The Builder Magazine
October 1919 - Volume V - Number 10
THE PEACE CELEBRATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND
BY BRO. GEO L SCHOONOVER, P. G M, IOWA
Early last Spring, when the development of the armistice proved that peace was shortly to be concluded between the Allied and the Central Powers, and that the peace was to be a dictated peace, the Grand Lodge of England invited the Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries of the Grand Lodges in all English-speaking countries to participate in a celebration of the happy event, during the week of June 23-29, 1919. It was not presumed at the time the invitations were issued, that the final signing of the Peace Treaty would be delayed as late as the above date. It was fortunate, and indeed striking, in a way, that the signatures of the various plenepotentiaries were actually affixed to the Treaty during the week selected.
Those brethren who represented our American Grand Lodges in London in response to the invitation were as follows: Arizona, A. A. Johns, P.G.M., Morris Goldwater, P.G.M.; California, William Rhodes Hervey, P.G.M., John Whicher G.S.; Colorado, C.M. Kellogg, G.M., Charles H. Jacobson, G.S.; District of Columbia, Joseph H. Milans, G.M., A.W. Johnston, G.S.; Florida, T. Picton Warlow, G.M.; Georgia, Robert G. Travis, G.M., Raymond Daniel, A.G.S.; Iowa, George L. Schoonover, P.G.M.; Kentucky, John H. Cowles, P.G.M.; Louisiana Rudolph Krause, G.M., John A. Davilla, G. S., Massachusetts, Frederick W. Hamilton, P.G.M., G.S.; Michigan, Hugh A. McPherson, G.M., Lou B. Winsor, G. S.; Montana Major Dr. R. E. Hathaway, S.G.W.; Nebraska, John Ehrhardt, P.G.M., Francis E. White, G. S.; New Jersey, Austin McGregor, G. M.; New York, W.S. Farmer, G.M., Robert J. Kenworthy, G.S., Townsend Scudder, P.G.M.; West Virginia George S. Laidley, G.M., John M. Collins, P.G.M., G.S.-a total of twenty seven.
There were also present representatives of the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland, British Guiana, Burma, Ceylon, Eastern Archipelago, Gibraltar, Hong Kong and South China, Jamaica, Madras, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Queensland, South America and Victoria (Australia), of Britain's Overseas Dominions.
In the number present, and in representation from all parts of the globe, it was undoubtedly the most representative and notable gathering in the history of Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry, and as such deserves careful consideration, because of its Significance for the future weal of Masonry, as well as of all civilization.
SHALL FREEMASONRY, as represented in the English-speaking Countries of the world, make a decided stand in the reconstruction period now begun in behalf of those age-old principles which are its heritage, and endeavor to convince the world of the necessity for their recognition as a method of saving the future? Is the kind of Democracy in which Masonry believes and of which it is in truth a pattern, to be preserved to coming generations, to the end that the prophecies of the brotherhood of man shall not continue to be a mirage ?
These are, in effect, the questions which it was intended that the Peace Jubilee of the Grand Lodge of England should answer. No agenda of the meeting was published, and no one ever spoke these questions publicly. But it was taken for granted that Anglo-Saxons, representing all the English-speaking countries of the earth, and closely in touch with the world-problems pushed to the front as a result of the war, could by no chance gather together in a joint conference, without answering them. Nor was it intended that what visiting delegations should utter would be direct answers to any such question. Yet it was as certain as anything human is certain, that once this group of brethren assembled, loyalty to the mother- tongue and veneration of a joint heritage of principles would compel that unity of spirit which alone can settle these questions, and bring true brotherhood to a world thrown out of joint.
It must have been something like this which inspired the call for this meeting. It must have been a comprehension, perhaps more or less dim, that some such significance would attach to the proposed meeting, which caused representatives twenty-seven in number, hailing from sixteen States of the American Union to leave their homes and their business to attend, at a time when every American feels that his personal problems demand his individual attention. Some good omen must have appeared in the sky. The attendance from the States was much larger than those of us in touch with the probabilities of things expected, only a few weeks previously. To those who attended, and to those others who will hear from their lips the story of Masonic reconstruction already begun, the prophecies will seem well fulfilled.
A glance at the program of the week will reveal little of the significance which has been thus expressed. A reception dinner by Grand Lodge, luncheons and dinners with nine or ten other London lodges, visits to The Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and another to that conducted for Girls, visits to various places of interest in and near the city of London, a dinner with the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House, a three hour session of the Grand Lodge itself, (this being the formal Peace Celebration proper,) and various other courtesies these, with no mention whatever of any conference, do not convey a real conception of what this week of Jubilee meant, or was intended to mean.
For be it known that when your Englishman wants to talk seriously with you, and has a real desire to get acquainted with you and measure you, he does not tell you that this is his purpose. Instead, he invites you to dinner. After dinner, you talk, briefly and to the point. If he gives you his confidence, you are ready to deny all the stories you ever heard about him being an "imperturbable person," for you find him, at least in Masonic circles, with his guards down, and a real, living heart palpitating underneath. This, at least, was the experience of the delegations from the United States. They met the heads of English Masonry at these luncheons, under conditions most ideal, not wishing to understand one whit more than the English Masons wanted to be understood, and to understand us.
The discussions, if such may be called the exchanges of opinion and of good will which characterized all these festivities, took the form of after-dinner toasts. An English brother, after the formal toasts had been responded to, would propose the health of "Our Visitors," and couple with it the names of those American brethren who were designated to make the responses. In every case the proposal of this particular toast was accompanied by expressions of esteem, friendliness and a wish to understand us which must needs be accepted at par. There could be no thought but that the proposer voiced the genuine desire of the English brethren, or that the motive underlying his remarks was a good motive. Frankly and openly were we greeted, not as "cousins," but as brothers enlisted in the cause of humanity. The hand of fellowship was extended, palm opened upwards. The English Masonic leaders, understanding the needs of the world as they saw them, wanted us to know and appreciate the spirit in which they faced those problems, and did not hesitate to hope for an equally frank expression of American opinion upon the same subjects.
Received in such a spirit, the American representative could do no less than grasp the hand of fellowship so graciously tendered, particularly when what had been said of welcome and of hopefulness for the future was so exactly in accord with the things which we, too, have come to see are the great needs of our Craft. And as the week wore on, friendships ripened in a never to be forgotten manner. We began to understand and appreciate both the men who preside over the destiny of England's Masonry, and their opinions. Everything which a host could do to insure the happiness and tranquility of his guest was done. Every word which would tend toward the elimination of reserve was spoken. Consciously was this done at first the passage of the days caused it to become unconscious. The Anglo-Saxon was coming into his own. He was understanding himself, and his brethren.
No summary of the meetings held with the various London lodges would be complete which did not take account of the admirable personality of H. R. H. Lord Ampthill, Pro Grand Master, who performed the function of Worshipful Master in one lodge and Installing Officer of another with no less of grace and dignity than characterized his presiding over Grand Lodge itself. Withal he was so human that for most of us at least, he ceased to be a part of Royalty to us, we forgot all else save his breadth of understanding and his gracious fellowship. We had no opportunity, unhappily, to meet the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, for the reason that he was so indisposed physically as to be unable to be present at any of the functions. A message from his own pen expressed his regret for his illness, which was a source of great disappointment to us all. His warm fraternal greeting to us was deeply appreciated, none the less, and one of the prized souvenirs presented to us was a beautiful colorgravure of the Duke himself.
Of the reception accorded us in the various London lodges, one could not speak in appreciation without distinctions between them, and there were none such. Warm and sympathetic and fraternal they all were, memorable to all. If the joint meeting with "Antiquity No. 2" and "Royal Somerset House and Inverness No. 4" had any characteristic more notable than the others, it was only in the fact that neither is chartered by the Grand Lodge of England, nor has a Warrant, because each is older than the Grand Lodge itself ! To sit in these lodges is to realize something of what "time immemorial" means.
We had opportunity to Witness the installation of a Worshipful Master, and took an extra breath when he calmly announced his appointees, beginning with the Wardens and running through a list longer than most of ours. The Master is the only elective officer in the English lodge, all the others being appointive. We saw all of the three degrees conferred in full, and were struck with the simplicity and brevity of the work. The approximate time of conferring each of the degrees was, E. A., twenty minutes, F. C. about the same, and the Raising occupied about thirty-five minutes. Let it be set down that there was no emasculation of a single vital point or part. Nor was there a mere rush of lip service. The work was done with dignity and solemnity, without verbiage or redundance, or slurring of syllables. Leisurely and understandingly it was done, and, while probably less than one-third as many words were used, the essentials were in no wise neglected. Where as a rule our American rituals are extended, theirs were condensed; where we dramatize, they explained. They can teach us much in the matter of ritual.
It is not, however, the purpose of this article to argue from the impressions gained. A chronicle of the events is asked, and a chronicle it shall be, reserving perhaps for a further discussion, the tremendous themes which were suggested by attendance upon these various functions.
If there is to an American visitor an apparent lack in the intercommunication between the lodges of the various classes, a loss of something which we in America dearly prize, it cannot be said that within the lodges themselves there is anything but the closest, most intimate brotherhood. Their numbers are few, but their tastes are similar, their understanding is complete, and their meetings, formal though they may be, are satisfying in the extreme. Again there is the temptation to speak in more detail, for it is in matters of ritual and internal efficiency and fellowship that, with one exception, we can learn most from our English brethren.
That one exception, however, overtops all the others. It is in the matter of their charities. Whatever of social unity may be lacking between the lodges which compose the Grand Lodge of England, certainly they are one in their humanitarian instincts. Their financial support of their Boys' and Girls' Schools makes our American efforts in this direction, even the most pretentious, loom small in comparison. Consider their annual expenditures mount to something like five dollars per capita on their entire membership - this sum taking no account whatever of endowments - and you begin to realize what the joint efforts of the lodges of England are accomplishing. These sums too, come from individual pocketbooks, not from lodge treasuries.
We visited these Schools. They are not carried on in a way to "institutionalize" the children. They are educated in civic duty, and account is taken of the part which they are hereafter to play as men and women of the Empire. The Arts and Sciences receive attention, along with practical tradesmanship. Their teachers are as a rule products of the schools themselves, this being particularly true of the Girls' School. The result is a family relationship, and a family tradition, too, which makes for a splendid morale.
The climax of the entire week was the three hour session of the Grand Lodge at Royal Albert Hall. The introduction of the twenty- five visiting deputations, each under escort of two Grand Stewards, was itself productive of a deep impression upon the visitors, and no doubt also upon the nine thousand members of the Grand Lodge of England there assembled. As one of the visitors, I confess my inability to describe the emotions which surged through me when, after being for many presented to the Pro Grand Master, I was directed to the seat assigned to me and faced the throng. The appeal to the eye was in itself inspiring. Nine thousand brethren, dressed in the light blue regalia designating the officers of the lodges represented, gathered together in that enormous oval building, filling its main floor and the six surrounding galleries; the Grand Stewards with their red collars, seated in two rows on the main floor and forming a cross against the back ground in light blue symbolized in a very real sense the Masonry of England. The knowledge that thousands could not be assigned to seats bespoke the intense interest felt in the event. The deep blue of the officials banked in rows upon the rostrum formed a harmonious contrast indeed.
There was an appeal to ear. The voluminous melody from the enormous organ had no sooner filled the great audience chamber than one realized the awesome import of the world-derived gathering. Then those English brethren sang. Their National Anthem our own in everything but the words employed "Now thank we all our God" and "O God, our help in ages past." It was a unique commentary upon the universal belief in the righteousness of the Allied Cause that this latter song, long suppressed as unfraternal and unchristian, was revived, and sung with the fervor of crusaders returned from the overthrow of the antichrist. The business of the occasion was the Peace Jubilee, expressed in the formalism of moving an address of loyalty to the King, unanimously carried, of course, the unanimous passage of a resolution expressing the sentiments of the Craft toward His Majesty's Forces, and a motion tendering the floor to M.W. Bro. W. S. Farmer, Grand Master of New York, M. W. Frederick W. Hamilton, P. G. M. of Massachusetts, and M. W. Bro. W. H. Wardrope, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario. The addresses of the Pro Grand Master, Lord Ampthill, and Brother Right Hon. T. F. Halsey, P. C., the Deputy Grand Master, were upon a high plane, scholarly, refined and warmly fraternal in their tone, and were ably responded to by the American and Overseas Dominions representatives. Brief, one and all, modest, Anglo-Saxon to the core.
It is a peculiarity of the English that the one way in which they give free expression to their emotions is through some formal, prescribed method a ritual, or a song. The pleading or exaltation of the orator they seem to disdain. But given a ritual, or a song, they will render or sing it, as the case may be, with a dignity, expressiveness and whole-heartedness which puts to shame the studied oration so common to our Western system. It carries conviction to man; one must needs believe that the Most High is attuned to such expression as well, for reverence colored the tone of the voices of the throng, in a definite though indescribable manner.
Schooled as we had become in the methods of expression of these people we could not misunderstand the music of English Masonry thus presented to us. If it was awe-inspiring, it was heartrending, too, for the hozannas were tinged with a great sorrow, though no suggestion of loved one lying in Flanders fields was worn. The commemorative jewel of the occasion was at one with the spirit of the day, and we who had come thousands of miles to join in that day left the stupendous Albert Hall hushed and reverent and chastened we had truly seen the great soul of English Masonry, and were to carry its remembrance to the end of time.
----o----
THE PLAN OF FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. EDWARD B. PAUL. P.G.M. BRITISH COLUMBIA
The following article, written by the author of "The Column of Beauty" published heretofore, takes a broad and philosophical view of Freemasonry as a whole. One may study Masonry from the circumference to the center, from the details to the general, and such is always worth while; he may also study it from the center to the circumference, from the whole to the parts, and this also is richly worth while, as the following essay will show.
TO MOST, if not all, of us, the recollection of our Initiation, Passing, and Raising is fresh and vivid, and stands out from among our subsequent Masonic experiences with a clearness to be explained by the novelty of the situations in which we found ourselves, and by the solemnity of the ceremonies in which we took part for the first time. We perceived, then, that Freemasonry had a message for us, if we could only comprehend it, and we relied on the knowledge of our more experienced brethren to explain to us the many mysteries hidden beneath the ceremonies and symbols of the lodge. As we continued carefully to imbibe the lessons emanating from the East, much that to us had seemed dark became brighter; but we felt there was still much to learn. It is true that each symbol and symbolic act in the lodge was separately explained, and its moral and Masonic uses elucidated; but the detached parts of Freemasonry were never, in our opinion, satisfactorily united into one comprehensive whole, a knowledge of which is necessary in order that the "Noble Science" may have the influence on our lives and conduct, which is its chief end. My purpose, therefore, is to endeavour to demonstrate that the allegories and symbols of the lodge have a correspondence with each other, and are in the nature of hieroglyphics which can be pieced together and made to reveal, when deciphered, the lessons they were intended to convey. But as symbols are, from their nature, susceptible of various meanings, and as all investigators, no matter how honest their intensions may be, are liable to assign forced interpretations to some of them, in order that they may fit into a pre-conceived plan, it is necessary that their pronouncements be submitted to the most rigorous tests, lest Error and not Truth be the result.
The magnitude of my theme and the necessarily limited space allotted to me for this lecture, have caused me to make condensations which detract from the leanness of my arguments, which would require treatment beyond the scope of a short address. However, I lay the results of my investigations before you, begging your indulgence for presenting, in mere outline, a subject of such immense importance.
With this explanatory foreword, I shall now proceed to the subject matter of my lecture.
There are three aspects of Freemasonry to which I invite your attention:
1. Freemasonry as Philosophy.
2. Freemasonry as Education.
3. Freemasonry as the Handmaid of Religion.
These three aspects are sufficiently wide in their scope to deserve much more time for their individual development than is at present at my disposal. A word or two, however, may help to explain my reason for placing them Philosophy, Education, Religion in the order here presented.
Philosophy may be conceived as the science which lays down the principles governing conduct that which states the Moral Ideal; Education, as the means by which that ideal is attained, or, at least, approached; and Religion as the outcome of the two the experience of the individual while realizing, or partially realizing, the Ideal. While these conceptions, no doubt, suggest my divisions of the subject of my lecture, and the order in which they are placed, I fear that, in my treatment of them, I may frequently lose sight of any method which is intended in my design. Indeed, I cannot pretend that this lecture is worthy of being regarded otherwise than as the expression of random thoughts arising out of the careful contemplation of our ceremonies and symbols, and serious speculation as to their meanings.
FREEMASONRY AS PHILOSOPHY
To the philosophical student it will be obvious, in the course of my remarks, that I use the word "Philosophy" in a very loose way. In the first division of my subject I shall touch upon the ideal of life, the nature of the self and the nature of knowledge. In the third the nature of God and the Immortality of the Soul will be among the problems considered problems which lie as much in the province of Philosophy as the three treated under the first head. Perhaps it would have been better to have made a sharper distinction and substituted "Ethics" or "Moral Philosophy" for the word "Philosophy" employed here; but, if you will bear in mind this explanation, it seems to me convenient to allow the term to stand.
"Philosophy is the pursuit of Truth." This is the first and simplest conception and definition of Philosophy we can form. Can we, with truth, substitute the word Freemasonry for Philosophy in that definition? Such a question propounded in a Freemason's lodge can be answered only in the affirmative. The pursuit of Truth, called by us the search for the Lost Word, is indeed the sole aim and the chief end of all the teachings of Freemasonry.
But I do not forget that we are distinctly informed that the "Chief Point of Freemasonry" is the promotion of the happiness of the individual, and, consequently, of society. That is insisted on in the Charge to the Brethren in the Installation Ceremony. The ancient Greek moralists also considered that happiness is "the great end of man, that this is the highest good, the end for which all beings live, the object which they all pursue." In this respect, also, Freemasonry agrees with other philosophies in its definition of the chief end of man.
It may be asked, then, What is the aim of Freemasonry? Is it Truth or Happiness ? There seems to be no doubt that Happiness is the natural concomitant of Truth, and that that is the explanation of the apparent contradiction in the statement of the aims of Freemasonry. Truth and Happiness would thus have the same relationship which Tennyson points out as existing between duty and glory:
"He that walks the path of duty only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden roses."
Thus, the aim of Philosophy and of Freemasonry being the same, you will see my justification in dealing with Freemasonry as a philosophy.
The nature of that philosophy cannot be clearly explained without a short allusion to the Allegory of Freemasonry. In that allegory the candidate is made to represent a human being in his progress from birth to death, or, as the mental and moral development of a man from childhood to old age closely corresponds to the mental and moral advancement of the race, he may be said to represent human knowledge as it ascends from darkness to light.
This ascent is made by three steps. And may I be permitted to digress a moment to point out that in nature many physical entities or qualities occur in threes or triads. Thus we have Space and its three dimensions, Length, Breadth, Thickness; Matter and its three states, Solid, Liquid, Gaseous. Physical Magnitudes, Length, Mass, Time. Color, Red, Green, Blue or Violet. Sound, Loudness, Pitch, Quality. Electric Current, Circuit, Electro-motive Force, Resistance, etc., etc.
A three-fold division is also manifested in man's nature, which is generally recognized as being made up of three distinct parts, namely, Body, Mind, Spirit. Browning puts into the mouth of one of the patrons of Freemasonry, St. John, the Divine, the following words, which beautifully set forth this distinction:
This is the doctrine he was wont to teach,
How divers persons witness in each man,
Three souls which make up one soul; first, to wit,
A soul of each and all the bodily parts,
Seated therein, which works, and is what Does,
And has the use of earth, and ends the man
Downward: but, tending upward for advice,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the next soul, which, seated in the brain,
Useth the first with its collected use,
And feeleth, thinketh, willeth-is what Knows:
Which, duly tending upward in its turn,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the last soul, that uses both the first,
Subsisting whether they assist or no,
And, constituting man's self, is what Is-
And leans upon the former, makes it play,
As that played off the first; and, tending up,
Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the man
Upward in that dread point of intercourse,
Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.
What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man.
As may be expected, therefore, these three parts of man's nature are fully recognized in Freemasonry, each of the three degrees representing one the First degree, the Body (the material world or world of sense); the Second, the Mind; and the Third, the Spirit, the Ego, of which the other two are ministers. Abundant proof of this is to be found in the symbolism of Freemasonry, and it is supported by the opinion of the ablest Masonic writers. This distinction may be alluded to in each of the three divisions of my lecture.
As has been mentioned above, the Pursuit of Happiness is the "chief point" of Freemasonry as well as the aim of life as presented by Philosophy, according to the ancient Greek moralists. All mankind, in every age, from the darkest period of barbarism to the most civilized epoch the world has ever seen, have been striving after happiness. They may differ in their definition of the term, as well as the means by which they can attain their object; but we may take it for granted that ultimately they have happiness in view in all their schemes for the conduct of their lives.
Among savages, the gratification of their passions and desires, without regard to future consequences, seems to them the "highest good." This is also true, to a certain extent, in the case of children. Philosophy, generally, and Freemasonry have nothing to do with that stage of human existence, except in so far as it might be called a preparation period; for the whole life of man may be said to be preparation for something higher the period of darkness for the E. A., the E. A. for the F. C. and so on. It is, therefore, necessary that, before proceeding further and higher, the human being should be "duly and truly prepared."
It is not to be expected that a child or a savage can be prepared at once to receive all the instruction necessary to the complete development of his three-fold nature. He must advance by steps, from the simplest to the most complex, from the concrete to the abstract. There is no doubt that the idea of Mind, still more of Spirit, comes later than the knowledge of the Body and other objects that can be perceived by the Senses. Preparation, therefore, for education along the lines of such knowledge as can be derived only from natural objects must be incomplete. Hence our candidate's preparation is in the First degree confined to the left side. The symbolism of the left side is well known. That side has always been regarded as the side of less honour that the right, and, consequently, is appropriately used to represent the Sensational part of man's nature, while the right side connotes the Rational side.
Hence it is not difficult to conceive that Freemasonry, if it is concerned at all with Philosophy, should make the First degree to exemplify the Sensational, and the Second, the Rational School of Philosophy-the two great schools of thought which have split thinkers into two opposing camps, from the earliest times to the present day. Both systems agree that happiness, in one form or another, is the great aim of man, and that the life according to nature is virtue, because it leads us right to the end for which we were destined by nature, viz., happiness. But they differ in their doctrines respecting happiness and nature and virtue. Both agree that within certain limits the appetites, passions and desires may be gratified, but the Sensational school maintained that the limit was necessary for prudential reasons only, the Rational that happiness springs from the limitation and subjugation of the passions.
The connection between the First degree and the Sensational School will be apparent if we recollect that "refreshment" in the old days was not a mere banquet to be held or not held, after the ceremonies of the evening were over, in a different room, but that it was an integral part of those ceremonies, solemnized by the placing on the refreshment table of the Lights of Masonry, by the prayers of the Master and the other ceremonies of "opening," but "mingled with social mirth, and the mutual interchange of fraternal feeling." It may be regarded, therefore, as a rite emblematical of the liberty of man to gratify his appetites, desires and passions subject to the check of Temperance and Prudence, the two Cardinal Virtues of the South and North, which we may personify as standing unseen and silent on each side of the table, one behind and one facing the Junior Warden. That check is represented also by the Common Gavel, the symbol of Temperance, which must be used on the rough ashlar before the Square of Morality can be made to fit its angles and faces.
I will not tax your patience by dwelling on the similarity between the Second degree and the Rational School of Philosophy. But I may remind you that happiness according to the latter consists in the limitation and subjugation of the passions, while the emphasis laid by the former on Morality and Virtue and the subjugation of the Passions seems to establish the parallel. The Second degree also lays special stress on the study of Geometry representing Mathematics which subject was regarded by the old Greek philosophers particularly Pythagoras as the symbol of Pure Reason. In Architecture Geometry is the science which determines the form of a structure, and which is more concerned about that than about the substance or matter of which it is composed. The form symbolizes the limit, and the materials, the appetites and passions, the matter, in the Second degree, being completely subordinated to the former, as has been shown to be the case in the tenets of the Rational School.
But Masonry does not, like some of the old Philosophies, maintain the irreconcilable opposition of mind or soul and matter. The oblong squares of the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft show that each degree taken by itself is incomplete. It is only when each is blended with the other that perfection is reached, as is shown in the "perfect square" of a Master Mason, which is formed by the union of the other two squares. This is one of many proofs in our symbolism that the Third degree is the summation of the other two with the addition of further lessons on the Nature of God and Immortality.
The refreshment table of Freemasonry is symbolical not only of our liberty, within the bounds of Temperance and Prudences to partake of the material blessings lavished on us by God, but it is also an emblem of a figurative table provided with materials for the satisfaction of our mental and moral appetites. The viands are the thoughts of great and good men either presented to us in books or by word of mouth, and the satisfaction we derive from moral and virtuous actions.
Freemasonry has set limits to prevent our abuse of these blessings; but in placing before us material as well as mental and spiritual food, it effectually rebukes those who look on physical gratification, even within lawful limits, as sinful, and who seek to obtain God's favour by neglect and contempt of His temple, the human body.
"Let us not always say,
'Spite of this flesh today
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!'
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, 'All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!'"
FREEMASONRY AS EDUCATION
Plato states that "the aim of Education is to develop in the body and in the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable."
The question before us now is, Does Freemasonry interest itself in the subject of Education, and, if so, does the aim of the Education suggested by Freemasonry resemble the aim of Education as defined by Plato? I think there can be no doubt that the question must be answered in the affirmative. Freemasonry expressly deals with the development of Body and Soul and leaves nothing in the matter of the education of its votaries that can be improved upon; for it works in conformity to Nature, and in the order of Nature in the matter of Education as in all other things in which it concerns itself.
In order to comprehend, then, its system, let me remind you that the First degree is the degree of the material universe. The first step, therefore, in Masonic Education is education through the senses. In the earlier stages of a man's life, he takes cognizance only of such knowledge as can be acquired through the senses. Nothing is real to him unless he can touch, taste, smell, hear or see it. The most natural and, therefore, the most scientific method of teaching the young is through the senses. The concrete must precede the abstract. Such an education would be directed especially to the enlargement and refinement of the receptive powers; of those powers, above all which are directly relative to fleeting phenomena the powers of sensation and emotion.
What is called "practical education" the training of the hand and eye to obey the directions of the mind; aesthetic education occupied very largely with those aspects of things which affect us pleasurably through the senses, including art and the finer sorts of literature; education of the heart dealing with the love of Nature, animate and inanimate, above all, love and charity towards our fellow men, which latter is the special lesson of an E. A., and love to God, from Whom flows every good and perfect gift: all these, without stretching the meanings of the symbolism, are inculcated in the first degree of Freemasonry.
The candidate in the Second degree has made a further advance. Abstract studies are set before him, having for their object the development of all his intellectual faculties, the moral and spiritual elevation of his character, and the further acquisition of truth and knowledge. Cut I must remind you, here, that no degree stands by itself. Each "grows into and is again grown into" by the other two. you must not understand, therefore, that mind and intellect are not trained in the First degree, but that they are further greatly developed in the Second.
The beautiful symbolism of the Winding Stairs represents a synopsis of the Masonic system of education.
The first three steps I take to mean a mere reminder, such as occurs, again and again, throughout all the ceremonies of the lodge, that three parts, Body, Soul and Spirit, constitute the nature of Man; and they are intended simply as an introduction or key to the Educational scale which commences with the flight of five steps.
The first flight, then, refers to the five senses, and alludes to the Education through the Senses, suggested in a former part of this discussion.
The second flight of seven steps, referring to seven purely abstract studies, is symbolical of Pure Reason, and shows an upward advance in the candidate's intellectual progress.
But where is the third member of the triad in this ascent, which the first three steps, according to the interpretation given above, has led us to look for? To answer this we must ask another question, "What has been the goal or aim of the candidate during his long and arduous pilgrimage?" To which question there is only one answer, "The Truth." He does not yet find it; but high up and suspended in the distance he descries the letter "G." a mere initial, a glimmering hope that his labour has not been in vain, and that he has at last seen, faintly indeed and indistinctly, an indication of the object of his search. He has still far to go, he still has a rough and rugged road to travel; but his Faith is now buoyed up by Hope, and he knows that he will reach the goal if he continues true to his purpose.
There is another aspect of the Winding Stairs which has struck me as beautiful and worthy of your consideration. If we imagine a spiral line drawn round a conical hill, it will appear to be like a number of circles narrowing in diameter, or growing closer to the centre the higher they rise, till, at the top, the circumference disappears in the centre. So man, by labour, virtue, and faith in God, may ascend, step by step, in his progress through life, drawing nearer and ever nearer to Him, till finally, his earthly pilgrimage over, his liberated spirit comes before His Holy Presence, and is lost in the Light and Warmth of His infinite Intelligence and His inexhaustible Love.
FREEMASONRY THE "HANDMAID OF RELIGION"
There is probably no society in this world more imbued with the religious sense than the Fraternity of Freemasons. Questions of Morality and Religion are freely and reverently discussed by them in their lodges, and lectures on subjects bearing on the conduct of human life are listened to by them with an interest and patience which shows that they are animated not so much by fraternal courtesy as by sincere desire for self-improvement. Nor is that to be wondered at when one considers the reverence which every member of the Craft pays to the ceremonies of the lodge and to the excellent principles which are always inculcated therein. An examination, therefore, into the principles of Freemasonry which bring about this religious inclination among Masons, which my experience assures me exists, is my purpose at this stage of my lecture.
In the first place, a belief in God and Immortality is required of every applicant for admission into a lodge. That is necessary for- two reasons. First, as the name of God is so frequently invoked in our assemblies, and as all our ceremonies and lectures tend to impress on our mind His wonderful government of the world and our dependence on Him, the presence in our midst of an atheist who would certainly not sympathize with, if he did not actually scoff at our proceedings, would prove a source of discord in a society so dependent on harmony as its "strength and support."
Another reason for requiring of an applicant a belief in God, is that without such belief he would lack the very foundation on which the lessons of Freemasonry are based, and would, consequently, finding himself out of sympathy with our beliefs, either cease to associate himself with the Fraternity, or, keeping up a nominal connection with it, lose no opportunity of belittling the importance of our work, and of designating our symbolical teaching as puerile and unworthy of the serious attention of any thoughtful man. Thus he would not only derive no benefit himself, but would be likely to create prejudice against us in the eyes of the profane. This he might be able to do without violating the letter of his obligation.
The preparation for and symbolism of each of the three degrees has, of course, the same significance when Freemasonry is discussed from the point of view of its being ancillary to Religion, as it had when we were dealing with its Philosophical and Educational sides. You will, therefore, not require further explanation if, as I proceed, I refer to the Degree of Nature, the Degree of Mind and the degree in which both the former are united into one Degree of Perfection.
But, before proceeding to discuss this part of my subject I propose to deal briefly with symbolisms which might be classified under each of those three heads, but which it is more convenient to take by themselves, as they throw light on what is to follow. And the first of these that I shall speak about is the three knocks of the candidate seeking admission to a lodge open on any degree. The first knock refers to the fundamental necessity of prayer. The subject of prayer is the first lesson given the E. A. on his entrance into the lodge; prayer is taught by example, in each of the Degrees; and prayer was the last act of H. A. B. before his tragic death. "Ask and ye shall receive" is the interpretation of the first knock, and that command, with its gracious promise, is, further, beautifully symbolized on the Tracing Board of the E. A. The story of Jacob's dream is familiar to you all and need not be told here. But I shall give you what seems to be the Masonic significance of it. The ascending angels bear to heaven the prayers and petitions of men, and the descending angels bring back the answers from God in the form of bounties and blessings.
The second knock, we are told, means "Seek, and ye shall find." Here is a direct injunction to search for Truth. That search is the paramount duty of every Freemason; in fact it is the sole object of all the teachings of Freemasonry.
"Knock and it shall be opened to you."
If with all your hearts you prayerfully and truly seek Him, your admittance into the Grand Lodge Above will not be denied. Your search will then be rewarded; you will find the Lost Word; in God's holy presence you will discover the Truth.
Sacrifice, of which the altar is a symbol, is also one of the requisites of Freemasonry. All that a Mason has property, even life--must be given up for the "protection of innocence and virtue, and for the defense of Truth."
The symbolism of the Sun is perhaps the most important vehicle for the conveyance to our minds of Divine Truth. The Sun is the pattern for the imitation of the Worshipful Master, because it is symbolical of certain attributes of the Deity Love and Intelligence, Order and Harmony. The warmth of the Sun is emblematical of Love, and his light of Intelligence or Mind. The three Lesser Lights are said to represent the Sun, Moon and Worshipful Master. The Sun symbolizes the attributes of God, Love and Intelligence. The Moon, which reflects the light, but not the warmth, of the Sun Intelligence. The Worshipful Master, Man, the most perfect of His works.
The Sun also represents the Immanence of God. Its warmth pervades the Earth and is necessary not only for the comfort, but also for the life, of all organic creatures. In like manner God is everywhere. In the beautiful words of Mrs. Browning:
"Earth is crammed with Heaven
And every bush and tree
Afire with God. But only he
Who sees takes off his shoes."
His love is unfailing even to the lowest organism He has made; and His intelligence is manifested in all the works of His hands, and acts in the formation of a frost crystal as certainly and as beautifully as in the growth of a blade of grass. "This deity," quotes Tagore from the Upanishad, "who is manifesting himself in the activities of the universe, always dwells in the heart of man as the supreme soul. Those who realize Him through the immediate perception of the heart attain immortality."
One word more about Sun symbolism. The point within the circle is the astronomical symbol of the Sun. The Sun is represented by the central point, the circumference represents his rays. The compasses is the instrument used for describing circles, the pivotal point representing the central Sun, and the other point Light. Thus, in the Fellow Craft degree, when one point has been elevated above the square, the meaning seems to be that a certain measure of intellectual and moral light has been vouchsafed to the candidate. But when the pivotal point is also placed above the square, he has received the pure light and warmth of Masonry all the knowledge of the Truth that "it is possible for him to obtain in a lodge of Master Masons."
But the most important assistance which Freemasonry lends to Religion is when it teaches the Craftsman that the existence of God can be deduced from His works.
And, first, Freemasonry shows that God is manifested in Nature, which is His creation. "The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Earth showeth forth His handiwork." The works of our greatest poets are full of this theme. Nay, even savages, in their own rude way, see a god in every manifestation of nature. It is not wonderful, therefore, that Freemasonry should say that "contemplating these objects" (of nature) "we are led to view with reverence and admiration the wonderful works of Creation, and adore their Divine Creator." All religions and most philosophies agree in the necessity of a First Cause, or God. Freemasonry teaches us to study Nature, to admire its beauties, to comprehend its wonderful harmony, to appreciate the marvellous adaptation of every created thing to its environment and the purpose for which it was created, and reverently to worship the Maker and Creator of all things.
Thus, and far too briefly, I have laid before you the argument which deduces the Cause from the Effect in the material world. By our objective consciousness we try to trace the Divine in Nature. But there is a higher consciousness-the subjective-which deals with the Mind, and which traces the Divine in Man. This part of my subject might also be presented to you under the heading: "God as comprehended by the individual mind."
"Are the intelligence of God and the intelligence of man of the same character ? Intelligence itself seems to constrain us to answer this question in the affirmative. To suppose that the supreme intelligence has nothing whatever in common with the human intelligence, is to suppose that one of them is an intelligence, and that the other is no intelligence at all. It is to dissolve the very ground on which we conceive both of them as intelligences. This truth, then, in regard to the constitution of the human mind, and of all minds, seems to be a necessary axiom of reason. In all intelligence there is an essential unity of kind, however small the point of unity may be. . . . This unity constitutes the very bond, and the only bond, between the Creator and the creature. Deny this connection between the divine and human reason, and you destroy the very possibility of religion." The preceding sentences, taken from the philosophical works of Professor Ferrier, are, in short, the summary of his argument for the connection between all finite minds and the infinite mind of the Creator. The mind of Man, who, compared with the rest of Creation, is physically insignificant, is the most wonderful phenomenon that exists in the Universe. It traces the paths of comets and planets, and predicts their appearance at any position in the sky to a fraction of a second; it calculates the distances from the Earth and from each other of the most remote fixed stars; it even can tell their weights, specific gravity, and the constitution of the solid and gaseous matters of which they are composed. It harnesses the lightning and the cataract and forces them into the peaceful service of humanity. No object is too minute or too immense for its comprehension. And its steady and daring progress in the past from one pinnacle of knowledge to another makes the forecast of its further and greater triumphs logical and certain.
The achievements of the human mind are not confined, however, to the discoveries of scientific truth. Too great homage cannot be paid to the mighty minds of the men to whom such triumphs are due. But the unveiling of the workings of the soul by poets, philosophers and other men of letters is further and even greater testimony to the majesty of the human intellect. Well might the great world-poet exclaim:
"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!"
Man, endowed with mental faculties which enable him to comprehend the laws by which the Universe is governed and the harmony of Creation, cannot fail, by comparison with the processes of his mind, to believe that the natural objects whose secrets it has been able to discover, are governed and regulated by a mind similar in nature to his own, and only differing in degree. He perceives that other human minds are like his own, and that mind is an indissoluble bond of union between man and God. Wordsworth, in "Tintern Abbey," not only brings out the thought of union between God and Man, but also emphasizes the bond of union between Nature and God, which I have already discussed. Man, he says, has:
"A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and the mind of man,-
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."
God is thus revealed in Nature, and God is thus revealed in Man. But there is another revelation recognized by Freemasonry in every degree namely, the V. O. T. S. L. "the inestimable gift of God to Man as a guide to his daily faith and practice." The religion of a Freemason is left to his own conscience, but the sacred writings are always open in his lodge, a silent, but eloquent, witness that Freemasonry is not only not indifferent to religion, but that she expects every craftsman to be a religious man. In fact, she mentions the "irreligious libertine" as a man who has no right to the privileges of the Craft.
These are some, only, of the many arguments which prove Freemasonry to be the Handmaid of Religion. Could any mistress be better served?
IMMORTALITY
We have given much time to the contemplation of the lessons of the South and West. Have we no message from the North? Yes, indeed! The place of darkness is a region not to be afraid of, but rather to be regarded with affection and gratitude. For it is the place of "sleep and his brother, death."
"Now blessings light on him who first invented sleep!" says Sancho Panza in Don Quixote, "It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even."
What better eulogy could be written on Sleep than that? It is rightly associated with refreshment in the first division of the twenty-four-inch Gauge.
But, some one may say, "Sleep is a blessing, I grant you, but how about Death? After sleep comes waking; but Death means the leaving all that is near and dear to men, and the severing of every tie which binds them to earth. Death is the end." Is it? If it is, then is the teaching of Freemasonry vain; vain is the teaching of Religion. But we Freemasons are taught that Death is not the end. Though all things are dark, and the knell of low-twelve is sounding in our ears, though our brother's mangled body is lying covered only by the rubbish of the temple; though our loving hands remove him from the grave where he was "indecently interred," and the evidence of our nostrils gives unmistakable evidence of physical dissolution, we know that all is well with him, for the G.A.O.T.U. has taken him by the hand, and raised him to take his place in another lodge a real lodge of Perfection where he is surrounded by the dear ones who have preceded him there, and where he awaits the arrival of those whom he dearly loved and by whom he was dearly loved, with perfect confidence, for he knows the Truth. He has found the Master Mason's Word
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PART IV ACTION OF STATE AND CHURCH AUTHORITIES AGAINST FREEMASONRY
FROM THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
CURIOUSLY enough, the first sovereign to join and protect Freemasonry was the Catholic German Emperor Frances I, the founder of the actually reigning line of Austria, while the first measures against Freemasonry were taken by Protestant Governments: Holland, 1735; Sweden and Geneva, 1738; Zurich, 1740; Berne, 1745. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, measures against Masonry were taken after 1738. In Bavaria Freemasonry was prohibited 1784 and 1785; in Austria, 1795; in Baden, 1813; in Russia, 1822. Since 1847 it has been tolerated in Baden, since 1850 in Bavaria, since 1868 in Hungary and Spain. In Austria Freemasonry is still prohibited because as the Superior Court of Administration 23 January, 1905, rightly declared, a Masonic association, even though established in accordance with law, "would be a member of a large (international) organization (in reality ruled by the 'Old Charges,' etc., according to general Masonic principles and aims), the true regulations of which would be kept secret from the civil authorities, so that the activity of the members could not be controlled" (Bauhutte, 1905, 60). It is indeed to be presumed that Austro-Hungarian Masons, whatever statutes they might present to the Austrian Government in order to secure their authorization, would in fact continue to regard the French Grand Orient as their true pattern, and the Brothers Kossuth, Garibaldi, and Mazzini as the heroes, whom they would strive to imitate. The Prussian edict of 1798 interdicted Freemasonry in general, excepting the three old Prussian Grand Lodges which the protectorate subjected to severe control by the Government. this edict, though juridically abrogated by the edict of 6 April, 1848, practically, according to a decision of the Supreme Court of Administration of 22 April, 1893, by an erroneous interpretation of the organs of adminstration, remained in force till 1893. Similarly, in Gngland an Act of Parliament was passed on 12 July, 798, for the "more effectual suppression of societies stablished for seditions and treasonable purposes and or preventing treasonable and seditious practices." By this Act Masonic associations and meetings in general were interdicted, and only the lodges existing on 2 July, 1798, and ruled according to the old regulations of the Masonry of the kingdom were tolerated, on condition that two representatives of the lodge should make oath before the magistrates, that the lodge existed and was ruled as the Act enjoined (Preston, "Illustrations of Masonry," 251 sqq.). During the period 1827-34, measures were taken against Freemasonry in some of the United States of America. As to European countries it may be stated, that all those Governments, which had not originated in the revolutionary movement, strove to protect themselves against Masonic secret societies.
The action of the Church is summed up in the papal pronouncements against Freemasonry since 1738, the most important of which are:
Clement XII, Const. "In Eminenti," 28 April, 1738; Benedict XIV, "Providas," 18 May, 1751; Pius VII, "Ecclesiam," 13 September, 1821; Leo XII, "Quo graviora," 13 March, 1825; Pius VIII, Encycl. "Traditi," 21 May, 1829; Gregory XVI, "Mirari," 15 August, 1832; Pius IX, Encycl. "Qui pluribus," 9 November, 1846; Alloc. "Quibus quantisque malis," 20 April, 1849; Encycl. "Quanta cura," 8 December, 1864; Alloc. "Multiplices inter," 25 September, 1865; Const. "Apostolicae Sedis," 12 October, 1869; Encycl. "Etsi multa," 21 November, 1873; Leo XIII, Encycl. "Humanum genus," 20 April, 1884; "Praeclara," 20 June, 1894; "Annum ingressi," 18 March, 1902 (against Italian Freemasonry); Encycl. "Etsi nos." 15 February, 1882; "Ab Apostolici," 15 October, 1890. These pontifical utterances from first to last are in complete accord, the latter reiterating the earlier with such developments as were called for by the growth of Freemasonry and other secret societies.
Clement XII accurately indicates the principal reasons why Masonic associations from the Catholic, Christian, moral, political, and social points of view, should be condemned. These reasons are: (1) The peculiar, "unsectarian" (in truth, anti-Catholic and anti- Christian) naturalistic character of Freemasonry, by which theoretically and practically it undermines the Catholic and Christian faith, first in its members and through them in the rest of society, creating religious indifferentism and contempt for orthodoxy and ecclesiastical authority. (2) The inscrutable secrecy and fallacious ever-changing disguise of the Masonic association and of its "work," by which "men of this sort break as thieves into the house and like foxes endeavour to root up the vineyard," "perverting the hearts of the simple," ruining their spiritual and temporal welfare. (3) The oaths of secrecy and of fidelity to Masonry and Masonic work, which cannot be justified in their scope, their object, or their form, and cannot, therefore, induce any obligation. The oaths are condemnable, because the scope and object of Masonrv are "wicked" and condemnable, and the candidate in most cases is ignorant of the import or extent of the obligation which he takes upon himself. Moreover the ritualistic and doctrinal "secrets" which are the principal object of the obligation, according to the highest Masonic authorities, are either trifles or no longer exist (Handbuch, 3rd ed., I, 219). In either case the oath is a condemnable abuse. Even the Masonic modes of recognition, which are represented as the principal and only essential "secret" of Masonry, are published in many printed books. Hence the real "secrets" of Masonry, if such there be, could only be political or antireligious conspiracies like the plots of the Grand Lodges in Latin countries. But such secrets, condemned, at least theoretically, by Anglo-American Masons themselves, would render the oath or obligation only the more immoral and therefore null and void. Thus in every respect the Masonic oaths are not only sacrilegious but also an abuse contrary to public order which requires that solemn oaths and obligations as the principal means to maintain veracity and faithfulness in the State and in human society, should not be vilified or caricatured. In Masonry the oath is further degraded by its form which includes the most atrocious penalties, for the "violation of obligations" which do not even exist; a "violation" which, in truth may be and in many cases is an imperative duty. (4) The danger which such societies involve for the security and "tranquility of the State" and for "the spiritual health of souls," and consequently their incompatibility with civil and canonical law. For even admitting that some Masonic associations pursued for themselves no purposes contrary to religion and to public order, they would be nevertheless contrary to public order, because by their very existence as secret societies based on the Masonic principles, they encourage and promote the foundation- of other really dangerous secret societies and render difficult, if not impossible, efficacious action of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities against them.
Of the other papal edicts only some characteristic utterances need be mentioned. Benedict XIV appeals more urgently to Catholic princes and civil powers to obtain their assistance in the struggle against Freemasonry. Pius VII condemns the secret society of the Carbonari which, if not an off-shoot, is "certainly an imitation of the Masonic society" and, as such, already comprised in the condemnation issued against it. Leo XII deplores the fact, that the civil powers had not heeded the earlier papal decrees, and in consequence out of the old Masonic societies even more dangerous sects had sprung. Among them the "Universitarian" is mentioned as most pernicious. "It is to be deemed certain," says the pope, "that these secret societies are linked together by the bond of the same criminal purposes." Gregory XVI similarly declares that the calamities of the age were due principally to the conspiracy of secret societies, and like Leo XII, deplores the religious indifferentism and the false ideas of tolerance propagated by secret societies. Pius IX (Allocution, 1865) characterizes Freemasonry as an insidious, fraudulent and perverse organization injurious both to religion and to society; and condemns anew "this Masonic and other similar societies, which differing only in appearance coalesce constantly and openly or secretly plot against the Church or lawful authority." Leo XIII (1884) says: "There are various sects, which although differing in name, rite, form, and origin, are nevertheless so united by community of purposes and by similarity of their main principles as to be really one with the Masonic sect, which is a kind of centre, whence they all proceed and whither they all return." The ultimate purpose of Freemasonry is "the overthrow of the whole religious, political, and social order based on Christian institutions and the establishment of a new state of things according to their own ideas and based in its principles and laws on pure Naturalism."
In view of these several reasons Catholics since 1738 are, under penalty of excommunication, incurred ipso facto, and reserved to the pope, strictly forbidden to enter or promote in any way Masonic societies. The law now in force (Const. "Apostolicae Sedis," 1869 Cap. ii, n.24) pronounces excommunication upon "those who enter Masonic or Carbonarian or other sects of the same kind, which, openly or secretly, plot against the Church or lawful authority and those who in any wny favour these sects or do not denounce their leaders and principal members." Under this head mention must also be made of the "Practical Instruction of the Congreg. of the Inquisition, 7 May, 1884, 'de Secta Massonum' " (Acta Sanctae Sedis, XVIII, 43-47) and of the decrees of the Provincial Councils of Baltimore, 1840: New Orleans, 1856; Quebec, 1851, 1868; of the first Councils of the English Colonies, 1854; and particularly of the Plenary Councils of Baltimore, 1866 and 1884 (see "Collect. Lacensis," III, 1875 and "Acta et decr. Concil. plen. Balt. III," 1884). These documents refer mainly to the application of the papal decrees according to the peculiar conditions of the respective ecclesiastical provinces. The Third Council of Baltimore, n. 254 sq., states the method of ascertaining whether or not a society is to be regarded as comprised in the papal condemnation of Freemasonry. It reserves the final decision thereon to a commission consisting of all the archbishops of the ecclesiastical provinces represented in the council, and if they cannot reach a unanimous conclusion, refers to the Holy See.
These papal edicts and censures against Freemasonry have often been the occasion of erroneous and unjust charges. The excommunication was interpreted as an "imprecation" that cursed all Freemasons and doomed them to perdition. In truth an excommunication is simply an ecclesiastical penalty, by which members of the Church should be deterred from acts fhst are criminal according to ecclesiastical law. The pope and the bishops, therefore, as faithful pastors of Christ's flock, cannot but condemn Freemasonry. They would betray, as Clement XII stated, their most sacred duties, if they did not oppose with all their power the insidious propagation and activity of such societies in Catholic countries or with respect to Catholics in mixed and Protestant countries. Freemasonry systematically promotes religious indifFerentism and undermines true, i.e., orthodox Christian and Catholic Faith and life. Freemasonry is essentially Naturalism and hence opposed to all supernaturalism. As to some particular charges of Leo XIII (1884) challenged by Freemasons, e.g., the atheistical character of Freemasonry, it must be remarked, that the pope considers the activity of Masonic and similar societies as a whole, applying to it the term which designates the most of these societies and among the Masonic groups those, which push the so-called "anti-clerical," in reality irreligious and revolutionary, principles of Freemasonry logically to their ultimate consequences and thus, in truth, are, as it were, the advanced outposts and standard-bearers of the whole immense anti-Catholic and anti-papal army in the world-wide spiritual warfare of our age. In this sense also the pope, in accordance with a fundamental biblical and evangelical view developed by St. Augustine in his "De civitate Dei," like the Masonic poet Carducci in his "Hymn to Satan," considers Satan as the supreme spiritual chief of this hostile army. Thus Leo XIII (1884) expressly states: "What we say, must be understood of the Masonic sect in the universal acceptation of the term, as it comprises all kindred and associated societies, but not of their single members. There may be persons amongst these, and not a few, who, although not free from the guilt of having entangled themselves in such associations, yet are neither themselves partners in their criminal acts nor aware of the ultimate object which these associations are endeavouring to attain. Similarly some of the several bodies of the association may perhaps by no means approve of certain extreme conclusions, which they would consistently accept as necessarily following from the general principles common to all, were they not deterred by the vicious character of the conclusions." "The Masonic federation is to be judged not so much by the acts and things it has accomplished, as by the whole of its principles and purposes."
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A MEANS
Masonry is a means, not an end; and the reception of a degree, whether it be the first or last of a Rite, does not in itself make the recipient any better than he was before. It simply is the medium for broadening his knowledge of his duties, and the application of those duties in his daily walk and conduct.
To put it in another way, the degrees in Masonry are but working tools whereby the man who receives them may shape his course in life, and he is to be judged by the manner in which he has made those tools Serviceable and profitable in his own betterment and in assisting those around him to he better and more useful. -The Junior Warden.
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Example is the School of mankind, and they will learn at no other. -Burke.
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JERRY JACKSON JASON
"ONLY A MASTER MASON”
There ne'er was truer Mason than Jerry Jackson Jason
He delighted in its mystery, antiquity, and history;
But he ne'er could be persuaded that he should be higher graded
And of more degrees possessor than the fundamental three.
It was argued he'd be apter with the knowledge of the Chapter
That he'd prove a bright exemplar in the character of Templar,
While the Thirty-Second brothers told of roadway 'round the others.
But he left no doubt or question as to higher grade suggestion,
Or, to being "arched" or "knighted," or to any others plighted,
For a Master Mason simply he was satisfied to be.
They declared that he was foolish, even obstinate and mulish
To thus decline advancernent which for them had such entrancement
But to him the title "brother" was the acme of all other,
And the Lodge supremest honor as he understood its plan.
Its symbols with their teaching they were to him far-reaching,
Beyond their surface seeming what hidden truths were gleaming
The wisdom-store of sages transmitted through the ages,
Every angle with its story, every line a ray of glory
In the marvelous design linking human to divine,
And man to man in brotherhood whate'er his race or clan.
The mystery of the scroll was the temple of the soul;
Integrity must build it, virtue ornament and gild it;
Truth's shining presence light its hope sustain and love unite it,
Wisdom raise the dome above it faith uplift the turret tall.
Such was Masonry's ideal, and he strove to make it real-
Sanctified by loving deeds prompted by a brother's needs.
To his course the plumb applying, by the square his actions trying,
As the master hand of duty shaped his ashlar into beauty,
More and more its surface glowed through the good which he bestowed,
Freer grew from earthly blemish, fitter for the Living Wall.
Was there sick or suffering Mason thither sped good Brother Jason,
And the sunshine of his face brightened many a cheerless place,
While his words were so assuring, they did more than drugs toward curing,
And disease full oft was baffled and the threatening crisis passed.
But if all was unavailing and the stricken one fast failing,
Then he took the wasted hand, voiced the thought of better land,
Which the worthy would set eye on through the strength of Judah's Lion,
In the Father's house on high when life's burden was laid by -
On the listener's fading sight there had dawned celestial light,
And on face with rapture beaming death had set his seal at last.
To the dead as to the living willing service ever giving
Ever 'mong the faithful found who a brother’s grave surround,
And the last sad tribute pay to the lifeless form of clay
With acacia-sprigs proclaiming that his spirit liveth still.
To the widow, orphan, friendless, his good deeds 'twould seem were endless,
And affairs of self as naught when their wants vrere in his thought.
His, the words fresh courage woke when there fell misfortune's stroke
His, the hand that help extended and despairing ones befriended:
His, the work beyond compare, tested by the plumb and square
His, the wage of fadeless glory over which the angels thriil.
Yet they'd say of Brother Jason, "He is only Master Mason!"
And implying, by the stress, that his rank was thereby less!
Less than theirs, degree-entangled and befeathered and bespangled,
And befogged beyond perception of the true Masonic light.
Vain and thoughtless brethren these, valueless are mere degrees;
'Tis the lessons they impart and their lodgment in the heart,
Which, if rightly understood, prove the measure of their good.
Though a thousand such there be, they can ne'er eclipse the three;
And the faithful, zealous Mason, such as Jerry Jackson Jason,
Stands supreme 'mid glare and glitter, peerless in his apron white.
- Lawrence N. Greenleaf, P.G.M., Colorado.
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Be cheerful always. There is no path but will be easier traveled, no load but will be lighter, no shadow on heart and brain but will lift sooner for a person of determined cheerfulness. - Willitts.
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CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN No. 31
DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY
Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood
THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE MEETINGS AND STUDY CLUBS
FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE
THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.
MAIN OUTLINE:
The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in turn subdivided, as is shown below:
Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.
A. The Work of the Lodge.
B. The Lodge and the Candidate.
C. First Steps.
D. Second Steps.
E. Third Steps.
Division II. Symbolical Masonry.
A. Clothing.
B. Working Tools.
C. Furniture.
D. Architecture.
E. Geometry.
F. Signs.
G. Words.
H. Grips.
Division III. Philosophical Masonry.
A. Foundations.
B. Virtues.
C. Ethics.
D. Religious Aspect.
E. The Quest.
F. Mysticism.
G. The Secret Doctrine.
Division IV. Legislative Masonry.
A. The Grand Lodge.
1. Ancient Constitutions.
2. Codes of Law.
3. Grand Lodge Practices.
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges.
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.
B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization.
2. Qualifications of Candidates.
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising.
4. Visitation.
5. Change of Membership.
Division V. Historical Masonry.
A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.
B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making.
C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.
D. National Masonry.
E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study.
F. Feminine Masonry.
G. Masonic Alphabets.
H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.
I. Biographical Masonry.
J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.
THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS
Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood, who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps" of Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding each installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the chairman of the Committee during the study period which will bring out every point touched upon in the paper.
Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing upon the particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental papers in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list of references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly never come to the attention of many of our members will thus be presented.
The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than their appearance. If this is done the Committee will have opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance of the meetings and the brethren who are members of the National Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter into the discussions after they have read over and studied the installment in THE BUILDER.
REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS
Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of references to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These references are pertinent to the paper and will either enlarge upon many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for reading and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to different brethren who may compile papers of their own from the material thus to be found, or in many instances the articles themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly from the originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.
HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS
The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three "live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month, either at a special meeting of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular meeting at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted--all possible time to be given to the study period.
After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.
PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS
1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers thereto.
(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or inquire into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper similar to those used in elections should be distributed among the members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.)
2. Discussion of the above.
3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and disposed of in the same manner. 4. Question Box.
MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS
Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let them understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct their lodge study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome all inquiries and communications from interested brethren concerning any phase of the plan that is not entirely clear to them, and the Services of our Study Club Department are at the command of our members, lodge and study club committees at all times.
QUESTIONS ON "THE TWO PILLARS"
I Where do you keep the pillars in your lodge room during the time they are not in actual use? Has such position any particular significance? In some jurisdictions we find them at either side of the entrance from the preparation room; in others they stand in front of the Senior Warden's station. Can you give a reason for either or both of these locations other than "for convenienced? How did the pillars impress you when you first saw them ? What do they mean to you now?
II Why did early peoples set up pillars before their places of abode, about their villages and over the graves of their dead? What did they believe such pillars to symbolize?
What did pillars portray to the Mayas and Incas? How were they looked upon in bible times? By whom were monoliths most widely used? In what manner, and for what purposes? In the course of religious development what did they come to symbolize? What did the obelisk symbolize?
III Whence did the custom of placing pillars before temple entrances proceed from Egypt? What did Hiram probably use as his models for the pillars placed before Solomon's Temple?
What do the pillars used in the lodge room represent ? What is the height of the pillars as given in the Book of Kings ? In the Book of Chronicles? What is Brother Haywood's theory concerning these variations ? How does Mackey describe the original pillars?
What was the shape and composition of the pillars ? What was their combined weight? What were they respectively called and what were their positions? How are these names interpreted Masonically ? What part did they occupy during celebrations? Where were the pillars supposedly cast?
What should be the height of the pillars used in our lodge rooms? What are the heights as adopted by American Grand Lodges? What was the height of the pillars as now accepted by present-day authorities ? Is it imperative that we know the actual height of the pillars to pursue our Masonic studies? In what light should we consider them ?
What did the pillars symbolize to Preston ? To Caldecott? To Covey- Crump ? To Mackey ? To the old Jewish Rabbis ? What is brother Haywood's interpretation?
IV What two theories have been offered by Masonic Scholars concerning the origin of the globes? How was the first theory suggested? What is the symbol of the winged globe? What did its oval shape suggest or symbolize? Do you accept this Egyptian theory? If so. why? If not, why not?
V Why does it appear that Preston modified the chapiters of the pillars into globes? How is Preston's theory verified? Do you agree with Brother Haywood that we of today have the same right to interpret the symbols in our own way as did the ancients? If not, why not?
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
Mackey's Encyclopedia:
Globe, p. 298; Pillar, p. 565; Pillars of Cloud and Fire, p. 566; Pillars of the Porch, p. 566.
THE BUILDER:
Vol. I. Globes on the Pillars, p. 10; Pillars, Height of, pp. 192, 310.
Vol. II. Pillars, The Two, pp. 176, 222.
Vol. III. Pillars of the Porch, pp. 177, 200, 236.
Vol. IV.-Jachin and Boaz, pp. 21, 264; The Globes, p. 265; The Lily-Work, p. 265; The Net-Work, p. 265; The Pomegranate, p. 266.
Vol. V. The Origin of the Pillars to King Solomon's Temple, (this issue) C. C. B. p. 8; The Position of the Pillars, (this issue) C. C. B. p. 6; The Two Pillars Standing in the Porch of the Temple, (this issue) C. C. B. p. 5.
SECOND STEPS
PART VI THE TWO PILLARS
OF ALL objects which greet the eyes of the candidate as he stands before the stairs leading to the Middle Chamber none are so conspicuous as the two great pillars nor are any more deserving of careful study. They stand there before him as if to guard the sanctum from the profane world while they invite him into newer mysteries; so noble in proportion are they, so intricate in design, so beautiful to see, they keep solemn watch above the scene and throw a hush of awe about the soul that would mount to the Upper Room of the spirit. What they mean, it is difficult, although not entirely impossible, to say. If our Masonic students and savants have surrounded them with a host of theories more intricate than the network and more multitudinous than the pomegranates it is because so many hints of ancient wisdom and symbolism have been carved into their capitals, their chapiters, and their bases. Our own study may lead to apparently contradictory results; this need not disturb us; no symbol can walk on all fours; a symbol which says hut one thing is hardly a symbol at all.
II It was the custom of many of the early peoples, as Frazer describes so abundantly in his "Golden Bough," (six volumes on primitive religion, etc.) to set up stone pillars before their huts, about their villages, and over the graves of their dead. In some cases these stones were believed to be gods or demons, or the abodes of gods or demons; in others they were believed to be the homes of the ghosts of departed human beings; in many cases they were looked upon as symbols of sex. Of the last named usage one competent historian speaks as follows: "Pillars of stone, when associated with worship, have been from time immemorial regarded as the symbols of the active and passive, the generating and fecundating principles." In India at the present time one may see almost anywhere the sacred "lingam," a stone pillar, emblem of the organs of sex, and consequently the symbol of life forever renewing itself. Also, pillars have often been used as emblems of stability; Dr. Newton, in his "The Builders," speaks as follows:
"In India, and among the Mayas and Incas there were three great pillars at the portals of the earthey and skyey temple, Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty. When man set up a pillar, he became a fellow worker with Him whom the old sages of China used to call 'the first Builder.' Also, pillars were set up to mark the holy places of vision and divine deliverance, as when Jacob erected a pillar at Bethel, Joshua at Gilgal, and Samuel at Mizpeh and Shen. Always they were symbols of stability, of what the Egyptians described as 'the place of establishing forever' emblem of the faith 'that the pillars of the earth are the lord's and He hath set the world upon them."'
"In all countries," remarks another writer, "as the earliest of man's works we recognize the sublime, mysteriously-speaking, ever- recurring monolith." By no peoples were these monoliths (the word literally means "one stone") so venerated, or so widely used, as among the Egyptians: originally, it is thought, they were used as astronomical instruments to mark the time and to denote the stages of the movements of the heavenly bodies; also they were employed to orient temples, that is, as markers through which the ray of a star might pass at a given time. Connected with places of worship they were at last connected with the gods and became in after time symbols of deity, as we may learn from Professor Breasted's "History of the Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," in which interesting and helpful book he tells us that the obelisk, as the solitary pillar came to be called, stood pre- eminently for the great Sun God.
III From Egypt, scholars believe, the custom of placing pillars at the entrance to a temple passed to Phoenicia: be that as it may we know that a king of Tyre erected two great columns before his magnificent temple at Melkarth, where Herodotus saw them five centuries afterwards. It was these, perhaps, which served Hiram as models for the more famous pillars which he erected before the Temple of Solomon.
It is these last named pillars, of course, of which copies stand in our Masonic lodge room. Two descriptions of the originals are given in the Old Testament, -one in the Book of Kings, another in the Book of Chronicles. In the former record the height is given as 18 cubits, or (if a cubit is believed to have equalled 18 inches) 27 feet; in Chronicles, the height is given as 35 cubits, or 52 1/2 feet. This variation has occasioned much controversy but it is thought that the Book of Kings gives the height of but one pillar while Chronicles combines the two, making allowance for the sockets of the chapiters, or head pieces. These last items are the conspicuous features of the pillars and first challenge attention: Mackey has given a good description of the originals, as good as our scant knowledge makes possible:
"Above the pillar, and covering its upper part to the depth of nine inches, was an oval body or chapiter seven feet and a half in height. Springing out from the pillar, at the junction of the chapiter with it, was a row of lotus petals, which, first spreading around the chapiter, afterwards gently curved downward towards the pillar, something like the Acanthus leaves on the capital of a Corinthian column. About two-fifths of the distance from the bottom of the chapiter, or just below its most bulging part, a tissue of network was carved, which extended over its whole upper surface. To the bottom of this network was suspended a series of fringes, and on these again were carved two rows of pomegranates, one hundred being in each row."
The pillars were cylindrical in shape and were cast of brass; their combined weight is estimated to have been no less than fifty-three tons. one of them was called Boaz, the other Jachin: the former stood in the northeast corner of the porch, the latter in the southeast. To one who stood inside the temple looking out. Jachin stood at the right, Boaz at the left. What these names signified nobody knows, but some think the High Priest was wont to stand at one, the King at the other, on such occasions as when all the people held high celebrations at the Temple. According to tradition the pillars were cast in foundries situated between Succoth and Zeredatha, about thirty-five miles northeast of Jerusalem; jewelers of the holy city still use clay brought from that region.
The symbolical pillars employed in our lodges should be of a size that best comports with their surroundings albeit there is a certain fitness in making them of one height throughout. Some believe that a cubit was only four inches in length; acting on this theory some American Grand Lodges claim the pillars to have been just six feet in height; one that they were 30 cubits, and twenty- five insist that they were thirty five cubits. The best authorities are now very sure that a cubit equalled eighteen inches according to our measurements; inasmuch as the Temple itself was only ninety feet long and thirty feet wide, thirty-five cubits would have been altogether out of proportion! But such discrepancies as these need not trouble us for to us the pillars are symbols only and quite as worthy of study when six feet high as when thirty.
What do these pillars symbolize ? To Preston they stood for the pillar of cloud and of fire which guided the Israelites through the day and the night; to Caldecott they meant the principles of authority in religion and in politics whereby all social organization is
