The Builder Magazine

November 1919 - Volume V - Number 11

 

THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER "HUMANUM GENUS" OF THE POPE LEO XIII

As a result of the publication of "A Catholic Treatise on Masonry" from the Catholic Encyclopedia, in the July, August, September and October issues of THE BUILDER, we have been asked by a large number of our readers for further light on some of the papal edicts against Freemasonry mentioned in the last instalment of that article. For the enlightenment of these inquirers and the Fraternity at large we here publish one of the most prominent of these rescripts, the letter "Humanum Genus" of Pope Leo XIII, issued on April 20th, 1884.

 

Albert Pike, the then Grand Commander of the Supreme Council 33d for the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, called attention of the Craft to this encyclical letter in his Allocution delivered before the Supreme Council in October of the same year and then issued a reply to it. The extract from Brother Pike's Allocution and his reply to the Bull will follow in early issues of THE BUILDER.

 

To all venerable Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops in the Catholic world who have grace and communion with the Apostolic See: Venerable Brothers: Health and the Apostolic Benedictions

 

THE HUMAN RACE, after, by the malice of the devil, it had departed from God, the Creator and Giver of heavenly gifts, divided itself into two different and opposing parties, one of which assiduously combats for truth and virtue, the other for those things which are opposed to virtue and to truth. The one is the Kingdom of God on earth that is, the Church of Jesus Christ; those who desire to adhere to which from their soul and conductively to salvation must serve God and His only begotten Son with their whole mind and their whole will. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose dominion and power are all who have followed his sad example and that of our first parents. They refuse to obey divine and eternal law, and strive for many things to the neglect of God and for many against God. This twofold kingdom, like two states with contrary laws working in contrary directions, Augustine clearly saw and described, and comprehended the efficient cause of both with subtle brevity in these words: "Two loves have made two states: the love of self to the contempt of God has made the earthly, but the love of God to the contempt of self has made the heavenly." (De Civ. Dei, lib. xiv., chap. 17.)

 

The one fights the other with different kinds of weapons, and battles at all times, though not always with the same ardor and fury. In our days, however, those who follow the evil one seem to conspire and strive all together under the guidance and with the help of that society of men spread all over, and solidly established, which they call Free-Masons. Not dissimulating their intentions, they vie in attacking the power of God; they openly and ostensibly strive to damage the Church, with the purpose to deprive thoroughly if possible Christian people of the benefits brought by the Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

Seeing these evils, we are compelled by charity in our soul to say often to God: "For lo! Thy enemies have made noise; and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken malicious counsel against Thy people, and have consulted against Thy saints. They have said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation." (Ps. lxxxii., 24.)

 

In such an impending crisis, in such a great and obstinate warfare upon Christianity, it is our duty to point out the danger, exhibit the adversaries, resist as much as we can their schemes and tricks, lest those whose salvation is in our hands should perish eternally: and that the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which we have received in trust, not only may stay and remain intact, but may continue to increase all over the world by new additions.

 

The Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, watching constantly over the safety of the Christian people, early recognized this capital enemy rushing forth out of the darkness of hidden conspiracy, and, anticipating the future in their mind, gave the alarm to princes and people, that they should not be caught by deceptions and frauds.

 

Clement XII. first signalized the danger in 1738, and Benedict XIV. renewed and continued his Constitution. Pius VII. followed them both; and Leo XII., by the Apostolic Constitution quo graviora recapitulating the acts and decrees of the above Pontiffs about the manner, validated and confirmed them forever. In the same way spoke Pius VIII., Gregory XVI., and very often Pius IX.

 

The purpose and aim of the Masonic sect having been discovered from plain evidence, from the cognition of causes, its laws, Rites and commentaries having come to light and been made known by the additional depositions of the associated members, this Apostolic See denounced and openly declared that the sect of Masons is established against law and honesty, and is equally a danger to Christianity as well as to society; and, threatening those heavy punishments which the Church uses against the guilty ones, she forbade the society, and ordered that none should give his name to it. Therefore the angry Masons, thinking that they would escape the sentence or partially destroy it by despising or calumniating, accused the Pope who made those decrees of not having made a right decree or of having overstepped moderation. They thus tried to evade the authority and the importance of the Apostolic Constitutions of Clement XII., Benedict XIV., Pius VII., and Pius IX. But in the same society there were some who, even against their own will, acknowledged that the Roman Pontiffs had acted wisely and lawfully, according to the Catholic discipline. In this many princes and rulers of States agreed with the Popes, and either denounced Masonry to the Apostolic See or by appropriate laws condemned it as a bad thing in Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Bavaria, Savoy, and other parts of Italy.

 

 But the event justified the prudence of our predecessors, and this is the most important. Nay, their paternal care did not always and everywhere succeed, either because of the simulation and shrewdness of the Masons themselves, or through the inconsiderate levity of others whose duty required of them strict attention. Hence, in a century and a half the sect of Masons grew beyond expectation; and, creeping audaciously and deceitfully among the various classes of the people, it grew to be so powerful that now it seems the only dominating power in the States. From this rapid and dangerous growth have come into the Church and into the State those evils which our predecessors had already foreseen. It has indeed come to this, that we have serious fear, not for the Church, which has a foundation too firm for men to upset it, but for those States in which this society is so powerful or other societies of a like kind, and which show themselves to be servants and companions of Masonry.

 

For these reasons, when we first succeeded in the government of the Church, we saw and felt very clearly the necessity of opposing so great an evil with the full weight of our authority. On all favorable occasions we have attacked the principal doctrines in which the Masonic perversity appeared. By our Encyclical Letter, quod apostolic muneris, we attacked the errors of Socialists and Communists; by the Letter, Arcanum, we tried to explain and defend the genuine notion of domestic society, whose source and origin is in marriage; finally, by the letter which begins Diuturnum, we proposed a form of civil power consonant with the principles of Christian wisdom, responding to the very nature and to the welfare of people and Princes. Now, after the example of our predecessors, we intend to turn our attention to the Masonic society, to its whole doctrine, to its intentions, acts, and feelings, in order to illustrate more and more this wicked force and stop the spread of this contagious disease.

 

There are several sects of men which, though different in name, customs, forms, and origin, are identical in aim and sentiment with Masonry. It is the universal center from which they all spring, and to which they all return. Although in our days these seem to no longer care to hide in darkness, but hold their meetings in the full light and under the eyes of their fellow-men and publish their journals openly, yet they deliberate and preserve the habits and customs of secret societies. Nay, there are in them many secrets which are by law carefully concealed not only from the profane, but also from many associated, viz., the last and intimate intentions, the hidden and unknown chiefs, the hidden and secret meetings, the resolutions and methods and means by which they will be carried into execution. Hence the difference of rights and of duties among the members; hence the distinction of orders and grades and the severe discipline by which they are ruled. The initiated must promise, nay, take an oath, that they will never, at any way or at any time, disclose their fellow-members and the emblems by which they are known, or expose their doctrines. So, by false appearance, but with the same kind of simulation, the Masons chiefly strive, as once did the Manichseans, to hide and to admit no witnesses but their own. They seek skilfully hiding places, assuming the appearance of literary men or philosophers, associated for the purpose of erudition; they have always ready on their tongues the speech of cultivated urbanity, and proclaim their charity toward the poor; they look for the improvement of the masses, to extend the benefits of social comfort to as many of mankind as possible. Those purposes, though they may be true, yet are not the only ones. Besides, those who are chosen to join the society must promise and swear to obey the leaders and teachers with great respect and trust; to be ready to do whatever is told them, and accept death and the most horrible punishment if they disobey. In fact, some who have betrayed the secrets or disobeyed an order are punished with death so skilfully and so audaciously that the murder escaped the investigations of the police. Therefore, reason and truth show that the society of which we speak is contrary to honesty and natural justice.

 

There are other and clear arguments to show this society is not in agreement with honesty. No matter how great the skill with which men conceal, it is impossible that the cause should not appear in its effects. "A good tree cannot yield bad fruits, nor a bad tree good ones." (Matt. vii., 18.) Masonry generates bad fruits mixed with great bitterness. From the evidence above mentioned we find its aim, which is the desire of overthrowing all the religious and social orders introduced by Christianity, and building a new one according to its taste, based on the foundation and laws of naturalism.

 

What we have said or will say must be understood of Masonry in general and of all like societies, not of the individual members of the same. In their number there may be not a few who, though they are wrong in giving their names to these societies, yet are neither guilty of their crimes nor aware of the final goal which they strive to reach. Among the associations also, perhaps, some do not approve the extreme conclusions which, as emanating from common principles, it would be necessary to embrace if their deformity and vileness would not be too repulsive. Some of them are equally forced by the places and times not to go so far as they would go or others go; and yet they are not to be considered less Masonic for that, because the Masonic alliance has to be considered not only from actions and deeds, but from general principles.

 

Now, it is the principle of naturalists, as the name itself indicates, that human nature and human reason in everything must be our teacher and guide. Having once settled this, they are careless of duties toward God, or they pervert them with false opinions and errors. They deny that anything has been revealed by God; they do not admit any religious dogma and truth but what human intelligence can comprehend; they do not allow any teacher to be believed on his official authority. Now, it being the special duty of the Catholic Church, and her duty only, to keep the doctrines received from God and the authority of teaching with all the heavenly means necessary to salvation and preserve them integrally incorrupt, hence the attacks and rage of the enemies are turned against her.

 

Now, if one watches the proceedings of the Masons, in respect of religion especially, where they are more free to do what they like, it will appear that they carry faithfully into execution the tenets of the naturalists. They work, indeed, obstinately to the end that neither the teaching nor the authority of the Church may have any influence; and therefore they preach and maintain the full separation of the Church from the State. So law and government are wrested from the wholesome and divine virtue of the Catholic Church, and they want, therefore, by all means to rule States independent of the institutions and doctrines of the Church.

 

To drive off the Church as a sure guide is not enough; they add persecutions and insults. Full license is given to attack with impunity, both by words and print and teaching, the very foundations of the Catholic religion; the rights of the Church are violated; her divine privileges are not respected. Her action is restricted as much as possible; and that by virtue of laws apparently not too violent, but substantially made on purpose to check her freedom. Laws odiously partial against the clergy are passed so as to reduce its number and its means. The ecclesiastical revenue is in a thousand ways tied up, and religious associations abolished and dispersed.

 

But the war wages more ardently against the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff. He was, under a false pretext, deprived of the temporal power, the stronghold of his rights and of his freedom; he was next reduced to an iniquitous condition, unbearable for its numberless burdens until it has come to this, that the Sectarians say openly what they had already in secret devised for a long time, viz., that the very spiritual power of the Pope ought to be taken away, and the divine institution of the Roman Pontificate ought to disappear from the world. If other arguments were needed for this, it would be sufficiently demonstrated by the testimony of many who often, in times bygone and even lately, declared it to be the real supreme aim of the Free-Masons to persecute, with untamed hatred, Christianity, and that they will never rest until they see cast to the ground all religious institutions established by the Pope.

 

If the sect does not openly require its members to throw away of Catholic faith, this tolerance, far from injuring the Masonic schemes, is useful to them. Because this is, first, an easy way to deceive the simple and unwise ones and it is contributing to proselytize. By opening their gates to persons of every creed they promote, in fact, the great modern error of religious indifference and of the parity of all worships, the best way to annihilate every religion, especially the Catholic, which, being the only true one, cannot be joined with others without enormous injustice.

 

But naturalists go further. Having entered, in things of greatest importance, on a way thoroughly false, through the weakness of human nature or by the judgment of God, who punishes pride, they run to extreme errors. Thus the very truths which are known by the natural light of reason, as the existence of God, the spirituality and immortality of the soul, have no more consistence and certitude for them.

 

Masonry breaks on the same rocks by no different way. It is true, Free-Masons generally admit the existence of God; but they admit themselves that this persuasion for them is not firm, sure. They do not dissimulate that in the Masonic family the question of God is a principle of great discord; it is even known how they lately had on this point serious disputes. It is a fact that the sect leaves to the members full liberty of thinking about God whatever they like, affirming or denying His existence. Those who boldly deny His existence are admitted as well as those, like the Pantheists, admit God but ruin the idea of Him, retaining an absurd caricature of the divine nature, destroying its reality. Now, as soon as this supreme foundation is pulled down and upset, many natural truths must need go down, too, as the free creations of this world, the universal government of Providence, immortality of soul, fixture, and eternal life.

 

Once having dissipated these natural principles, important practically and theoretically, it is easy to see what will become of public and private morality. We will not speak of supernatural virtues, which, without a special favor and gift of God, no one can practice nor obtain, and of which it is impossible to find a vestige in those who proudly ignore the redemption of mankind, heavenly grace, the sacraments, and eternal happiness. We speak of duties which proceed from natural honesty. Because the principles and sources of justice and morality are these, a God, creator and provident ruler of the world, the eternal law which commands respect and forbids the violation of natural order; the supreme end of man settled a great deal above created things outside of this world. These principles once taken away by the Free-Masons as by the naturalists, immediately natural ethics has no more where to build or to rest. The only morality which Free-Masons admit, and by which they would like to bring up youth, is that which they call civil and independent, or the one which ignores every religious idea. But how poor, uncertain, and variable at every breath of passion is this morality, is demonstrated by the sorrowful fruits which partially already appear. Nay, where it has been freely dominating, having banished Christian education, probity and integrity of manners go down, horrible and monstrous opinions raise their head, and crimes grow with fearful audacity. This is deplored by everybody, and by those who are compelled by evidence and yet would not like to speak so.

 

Besides, as human nature is infected by original sin and more inclined to vice than to virtue, it is not possible to lead an honest life without mortifying the passions and submitting the appetites to reason. In this fight it is often necessary to despise created good, and undergo the greatest pains and sacrifices in order to preserve to conquering reason its own empire. But naturalists and Masons, rejecting divine revelation, deny original sin, and do not acknowledge that our free will is weakened and bent to evil. To the contrary, exaggerating the strength and excellency of nature, and settling in her the principles and unique rule of justice, they cannot even imagine how, in order to counteract its motions and moderate its appetites, continuous efforts are needed and the greatest constancy. This is the reason why we see so many enticements offered to the passions, journals, and reviews without any shame, theatrical plays thoroughly dishonest; the liberal arts cultivated according to the principles of an impudent realism, effeminate and delicate living promoted by the most refined inventions; in a word, all the enticements apt to seduce or weaken virtue carefully practiced  things highly to blame, yet becoming the theories of those who take away from man heavenly goods, and put all happiness in transitory things and bind it to earth.

 

What we have said may be confirmed by things of which it is not easy to think or to speak. As these shrewd and malicious men do not find more servility and docility than in souls already broken and subdued by the tyranny of the passions, there have been in the Masonic sect some who openly said and proposed that the multitudes should be urged by all means and artifice into license, so that they should afterward become an easy instrument for the most daring enterprise.

 

For domestic society the doctrine of almost all naturalists is that marriage is only a civil contract, and may be lawfully broken by the will of the contracting parties; the State has power over the matrimonial bond. In the education of the children no religion must be applied, and when grown up every one will select that which he likes.

 

Now Free-Masons accept these principles without restriction; and not only do they accept them, but they endeavor to act so as to bring them into moral and practical life. In many countries which are professedly Catholic, marriages not celebrated in the civil form are considered null; elsewhere laws allow divorce. In other places everything is done in order to have it permitted. So the nature of marriage will be soon changed and reduced to a temporary union, which can be done and undone at pleasure.

 

The sect of the Masons aims unanimously and steadily also at the possession of the education of children. They understand that a tender age is easily bent, and that there is no more useful way of preparing for the State such citizens as they wish. Hence, in the instruction and education of children, they do not leave to the ministers of the Church any part either in directing or watching them. In many places they have gone so far that children's education is all in the hands of laymen: and from moral teaching every idea is banished of those holy and great duties which bind together man and God.

 

The principles of social science follow. Here naturalists teach that men have all the same rights, and are perfectly equal in condition; that every man is naturally independent; that no one has a right to command others; that it is tyranny to keep men subject to any other authority than that which emanates from themselves. Hence the people are sovereign; those who rule have no authority but by the commission and concession of the people; so that they can be deposed, willing or unwilling, according to the wishes of the people. The origin of all rights and civil duties is in the people or in the State, which is ruled according to the new principles of liberty. The State must be godless; no reason why one religion ought to be preferred to another; all to be held in the same esteem.

 

Now it is well known that Free-Masons approve these maxims, and that they wish to see governments shaped on this pattern and model needs no demonstration. It is a long time, indeed, that they have worked with all their strength and power openly for this, making thus an easy way for those, not a few, more audacious and bold in evil, who meditate the communion and equality of all goods after having swept away from the world every distinction of social goods and conditions.

 

From these few hints it is easy to understand what is the Masonic sect and what it wants. Its tenets contradict so evidently human reason that nothing can be more perverted. The desire of destroying the religion and Church established by God, with the promise of immortal life, to try to revive, after eighteen centuries, the manners and institutions of paganism, is great foolishness and bold impiety. No less horrible or unbearable is it to repudiate the gifts granted through His adversaries. In this foolish and ferocious attempt, one recognizes that untamed hatred and rage of revenge kindled against Jesus Christ in the heart of Satan.

 

The other attempt in which the Masons work so much, viz., to pull down the foundations of morality, and become co-operators of those who, like brutes, would see that become lawful which they like, is nothing but to urge mankind into the most abject and ignominious degradation.

 

This evil is aggravated by the dangers which threaten domestic and civil society. As we have at other times explained, there is in marriage, through the unanimous consent of nations and of ages, a sacred and religious character; and by divine law the conjugal union is indissoluble. Now, if this union is dissolved, if divorce is juridically permitted, confusion and discord must inevitably enter the domestic sanctuary, and woman will lose her dignity and the children every security of their own welfare.

 

That the State ought to profess religious indifference and neglect God in ruling society, as if God did not exist, is a foolishness unknown to the very heathen, who had so deeply rooted in their mind and in their heart, not only the idea of God, but the necessity also of public worship, that they supposed it to be easier to find a city without any foundation than without any God. And really human society, from which nature has made us, was instituted by God, the author of the same nature, and from Him emanates, as from its source and principle, all this everlasting abundance of numberless goods. As, then, the voice of nature tells us to worship God with religious piety, because we have received from Him life and the goods which accompany life, so, for the same reasons, people and States must do the same. Therefore those who want to free society from any religious duty are not only unjust but unwise and absurd.

 

Once grant that men through God's will are born for civil society, and that sovereign power is so strictly necessary to society that when this fails society necessarily collapses, it follows that the right of command emanates from the same principle from which society itself emanates; hence the reason why the minister of God is invested with such authority. Therefore, so far as it is required from the end and nature of human society, one must obey lawful authority as we would obey the authority of God, supreme ruler of the universe; and it is a capital error to grant to the people full power of shaking off at their own will the yoke of obedience.

 

Considering their common origin and nature, the supreme end proposed to every one, and the right and duties emanating from it, men no doubt are all equal. But as it is impossible to find in them equal capacity, and as through bodily or intellectual strength one differs from others, and the variety of customs, inclinations, and personal qualities are so great, it is absurd to pretend to mix and unify all this and bring in the order of civil life a rigorous and absolute equality. As the perfect constitution of the human body results from the union and harmony of different parts, which differ in form and uses, but united and each in his own place form an organism beautiful, strong, useful, and necessary to life, so in the State there is an infinite variety of individuals who compose it. If these all equalized were to live each according to his own whim, it would result in a city monstrous and ugly; whereas if distinct in harmony, in degrees of offices, or inclinations, of arts, they co-operate together to the common good, they will offer the image of a city well harmonized and conformed to nature.

 

The turbulent errors which we have mentioned must inspire governments with fear; in fact, suppose the fear of God in life and respect for divine laws to be despised, the authority of the rulers allowed and authorized would be destroyed, rebellion would be left free to popular passions, and universal revolution and subversion must necessarily come. This subversive revolution is the deliberate aim and open purpose of the numerous communistic and socialistic associations. The Masonic sect has no reason to call itself foreign to their purpose, because Masons promote their designs and have with them common capital principles. If the extreme consequences are not everywhere reached in fact, it is not the merit of the sect nor owing to the will of the members, but of that divine religion which cannot be extinguished, and of the most select part of society, which, refusing to obey secret societies, resists strenuously their immoderate efforts.

 

May Heaven grant that universally from the fruits we may judge the root, and from impending evil and threatening dangers we may know the bad seed ! We have to fight a shrewd enemy, who, cajoling Peoples and Kings, deceives them all with false promises and fine flattery.

 

Free-Masons, insinuating themselves under pretence of friendship into the hearts of Princes, aim to have them powerful aids and accomplices to overcome Christianity, and in order to excite them more actively they calumniate the Church as the enemy of royal privileges and power. Having thus become confident and sure, they get great influence in the government of States, resolve yet to shake the foundations of the thrones, and persecute, calumniate, or banish those sovereigns who refuse to rule as they desire.

 

By these arts flattering the people, they deceive them. Proclaiming all the time public prosperity and liberty; making multitudes believe that the Church is the cause of the iniquitous servitude and misery in which they are suffering, they deceive people and urge on the masses craving for new things against both powers. It is, however, true that the expectation of hoped-for advantages is greater than the reality; and poor people, more and more oppressed, see in their misery those comforts vanish which they might easily and abundantly found in organized Christian society. But the punishment of the proud, who rebel against the order established by the providence of God, is that they find oppression and misery exactly where they expected prosperity according to their desire.

 

Now, if the Church commands us to obey before all God, the Lord of everything, it would be an injurious calumny to believe her the enemy of the power of Princes and a usurper of their rights. She wishes, on the contrary, that what is due to civil power may be given to it conscientiously. To recognize, as she does, the divine right of command, concedes great dignity to civil power, and contributes to conciliate the respect and love of subjects. A friend of peace and the mother of concord, she embraces all with motherly love, intending only to do good to men. she teaches that justice must be united with clemency, equality with command, law with moderation, and to respect every tight, maintain order and public tranquility, relieve as much as possible public and private miseries. "But," to use the words of St. Augustine, "they believe, or want to make believe, that the doctrine of Gospel is not useful to society, because they wish that the State shall rest not on the solid foundation of virtue, but on impunity of vice."

 

It would, therefore, be more according to civil wisdom and more necessary to universal welfare that Princes and Peoples, instead of joining the Free-Masons against the Church, should unite with the Church to resist the Free-Masons' attacks.

 

At all events, in the presence of such a great evil, already too much spread, it is our duty, venerable brethren, to find a remedy. And as we know that in the virtue of divine religion, the more hated by Masons si as it is the more feared, chiefly consists the best and most solid of efficient remedy, we think that against the common enemy one must have recourse to this in wholesome strength.  We, by our authority, ratify and confirm all things which the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, have ordered to check the purposes and stop the efforts of the Masonic sect, and all these which they establish to keep off or withdraw the faithful from such societies. And here, trusting greatly to the good will of the faithful, we pray and entreat each of them, as they love of their own salvation, to make it a duty of conscience not to depart from what has been on this point prescribed by the Apostolic See.

 

We entreat and pray you, venerable brethren, who co-operate with us, to root out this poison, which spreads widely among the Nations. It is your duty to defend the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Keeping before your eyes those two ends, you shall lack neither in courage nor in fortitude. To judge which may be the more efficacious means to overcome difficulties and obstacles belongs to your prudence. Yet as we find it agreeable to our ministry to point out some of the most useful means, the first thing to do is to strip from the Masonic sect its mask and show it as it is, teaching orally and by pastoral letters the people about the frauds used by these societies to flatter and entice, the perversity of its doctrines, and the dishonesty of its works. As our predecessors have many times declared, those who love the Catholic faith and their salvation must be sure that they cannot give their names for any reason to the Masonic sect without sin. Let no one believe a simulated honesty. It may seem to some that Masons never impose anything openly contrary to faith or to morals, but as the scope and nature is essentially bad in these sects, it is not allowed to give one's name to them or to help them in any way.

 

It is also necessary with assiduous sermons and exhortations to arouse in the people love and zeal for religious instruction. We recommend, therefore, that by appropriate declarations, orally and in writing, the fundamental principles of those truths may be explained in which Christian wisdom is entertained. It is only thus that minds can be cured by instruction, and warned against the various forms of error and vice, and the various enticements especially in this great freedom of writing and great desire of learning.

 

It is a laborious work, indeed, in which you will have associated and companioned your clergy, if properly trained and taught by your zeal. But such a beautiful and important cause requires the co- operating industry of those laymen who unite doctrine and probity with the love of religion and of their country. With the united strength of these two orders endeavor, dear brethren, that men may know and love the Church; because the more their love and knowledge of the Church grows the more they will abhor and fly from secret societies.

 

Therefore, availing ourselves of this present occasion, we remind you of the necessity of promoting and protecting the Third Order of St. Francis, whose rules, with prudent indulgence, we lately mitigated. According to the spirit of its institution it intends only to draw men to imitate Jesus Christ, to love the Church, and to practice all Christian virtues, and therefore it will prove useful to extinguish the contagion of sects.

 

May it grow more and more, this holy congregation, from which, among others, can be expected also this precious fruit of bringing minds back to liberty, fraternity, and equality; not those which are the dream of the Masonic sect, but which Jesus Christ brought into this world and Francis revived. The liberty, we say, of the children of God which frees from the servitude of Satan and from the passions, the worst tyrants; the fraternity which emanates from God, the Father and Creator of all; the equality established on justice and charity, which does not destroy among men every difference, but which, from variety of life, offices, and inclinations, makes that accord and harmony which is exacted by nature for the utility and dignity of civil society.

 

Thirdly, there is an institution wisely created by our forefathers, and by lapse of time abandoned, which in our days can be used as a model and form for something like it. We mean the colleges or corporations of arts and trades associated under the guidance of religion to defend interests and manners, which colleges, in long use and experience, were of great advantage to our fathers, and will be more and more useful to our age, because they are suited to break the power of the sects. Poor workingmen, for besides their condition, deserving charity and relief, they are particularly exposed to the seductions of the fraudulent and deceives. They must, therefore, be helped with the greatest generosity and invited to good societies that they may not be dragged into bad ones. For this reason we would like very much to see everywhere arise, fit for the new times, under the auspices and patronage of the Bishops, these associations, for the benefit of the people. It gives us a great pleasure to see them already established in many places, together with the Catholic patronages; two institutions which aim to help the honest class of workingmen, and to help and protect their families, their children, and keep in them, with the integrity of manners, love of piety and knowledge of religion.

 

Here we cannot keep silence concerning the society of St. Vincent de Paul, celebrated for the spectacle and example offered and so well deserving of the poor. The works and intentions of that society are well known. It is all for the succor and help of the suffering and poor, encouraging them with wonderful tact and that modesty which the less showy the more is fit for the exercise of Christian charity and the relief of human miseries.

 

Fourthly, in order more easily to reach the end, we recommend to your faith and watchfulness the youth, the hope of civil society. In the good education of the same place a great part of your care. Never believe you have watched or done enough in keeping youth from those masters from whom the contagious breath of the sect is to be feared. Insist that parents and spiritual directors in teaching the catechism may never cease to admonish appropriately children and pupils of the wicked nature of these sects, that they may also learn in time the various fraudulent arts which their propagators use to entice people. Those who prepare children for first communion will do well if they will persuade them to promise not to give their names to any society without asking their parents' or their pastor's or their confessor's advice.

 

But we understand how our common labor would not be sufficient to outroot this dangerous seed from the field of the Lord, if the Heavenly Master of the vineyard is not to this effect granting to us His generous help. We must, then, implore His powerful aid with anxious fervor equal to the gravity of the danger and to the greatness of the need. Inebriated by its prosperous success, Masonry is insolent, and seems to have no more limits to its pertinacity. Its sectaries bound by an iniquitious alliance and secret unity of purpose, they go on hand in hand and encourage each other to dare more and more for evil. Such a strong assault requires a strong defence. We mean that all the good must unite in a great society of action and prayers. We ask, therefore, from them two things: On one hand, that, unanimously and in thick ranks, they resist immovably the growing impetus of the sects; on the other, that, raising their hands with many sighs to God, they implore that Christianity may grow vigorous; that the Church may recover her necessary liberty; that wanderers may come again to salvation; that errors give place to truth and vice to virtue.

 

Let us invoke for this purpose the mediation of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, that against the impious sects in which one sees clearly revived the contumacious pride, the untamed perfidy, the simulating shrewdness of Satan, she may show her power, she who triumphed over him since the first conception.

 

Let us pray also St. Michael, the prince of the angelic army, conqueror of the infernal enemy; St. Joseph, spouse of the most Saintly Virgin, heavenly and wholesome patron of the Catholic Church; the great Apostles Peter and Paul, propagators and defenders of the Christian faith. Through their patronage and the perseverance of common prayers let us hope that God will condescend to piously help human society threatened by so many dangers.

 

As a pledge of heavenly graces and of our benevolence, we impart with great affection to you, venerable brethren, to the clergy and people trusted to your care, the Apostolic benediction.

 

Given at Rome, near St. Peter, the 20th of April, 1884, the seventh year of our pontificate.

 

LEO, PP. XIII.

 

----o----

 

THE YOUNGER BROTHER

 

BY BRO. GERALD NANCARROW, INDIANA

 

If we have some younger Brother

Who is learning his new part,

Let us, as we prompt and question,

Teach him also from the heart;

As he learns his new found science

Let us teach to him the art.

 

Let us aid him in the shaping

And the smoothing of his block;

Let us spread the binder mortar

And thus add a firmer mortar

To our structure; Make him granite

By the knowledge we unlock.

 

Show him more than words and phrases,

More than empty form and shell,

Let him see the wealth of beauty

In the lessons which we tell;

Help him move toward strength and service

And to meet his trials well.

 

----o----

 

AN OLD MASONIC HEADSTONE

 

BY BRO. CLARENCE E. CHURCHILL, OHIO

 

THIS quaint symbolic gravestone of Brother Calvin Austin is located in the old graveyard on the banks of the Mahoning River, within the city of Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, a part of the old land grant known as Western Reserve, a Connecticut school grant. Many of the pioneers came from that State.

 

When Brother Austin came to this section is not definitely known, but he was one of twenty-two petitioners to the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, in the early part of the year 1803, for a charter which was granted October 19, 1803.

 

Samuel Tylee, another petitioner, was sent to Connecticut after the charter. He was appointed Deputy Grand Master and directed to dedicate the lodge and install the officers. These ceremonies took place March 15th, 1804, the following officers being installed:

 

Master - Tuckland Kirtland.

Senior Warden - John Leavitt.

Junior Warden - William Rayen.

Treasurer - Calvin Austin.

Senior Deacon - Aaron Wheeler.

Junior Deacon - John Walworth.

Stewards - Charles Dutton and Arod Way.

Tyler - Ezekiel Hover.

 

The lodge was chartered as Erie Lodge No. 47, A. F. & A. M., and worked under that charter until 1814 when it was chartered as Erie Lodge No. 3, Marietta, Ohio, and Cincinnati, Ohio, antedating it. This lodge is still working and known as Old Erie No. 3.

 

The gravestone is remarkably well preserved, being quite smooth and of fine grain. The graven symbols are finely cut, though shallow. The inscription on the stone reads:

 

Calvin Austin Esqr

Formerly of Suffield

Conn. Died Oct. 2, 1819

in the 57th year of his

age.

C. Ferris. Engraver.

 

----o----

 

FREEMASONRY AND EDUCATION

 

BY BRO. JOSEPH BARNETT, CALIFORNIA

 

THE TRAINING of the intelligence, the development of the ability to think and reason, is Education. This factor, whether evolved in the schools or in the active pursuits of commercial life, produced and sustains civilization; and Freemasonry teaches that its direction is not only toward progress, but is also Godward.

 

In ancient times, Science was considered of Divine origin, and Art was held in singular esteem. Both were taught by the priesthood; for the Temple included the School. In the most ancient civilization with which we are familiar, men who had made some progress in the arts and sciences were deemed worthy to be initiated into an order of the priesthood of Egypt. In Greece, with which we are still more familiar, the temple Mysteries included both science and religion; and Divinity was symbolized by one of the sciences, Geometry. From the beginning, knowledge dependent on the reasoning powers was associated with Omniscience.

 

Freemasonry asserts "the importance of the study of the liberal arts and sciences." It impresses on men the duty of applying them; the teaching is that "rational and intelligent beings should ever be industrious ones." From their study comes understanding, and from their application is developed skill. Reason is honored for its guidance, and labor for its productiveness; in both we recognize the intelligence that tends toward progress. Freemasonry admits no illiterates. Every initiate must be able to read and write. Lack of this ability offers evidence that the candidate is lacking in those basic qualities that go to the making of Masons. Masonry holds all such unfit, because Masons are men who have a "desire for knowledge"; and he who in this land has not learned to read and write he who in this land has not learned to read and write has evinced no such desire. It teaches that education, the development of the reasoning powers, is the plain duty of every man; and it could offer no objection if our government should make illiteracy a bar to citizenship.

 

Since the earliest priesthoods were the first teachers, it might have been expected that modern priesthoods would have been their natural heirs in all that tends toward progress, and that they, too, would have been the intellectual leaders and benefactors of mankind, especially since they have borrowed and adapted so much from ancient priestcraft. But for two thousand years, ecclesiastics have affected to despise the reasoning powers that developed civilization, and have urged in place of them faith and obedience. Modern priestcraft has notoriously opposed every advance in the natural sciences; its attitude recently toward the theory of evolution is its attitude three hundred years ago toward the theory of the rotation of the earth. Ancient priestcraft, as culminating in the Mysteries, sought after knowledge of the natural world, and expressed the forces of nature in terms of Divine beings. Astronomy, Geometry, and other sciences, grew out of their "survey of nature." And with the book of nature as their only revelation they found God. The forces of nature were His symbols, and in them was seen the manifestation of His purposes toward man. Freemasonry has kept the spirit that finds God in nature as in the written word, the spirit that investigates the mystery of leaf and bud and blossom and fruitage, and the return of springtime and harvest, and encourages men to contemplate and understand "the glorious works of the creation." Our Fraternity has never taught that all knowledge is equally important; but it does teach that the useful application of all knowledge is equally to be admired and encouraged.

 

During the Dark Ages, when priestcraft was cunningly building up a sinister power based on the negation of human reason, there was some learning and a little art in the monasteries, and here and there individuals were groping after the light of science. Masonry had some teaching peculiar to itself; and recognizing in the monks a respect for knowledge and an aspiration to usefulness similar to their own, Masons for several centuries held their meetings in the monasteries. When the monkish orders were robbed and dissolved, Masons suffered with them, and were held in suspicion by both king and priest as possible sources of plots and heresies. Statecraft for the most part abandoned this attitude long since, but priestcraft has maintained it. Hierarchies never willingly tolerate anything that cannot be made subservient to their interests.

 

King and Pope have both claimed absolute power. They agreed, as autocrats have always agreed, that much thinking was not good for the masses, and should be confined to the classes; otherwise there would be constant discontent. They failed, or pretended to fail, to realize that progress can only be attained when people begin to think for themselves, and that progress can never he achieved by that contentment that lets others do our thinking for us. Freemasonry states explicitly that in youth "we ought industrially to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge," and that in manhood "we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties." Both royalty and hierarchy have claimed Divine Right; they have asserted their superiority to other men. Freemasonry teaches that all men alike are sons of God, and that as such all have equal claims. It allows no distinction among men on account of the accidents of birth or fortune, or because of any boast of special commission or mediumship between God and man; the teaching is not that all men are equal in usefulness, but that all men have equal rights both human and Divine. It teaches that the Divine Right of all men is associated with the immortal soul of man, and that the manifestation of the living soul is the intelligence developed by education, whether the education is of the schools or of the trades. Freemasonry offers no lure to the faithful, presents no cunning inducement, makes no promises, but in their place asks service intended to develop "those talents wherewith God has blessed us," and points out that these qualities are in origin Divine. In particular, Freemasonry teaches that no man should be content with ignorance. It states emphatically that "he who will not be endeavouring to add to the common stock of knowledge and understanding . . . is a useless member of society."

 

As the church has its ecclesiastical classics, so the Greek and Latin literatures are the classics of the schools. Up to a couple of generations ago, it was the particular ambition of college students to be able to read the classics in the original tongues, and a great deal of their effort was to that end. Translating the classics is now being given over more and more to specialists, and training the student intellect is accomplished more and more by the sciences. This is the method that Masonry has always urged; not that erudition is slighted, but that science is more useful Learning by observation and experience is important Learning by instruction and information is important But both of these sources of knowledge are limited by opportunity. The knowledge we gain by reasoning out the problems of life is not limited by opportunity; the more we think for ourselves, the more we are able to think for ourselves. Other knowledge increases be arithmetical progression, by addition. This knowledge increases by geometrical progression, by multiplication It depends neither on the senses nor the emotions, but on the intelligence. Its processes are called education and it is what Masonry has always esteemed and encouraged.

 

The beginning of education, the foundation of useful citizenship, is the Public School. It is the outcome of the same influences that developed Freemasonry the desire for knowledge that can be made useful. And the same agencies that with puerile anathemas assail Freemasonry, also, by slyer methods, attack the Public School. So notoriously has priestcraft, even when exercising autocratic power, never attempted to establish a general educational system, that in countries where the priesthood have maintained direct political influence, the people are the most ignorant and backward among civilized nations. And in every country where the people have established the Public School, priestcraft has constantly endeavoured to obtain autocratic influence in the schools, so as to exploit them for its own purposes. In this country, the mischievous, foreign-born thing is called "The Parochial School"; its intent is to train children to become sectarian partisans, instead of intelligent citizens. Freemasonry teaches religious tolerance, and opposes priestly meddling. It is an institution pledged to uphold the State; and it is particularly interested in the schools which the State has established for the development of intelligence in the young that makes for better citizenship.

 

Civilization tends to specialization. It is the particular province of the church to consider the relationship of man to God, of the schools to prepare youth for better citizenship, of the arts to secure more material productiveness. Freemasonry in its teachings associates all these interests together. It asserts that a combination of all these factors makes the complete man; that every man should be religious, intelligent and industrious. The priest, the pedagogue, the laborer, are all too apt to magnify their own particular interests, too prone to see life only from narrow viewpoints. Freemasonry's survey of life has ever been broader; it asserts that, whatever his occupation, it is the development of all his faculties that makes man capable f reaching, and shows that he is worthy of reaching, ;hat high destiny which has been the hope and aspiration of mankind through all the ages.

 

----o----

 

WITHIN THE SANCTUARY

BY BRO. N. W. J. HAYDON, ONTARIO

 

The shadows deepen round thy quiet shrines,

The candles' golden plumes grow tall and still,

The censer's fragrant echoes fill thine aisles,

And clouds of prayer contrast life's noisy mill.

 

Hither I turn my weary steps at eve,

One seat, familiar, holds a welcoming arm,

Here I can kneel and, to our heavenly Friend,

With silent words and daily plea return.

 

The silent twilight grows more eloquent,

The sanctuary lamp swings gently overhead,

Without, the hurrying steps of man and beast

Make dearer still this peace wherein I'm led.

 

Unwilling, I must leave this hallowed place,

Far up there clangs a loud resounding bell,

Calm and austere beside me Duty stands,

"Resume thy life, my son, with thee shall all be well."

 

Thanks be to God for thee, oh goodly fane

Whose tinted windows veil the garish day;

From Him the thoughts embodied in thy walls,

By Him thy pillars stand, thy scourges lay.

 

His, too, the stones that rear thee heavenward,

His skill that planned thy winding tracery;

Praise be to Him who doeth all things well,

Who maketh us His craftsmen fit to be.

 

----o----

 

BY BRO C. A. SNODGRASS TENNESSEE

 

In the beginning was the Word. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. - John 1:1.

 

I

I sought to learn the Builder's Art,

And in life's cornerstone I placed

Those treasured archives of the heart,

In Faith and Hope and Love embraced.

I chose the solid rock of Truth

To build upon, lest I should slip,

And on the trestleboard of youth

I traced a man's apprenticeship.

 

II

Upon this rock I saw, upraised,

The shafts of Wisdom and of Strength,

To guide me o'er life's devious ways;

And guided thus, I stood, at length

Where man may view in retrospect

The rude unfinished stones that lie

Where he has striven to erect

A model of life's Masonry.

 

And though the broken ashlars there

Betrayed a youthful, unskilled hand,

Unused to gavel, plumb or square,

Or knowledge of the Art’s demand,

I, to the paths of knowledge turned,

To learn anew life's handicraft,

And meekly felt that I had earned

The wages of a Fellow Craft.

 

III

I sought the Master’s Trestleboard,

And there discerned a Master-plan,

And vowed, henceforth, that I would build

In firmer faith with God and man;

And from the quarry-beds of Truth

I fashioned each imposing shaft,

That I had pictured in my Youth

Or modeled as a Fellow Craft.

 

But though I wrought with Master hand

And Master's knowledge of the Art,

'Twas but the handiwork of man

And of the man the counterpart.

My choicest plans were set at naught,

I saw my columns turned to clay,

And found that ere the last were wrought

The first had fallen in decay.

But lo! within the rubbish there,

Where the Omnific Word was lost,

I found at last the Jewel rare,

The missing stone I needed most;

That glorious Gift of God to man, -

The Keystone of immortal fame,

Whose loss had blighted every plan

And left me Master but in name.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

O mortal man! if thou wouldst be

A Master of the Builder's Art,

First bow thyself at Calvary's Tree

And welcome Christ within thy heart.

His wisdom molds each Master thought,

His love inspires the Master mind,

And only by His grace is wrought

The Masonry of humankind.

 

His cross should be thy trestleboard,

His life indeed for thine was spent, -

Thy life in His should be restored

By God's own plan, most excellent.

He is the one "Great Light" divine,

Whose wisdom, grace and love imparts

Immortal strength to thee and thine

And crowns the Holy Roval Arch.

 

----o----

 

THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY

 

BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ASSISTANT EDITOR "THE FREEMASON," LONDON, ENGLAND

 

MANY writers assert that the Craft is as old as, if not, indeed, older than Adam, some stating even that he was the first Grand Master of the Craft. The Rev. Dr. Dodd, in his famous Oration on Freemasonry, refers to the origin of the Craft in the following words:

 

"Though it might owe to the wise and glorious King of Israel some of its many mystic forms and hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the Art itself is coeval with Creation, when the Sovereign Architect raised on Masonic principles this beauteous globe; and commanded that master science Geometry to lay the rule to the planetary world, and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just, unerring proportion, rolling round the ventral sun."

 

One Masonic tradition states that on the occasion of the transgression of our first parents a certain sign or token was used, which has peen perpetuated in Royal Arch Masonry. This sign was used by Moses when he came down from the mount. It was again brought into requisition at the building of the second Temple; and when Alexander the Great, with his victorious legions. approached the city of Jerusalem in order to destroy it. he was met by the High Priest in his pontifical robes. accompanied by the priests and Levites in solemn procession, who saluted him with this significant sign. It is an historical fact that Alexander was so much struck with the sight of this procession that he did homage to God's viceregent; and it is said, on more questionable authority, that his reverence proceeded from the mutual recognition of the Masonic Brotherhood.

 

Another Masonic tradition asserts that it was the Sacred Word which expelled our erring first parents from Paradise, which was uttered again at the universal deluge, and on several occasions manifested itself to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and also to Moses at the burning bush; after which it assumed a material and permanent form and dwelt in the cloudy pillar as the image of the glory of God. This appearance, it is asserted, was no other than the Tetragrammaton, which is commemorated in many of the higher degrees of Freemasonry. This is the word which conversed with Adam in Paradise, and is referred to in Genesis iii, 8: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day."

 

Dalcho suggests that the Word is to be found in no language that ever was used. "It is," he says, "not a word, but merely a jumble of letters, forming a sound without meaning." The time and circumstances attending the loss of the Word are thus stated in one of the degrees:

 

"The moment when the veil of the Temple was rent: when darkness and consternation covered the earth; when the stars disappeared and the lamp of day was darkened; when the implements of Masonry were lost and the cubical stone sweated blood and water: that was the moment when the great Masonic Word was lost."

 

Freemasonry contains a legend of a cubical stone which was inscribed with a mystical diagram that represented the Sacred Name and was possessed of many virtues. It informs us that this stone was in the possession of Adam in Paradise, that he held it in the highest estimation, because it bore the sacred characters, and reminded him of that sublime and holy Being, who had been his friend, his companion, and his guide in that delightful place. On this stone he made his offerings to God, when the divine promise of a mediator who should bruise the head of the reptile which had caused his defection from innocence, was formally revealed to him that he might not entirely sink under the oppression and misery in which a sense of deserving God's displeasure had involved him. On the same holy altar he offered a sacrifice of praise of thanksgiving at the birth of his children.

 

The Babel incident is embodied in a degree known as the Noachites, or Prussian Cavaliers, of which the following is the legend:

 

"The descendants of Noah, notwithstanding that God had appointed the rainbow as a token of the covenant that He would not again destroy the earth by a universal deluge, resolved to erect an edifice, which, by its height, should place them beyond the reach of divine vengeance. For this purpose they assembled together in the extended plane of Shinar. They laid the foundation and carried on the building for ten years; at which time, God seeing their pride, determined to interfere. He confounded their language, and by that simple process, put an end to their design. Hence the tower was called Babel, which signifies confusion. Some time after this, Nimrod began to establish degrees of rank amongst his subjects which had not existed before. He built the city of Babylon and arrogated to himself the honours of divine worship. It was on the night of the full moon, in the month of March, that God confounded their language. And, therefore, the Noachites held their great meeting on that particular night; and their common monthly meetings were only held when the moon was at full, and they used no other light in their lodges. After the language was confounded, and the people obliged to separate, each tribe pursued its own course. Peleg, who suggested the plan of this tower, and had been the Great Architect during its construction, being struck with the force of conscience, condemned himself to a most rigorous penance. He migrated with his followers to the north of Germany, after having suffered great miseries and encountered great dangers in passing the mountains and plains on his way thither In that part of the country which is Slow. called Prussia he took up his residence. Here he built a triangular temple, where he enclosed himself, that he might be at leisure to worship God and implore Him to pardon His transgression. In the course of excavation in the salt mines of Prussia, A. D. 553, there was discovered, at the depth of fifteen cubits, the foundations of a triangular edifice, in the center of which was a small pillar of marble, on which the above history was inscribed in Hebrew characters. A tomb was also found in which an agate stone was encrusted, containing these words: 'Here were deposited the ashes of the Great Architect of the Tower of Babel. God showed him mercy because he humbled himself.' " These relics are said to be still in the royal archives at Berlin.

 

There is a Masonic tradition descending from time immemorial involving certain facts unknown to the world, that the sacred ark, together with the Book of the Law, was removed from the most holy place, under Masonic direction, and so deposited as to escape that overwhelming destruction which swept away the whole land of Judaea. From this tradition we learn where, and under what circumstances the Book of the Law was found.

 

Masonic tradition claims that the pure science of Masonry was practiced by Daniel and his associates in opposition to the spurious system, which was celebrated in the old tower of Belus, the lower apartments of which were used for the purpose of initiation. Their steady adherence to the practice of primitive Freemasonry drew down upon them the vengeance of the priests and princes of Babylon, and brought upon the three principal brethren the punishment of fire, and upon Daniel that of being sentenced to be torn in pieces by wild beasts.

 

From his knowledge of Geometry, Euclid is supposed to have been enabled to restore to Masonry its ancient systematic usages and customs, as well as to regulate the affairs of Egyptian agriculture, and he became a general benefactor, "giving," says an old record of the Craft, "to his system the name of Geometry, which is now called Masonry." According to Masonic legend, Euclid was Senior Grand Warden to Grand Master Ptolemy Soter, who founded at Alexandria a museum or college of learned men, for the improving of philosophy and all other knowledge.

 

The famous Charter of Colne says:

 

"Our Brotherhood had its origin in those times when a few of the initiated, filled with a desire of true knowledge and a correct interpretation of the Mysteries of Christianity separated themselves from the various sects who professed the Christian religion; for in those times a few wise and enlightened men perceiving that certain heathenish ceremonies had been introduced into Christianity, which would destroy the principle of brotherly love, united themselves with an oath, to preserve and maintain, in its original purity, the Christian religion, with its benign influence on the hearts and consciences of mankind; to bring the true light out of darkness, and to labour together in combatting ignorance, intolerance, and superstition, and to establish peace and happiness amongst mankind, by teaching and enforcing every human virtue. Thus the Masters of our Order took the names of Initiated Brethren of St. John, following the footsteps and imitating the conduct of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Light and the first martyr of the enlightened. The teachers and writers, according to the customs of the times, were called Masters, and chosen from the experienced and learned of their disciples, or fellow labourers, from whence we derive the name of Fellow-Craft; while the remainder of the Brotherhood, according to the custom of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, were called Apprentices."

 

----o----

 

TRANSPORTATION IN PALESTINE

 

Crossing the Dead Sea proved no easy task in a land where commerce is at a standstill and transportation facilities are virtually nil. A Red Crops engineer who recently returned from Palestine tells how it was done.

 

"It was necessary to carry a boat from Jaffa, on the seacoast, to Jerusalem in order to cross the Dead Sea to Jericho to get grain to take back to Jaffa. This journey of something more than one hundred and twenty miles was over an almost impassable terrain, some of it lowland, hundreds of feet below sea level, and much of it rugged, mountainous country. The Dead Sea itself is one thousand feet below sea level.

 

"This is typical of transport difficulties all over Palestine."

 

----o----

 

THE STEPPING STONE

 

BY BRO. L. B. MITCHELL, MICHIGAN

 

There was built for man a home and to it a stepping stone

By the nature forces true in the work, below, above;

For in coming he would know every human joy and woe,

So the stepping stone was made of the pearl of human love.

 

'Twas the granite tried and proved as the mighty forces moved

To the time and fire test that in ages was to come,-

It was nature in her plan ending in a world for man

That should mean, as such to him, all that makes a home a home.

 

For this consciousness the world was with beauty rare impearled,

For its every real need there was rich provision made;

But with all its golden store it were mockery the more,

Worthless as such if not on love's redeeming altar laid.

 

And the anchorage that holds all that consciousness extols,

Is the power that moves the world in its sway by human love;

Without it the race would be without e'en a mystery;

Not a flower would bloom to it and no star glint from above.

 

And because this stepping stone to all that makes earth a home

Is the royal way to all that with it to man is given,

There could be no other plan, for the attributes of man

Would be worthless save as love qualifies for home and heaven.

 

----o----

 

OMNIPRESENCE

 

BY FINLEY PAUL CURTIS, JR.

 

A soft blanket of snow, vast and crystal white

Under the cold limpid radiance of pale Luna

O'er the earth sprawls like a gigantic ghost-shadow.

It is the absence of all color: perfect white.

I look forth from the window, and my tongue,

Manned by a Power invisible, unconsciously and irresistably

Utters: "It is the Supreme. It is God!"

 

Wonderment and thoughts unutterable absorb me.

A lump of coal in the grate bursts into a thousand fragments,

Hissing and crackling as if in the agony of death.

Then from the window, aroused from my abstraction, I turn.

Fire-flames lept upward from the white-hot ashbed

Like long, blood-red, avid reptile tongues.

Again my lips fashioned these unbidden words:

"Why! The Unseen is here, too. God is everywhere

 

* * * * * *

 

Then I understood the ineffable peace which enveloped my soul:

I was not afraid.

Before my soul was a cork bouncing on the sea of life:

But now it was an immovable Gibralter!

 

----o----

 

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN No. 32

 

DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY

 

Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood

 

THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE MEETINGS AND

STUDY CLUBS

 

FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE

 

THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.

 

MAIN OUTLINE:

 

The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in turn subdivided, as is shown below:

 

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.

 

A. The Work of the Lodge.

B. The Lodge and the Candidate.

C. First Steps.

D. Second Steps.

E. Third Steps.

 

Division II. Symbolical Masonry.

A. Clothing.

B. Working Tools.

C. Furniture.

D. Architecture.

E. Geometry.

F. Signs.

G. Words.

H. Grips.

 

Division III. Philosophical Masonry.

A. Foundations.

B. Virtues.

C. Ethics.

D. Religious Aspect.

E. The Quest.

F. Mysticism.

G. The Secret Doctrine.

 

Division IV. Legislative Masonry.

 

A. The Grand Lodge.

1. Ancient Constitutions.

2. Codes of Law.

3. Grand Lodge Practices.

4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges.

5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.

 

B. The Constituent Lodge.

1. Organization.

2. Qualifications of Candidates.

3. Initiation, Passing and Raising.

4. Visitation.

5. Change of Membership.

 

Division V. Historical Masonry.

 

A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.

B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making.

C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.

D. National Masonry.

E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study.

F. Feminine Masonry.

G. Masonic Alphabets.

H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.

I. Biographical Masonry.

J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.

 

THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS

 

Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood, who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps" of Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding each installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the chairman of the Committee during the study period which will bring out every point touched upon in the paper.

 

Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing upon the particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental papers in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list of references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly never come to the attention of many of our members will thus be presented.

 

The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than their appearance. If this is done the Committee will have opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance of the meetings and the brethren who are members of the National Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter into the discussions after they have read over and studied the installment in THE BUILDER.

 

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

 

Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of references to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These references are pertinent to the paper and will either enlarge upon many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for reading and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to different brethren who may compile papers of their own from the material thus to be found, or in many instances the articles themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly from the originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.

 

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS

 

The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three "live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month, either at a special meeting of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular meeting at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted--all possible time to be given to the study period.

 

After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.

 

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

 

1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers thereto.

 

(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or inquire into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper similar to those used in elections should be distributed among the members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.)

 

2. Discussion of the above.

 

3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and disposed of in the same manner. 4. Question Box.

 

MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS

 

Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let them understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

 

The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct their lodge study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome all inquiries and communications from interested brethren concerning any phase of the plan that is not entirely clear to them, and the Services of our Study Club Department are at the command of our members, lodge and study club committees at all times.

 

QUESTIONS ON "THE WINDING STAIRS"

 

I To what extent is the origin of the symbolism of the Winding Stairs generally known ? Is it essential that we discover the exact facts in order to intelligently pursue our present study ?

 

Have there ever been advanced Satisfactory answers concerning the Source of the symbolism ? To what extent should discussion of the origin be considered of value?

 

Do you agree with the contention of early scholars that there was actually a winding stair of three, five and seven steps in Solomon's Temple? What can you offer in support of such contention ? Could the semi-circular stairway at the Gate Nieanor where the Levites chanted the "Psalms of Degrees" have been taken as the prototype of our winding stairs? What is your opinion concerning this theory, What does Sir Charles Warren say concerning the Staircase?

 

What is the "Theological Ladder" ? When and by whom was it introduced into the ritual? What was the symbolism of the "Theological Ladder" ? Have we anything similar to it in our ritual of the present day ? What does Brother Haywood say about this interpretation ?

 

II What is the theory of the Operative origin of the symbolism? Can this theory be depended upon? If not, why not?

 

Since the origin of the Winding Stair symbolism cannot be accurately traced, how should we view the use of the stairs in our work?

 

III What does the use of the mystical numbers suggest to you ? Of what is the Winding Stair as a whole a symbol ?

 

What is Pike's theory concerning the number "15"? What would happen should our present Symbolic arrangement of the Winding Stairs be changed ? Would a change be of any material advantage?

 

Is the use of numbers in symbolism of modern origin ? Can you give a reason for even numbers being used to denote earthly or human things and odd numbers to suggest divine or heavenly truths? Has this always been the ease? What was "the number of the beast" and its interpretation? How were ancient temples usually approached ? Why should we feel gratified that the symbolism of odd numbers is retained in Masonry?

 

What is the "triad" or "ternary" ? How was it considered by philosophers?

 

How does Brother Haywood explain the number "5"?

 

Of what is the number "7" the symbol? How was knowledge divided in medieval times ? What does Gould say about the seven sciences?

 

IV

 

How can our ritual be made to be of assistance to us in our everyday life ?

 

What is our most familiar explanation of the "three steps" ? How does Masonry help the individual ? Should a Mason feel that he is being left apart and alone in his endeavors to improve his physical and spiritual condition ?

 

What great lesson is revealed to us in the five steps?

 

How is the group of seven steps interpreted? Is this teaching a necessity ? Does Masonry approve ignorance ? Is the expression "I have no time to read or study" one of yours ? How did Burritt, Franklin, Livingstone and others secure their education? What grows out of ignorance?

 

V Do you believe that the human race is still progressing ? What must we avoid in measuring progress ? In what manner alone can the human race progress ? What are your answers to Brother Haywood's closing questions?

 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

 

THE BUILDER:

 

Vol. II. The Winding Stairway, p. 239.

 

Vol. IV. Symbolism of the Three Degrees, p. 266.

 

Mackey's Encyclopedia:

 

Legend of the Winding Stairs, p. 850; Middle Chamber, p. 483; Winding Stairs, p. 850.

 

Mackey's Symbolism of Freemasonry:

 

Legend of the Winding Stairs, pp 210, 217, 218, 219, 225.

 

Ars Quatuor Coronatorum:

 

Vol. I, pp. 42, 57; vol. IV, p. 88; vol. XXIX, pp. 262, 299.

 

SECOND STEPS BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

PART VII THE WINDING STAIRS

 

I THE THREE, Five and Seven Steps have long been a puzzle to the candidate and a problem to the Masonic scholar; in the present connection there is no need that we go into the erudite debates that have circled about the matter, for our main concern is with that living and practical truth of which the stairs are a symbol.

 

Whence came this symbolism? To that question many answers have been offered, some ingenious but none very convincing. Any discussion of origin is valuable only as it throws light on the symbol itself.

 

Some scholars have contended, though not in recent years, that there was a winding stair of three, five and seven steps in Solomon's temple itself. It is thought that at the Gate Nicanor there was a semicircular stairway leading from one court to another, and that it was on the successive steps of this stair that the Levites chanted the fifteen "Psalms of Degrees," specimens of which remain in the Book of Psalms. But the archaeologists who have learned most about the Temple as it actually existed, are generally agreed that this stairway could not have been the prototype of the three, five and seven steps as we find them in our Second degree. Sir Charles Warren, as eminent in archeology as he was in Masonry, writes that "there was a winding staircase, certainly, but this led to little cells or chambers a few feet square in the thickness of the Temple walls, in which the functionaries (Temple attendants) kept their stores for the votive offerings." (A. Q. C. vol. 1, p. 42)

 

Other scholars have opined that the steps were originally the same as the Theological Ladder, and had the same historical origin. This Theological Ladder, which appears on our Tracing Board, and represents by its seven rungs the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, and the four cardinal virtues of Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice, was introduced into the ritual, it is thought, by Martin Clare, in 1732. This ladder was made to stand for the progress of the soul from the earthly to the heavenly and it was looked upon as a Masonic type of a similar symbol used in several of the Ancient Mysteries, (especially in Mithraism) in Brahminism, etc., and it was generally held to be, in its strictly Masonic form, a suggestion of that ladder which Jacob saw in his vision, up and down which the angels came and went. Inasmuch as this Theological Ladder symbolized progress, just as does the Winding Stair, some argued that the latter symbol must have come from the same sources as the former. This interpretation of the matter may be plausible enough, and it may help toward an interpretation of both symbols, but it suffers from an almost utter lack of tangible evidence.

 

II Other scholars of more modern views believe that the symbol may have been devised by Operative Masons during the Saxon period in England. It seems that the numbers three, five and seven were in the air, so to speak, at that time, as is proved by Gould, who gives examples to show that these numbers were grouped together in laws, religious doctrines, superstitions, etc., "with startling frequency," especially during the years 449-1066. But this latter date, it will be seen, is some two centuries earlier than our oldest Masonic record, consequently there can be no hope of tracing the Winding Stair symbol to that time with any degree of accuracy.

 

Thus it is that we are thrown back upon conjecture; accepting that alternative we may believe that the stairway was first used simply because it was a necessary part of the symbolic temple of the Second degree. Here were the pillars standing at the entrance on the porch; yonder was the Middle Chamber, on a higher level; some means of ascent was obviously needed to wet the candidate from one to another.

 

III But the difficulties in the way of accounting for the origin of the symbol need not perplex us in searching for an interpretation, for that is plain; the mystical use of numbers in the ascent suggests to us that the climb itself is a divine task, worthy of the noblest in man; the stair is as a whole a symbol of the progress of a man from the low level of natural ignorance toward that high level of spiritual power and insight symbolized by the Middle Chamber.

 

The number Fifteen itself can not have much mystical significance because it is another one of those dreaded "American innovations" which have given so much scandal to certain interpreters. In some eighteenth century tracing boards the stair is composed of only five steps, in others of seven. Preston divided them into 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, making 36 in all. The Hemming lectures, which replaced Preston's at the time of the Union, struck out the group of 11 steps, thus reducing the number to 25. The American ritual, in turn, further reduced the number to 15 by striking out the 1 and the 9. Albert Pike was of the opinion that the 9 should have been retained because he believed that the series 3, 5, 7 and 9 had a very ancient and very precious meaning. "As long ago as the time of Zarathustra," he writes, "the Irano-Aryan Soldier and King of Bactria, 5,000 years or snore before our era, (this date is most certainly wrong. H. L. H.) the Barecura, or bundle of twigs used in the sacrifices, were bound by 3, 5, 7 and 9 twigs, and even then the number 7 had a peculiar significance." I consider it a fine thing that the architects of the House of The Temple at Washington, which is a monument to Albert Pike quite as much as it is the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of the Southern Jurisdiction, have divided the steps that lead from the street to the entrance of that noble building into groups of 3, 5, 7 and 9. But while it may possibly be true that the original symbolism should have contained the group of 9, the Winding Stair as it now exists in the Second degree can never be changed; to do so would dislocate the entire structure of the ritualism of the Second degree and it is doubtful if the additional group would give us any additional meanings.

 

From ancient times numbers have been much employed in symbolism as is proved by the records of all the ancient nations, philosophies, and religions. For one reason or another, too complicated to explain here, the even numbers were usually made to denote earthly or human things while the odd numbers were revered as expressions or suggestions of divine or heavenly truths. This was not always the case for the early Christians used 888 as the number of Jesus; but even they made 666 to stand for the human or demonic and 777 to mean absolute perfection. It is now believed that the "number of the beast" spoken of in the Book of Revelation, and given as 666 in our Authorized version was really 616, which was the numerical value of the words "Kaiser Theos," or "God Caesar," and referred to the worship of the emperor. At any rate, with few exceptio