut equipment, moving picture machines and films,
entertainers, food and supplies of all kinds were freely and promptly furnished
upon our requisition, and while our arrangements, as was proper, provided for
payment for all such services and supplies, we received great assistance, many
facilities and favors for which we could not compensate in money, and were not
asked to.
The situation of our
boys after the Armistice was signed, and movement back from the front was
commenced, concentrated for transportation home, no longer with the stimulus of
a fight unwon, with little to do and less to occupy their minds, much of the
time in mud, wet, cold, and general distress of mind and body, can well be
imagined. Words are inadequate to express it accurately. To such men, in such a
plight, yearning for home, and in dire need of distraction, the Mission and its
varied service was a veritable God-send.
The influence of the
Mission's presence, representing organized Freemasonry in the United States, was
also felt deeply by the A.E.F.-Y.M.C.A. The large number of members of the
Fraternity in that service were greatly heartened and stabilized thereby, and
beyond doubt rendered more efficient service.
In closing this report
the members of the Mission desire to record their personal appreciation of the
privilege of participating in this service, and their admiration of the quality
as men and Masons of the rank and file of American officers and doughboys
engaged in the World War. The memory of the dear associations which they have
enjoyed will never die.
Fraternally submitted,
TOWNSEND SCUDDER,
MERWIN W. LAY,
Chairman GEORGE S. GOODRICH,
WILLIAM C. PRIME,
ERASTUS C. KNIGHT,
THOS. CHANNING MOORE
of the Mission.
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT TO CANDIDATES
My Friends:
You are about to be
initiated into Freemasonry. It is deemed proper in this Grand Lodge that all
candidates for our ceremonies shall know in brief just what Masonry is, what its
aims and purposes are, and in that way any erroneous or trivial notions which
you may have had will be entirely removed and your minds free to receive the
great truths which Masonry hopes to teach.
You are to be
congratulated upon having been found worthy to pass the unanimous ballot of the
members of this lodge, and it is of the utmost importance that you so conduct
yourself as to be always worthy of this confidence.
The Order with which
you are seeking to unite is known in this State as Ancient Free and Accepted
Masonry. Ancient as having a recorded history of more than two centuries, and
still more ancient as having come down from the old guilds or fellowship of
Operative Masons, who worked upon those wonderful cathedrals and other public
buildings in Europe which were constructed during the middle ages, and which
have been and still are the marvel of all who behold them. We do not desire our
candidates to understand that we claim any connection with those workmen who
built King Solomon's Temple, although we use in our ceremonies and ritual the
symbolism of the same.
Free Masonry is made
up always of free men - free born. Free Masonry was originally composed of
workmen who, by reason of special privileges granted them by the church in the
early middle age, were free to travel and work without the usual restrictions
which were common in those times.
Accepted Masonry, or
Speculative Masonry, is distinguished from Operative. The transitions to
Accepted Masonry came about the beginning of the 18th century, when many
gentlemen, scholars, scientists and clergymen, sought and attained admission to
the guilds of Operative Masons, and were known as Gentlemen, or Accepted Masons.
From 1717, with the organization of the Grand Lodge of England, Masonry has been
Speculative rather than Operative.
Our Order intends to
make good men better, and thus wiser and happier; men capable of rendering large
service to their fellow men. This is its main object. It is founded upon certain
vital and fundamental truths, chief among them is the belief in one Ever Living
and true God, and our dependence upon him. If there is any doubt in your mind
whatever on this point, you ought not to think of proceeding further. Other
great truths will be taught as you proceed with your degree.
Please bear in mind
that there is nothing in Masonry which does not have a serious purpose. Nothing
is done to embarras you, or trifle with your feelings. Your preparation for
initiation all has a meaning which will be explained later.
With this preliminary
statement, let me express the hope that your mind will be at ease and in a mood
to receive the important lessons which Masonry is intended to teach you.
* * *
The foregoing “Preliminary Statement to Candidates” has
been authorized by the Grand Lodge of North Dakota to be given to all candidates
in that Grand Jurisdiction prior to their preparation for initiation into the
First degree. It is designed to be delivered preferably by the Worshipful Master
in some suitable room other than the lodge room.
----o----
I cannot know the future of this life,
What storms may come, what woes,
Or whether I shall conquer in the strife,
But I can trust in Him. He knows! He knows!
- G.A.N.
----o----
I will chide no heathen in the world but myself, against
whom I know most faults. - Shakespeare.
----o----
The truly generous is truly wise, and he who loves not
others, lives unblest. - Home.
MASONS’ MARKS AND MARK MASONRY
BY BRO, CHARLES C. CONOVER, MICHIGAN
(CONTlNUED FROM NOVEMBER NUMBER)
THE MARK DEGREE - ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
THE MARK degree seems
to antedate any of the chapter degrees. In England and most of her dependencies
it is controlled by a separate organization known as the Grand Lodge of Mark
Master Masons. These lodges take their material from the Master's degree and
they confer the degrees of Mark Man, Mark Master and in some instances the Royal
Ark Mariners. We naturally first turn to Mackey's Encyclopedia for his
viewpoint. On the subject of “Mark Man” he says:
“According to Masonic
tradition, the Mark Men were the Wardens, as the Mark Masters were the Masters
of the Fellow-Craft Lodges, at the building of the Temple. They distributed the
Marks to the workmen, and made the first inspection of the work, which was
afterward to be approved by the overseers. As a degree, the Mark Man is not
recognized in the United States. In England it is sometimes, but not generally,
worked as preparatory to the degree of Mark Master. In Scotland, in 1778, it was
given to Fellow Crafts, while the Mark Master was restricted to Master Masons.
Much of the esoteric ritual of the Mark Man has been incorporated into the Mark
Master of the American System.”
MARK MASONRY - PLACE AND MEANING
When we read the story
of the building of that house upon Mount Moriah we are amazed at the magnitude,
as well as the splendor of the work. By the quarries, in Lebanon, and in the
mountain that overlooked the Dead Sea, men wrought by plan - Fellow Crafts and
M. M.'s of the different lodges. They apparently wrought also by piece in many
cases; and it was important that a careful record should be kept of work done,
of work done well - and of the worker, whatever he had done. This was done by a
system of Marks. Whether each family had a separate Mark, or each nation or each
company of workmen, it is impossible to say. But that Masons were in the habit
of making such Marks for purposes of signature there is no doubt. When few could
read, and fewer write, a plan of adopting some easily remembered Mark would be a
great advantage. And there is no doubt that the signature in some way of a man's
workmanship was of import; ance to the Wardens and the Overseers. Masonry has
ever emphasized the value standard in regard to membership in a lodge, both in
operative and in speculative labor; and we can easily understand that such a
system of Marks as we have discovered would become necessary, especially in a
work of such stupendous magnitude as the Temple of Jerusalem, or the other great
works of antiquity in which bands of workmen of different nations and languages
and habits were employed. The Marks would be, to the Overseers, both statement
of account and surveyor's report; and every man would receive praise and reward
or punishment as these marks were borne upon good or bad work. The apprentice
hand made a blind Mark of equal angles, and the F.C. a true mark of unequals. In
the former we find a standard easily followed, and the absence of a personal
characteristic of great importance. In the Mark of the Master was the
individuality of that skilled artisan. The standard of obedience was no longer
inexpertly and blindly emphasized; but the workman obeyed Masonic law by
expressing his own characteristic in the varying unequal angles. The circle was
avoided, and never became a Mason's Mark unless in combination with some
perpendicular or angle. The circle is the means to right lines; and in right
lines is Masonry builded. The study of the ancient Marks in buildings of all
nations and religions and Masonic tendency reveals some curious suggestions. Mr.
Godwin and M. Didron, in the forties of last century, brought these Marks under
the observation of antiquaries. The first, who was editor of the “Builder,”
submitted, in 1841, a most interesting communication upon the subject to the
Society of Antiquaries; and M. Didron, a Parisian student of archaeology,
communicated his own findings to the Comite Historique des Arts et Monuments
shortly afterwards. Various conclusions were reached by learned men who took the
matter up; but nothing appears to be conclusive beyond that with which we have
already stated. The Marks were the signature and the challenge of the workmen.
And, just in the same
way, the Mark Mason of today demands that a Mark shall represent the
responsibility and the account of the Mark Mason. Just as in business the
reputation of a merchant or manufacturer may be said to be constantly in pledge
against the fulfillment of a contract, so Mark Masonry throws herself upon her
character, upon her Masonic brotherliness, upon her right to receive and to
give. And just so her character stamps her acts and her ideals. The Mark is
found upon the obverse of the jewel, and not upon the apron, which with the
exception that there are no tassels and that the ribbon is edged with crimson,
rip sembles that of the M. M. Craft degree. The jewel takes the form of the
keystone of an arch. Upon one side are the letters H.T.W.S.S.T.K.S., and upon
the other Hebrew characters of similar import. These are arranged round a space,
circular, in which the Mark of the wearer is inscribed. So that both the Royal
Arch and the Mark are based largely upon the content and construction of the
arch in Masonry. The principal difference is one of form. The Royal Arch deals
with the secret the arch has hidden; and the Mark illustrates more the value of
the arch itself and the lmportance of reliable work. (The Trestle Board, Vol.
26, No. 6 Calif.)
MARK MASONRY
William J. Hughan of
England, who with Robert F. Gould, were the most painstaking Masonic history ans
in separating the wheat of truth from the chaff of fiction and tradition, has
this to say about Mark Masonry:
During the centuries
which immediately preceded the establishment of the premier Grand Lodge of
England and the World, the “Mark” was directly connected with operative and
speculative Freemasonry, and from time immemorial, it has been the custom for
the skilled Craftsman to chisel his distinctive Mark on the stones he fashioned,
so as to indicate his workmanship.
It is this fact that
differentiates the Mark degree from all other ceremonies additional to the first
three, and justified the formation of the Mark Grand Lodge, nearly fifty years
ago, so as to take under its wing those lodges which worked with interesting and
suggestive ceremony, the English Craft agreement excluding it from the formally
recognized series, according to the Articles of Union of A. D. 1813-4.
The antiquity of Mark
Masonry cannot be doubted. Operatively considered and even speculatively, it has
enjoyed special prominence for centuries; records of the custom being followed
by speculative brethren, according to existing records, dating back to 1600, in
which year, on the 8th day of June, “Ye principal wardens and chief master of
maissons, Wm. Schaw, master of work to ye Kingis Maistie,” met members of the
Lodge of Edinburgh (now No. 1) at Holyrood House, at which meeting the Laird of
Auchinleck was present, and attested the minutes of the assembly by his Mark, as
did the operatives, in accordance with the Schaw statutes of December 28th,
1598, which provided: That the day of reassauying (receiving) of said fallow of
craft or master be ord'lie buikit and his name and Mark insert in the said buik.”
That theoretical
Masons selected their Marks just as the operatives did, during the seventeenth
century, is abundantly manifest, by an examination of the old Scottish records
of that period. One of the most noteworthy instances out of many is the Mark
Book of the Lodge of Aberdeen (now No. 1 tris) which started in A. D. 1670, and
is signed by 49 members, all of whom but two have their Marks inserted opposite
their names.
The Master of the
“Honorable Lodge of Aberdeen” in that year was Harrie Elphingston, Tutor of
Airth and Collector of the King's Customs and only a fourth part of the members
were operative Masons, the roll of brethren including the Earl of Findlater, the
Earl of Dumferline, Lord Pitsligo, the “Earl of Errolle,” a professor of
mathematics, several ministers, doctors and other professional men and
tradesmen, such as wrights (or carpenters), slaiters, glaziers, etc.
The names of the
apprentices were entered in another list, the Marks chosen by such being
evidently similar to the fathers' in several instances.
When a special and
elaborate ceremony (with a distinctive legend) was first used it is not possible
to decide, but probably about the middle of the eighteenth century, soon after
the arrangement of the Royal Arch as a separate degree. The oldest preserved
records date from the year 1769, and there is no lack of evidence as to the
observance of the custom in speculative lodges during that century and later,
either in separate lodges or under the wing of the Royal Arch. The Mark
continued to be worked in England as an unauthorized ceremony until the year
1856, when the Mark Grand Lodge was founded and has proved a conspicuous
success, having ultimately secured the support of all the “time immemorial” and
other lodges in the country, besides having warranted several hundreds of lodges
to work the degree in England and the Colonies and dependencies of the British
Crown.
The ceremony is very
popular, especially in North America, where there are over a quarter of a
million subscribing members, * and is recognized by all Grand Chapters of Royal
Arch Masons there and elsewhere, excepting in England. The Grand Lodge of
Ireland includes it with the additional degrees belonging to “the other Masonic
Grand Bodies recognized in it, and acting in union with it,” and the Grand Lodge
of Scotland authorizes the Mark to be “conferred on Master Masons, and the
secrets only to be communicated in presence of those who have taken the step in
a lodge entitled to grant it.” The Mark Grand Lodge in recent years has
incorporated the “Mark Man” with the “Mark Master”; and wisely so, as it was the
former that was conferred on Fellow Crafts, and the latter on Master Masons,
during the eighteenth century. - (The Trestle Board, Vol. 23, No. 4, October,
1909, California.)
In a letter to the
Masonic Home Journal of Louisville, Ky., Companion Alfred A. A. Murray, Grand
Scribe E., corrects an erroneous idea which had been published previously, and
treats of the Mark degree in Scotland:
As regards the Mark
degree itself it was not worked in the Fellow Craft lodges, but there were
really two degrees, namely, that of Mark Man, which was given to a Fellow Craft,
and that of Mark Master, which was given to a Master Mason. The degree of Mark
Man was worked down to within fifty years ago by various Craft lodges, and given
to Fellow Crafts. The degree of Mark Master was conferred as a separate degree
in the same way as the Royal Arch, and was expressly cut off by the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, about 1800, in the same way that the Royal Arch and the Temple were
cut off. Before that date they used to be worked by an inner circle of the lodge
as a sort of side issue not under the Grand Lodge of Scotland at all.
The Royal Arch and the
Temple were, after 1800, organized as governing bodies, and then the Mark Master
degree was taken under the sole control of the Supreme Grand Chapter, and
continued so till, as I say, about fifty years ago, when an agreement was made
between the Grand Lodge and the Supreme Chapter that the two degrees of Mark Man
and Mark Master
* Latest figures show over half a million.
were to be
amalgamated, and were to be conferred under the authority of either body, but
only upon Master Masons.
It is wise to get a
clear statement made upon the point, because I observe a very large amount of
mistaken information is being printed from time to time, which is derived from
confusion of thought and want of knowledge, and results sometimes in mistaken
action.
THE MARK DEGREE - ITS ROMANCE AND LESSONS
Companions in this
country will be deeply interested in the following article by Herbert J.
Williams, Grand Scribe E., of New Zealand, as it opens up a new thought and
lesson from another angle than that with which they are familiar. The rejected
work was not that of another, but his own which was misunderstood.
For the groundwork of
the degree, Mark Masonry is indebted to the building of King Solomon's Temple,
which is the basis upon which the whole superstructure of Freemasonry rests. And
though today this legendary foundation is recognized as being quite mythical,
yet the end fully justifies the means, in view of the great moral edifice
erected.
The scene of our story
lies in the great Temple building, and the wonderful organization which
controlled 180,000 workmen is recounted. The first page of the history of the
degree opens with the introduction of the Fellow Craft, who desires enrollment
in the arms of workmen, and as a Mark man he works well and worthily, and
receives his wages. The fact that he has worked “well and worthily” may be noted
in view of subsequent happenings. After working in the quarries for some time,
on one eventful day he accompanies some of his fellow-workmen, and duly submits
his work for examination to the overseers, but for some unaccountable reason he
presents a stone which is not confined to right lines and angles, but was as a
keystone, wedge-formed, an entirely new departure from the rectangular. This in
itself was quite sufficient to excite the surprise of his companions and the
displeasure of the overseers, who refused to pass the stone, and as an
indication of contempt finally ordered it to be heaved over among the rubbish,
and the legend relates that it long lay hidden. For centuries it was believed
that the principle of the arch in building was not known at the time of King
Solomon, and it was only within the last few years that this statement has been
entirely disproved. Archways with regular keystones have been found in the
doorways of tombs at Thebes, which could not be of later date than 1540 B. C.,
or 460 years before the building of the temple. And we are further told that the
Cyclopean gallery of Tyrius exhibits lancetstapled arches as old as Abraham. It
is assumed by Lawrence that the principle of the Arch was a kind of guild
secret, of which H ___ A ___ would be in possession, but it was not known to the
workmen generally. But to return to our romance. The Craftsman who had been
turned down by the overseers was on subsequent examination denounced as an
imposter, and narrowly escaped the penalty which invariably followed such an
indictment. But as time went on, and the building neared completion, it was
discovered by the Master that a certain stone was necessary for the completion
of the building, and the Master was satisfied that he had is issued a plan of
this particular stone. The overseers having been convened in council, admitted
having received it, but working strictly by plans, the stone was rejected and
cast aside. How it was subsequently found by the skillful Craftsman, and the
honor that he received is well known to each Mark Master. That the Craftsman was
a skillful worker must be admitted from the excellence of his artistic work.
That he was actuated by good motives may be gathered from the record that from
the commencement of his career he worked “well and worthily.” Yet when the stone
was rejected, he was deeply humiliated, he was accused of working for
self-glorification, and received angry words and reproaches. As we know that his
fellow-workmen were well pleased at the humiliation of what they conceived , to
be his vanity. Picture to yourselves what this worthy Craftsman must have
suffered, perhaps for years, until the subsequent finding of the stone. Whether
his work was the result of seeing the plans, or whether as an artist he knew
such a stone would be required matters little, there is no record that he
displayed the least vanity or ostentation. On the contrary, after the finding of
the stone, the extreme value of which was recognized by H ___ A ___, he was
advanced to the degree of Mark Master and ordered to cut his name upon it. Again
imagine the feeling of the worthy Craftsman when the stone - his work - was
being conveyed with much pomp and parade to be fixed in its place. Well might he
have been excused for manifesting feelings of the utmost pride, and of
retaliating on those of his companions who had assisted at his humiliation. He
had no such thoughts, but rather in an ecstacy of joy gave the thanks to God
that he had worked well.
Were there no other
lessons conveyed in the teaching of the Mark degree, this beautiful romanee and
its moral should give ample compensation. And there is no other character in
Freemasonry who shows such restraint under suffering, patience of endurance
under the sneers and gibes of his fellows, or such nobility of character in the
hour of his unbounded triumph. What a glorious example of the suppression of
self, and the glorification of the Supreme Architect.
THE MARK
To the ancient
operative Mason the “Mark” was only a means of identification, protected by his
known ability and the registration of his Mark, as signatures are, in our day,
recorded in a bank.
In ancient Rome, when
two friends were about to part, it was a custom to break a piece of money or
ivory in two, and having registered a secret Mark, each retained a part, and
this was a token of everlasting friendship, and was called the “arrhabo.” Both
word and custom were borrowed from the ancient Israelites, for it is derived
from the Hebrew “Arabon,” a pledge.
Among modern
speculative Masons the Mark is no longer a means of livelihood, nor is it a mere
emblem of livelihood, nor is it a mere emblem of ornamental appendage of the
Mark Master degree, but a sacred token of the rites of friendship and brotherly
love, it is a veritable “tessera hospitalis,” and when presented by the owner to
another Mark Master, would claim, from the latter, acts of friendship, which
only a mutual obligation would warrant.
If a Mark is presented
for the purpose of obtaining a favor, it then becomes an “Arabon,” or pledge,
and while it remains in the possession of its owner, it ceases, so far as he is
concerned, to be of advantage to him, until, conforming to an ancient usage, of
redeeming it from its former pledge.
In Rome the “tessera
hospitalis” extended to the descendants, and if the father exchanged a broken
die on parting, the son honored it, as this short quotation from an old Roman
comedy will show, as between Agorastocles and Poenulus:
Ag. - I am a son
of old Antidamus.
Poe. - If so, I pray
you
Compare with me the
hospital die
I've brought this with
me.
Ag. - Prithee, let me
see it.
It is, indeed, the
very counterpart
Of mine at home.
Poe. - All hail, my
welcomed guest,
Your father was my
guest Antidamus.
Your father was my
honored guest and then
This hospital die with
me he parted.
Now that we understand
the customs of the ancients, how easy to comprehend the message of St. John the
Evangelist, when he says, “To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, and
in it a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it,” or
in a more literal translation, “To him who overcometh will I give an arabon of
my affection, and entitle hilt to privileges and honor of which none else can
know the value or extent.”
THE SYMBOLISM
The symbolism of the
Mark degree, unlike all other degrees in Freemasonry, may be comprehended in one
emblem - the Keystone. Around this is woven the whole of the romance. It was
this that caused the humiliation of the skillful Craftsman, in his desire to
produce good and useful work, and his long period of sorrow and dejection by its
rejection, and, consequently, to this symbol he owed his honorable advancement,
and the tardy recognition of his skill.
We need no legend to
estimate the value of the Keystone in its material sense. To the operative Mason
of today it is an invaluable aid in the science of architecture. How much more
so would it be in ancient days, when it would appear that the knowledge of its
use and construction was actually confined to a privileged few of the higher
class of Temple builders. To speculative Mark Masons of today it not only
constitutes the jewel of the degree, but it also bears the special Mark chosen
by the Mark Mason on his advancement to the honorable degree.
Now, what are the
great lessons which the teaching of the degree inculcates ? We may answer,
primarily, “Charity,” in its highest attributes. Not to judge harshly and
condemn the actions of others because we may not understand them. To act in
charity to all mankind, and more especially to our brethren in Freemasonry, is a
Masonic command, which was not exemplified by the overseers in their treatment
of the skillful Craftsman's work. Among some of the sterling precepts of the
Mark degree we are enjoined to do justice to all mankind, to love mercy, which
equally blesses him who gives and him who receives, to practice charity in all
its phases, to maintain harmony in our own persons, and to endeavor to promote
it with others. To quote an American writer: “The rejection of the keystone
should teach us that nothing has been made in vain. It matters not how worthless
and insignificant a creature may appear to our prejudiced eyes, we may rest
assured that if infinite wisdom has been employed in its creation, it has, in
the economy of Providence, its appropriate place and use; from it we may also
learn never to despond and grow weary in welldoing. Although our motives may be
misinterpreted and the work of our hands be misjudged by our erring fellowmen,
still may we have faith that there is over all a Judge who sees not with the
eyes of man.”
I wonder how many of
us seriously consider the very great responsibility that devolves on the members
of this degree. In the concluding charge the newlyadmitted brother is told that
while he acts in conform ity with the sublime precepts of the Craft, “Should
misfortune assail you, should other friends forsake you, should the envious
traduce your good name, or the malicious persecute you . . . among Mark Master
Masons you will ever find friends who will administer relief to your distresses
and comfort in your affliction.” Surely this constitutes the essential essence
of true Freemasonry, and were it only given practical effect would raise Mark
Masonry high above its sister branches of Freemasonry and would convert the
ideal into the real. - New Zealand Craftsman.
MARK MASTER'S LOW WAGE
Bro. George W.
Warvelle, Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter, R.A.M., of Illinois, thinks it
absurd that the century-old rate of a penny a day still continues to be paid as
the wages of a Mark Master, and this notwithstanding the ever increasing high
cost of living. Bro. Warvelle says:
This ridiculously low
wage scale seems to have been the work of the early American ritualists. I have
in my possession two old English rituals, of Mark Man and Mark Mason, in both of
which there is a specification of wages. In the former the rate was “nine
shekels, equal to 1 2s. 6d. of our money,” and in the latter it was “Twenty-five
shekels, equal to 3, 2s. 6d. of our money.” What the present rate may be in
England I am unable to say, but no Englishman would work for the beggarly
stipend paid in the American Mark lodges. I am inclined to believe, however,
that our English brethren have fixed these abnormally high prices to make up for
the actual wages formerly paid in England to the operative craft. As late as the
year 1689 the wages of Freemasons were prescribed by law at one shilling and
four pence a day. To demand more subjected them to severe penalties. In fact, it
was really the passing of restrictive laws commencing say, about 1356, that led
to the present speculative institution, and Masonic scholars of eminence assign
the year 1424 as the cessation of English Freemasonry as a strictly operative
association. - (Tyler-Keystone, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December, 1914.)
Bro. Wm. J. O. Astrop
writes in the Tyler-Keystone:
I desire to draw
attention to the statement on page sixty-two of the Tyler-Keystone that “pure
ancient Masonry consists of three degrees.” In operative craft Masonry there was
but one degree, that of the E.A., but as an older apprentice was eligible to the
chair, he was entitled to his Mark for which he paid the clerk or Secretary of
the lodge. The lodge of Kilwinning Peebles charged thirteen shillings and four
pence for registering this Mark. The Mark thereafter could not be changed. For
want of being able to write his name the apprentice used his Mark as a signature
as well as marking his work. During the seven years usually spent in service as
apprentice, his Master was his guardian. He got his board, lodging and clothing
from his Master, and was allowed to venture out after dark to go to lodge or
places of enjoyment only unless accompanied by two fellows to bear witness that
he was in respectable company, so that no reflection would be brought upon the
craft. Brethren would travel fifty miles to defend his character and good name.
In his “Concise
History of Freemasonry” Brother Robert F. Gould gives the history of the Mark
degree in its relation to Grand Lodges:
In 1856, March 5th, at
a meeting of the Grand Lodge, it was resolved unanimously:
“That the degree of
Mark Mason or Mark Master is not at variance with the ancient landmarks of the
order, and that the degree be an addition to and form part of Craft Masonry; and
consequently may be conferred by all regular warranted lodges, under such
regulations as shall be . . . sanctioned by the Grand Master.”
The resolution,
however, was negatived when the minutes were brought up for confirmation in the
following quarter. A Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons was formed in London
during the same year, but it has not been recognized by the “United Grand Lodge”
of the Craft. We find then, among the conflict of laws under the various Grand
Lodges, that in England the Royal Arch is recognized, and the Mark degree is
not; in Scotland, the Royal Arch is not, but the Mark is; and in Ireland both
are recognized. The earliest known reference to tie Mark degree, it may be
observed, occurs in the minute book of a Royal Arch Chapter at Portsmouth, under
the date of September 1st, 1769.
(To be continued)
-----o-----
It
is one hour past high twelve, and it
is time for us to awaken from our lethargy and sleep of security, and note the
signs of the times as they appear in the trend of the world's affairs. If
Masonry is to continue to be a teacher and leader of the world in its march
toward a higher civilization among the nations of the world; if it is to
continue to be the guardian and preserver of those principles of justice and
human liberty given us by our ancestors; if we are to be the conservator of
American liberty, schools and homes, and exert any great influence upon the life
and character of the brethren and the people of the particular community in
which we live, we must do more than wear our Masonry in the lapel of our coats.
The time is near at
hand, if not at our very door, when the ignorant and vicious, the selfish and
the avaricious, with a heart and mind full of prejudice against the government,
will find a fruitful field of labor, and, if they are finally successful in
their efforts, we will find the separation of the church and state next to.
impossible, and the teachings of the youth of this great land, the honor,
respect and love of the glorious heritage bequeathed us by our Masonic
ancestors, entirely out of order. Let us then discharge our full duty as Master
Masons, because as doing so we will be actually discharging in harmony our full
duty as American citizens. - Wm. A. Westfall, P.G.M., Iowa.
-----o----
THE BUILDERS
Did you see yourself to-day
As the children were at play?
They were building houses tall
Just within the garden wall
Near the gate.
Carefully their blocks they laid,
Carefully the side walls made
Lest they fall.
Block by block the houses grew
Till it seemed that just a few
Touches more
Would complete the maker's plans.
But alas! Too eager hands
Caused the ruin.
Bated breath and shining eyes
Thinking to have won the prize,
Work well done,
Then, unsteady, grasping hands,
Eager to complete the plans,
And the ruin.
Did you see yourself to-day
As the children were at play?
Have you builded castles tall,
To be humbled by their fall,
Incomplete?
Did your eagerness prevent
The Great Builder's glad consent
To your plans?
He whose wisdom builds the best-
Builds with knowledge of the test
Of all time-
Does not hurry in His task,
And His wisdom does not ask,
Am I done?
Grant us patience, O Great Builder!
In Thy wisdom, without murmur,
Thus to build.
As we gain the heights we've scanned,
May we always feel Thy hand
Guiding ours.
Did you see yourself to-day
As the children were at play?
- Ermina Lincoln Cooper, in The Universalist Leader.
FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING
CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN NO. 43
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 FIVE POINTS OF FELLOWSHIP"
What is said of teaching by symbols? What method was used
by the Jews in learning the Ten Commandments? Give examples of the use of
symbolism in teaching at the present day outside of the Masonic Fraternity.
Cite some of the things you have learned through this manner of teaching in
Masonry. Describe some of the methods used in our kindergarten schools. Why
did the old builders find it necessary to teach their Apprentices moral truths?
Where was the only place this information could be obtained? Why?
What plan did the master workmen adopt to convey this
knowledge to the Apprentices? What did the plumb symbolize? The level? The
square? Give other examples of builder's tools used as symbols.
What is Dr. Carr's theory of the origination of the symbol
of the Five Points of Fellowship? Have you ever heard any other theory? (A
general question.)
What were the Five Points of Fellowship in the early Grand
Lodge period? Why is it presumed that the hand was superseded by mouth to ear or
cheek to cheek?
What does "foot to foot" mean? Should we withhold our
assistance until it is asked for? Has the lodge a responsibility in this
connection, or does the responsibility rest entirely upon ourselves as
individuals? What did your lodge do to help your brethren in the Army ?
How should we apply the second of the Five Points, "Knee to
Knee"?
What is the admonition of the third of the Five Points,
"Breast to Breast" ?
To what does the fourth point, "Hand to Back," refer?
What is the lesson to be learned from "Cheek to cheek, or
mouth to ear"?
What would be the result if every Mason were to practice in
his daily life the precepts enjoined in the "Five Points of Fellowship" ?
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
THE BUILDER:
Vol. II - The Five Points Symbolism. Poem, N.A. McAulay, p.
295.
Vol. IV - Symbolism of the Three Degrees, O.D. Street, p.
322. Mackey's Encyclopedia:
THIRD STEPS BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA
PART VIII - THE FIVE POINTS OF FELLOWSHIP
One of the best devices for remembering a thing is to tie
it up to some familiar object. Primitive peoples, who had few or none of the
contrivances for preserving records, such as writings, pictures, etc.,
habitually made use of this method. For example, the Jews used to learn the Ten
Commandments by linking each one to a finger. By the same process, it is
believed, the habit of numbering in tens came into habitual practice through the
ease with which counting could be done by help of the ten fingers. Even today,
and in spite of the numberless artificial schemes now in use to help memory, the
ancient habits are still in vogue, as one may learn by watching children at
study.
This device for fixing a thing in memory, for making it
take hold of the mind, is one of the explanations, it is very probable, of the
manner in which the old builders symbolized the objects and practices of their
art. The guilds had to teach the Apprentice simple truths and elementary
morality, not only because it was necessary that he be a good and well
instructed man in order to be an acceptable Mason, but also because there were
few or no public schools wherein the youth might learn such things. If he was
to learn them at all he had to learn them in the guild.
Led by instinct or experience the master workmen hit upon
the plan of conveying this instruction by tying each separate truth or duty up
to some implement, or building part, or building process, with which the
Apprentice would come into contact almost every day. The plumb was used as the
symbol of uprightness, the level of fellowship, the square of right conduct, and
so on.
Bro. Dr. Thomas Carr, who has written so instructively of
Operative Masonry as it still exists, believes that it was in the methods for
laying out the plan of a building that we have the original symbol of the Five
Points of Fellowship. He says that a point was fixed at the centre of the plan;
that by means of the 3, 4, 5 triangle a line was drawn out through each of the
four corners, thereby assuring that every corner would be a right angle; and
that the four lines and the central point became later the geometrical symbol of
the Five Points of Fellowship.
This may well have been the origin of the symbol but we
know that at some early day the five rules of fellowship became attached to the
very different symbolism of the limbs and organs of the body. In the Grand
Lodge period it seems that the symbols were the hand, the foot, the knee, the
breast, and the back; later on, at least in America, the hand was omitted and
the mouth to ear, or cheek to cheek, substituted. When this was done, or by
whom, or why, we can not know, but it may be guessed that the change was made
because the body symbols were so much more intimate and vivid and easily
remembered than the geometrical. On this matter we can only hazard a guess as
is so often our alternative in matters having to do with the history and
development of the ritual. Whatever may have been the original symbolism of the
five points, whatever may have been the evolution of the body symbolism, as the
matter now stands, we have the rules of right fellowship linked with foot to
foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to back, cheek to cheek, or mouth to
ear, and it is this present system that we must endeavour to understand.
"Foot to foot" means that we must ever be ready to go to
our brother's help in case he is in need of assistance. It is not enough that
we should be willing that he seek our aid; we must seek him, if we learn that he
stands in want. This applies to the lodges as well as to the member, and there
are few better reasons for pride in our Order than the swift, silent manner in
which it always flies to the brother in need. During the recent war, many of
our lodges were engaged in sending help and cheer to soldier brethren in the
cantonments and even in the trenches of Europe; a splendid interpretation given
to the whole world of the meaning of foot to foot.
"Foot to foot that we may go, Where our help we can bestow;
Pointing out the better way, Lest our brother go astray. Thus our steps should
always lead To the souls that are in need."
"Knee to Knee." Never are we more tempted to lapse into a
selfish individualism than in prayer, strange as it may seem; it is so easy,
when bowing before the All Father, to pour out our own confessions, our private
feelings, and desires! The very intimacy and secrecy by which prayer is
preserved from perfunctoriness and formality is itself one of the sources of
selfishness in it, because it tends to shut others from our thought. Masonry
urges us to take our brother with us when we go to God in order that our
fellowship may be lifted into heaven itself and thereby be made even more
beautiful and divine. If you would have a little book, reader, in which the
social uses of true prayer are sent forth out of a noble nature's own
experience, lay hold of "Letters to His Friends," written by that "Apostle of
Intercession," Forbes Robinson.
"Knee to knee, that we may share Every brother's need in
prayer, Giving all wants a place, Where we seek the throne of grace. In our
thoughts from day to day For each other we should pray."
"Breast to breast." By this, as I understand it, a brother
is not only admonished to keep inviolate the secrets of his fellows but is also
reminded that fellowship is not transfigured into real friendship until it has
been carried into the heart. To interpret fraternity in the terms of relief and
aid alone is to leave it too external, too much in danger of becoming a mere
matter of giving and taking. Fellowship needs to become a matter of the spirit,
an intimate, emotional condition, which gives the brother a place in one's
thoughts and affections as well as a place beside one's body in the lodge room.
This spiritualizing of fellowship includes, as a part of itself, that
guardianship of our brother's secrets, already, referred to, and effectively
described in another stanza of Bro. N.A. McAulay's poem, from which I have been
quoting:
"Breast to breast, to there conceal, What our lips must
not reveal, When a brother does confide, We must by his will abide. Mason's
secrets to us known We must cherish as our own."
"Hand to back." This undoubtedly refers to our duty of
helping a brother to carry his material burdens; may we not also make it refer
to burdens of a more intangible character? If we could take an X-ray photograph
of what is on his soul as well as on his back, how surprised we would often be!
Secret anxieties, blighted hopes, unspoken sorrows, nameless griefs, worry,
care, these are not visible, often, but they are always real, and nothing is
more helpful to a man than to share with him the burdens on his mind and on his
heart.
"Hand to back, our love to show To the brother, bending
low, Underneath a load of care, When we may and ought to share. That the weak
may always stand, Let us lend a helping hand."
"Cheek to cheek, or mouth to ear." Often is real
brotherliness best shown in the manner in which loving deeds are done!
Ostentation in offering help, a too public parading of one's kindliness, a
thoughtless, tactless, blundering, obtruding one's self on another, all this may
of itself hurt more than it heals. How delicate, how gracious, is that
kindliness invoked by the symbol of cheek to cheek, or mouth to ear! Such
kindliness is as courteous and sweet as the mercies of God.
"Cheek to cheek, or mouth to ear, That our lips may whisper
cheer, To our brother in distress; Whom our words can aid and bless. Warn him if
he fails to see, Dangers that are known to thee."
Such are the Five Points of Fellowship of which ours has
been so brief an exposition; may we not add to our thoughts this further
suggestion, that the very manner in which the five points are given to the
candidate is in itself significant of much? If we could only draw as close
together in mind and heart as are the bodies in that ceremony would not a great
deal of our unbrotherliness die of its own accord? Suspicion, jealousies,
frictions, misunderstandings, in how many cases do these spring from the
distance that we permit to lie between ourselves and our fellows! For is not
this the cause of much strife, - not that we are rich, or poor, or learned or
ignorant, but that we are strangers? To know a man better is almost always to
love him better. And who will deny that it is only in such intimacy, wherein
body and mind are mingled, that we are permitted to hear that real Building Word
which is the great secret of Masonry? And who can doubt that in such a
fellowship we are translating into very life and deed the three great principals
of the Order, Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth?
----o----
THE WORD OF GOD
BY BRO. O. B. SLANE, ILLINOIS
In the beginning was the word
That the oath-bound Mason heard,
The Bible says the word
Was with God;
But the gospel of St. John,
As from creation's dawn,
Declares that the word
Was God.
All things by Him were made,
The earth's foundations laid,
Sun, moon and stars obeyed
The voice of God;
From Him came all of life,
Through the struggle and the strifes
By the great Masonic word
Of God.
From the darkness and the night,
Came the glory of the light,
Bursting full upon the sight,
Light of God;
And brethren on the square,
Inspired by faith and prayer,
Beheld in golden glare!
The Word of God.
---o---
It is true that in the
fierce struggle for possession, we come to hate those who possess, and to deny
the right of property when this right is in the hands of others than our own.
But the bitterness of attack against others' possessions is only a new proof of
the extraordinary importance we attach to possession itself. - From “Simple
Life,” by Charles Wagner.
---o---
I would have none of
that rigid and circumspect charity which is never exercised without scrutiny,
and which always mistrusts the reality of the necessities laid open to it. -
Massilon.
---o---
Be just and fear not;
let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, thy God's, and Truth's. -
Shakespeare.
---o---
Let us stand by our
duty fearlessly and effectively. - Lincoln.
LONDON MORNING POST'S ATTACK ON FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, ENGLAND
(Reprinted by permission from the October issue of THE
OCCULT REVIEW)
For seventeen days in succession, ending July 30, "The
Morning Post" published a remarkable series of articles on 'The Cause of World
Unrest," the work of two anonymous writers, with occasional intervention on the
part of leading articles, generalizing on the subjects treated, and of
occasional correspondents, chief among whom is Mrs. Nesta H. Webster, author of
a book issued in 1919 under the title of "The French Revolution." As expressed
in a short announcement of July 12, the articles claim to disclose "the
existence of a revolutionary movement in which Jews and secret societies play a
leading part."
On July 24 another announcement stated that "thousands of
new readers have been taking 'The Morning Post' during the publication of the
series." Accepting this implicitly on the honourable assurance of the oldest
morning paper, I regard it as incumbent on myself to review the whole question,
in so far as it affects the things for which I stand and the dedications of my
literary life. The nature of the secret societies incriminated emerges in
another passage which appeared on July 21 and affirmed (1) that for a long
period of time a conspiracy has been gradually developing for the overthrowing
of the existing Christian form of civilization; (2) that the prime agents of
this conspiracy are Jews and revolutionary Freemasons; and (3) that its object
"is to pave the way for the world supremacy of a chosen people." I propose on my
part to show that the writers are utterly misinformed, where it is possible for
an individual critic to cheek them, and that it would be curious therefore - as
well as difficult to suppose - if they are mainly or substantially correct over
their findings in those political realms which lie beyond my field of research.
It is to be observed that the existence of a plot for "the
destruction of all Christian Empires, Altars and Thrones" is an old Roman
Catholic thesis, put forward long prior to the War. One of the forms which it
took was a review of the Dreyfus case, and it not only made common cause of the
Latin Church against Freemasonry, but seems to have been part of that cause. A
periodical, called La Revue des Societes Secretes, was filled with the case
against Freemasonry and the case against Israel. The management of both issues
was of similar value, being the enumeration and repetition of various less or
more familiar facts on which a false construction was placed, or of statements
that were probably untrue. Both forms being equally effective in impressing
those who were unversed, the first was pursued when possible. My thesis is that
the revelations in The Morning Post on "the cause of world unrest," the "most
formidable sect in the world" and "the terror in France," but especially on "the
red curtain in Freemasonry," the "arriere Loges" and the "ritual of revenge"
bear all the marks and signs of derivation from the same mint, appeal to the
same sources, and are speaking the same language as the French anti-Masonry of
the last thirty years and over. They are the work of writers belonging to the
Latin Church or alternatively content to depend - so far as Freemasonry is
concerned - solely on material which, during the period specified, has been
dished up in various forms for the one purpose with which Rome is concerned on
this side of its activity - namely, the forlorn hope of destroying the
"iniquitous sect" of Masonry, and presumably to maintain at white heat the old
hostility of France to Jewry and all connoted thereby. I speak with a certain
authority, for it happens that I know the leading literature of anti-Masonry, on
what it has depended from the beginning, and the contentions which it will
sustain to the end. It happens also that I am a Freemason, holding the chief
Rites and Degrees, under one or other obedience, that I know the literature of
Freemasonry, its history ab origine symboli and the great cloud of its rituals.
If I flourish, for once in my life, a trumpet of this kind, it is in order that
the anti-Masonic sect, wheresoever dispersed over the world, in whichever of its
disguises, and in this or that of its regular, or casual journals, may learn
exactly where they are. Finally, I am a Christian and Catholic Mystic, and by
Catholicism embraces all that belongs to the eternal in the symbolism of Roman
Doctrine and Ritual. It comes about in this manner, that for me Emblematic
Freemasonry is a Mystery of the relations between God, Man and the Universe, set
forth in the figurative and sacramental forms of sacred ceremonial. It will be
understood on this basis that those various associations which, in France and
other Latin countries, while still wearing an outward guise of Freemasonry,
regard the belief in God and immortality, the intercourse between God and the
soul represented by the Bible and other Sacred Books as matters of personal
opinion - to be held or not according to mental predilection - have made void
their Masonic titles. They are cut off from communion with the vital and
spiritual source: they may be political or not, revolutionary or not,
monarchical and otherwise "reactionary," or the reverse of these; they are in no
case part of my concern. The question is whether the writers in The Morning
Post have followed a line of accusation which incriminates all Freemasonry even
when it offers a distinction; and the answer is that they have. Out of this
there arises the further question whether they and the Roman Catholic crusaders,
on whom they depend, are competent witnesses on the Masonic side of their
subject; and the answer is that they are not.
It is obvious and goes without saying that the articles are
not written by Masons holding under any obedience, and my thesis is that they
betray the most extraordinary ignorance on elementary matters respecting the
Craft and its developments. It is recognized from the beginning that English
Freemasonry is not to be included by their sweeping thesis concerning universal
revolution, but it is affirmed that "there is Freemasonry and Freemasonry." More
correctly there is Freemasonry and there are things which masquerade in its
likeness but do not belong thereto. Any one acquainted with the subject would
know that true Freemasonry is neither English nor English-speaking only, neither
British, Colonial nor American, to the exclusion of other countries. It is
certain that prior to the War Germanic Freemasonry had no poisoned wells of
political concern. There are also other countries - and I should place Sweden
among them - where "pure and ancient Freemasonry," with some flowers of its
later development, are equally uncontaminated as to root and branch and
blossom. But having made the distinction in question, like a proverbial sop to
Cerberus, the articles proceed to ingarner some time-immemorial charges of
French origin against Templar Freemasonry and the Scottish Rite as one of its
custodians, which is a charge against English as well as continental bodies.
The writers seem unaware that there are great Templar jurisdictions in England,
Scotland and Ireland, and also Supreme Councils of the Thirty-Third Degree. I
have said therefore that their line of accusation incriminates all Freemasonry,
even when it claims to do otherwise. It is not that there is "malice
afore-thought," of which I find no signs; but the writers have entered a field
which calls for special knowledge, and they have not even a smattering. They
affirm, for example, that there are at least thirty-three degrees of Masonry,
whereas there are fourteen hundred in the historical list of Ragon, and over two
hundred less or more in activity at the present day.
It is impossible within the limits of this study to
enumerate all the misconceptions, but the following examples may stand for the
whole. (1) To illustrate an alleged vengeance formula in the Craft rituals, it
is said that the candidate for the grade of Master hears for the first time of a
murdered founder, whose fate has to be avenged. This is erroneous. The legend
is concerned with an assassination which is represented as duly expiated in the
order of law and justice. There is no arriere pensee and there is no
consequence in the life of Craft Masonry. It will be seen that this invention
inculpates English Masonry as associated with a vendetta which is foisted on
Masonry abroad. (2) It is said correctly that there is the quest of a Lost Word
in Masonry, which Word is arbitrarily affirmed to be Jehovah, and explained -
with unthinkable logic - to signify natural religion. There is no such meaning
tolerated by the orthodox Grades. There are various Sacred Names, carrying
their proper philological import; in branches of Masonry belonging to the
symbolical time of the Old Covenant they are derived for the most part from the
Old Testament; but in those which belong to the New and Eternal Covenant the
Name is Christ. (3) The last misconception which I shall notice among points of
ritual and symbolism is the folly that terms the Craft degrees Jewish, thus
implicitly connecting them - under all their obediences, English and continental
- with an alleged Jewish peril. It is obvious that allegories dealing with
Solomon's Temple must contain Jewish material in the nature of things. The
imbecility is to draw any inference therefrom as to the work of Jews in
Masonry. Even "the Word of God" is Jewish in the Old Testament, yet I fail to
see that the circulation of the Scriptures is playing into the hands of Israel,
in order that it may possess the world. The Craft rituals as we have them are
the work of Christian hands, Protestant enough in all conscience and therefore
suspect by Rome; but Jewry had no share therein.
(4) Passing now from ceremonial questions to matters of
external fact, it is affirmed that Philippe Egalite, Duc d'Orleans, was not only
Grand Master of the Grand Orient - a creation, by the way, of 1773 - but of the
Templars also. Now, it so happens that The Morning Post does not know what it
means when it speaks of Templar grades. There were something like six Rites
incorporating this element, all independent in origin, working and history.
Philippe Egalite stood at the head of none. The only purely Templar Rite in
France during his reign as Master was the Strict Observance, the titular patron
of which was in Germany, not in France where a Lyonnese merchant, named J.B.
Willermoz, was Provincial Grand Master of Auvergne. A certain Council of
Emperors possessed the Templar Kadosh Grade, but it was not a Templar Rite.
Philippe Egalite took such an active interest in Masonry and had so great a
faith in its possibilities that when he was elected Grand Master in 1771 his
presence could be hardly secured for installation; and he exhibited the
uttermost negligence in that capacity, while in 1793 he repudiated Freemasonry
in the Journal de Paris. He affirmed that it had once presented to his mind "an
image of equality," but that he had found the reality and so left the phantom.
He was further of opinion that there should be no mystery and no secret assembly
in a republic. The Grand Orient declared the headship vacant and a few months
later the guillotine closed the question so far as the quondam Grand Master was
concerned. These are the facts, with which we may compare the long since
exploded fictions reproduced by The Morning Post on the subject of Philippe
Egalite engineering his vast machine of Masonry to consummate revolution.
(5) It is affirmed that Frederick the Great of Prussia was
Grand Master of a world-wide system of Freemasonry. He was nothing of the
kind. Masonic historians would take a natural pride in giving such a
celebrated, if not illustrious, personality an important position in the Order;
but the most that can be shown is that he was President of the Grand Lodge of
the Three Globes at Berlin, his correspondence with which remains to exhibit how
far away the connection was. The old, old story of the old false charter which
represents him creating a Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite as a system of
Thirty-three degrees is put forward as an historical fact, but it has been
abandoned long since by Masonic scholarship worthy of the name. (6) Reflecting
here as elsewhere the parti pris of Abbe Burruel, the Lodge of Les Amis Reunis
and the Rite of the Philalethes are represented as arrieres Loges in which the
Revolution was plotted. They were an open lodge and an open Rite existing in the
face of day. The account is otherwise muddled, representing Savlette de Langes
as belonging to the former and not the latter whereas he belonged to both, and
was so much the moving spirit of the second that it is supposed to have
suspended its labours when he died. As a matter of fact the Rite was founded
within the bosom of the lodge, and the Convention of Paris, held in 1784,
indicates at full length the real nature of its concerns. Fortunately the chief
documents on which Burruel relies for his foolish account are in my possession:
they are concerned with the occult sciences, not with Revolution.
(7) There is another and to me more important matter. The
great French mystic, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, is represented as a political
"fanatic" and a member of the alleged revolutionary lodges. This is partly on
the authority of Barruel and partly on that of a converted Jew, named Lemann,
who became a Roman Catholic priest. The latter affirms that Saint-Martin
"developed" the "sect" of Pasqually after the latter's death. I cast back the
statements into the mouths of their makers. The French mystic had no sect, no
Rite, though he had a great number of unincorporated disciples. He did not
belong to the Rite of the Philalethes or Les Amis Reunis. He became a Mason in
his youth, but left the Order to follow "the inward way." I appeal to my Life of
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, published in 1900. (8) As regards Martines de
Pasqually - whose very name is blundered, still following Barruel - The Morning
Post affirms that he "worked in France on very much the same lines as Weishaupt,"
founder of the Illuminati, "worked in Germany." In reply to this amazing
rubbish, I appeal to the same work of twenty years since, and need only add here
that in such case Weishaupt worked in "occult communications" by virtue of which
it was supposed that - the Christ of Palestine instructed the Brethren of
Pasqually's Masonic Rite of Elect Priests - Rit des Elus Cohens - according to
that which was called in their terminology la voie sensible. It is a new view
of the German revolution-manger, and The Morning Post will find that "second
thoughts are best." As against some other misstatements of Lemann and Abbe
Barruel, Pasqually was not a Jew. He was born in the parish of Notre Dame
(Saint-Hugues), town and diocese of Grenoble. The baptism of one of his
children on June 20, 1768, is on record in the municipal archives of Bordeaux.
(9) In or about the year 1780 that brilliant adventurer who called himself Count
Cagliostro, founded a Rite of Egyptian Masonry, which filled for a brief period
the Masonic world of France with wonder. This also is garnered by The Morning
Post into its indiscriminate net of revolution-plots. There could be nothing
more antecedently ridiculous, and again it happens that the rituals are in my
possession, while I am acquainted otherwise at first hand with the written laws
and constitutions. Egyptian Masonry was an occult Rite, belonging to Hermetic
Masonry and more especially designed to sustain the claims of Cagliostro as
possessing the Great Secret of the Universal Medicine. I observe that the author
of the article under notice identifies the "Grand Copht" with Joseph Balsamo, so
he has not read the evidence against this view produced by Mr. W. R. Trowbridge,
who is not a Mason and has no job in Romanism or revolution questions.
After this enumeration there remain over three matters
which deserve studies set apart to each. I have indicated a root-opinion on the
part of The Morning Post that the Templar Movement in Masonry is contained
within the measures of a single system, being in fact the Scottish Rite - a
somewhat inchoate collection of thirty high grades superposed on those of the
Craft. It is a development from that Council of Emperors, which superposed
twenty-two Grades, and as regards both they are not Templar Rites in the proper
sense of the words. The Rite of the Strict Observance was solely and militantly
Templar, ab origine symboli. It superposed three Grades, of which the first -
or Master of St. Andrew's - formed a connecting link between the Craft and two
exceedingly important modes of Templar chivalry. It used to be said that it was
Jacobite at the inception, but was certainly not. Here for the first time -
albeit by implication only - it is accused of political purpose, under the Duke
of Brunswick. As a fact the writer in The Morning Post does not know that he is
impeaching the Strict Observance: he seems to think in his state of confusion
that the Duke of Brunswick was "Grand Master of the German Freemasons" because
he was Grand Master of certain Ecossais lodges. As regards the Scottish Rite -
Antiquos Scoticus Ritus Acceptus, as it is called in the forged Constitutions -
it did not come into existence till 1801, and then at Charleston, U. S. A. In
this connection the articles remind us that Stephen Morin carried a warrant from
Grand Consistory of Masons, countersigned by the Grand Orient, to America, and
there began to confer high grade powers on a number of Jews, among them
Hippolyto Joseph Da Costa, who was not a Jew at all, and at a subsequent date
Would have died in the hands of the Holy Inquisition at Lisbon, if he had not
been rescued by English Masons, facts perhaps naturally omitted by writers in
The Morning Post. So much for Morin. We hear also in 1901 of the first Supreme
Council in Charleston when Jews were again prominent, among them being Frederick
Dalcho. Our contemporary is unfortunate, for Dalcho, who was of Prussian origin
and English birth, was for twenty two years a priest of the American Episcopal
Church, and a monument to his memory is still standing in the vestry of St.
Michael's at Charleston. These are the kind of qualifications which pronounce
on "Red Masonry" and presume to talk of revolution in connection with the
Scottish Rite. The same fatal blundering pursues the articles when they proceed
to Albert Pike and his work in the Southern Jurisdiction of that obedience. The
writer is of course unaware that Pike reconstructed the rituals and that they
stand therefore at his value as a symbolist and critical scholar: the value is
unfortunately very slight. But those who suggest that he imported revolutionary
notions into his Masonic Order are talkers of rank nonsense, and the quotation
from his Morals and Dogma which is made in Article IV, on the profanation of
Masonry by plotters of anarchy - whatever its value as history - is sufficient
as to his own position. Among the evidences offered to the contrary are ritual
counsels to destroy Ignorance, Tyranny and Fanaticism. Very well: be it agreed
that this is part of the design of Masonry. Does The Morning Post stand for
ignorance, stand for Tyranny, and stand for Fanaticism? No; but Roman
Anti-Masonry - which it reflects throughout the Masonic part of these articles -
invariably regards every plan for their removal as a siege laid against the
walls of its particular Spiritual City. As one who knows all the rituals of the
Scottish Rite and has made a long critical study of many codices of each, I am
in a position to check wild statements respecting their content. For example, I
am familiar with some twenty separate and independent versions of the Rose
Croix, and I affirm that Barruel lied when he said that the French ritual
current at his period represents Christ as "a common Jew crucified for his
crimes." I challenge The Morning Post and its anonymous contributors to produce
any codex which does. In France then, as in England now, Christ - for the Rose
Croix - is the Son of God and Lord of Glory. I lay down the same challenge
respecting alleged "subversive forms of Freemasonry" working "a ritual of hatred
for the Cross." Templar or non-Templar, there are no such grades. The Cross is
an object of veneration in Christian Masonry, and in some of the "philosophized"
degrees it is treated as an universal symbol. Now the Templar rituals were
Christian in all their forms during the eighteenth century, but a few were
philosophized afterwards. The Rite of the Strict Observance has been always
Christian. Here again I know all its rituals, including those which are held in
great secrecy. They were communicated to me after the same long delay and under
the same great reserves as was done presumably in the past. They are neither of
Stuart legitimacy nor of continental anarchy: they belong to things of the
spirit and God known of the heart; and the Templar Order in Britain - where it
is governed by Great Priory - in the Colonies and America, belongs to the same
category. This notwithstanding, the claim to descend from the old Knights
Templar is a myth and pure invention. Couteulx de Canteleu is a false witness on
this subject, just as Copin Albancelli is an hysterique insatiable about the
Jews.
I pass now to the German Order of Illuminati. It may have
been observed that the root-authority on which The Morning Post depends for its
case against Masonry is Abbe Barruel, in an almost forgotten work, entitled
Memoirs of Jacobinism. He is said to trace the origin of the French Revolution
through a bewildering maze of secret societies; but as a fact his societies are
Masonic, plus German Illuminism, the position regarding the latter being one of
extreme simplicity. The Bavarian Order of Illuminati was founded by Adam
Weishaupt in 1776, and it was suppressed by the Elector of Bavaria in 1789, some
of its active members and the author of its more advanced rituals having
withdrawn previously. Those who say that "it was continued in more secret forms"
have never produced one item of real evidence. The Morning Post affirms that
the Illuminate came out of their seclusion and at tempted a revolution at Berlin
in 1918. There is again not a shadow of proof that they did anything of the
kind, though a few revolutionaries of that date took over some catchwords
adopted by the original gang. Weishaupt assumed in his Order the name of
Spartacus, and The Morning Post reproduces a question raised by Mrs Webster -
namely, whether it was "mere coincidence" that the Spartacists of modern Germany
"adopted the pseudonym of their fellow-countryman and predecessor of the
eighteenth century." The simple and obvious answer is that it was not
coincidence but imitation. Mrs. Webster is not of any importance on this part
of the subject, but she has been cited often and has intervened at length in the
debate. It may be well to point out that she seems to be a member of the Roman
Communion, as shown by her invariable allusion to the "Catholic Church," meaning
the Latin or Roman Rite. Her historical accuracy appears on August 3, when she
quotes an address of Lamartine to "his fellow-Masons." Now, in that speech
Lamartine mentioned expressly that he was "not a Freemason," and did not
understand "the particular language" of the Order. Mrs. Webster may or may not
have read the address which she cites: her evidence is not to be trusted in
either case. For the rest, I can tell Mrs. Webster and all others who are
concerned that the Order of Illuminate was revived in Germany to my certain
knowledge about 1893; that I have all its rituals, all its Statutes,
Constitutions and so forth; that it had nothing to do with polities and nothing
with revolution. It follows from all the evidence that Barruel was not
"justified by time" in his fantastic thesis of survival. The "formidable sect"
mentioned by Mr. Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on November 5, 1919,
is certainly not a succession from Adam Weishaupt. As a scheme of universal
revolution German Illuminism looks formidable in the light of those archives
which were published by the Bavarian Elector. So also does the Masonic Rite of
Mizraim, with its Laws, Statutes and vast mass of arrangements, not to speak of
the rituals representing its ninety Grades, suggest to an unfamiliar mind that
it was a thing of great moment and very wide diffusion, but the cumbrous scheme
never kept half-a-dozen chapters together, of all its Senates and all its
Areopagite Councils. It was and remains a scheme on paper, and this is the
description applying to the archives of German Illuminism, which were magnified
in the mind of Barruel till they looked like a colossal conspiracy diffused
everywhere. I agree with Lord Acton that the "appalling thing" is the design in
matters of this kind, but in the present case it is also the thing ridiculous,
for Weishaupt's House of Revolution was a house of cards, and the sands on which
it was built were the parchments on which he wrote. His scheme was in
concealment behind the ignorance of its members, and there was no influential
centre to move the puppets on the external stage. There was the amiable
enthusiast Baron von Knigge, who wrote up the advanced rituals and retired
altogether when Weishaupt wanted to correct them.
It is gross exaggeration to suggest that the Illuminati
were "in secret control of a multitude of lodges throughout Germany," for there
was no such multitude in existence; it is gross exaggeration to say that
Freemasons were "initiated in shoals" by von Knigge at the Convention of
Wilhelmsbad in 1782. But if both statements were literal no magnitude of
external membership would have made Illuminism a living reality when there was
no vitality behind it. This is the general answer to the thesis of Barruel and
to those who at this day have turned to bis forgotten book. It answers also the
question of the articles, whether the German Illuminate were the only or chief
sect which had a hand in the French Revolution. It was too invertebrate from
the beginning to have had a practical hand in anything, and it had passed out of
existence. The mark which it left upon Masonry was in Southern Germany, where
the downfall of the one Order caused the suppression of the other. All that is
said about Mirabeau, his visit to Berlin and his plot to "illuminize" French
Freemasonry, may be disposed of in one sentence: there is no evidence to show
that Mirabeau ever became a Mason. The province of Barruel was to colour
everything, and he laid on the blacks and the scarlets with lavish brushes. But
he was largely confined to the documents, and it is just one of those cases in
which documents produce a false impression, for the reasons given.
The next point is possibly the grand divertissement of
all. Those who are entitled to speak about secret societies in France at the
end of the nineteenth century are aware that Leo Taxil flaunted in the face of
Paris his public confession that everything concerned with Diana Vaughan, the
Universal Masonic Directorium, its supreme pontificate, Lucifer in the High
Grades and Le Diable au XIX (e) Siecle, were impositions of his own invention.
Every one knows that Dr. Batame, otherwise Dr. Hacks, whose name appears as
author of this work, had confessed previously, deriding the credulity of "catholics."
I have always felt sure that there would be a recrudescence of these mendacities
when people had forgotten the circumstances which led to their public exposure;
but I did not expect it to occur in the columns of The Morning Post.
I have now done. On the basis of these findings I deny
that evidence has been produced for the hand of Freemasonry even in the French
Revolution. The contrast made by Louis Blanc between Craft degrees for those who
were to be kept in the dark and "occult lodges" for the elect is opposed by the
history of French High Grades. The latter were as much open to those who sought
them as anything in the Craft itself. In the sense of Louis Blanc there were no
occult lodges. I am sure, however, that French Freemasonry was a finger-post
pointing in the direction of revolution. The Masonic watchwords of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity were like a passing bell ringing out the old order. And
the French Revolution was like the German Reformation, a pretty bad thing, but
it had to come. The factory of the one was not in "shadowy sanctuaries" but in
the French Court, while in the other the factory was at Rome.
The question of Co-Masonry I leave to those who are
concerned. The lodges and chapters are illicit from the standpoint of the Grand
Lodge of England, under whose obedience I abide as a Mason. The reasons are
that it initiates women and is empowered by an irregular jurisdiction. But I
believe that The Morning Post has discovered another mare's nest, while it is
specifically wrong as usual on its points of fact. The French Lodge Libres
Penseuirs did not transform into Le Droit Humain; the Order is not oriental; and
its devotion to the supposed Comte de St. Germain is an incident of theosophical
revelations.
As regards Latin Freemasonry in this twentieth century, I
hold no brief whatever. Wheresoever dispersed over continental Europe it may be
playing the game of politics, as it is aid to do in South America; but there is
of course no concerted effort as there is no central direction; and I have not
heard a single name of importance cited in connection with the alleged doings.
It would serve, I should think, no purpose for any serious government to concern
itself with the scattered groups unless and until they are caught in overt acts.
I have now reviewed the whole position, and as regards
"perils" and "protocols" I make no claim to know; but having spent a great part
of my literary life in the criticism and exposure of fraudulent documents, one
has acquired a certain instinctive - or shall I say expert? - sense on the
subject. The protocols are stolen documents, presumably of French origin and
therefore suspect, because in Roman Catholic circles of that country the animus
against Israel has ranked second only to that against Masonry. Admittedly also
there is no evidence in support of them, though they are taken on faith at their
face value by both writers in The Morning Post. For myself I can say only that
if the alleged fact of a Jewish Peril rests on no firmer ground than these
documents, we may reach an aureum saeculum redivivum before an universal social
cataclysm. For me they are not suspect; they take their place in the class to
which I have referred. I shall believe in the protocols and their Elders of
Israel when I believe in the Charter of Cologne, the Charter of Larmenius, and
the Ecossais Constitution of Frederick the Great.
----o----
Our Order occupies an enviable position in the eyes of the
world. It is regarded as a pioneer in advancing civilization, a bulwark of civic
righteousness, liberty loving and God serving. Such a reputation has been earned
and won by generations of constant loyalty and devotion to the traditions,
purposes, and fundamental teachings of Masonry.
The prohibition of proselyting and importuning of men to
join our ranks has been a great contributing factor in the enduring success of
our organziation. Quality, not quantity, is our like blood.
- Leon M. Abott, Grand Master, Massachusetts
----o----
The best preparation for the right is to work diligently
while the day lasts. The best preparation for death is lief.
- Macdonald
EDITORIAL
MASONRY AND THE PROBLEMS OF MEN
THE WHOLE purpose of
philosophy is attained when men are enabled to think clearly and act wisely. To
this end has the thought of all great philosophers been directed. Long before
Plato, through his persistent questioning, strove to elicit from men their
knowledge as to what constituted truth and virtue, eager souls had been groping
for the light that makes men free.
No man, having once
rightly apprehended the significance of Freemasonry, will be blind to the
necessity of men directing their lives by some sort of a philosophy. A man's
philosophy is the reason he gives for the deeds he executes in life. And his
life in turn is the great witness to the richness or the poverty of his
philosophy.
Of the making of books
there is no end, and so saying we are but re-echoing the conclusions of a
probable ancient brother. Such too may be said of philosophy. Of philosophies
there is no end. But what wonderful understanding would one need to select
wisely and value justly, for his own governance and happiness, a practical and
workable philosophy from among such a number. This task is for the scholar, as
most of us in this busy world have not the time to devote to intense studies.
Masonry rests on the principles of the first great elemental philosophy, “Belief
in God and the immortality of the soul.” Providentally for us Freemasonry has
preserved the record of man's early thinking. Thus a philosophy of life has been
brought down to us which is radiant with a beautiful simplicity, and nowhere is
it more practical than in its application to the social and governmental
activities of men.
Someone has told us
that Masonry is philosophy teaching by symbol, even as History is philosophy
teaching by example. In Masonry we have a philosophy that is practical for life
and conduct everywhere and all the time. It is a sign of a new day for Masonry
that the Masonic Service Association of the United States is confirming this
conception. Evidently the most important work to be done now is to emphasize
fundamentals. To do this effectively we must go back to the Landmarks of the
Fraternity. Masonic philosophy is embodied in those Landmarks. To translate
those Landmarks into civic duty and to bring to each Mason a realization of his
own part is the task of the Service Association. If the appreciation of the
individual Mason for these principles can be aroused the possibilities of the
Service Association program will be fulfilled. He who recognizes the value of
such an interpretation will live it. When not only one Mason but two million of
them apply Masonic principles to the era of readjustment and reconstruction
which now lies before us, our government and our society will be stabilized. By
such a process only can humane and righteous conditions be established on the
earth.
Masonic philosophy
enjoins that life must be viewed reasonably. As if to assure man that the time
requisite for such contemplation shall be set aside, it has measured the day
into proportionate parts. Eight hours of the twenty-four, it is impressed upon
the new initiate, is for the service of God and a distressed worthy brother,
eight for work, and eight for rest and refreshment. It must not be implied that
a specified form of worship is enjoined in the hours that have reference to God.
Neither is it implied that we are literally to seek out a brother daily that we
may relieve him of his distress, which usually is understood to mean his bodily
necessity.
It is not altogether a
modern thought that we can worship through our work, but it is a thought that
can be reconsidered to advantage, especially in this day. Our work then must be
worship and the period designated as being set aside for the service of God must
be devoted to our spiritual enrichment, and not in ways derogatory to the growth
of man's nobler self.
There are those to
whom every form of work is drudgery. They cannot think of work in terms of
service. They cannot understand that any task, no matter how menial, can be
dignified by a definite aim. Perhaps they see in the evolution of industry that
the man who was once a skilled handicraftsman is now a mere cog in a machine. If
they would turn the canvas around they would see what a boon to humanity as a
whole intensive production has become. They know that the unhealthy conditions
in factories a generation or two ago have given way to sanitation and comfort.
Some are pessimistic and feel that these improvements, like many others, have
been won from unwilling employers. Often this is true but on the other hand we
must remember that it was some considerate employer who first realized the
relation between pleasant sutroundings and efficiency.
The alienation of
employer and employee, creating a condition of almost social anarchy, is
gradually being bridged. The idea that is going to prevail after the wage and
profit issues are adjusted, is that they are co-partners. Whether the work to be
done be simple or intricate, it is as co-operators that good work, square work,
the best work can be done. In arriving at such mutual relationship the Masonic
teaching regarding the right use of the day will not only be appreciated but
applied. No doubt, as some theorists are fond of exclaiming, the world's work
could be done in infinitely less time if everybody worked, or rather if every
ablebodied man worked. But just at present we are not living in any Utopian
realm; we are living in the United States where eight hours a day, worked and
not shirked, is considered the requisite for both comfort and success.
To what use do we put
the eight hours of rest after our eight hours of labor are over? We chance to
live where the eight hour day is in vogue and our observation in traveling lends
weight to our personal conclusion as deducted from conditions at home. Are these
young men who loaf and upon whose hands time seems to be heavily hanging doing
anything commensurate with a service to God or a distressed worthy brother?
We fear that they are
rather of those who brood sulkily over working conditions and are naturally the
prey of fanatical agitators. It is the conclusion of some of our keenest
students that Young America is neither reading nor thinking. In this Young
America must be included many who display upon their coats the square and
compass. Had the Masonic ritual told them its full story, they would know how to
employ the other eight hours, and their lives would prove it.
- Robert Tipton.
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.
It will be our aim to
publish in this Department each month a list of such publications as we may be
able from time to time to secure for members of the Society. However, a book
listed herein this month may be out of stock next month, and further copies
unobtainable, and for this reason it is recommended that when ordering books or
pamphlets from these lists the latest monthly issue of THE BUILDER be consulted,
and no orders be made from lists more than thirty days old.
In the monthly reviews
the names and addresses of the publishers of the books are given in order that
our readers may order such books direct from the publishers instead of through
the Society. In many instances the books may be found in stock at local book
stores.
THE BALKAN SITUATION
'The Balkans,” by William M. Sloan. Published by the
Abingdon Press, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Price $3.00.
WE HAVE found “The
Balkans,” a laboratory of history, to be both a very readable and serviceable
book. Professor Sloan, an astute student and keen observer, has portrayed, as
few men can portray, the Balkan situation of past and present, and his prophetic
utterances regarding the future may yet prove to be attended with considerable
degree of fulfilment. That he has kept pace with the making of history is more
than evident. A keen and observing traveler, his pictures of the various peoples
that inhabit the Balkan Peninsula are highly interesting. What difficulties will
be encountered in the readjustment of Europe to normalcy, under the proposed
League of Nations, are markedly designated in Professor Sloan's work.
A brief work, yet so
comprehensive and so prophetically uttered. We are advised that it is in popular
demand by students of history everywhere. Impartiality of judgment is manifest
throughout, and a thorough, fair treatment of the problems of the small
nationalities that make the Balkans has been splendidly accomplished.
* * *
SOME CHARMING VERSES
“Japanese Prints,” by John Gould Fletcher. Published by The
Four Seas Company, 67 Cornhill Street, Boston, Mass.
Mutual
acquaintanceship among peoples will do much to dispell those illusions that
arise as a result of ignorance and bigotry and are too often the great potent
factors that generate wars. We are reminded of the story told of Charles Lamb
who at one time evinced his hatred for a chance passer-by. When called upon to
explain the grounds for his intense dislike, his quiet naive reply was that he
did not know the man, otherwise he could not hate him. No doubt the essayist
just then was desiring to teach a valuable lesson. In the preface to “Japanese
Prints,” John Gould Fletcher has very pointedly signified the reason why we
should become acquainted with the best of the literature of the Orient.
His apt and capable
distinction of the differences between the mysticism of the East and that oil
the West is charmingly stated. The only difference, says he, between the Eastern
and Western mystic, is that one sees the world in the grain of sand and tells
you all about it, the other sees and lets his silence imply that he knows its
meaning. Later he also speaks of the necessity of sitting at the feet of the
great poets of the Orient if the desirable and coveted simplicity in English
poetry is to be again achieved.
Through the medium of
his delicate and sensuous poems we are brought into a noble relationship with
the genius that can appreciate the beautiful and spiritual in life without being
continuously desirous of playing the role of interpreter.
It is the genius that
apprehends divinity in things both great and small. Affected writing about the
emotional and subjective are very much taboo in the poetry of the Orient and it
is conspicuously absent in the “Japanese Prints.” There is much to learn about
the purpose of poetry as we read these songs that universalize instead of
personalize emotions. and employ the imagery of descriptions that ranges from
clouds to pebbles. The impersonal is the crown that glorifies this little
volume.
* * *
AN INSPIRATIONAL BOOK FOR “YOUNG AMERICA”
“The Man Who Dares,” by Leon C. Prince. Published by the
Abingdon Press, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Price $1.00.
A timely little book,
appealing to “Young America” to make good after the manner revealed in the lives
of those who dared to do great things. It is a work full of inspiration to young
life and takes its place in importance with those productions of modern
philosophers of optimism, ever holding out to the present generation the vision
of its possibilities, if right thinking and sane, intelligent action are its
portion.
That the author, who,
by the way, is a college professor, has a comprehensive understanding of the
problems of young life, is revealed by the masterly and incisive telling of the
truth with which he deals.
* * *
AN INTERESTING BOOK OF FICTION
“The White Moll,” by Frank Packard. Published by the George
H. Doran Company, 38 West 32nd Street, New York, N. Y.
Rarely have we been
thrilled by a tale of life in the Undenvorld as we have been by the reading of
Frank Packard's “White Moll.” It is a charming story written in a recent style,
and packed with climaxes that keep one perpetually alert as to what is going to
transpire next. Free from the taints of modern fiction, (burdened too frequently
with the salacious), it follows the adventures of a charming young woman who by
strange experiences comes to be regarded with both fear and veneration by the
habitues of the Underworld.
It is a novel
calculated for summer reading with almost old-fashioned villians and plots to
read about, that after reading can leave one as wholesome as when one started to
read. Frank Packard is striking an old key in a new way among fiction writers.
* * *
ESSAYS ON PIONEER DAYS IN OHIO AND THE MIDDLE WEST
“Wild Turkeys and Tallow Candles,” by Ellen Hayes.
Published by The Four Seas Company, 67 Cornhill Street, Boston, Mass.
A fascinating book of
essays that adds much to the historical literature of pioneer days in Ohio and
the Middle West has just been published by the Four Seas Company under the title
of “Wild Turkeys and Tallow Candles.” Its author, Ellen Hayes, a former
professor at Wellesley College, has put all of the charm of the days she
describes into her book and in a series of vivid pictures has given us a
first-hand knowledge of the hardships, the thrift, the courage and the devotion
that characterized the old settlers of the days between 1800 and the Civil War.
* * *
A TIMELY SATIRE
“1200 A Year,” by Edna Ferber and Newman Levy. Published by
Doubleday, Page and Company, Garden City, N. Y.
We are told that this
play is a timely satire on the absurdities of professors at $1200 a year, and
street sweepers at $2500 a year, and will go “on the boards” this Fall.
It is a splendid and
humorous arraignment of the shabby genteel and pauper respectability as it is
frequently evidenced in the under-paid teachers and college professors. It is a
delightful treatment of the day laborer, who is remunerated lavishly for minding
trains, while those who train minds are subjected to gross, humiliating
circumstances. This is a promise of the satirical literature that must come into
being to help in the solution of our present social and economical difficulties.
It is a human picture, such as we are all familiar with, and dealt with in a
fashion that is both healthy and suggestive.
* * *
“A BUNCH OF EVERLASTINGS”
“A Bunch of Everlastings,” by F. W. Boreham. Published by
the Abingdon Press, 160 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
We have thoroughly
enjoyed the perusal of this volume of sermon essays dealing with texts that have
made history. Their charm lies chiefly in the manner in which the texts are
revealed to be related to the lives of great men. Only recently has the author
of these essays been brought to our notice, but the facility with which he
wields the pen, evidencing a brilliancy of mind, makes us desire to read more of
what he has written. A refreshing power is felt throughout this little work and
none who read can help but be profoundly touched as they learn of the
significant part that these texts have played upon the lives of men so far apart
in time as Sir Frances Xavier, John Bunyan, Wilberforce and Sir Walter Scott.
The essays are inspirational, reassuring and comforting.
* * *
ADDRESSES OF BISHOP BASHFORD
“The Demand for Christ,” by Bishop James W. Bashford.
Published by The Methodist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. Price
$1.50.
We are advised by the
President of the De Pauw University that the many requests for the publication
of the addresses of Bishop Bashford was the cause of the issuance of the present
volume. That this noted churchman was a statesman of no small calibre is
emphasized in more than one of the addresses in this book. His utterances on
“America and World Democracy” and “Christianity and Education” are destined to
be pertinent reading for a long time to come. These addresses contain the best
of the good Bishop's heart and brain. Their inspirational power is a dynamic
incentive to right living.
* * *
THE WORDS OF A COMING PLAYWRIGHT
“Plays,” by Susan Glaspell. Published by Small, Maynard &
Co., 15 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. Price $2.00.
We have in these plays
the indication of the rise of a great American dramatist. Her analytical sense,
both penetrating and keen, has enabled her to hold up to view many of the
foibles and the idiosyncrasies of our social life.
There is a wisdom
pervading these plays that challenges thought. Susan Glaspell may indeed well be
hailed as one of the most powerful of American dramatists contributing today to
the making of American literature. We shall await with interest for further
productions from this gifted playwright.
DECEMBER BOOK LIST
The following list
embraces practically all the standard works on Masonry which we are able to
secure and keep in stock for the accommodation of individual members of the
Society, Study Clubs and Lodges.
We are finding it more
difficult each year to procure new or second-hand copies of the earlier works on
Masonry of which, owing to the limited market for them at the time of their
publication, but a small number of copies were printed.
We are continually in
search for additional items which will be listed in this column whenever it is
our good fortune to secure them.
It is suggested that
the latest list be consulted before sending in orders and that no orders be made
from lists more than one month old, since our stock of these books is limited
and a book listed this month may be out of stock by the time next month's list
is published.
Since the publishers
are constantly increasing their prices to us the following prices are subject to
such changes.
PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BY THE SOCIETY
1915 bound volume of THE BUILDER $3.75
1916 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1917 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1918 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1919 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
Philosophy of Freemasonry, Pound 1.25
Freemasonry in America Prior to 1750, Melvin M. Johnson,
P.G.M., Massachusetts 1.35
1722 Constitutions ( reproduced by photographic plates from
an original copy in the archives of the Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids).
Edition limited, 2.00
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," Bro. J. W.
Barry, P. G. M., Iowa, red buffing binding, gilt lettering, illustrated. A story
of the Flag and Masonry, 1.25
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," paper covers .50
"Further Notes on the Comacine Masters," W. Ravenscroft,
England. A sequel to "The Comacines, Their Predecessors and Their Successors," a
Masonic digest of Leader Scott's book "The Cathedral Builders" and containing
the latest researches of Brother Ravenscroft which present a very logical
argument for the connection of Freemasonry of the present day with the Roman
Collegia and traveling Masons of the early times, paper covers,
illustrated .50
Symbolism of the First Degree, Gage, pamphlet .15
Symbolism of the Third Degree, Ball, pamphlet .15
Symbolism of the Three Degrees, Street, 68 pages, paper
covers. The lessons and symbols of each degree traced to their origin, in every
instance that it has been possible to so trace them. Brother Street gives many
explanations of our symbols in this little book on which our monitors but
vaguely touch .35
Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, Waite,
pamphlet .15
“A Vest Pocket History of Freemasonry,” by Brother H. L.
Haywood. (Special prices on lot orders for 25 or more copies for presentation
purposes) .25
“What an Entered Apprentice Ought to Know,” by Hal Riviere.
(Special prices on lot orders for 25 or more copies for presentation purposes.)
Pamplet, paper covers .15
* * *
PUBLICATIONS FROM OTHER SOURCES IN IN STOCK AT ANAMOSA
"The Builders," a Story and Study of Masonry, by Brother
Joseph Fort Newton, formerly Editor-in-Chief of THE BUILDER $ 1.75
Mackey's Encyclopaedia, 1919 edition, in two volumes, Black
Fabrikoid binding 16.00
Symbolism of Freemasonry, A. G. Mackey 3.15
Masonic Jurisprudence, A. G. Mackey 3.15
Masonic Parliamentary Law, A. G. Mackey 2.65
“Freemasonry Before the existance of Grand Lodges,” Lionel
Vibert. A digest of the researches of Gould, Hughan, Rylands, Speth and others
on the origin and early history of Masonry 1.75
Concise History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould 4.50
Collected Essays on Freemasonry, Gould 7.00
* * *
The foregoing prices include postage and insurance or
registration fee on all items except pamphlets. The latter will be sent by
regular mail not insured or registered.
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY FUNERAL SERVICE NEEDED
For many years I have
refused to recommend, defend or excuse what seems to me the atrocious burial
service laid down in our Masonic trestleboard.
I am convinced that we
should no longer delay the providing of some funeral or burial service that will
be more in keeping with the spirit and faith of the twentieth century. The
present ritual service is cold, stilted, formal and comfortless. A service that
should bring some ray of comfort and of hope has too often brought a deeper
sense of sorrow and despair. Let us have a form that will give expression to the
true Masonic faith in the immortality of man, the supporting, protecting and
comforting power of an ever present and all loving God. Then indeed shall the
trembling lips of the widow and orphan tell us how blessed is the sacred
ministry of Masonry.
Leon M. Abbott, Grand Master, Massachusetts.
* * *
The Committee on
Burial Service reported to the Massachusetts Grand Lodge the following
recommendations covering the preparation of a Masonic burial service:
“1. The Masonic burial
service should be complete in itself. That is to say, it should be so arranged
that it could be used as a complete service in case there were no church or
other service held. It should, however, be so arranged that it could be readily
shortened so as to be used in connection with a church service if desired.
“2. It should be
simple and should be accompanied by sufficiently full directions to make it easy
to be conducted by those not much experienced in such matters.
“3. It should be
deeply religious, but not exclusively Christian.
“4. It should not be a
repetition, whether in whole or part, of any church service which might be used
in connection with it.
“5. Its emphasis
should be laid upon life, hope, and immortality.
“6. Its endeavor
should be to comfort and to convey the assurance of sympathy.”
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.
SOME PERTINENT QUERIES ANENT THE SCOTTISH RITE AND KNIGHT
TEMPLARY IN TEIE UNITED STATES, ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
Will you please answer
briefly through the Question Box Department the following questions:
What basis has the
current statement that Masonic Knight Templary is an American invention ?
What is the
relationship between the Knight Templar bodies of Scotland and those of the
United States?
Do not the American
Knights Templar recognize Scotland's claim to having sustained the Order since
the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay, as set forth in the prefatory notice to the
Statutes of the United Order of the Temple and Hospital in Scotland ?
Why is the name
“Scottish Rite” ? Having recently sojourned in Scotland, where I visited and
studied with learned Masons, I found the Order of the Temple considered as the
zenith of Masonic attainment, and that Masons there scarcely know of the
Scottish Rite. Is it considered an historical truth that the Scottish Rite is a
French invention, and was considered clandestine for many years by Grand bodies
of England and Scotland ?
How did the Red Cross
degree (degree of the Captivity or Babylonish Pass) as conferred under the
Supreme Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland, come to be attached to the Commandery
series in the United States ?
Has the Royal Ark
Mariner degree, as conferred under jurisdiction of the Supreme Royal Arch
Chapter of Scotland, and under separate jurisdiction in England, ever been
conferred in the United States by any Masonic body?
A. H. H., California.
You have certainly
propounded a number of diverse questions, Brother H. Two or three pages could be
written in answer to most of them, but I imagine what you wish is something
short so I am confining the replies as closely as possible to the point, taking
up the questions seriatum:
MASONIC KNIGHT TEMPLARY NOT AN AMERICAN INVENTION
What basis has the
current statement that Masonic Knight Templary is an American invention ?
This certainly is not
a “current statement” outside the United States, and I cannot remember having
ever heard it in that country. I think there is no doubt that the Masonic and
Military Order first saw light in Europe and a reference to Mackey's
Encyclopedia will make it evident that such is the belief of that ancient
American writer. In speaking of the origin of Masonic Knights Templar he says:
“From the Baldwyn Encampment and its coordinates, the old English and the
American Templars.” The origin of this Encampment which met, and still does
meet, at Bristol, England, is unknown. It was certainly working about the middle
of the eighteenth century, and then conferred the following degrees: 1d Entered
Apprentice, 2d Fellow Craft, 3d Master Mason, 4d Royal Arch, 5d Knight Templar
and Knight of Malta, 6d Rose Croix, 7d Knight K-H (the present 30d).
FRATERNAL RELATIONS OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR OF UNlTED STATES
AND SCOTLAND
What is the
relationship between the Knight Templar bodies of Scotland and those of the
United States ?
The Great Priory of
Scotland is, I hear, in full communication with the Grand Encampment of the
United States.
SCOTLAND'S CLAIM OF SUSTAINING THE ORDER SINCE DE MOLAY'S
MARTYRDOM
Do not the American
Knights Templar recognize Scotland's claim to having sustained the Order since
the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay, as set forth in the prefatory notice to the
Statutes of the United Order of the Temple and Hospital in Scotland ?
As far as I know, the
American bodies make no reference to Scotland's claim, but I do not think that
they repudiate it. The tradition is that the Order of the Temple when persecuted
in Europe took refuge in Scotland where the Knights were allowd to reside
unmolested, and after a time united with the Freemasons in that country. It is
very well known, but, I believe, without proof.
THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM “SCOTTISH RITE”
Why is the name
“Scottish Rite”?
The following
explanation was given by me in Vol. I, No. 8, of Masonic Notes:
In the year 1307, a
persecution of the Knights Templar began in Europe by the Church and State, and
the Order was practically broken up. It is said that many of the Knights took
refuge in Scotland, where they joined the Freemasons. This is the explanation
generally given of high grade Masonry, and it is an undoubted fact that in many
of these degrees, the symbols of the Templars are mixed with those of the Craft.
For this reason the high degrees were said to be “Scottish,” although the
earliest records of them come from France, where they were organized by Ramsey,
who put forward the above explanation for the name.
Another favorite
explanation is that these degrees were the invention of the followers of the
House of Stewart, the pretenders to the throne of England, who intended to use
them as a means of gaining political power
Yet another
explanation has, I understand, been put forward by Schiffman. He states that
about 1725, some Masons in France adopted the acacia as their emblem and became
known as “Freres Ecossis.” The ignorant mistook this for “Freres Ecossais,” or
“Scotch Brothers,” which gave rise to the popular belief that the degrees which
they possessed had their origin in Scotland. The only difficulty in this
explanation is the word “Ecossois,” which I am unable to find in any French
dictionary. The word “acacia” remains unchanged in the French language, but its
pronunciation is very similar to “Ecossois,” or even “Ecossais.”
OBIGIN OF THE SCOTTISH RITE ORGANIZATION
Having recently
sojourned in Scotland, where I visited and studied with learned Masons, I found
the Order of the Temple considered as the zenith of Masonic attainment, and that
Masons there scarcely know of the Scottish Rite. Is it considered an historical
truth that the Scottish Rite is a French invention?
One can hardly say
that the Scottish Rite is a French invention, although most of the degrees
appear to have had their origin in France. The stages of evolution are as
follows:
1743. Lyons Chapter,
France, working six degrees
1764. Chapter of
Clermont, Park, working twenty-five degrees.
This Chapter was
succeeded or absorbed by the Council of the Emperors of the East and West, in
1768. At the same time some of the degrees were conferred by the Baldwyn
Encampment m
England.
The Council of the
Emperors of the East and West delegated their power to Inspectors General and in
this way the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States
was formed, having jurisdiction over thirty-three degrees, and which established
Supreme Councils in other countries.
Most of the degrees
are certainly of French origin, but if the means by the term “Scottish Rite” the
present organization, the initial effort was certainly made in the United
States.
EARLY STATUS OF SCOTTISH RITE DEGREES IN ENGLAND AND
SCOTLAND
Was the Scottish Rite
considered clandestine for many years , in the Grand bodies of England and
Scotland?
From the middle of the
eighteenth century, the present 18d and 30d could be obtained in the Baldwyn
Encampment, so there is, I think, no doubt that they at any rate were not looked
upon with disfavor, although of course the Rite is not and never has been
recognized by the Craft as a part of the Masonic system. Until the Supreme
Councils of England and Scotland were formed in the nineteenth century, no
doubt, any “high” degrees, coming from France would have been considered most
irregular.
RED CROSS DEGREE PRESUMED TO HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED INTO
UNITED STATES BY WEBB
How did the Red Cross
degree (degree of the Captivity or Babylonish Pass) as conferred under the
Supreme Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland, come to be attached to the Commandery
series in the United States?
These degrees are
supposed to have been taken from the Scottish Rite systems by some American
Masonic organizer (perhaps Webb.) These are certainly in a more rational place
when conferred in connection with the Order of the Holy Royal Arch.
THE “ROYAL ARK MARINER DEGREE” IN THE UNITED STATES
Has the Royal Ark
Mariner degree, as conferred under jurisdiction of the Supreme Royal Arch
Chapter of Scotland, and under separate jurisdiction in England, ever been
conferred in the United States by any Masonic body?
In the first place,
the degree of Royal Ark Mariner is not under “separate jurisdiction” in England.
It is conferred under the authority of the Grand Mark Lodge, being governed by
the Grand Master with the advice of a Board called the Grand Master's Royal Ark
Council.
In the United States
the degree is the first of a long series conferred by the Sovereign College of
Allied and Christian Degrees, a body organized in 1892. The present headquarters
are in Norway, Maine, and there is a lodge working in New York City. C.C. Adams,
England
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE
THE MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE JEWELS
In the October issue
of THE BUILDER you make me say that Albert Pike calls the American explanation
of the movable and immovable jewels a modern “invention.” The word I used was
“innovation,” quite a different thing.
Since writing that
article I have run across a statement of Robert Morris published in 1859 that he
knew that Webb taught that the square, level and plumb were the immovable
jewels. In August, 1859, there appeared in the Indiana Freemason an article by a
brother who learned the work from a pupil of Snow and who states that Brother
Snow himself told him that this brother had the work perfectly. From this
article I quote the following:
“Some writers contend
that by common usage the square, level and plumb are the immovable jewels, and
that such was Webb's teaching; but with this assertion we do not coincide, and
as we can not enter into an argument
on
this subject except orally, we will pass in review some of the evidence. Certain
we are that Snow, Gleason, and Preston did not so teach; for the former we have
living witnesses at hand, in addition to our own personal knowledge, and for the
latter we have a lecture by Preston on this subject, which we will publish in
part at some future time; this lecture says the square, level and plumb are the
movable jewels. This is confirmed by Brother Gleason, who received the lectures
in 1805 from Brother Webb himself. This evidence is conclusive.”
Brother A. Trowbrigge,
of Camden, N. Y., in 1860 called attention to the fact that Webb in his Monitor
mentions the movable jewels first, and that in his lectures he taught following
this the question, “What are the movable jewels ? A. The square, level and
plumb. Q. To whom do they belong? A. To the principal officers in a lodge who
are the representatives of our three first M.’.W.’. Grand Masters.”
Brother Hiram Bassett,
in the Voice of Masonry of August 15, 1860, gives the following reasons for
calling the square, level and plumb the immovable jewels:
“That the square,
level and plumb are the immovable jewels, I have no doubt; not the material
tools used by operative Masons, but the great moral principles which speculative
Masons use, and which the metal jewels found in a lodge merely symbolize. No
one, I presume, will contradict that these latter are immovable; but the great
Square of Nature, the Level of Equality, and the Plumb-line of Rectitude are
immovable and unchangeable, and exist the same yesterday, today and forever. In
another sense, too, as geometrical principles, they are immovable. Vary the
angle in the slightest degree at which the two sides of the square intersect
each other, and it is no longer a square; elevate or depress any portion of the
level, it loses its horizontal position, and is no more a level; and to remove
the plumb one iota from a strictly upright position, it ceases to be a plumb.
Indeed if these are not the immovable jewels, I am utterly at a loss to
determine in what sense any of the jewels of a lodge can be said to be
immovable; for the ashlars and trestleboard, as I conceive, are not immovable,
either in their literal or symbolical sense, as nothing material can be said so
to be. Therefore, I presume no one will contend that the simple metal tools are
themselves the jewels or principles by which a Mason is expected to regulate his
life and conduct. Does anyone suppose that it was a material standard that the
Great Architect of the Universe had reference to when he declared unto Amos that
he would set up a plumb-line in the midst of his people Israel, by which they
should be thereafter judged? Most certainly not. But it was the great principle
of moral rectitude which he placed in their midst as the standard by which they
should be tried. And in the final day we shall all be tried by this same
standard, together with the immutable and immovable square of truth; and by
standing these unerring tests, will we alone be redeemed, or rather elevated to
that perfect and immovable level upon which we all hope to meet when our
imperfect ashlars shall have been made perfect, and fitted to their places 'as
living stones in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' And
how else can they be made perfect, except by the application of those unerring
and immovable principles symbolized by the square, level and plumb, agreeable
with the designs laid down by the Supreme Grand Master in the Book of Life - our
spiritual trestle-board?”
If our American ritual
tinker, whoever he may have been, when he transferred the adjective “immovable”
from the ashlars and trestle-board to the square, level and plumb, had said that
the latter were immovable because they represented unchangeable
principles and the former movable because they represented a developing
character, he would have had a much stronger case
than he has. It may be, however, that this
thought was present,
even though it is not given in the
ritualistic explanation, and this may account for the fact that it gained such
ready and universal acceptance in this country.
C.C. Hunt, Iowa
ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM AND MA SONIC REPRINTS FOR SALE
A brother leaving the
country has left with us for disposal the following:
Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum, Volumes I to IV, bound in regulation half morocco.
Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum, Volumes V to XIII, complete with binding cases, but not bound in.
Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum, Volumes XXIII to XXIX, complete but without binding cases and
unbound.
Masonic Reprints
Volumes II to IX, bound in half morocco.
Masonic Reprints
Volume X, unbound and without binding case.
Irish Masonic Reprints
Volumes I to III, bound in half morocco.
For the entire set of
the above thirty-three volumes, together with several loose numbers, some being
duplicates and others odd issues, the brother concerned is asking 35 pounds,
packed and ready for shipping. The cost of shipping to an American port would be
around 3 10s. to 4 pounds. The books are in quite good condition.
The Masonic Journal of South Africa,
P. O. Box 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa.
* * *
OLD BOOKS TO EXCHANGE
I have a few
duplicates of old and out of print books in my private collection, which I would
like to exchange with some other member of the Society, for books which I do not
have. Following are a few of my duplicates:
Lights and Shadows of
Freemasonry, N. Y., 1855, binding worn.
Lights and Shadows of
Freemasonry, Louisville, Ky., 1853, binding worn.
Lights and Shadows of
Freemasonry, Vol. XIV of Universal Masonic Library, Lodgeton, Ky., 1856. Binding
faded.
Revelations of a
Square, George Oliver, 1855. Binding worn.
Webb “Monitor,”
Providence, R. I., 1805 edition, calf.
Vol. XV of Universal
Masonic Library, Lodgeton, Ky., 1856, containing “Constitutions of 1723,” and
“The History of Freemasonry.” (This is the so-called Lawrie History, which was
written by Sir David Brewster.)
“The Comacines, Their
Predecessors and Their Successors,” Ravenscroft. Cover soiled.
If I can get in touch
with some of the members who have duplicates to exchange I can probably find
several other duplicates in my collection.
I would be glad to
exchange any of the above items for “Mystic Masonry,” by J. D. Buck, or “Negro
Masonry,” by W. H. Upton.
Silas H. Shepherd, Hartland, Wisconsin.
* * *
THE LELAND-LOCKE MANUSCRIPT
The question has often
been asked: “Are Masons better than other men?” Of all the answers to this none
is more succinct than that given by a medical brother to King Henry VI: “Some
Masons are not so virtuous as some other men; but for the most part they are
better than they would be if they were not Masons.” This statement, amplified
and expanded, forms to this day the substance of many a Masonic oration. There
are several other striking answers in the once famous but now too much ignored
document known as the Leland-Locke MS. The last item in the interrogatory is
especially worthy of note: “Do Masons love one another mightily as has been said
?” the answer being: “Yes, indeed, and it cannot be otherwise, for the better
men are the more they love one another.” It was the beauty and truth of this
sentiment which induced the great philosopher, John Locke, to become a member of
the Craft. The history of the document is interesting. It was first printed in
1748 and purports to be the copy of a MS. found after diligent search by Locke
in the Bodleian Library. It was included in most of the Masonic works published
during the latter half of the eighteenth century. No question was entertained as
to its authenticity until Lessing threw doubt on the subject. Subsequent German
writers were divided in their opinion. Scepticism culminated in the statement of
Bro. R. F. Gould that Fort was the only Masonic writer of our day who believed
in its credibility. On the other hand, Bro. Dr. Fort Newton, in his illuminating
work, “The Builders,” voices the incredulity no further than to say that the MS.
is not allowed by all to be genuine.
Freemasonry has
suffered much loss at the hands of the iconoclasts. In late years a school of
writers has arisen who, is the words of Bro. Fort Newton, reject almost
everything that cannot prove itself in a Court of Law. In a system such as
Masonry, which depends on oral tradition, it is absurd to expect in every case
direct documentary proof. The more strict the fidelity to obligation the fewer
the records must necessarily be. The arguments advanced against the time-honoured
MS. are puerile, while the intrinsic evidence of its veracity are irresistible.
The very errors in the text are witnesses of its truth. The blunder of calling
Pythagoras “Peter Gower” is just such as might be made by an illiterate
Craftsman in adopting a vernacular corruption of the French word “Pythagore”;
similarly to confounding the ancient Phoenicians with the modern Venetians would
not be unlikely in the days of the grandeur of Venice. The most plausible of
adverse criticism lies in the violently uncouth spelling which corresponds to no
period of English orthography; but this has little disqualifying cogency when we
find in lodge minute books within the last century such monstrosities as “Shuper
exclant Masons” and a “Sertifiket” of a “Resectobel Order.”
The document is
supported by so many contemporary and credible allusions as to make it almost
inconceivable as a forgery.
In any case it
deserves to be rescued from oblivion if only on account of the sublime truths it
contains. Among these is the statement that Masonry enables men to be virtuous
without hope of reward or fear of punishment. The pursuit of virtue for its own
sake and not for ulterior aims differentiates Masonry from the dogmatic
religions. Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth bring their own rewards and are not
dependent on the enticements or terrors of another world. Bro. Calvert has done
good service in adding the original text of the MS. as an appendix to Vol. III
of the Authors' Lodge Transactions, so that Freemasons can judge for themselves
of its value.
John A. Cockburn, P.G.D., England,
P.Dep. G.M., Australia.
----o----
“What induces so many
men without solicitation to become Masons?” is often asked. Is it curiosity? If
only that it is never satisfied. Is it search for knowledge? Yes, partly, but
also for truth which is great arid shall prevail. Is it simply the gregarious
instinct? Not altogether, though all lonely men desire to link up with those
whose friendship will not languish. Is it a sense of littleness in the universe
and isolation? Sometimes, for many men have prayed the Breton monosyllabic
prayer - ”Oh God be good to me, Thy sea is so wide and my boat is so small.”
Human sympathy thrives on human intercourse and all real culture requires a
social atmosphere. Is it an appeal similar to that of religion? Is it because of
the example of true members of the Craft who have poise without pose - who have
neither artificiality nor affection, and who have pledged themselves to serve
their fellow-men and to render loyal obedience to properly constituted
authority? Is it because men introspectively ask (as we all should)-
“Am I a friend to as many men
As are good staunch friends to me?”
Whatever may be the
inducement to enter within the veils, the older we men grow, we know that the
most beautiful reward that any man in the world can have is the gift of
friendship generous, overflowing, bountiful, real.
- Bro. W. N. Ponton, Canada.
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