The Reputation of the Fraternity

“To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care.”

Every Master Mason is charged with that great duty. Obviously it means the reputation of the Fraternity before the non-Masonic world. That reputation is one of the greatest assets of Freemasonry; indeed, only by our reputation do we live and grow, since Masons are forbidden to proselyte. No real Mason ever asks a profane to join the Order; the man must seek the Light; not the Light seeking the man.

The reputation of Masonry in the world is that of an Order in which men bind themselves to secrecy; practice charity and brotherhood; do good without self advertising; choose wisely among our petitioners; work a gentle influence upon themselves and their fellows towards right conduct, clean thinking and fine citizenship. Freemasonry has certain contacts with the public; for instance, her Masonic Homes are public in the sense that they stand as monuments to Masonic Charity for all the world to see. The world at large observes us in funeral processions, burying our dead with reverence, honor and ceremonies strange to profane eyes. It watches our Grand Lodges lay the corner stones of public buildings, pouring the ancient sacrifices of corn, wine and oil; dedicating and consecrating (if it is a church) the building to its uses. It sees us occasionally attend Divine services in a body. It can obtain beautiful books about Freemasonry, from which it can learn of the fundamental principles which underlie the Order.

But “the secrets of Freemasonry are safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts.”

Some Masons consider certain matters as “secrets” which are not so, in fact, even though they are not the subject of common talk or vain boast. It is no “secret” that Freemasonry teaches and inculcates, in so far as her power lies, those principles of law, order, morals, citizenship, fear and love of God which make for the highest type of manhood.

The non-secret teachings of the three degrees are briefly as follows:

In the Entered Apprentice Degree the initiate is taught the necessity of a belief in God; of charity towards all mankind, and especially a brother Mason; of secrecy; of the meaning of brotherly love; the reasons for relief; the greatness of truth; the advantages of temperance; the value of fortitude; the part played in Masonic life by prudence and the equality of strict justice. He is charged to inculcate the three great duties; to be reverent before God, to pray to Him for help, to venerate Him as the source of all that is good. He is exhorted to practice the Golden Rule and to avoid excesses of all kinds. He is admonished to be quiet and peaceable, not to countenance disloyalty and rebellion, to be true and just to government and country and to be cheerful under its laws. He is charged to come often to lodge but not to neglect his business, not to argue about Freemasonry with the ignorant but to learn Masonry from Masons, and once again, to be secret. Finally he is urged to present only such candidates as he is sure will agree to all that he has agreed to.

In the Fellowcraft Degree he argues that he will be secret regarding that which must be kept secret; that he will obey the by-laws of his own lodge; and the laws, rules, regulations and edicts of his Grand Lodge; to answer proper summons; is again reminded of his duty as a Mason in charity and relief. He agrees that a good Mason is an honest and upright man. He is taught the importance of the seventh day and the advantages of learning in general are placed before him, with especial reference to the science of geometry. Emphasis is again placed upon a reverent attitude before Deity. Then he is charged with the need for balanced judgment; is exhorted to study the seven liberal arts and is shown that geometry is not only a mathematical and Masonic science, but also a moral one. Regular behavior is impressed upon him, as well as “the practice of all commendable virtues.”

In the Master Mason Degree all that has gone before is again emphasized, and many additional duties and responsibilities are laid upon the initiate. Science, secrecy, fidelity to trust, courage, resignation and sacrifice are taught in the great drama. His obligations are extended; his brotherly relations with his fellows are more clearly and strictly defined. Her is taught the need for willing service; that prayer is not only for the petitioner; that he must be worthy of confidence; that his strength is not only for himself but for his falling brother; that wisdom in not only for the possessor but should be shared; that a brother has the right to know of approaching disaster.

He is charged to set a good example; to guard others, as well as himself from a breach of fidelity; he must preserve the ancient Landmarks and he must not countenance any changes in our established customs. Secrecy is again emphasized; the dignity of the character of a Master Mason is to be upheld; the faith and confidence of his fellows is put before him as the reward for fidelity and faith. Reducing these great teachings to the least possible number of words and avoiding duplications produces the following list of those matters which a Mason is taught, and to which he promises, either actually or by implication, complete agreement. On these rest the reputation of the Fraternity.

Belief in God, Charity, Secrecy, Brotherly Love Relief Truth, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Reverence, Prayer, Veneration, Golden Rule, Peaceableness, Good Citizenship, Obedience to Masonic Authority, Honesty, Observance of the Sabbath, Education, Judgment, Fidelity to Trust, Courage, Resignation, Self Sacrifice, Service to Others, Trustworthiness to Confidence, Sharing Strength and Wisdom, Setting a Good Example, Preservation of the Ancient Landmarks, Faith, and Dignity.

If  “every” Freemason lived up to “all” these teachings, what an Utopia the world would be!

But what is remarkable is not how many Masons fail, but how many succeed! That they do succeed is evidenced by the reputation of the Fraternity in Non-Masonic circles. Were Masons as a class false to their teachings, lax in their conduct, forsworn as to their obligations; Freemasonry would not posses the fair reputation she has:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with every mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

If the Man of Galilee was content to reduce “all the law” to fifty-three words, surely Freemasonry might formulate an equally short statement of her aims and purposes. But while “all the law” may be put into a few words, many thousand words of New Testament are needed to explain the teachings of Christianity.

Men learn by repetition. They absorb that which is told to them, and retold, and told once more. Freemasonry but follows the ancient manner of teaching when she iterates and reiterates the duties of a Mason towards his God, his neighbor and himself. But because Freemasonry teaches by repetition, her detailed reiteration makes possible many ways in which a Mason may offend. If he does not actively break a rule, he may fail as a Mason merely by a negative attitude. To fail to do good is not necessarily to do evil, but neither is a failure to work mischief necessarily a doing of good works! It is expected of men that they will fail, otherwise they are not men, but Gods! If no man ever failed, Freemasonry would be unnecessary. When a building is completed, the workmen depart. When the House Not Made With Hands is perfectly erected, the Craft is no more use.

It is one thing to fail in any Masonic duty; it is another to fail so publicly that the reputation of the Fraternity is hurt - that reputation of which we are taught that its preservation is of vital importance. Occasionally, more’s the pity, it is necessary for a Masonic organization to take practical steps in regard to some brother who has failed to live up to the Masonic teachings. Masons are only men who have solemnly agreed to do certain things; sometimes they are foresworn. Sometimes our committees do not do their work aright and we are given cracked stones to work upon. Sometimes a good man changes as he grows older, and even the sweet and gentle influence of the Craft cannot hold him in the straight and narrow way.

The lodge in which someone holds membership may well be advised to do little rather than much. There are times when something must be done; when the reputation of which we think so much is hurt by failure to do. Then we have all the misery and pain of a Masonic trial; the sad washing of dirty linen in the lodge; the grief of seeing our good and great Order dragged to some extent into public notice; when ever a Mason receives the worst Masonic penalty - expulsion, or Masonic death - the world at large usually hears of it. Few are the Masons who have no friends! Hence a Masonic trial is very apt to create tense feelings in a lodge, if not worse, and the harmony which is “the strength and support of all well regulated institutions” is made into a discord.

However, it cannot always be helped! - “But in a great many cases it can be helped!”

It is human to want to “get even.” Our brother wrongs us; it is only natural to wish him taken before the bar of lodge opinion, and, perhaps, punish him for his infraction of his obligation. Brethren often see no further than the immediate present; the immediate wrong doing; the immediate lodge trial and its results. A word of wise caution may make him look further. No man, unless suffering wrong of the most grievous character, but may be caused to stop and think by reminding him of the many obligations and duties he assumed when he, too, became a Mason. Let all such be asked, gently, kindly, considerately but pointedly - “will this action you propose benefit you as much as it will injure the lodge and the Fraternity? Will the results, inevitably to some extent public, do more harm to that reputation which we cherish than they will good to you? Is it not possible that our erring brother may be brought to make amends by less drastic means than the sad lodge trial?

Let no brother retort “but it should not become public!” Agreed, a lodge trial should never be a public matter. But while we hold our own Mystic Tie, and the cord of secrecy is tight about our lips, we do not hold relations and friends in the same manner. John Smith is tried and suspended, perhaps expelled. He no longer goes to lodge. People want to know why. In self defense he says what he can - but what can he say? Inevitably the result of the trial becomes public. Then we suffer.

At times it is necessary to stand pain to get rid of a cancer. But the best surgeon does not use a knife until all other means fail. That lodge, that Master and those brethren who seek to compose differences, win the erring back to the path their feet should never have left, do a real service to their lodge, to their offended brother, to their erring brother and to the Fraternity whose reputation “should be our constant care.”

To whisper good counsel in the ear of an erring brother is sound Masonic teaching. To prevent tarnishing the reputation of the Fraternity we must not only endeavor to live up to the high level of our teachings, but strive to help our brethren do likewise. The best way, the brotherly way, the way of Freemasonry is by kindly caution, the friendly word of admonition, the hand stretched out to assist and save the worthy falling brother.

Only when these fail - and never then until after thinking first of the Order, next of the lodge and last of self - should we go to the court of last resort, prefer charges, have a trial and do ourselves the injury which comes always from the knife of publicity in the body of our Ancient Craft.

Freemasonry - so we truly believe - is one of God’s bright tools for shaping of the rough ashlars which we are.

“LET US STRIVE TO KEEP IT BRIGHT!”

From: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VIII April, 1930 No.4 [Author unknown]

The Rite of Discalceation

"A candidate for initiation into a Masonic Lodge often finds odd those requirements which he must fulfill in order to do as have all good brothers and fellows who have gone this way before. Indeed, that preparation often remains a puzzle to him, since the ritualistic explanation is only partial. Not only does the newly made brother, bewildered by the new world into which he is thrust, investigate further to ascertain if all was told him which might have been; to learn a still further meaning to the ceremony and symbol which the passage in Ruth purports to make plain.


Those who read the fourth chapter of the immortal Book of Ruth will note especially the seventh and eight verses:

“Now this was the manner in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was a testimony in Israel.

“Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for Thee. So he drew off his shoe.”

“Redeeming” here means the taking back or recovery of land or property pledged for a debt; “changing” refers to the transfer of ownership. As both were then, as now, matters of importance, it is evident that the plucking off of the shoe, as a pledge of honor and fair dealing, was of equal importance, comparable with our swearing to our signatures to documents before a Notary Public, Note that “to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe. . .” not his “shoes.”

Taking off one and handing it to him with whom a covenant was made was a symbol of sincerity. Removing “both” shoes signified quite another thought.

These are separate and distinct symbols - in Freemasonry both are used - and it is wise to distinguish between the two, not to miss the beautiful implications of entering that place which is holy with both feet bare.

The Rite of Discalceation - from the Latin, “discalceatus,” meaning “unshod” - is worldwide. Freemasonry’s ritual of the entered Apprentice Degree refers to the passage in Ruth. In the Master’s Degree the reference is not verbal but an act which differs in meaning from that in the first degree.

In all probability Freemasonry takes this symbol from other sources than the Old Testament; obviously any system of teaching which is the result of the coming together of a thousand faiths, philosophies, rites, religions, guilds and associations, must have received so common a symbol from more than one source, although the Great Light does contain it. In the Old Testament are several passages which make removal of shoes quite a different gesture than that described in the passage from Ruth.

Exodus (III:5) states: “Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

In Joshua (V:15) we find: “And the Captain of the Lord’s Host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.”

Ecclesiastes (V:1) reads: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.”

The association of the removal of footwear when treading holy ground is a fairly obvious symbol. Sandals or other footgear were used to protect, not the ground, but the feet, both from injury and from filth. To wear such protections in holy places, by inference stated that the holy place was harmful to feet, or was dirty! It is similar in thought-content to the world wide custom of men removing the hat in church. The Knight removed his helmet in the presence of those he did not fear. He was safe in church; the removal of his protection against a blow was his acknowledgment that in a sanctuary not even an enemy would assail him.

We know the custom was wide spread, not confined to Israel; from many sources. Thus, Pythagoras instructed his disciples to “offer sacrifices with thy shoes off.” In all the eastern religious edifices the worshipper removes his shoes in order not to defile the temple with that which touches the profane earth. Maimonides, expounder of ancient Jewish law, says: “It was not lawful for a man to come into the mountain of God’s home with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff, or in his working garments, or with dust on his feet.”

The custom was found in Ethiopia, ancient Peru, the England of the Druids. Adam Clark thought the custom so general in the nations of antiquity that he quoted it as one of the thirteen proofs that the whole human race descended from one family. The Rite of Discalceation becomes the more beautiful as we progress through the degrees. At first it is only a voluntary testimony of sincere and truthful intentions; later it is an act of humility, signifying that he who removes his shoes knows that he enters that which must not be defiled by anything unworthy.

The word “humility” must be strictly construed that it be not confused with its derivative, “humiliation.” He who is “humble” but acknowledges supremacy in another, or the greatness of a power or principle; he who is “humiliated” is made to feel unworthy, not in reverence to that which is greater than he, but for the personal aggrandizement of the humiliator. A man removes his hat upon entering a home, in the presence of women, or in a church, not as a symbol of humility, but of reverence. The worshipper removes his shoes on entering a holy place for the same reason. He who walks “neither barefoot nor shod” offers mute testimony - even though, as yet uninstructed, he knows it not - that he is sincere. Who walks with both feet bare, signifies that he treads upon that which is hallowed.

Freemasonry does not stress in words this meaning of the Rite of Discalceation for very good reasons; throughout our system the explanation of our rites concerns always the simplest aspect. The fathers of our ritual were far too wise in the ways of the hearts of men to teach the abstruse first, and go then to the east. Rather did they begin with that which is elementary; then, very often , our ritual leaves the initiate to search further for himself, if he will. It is Freemasonry’s recognition that man values most that for which he has to labor.

But it is the less stressed meaning of the Rite which is of the greater importance. He is the better Freemason and the happier who digs for himself in the “rubbish of the Temple” to uncover that which is gloriously buried there.

Is proof necessary, that behind the tiled door of any open Lodge is a holy place? Here it is!

Freemasons teach that the Great Light is “dedicated to God, as the inestimable gift of God to men for the rule and guide of his faith . . .”

In the Great Light we read (Matthew XVIII:20) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Every Masonic Lodge is opened and closed in the name of God. According to his promise, therefore, no Lodge meets without the Great Architect being “in the midst of them.”

Consequently, the Lodge is Holy Ground.

This being so, it may well be asked why all Freemasons do to remove their shoes when entering Lodge?

“Once a Freemason, always a Freemason.” No Lodge member is required to repeat the obligations he once assumed, on every occasion at which he is present when a degree is being conferred. But it is well understood that the obligation is binding upon him for life. Every time he follows the old, old words in his mind, he re-obligates himself. Whenever he sees a candidate initiated, consciously or unconsciously he himself is again initiated. Having once been taught that a candidate is prepared in a certain way because of a certain meaning in that preparation, it is unnecessary to inconvenience him every time he comes to Lodge. If he is again so prepared, in his heart, he fulfills all the outward requirements. While the promise and the fulfillment “makes” the Lodge holy ground, it is “kept” holy only if those who form it and conduct it, so revere it. Stone Masons erect a Temple to God, ministers dedicate it and worshippers consecrate it; but a desecrating hand, as in war, may unroof it, use it as stables, or make of it a shambles. Mackey beautifully put the thought of the consecration holiness of a lodge:

“The Rite of Discalceation is a symbol of reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, that the spot which is about to be approached in this humble and reverential manner is consecrated to some holy purpose. Of all the degrees of Freemasonry, the third degree is the most important and sublime. The solemn lessons which it teaches, the sacred scene which it represents, and the impressive ceremonies with which it is conducted, are all calculated to inspire the mind with feelings of awe and reverence. Into the holy of holies of the Temple, when the Ark of the Covenant had been deposited in its appropriate place, and the Shekinah was hovering over it, the high priest alone, and on only one day in the whole year, was permitted, after the most careful purification, to enter with bare feet and to pronounce, with fearful veneration, the tetragammaton or omnific word.

“And into the Master Mason’s Lodge - this holy of holies of the Masonic Temple, where the solemn truths of death and immortality are inculcated - the aspirant on entering should purify his heart from every contamination, and remember, with a due sense of their symbolic application, those words that once broke upon the astonished ears of the old patriarch: ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.’” Holiness is not a thing, but an idea. So far as we know, the beasts of the field reverence no place as holy, for they have no consciousness of God. The sacred words of the Great Light are holy to us for what they teach and mean; because of whence they came. The paper, the leather and the ink which form a Bible are no more holy than the same materials formed into a telephone directory. The stones of which a church is built, the wood from which the pulpit is carved, the metal from which the cross is made are only the familiar stones, trees and minerals used by men for a thousand purposes. The cotton and the dye which form the Star and Stripes are but the fruit of plants.

Book, Temple and Flag are holy to us because of our reverence for the ideas for which they stand. They are holy to us because we make them holy, keep them holy, think of them as holy and cherish them as holy. So must it be with our Lodges. What is a Lodge? A certain number of brethren; a charter or warrant; the Three Great Lights - and an underlying idea, a faith, a belief, a Mystic Tie never seen of men but the stronger for its intangibility. To many the Lodge is the room in the Temple in which brethren meet; walls of stone or wood or plaster; floor of carpet or linoleum; some seats; an Altar . . .and yet, by common consent of all who believe in the power of the spirit which consecrates when the Lodge is formed, holy because of what it means.

The worshipper in eastern lands removes his shoes before he enters his temple as a symbol that he knows his flesh needs no protection from that which it will there touch; a symbol that he brings not within its precincts any filth which might defile it. The Master Mason, symbolically removing his shoes before entering his Lodge, knows that here he will find that holiness which is in the promise of God unto David, the holiness of the Book on the Altar, the very presence of the Great Architect, through whom the Lodge receives the greatest of His Blessing to man - friendship. But also does he symbolically remove his shoes that he may carry nothing “of mineral or metallic nature” (earth is mineral) into the Lodge to defile it, Men can - and some do - defile their Lodges. He who brings within evil or contentious thoughts of his brethren, defiles it. In more than one Jurisdiction in the world the brethren are asked at every meeting if there be any not at peace with their brethren. If such there are, they are required to retire and return not, until their differences are reconciled, literally carrying out the instructions:

“Therefore if thou brings thy gift to the Altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

“Leave there thy gift before the Altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come offer thy gift.: (Matthew V:23-24)

The Mason who comes to Lodge to get something from it, rather than to give something to it, may defile it by that selfish attitude. Men get from Freemasonry by giving.

He who brings pride of place and power to his Lodge, and serves only for the empty honor of title or jewel, defiles that which is holy as surely as did those money changers whom the Great Teacher drove from the Temple.

He who assumes to work in his Lodge, but labors carelessly, in a slovenly manner, to the desecration of ceremonies ancient when his ancestors were not yet born, defiles his Lodge by his tacit assumptions that his convenience is of greater importance than the teachings of Freemasonry.

Alas, that so many symbolically wear shoes in the holy place, by the simple process of thinking little of it, attending it seldom, regarding it but as a club or association of men who meet together to pass the time away! Such brethren may indeed have been entered, passed and raised; but, uninspired, uninterested and unhelped, they leave, seldom or never to return. To such as these the Lodge cannot be holy; therefore charitable thought would argue that their failures cannot defile.

Luckily for us all, the majority of Freemasons who are constant attendants at Lodge - the brethren who do the work, carry the load, attend to the charity, form the committees, put on the degrees, go on foot and out of their way to help, aid and assist - the brethren, in other words, who work for and are content with a Master’s Wages - these “do” keep the Lodge holy; these “do” think of the Three Great Lights upon the Altar as the Sanctum Sanctorum; these “do,” indeed, put off their shoes from off their feet, in humble and thankful knowledge that the place in which they stand in holy ground."

Source: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI   April, 1933   No.4  Author unknown

The Square

The Baal's Bridge Square

The Holy Bible* lies open upon the Altar of Masonry, and upon the Bible lie the Square and Compasses. They are the three Great Lights of the Lodge, at once its Divine warrant and its chief working tools. They are symbols of Revelation, Righteousness and Redemption, Teaching us that by walking in the light of Truth, and obeying the Law of Right, the Divine in man wins victory over the earthly. How to live is the one important matter, and he will seek far without finding a wiser way than that shown us by the Great Lights of the Lodge. 

The Square and Compasses are the oldest, the simplest and the most universal symbols of Masonry. All the world over, whether as a sign on a building, or a badge worn by a Brother, even the profane know them to be emblems of our ancient Craft. Some years ago, when a business firm tried to adopt the Square and Compasses as a Trade- Mark, the Patent Office refused permission, on the ground, as the decision said, that "There can be no doubt that this device, so commonly worn and employed by Masons, universally recognized as existing; whether comprehended by all or not, is not material to this issue." They belong to us, alike by the associations of history and the tongue of common report. Nearly everywhere in our Ritual, as in the public mind, the Square and Compasses are seen together. If not interlocked, they are seldom far apart, and the one suggests the other. And that is as it should be, because the things they symbolize are interwoven. In the old days when the earth was thought to be flat and square, the Square was an emblem of the earth, and later, of the earthly element in man. As the sky is an arc or a circle, the implement which describes a Circle became the symbol of the heavenly, or sky spirit in man. Thus the tools of the builder became the emblems of the thoughts of the thinker; and nothing in Masonry is more impressive than the slow elevation of the compasses above the Square in the progress of the Degrees. The whole meaning and task of life is there, for such as have eyes to see.

Let us separate the Square from the Compasses and study it alone, the better to see its further meaning and use. There is no need to say that the Square we have in mind is not a Cube, which has four equal sides and angles, deemed by the Greeks a figure of perfection. Nor is it a the square of the carpenter, one leg of which is longer than the other, with inches marked for measuring. It is a small, plain Square, unmarked and with legs of equal length, a simple try-square used for testing the accuracy of angles, and the precision with which stones are cut.

Since the try-square was used to prove that angles were right, it naturally became an emblem of accuracy, integrity and rightness. As stones are cut it fit into a building, so our acts and thoughts are built together into a structure of Character, badly or firmly, and must be tested by a moral standard of which the simple try- square is a symbol. So, among Speculative Masons, the tiny try-square has always been a symbol of morality, of the basic rightness which must be the test of every act and the foundation of character and society.

From the beginning of the revival in 1717 this was made plain in the teaching of Masonry, by the fact that the Holy Bible was placed upon the Altar, along with the Square and Compasses. In one of the earliest catechisms of the Craft, dated 1725, the question is asked: "How many make a Lodge?" The answer is specific and unmistakable: "God and the Square, with five or seven right and perfect Masons." God and the Square, Religion and Morality, must be present in every Lodge as its ruling Lights, or it fails of being a just and truly Constituted Lodge. In all lands, in all rites where Masonry is true to itself, the Square is a symbol of righteousness, and is applied in the light of faith in God. 

God and the Square - it is necessary to keep the two together in our day, because the tendency of the times is to separate them. The idea in vogue today is that morality is enough, and that faith in God - if there be a God - may or may not be important. Some very able men of the Craft insist that we make the teaching of Masonry too religious. Whereas, as all history shows, if faith in God grows dim morality becomes a mere custom, if not a cobweb, to be thrown off lightly. It is not rooted in reality, and so lacks authority and sanction. Such an idea, such a spirit - so wide-spread in our time, and finding so many able and plausible advocates - strikes at the foundation, not only of Masonry, but of all ordered and advancing social life. Once men come to think that morality is a human invention, and not a part of the order of the world, and the moral law will lose both its meaning and its power. Far wiser was the old book entitled "All in All and the Same Forever," by John Davies, and dated 1607, though written by a non-Mason, when it read reality and nature of God in this manner: "Yet I this form of formless deity drew by the Square and Compasses of our Creed."

For, inevitable, a society without standards will be a society without stability, and it will one day go down. Not only nations, but whole civilizations have perished in the past, for lack of righteousness. History speaks plainly in this matter, and we dare not disregard it. Hence the importance attached to the Square of Virtue, and the reason why Masons call it the great symbol of their Craft. It is a symbol of that moral law upon which human life must rest if it is to stand. A man may build a house in any way he likes, but if he expects it to stand and be his home, he must adjust his structure to the laws and forces that rule in the material realm. Just so, unless we live in obedience to the moral laws which God has written in the order of things, our lives will fall and end in a wreck. When a young man forgets the simple Law of the Square, it does not need a prophet to foresee what the result will be. It is a problem in geometry.

Such has been the meaning of the Square as far back as we can go. Long before our era we find the Square teaching the same lesson which it teaches us today. In one of the old books of China, called :The Great Learning," which has been dated in the fifth century before Christ, we read that a man should not do unto others what he would not have them do unto him; and the writers adds, "This is called the principle of acting on the Square." There it is, recorded long, long ago. The greatest philosopher has found nothing more profound, and the oldest man in his ripe wisdom has learned nothing more true. Even Jesus only altered it from the negative to the positive form in his "Golden Rule." So, everywhere, in our Craft and outside, the Square has taught its simple truth which does not grow old. The Deputy Provincial Grand Master of North and East Yorkshire recovered a very curious relic, in the form of an old brass Square found under the foundation of an ancient bridge near Limerick in 1830. On it was inscribed the date, 1517, and the following words: "I will Strive to Live with Love and Care Upon the Level, by the Square."

How simple and beautiful it is, revealing the oldest wisdom man has learned and the very genius of our Craft. In fact and truth, the Square Rules the Mason as well as the Lodge in which he labours. As soon as he enters a Lodge, the candidate walks the square steps around the Square pavement of a rectangular Lodge. All during the ceremony his attitude keeps him in mind of the same symbol, as if to fashion his life after its form. When he is brought to light, he beholds the Square upon the Altar, and at the same time sees that it is worn by the Master of the Lodge, as the emblem of his office. 

In the North-East Corner he is shown the perfect Ashlar, and told that it is the type of a finished Mason, who must be Square-man in thought and conduct, in word and act. With every art of emphasis the Ritual writes this lesson in our hearts, and if we forget this first truth the Lost Word will remain forever lost.

For Masonry is not simply a Ritual; it is a way of living. It offers us a plan, a method, a faith by which we may build our days and years into a character so strong and true that nothing, not even death, can destroy it. Each of us has in his own heart a little try-square called Conscience, by which to test each thought and deed and word, whether it be true or false. By as much as a man honestly applies that test in his own heart, and in his relations with his fellows, by so much will his life be happy, stable, and true. Long ago the question was asked and answered: "Lord, who shall abide in thy Tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." It is the first obligation of a Mason to be on the Square, in all his duties and dealings with his fellow men, and if he fails there he cannot win anywhere. Let one of our poets sum it all up:

It matters not whate'er your lot Or what your task may be, One duty there remains for you One duty stands for me. Be you a doctor skilled and wise, Or do your work for wage, A laborer upon the street, An artist on the stage; Our glory still awaits for you, One honor that is fair, To have men say as you pass by: "That fellow's on the Square." Ah, here's a phrase that stands for much 'Tis good old English too, It means that men have confidence In everything you do, It means that what you have you've earned, And that you've done your best, And when you go to sleep at night Untroubled you may rest. It means that conscience is your guide, And honor is your care; There is no greater praise than this: "That fellow's on the Square." And when I die I would not wish A lengthy epitaph; I do not wish a headstone large, Carved with fulsome chaff, Pick out no single deed of mine, If such a deed there be, To 'grave upon my monument, For those who come to see, Just this one phrase of all I choose, To show my life was fair: Here sleepeth now a fellow who Was always on the Square."

Short Talk Bulletin - Vol.II - April, 1924 No.4

Author Unknown

*Note that this paper was written for a Christian audience in the United States; rather than "Holy Bible", a more appropriate term would be "Volume of Sacred Law". Reprinted from "The Square" The Short Talk Bulletin, The Masonic Service Association of the United States, vol. 2, no. 4. April 1924. Transcribed with typographic corrections.

Five Points of Fellowship

The Five Points of Fellowship, as every Master Masons knows, contain the essence of the doctrine of brotherhood. But many a new brother asks, pertinently, “why are they called “Points?”

In the Old Constitutions, as explained in the Halliwell or Regius manuscript, are fifteen regulations, called “points.” The old verse runs:

“Fifteen artyculus there they soughton And fifteen poyntys there they wrogton.”

Translated into easy English, this reads:

“Fifteen articles there they sought And fifteen points there they wrought.”

Phillips “New World of Words,” published in 1706, defines “point” as “a head, or chief matter.” Moreover, an operative Masons “points” the seams of as wall by filling in the chinks left in laying bricks or stone, thus completing the structure.

In older days of the Speculative Art there were “twelve original points” as we learn from the old English lectures, done away with by the United Grand Lodge of England at the time of the reconciliation of 1813. They were introduced by the following passage:

“There are in Freemasonry twelve original points, which form the basis of the system and comprehend the whole ceremony of initiation. Without the existence of these points, no man ever was, or can be, legally and essentially received into the Order. Every person who is made a Mason must go through these twelve forms and ceremonies, not only in the first degree, but in every subsequent one.”

The twelve points were: Opening, Preparation, Report, Entrance, Prayer, Circumambulation , Advancing. Obligation, Investure, Northeast Corner and Closing; and each was symbolized by one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel for ingenious reasons not necessary to set forth here.

The twelve original points were never introduced into the United States, and are now no longer used in England, although the ceremonies which they typify, of course, are integral parts of all Masonic rituals.

Our Five Points of Fellowship are not allied to these, except as they are reflected in the word “points.” We also find this relationship in the Perfect Points of our Entrance, once called Principal Points. Dr. Oliver, famous, learned and not always accurate Masonic student and writer (1782-1867) sums up the Five Points in his “Landmarks,” as follows:

“Assisting a brother in his distress, supporting him in his virtuous undertakings, praying for his welfare, keeping inviolate his secrets and vindicating his reputation as well in his absence as in his presence.”

by which it will be seen that in Oliver’s day the Five Points were not exactly as they are with us now.

Strange though it seems, a change was made in the symbolism of the Five Points as recently as 1842, at the Baltimore Masonic Convention. Prior to that time, according to Cole, the Five Points were symbolized by hand, foot, knee, breast and back. After 1842, the hand was omitted, and the mouth and ear tacked on as the fifth. Mackey believed that:

“The omission of the first and the insertion of the last are innovations and the enumeration given by Cole is the old and genuine one which was originally taught in England by Preston and in his country by Webb.”

Some curiosities of ritual changes, though interesting, are more for the antiquarian than the average lodge member. Most of us are more concerned with a practical explanation of the Five Points as they have been taught for nearly a hundred years.

For they have a practical explanation, which goes much more deeply into fraternal and brotherly relations than the ritual indicates. A man goes on foot a short distance by preference; for a longer journey he boards a street car, rides in an automobile, engages passage on a railroad or courses through the air in a plane. Service to our brethren on foot does not imply any special virtue in that means of transportation. The word expresses the willingness of him who would serve our own pleasure and refuse to travel merely because the means is not to our liking would hardly be Masonic.

We assist our brethren when we can; also we serve them.

The two terms are not interchangeable; we can not assist a brother with out serving, but we may serve him without assisting him. For a wholly negative action may be a service; suppose we have a just claim against him and, because of our Fraternal relations, we postpone pressing it. That is true service, but not active assistance, such as we might give if we gave or loaned him money to satisfy some other’s claim.

How far should we go “on foot” to render service?

Nothing is said in the ritual, but the cabletow is otherwise used as a measure of length. That same Baltimore Masonic Convention defined a cabletow’s length as “the scope of a brothers reasonable ability.” Across town may be too far for one, and across a continent not too far for another. In better words, our own conception of brotherhood must say how far we travel to help our brother.

Mackey expressed thus:

“Indolence should not cause our footsteps to halt, or wrath to turn them aside; but with eager alacrity and swiftness of foot, we should press forward in the exercise of charity and kindness to a distressed fellow creature.”

The petition at the Altar of the Great Architect of the Universe before engaging in any great and important undertaking is sound Masonic doctrine. To name the welfare of our brother in our petitions is good - but not for the reasons which the good Dr. Mackey set forth; the great Masonic student’s pen slipped here, even as Jove has been known to nod! He Said:

“In our devotions to almighty God we should remember a brother’s welfare as our own, for the prayers of a fervent and sincere heart will find no less favor in the sight of heaven because the petition for self intermingles with aspirations of benevolence for a friend.” Apparently we should pray for our friends because God will look with favor on an unselfish action on our part - which is un Masonic and selfish! Cole, writing years before Mackey (1817) said of his Third, our Second Point:

“When I offer up my ejaculations to Almighty God, a brother’s welfare I will remember as my own, for as the voices of babes and sucklings ascend to the Throne of Grace, so most assuredly will the breathings of a fervent heart arise to the mansions of bliss, as out prayers are certainly required of each other.”

This seems to be interpretable as meaning that we should pray for our brethren because we love them, and because, knowing our own need of their prayers, we realize their need of ours.

Anciently, it was written “Laborare est orare,” - to labor is to pray. If indeed prayer is labor, then to pray for our brethren we may labor for our brethren, which at once clarifies the Second Point and makes it a practical, everyday, do-it-now admonition. To work for our brother’s welfare is in the most brotherly manner to petition the Most High for him.

We often associate with the idea of a “secret” something less than proper; “He has a secret in his life,” “He is secretive.” “He says one thing but in his secret heart he thinks another” are all expressions which seem to connote some degree of guilt with what is secret. We keep our brother’s secrets, guilty or innocent, but let us not assume that every secret is of a guilty variety. He may have a secret ambition, a secret joy, a secret hope - if he confides these to us, is our teaching merely to refuse to tell them, or to keep them in the fine old sense of that word - to hold, to guard. to preserve. The Keeper of the Door stands watch and ward, not to keep it from others, but to see that none use it improperly. Thus we are to keep the secret joys and ambitions of our brethren, close in our hearts, until he wants them known, but also by sympathy and understanding, helping him to maintain them.

Even without this broad interpretation, the keeping of a brother’s confidence has more to it than mere silence. If he confides to us a guilty secret, since to betray him may not only make known that which he wishes hidden, but places him in danger. To betray a trust is never the act of a brother. In ordinary life an unsought trust does not carry with it responsibility to preserve it; in Freemasonry it does! No matter how we wish we did not share the secret, if it has been given us by a brother, we can not suffer our tongues to betray him, no matter what it costs us to remain silent, unless we forget alike our obligation and the Third Point.

“Do you stumble and fall, my brother? My hand is stretched out to prevent it. Do you need aid? My hand is yours - use it. It is your hand, for the time being. My strength is united to yours. You are not alone in your struggle - I stand with you on the Fourth of the Five Points, and as your need may be, so “Deo volente,” will be my strength for you.”

So must we speak when the need comes. It makes no difference in what way our brother stumbles; it may be mentally; it may be spiritually; it may be materially; it may be morally. No exceptions are noted in our teachings. We are not told to stretch forth the hand in aid “If,” and “perhaps,” and “but!” Not for us to judge, to condemn, to admonish . . . for us only to put forth our strength unto our falling brother at his need, without question and without stint.

For such is the Kingdom of Brotherhood.

More sins are committed in the name of the Fifth of the Five Points than in the name of liberty! Too often we offer counsel when it is not advice but help that is needed. Too often we admonish of motes within our brother’s eye when our own vision is blinded by beams. What said the Lord? (Amos VII, in the Fellowcraft’s Degree.)

“Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.”

“In the midst of my people Israel” - not in the far away land; not across the river; not up on the mountain top, but in the midst of them, an intimate personal individual plumb line!

So are we to judge our brethren; not by the plumb, the square or the level that we are each taught to carry in our hearts, but by his plumb, his square, his level.

If he build true by his own tools, we have no right to judge him by ours. The friendly reminders we must whisper to him are of incorrect building by his own plumb line. He may differ from us in opinion; he may be Republican where we are Democrat, Methodist where we are Baptist; Wet where we are Dry; Protectionist where we are Free trade; League of Nations proponent where we are “biter enders” - we must not judge him by the plumb line of our own beliefs.

Only when we see him building untrue to his own tools have we the right to remind him of his faults. When we see a brave man shrinking, a virtuous man abandoning himself to vice, a good man acting as a criminal - then is his building faulty judged by his own plumb line and we may heed the Fifth of the Five Points and counsel and advise him to swing back, true to his own working tools. And finally, we do well to remember Mackey’s interpretation of the Fifth Point:

“. . . we should never revile a brother’s character behind his back but rather, when attacked by others, support and defend it.” “Speak no ill of the dead, since they can not defend themselves” might well have been written of the absent. In the Masonic sense no brother is absent if his brother is present, since then he has always a champion and defender, standing upon the Fifth Point as upon a rock.

So considered - and this little paper is but a slender outline of how much and how far the Five Points extend - these teachings of Masonry, concerned wholly with the relations of brother to brother, become a broad and beautiful band of blue - the blue of the Blue Lodge - the True Blue of Brotherhood.

- Source: Short Talk Bulletin - May 1931
Masonic Service Association of North America

Point Within a Circle

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IX August, 1931 No.8

by: Unknown

“There is in every regular and well governed Lodge, a certain point within a circle, embordered by two parallel perpendicular lines. . .

. “

Familiar to every Mason, this ancient symbol is too often considered merely as one of many, instead of what it really is, among the most illuminating of the entered Apprentice’s Degree. It is particularly important not only for its antiquity, the many meanings which have been and may be read from it by the student, but because of the bond it makes between the old Operative Craft and the modern Speculative Masonry we know.

No man may say when, where or how the symbol began. From the earliest dawn of history a simple closed figure has been man’s symbol for deity - the circle for some peoples, the triangle for others, and a circle or a triangle with a central point, for still others. The closed figure, of course, represents the conception of Him Who has neither beginning or ending; the triangle adds to this the reading of a triune nature. It is to be noted that the Lesser Lights form a triangle placed in our Lodges in that orientation which expresses Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. In some Jurisdictions a Lodge closes with the brethren forming a circle about the Altar, which thus becomes the point, or focus of the Supreme Blessing upon the brethren.

Nor must we consider that a reading which is wholly beyond the monitorial explanation of the point within a circle is beyond Masonic conception. A symbol may have many meanings, all of them right, so long as they are not self-contradictory. As the point within a circle has had so many different meanings to so many different people, it is only to be expected that it have meanings for many Masons.

We find it connected with sun worship, the most ancient of religions; ruins of ancient temples devoted both to sun and fire worship are circular in form, with a central altar, or “point” which was the Holy of Holies. The symbol is found in India, in which land of mystery and mysticism its antiquity is beyond calculation. Of its presence in many of the religions of the East, Wilford says (Asiatic Researches):

“It was believed in India that at the general deluge everything was involved in the common destruction except the male and female principles or organs of generation, which were destined to produce a new race and to repeople the earth when the waters had subsided from its surface. The female principle, symbolized by the moon, assumed the form of a lunette, or crescent, while the male principle, symbolized by the sun, assumed the form of the lingam (or phallus) and placed himself erect in the center of the lunette, like the mast of a ship. The two principles in this united form floated on the surface of the waters during the period of their prevalence on the earth, and thus became the progenitors of a new race of men.” This is the more curious and interesting when a second ancient meaning of the symbol is considered - that the point represents the sun and the circle the universe. Indeed, this meaning is both modern and ancient, for a dot in a small circle is the astronomical symbol for the sun, and the derivation of this astronomical symbol marks its Masonic connection. The Indian interpretation makes the point the male principle, the circle the female; the point became the sun and the circle the solar system which ancient peoples thought was the universe because the sun is vivifying, the life-giving principle, for all the lives.

The two parallel lines, which modern Masonry states represents the two Holy Sts. John, are as ancient as the rest of the symbol, and originally had nothing to do with the “two eminent Christian Patrons of Masonry.” It is a pretty conception, but of course utterly without foundation. The Holy Sts. John lived and taught many hundreds of years before any Masonry existed which can truly be called by that name. If this is distasteful to those good brethren who like to believe that King Solomon was Grand Master of a Grand Lodge, devised the system and perhaps wrote the ritual, one must refute them with their own chronology, for both the Holy Sts. John lived long “after” the wise King wrought his “famous fabric.” The two perpendicular parallel lines are sometimes thought to have been added to the symbol of the point within a circle as a sort of diagram or typification of a Lodge at its most solemn moment, the point being the brother at the Altar, the circle the Holy of Holies, and the two lines the brethren waiting to help bring the initiate to light.

But it is obviously a mere play of fancy; the two lines against the circle with the point date back to an era before Solomon. On early Egyptian monuments may be found the Alpha and Omega, or symbol of God, in the center of a circle embordered by two upright serpents, representing the Power and the Wisdom of the Creator. Mackey reads into the symbol an analogy to the Lodge by observing that as the Master and Wardens represent the sun in three positions in the Lodge, and as the Lodge is a symbol of the world (or universe) the circle can be considered as representing the Lodge, the point the sun at meridian, and the two lines, the Wardens or sun at rising and at setting.

This also seems to many students to be a mere coincidental reading. That derivation of the symbol which best satisfied the mind as to logic and appropriateness, students found in the operative craft. Here is more to encourage than in all the researches into ancient religions and the symbolism of men long forgotten. Fully to understand just how the point within a circle came into Speculative Masonry by way of Operative Craftsmanship, it is necessary to have some mental picture of the times in which the Craftsmen of the early middle ages lived and wrought. The vast majority of them had no education, as we understand the word. They could neither read nor write - unimportant matters to most, first because there were no books to read, second because there was nothing which they needed to write! Skilled craftsmen they were, through long apprenticeship and careful teaching in the art of cutting and setting stone, but except for manual skill and cunning artifice founded on generations of experience, they were without learning.

This was not true of the leaders - or, as we would call them - the Masters. The great Cathedrals of Europe were not planned and overseen by ignorance. There, indeed, knowledge was power, as it is now, and the architects, the overseer, the practical builders, those who laid out the designs and planned the cutting and the placing of the stones - these were learned in all that pertained to their craft. Doubtless many of them had a knowledge of practical and perhaps of theoretical mathematics.

Certain parts of this theoretical knowledge became diffused from the Master Builders through the several grades of superintendents, architects, overseer and foreman in charge of any section of the work. With hundreds if not thousands of men working on a great structure, some sort of organization must have been as essential then as now. And equally essential would be the overseeing of the tools. Good work cannot be done with faulty instruments. A square and upright building cannot be erected with a faulty square, level or plumb!

The tools used by the cathedral builders must have been very much what ours are today; they had gavel, mallet, setting maul and hammer; they had chisel and trowel as we have. And of course, they had plumb, square, level and twenty-four inch gauge to “measure and lay out their work.”

The square, the level and the plumb were made of wood - wood, cord, and weight for the plumb and level; wood alone for the square. Wood wears when used against stone. Wood warps when exposed to water or damp air. The metal used to fasten the two arms of the square together would rust and perhaps bend or break. Naturally, the squares would not indefinitely stay square. Squares had constantly to be checked for the right-angledness. Some standard had to be adopted by which a square could be compared, so that, when Operative Masons’ squares were tried by it they would not “materially err.” The importance of the perfect right angle in the square by which stones were shaped can hardly be over estimated. Operative Masonry in the Cathedral building days was largely a matter of cut and try, of individual workmen, or careful craftsmanship. Quality production, micrometer measurement, interchangeabilty of parts were words which had not yet been coined; ideas for which they stand had not even been invented. All the more necessary, then, that the foundation on which all the work was done should be as perfect as the Masters knew how to make it. Cathedral builders erected their temples for all time - how well they built, a hundred glorious structures in the Old World testify. They built well because they knew how to check and try their squares!

Today any school boy knows the simple “secret of the square” which was then the closely guarded wisdom of the Masters alone; toady any school boy can explain the steam engine which was a wonder two hundred years ago, and make and use a wireless which was a miracle scarce ten years gone by. Let us not wonder that our ancient Operative brethren thought their secret of a square so valuable; let us rather wonder that in time in which the vast majority of men were ignorant of mathematics, so many must have known and appreciated this simple, this marvelous, geometrical secret. Lay out a circle - any size - on a piece of paper. With a straight edge draw a line across through its center. Put a dot on the circle, anywhere. Connect that dot with the line at both points where it crosses the circle. Results - a perfect right triangle.

Draw the circle of whatever size you will; place a dot on the circumference where you will, it makes no difference. So be it. So be it the lines from the dot meet the horizontal line crossing the circle through its center and they will form a right angle. This was the Operative Mason’s secret - knowing how “to try his square.” It was by this means that he tested the working tools of the Fellows of the Craft; he did so often enough, and it was impossible either for their tools or their work “to materially err.” From this, also, comes the ritual used in the lodges of our English brethren, where they “open on the center.” Alas, we have dropped the quaint old words they use, and American Lodges know the “center” only as the point within a circle. The original line across the center has been shifted to the side and became the “two perpendicular parallel lines” of Egypt and India and our admonitions are no longer what they must have once been; . . . “while a mason circumscribes his “square” within these points, it is impossible that “it” should materially err.”

Today we only have our Speculative meaning; we circumscribe our desires and our passions within the circle and the lines touching on the Holy Scriptures. For Speculative Masons who use squares only in the symbolic sense such an admonition is of far greater use than would be the secret of the square as was known to our ancient brethren.

But - how much greater becomes the meaning of the symbol when we see it as a direct descent from an Operative practice! Our ancient brethren used the point within a circle as a test for the rectitude of the tools by which they squared their work and built their temporal buildings. In the Speculative sense, we used it as a test for the rectitude of our intentions and our conduct, by which we square our actions with the square of virtue. They erected Cathedrals - we build the “House Not Made With Hands.” Their point within a circle was Operative - our is Speculative! But through the two - point in a circle on the ground by which an Operative Master secretly tested the square of his fellows - point within a circle as a symbol by which each of us may test, secretly, the square of his virtue by which he erects an Inner Temple to the Most High - both are Masonic, both are beautiful. The one we know is far more lovely that it is a direct descendant of an Operative practice the use of which produced the good work, true work, square work of the Master Masons of the days that come not back. Pass it not lightly. Regard it with the reverence it deserves, for surely it is one of the greatest teachings of Masonry, concealed within a symbol which is plain for any man to read, so be it he has Masonry in his heart.

Masonic Ritual: In Due Form

Below is an excerpt from an article "Due Form" by an unknown Masonic author, as published in the classic SHORT TALK BULLETIN series - Vol. VI February, 1928 No. 2. To read the full unabridged article, please click on the title, or here.


"Why does Masonry insist so strictly upon exactness in its Ritual? There is a profound reason, not to be forgotten or ignored. True, it is the Spirit, not the Letter, that giveth life; but the Letter does give a Body, without which the Spirit of Masonry would be a formless blur, losing much of its meaning, if not all of its beauty. Ceremony keeps things up; without form the spirit melts into thin air and is lost.

What is true of Masonry is equally true of religion , of manners and of art. The Poet Tennyson speaks of those, “whose faith hath center everywhere, nor cares to fix itself in form.” That is, they believe in everything in general and nothing in particular. Their faith is like the earth in the story of creation, as the Bible tells it, “without form and void;” a vague sentiment, as flimsy as a mist and as frail.

Manners, it has been said, are minor morals. That is, they are forms of a social ritual in which the spirit of courtesy and amenity finds expression. So essential are they as a form of social fellowship, that, as Emerson said, if they were lost, some gentlemen would be obliged to re-invent such a code. The phrase, “It is not done,” has more than mere convention behind it. It bespeaks a standard, a sense of propriety, a fineness of feeling, a respect for the rights and feelings of others.

Some of our modern artists are trying to throw off the old classic forms of music, painting and poetry. The result is chaos, a formless riot of color and sound, in which a horse may be green and a song a mere mob of notes, without melody. Without lovely form the spirit of beauty fades and is lost. Ages of experience have wrought out noble forms of art and life, which we cannot defy or ignore without disaster.

The same is true of Masonry. Gentle, wise, mellow with age; its gracious spirit has fashioned a form, or body, or an art; if we call it so, in which its peculiar genius finds expression. Its old and lovely ritual, if rightly used, evokes the Spirit of Masonry, as each of us can testify. The mere opening of a Lodge creates a Masonic atmosphere in which the truths of Masonry seem more real and true. It weaves a spell about us, making fellowship gracious. It is a mystery; we love it, without caring to analyze it.

By the same token, if the rhythm of the ritual is bungled, or slurred, or dealt with hastily or without dignity; its beauty is marred and its spell broken. Just imagine the opening of Lodge, or any one of the Degrees, jazzed up, rushed through with, and how horrible it would be. The soul of Masonry would be sacrificed, and its spirit evaporated. For that reason we cannot take too much pains in giving the ritual such a rendering as befits its dignity, its solemnity and its haunting beauty.

No wonder Masonry is jealous of its ceremonies and symbols. It hesitates to make the slightest change, even when errors have crept into the ritual, lest something precious is lost. Indeed, it is always seeking “that which is lost,” not alone in its great Secret, but in all its symbols which enshrine a wisdom gray with age, often but dimly seen, and sorely needed in the hurry and medley of our giddy-paced age.

Mere formalism is always a danger. Even a lofty ritual may become a rigmarole, a thing of rut and rote. Sublime truths may be repeated like a parrot, as the creed in a church may be recited without thought or feeling, by force of habit. Still, such a habit is worth keeping, and often the uttering of great words stirs the heart with a sense of the cargoes of wonder which they hold, for such as have ears to hear.

No matter; our fear of formalism - its mockery and unreality - must not blind us to the necessity of noble, stately and lovely form in which to utter and embody the truths that make us men. For that reason every part of the ritual ought to have Due Form, nothing skimped or performed perfunctorily, in order that the wise, good and beautiful truth of Masonry may have full expression and give us its full blessing. Only so can we get from it what it has to give us for our good."

The Holy Bible and Masonry

From The Short Talk Bulletin, VOL. 2 March 1924 NO. 3


"Alas, there has been more dispute about the Bible than about any other book, making for schism, dividing men into sects. but Masonry knows a certain secret, almost too simple to be found out, whereby it avoids both intolerance and sectarianism. It is essentially religious, but it is not dogmatic. The fact that the Bible lies open upon the Altar means that man must have some Divine revelation - must seek for a light higher than human to guide and govern him. But it lays down no hard and fast dogma on the subject of revelation. It attempts no detailed interpretation of the Bible. The great Book lies open upon its Altar, and is open for all to read, open for each to interpret for himself. The tie by which or Craft is united is strong, but it allows the utmost liberty of faith and thought. It unites men, not upon a creed bristling with debated issues, but upon the broad, simple truth which underlies all creeds and over-arches all sects--faith in God, the wise Master Builder, for whom and with whom man must work."

To read full article, please click on title page to be redirected to link.