The Builder Magazine

September 1916- Volume II - Number 9

 

THE STORY OF "OLD GLORY" -- THE OLDEST FLAG

BY BRO. JNO. W. BARRY, IOWA

PART III

Again Dec. 27, 1779, at Morristown, N. J., St. John, the Evangelist's Day is celebrated. This meeting held in Arnold Tavern pictured in Fig. 24 where the secretary records 104 present with "Bro." Washington's name (40) at the head of the "visitors" but unfortunately only the last name of each is given, which makes identification in a few cases uncertain, so instead of saying ALL were officers in Washington's Army, 'tis best to say "nearly all." From St. Andrew's Lodge to Lexington in 1775, working in unity and celebrating St. John's Day Dec. 27, 1779, in a meeting attended by Washington and nearly all his officers!--Truly, it is akin to the unobserved power in an electric generator, actuating every move to establish Old Glory in honor. In the usual history there are of course only distant references to Masonry at this time, but enough remains of lodge records to show the inner workings.

 

GENERAL GRAND MASTER PROPOSED

 

This meeting of Dec. 27, 1779, was the meeting that called the first Masonic convention Lodge in America to arrange for a "General Grand Master" in and over the said "Thirteen United States of America." The Convention Lodge met the first Monday in February following. Bro. Mordecai Gist was unanimously elected president. Such an ardent patriot was he, that he named one of his sons "Independence" and the other "States." Later he was G.M. of South Carolina.

 

Bro. Otho Holland Williams, a bright, brave and brawny Mason, was secretary. As to the Masonic Convention about the only result has been a series of like meetings from time to time down even unto our day--but there is no General Grand Master yet. But the meeting is itself a proof that the thought of those brothers was active in matters far beyond the scope of ordinary lodge meetings in time of peace. They had a vision of a great, free country--and by their effort the vision became the FACT.

 

AMERICAN UNION LODGE AND WASHINGTON LODGE NO. 10 JOINT HOSTS TO OVER 500

 

In October, 1779, Washington Lodge No. 10, another military lodge, was instituted with General John Patterson, Master; Col. Benjamin Tupper and Major William Hull, wardens. It met in Starkean's Hall at West Point. This curious lodge building is shown in No. 2541. On June 24, 1782, (42) a joint celebration of St. John's Day was given in honor of the birth of the dauphin of France. The event occurred at West Point in the "Colonnade," a peculiar structure erected by American Union and Washington Lodges for the purpose. It is shown in Fig. 26. (43) Here came Gov. Clinton and other leading men and women of New York and other states to this the only really international celebration of St. John's Day on record. Here over 500 dined and after 13 toasts had been drunk, each announced by 13 guns, "Bro. John Brooks," later governor of Massachusetts, made an able address (44) --and it wasn't devoted exclusively to Masonry either.

 

What a striking proof of Masonry's part in establishing Old Glory-- not theory--not assertion--but the record of a joint meeting of military lodges acting as hosts not alone to the military officers but to civil officers as well in Masonically honoring France-- all engaged in the same effort to establish the great symbol--Old Glory.

 

THE TEMPLE OF VIRTUE

 

In 1782, the military lodges were very active in Washington's Army at Newburgh, N. Y., and the need of a larger meeting place was apparent. On Christmas, 1782, Washington in public orders approved the plan of Israel Evans of American Union Lodge for a public building and Benjamin Trupper of Washington Lodge No. 10 was made superintendent of construction.

 

In No. 27 (45) is the picture of the "Public Building" as it was called in official papers but known to the soldiers as "The Temple of Virtue." The full record of "The Temple" is in newspapers of the time now on file in The Newburgh Historical Society at Newburgh, N. Y.

 

"The Temple of Virtue" was the meeting house of Washington's camp at Newburgh in 1782-3. The original drawing is 7 feet long and 18 inches wide, showing the Temple of Virtue surrounded by the huts of the soldiers. The original sketch, now owned by Luther Tarbell of Boston, was made by William Tarbell of the Seventh Massachusetts Regiment. The late Major E. C. Boynton of the Newburgh Historical Society had a copy made which is now in the Washington's Headquarters Building, Newburgh. The original is several sheets of foolscap pasted together and for ink, the juice of butternuts was used. "The Temple" is minutely described by Major General William Heath giving the capacity and other details. (46) In 1891 the Masons of Newburgh erected a monument there, shown in No. 28. It commemorates a Masonic service never exceeded. The Masons of Newburgh in 1891 joined with the Newburgh Revolutionary Association in erecting the above monument on the site of the "Temple of Virtue." The inscription on the granite tablet on the EAST side is as follows: "This tablet is inserted by the Masonic Fraternity of Newburgh in memory of Washington and his Masonic Compeers under whose direction and plan the "Temple" was constructed and in which communications of the Fraternity were held in 1783." On the "South" the tablet there reads:--

 

"On this ground was erected the "Temple" or new public building by the army of the Revolution 1782-83. The birthplace of the Republic." (47)

 

This monument marks the last meeting place of American Union Lodge as an Army Lodge, but as a regular lodge it is today No. 1 on the register of Ohio. After the Revolution John Heart then its Master with Rufus Putnam and others of the members settled at Marietta, Ohio, and later revived this famous lodge and Rufus Putnam "made" in it became first Grand Master of Ohio.

 

ANOTHER "WEST GATE" SCENE

 

Above all, this monument commemorates the very Keystone of Masonic service in making Old Glory possible. The war had cost $123 per capita, the exhausting effect of which will be better understood when compared with $96 the cost per capita of the late Civil War. (48) So in 1783, Congress found itself in so poor and penniless a situation that it was utterly unable to pay the soldiers even the small amounts long due them. A hat cost $400, a suit of clothes $1600 and a year's pay of a captain would not buy a pair of shoes. (49) Most of the soldiers were waiting and many were exceedingly anxious to receive that which was due them and some of them were determined to wait no longer. Someone in Gate's command circulated unsigned letters among the officers urging that as the war was over--if ever they were going to get their pay it should be "NOW" before they laid down their arms and called a meeting in the "Temple" for March 15, 1783. Here was the direct opportunity for a military dictator--a king--a czar. It was a test of Washington's sincerity of purpose in working eight years without pay for the principle of liberty. What did he do?

 

As soon as Gates called the meeting to order Washington arose and made what eminent historians agree is the most effective speech ever made in America. He well knew for more than seven years they had larbored, honestly toiling, encouraged and buoyed up by the promise that when the war was over they should receive that for which they wrought. And now he was asking them to wait longer and to have an abiding faith in the justice of the republic they had spent eight years to establish. There in the "Temple" where they had met as Masons this address was received as if from the Master of the Combined military lodges. Among many other things said, he made them this vow:--

 

"For myself, a recollection of the cheerful assistance and prompt obedience I have experienced from you under various vicissitudes of fortune, and the sincere affection I feel for the army I have so long had the honor to command will oblige me to declare in this public and solemn manner that for the attainment of complete justice for all your trials and danger, and the gratification of every wish, so far as may be done consistently with the great duty I owe my country and these powers we are bound to respect, you may fully command my services to the utmost extent of my ability." (50)

 

It was in the course of this address that he stopped to read a letter from Congress and excused himself for putting on his glasses--saying "I have grown old in your service and now find myself growing blind." (51) When he finished he withdrew to leave them free to act and behold there could not be found even the traditional three to persist in their murderous designs.

 

THE REAL WASHINGTON

 

This event showed the REAL Washington, and makes one desire to know how the real man looked. There have been so many pictures of him and so widely differing that it may be well to show the real appearance of the man. By order of the legislature of Virginia, Jean Antoine Houdon of Paris, France, the most noted sculptor of his time, came to Mt. Vernon in 1785 and made a plaster cast of Washington's face and head. This plaster cast is still preserved at Mt. Vernon and is considered by competent judges to be the true Washington. The statue itself is in the Capitol at Richmond. Lafayette pronounced it "a facsimile of Washington's person."

 

A nearer view of the face shows the real Brother Washington as he looked about the time he faced the "Roughians" in the "Temple," and made that supreme effort in behalf of American liberty now symbolized in Old Glory.

 

This must ever rank as the most important victory on American soil, namely the converting of those officers and armed men to a full belief in the proposition that

 

"Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword." From that day "Old Glory" became in very truth the symbol of liberty.

 

 THE FIRST FLAG CAPTURED TAKEN BY A BROTHER MASON

 

Masonry was not confined to Washington's immediate command. In Fig. 29 is shown a photograph of the first flag captured and that too by Bro. Montgomery October 18, 1775, who a little later lost his life that Old Glory might live. This flag is one of the most valued trophies in the United States and is preserved with care in the flag room at West Point.

 

THE GREATEST BAYONET CHARGE

 

In Fig. 30 is shown an event which brought Masonry conspicuously before the world. It is Old Glory's first bayonet charge. European commentators rank it as one of the greatest in the annals of war.

 

When Bro. Washington asked Mad Anthony Wayne if he thought he could storm Stony Point, Irving says Wayne replied that "he could storm hell if Washington would plan it." Washington did plan it and arranged for the attack to be made as soon after "low twelve" as possible. Here is Wayne's letter announcing the result:--

 

"Stony Point, 16th July, 1779, 2 o'clock A. M.  Dear General: The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are ours. OUR OFFICERS AND MEN BEHAVED LIKE MEN DETERMINED TO BE FREE."

 

MASONRY PERPETUATES THE MEMORY OF THAT FAMOUS CHARGE

 

Famous as was this charge, yet it gave rise to a Masonic event whose remembrance will be green even when the charge is forgotten, for in it the constitution and warrant of an English military lodge were captured. Wayne turned them over to Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons at the time S. W. of American Union Lodge. Bro. Parsons returned them under a flag of truce with the following letter:--

 

"West Jersey Highlands, July 23, 1779, (52)

 

"Brethren:--When the ambition of monarchs or jarring interests of States call forth their subjects to war, as Masons we are disarmed of that resentment which stimulates to undistinguished desolation; and however our political sentiments may impel us in the public dispute, we are still brethren and our professional duty apart ought to promote the happiness and advance the weal of each other.

 

"Accept, therefore at the hands of a brother the Constitution of the Lodge Unity No. 18, to be held in the Seventeenth British Regiment, which your late misfortunes have put in my power to return to you.

 

"I am. Your Brother and Obedient Servant. Samuel H. Parsons.

 

To Master and Wardens of Lodge Unity No. 18 upon the Registry of England." (52)

 

LOYAL, PENNSYLVANIA WARRANTS AN ENGLISH LODGE

 

The astounding thing is not that Brother Masons returned the warrant but the resulting discovery that the warrant of Unity Lodge 18 had been issued by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. It is only recently that such act could be explained as no record was ever made of it by the Grand Secretary. At the battle of Princeton Jan. 3, 1777, the warrant of this unity (169) 18 was captured and now and ever since has been in possession of Union Lodge No. 5 A. F. & A. M., Middletown, Delaware. (53) When the regiment occupied Philadelphia, the Provincial Grand Lodge fell under Tory dominion and a new warrant was issued to Unity Lodge, but changing from the original number of 169 to 18, under which it worked until 1786 when a warrant from Scotland was applied for, as evidenced by the long letter sent from Shelsburne Barracks, Nova Scotia, March 28, 1786, to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania from which the following extracts are made:--

 

"Right Worshipful Brethren: We the Worshipful Master & Wardens of Lodge Unity No. 18 held in this Brittanick Majesty's 17th Reg. of Foot, & under Your Register--having heard a Report which is spread through this Province of Our Warrant being by you Cancelled & that one of the same Number has been granted to a Lodge in Pennsylvania....

 

"We have taken this method of acquainting you that we have wrote to Our Mother Grand Lodge in Scotland, willing to obtain a Duplicate of Our Ancient Warrant No. 169 without as yet receiving any Answer, & we not Expecting that Our said Warrant No. 18 would have been Declared Void, till we might have Obtained the Duplicate of our said antient Warrant.....

 

"We have further to Request you should do us the honor of Communicating to our Worthy friend & Brother General Parsons, the high sense we have of His Unexampled Goodness, in restoring to us our Warrant which happy for us fell into his hands.... His Generous Sentiments shall ever be Remembered by every Brother of No. 18 with the Gratitude due to such benevolence of heart.

 

"Daniel Webb, Master."

 

"OLD GLORY" IN MASON'S CARE UPON THE SEA AS WELL AS ON THE LAND

 

When our brothers on Bunker Hill thrice repulsed the king's hardened regulars fresh from the campaigns of Clive in India the world stood on tiptoe asking what kind of men those Americans were. But when in 1775 our "Navy" of 8 ships with 114 guns was sent to cope with England's 112 battleships with 714 guns, the world was too dazed for utterance.

 

It was a saying of Jones who first raised "Old Glory" on a ship of war, that "Men mean more than guns in the rating of ships. (54) Nor was the proof long in coming. Our "Navy" sailed in December, and in March, 1776, 8 ships with 150 cannons and 130 barrels of powder were captured. During the war, in 18 sea engagements, 17 were won by Old Glory. The closing record stood thus: captured 785 British ships, 15 war ships, 12500 prisoners--all by a force of only 3000 men. (55)

 

The most famous was the Bon Homme Richard against the Seraphis--a victory of undying renown for Bro. John Paul Jones. In Fig. 31 (Color Plate) is shown the flag he then used, now revered as the only existing flag of Bro. Jones and that UNWHIPPED American navy.

 

When, in 1906 the body of Bro. Jones was brought from Paris to Annapolis for more decent interment, his Masonic petition was published as was also the action of his Paris Masonic Lodge, where he was so well known. This lodge after Jones' great victory had his bust made by Jean Antoine Houdon--the most famous sculptor of his time.

 

So when you read the entrancing story of our navy in the Revolution, remember Masonry's part in its planning and in its winning.

 

(40) Vide Grand Lodge Conn. V. 1, p. 37.

(41) Vide History of The Town of New Winsdor, p. 81.

(42) Vide Grand Lodge Conn. V. 1, p. 45 and 46.

(43) Vide Chas. A. Brockaway--American Union Lodge p. 14.

(44) Vide American Union Lodge, Grand Lodge Connecticut, V. 1, p. 46.

(45) Vide History of New Winsdor, p. 81. Also American Union Lodge Charles A. Brockaway, p. 12.

(46) Vide History of New Winsdor, p. 81.

(47) Vide New Age 1908 Charles A Brockaway's article. Also History of the Town of New Windsor, p. 81-3.

(48) Military Policy of the United States. Maj. Gen. Emory Upton, Senate Document No. 499, p. 66.

(49) Vide same, p. 51.

(50) Vide Irving's Washington, V. 4, p. 55.

(51) Vide Journal of American History.

(52) Vide Old Lodges of Pennsylvania, Julius F. Sachse, p. 362. Original letter and later correspondence now in possession of Pa. Grand Lodge

(53) Vide Old Lodges of Pa., Julius F. Sachse, p. 388.

(54) Vide Paul Jones Commemoration U. S. Gov. Print.

(55) Vide Hamilton L. Carson, p. 135 Sq., VI Modern Eloquence.

----o---

 

MASONIC LIGHT

 

Sometimes within the shadows of the night,

There slips from out the hollow of my hand.

A concept of the True, Eternal Light

I do not understand.

 

Yet I despair not, and will always strive;

Putting behind me, failures that are past,

With Purity, to Think, and Act, and Live

Till I can hold it fast.

 

----o----

 

MASONIC SOCIAL SERVICE: A HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

BY BRO. JOSEPH C. GREENFIELD, GEORGIA

 

MASONRY is pre-eminently a constructive institution. Founded upon an operative art, claiming descent directly from a band of actual workmen, it is essentially a "building up" fraternity. But it has changed from an operative to a speculative art. Its members no longer roam over the country erecting cathedrals and monuments of public interest, and affixing their own peculiar marks to the hewn stones they used. They now appeal to the spiritual and philosophic part of man's nature, to the intellectual and not to the material side of his being. But the craft is still none the less a building one. It now builds character; it builds humanitarian impulses; it rounds out and completes the altruistic sentiment; it impels men to the recognition of their duty to distressed and unfortunate humanity.

 

The world today is full of eleemosynary institutions. Homes, Hospitals, Retreats of one kind or another, appeal to the hearts of men for aid and support. It would appear on the surface that almost every phase of human need had been provided for. And yet one of the most striking of these phases has been neglected, and that is the cure or benefit of helpless children, who through disease, poverty, heredity or neglect have become crippled and deformed, and who can only look forward to a life of pain, humiliation and dependence.

 

The number of institutions devoted to this class of sufferers is so small that they can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many surgeons will not treat them at all; results are often slow, and when it is remembered that as a rule the majority of those afflicted are from that class of citizenship utterly unable to meet the heavy charges made by those competent to effect a cure, the outlook is almost hopeless.

 

Realizing this fact, recognizing that a wondrous field for a charity that would be constructive in its nature, and beneficial to the social fabric in general, was before them; and in acknowledgment of a duty owed to humanity; the Scottish Rite Bodies located in Atlanta, Georgia, in September, 1915, opened up, and put into successful operation, the Scottish Rite Convalescent Hospital for Crippled Children. This is not a Home, nor an Orphanage, nor a Retreat, - it is a Hospital for the cure of such afflictions. Operations are performed when necessary, and every attention known to modern medical skill is given the little patients.

 

The Institution is operated along the broadest possible lines. It is purely a Charity; there never has been, nor will there ever be, any pay wards. The most progressive and skillful faculty in the South serves every department. The question of religious affiliation, of State residence, of Masonic connection, is never asked. The urgency of the case, and its probability of cure governs the question of precedence in the admission of applicants. Already children from Florida, from Alabama, from both the Carolinas, as well as from Georgia, have been inmates. The only queries are: Can the child be benefited? and, Is the parent or guardian unable to pay for the service ?

 

Many of the cases are of surpassing interest. One little girl had curvature of the spine so aggravated that the left shoulder was only four inches from the hip. When placed in the plaster, and asked if she was in pain, she said: "Yes, but just think, I am going to be straight." Another, a bright boy of sixteen, who walked or rather crawled on his hands and knees, had his legs operated on. After the casts were taken off, he leaned upon a crutch, and said to a visitor: "This is the first time I ever stood erect." Still another in addition to deformed feet, had hands so twisted that he was unable to lift food to his mouth. His feet were corrected, his hands operated on, and he can now clasp yours, can minister to his own needs, and in time will be a normal man.

 

And thus the story goes, club feet, spinal curvature, infantile paralysis, Pott's disease and a dozen other kindred ailments have come to the institution. In connection with it a free clinic is operated, and local cases are cared for there, and in their homes; thus leaving the hospital proper for the use of those from a distance.

 

Although the hospital has only been in operation about six months, already one hundred and fifty‑two patients have received attention either at the institution itself, or at the clinic.

 

Every type of infantile deformity has come under our care. The processes of cure are oftimes tedious and long drawn out. Patients are sent home for a brief season and come back to have their bandages or casts removed or new operations performed. Starting with room for twenty constant patients, so carefully have the plans been worked out, that none stay longer than is absolutely necessary, and thus every human being that loves his fellows; that feels the facility is being worked at full pressure. Several perfect cures have already been effected, and all under treatment promise a return to normal childhood, or a close approach to it.

 

You should go out and see what is being done with the money of the Rite. The scene is sad, but uplifting and inspiring. You will come back a better man for your visit, and proud of the fact that you are a unit in a fraternity that is doing so much to make wealth producers instead of wealth consumers, and is opening up to hopeless and helpless children a future from which many of the clouds have been driven, and some portion of the happiness of living to which they are entitled, made possible for them.

 

Plans are now being perfected, looking to a great extension of the Institution and to placing it on a stable and permanent basis. It is the desire of the Board of Governors to erect fireproof concrete buildings, with operating rooms, nurses' homes, isolation wards and all the equipment of an up‑to‑date, progressive and effective organization. To do this, outside assistance must be secured. It was not intended at the outset that the Scottish Rite bodies should assume all the burden of its support. Their limit has almost been reached, and the need is so urgent that the great loving heart of humanity must be enlisted. It is intended that the Scottish Rite Masons of Atlanta and Georgia shall control its actions and direct its policy. It is their institution; it was originated by them; they are now fostering it; and it is a visible expression of their love for the distressed and afflicted.

 

But a charity of this kind is universal in its appeal. It appeals to Scottish Rite Masons because it was begun and is being carried on by them. It appeals to all Masons, because it epitomizes within itself that great fundamental doctrine of the Craft - the Brotherhood of Man.

 

It appeals to the business man, because it tends to relieve the community of those who may in the future become a charge on the public treasury.

 

It appeals to parents who rejoice in the fact that their own loved ones are perfectly formed and normal boys and girls.

 

It appeals to every human being that loves his fellows; that feels the tender touch of a little child's love and gratitude; that can feel sympathy for a baby bearing the  burden of neglect and disease; to every one that recognizes that he has been placed on earth for a purpose, and that a great part of that purpose is the radiation of hope and happiness among those with whom he comes in contact, or whose needs are brought before him.

 

To the end that our hopes may be brought to fruition, and that our opportunities for doing good may be made commensurate with the demands upon us, we invite the co‑operation of every one who abhors suffering and loves humanity.

 

----o----

 

TOLERATION

 

BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, P.G.M. MISSOURI

 

The superficial thinker ascribes all intolerance in the world to religious creeds, and, ignorantly, thinks that the great day of universal toleration will be ushered in, when all creeds are torn down and destroyed. He fails to recognize the fact that it is not so much a question of creeds, but that intolerance is the natural product of a dwarfed and misshapen intellectuality, the adopted child of a sterile spirituality; that toleration is the offspring of a broad and comprehensive intellectual development and the legitimate heir of a virile, active and sympathetic spirituality.

 

Man is the only animal which has evolved the power of speech; speech implies words, or the sign of an idea; words are the precursors of thought. To think is to reason and to form a judgment; reason and judgment are the basis of a belief. Man is a believing being, because he thinks. Even a disbelief, however paradoxical it may seem, is, when reduced to its ultimate analysis, a belief.

 

A creed is but a systematized belief, whether such belief or beliefs refer to the physical, intellectual, or moral nature. It is impossible to conceive of a man, with his intellectual nature, without a belief, and it is equally impossible to conceive of a man with his spiritual nature, without a creed. If such a sentient being exists, he is either suffering from an intellectual, or a spiritual vacuity, or both. A man without an intellectual belief would be an intellectual monstrosity, and a man without a religious creed would be a spiritual idiot. It might be well to note the man, or any organization of men, who talk loud and long about dogmas and creeds, who rail at churches for their supposed intolerance, because, if you scratch such a man or such an organization, you will find under the epidermis a most intolerable bigot or bigots, and so full of creeds to bursting. An intellectual belief and a religious creed are a part of man; the two are so intimately interwoven in his two-fold nature that to divorce them would destroy the personality of the man. An intellectual or scientific belief is made up of the same material as a religious creed. If the science of Geology and Palaeontology can borrow millions of years, if the physical sciences demand an ion, if the science of evolution postulates a primordial cell, why should it be thought incredible or unscientific for our spiritual nature to postulate a God? No, it is neither incredible nor unscientific for the pilot-man to use his religious creed as the chart, his intellectual belief as the compass, that will enable him to guide his ship by treacherous shoals, through the narrows, through the darkness and storm, into the sunlit harbor of a well rounded and successful life.

 

A belief in God and immortality is a great and universal fact; a fact that science and philosophy must recognize. The underlying truth and force of all religions, is man's belief in a God and a hope of eternal life. Religion did not give birth to this faith and hope, but this creed of a belief in God and a hope of eternal life gave birth to religion. That man is a religious being, is a universal phenomenon. This religious sentiment is "Like the finger of God writing upon the soul, age by age a new and ever renewing destiny." It is ever reaching out and endeavoring to comprehend a Supreme Intelligence, an Infinite Creator, a just, holy and benevolent Father. This effort of our spiritual nature is not derived from any of our physical senses; for no physical sensation can be transformed into hope, love, or faith. Man knows that his spiritual nature and the phenomena of his spiritual nature can not be described in the terms of the physical universe. A thought can not be measured by a rule. Spiritual pain or joy can not be weighed in a balance. Hope and love can not be solved by the binomial theorem, nor can our soul's desire be revealed by mystical numbers.

 

This belief in God and hope in eternal life has its root deep in the heart of humanity. The wise sage and the untutored savage have alike pondered the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" The cradle asks the question, "Whence came I," and the coffin asks, "Whither go I?" Man is conscious of his duality, although he may be unacquainted with the simplest philosophical or metaphysical speculation. Primitive and childlike man, in the early history of the race, grasped in his feeble way that there is a God and that he was immortal. Even the barbarian may cry:--

 

"Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire

This longing after immortality ?

Or whence this secret dread

And inward horror of falling into naught?

Why shrinks the soul back on herself

And startles at destruction?

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us,

'Tis Heaven itself that points an hereafter,

And intimates eternity to man."

 

Man, therefore, as he stands in the presence of his intellectual and spiritual nature, worships, and builds for himself a creed. Whether the creed that he erects is tolerant or intolerant depends, absolutely, on his conception of Deity. It might be said, as a man's God is, so is he. The early Hebraic creed considered God as a God of terror, of vengeance, and of wrath; that he was a tribal, racial, or national God only. About such a belief was built a self centered, intolerant creed. Intolerant because it was selfish, for selfishness is the mother of intolerance. But the belief as taught, especially, by the Prophet Isaiah, and which today shines with such an effulgent splendor in the life and teachings of Christ, is far different. It teaches that God is a God of love, a God of forgiveness; that the Kingdom of God is not an empty ceremonial or outward display, but it is in the hearts of men; that its fruits are justice, mercy and service; a kingdom not established by the sword and by race prejudice, but a kingdom of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood man. Such a creed is free of selfishness; it is altogether altruistic. It is tolerant, because it bears within the Gospel of Love.

 

"Teach me to feel each other's woes,

Each other's burdens bear."

 

The Gospel of Love is the world's panacea for intolerance. Freemasonry has such a creed. It is even dogmatic and unchangeable. It is, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty." This does not mean a belief in some notion of a God, some abstract formula, some metaphysical or geometrical demonstration, but it means the God as revealed in the sacred volume on our Altar, as taught in that "Inestimable gift of God to an."

 

Freemasonry in this short creed has no quarrel, or is it intolerant to Jew, Gentile, Mohammedan or Hindu for their faith and trust as revealed in their Sacred Books. Freemasonry has no quarrel with the an who has no conception of Deity and who has no sacred Book from which to draw his inspiration and hope; but Freemasonry believes in God, the Father, and he who can not accept this simple creed must remain outside of our portals.

 

This simple dogmatic creed is the very fundamental principle of Freemasonry. It is the cleavage between belief and unbelief; upon it we build our beautiful system of morals; upon it we base our belief in the brotherhood of man. Freemasonry without its belief in God, the Father, and its imperative corollary, the Brotherhood of man, would be a sham and a sacrilegious pretense. Upon this creed Freemasonry must stand. If we can not accept it, then let us take down our Charters, close the sacred Volume on our Altar, lock the doors of our halls and temples, and retire from the world's moral activities as a soulless and spiritless Fraternity.

 

Freemasonry is not a church. It does not design to establish a universal church, as some would foolishly believe, neither does it purpose to disestablish any church; it makes no war on church-creeds, but is tolerant toward every religious faith and belief; it respects and honors every genuine believer, whatever his individual or his church creed may be. No man who believes in the Fatherhood of God can be other than tolerant.

 

"There is a wideness in God's mercy

Like the wideness of the sea;

There's a kindness in his justice

Which is more than liberty.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind."

 

The most tolerant teacher that ever lived, was presaged by the Prophet when he said: "And his name shall be called Wonderful, the Prince of Peace." Why ? Because "He united love to God, with love to man; courage to caution, perfect freedom from form, and reverence for the substance in all forms, hatred for sin and love for the sinner." He turned duty into happiness, wrote the laws into the heart, helped us to walk in the spirit of love; for love begets toleration, and by it lifts the world to the highest plane of peace and good will. Listen to the great moral code that he gave to man :--

 

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto

them."

 

Hear his dogmatic creed which amounts to a positive command:--

 

"Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself."

 

"This commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."

 

The following are the graces that flow from obedience to this creed:--

 

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."

 

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith."

 

"Neither do I condemn you, go, sin no more."

 

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

 

Are these intolerant words ? They are old and may even sound trite, but they are the very soul of toleration, welling up from a deep, profound spirituality, and are ringing clearer, stronger, deeper and fuller as years roll into thousands of centuries.

 

This self same spirit of toleration should be the crowning glory of Freemasonry. To the critics of Freemasonry, the religious zealot, on the one hand, who denounces Freemasonry as Godless, and, on the other hand, to the dwarfed intellectual and spiritual concept that declares Freemasonry is intolerant because it demands a belief in "The one living and true God," we can but quote the words of the peace-loving Whittier:

 

"Who fathoms the eternal thought ?

Who talks of schemes and plans ?

The Lord is God. He needeth not

The poor device of man

I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground

Ye tread with boldness shod,

I dare not fix with mete and bound

The love and power of God."

 

Toleration should be written deep in the soul of every member of our Fraternity. For Freemasonry is out of necessity an aid to every agency that has for its end the amelioration of the human family. While it is not a church, it draws its inspiration from the same source and walks hand in hand with the church in the broad field of humanity's need. It can not from its very inception antagonize religion, because it stands today as the proud champion of religion and religious liberty; the foe of irreligion and irreligious liberty; for freedom, but not license; for tolerance, but not anarchy; for civil liberty, but not tyranny; for purity, but not shame; for patriotism, but not treason; for sobriety, but not intemperance; for hope, but not despair; for love, but not hate. Freemasonry knows no nationality, but its kingdom is in the hearts of men. Its power lies not in the sword on the field of battle, but in the silent, yet potent, force of the individuality of its members. It has a foundation, tolerant, solid, eternal. Upon it we erect our moral temple and adorn it with the foliage and flowers of a life whose feet are swift to run on missions of love, whose knees are ever humble in the recognition of Divine favors, whose heart is expanding in charity, whose hand will raise the fallen, and whose lips will bring joy and gladness. It is altruistic, not egotistic. The spirit of Freemasonry is preeminently progressive, and while it not only inculcates moral truths, it also demands advancement along the line of scholastic development. It is the promoter and encourager of every art and science that has for its end the uplifting of man. It would appeal to the aesthetic, to the philosophic, and would surround the mind and heart with everything that can beautify and adorn man.

 

The spirit of Freemasonry is that which tuned the harp for the immortal strains of a Handel; a Haydn, and a Mendelssohn; that touched the deep and majestic tone of a Milton, the spiritual sweetness of a David, the genius of an Addison, a Whittier, a Longfellow, and a Tennyson; that sounded the depths of unlimited space and brought forth the music of countless worlds to the enchanted ear of a Kepler and a Newton; that descended into the earth and unfolded its pages, penned in the rocks of centuries, to a Gray and Agassiz; that touched the brush of a Raphael and the chisel of an Angelo and made canvas, fresco and rocks speak in living realities. That spirit that came like a gentle wind and dispersed the metaphysical fog of ancient philosophy, dethroned its selfishness and placed it upon the only sure foundation, that "I am my brother's keeper."

 

From such a creed will bloom into eternal freshness and renewing youth, that all prevading sweetness, that calm reliance, that loving toleration as expressed by Whittier:

 

"No offering of my own I have,

Nor works my faith to prove;

I can but give the gifts He gave,

And plead his love for love.

And so beside the silent sea

I wait the muffled oar,

No harm from Him can come to me,

On ocean or on shore.

I know not where His islands lift

Their fronded palms in air;

I only know I can not drift

Beyond his love and care."

 

----o----

ANOTHER YEAR

 

It is a great thing to have forty years behind you without any great catastrophe and shame. As time goes on, I think I feel more and more vividly a sense of relief when those I love are safely through another year: the sense of relief is still keener in relation to myself, for I suppose every man thinks his own perils the greatest. The ice cracks in such unexpected places - the ship is too apt to strike on rocks where the chart gave no warning of them - that mere safety seems to me a much greater reason for thankfulness than it used to be. To do some great thing is the ambition of youth; to do quiet duty honestly and without serious falls, satisfies the heart when youth disappears.

 

- R. W. Dale.

 

----o----

 

BROTHERHOOD

 

There shall rise from this confused sound of voices

A firmer faith than that our fathers knew,

A deep religion which alone rejoices

In worship of the Infinitely True,

Not built on rite or portent, but a finer

And purer reverence for a Lord diviner.

 

There shall come from out this noise of strife a groaning

A broader and a juster brotherhood,

A deep equality of aim, postponing

All selfish seeking to the general good.

There shall come a time when each shall to another

Be as Christ would have him - brother unto brother

 

There shall come a time when knowledge wide extend

Seeks each man's pleasure in the general health

And all shall hold irrevocably blended

The individual and the commonwealth;

When man and woman in an equal union

Shall merge, and marriage be a true communion.

 

There shall come a time when brotherhood shows stronger

Than the narrow bounds which now distract the world;

When the cannons roar and trumpets blare no longer,

And the ironclad rusts, and battle flags are furled;

When the bars of creed and speech and race, which sever,

Shall be fused in one humanity forever.

 

- Lewis Morris.

 

----o----

 

SHAKESPEARE

 

Others abide our question. Thou art free.

We ask and ask - thou smilest and art still,

Out topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,

Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,

Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling‑place,

Spares but the cloudy border of his base

To the foiled searching of mortality;

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,

Self‑schooled, self‑scanned, self‑honored, self‑secure,

Didst tread on earth unguessed at - Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,

All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,

Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.

 

- Matthew Arnold.

 

----o----

 

HAPPINESS

 

It's not in titles nor in rank,

It's not in wealth like Lon'on bank,

To purchase peace and rest.

If happiness hae not her seat

And center in the breast,

We may be wise, or rich, or great,

But never can be blest.

 

- Robert Burns.

 

----o----

 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE BALANCE

 

BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON

 

READERS of Albert Pike will recall the stately pages with which Morals and Dogma closes, setting forth, in a manner unforgetable, the Doctrine of the Balance. Many had taught this truth before time out of mind, no one more impressively than the man whom Pike was richly indebted, (1) but his exposition is none the less his own. With vast labor he brings together his findings, showing that to this result the wisdom of the ages runs, what the sages have thought equally with what the mystics have dreamed. Always it is a triad, suggested by the ancient idea of the number Three, the singular, the dual and the plural, the odd and even added, and the great emblem of the Triangle--symbol of perfection. It is seen in all Masonic symbolism, from end to end and at every step of the Mystic quest for the secret which every Mason is seeking.

 

Eloquently, and with every variation of emphasis and illustration, he lays the matter before us, carrying it into all the fields of human activity and aspiration. Sympathy and Antipathy, Attraction and Repulsion, Fate and Freedom, each a fact of life and a force of nature, are contraries alike in the universe and in the soul of man, wherein we see eternity in miniature. As the earth is held in its orbit by the action of opposing forces, so truth is made up of two opposite propositions, as peace lies in the union of motion and rest, and harmony is the fruit of seeming war. Here he finds the solution of the problem of the One and the Many, of the Infinite and the Finite, of Unity amidst Manifoldness: the principle of the Balance, the secret of the universal equilibrium:

 

"Of that Equilibrium in the Deity, between the Infinite Divine Wisdom and the Infinite Divine Power; from which result the Stability of the Universe, the unchangeableness of the Divine Law, and the Principles of Truth, Justice, and Right which are a part of it; . . Of that Equilibrium also, between the Infinite Divine Justice and the Infinite Divine Mercy, the result of which is the Infinite Divine Equity, and the Moral Harmony or Beauty of the Universe. By it the endurance of created and imperfect natures in the presence of a Perfect Deity is made possible; . .

 

Of that Equilibrium between Necessity and Liberty, between the action of the Divine Omnipotence and the Free-will of man, by which vices and base actions, and ungenerous thoughts and words are crimes and wrongs, justly punished by the law of cause and consequence, though nothing in the universe can happen or be done contrary to the will of God; and without which co-existence of Liberty and Necessity, of Free-will in the creature and Omnipotence in the Creator, there could be no religion, nor any law of right and wrong, or merit or demerit, nor any justice in human punishments or penal laws.

 

And, finally, of that Equilibrium, possible in ourselves, and which Masonry incessantly labors to accomplish in its Initiates, and demands of its Adepts and Princes (else unworthy of their titles between the Spiritual and Divine and the Material and human in man; between the Intellect, Reason, and Moral Sense on one side, and the Appetites and Passions on the other, from which result the Harmony and Beauty of a well-regulated life." (2)  And so on, through a passage of singular elevation both of language and of thought, we are led by an ancient truth which becomes a vision in the mind of a nobler thinker. My design is not to add to his exposition, but to apply it with emphasis and illustration, if so that it may be brought home to our "business and bosom" and be of real service to us in the life which we live together, and in the life which each must live alone. For it is the high service of Masonry that it puts a man in the straight path which the wisest of the race have walked, leading him midway between the falsehood of extremes, and bringing the highest teaching of the past to the uses of the present. After all, how to live is the one matter; and he is wise who joins the goodly Shakespeare gospel of Courage, Sanity and Pity with that other Gospel of Faith, Hope, and Love. Every man will need all the aid he can get, unless he be content, as no real man can be, to live in the world as a mere looker-on at a drama in which others are actors,

 

"In God's vast house a curious guest,  Seeing how all works take their flight."

 

From bottom to top life is a contradiction and a paradox, and the beginning of wisdom is to know that fact and adjust ourselves to it. Light and darkness, heat and cold, mind and matter, fate and free-will, asceticism and indulgence, socialism and anarchy, dogmatism and doubt, reason and authority--no man may ever hope to live long enough, much less to think deeply enough, to harmonize these paradoxes. The way of wisdom is to accept both facts in each case, as the Two Pillars of a Temple of Truth, and walk between them into the hush of the holy place. Either one, without the other, is only a half-truth which ends in perversion, if not in insanity, turning the hearty, wholesome, clear seeing spirit of manhood into the pitiful narrowness and hardness of a bigot or a fanatic.

 

For example: "All is free- that is false: all is fate--that is false. All things are free and fated-- that is true." (3) It is possible to make an argument in behalf of fatalism so freezing that one is left with the feeling that he is no more responsible for his thoughts and acts, than he is for the shape of his head and the color of his eyes. Having listened to such an argument, each of us may say, as Dr. Johnson did, (4) "I know I am free, and that's the end on it." On the other side, one can present a thesis in proof of the freedom of man so convincing that fate seems a fiction. Both are true, and the great truth consists of two opposites which are not contradictory--that it is the Fate of man to be Free if he fights for it, approves himself worthy of it, uniting his will with the Will of the Master of the World! Otherwise, we men are slaves journeying downward "to the dust of graves," slaves of greed and passion and a fatal folly.

 

Asceticism is one extreme, indulgence another. One would repress every natural instinct in behalf of a pale, wan purity; the other would follow every fancy, driven hither and yon by every gust of passion, at the mercy of every caprice. Between the two lies temperance, keeping the balance between two absurdities, making a right use of everything, and abusing nothing; its motto the wise words of the old Greeks, "In nothing too much." Socialism seems to hold that the State is everything, the Individual nothing--or at best only a cog in a vast machine, an atom in an indistinguishable blur. Anarchy makes the State nothing, and the Individual everything--each a law unto himself, and chaos at the end. Between the two lies the way of wise government in which "Freedom slowly broadens down from precedent to precedent," or grows gladly up from the life of a just and intelligent people. There are certain things which every man must surrender in behalf of the common good, and other things which it were a sin to abdicate, the while a shifting, zig-zag line runs between dividing the man from the mass.

 

By the same token, in religion Dogmatism affirms everything, makes a map of the Infinite, and an atlas of Eternity, so certain is it of things whereof no man knoweth. It talks of God as if He were a man in the next room. It knows the origin of all things, and the final destiny of humanity. Doubt denies everything, questions the competence of the human mind to know Divine things, leaving us with the assurance that nothing is certain but uncertainty; nothing secure but insecurity. Again it is the doctrine of the balance, as in the natural world peace is found amid the poise of powers. Between dogmatism and doubt is a wise and reverent Faith, which dares to say, "Now we know in part--a tiny part, no doubt--but knowledge is real as far as it goes, and what we know gives us confidence in the vast Unknown. And so we make bold to trust the ultimate decency of things and the veiled kindness of the Father of men, assured that He who has brought us to where we are will lead us to where we ought to be !"

 

Of this fundamental paradox of life the Cross is the symbol. Older than Christianity, as old, almost, as human life, it is the supreme symbol of the race. When man first emerged from the "old dark backward and abysm of time," he had a cross in his hand. Where he got it, what he meant by it, many may conjecture but no one knows. The Cross, like life itself, is also a collision and a contradiction--its four arms pointing every whither, making it the great guide-post of free thought. As long as a man keeps his poise, never forgetting the profound paradox at the heart of all high thought, he may think as far and as fast as his mind can go. For many of us, of course, the Cross is hallowed anew and forever by the name of One whose life was a tragedy, whose love was heroic in its gentleness, who wins by "that strange power called weakness," whose character is the sovereign wonder of the world, and whose spirit is the holiest tradition of humanity.

 

Since this is so, since the way of sanity, if not of salvation, lies in keeping our balance, why is it that men lose their poise ? No man of us, when he thinks of the days agone, but recalls acts which he not only regrets, but which puzzle him by their strange stupidity. He would give almost as much to be able to understand them as he would to forget them. Why is this so? Shakespeare has much to teach us here, much of abiding profit to remember, if so that we may understand the past and make a better use of the future. He everywhere shows that tragedy is the fruit of treachery, and that treachery has its roots in obsession (5) -- some one thing that gets so close to the mind that it can see nothing else, blinds it, preys upon it, making a man first a fanatic, and then, it may be, a criminal. Macbeth was a man of noble nature; his wife was a lovely lady. They became obsessed with ambition for place and power, and to what dark depths of sin and shame that mad blindness led them that terrible tragedy tells us. This lesson, taught so often by our supreme poet, is for each of us, teaching us to keep our poise, and to flee an obsession as a plague. Whatever fastens itself upon the mind, shutting out the light, marring the proportions and perspectives of things, forebodes disaster.

 

Perhaps it is physical passion. If so, it will turn love into lust and make the world a bawdy-house. It may be political ambition, and a man throws everything to the winds in order to win, forgetting that no office on earth is worth the sacrifice of integrity--and, also, if he wins by trickery he is unfit to hold it. It may be religion. Think of the crimes unspeakable, the brutalities unbelievable, which have been committed by men in a frenzy of fanatical bigotry--dipping their hands in blood and thinking they were doing the will of God ! They were madmen. Plato said that all men are more or less insane, and that the man whom we put in a straight-jacket is only a little more emphatically out of his mind than the rest of us. The more reason, then, why we should keep our poise and walk the quiet way of sanity and charity, in love of God and man.

 

After this manner we expound the Doctrine of the Balance, as taught by Pike, reminding our Brethren, as we remind ourselves, that the wisdom of life lies in freedom, serenity, and forgiveness, in victory by selfsurrender to the highest laws of life, and that we dare not turn either to the right or the left. By such teaching men become happy and free; in this way we may grow old without being sad, and wise without being cynical; and learn, at last, that everlasting gentleness which is the highest wisdom man may win from the hard facts and the often strange medley of his days. Let us also lay to heart the prayer quoted by Pike:

 

"Let Him, the ever-living God, be always present in thy mind; for thy mind itself is His likeness, for it, too, is invisible and impalpable, and without form. As He exists forever, so thou also, when thou shalt put off this which is visible and corruptible, shalt stand before Him forever, living and endowed with knowledge."

 

(1) Eliphas Levi. Digest of his Writings. translated by A.E. Waite, especially pp. 79-83.

(2) Morals and Dogma, pp. 859-60.

(3) Life of F.W. Robertson, p. 32, note.

(4) Life of Johnson, by Boswell.

(5) Shakespeare, by John Masefield.

 

THE USE AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOR IN MASONRY

 

BY BRO. FRANK C. HIGGINS, NEW YORK

 

The subject of color in connection with Masonry is one which has received very little attention from students, in the past, but it is nevertheless one which is susceptible to some extremely fascinating speculations and, to the writer's notion, deserves greater attention than has hitherto been accorded it.

 

In Symbolic Masonry we encounter reference to but three, the alternating black and white of the Mosaic pavement denoting the "dual principle"; the pure white of the Lily and the Blue color attributed to the Lodge and the Heavens which it is said to imitate in certain particulars. From the latter consideration we derive various notes of blue in lodge regalia and decorations. The Green of the Acacia, though not dwelt upon, supplies the final note on Immortality.

 

In Capitular Masonry, the prevailing color is Red and much weight is given to the colors of the four Veils, respectively Scarlet, Blue, Purple and White, which are self-evidently representations of those employed in the Tabernacle and subsequent Temples of Israel. Red is the color of Vulcan, god of Fire, whom the Jews called Tubal-Cain and whose number is 9, or 3 times 3.

 

If we are willing to accept the theory that in the original intention of the sequence of Masonic degrees, "Symbolic" Masonry was to represent the birth, education or development and final test of the perfected soul, and "Capitular" Masonry to symbolize the return of the liberated soul to the source of its being, we shall have no difficulty, whatsoever, in assimilating the presence of these colors in Lodge and Chapter, as indicated, with the ancient Semitic philosophy, in which Old Testament Theology and, consequently, Masonry, had its rise.

 

The old Chaldean cosmogony, which impressed the Egyptian, Phoenician and Hebrew cults alike, regarded the Soul as a spark of the Divinity, precipitated to Earth, through the spheres of the Seven planets and the Zones of the Four Elements, gathering in the course of its journey, its mental, moral and spiritual attributes from the first group and its physical elements from the second.

 

The original King Solomon's Temples were the Zigurrats of Salmannu Sar* (Shalmanesar) of which the seven stepped or staged Temple of Bel at Borsippa, the trans-Euphratean suburb of Babylon, was, perhaps, the leading example. They were square edifices, like a nest of seven boxes, one above the other, on a diminishing scale and joined by outer staircases. Beginning with Saturn the most distant and slowest of the planets to make a complete circuit of the ecliptic, they responded to the correct sequence of the heavenly bodies in question, as known to the ancients, and had attributed to them the colors of the spectrum, in the order of their refrangibility.

 

The lowermost or Saturn stage was, however, colored black, the next or Jupiter stage was Orange colored, the Mars stage Red, the Sun stage gold, the Venus stage pale yellow, that of Mercury blue, and that of the Moon silver. Blue is therefore the color universally symbolic of Hermes and the Hermetic philosophy on which Freemasonry is based.

 

Each of these stories was a temple to the presiding god of the Planet it represented and a school of the science attributed to it. Thus the final stage in the education of the neophyte was in the "Blue" edifice, prior to his admission to the uppermost or, by reason of the peculiar construction of the Temple, middle chamber, which was the observatory of the Priest Astronomers and Astrologers, who were the interpreters of the will of the gods to mankind and the direct servitors of their divine messenger Nebo, Mercury or Hermes.

 

The Hebrews in their re-fashioning of the Chaldean cult, substituted the imagery of Jacob's seven stepped ladder, which figure the Egyptians were also familiar with, as evidenced by the numerous little seven stepped ladder amulets found in their sarcophagi and, later, in Roman graves.  The Veils of the Temples were clearly symbolical of the elemental Zones. Water, Fire, Air and Earth, in Hebrew respectively Iammim, Nour, Rouach and Iebeschah, the initials of which words, "I. N. R. I.," having the numerical value of 10, 50, 200, 10, or 270, gave the cabalistic number of incarnation, founded upon the nine months, of thirty days each, of human gestation and which was also the number of the identified Osiris and Horus, among the Egyptians; the hypothenuse of a right-angle of 162 by 216.

 

Red stood for the element Fire, Blue for Air, White for Earth, and Purple for Water, the latter, presumably, because purple color was derived from a shell fish, the murex Purpurea of the Tyrians. Their signs were the Lion, Eagle, Bull and Man of Masonic heraldry. The Egyptians, who manufactured colored glass and must have made experiments with light, observing that red and green produced black, made these three colors representative of the J, V. and H. of their secret Supreme Being, HUHI, who was none other than our mighty Jehovah. Alternating stripes of Red, Black, Green, Black, standing for the Tetragrammaton, being the chief characteristic of the Apron worn by the celebrating Hierophants of the Mysteries of Isis. In their requisitions for Architects to construct their sacred edifices the Hebrews always specified that they be workers in the four symbolic colors and the symbolic metals which also belong to the planetary septenary quoted.

 

Bezaleel and Aholiab, builders of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, were "filled with wisdom of heart to execute all manner of work of the engraver, and of the designing weaver and of the embroiderer in blue, and in purple and in scarlet yarn and in linen thread."

 

The gold, silver and copper employed were respectively sacred to the Sun, Moon and Planet Venus, while the Onyx stone and Shittim or Acacia wood, so lavishly employed, were symbols of the planet Mercury, which, to them, became the "Angel of the Lord," Raphael.

 

The celebrated Tyrian Architect, builder of King Solomon's Temple, is likewise described as skillful to work in gold, in silver, in copper and in iron, in stone, in wood, in purple, in blue, in fine linen and in crimson, and also to execute any manner of engraving-- again a list of symbolic materials embracing the metals of the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mars, the last two indicative of the physical qualities of Attraction and Repulsion, which engender Vibration and which Science is even now identifying as the great cosmic energy.

 

In the book of Kings the Tyrian Architect is called "Hirm" and in the book of Chronicles "Churam," but there is no doubt of them being the same individual. It will be recollected that Uri, the father of Bezaleel, is described as a "Son of Chur," which was Chr-Mse, "Son of Horus," the origin of the name "Hermes." The name Churam is the Egyptian Horus-Ammon, the name of the Month of the Ram, in which the Hebrews celebrated their Passover but which the Jews called Abib. (Now called Nisan.)

 

It is no stretch of imagination whatever to attach the surname Abib to the Hirm of "Kings" as a substitute for the Churam Abi of "Chronicles," when we are again confronted with 5, 10, 200, 40, 1, 2, 10, 2, or 270, the very number of Osiris-Horus we have already referred to.

 

Many Egyptian sculptures show the figures of Priests holding before the Monarch or the gods, purifying offerings of Fire and Water, the elements of which it was said the Earth had been created and by which it would be destroyed. If, finally, a most delightful theory may be advanced, we would (in our recognition of the advancement of the ancient Seers in many branches of Art and Science which we have only tardily come to justly credit them with), like to presume that part of the universal adoration of Light as the dwelling place of the Deity and the primordial source of substance employed in material creation, consisted in an appreciation of color, as a property of light.

 

We are perfectly satisfied, that the seven prismatic colors were recognized in the earliest ages of the civilized World. We know that the ancients were acquainted with the manufacture of glass and that in possession of this latter substance, they could scarcely avoid something which is constantly occurring to the astonishment of children, handling glass or crystal in the sunlight, the production of the colors of the rainbow. Why, then, were four colors only selected for the symbols of Matter and the Veils, representing the Elements, by our ancient Brethren ? All scientists have heard of Wollaston's celebrated experiment, performed in 1801 for the purpose of discovering the ultimate composition of light. We quote the language of his paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Great Britain in 1802. He says:

 

"I cannot conclude my observations on the dispersion of light without remarking that the colours, into which a beam of white light is separable by refraction, appear to me to be neither seven, as they are usually seen in the Rainbow, nor reducible by any means, that I can find to three, as some persons have conceived, but that by employing a very narrow pencil of light four primary divisions of the prismatic spectrum may be seen with a degree of distinctness, that I believe has not been described or observed before."

 

"If a beam of daylight be admitted into a dark room by a crevice, 1-20 of an inch broad, and received by the eye at a distance of ten or twelve feet through a prism of flint glass, free from veins, held near the eye, the beam is seen separated into the four following colors only: Red, a yellowish Green (which might pass as a muddy White), Blue and Violet." The very diagram employed by Wollaston to illustrate this experiment, a human eye viewing the four ultimate colors through a triangular prism, suggests above all things the notion of the all-seeing eye, in the Triangle, viewing His Creation as a compound of the four elements, as those only known to and symbolized by ancient Science. The student desirous of pursuing this subject farther will find extensive notes on the Biblical and Classical employment of the seven prismatic colors, in Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, which detail various ancient conceptions in an interesting manner.

 

*Literally, "King Solomon," also paraphrased by the Hebrews, Sar Salom, "Prince of Peace."

 

----o----

 

EVERY NATION

 

No theory of neutrality, be it never so just, and experience of national isolation, be it never so remunerative, can secure for the United States of America immunity from the pains and penalties of Europe's agony, or can make the struggle of other nations only a harvest time for American manufacturers of munitions of war. When humanity goes up to its Golgotha, it means the blood-sweat of Gethsemane for every nation.

 

--J. A. Macdonald. Democracy and the Nation.

 

----o----

 

WHAT IS RELIGION?

 

"Religion is now seen to be the spirit of all thought, the inmost soul of all our music, our art, and our great literature. What the church calls salvation, the outer world calls the civilization of man. What the church calls Heaven, science designates as the triumph of the human spirit. What is best for man here is best for man forever, for eternity is but the lengthening of our human night or day. The greatest missionary movement on earth is the pity of man for man."

 

--Dand Swing.

 

THE VEHMGERICHTE

 

BY BRO. E. J. WITTENBERG, CAL.

 

(In answer to a number of enquiries as to the possible influence of The Vehmgerichte on Masonry, we reproduce from the Bulletin of the Los Angeles Consistory the following brief essay by Brother E. J. Wittenberg, read--as we think very happily and appropriately--at the conclusion of the presentation of the Twenty-first Degree of the Scottish Rite. Brother Gould, in his History of Masonry, takes up the question of the supposed influence of this old German court on blue Masonry, and does not think much of it. There are resemblances and some analogies, but nothing more. Still, further light may reveal other things, and further light is what we want from every possible source. If this little essay serves to provoke further study, it will do what it was meant to do.)

 

The founder of the German Vehmgerichte, according to Westphalian tradition, was Charles I., Emperor of Germany (Charlemagne), A. D. 742-814. This tradition, however, could only apply to the Frohngerichte, or Free Field Court of Saxony, instituted by Charlemagne for the purpose of coercing Saxons, who were ever ready to relapse into the idolatory from which they had been reclaimed, not by persuasion, but by the sword. The first authentic mention of the Vehmgerichte, and documentary evidence, is found during the reign of Frederick I., Emperor of Germany (Barbarossa), A. D. 1152.

 

Westphalia was the home of these courts, and only upon the "Red Earth," as the confines of this old Duchy were called, could their members be initiated. The place of session, known as the Freistuhl (Free Seat), held on some hill or other well-known accessible spot and was presided over by the Emperor, called Oberstuhlherr" (Over-Lord), or his representative appointed by him, usually a noble or churchman of great prominence, in the general chapter, and by a Freigraf (Free Count), called "Stuhlherr" (Presiding Judge), in the subordinate courts, with fifteen Freischoeffen as associates, the youngest of which acted as summoner. Before the Stuhlherr on a table lay the emblems of his authority, the sword and the cord.

 

The Freischoeffen were divided into two classes, "Offenbare" (uninitiated) and the "Wissende" (initiated). This latter, Stillgericht (Sacred Tribunal), was closed to all but the initiated; any one in attendance not a member on being discovered was immediately put to death.

 

The applicant for initiation as a Freischoeffe, among the Wissende, appeared before the dread tribunal blindfolded, bareheaded and ungirt, where he was interrogated as to his qualifications, good repute, ether he was a Teuton, freeborn and clear of any accusation punishable by the tribunal of which he desired to become a member. If his answers and sponsors were satisfactory, he then took the following oath:

 

"I hereby swear by the Holy Law that I will conceal the secrets of the Holy Vehme from wife and child, from father and mother, from sister and brother, from fire and water, from every creature upon which the sun shines, or upon which the rain falls, from every being between earth and heaven. I furthermore swear that I will communicate to the tribunal all crimes or offenses which fall beneath the secret ban of the Emperor or this tribunal, knowing them to be true or imparted to me by a trustworthy person or persons, and I will not forbear to do so--for love nor for loathing, for gold nor for silver, nor precious stones, and may I suddenly be seized, my eyes bound, my body cast down on the soil, my tongue torn out the back of my neck and hanged seven times higher than any other criminal, should I violate this my solemn oath."

 

He then received the password, by which he was to know his fellows, and grip and sign by which they recognized each other in silence.

 

The General Chapter of the initiated, or Heimliche Acht (Secret Tribunal) was held once a year, and all the members were liable to be called to account for their acts; reports were made by the Stuhlherren (Presiding Judges) of all proceedings which had taken place within their various jurisdictions during the year; unworthy members expelled or punished; regulations were enacted for new and unforseen cases for which the existing laws did not provide a remedy.

 

In the early history of the organization, the accused could be absolved by taking the oath of purification upon the handle of the judge's sword, but when it was found that criminals did not hesitate to perjure themselves, the accuser, always a Freischoeffe, could substantiate his charge even against the oath of the accused by three or more witnesses. If the accused could discredit these by a number of one-half more, he was still discharged, otherwise he was condemned, and sentence was passed upon him and he was forthwith hanged on the nearest tree. If a thief, murderer, or perpetrator of any other heinous crime was apprehended in the very act, or if he himself confessed the deed, he was immediately hung, providing at least three Freischoeffen were present when apprehended. If an individual was strongly suspected of a crime, but without any certain accuser, he was sometimes allowed to run the risk of the ordeal by fire, bier-right, or combat. In the first ordeal, a fire was kindled and the person about to undergo the ordeal was placed in front of the fire, surrounded by all who were in any way interested in the result of the trial. Upon a table near the fire, the plough-share over which he was to walk, the bar of iron he was to carry, or if he was a knight, the steel gloves which, after they had been made red hot, he was to put on his hands, were placed in view of all.

 

While the iron was placed on the fire and heating, the following prayer was said:

 

 "We pray unto Thee, O God, that it may please Thee to absolve this Thy servant and to clear him from his sins. Purify him, O Heavenly Father, from all the stains of the flesh, and enable him, by Thy all-covering and atoning grace to pass through this fire--Thy creature--triumphantly. O God, Thou that through fire hath shown forth so many signs of Thy almighty power; Thou that didst cause the bush to burn before the eyes of Moses and yet not be consumed, God that didst safely conduct the three children through the flame of the Babylonians; God that didst waste Sodom with fire from heaven, and preserve Lot, Thy servant, as a sign and token of Thy mercy; O God show forth once again the visible power of Thy majesty or Thy unerring judgment; that truth may be made manifest and falsehood avenged, make Thou this fire Thy minister before us, powerless be it where the power of purity, but sorely burning, even to flesh and the sinews, the hand that had done evil, and that had not feared to be lifted up in false swearing. O God, from whose eye nothing can be concealed, make Thou this fire Thy voice to us Thy servants, that it may reveal innocence, or cover iniquity with shame."

 

The accused then approached the fire, lifted the iron and carried it nine feet from the fire. The moment he laid it down, his hands were wrapped in linen cloths and sealed. These were removed on the third day, when he was declared innocent or guilty, according to the condition in which his hands were found.

 

In the ordeal of bier-right, the remains of the murdered man were placed on a bier before the Stuhlherr, his arms folded on his breast, palms joined together with the fingers pointed upward; the face, breast and arms bare, and the rest of the corpse shrouded in a winding sheet of fine linen, so that if blood should flow from any place which was covered, it could not fail to be instantly seen, it being the belief at that time that the corpse of a murdered person would bleed on the touch or at the approach of the murderer. At the head of the bier stood the challenger, and at the foot, the defender.

 

The suspected person then approached the bier, taking the following oath.

 

"By all that was created in seven days and seven nights, by heaven, by hell, by my part of paradise and by the God and Author of all, I am free and sackless of the bloody deed done upon the corpse before which I stand and on whose breast I make the sign of the cross, an evidence of my appeal and innocence."

 

Summons to the accused was not generally served personally on him, but secretly nailed to his door or some other neighboring place; the citation allowed him six weeks and three days grace, and was thrice repeated.

 

If the accused appeared, judgment was given according to the evidence; if he did not appear, he was declared outlawed (Vogel-frei). This declaration was quickly made known to the whole body, and the Freischoeffe who was the first to meet the condemned was bound to put him to death by hanging. A dagger marked with the secret letters "S. S. G. G." of the Heimliche Acht, signifying Stock, Stein, Gras, Grein (stick, stone, grass and grain), was laid by the corpse as a sign that judgment had been executed by the Secret Tribunal.

 

A power so formidable, from which the most powerful princes were not exempt, soon raised the hostility of those who feared becoming its victims, as well as those who saw in it an engine of terrible oppression, and in the fifteenth century an association was formed among the free cities and princes of Germany to resist the free judges, and to require that the trial of accused persons should take place in the open. Maximilian I., A. D. 1495, established a new criminal code, which materially weakened the Vehmgerichte. In the sixteenth century they were brought under the jurisdiction of ordinary courts, and although robbed of all its old impressive forms, it still survived into the beginning of the nineteenth century, when finally abolished in 1811 by order of Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. The last Freischoeffe, Graf Engelhard, died in 1835 at Worl, in Westphalia.

 

In 1874, when the judiciary system of Germany was reformed, a branch of this system, before which minor civil cases are tried, was named a Schoeffengericht, consisting of one presiding judge and two Schoeflen, and so far as I know these courts are still in existence.

 

----o----

 

THE GREAT LIGHT SYMBOLISM

 

1. This sacred symbol you must hold

In high esteem as your delight;

Since to our craft throughout the world,

It is the Great Masonic Light.

 

2. Though we may differ in belief,

And fail in doctrine to agree;

The men of this, and every age

Accept its pure morality.

 

3. Within its pages you can find

Those living principles of right;

Which can your daily walk adorn

With deeds of clear fraternal light.

 

4. I charge you to revere this book,

And heed its teachings night and day;

Since on our altar it is found

To guide us in the better way.

 

5. We cannot dictate as to faith,

Nor here discuss the many creeds

Which earnest, thoughtful minds have framed,

To meet the world's religious needs.

 

6. But we are taught within our Lodge

To take each brother by the hand;

And urge him with a solemn vow,

By this great light to always stand.

 

7. If from our sacred altar here

The infidel or libertine,

Could wrest this Book of Sacred laws

The grandest code the race has seen:

 

8. That light that has for ages shone

To guide Freemasons on their way:--

Then we no longer could maintain

The freedom which we claim today.

 

9. But just as long as we can keep

Its golden rays of truth and love;

The Craft thereby may hope to rise

To yonder Lodge in heaven above.

 

10. Guard then this great Masonic light,

The guiding symbol of our Band;

Defend it as you would the flag,

That now enfolds your native land.

 

11. Live by its teachings till you go

To that bright home beyond the sea:

Where you shall evermore enjoy

A blessed immortality.

--N. A. McAulay.

 

PREROGATIVES

 

BY BRO. LEWIS A. McCONNELL, INDIANA

 

THE making of Masons "at sight" is held up by a number of writers to be the prerogative of Grand Masters, a special right which they enjoy which is not enjoyed by the other members of the fraternity; a right which was granted to them, either ancient legislation, or exists by reason of the toleration of a custom, or by means of a combination of both; if such right exists, then it is not only the right, but also the duty of a Mason to inquire as to its source, since all rights enjoyed by certain specially selected individuals which are not granted to others, must have been granted to the possessor by a power superior to himself.

 

It is most logically and undisputedly set forth by Thomas Paine in that inimitable treatise upon human liberties, entitled "The Rights of Man," that there are certain rights which belong to each individual of which there exists no power to deprive him, and that such rights are possessed by every other individual without distinction; that such rights are not inherited or handed down from one generation to another by legislation of a past generation which the present generation has not the right to repeal; but that the descendents of each generation possess the right to legislate for themselves regardless of the acts of past generations, even though such past enactments may be framed so as to bind themselves "and their heirs forever," language which has often been used for the purpose of binding upon an unwilling future generation, the force of its provisions.

 

It cannot be a question which admits of any doubt that a Grand Master gets his rights as such, whatever they may be, not from the same source from which each individual secures those rights which are admitted to belong to all men, but from a special authority, and one which is superior to himself; for it is impossible to imagine a right granted from an inferior power to a superior one, or for an individual without such authority, to invest himself with rights which other individuals may not also assume.

 

He then secures such rights from the general body of Masonry which had the power and right to promulgate and adopt the constitutions and regulations under which his power exists, the power of such body necessarily including the power to alter or amend any enactment which it originally had the power to promulgate.

 

It therefore had the right to require an adherence to ancient customs and usages, and to point out and declare what were the ancient landmarks to which such requirements refer; and any future Grand Lodge, being no less a power than any preceding one, has the power to enact that its members shall adhere to such regulations, or to any other regulations which it may see fit to set forth; but unless this later Grand Lodge sanctions the enactments of a preceding one they cannot be binding upon the present body of Masonry, unless it be true that one generation has the right to legislate for a future one, which is plainly demonstrated not to be true; and inasmuch as "truth is a divine attribute and the foundation of every virtue" which Masonry professes to believe and sustain, we cannot admit the principle of inherited rights or inherited powers.

 

Masonry very properly aims to keep in sight the ancient landmarks of the fraternity, and yet, by some means or other a number of customs have been introduced into the order which are by no means ancient although some of them date back to a considerable length of time, and which have been attempted to be set up as ancient landmarks; yet whether