The Builder Magazine
August 1920 - Volume VI - Number 8
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS
PAUL REVERE
BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
THE THRILLING poem on Paul Revere's ride has made him an inspiring figure in the War of the Revolution, and his timely act is still fresh in the memory of every unhyphenated American boy. Any effort to add to his memorable ride would be like trying to paint the lily.
Paul Revere was born in Boston in 1735, of Huguenot descent, and he died there in 1818, his remains being laid away in the Granary Burying Ground.
Revere learned the trade of his father, that of a goldsmith, at which he became proficient, but he amplified this by taking up and perfecting the trade of a coppersmith and the art of engraving. At that time a man was as proud of his trade as of a college degree, and these vied with each other for supremacy. Revere had passed the point where the mechanic ended and the artist began.
He fashioned an urn of gold, not more than three inches in height, now in the possession of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in which is contained a lock of the hair of George Washington. When the writer saw Past Grand Master Charles T. Gallagher, in the Temple at Philadelphia, hold it aloft and call it a "precious urn containing a precious treasure," he was struck with its beauty, the priceless treasure it contained and the tense interest and silence of the two thousand Masons present. The gifted and eloquent Gallagher could have made anything interesting, but when he held that urn in his delicate white hand and pronounced the words the fame of Paul Revere was raised far above the drastic ride.
Revere served as Lieutenant of Artillery in the Colonial Army and was stationed at Fort Edwards, near Lake George. He was one of those engaged in the destruction of the Tea in the Boston Harbor, and he carried the information to New York and Philadelphia that they might be prepared.
When General Gage prepared an expedition to destroy the military stores of the colony at Concord, Warren, at 10 o'clock at night dispatched Willian Daws through Roxbury to Lexington, and Revere, by way of Charlestown, to give notice of the event. Revere got ahead of the orders of General Gage to prevent any American from passing, and so was able to give the alarm from house to house.
As an engraver Paul Revere had no peer in his day. He engraved a print emblematic of the repeal of the Stamp Act, which was very popular. He also engraved one called "the seventeen rescinders" which was equally popular. In 1770 he published an engraving called "The Boston Massacre."
He once refused to serve on a jury because the Parliament had made the judge independent of the jury. In all his acts Revere seemed to be independent and determined.
Paul Revere was Grand Master of Freemasons from December 12, 1794, until December 27, 1797. He was a de facto Mason, rarely missing a communication of his lodge. He was initiated in St. Andrews Lodge in 1760, and raised in 1761, serving as Warden in 1764 and Master in 1770.
He served the Grand Lodge as Junior Grand Warden, Senior Grand Warden and Grand Master.
His memorial is simple - a plinthe, a die and a cap. The lettering shows all that is necessary. The little monument is of a design and of a stone that wil defy the tooth of time.
WOMAN AND FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ENGLAND
Wise men tell us that there never has been a woman Freemason. Perhaps that is true. This question has been called to the attention of the able scholar and devoted Mason who contributes this article. Can Freemasonry enlarge its borders to include women or must they forever remain outside the pale? If they are to be made Masons in literal truth in what way can we reorganize the ritual so as to eliminate certain features which might prove embarassing to them? If they cannot be admitted into full membership in what way can the spirit and teachings of this ancient Fraternity be made available to them? Since Freemasonry began to be this has been a moot question; it is still. It will be for years to come. It is a theme of perrennial interest. For this reason we are very glad indeed to give to our readers the reasoned and mature judgments of a scholar who has every right to speak oik this interesting question.
INTRODUCTION
SECRET SOCIETIES have always held a fascination for both sexes, despite the fallacious belief that women cannot keep a secret. Women have, however, from time immemorial been rigidly excluded from the ranks of orthodox 'Freemasonry, although, as will be see in these pagesc the barriers have been broken down on more than one occasion. The first Book of Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England, published in 1723, expressly stipulated that no woman should be admitted as a member of a Masonic lodge.
The pages of history show that in past ages women had their own seeret societies. In some instances the mere man was excluded as rigorously as woman is excluded from modern Freemasonry. In others men were admitted on equal or almost equal terms with the sterner sex.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were introduced by Esmolpus in B.C. 1356, and were founded in honor of Ceres and Prosperine, and any one violating the oath taken on admission and revealing the secrets to the un-initiated was punished with death. The same punishment was meted out to uninitiated intruders at the ceremonies. Both sexes were eligible for initiation and there was no age limit.
Gibbon in his History of Rome records a female Order in the fourth century. It was customary for the Roman ladies annually to celebrate in the house, either of the Consol or Praetor, certain rites and ceremonies in honor of a goddess. In what the adoration consisted, as no man was ever permitted to be present or even to be made acquainted with the nature or tendency of the function, it is impossible to say. At the appointed time the vestals came, and, so cautious were they as to privacy, that the house was carefully searched, all male animals were turned out of doors and even statues and pictures of men were covered with thick opaque veils. The Romans punished with death any man found present at the Assembly. Pompeia, the wife of Caesar, schemed for her lover, Clodius, to be present at one of these gatherings, but he was detected and, Pompeia's share in the deception being discovered, she was divorced by Caesar as the consequence of her action.
With regard to the androgynous societies, L'Abbe Clavel in his History of Freemasonry and Similar Societies, Ancient and Modern, published in 1842, says that Freemasons "embraced these Societies with enthusiasm as a practical means of giving to their wives and daughters some share of the pleasures which they themselves enjoyed in their mystical assemblies. And this, at least, may be said of them, that they practiced with commendable fidelity and diligence, the greatest of the Masonic virtues, and that the banquets and balls which always formed an important part of their ceremonial were distinguished by numerous acts of charity." Androgynous Masonry also included certain degrees, among which may be mentioned the "Heroine of Jericho," which appears to be the most ancient, for which the wives and daughters of Royal Arch Masons only were eligible; the "Ark and Dove"; "The Mason's Daughter"; "The Good Samaritan"; "The Maids of Jerusalem"; and "The Mason's Wife," which was conferred on the wives, daughters, sisters and mothers of Masons. These were practiced mainly in the United States of America. There is also evidence that women in days gone by were admitted into the Order of Knights Templer.
The question as to whether or not women should be admitted into the ranks of orthodox Freemasonry is not discussed. As one proud to acknowledge obedience to the Constitutons of the United Grand Lodge of England which, by its Constitutions has decreed that they shall not, any discussion on this point would be unbecoming.
ADOPTIVE MASONRY
The origin of Adoptive Masonry is placed generally in the seventeenth century, and its author is named as the widow of Charles I of England, daughter of Henry IV, and sister of Louis XIII of France. After the death of Charles I, she was proclaimed "the protectress of the children of the widow," Freemasons in those days being known as "the children of the widow." She is said to have formed a society of women to whom she communicated certain signs and passwords.
In 1712, in Russia, Catherine the Czarina obtained from Peter the Great permission to found the Order of St. Catherine, an Order of Knighthood for women only, of which she was proclaimed Grand Mistress. This was a quasi-Masonic body.
In the eighteenth century there were four Grand Mistresses of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which was an emanation of early Masonry. They were the Princess of Rochelle in Italy, the Countess of Maille and the Princess of Latour in France, and the Duchess of Wissembourg in Germany. The Chevalier Cesar Moreau states with assurance that Adoptive Masonry is of French origin. "What other people," he says, "could have raised this beautiful monument of national gallantry to a sex who, in the East, are subjected to the most humiliating dependence; who, in Spain, are guarded in living sepulchres, namely, the convents; while, in Italy, this admirable half of humanity is in the same position; and, in Russia, the husband receives from the father-in-law, with his wife, the right of flogging her at his pleasure? The French know too well how to appreciate the numberless merits of this charming sex, to allow themselves to be influenced by any other nation in the happiness of proving to women that they are at all times their idols, from youth to age."
The real date of the establishment of Adoptive Masonry in France may be placed as 1775, when, according to M. Boubee, who is sometimes called "the father of French Masonry," the French ladies, not wishing to remain indifferent to the good done by Freemasons, wished to form Lodges of Adoption so as more efficaciously to exercise charity and goodness.
At first the Grand Orient of France did not sympathize with the formation of these Lodges of Adoption, and for some time withheld its sanction but eventually consented to take the oversight on the express condition that each assembly should be presided over by the Master of a regular Masonic lodge. Immediately several ladies of distinction became active members and propagators, among the number being the Duchess of Chartres, the Duchess of Bourbon, the Princess of Lambelle, the Countess of Polignac, the Countess of Choiseul-Gouffier, and the Marchioness of Coutebonne.
On 11th March, 1775, the Marquis de Saisseval, assisted by several distinguished brethren, formed the Lodge of Candour under the Constitution of the Grand Orient of France. Fourteen days afterwards - on 25th March, 1775 - this lodge gave a fete d'adoption, when the Duchess of Chartres, wife of the Grand Master of the Grand Orient, was present. There was also present the Duchess of Bourbon, who then consented to accept the position of Grand Mistress of Adoptive Masonry. Her installation took place on the following May, in the Lodge of St. Anthony, in Paris, when the Duke of Chartres presided in his capacity as Grand Master. Nearly a thousand persons, the elite of French society, are said to have assisted at this function.
The Adoptive Rite consisted of four degrees - Apprentice, Companion, Mistress and Perfect Mistress. The first degree was purely symbolical and introductory, intended rather to improve the mind than to convey any definite idea of the institution. The second degree depicted the scene of the temptation in Eden, and the Companion was reminded in a lecture of the penalty incurred by the Fall. The third degree alluded to the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues as a symbol of a badly-regulated lodge, while Jacob's ladder was introduced as a moral lesson of order and harmony. The fourth degree, that of Perfect Mistress, represented Moses and Aaron, their wives, and the sons of Aaron. The ceremonies referred to the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and the degree was said to symbolize the passage of man from the world of change and discord to a pure land of rest and peace. The officers of a Lodge of Adoption consisted of Grand Master, Grand Mistress, Orator, Inspector, Inspectress, Depositor, Depositrix, Conductor and Conductress. The sash and collar were blue, with a gold trowel suspended. The Grand Master, Grand Mistress, and the principal officers were provided with gavels, and each member was clothed with a plain white apron and white gloves. The brethren, as distinct from the sisters, wore in addition to the ordinary regalia, each a sword and a gold ladder of five rounds - this latter being the Jewel of Adoptive Masonry. The business of each lodge was conducted by the sisters, the brethren being looked upon only as assistants. Different descriptive hangings were provided for the various degrees. In the first degree, four curtains divided the room into four sections. The west represented Europe; the east, Asia; the south, Africa; and the north, America. Two thrones were erected in the east for the Grand Master and Grand Mistress; before them was placed an altar, while to their right and left were placed eight statues representing Wisdom, Prudence, Strength, Temperance, Honor, Charity, Justice and Truth. The members sat in two rows, to light and left, at right angles to the two presiding officers - the brethren, armed with their swords, in the back row, and the sisters in the front row.
The Adoptive Lodges found many opportunities for the practice of beneficence, in which, particularly, they excelled. The records of the Adoptive Lodge of Candour show that frequently collections were made for the poor and distressed. In 1777, the Duchess of Bourbon presided at a meeting of this lodge when there was a collection for a brave soldier of the Anjou regiment who had thrown himself into the frozen Rhone and rescued two drowning children. In 1779, through the agency of members of this lodge, a poor nobleman, without profession or resources, obtained from the King a pension and a lieutenancy. This lodge was disbanded in 1780, in consequence of Court movements. The Quadruple Lodge of the "Nine Sisters" was another prominent Adoptive lodge, which held several fetes for philanthropic purposes. In 1780, a lodge of Adoptan was formed by the Lodge "Social Contract" to celebrate the convalescence of the Grand Master, the Duke of Chartres. This lodge had for its first Master, the Abbe Bertolio, who was assisted by the Princess of Lamballe as Grand Mistress. Among the initiates of this lodge were the Viscountess of Afrey, the Viscountess of Narbonne, and the Countess of Maille. In common with many others this lodge was broken up by the Revolution.
Adoptive Masonry was seized upon by the comprehensive mind of the first Napoleon as a means to consolidate his power, and it rose into favor again on the re-establishment of the Empire. In 1805, the unfortunate Empress Josephine was installed Grand Mistress of the Loge Imperiale d'Adoption des Francs Chevaliers at Strasbourg, when she initiated one of her ladies of honor, Madame F. de Canisy. M. Boubee says that at no period in the history of Adoptive Masonry was there so brilliant a gathering. It was the first occasion on which French Masonry had been honored by the presence of a sovereign.
In a modified manner Adoptive Masonry still exists, but it has not flourished under the Republic, and its operations have been confined mainly to France. It has been rejected with a contempt amounting almost to indignation, by the Grand Lodges of the United Kingdom and the Overseas Dominions. The Ancient and Primitive Rite - a body not in communication with the United Grand Lodge of England, and now almost obsolete - has the power to confer the Adoptive Degrees, but does not exercise it.
Dr. George Oliver, the author of Revelations of a Square, gives an interesting account of a visit he paid to a lodge of Adoption in Paris in 1808:
"The ceremonies are conducted with the utmost decorum. We are, of course, totally ignorant of the dark room, as none but females are admitted to that penetralia and the preparations are conducted only by females; but when they are completed, and the trials come on, the novice is conducted through the process by a lady and gentleman together.
"On this special occasion it was thought that the candidate did not possess sufficient fortitude to endure the trials, and she was warned that if she had any doubts as to her power of endurance she had the opportunity of withdrawing. However, she indicated that she was quite willing to proceed, and she was accordingly conducted through the usual trials of fortitude, and endured them with the courage of a martyr, and even at last, when placed on the summit of the symbolic mountain, and told she must cast herself down thence into the abyss below, where she saw a double row of bright steel spikes, long and sharp. They were real, substantial spikes, and she would have been killed if impaled thereon.
"The word was given to throw herself down, and with a suppressed shriek she made the required plunge. So unexpectedly sudden was her obedience that the guide, who had charge of the machinery, was scarcely allowed time to touch the spring before she fell recumbent at the bottom of the abyss. The machinery is so contrived that at the very moment when the final leap is made the scene changes to an Elysium of green fields and shady trees, bubbling fountains and purling streams, and beneath the velvet herbage is placed a bed of the softest down, to receive the fair body of the exhausted novice as she falls. In the present instance the lady fainted, and lay for a time without motion, but was soon restored and tranquillised by the application of essences and perfumes, and the soft and soothing influence of delicious music.
"Being afterwards introduced into the lodge, her constancy was rewarded by witnessing and forming a part of the most beautiful and captivating scenes I ever beheld."
RITUAL OF ADOPTIVE MASONRY The following Ritual of Adoptive Masonry is translated, for the first time, from a French document issued in 1783:
ADOPTIVE MASONRY
There is wanting in the Order of Freemasonry the pleasure of the company of the fair sex, the members of which are always an ornament to the most reputable societies. Adoptive Masonry enables brethren to cure this signal favor.
DECORATION OF THE LODGE
The Apprentices' Carpet, on which is traced a diagram of the lodge, is placed in the centre of the temple. On it is placed the Noah's Ark, floating on the waters; the Tower of Babel; and Jacob's Ladder. Behind the Grand Inspector is placed a table covered with a black cloth, on which a skeleton is laid. Behind the Grand Master, a little above his head, stands the Destroying Angel, holding a naked sword in his right hand and an iron chain in his left hand. By the side of the Grand Master are two stools, on each of which is placed a pan filled with rope ends, spirits of wine, and salt, wherewith to make a flame. These pans are sometimes placed on stools in the centre of the temple. By the, side of the table which is behind the Grand Inspector are placed two brethren, wearing masks which cause them to look repulsive; their hats are fixed firmly on their heads and each holds a torch lighted by means of powdered sulphur and refined pitch.
ARRANGEMENT OF THE LODGE
The President of the lodge is addressed as Grand Master. He wears suspended from his neck a blue or black cord, from the bottom of which hangs a small trowel. He wears his hat in lodge, holds a naked sword in his left hand and a trowel in his right. Each brother also carries a naked sword in order to form the arch of steel, referred to later on in the Ritual. The Grand Inspector is placed in the west of the lodge, but, unlike the Grand Master, does not wear his hat. The brethren also remain with heads uncovered throughout the proceedings, but the sisters have their heads covered. The Grand Inspector wears a blue cord round his neck, from which is suspended a small hammer. The brethren and sisters arrange themselves in oblong form around the lodge, each wearing a white apron and having a small trowel suspended from a blue ribbon which is worn around the neck.
RITUAL FOR THE OPENING OF THE LODGE
Grand Master: "Brethren and sisters, assist me to open this lodge of Apprenticed Adoptive Masons."
(These words are repeated, first by the Sister Inspector and then by the Brother Inspector.)
Grand Master: "Sister Inspector, what is the first duty of a Mason?" Response: "To see that the lodge is properly tyled to prevent the admission of the uninitiated."
Grand Master: "Then, my dear sister, assure yourself that this has been done."
Sister Inspector: "Brother Inspector, will you see that the lodge is properly tyled and report to me?"
(The report having been given)
Sister Inspector: "Grand Master, the Brother Inspector reports that the lodge is properly tyled."
Grand Master: "Are you an Apprenticed Mason?"
Sister Inspector: "I believe so."
Grand Master: "If you believe it, why are you not certain?"
Sister Inspector: "Because an Apprentice is certain of nothing."
Grand Master: "What is the duty of a Mason?"
Sister Inspector: "To listen, to obey, to work, and to be silent."
Grand Master: "At what time do Masons begin to work?"
Sister Inspector: "At the moment of awakening."
Grand Master: "What time is it now?"
Sister Inspector: "The moment for awakening and the hour for working."
The Grand Master gives five raps on the pedestal and says:
"Sister and Brother Inspectors, give warning to the brethren and sisters in your neighborhoods that this is the moment for awakening and the hour for working and that I am about to open a lodge of Apprenticed Masons."
This injunction having been obeyed by these officers, the Grand Master gives a further five raps with his trowel on the pedestal and says:
"My dear brethren and sisters, I declare this lodge of Apprenticed Adoptive Masons open in the name of T.G.A.O.T.U., in the names of our lawful superiors, and in the name of this respectable assembly."
This formula having been repeated by the two Inspectors, all the brethren and sisters give the sign of Jacob's Ladder, clap their hands five times, and repeat five times the word "Vivant." CEREMONY OF THE FIRST DEGREE INITIATION OF APPRENTICES
It is essential that all ladies who present themselves for initiation should be in good health, of good repute, and that one of the brethren of the lodge should give a guarantee of fitness.
The candidate must, on admission to the precincts of the temple, be placed in a darkened room, which must not be illuminated with more than one faint light, and in which a skull shall be placed in such a position that the candidate cannot fail to observe it. She is waited upon by the last admitted initiate, who asks her if it is of her own free will and after mature reflection that she seeks admission into an Order of such high repute. This question being answered satisfactorily she asks her if she is in good health, because she will pass through some very trying experiences, which, however, will not be in any way improper or revolting to the most virtuous person.
The candidate is then told, as the first test of her discretion, to remain in the darkened room and not to attempt to leave. The door is then closed upon her and she is left to her own reflections for a time.
The sister returns after an interval, when she urges the candidate to exhibit much firmness. The left garter of the candidate is removed and replaced by a blue ribbon of a yard and a quarter in length. Her right cuff and glove are also removed. Her money, jewels, and trinkets are taken from her, and she is informed that they will be given or sold for the benefit of the poor. The candidate is then blindfolded, told to place her trust in God, and she is conducted to the door of the temple, on which she is told to give five raps.
The door is opened by the Brother Inspector, who asks the question: "Who knocks?"
Director of Ceremonies: "An unenlightened who seeks to be adopted by us."
The door of the temple is closed and the request, made through the Director of Ceremonies, is repeated to the Grand Master, who requests the Sister Inspector to ask the candidate for her name, age, religion, occupation, and the name of her guarantor; and to inform the candidate of the qualifications essential for her adoption.
The Sister Inspector, on her return to the temple, gives these particulars to the Grand Master, who asks the brother who stands as sponsor if he knows the candidate well and if he believes she has the necessary dispositions for admittance into the Order.
Satisfactory assurances in this regard having been given, the Grand Master says:
"Brethren and sisters, do you consent to the adoption of Madame (or Mademoiselle) N-----? Do any object?"
If the answer is unanimously in the affirmative, the Grand Master says:
"Sister Inspector, give admission to the candidate."
The candidate, accompanied by the Director of Ceremonies and her guide, then enters and is placed in front of the Grand Master, who addresses her upon the objects of the Order into which she seeks admission. At the conclusion of the Oration he asks her:
"Madame (or Mademoiselle), What is your desire?" Response: "To be initiated as a Mason."
Grand Master: "What opinion have you formed of Masonry? Tell me frankly your opinion of the Order."
The reply to this question is given by the candidate in her own words.
Grand Master: "Are you willing to pass through the ceremonies, both moral and physical, which are a necessary condition to admission: reflect well, because there is still the opportunity for you to retire, should you so desire; but in another moment it will be too late."
Candidate: "I am."
Grand Master: "Are you willing to make a sacrifice of your jewels for the benefit of the poor?"
Candidate: "I am."
Grand Master: "Are you willing to submit to trials by fire, water, and blood?"
Candidate: "I am."
The Grand Master then directs the Brother Inspector to conduct the candidate on the five mysterious journeys. At the end of each journey the Grand Master asks the Brother Inspector if he has observed any trembling on the part of the candidate, and at the termination of the fifth journey, the Grand Master says:
"Do you still persist in your desire: the trials to follow are more severe?"
Candidate: "I do."
Grand Master: "Brother Inspector, cause the candidate to advance five steps under the arch of steel."
In order to form this arch of steel all the brethren kneel on the floor of the lodge, raising their swords.
This having been done, the Grand Master says:
"Brother Inspector, cause the candidate to pass through the trial by fire."
The candidate is then conducted twice round the lighted braziers.
Grand Master: "Cause her to purify herself by passing through the water."
The candidate is then told to wash her hands.
Grand Master: "Do you still persist in your request?"
Candidate: "I do."
Grand Master: "Will you sign this declaration in your blood?"
Candidate: "I will."
Grand Master: "Brother Surgeon, do your duty."
A request is here made for mercy, which is granted by the Grand Master.
Grand Master: "If it is still your wish to continue, listen to the words of the Brother Orator."
ADDRESS ON THE INITIATION OF APPRENTICES
Man is born with the instinct of charity and fellowship engraven in his heart; the seeds of these two qualities are sown by the paternal favor of the Creator, and man in practicing these precepts before understanding the utility and necessity of a bond which mitigates the severity of our condition, sows flowers on the thorny path of our life. The first feeling of man on leaving the hands of his Creator must, undoubtedly, be that of His existence. So long as he is alone his heart has no other view; but so soon as he has beholden that charming creature which loving, powerful Nature has framed to be his companion, the germs of beneficence are developed; he forgets, so to speak, his existence and abandons the love of himself in order to transfer it to her who waits on his pleasure.
The foundations of society were therefore laid in the Garden of Eden, and it was in that delightful sojourn, the asylum of virtue, innocence and peace that beneficence and all the other sociable virtues were practiced in an their purity by our first parents, for so long as they were both contented with their strength, thinking only of enjoying the sweet fruits of their union, their happiness was without bitterness and they enjoyed in their hearts the ineffable blessings of terrestrial felicity. Unhappily evil approached very closely to the happiness. Adam and Eve were the first to discover, though too late, this sorrowful truth, by transmitting to their posterity the bitter fruits of their disobedience, curiosity, and weakness. Their hearts, like Noah's Ark, floating at the mercy of the winds on the waters of the abyss, which covered the surface of the earth, yielded with like ease to any impression. Society and pride, sustained by all the other passions, ever since then have triumphed over obedience and direction, which have no other support than weakness, and plunge our happiness into humiliation and misery.
This allegory of the Fall of Man through weakness and curiosity, you can trace, Madame, in a striking and forcible manner in the sad condition of our degeneration, but we offer, at the same time, the means of reparation, which, though it may depend on our feeble nature, are the means we find assembled in this Order or admitted under the emblems which we discover when we look closely, and of which I will give you the explanation.
You see first of all, Madame, in this lodge of Apprentices, the Ark of Noah, the Tower of Babel, and the Ladder of Jacob, drawn in picture. The Ark of Noah represents the heart of man, the eternal play-thing of the passions, like the ark floating on the waters of the Deluge; and we learn that we ought so to fortify our souls by the precepts of virtue that in the midst of this tempest we may, like Noah and his family, be saved from shipwreck. The Tower of Babel is the emblem of the pride of man, who desires to oppose his weakness to the eternal decrees of Providence, and who, for the fruits of his labors, will reap only shame and confusion, from which he is not able to guard himself except by presenting the prudent heart which is the characteristic of a Mason. On the other side of the picture you will see a ladder, the meaning of which may seem to be quite mysterious. It teaches us that the means of arrival at true happiness, like to that of which Jacob dreammed and which is represented by the steps, ought to be grounded on the love of God and neighbor, just as the steps of the ladder rise upwards and connect earth with heaven. All these things are secured by the practice of caution, strength, constancy, and the precepts of Masonry.
These are, Madame, the mysteries to which I would today call your attention.
My heart will call to mind with the sweetest emotion this solemn day on which you were initiated, through our feeble ministrations into the most sublime and reputable Order of Masonry. May you, Madame, spend happy days with those who, like you, ask great favors from T.G.A.O.T.U. and may you taste a succession of pleasures as intense and as pure as those which we shall experience every time that we call you by the beloved name of sister.
The Address being ended an acclamation is made.
Grand Master: "Madame, the pleasing things which you have heard have, no doubt, encouraged you to request that you may be received amongst us. If that is your desire, approach."
The candidate is then brought to the pedestal, where she kneels.
Grand Master: "Destroying angel, bring the chain which you reserve for incautious Masons of both sexes. Madame, I am compelled to attach this chain to you in order that you may recall unceasingly that which you have promised. You wish to be admitted into a most reputable Order in which there is nothing contrary to religion, to the State, or to virtue. The firmness which you have displayed in the trials which you have undergone, the probity which you have shown, and your known virtue are sure guarantees to us of your manner of thinking: perfect this good work and be persuaded that repentance will never attend your attempt.
"Place your hand, Madame, upon this Book of Truth, and repeat after me the following Obligation which will bind you forever to the most ancient and most reputable Order in the world.
OBLLIGATION
"I .............. promise, on my word of honor, in the presence of T.G.A.O.T.U. and of this respectable assembly faithfully to guard, conceal, and retain in my heart the secrets of Masons and of Adoptive Masonry; moreover, to listen, to obey, to work, and to keep silent, under the penalty of being struck with the sword of the Destroying Angel, and of being despised and disgraced. May my mind by its virtues be rendered worthy of so reputable a Society. I promise, moreover, and undertake to sleep this night with the garter of the Order, as T.G.A. shall help me."
The Obligation taken, the Grand Master rises and touches the initiate with the trowel on the right eye, the right ear, the nose, the mouth, and the breast, saying:
"By the power which I have received from this respectable lodge, I receive you as an Adoptive Mason."
The Director of Ceremonies then takes away the chain. The Grand Master gives a rap on the pedestal with his trowel, and all the brethren take their swords in their hands.
Grand Master: "Brother Director of Ceremonies, conduct the newly initiated sister to a convenient spot where she may receive her reward."
When this has been done, he says:
"What do you ask sister, because it is with true pleasure that I address you by the term 'sister' instead of that of 'madame'? "
Answer: "To see the light." Grand Master: "Brother Director of Ceremonies, You will give her the fifth rap. Brethren and sisters to order."
The Grand Master then gives five raps with his trowel and the Director of Ceremonies restores the candidate to light by taking off the bandagey her face being turned towards the skeleton.
Grand Master: "Look with horror on her condition, the result of sin. Consider what she has been, what she is, and what she will become."
At this juncture the two brethren with the repulsive masks come and stand on either side of the skeleton, their torches being aflame.
Grand Master: "Leave her to make serious reflections upon her present state so that she may pass from death to life."
After a moment the two brethren turn her sharply round to face the East, so that she may see the splendor of the lodge. All the brethren are holding their swords in their hands, the points being directed towards the newly-initiated.
Grand Master: "Sister, all these swords which you see are drawn in your defense, if ever you should have cause for their assistance. Approach, sister, to receive the insignia of the Order."
The Brother Inspector then leads her by five steps to the Grand Master.
Grand Master: "Brethren and sisters, you have been witnesses of the great cautiousness of our newly-initiated sister."
The Grand Master takes from underneath the pedestal (or altar, as it is known) a crown of flowers, which he places on the head of the initiate, as a reward for her discretion. He then hands her the apron of the Order, saying:
"This is to remind you of the candor which as a Mason you must have."
He then hands her the gloves, saying:
"The whiteness of these gloves, which are intended for you, indicate what should be the purity of your actions."
He then gives her a pair of men's gloves, saying:
"This respectable lodge has asked me to hand you these gloves in order that you may pass them on as a present to the Mason whom you esteem most highly."
He then hands to her the garter of the Order, saying:
"This garder is of white skin and has written on it in letters of gold: VIRTUE, HONOR, SILENCE."
Grand Master: "Sister Inspector, take away the blue ribbon and fasten the garter in its place."
The Grand Master then gives the Initiate the kiss of association.
Grand Master: "We have for our mutual recognition two signs and two passwords. The two words are Feix, Feax, which signify 'Academy' or 'School of Virtue.' The password which we adopt for mutual recognition is 'Etamie.' It signifies 'Amity.' for we know that amity which has virtue for its base leads to true felicity."
The Director of Ceremonies then introduce's the initiate to the brethren and sisters present. When this has been done and she has been tested in the passwords and grips by the Grand Master, her money and jewels are returned to her by the Grand Master, who says:
"My dear sister, we deprived you of all metals and trinkets, because they are the emblems of vices. You sacrificed them, but the lodge is content with your submission and have charged me to return them to you, exhorting you to employ them in good works and above all in the relief of your brethren and sisters who may be in want."
Grand Master: "Brother Director of Ceremonies, conduct the sister to the West in order that she may listen to the Instruction."
INSTRUCTION OF AN APPRENTICE
Grand Master: "What is the first care of a Mason7"
Answer: "To see that the lodge is properly tyled."
Grand Master: "Are you an Apprenticed Mason?"
Answer: "I believe so."
Grand Master: "Why do you not say that you are sure?"
Answer: "Because an Apprentice is sure of nothing."
Grand Master: "What is the duty of all Masons?"
Answer: "To obey, to work, and to be silent."
Grand Master: "Where were you admitted?"
Answer: "In a place inaccessible to the uninitiated."
Grand Master: "How do you know that you are an Apprenticed Mason?"
Answer: "By that which all the most reputable Masons have?" Grand Master: "What is it that the most reputable have?"
Answer: "Two signs and two passwords."
Grand Master: "Give me the signs."
These are given.
Grand Master: "What is the significance of this sign?"
Answer: "The Ladder of Jacob."
Grand Master: "Whither does this ladder lead?"
Answer: "To felicity."
Grand Master: "How do you respond to the first sign?"
Answer: "By a second which consist of bringing the thumb and little finger to the nostrils."
Grand Master: "Give me the pass-words."
Answer: "Give me the first and I will give you the second."
Grand Master: "Feix."
Answer: "Feax."
Grand Master: "What is the meaning of these two words?"
Answer: "They form one only and mean an Academy or School of Virtue.
Grand Master: "What is this school?"
Answer: "Masonry."
Grand Master: "How were you received?"
Answer: "By five knocks."
Grand Master: "How were you introduced into the lodge?"
Answer: "Blindfolded."
Grand Master: "Why?"
Answer: "In order that I might learn that before I attained to the sublime mysteries it was necessary to overcome curiosity and that I might learn the ignorance of the uninitiated when speaking of our mysteries."
Grand Master: "How did you gain access to our mysteries?" Answer: "Through an arch of iron and steel."
Grand Master: "What did this arch represent?"
Answer: "The strength and stability of the Order."
Grand Master: "How did you obtain access to a lodge?"
Answer: "By knocking five times on the entrance-door."
Grand Master: "Where were you received?"
Answer: "Between the Tower of Babel and the Ladder of Jacob and at the foot of Noah's Ark."
Grand Master: "What does this Tower of Babel represent? "
Answer: "The pride of the children of the earth which we can overcome by presenting a cautious mind, which is the characteristic of all true Masons"
Grand Master: "What does the Ladder of Jacob represent?"
Answer: "This ladder is very mysterious: the two sides represent the love of God and our neighbor, and the steps symbolize the virtues secured by a beautiful life."
Grand Master: "What does the Ark of Noah represent?"
Answer: "The heart of man agitated by his passions, as the Ark was swayed by the waters of the Deluge."
Grand Master: "What quality ought we to bring to the lodge?"
Answer: "A horror of vice and a love of virtue."
Grand Master: "What do you call those who are not Masons?"
Answer: "The uninitiated."
Grand Master: "How do you treat those who are not Masons but who are worthy to be such?"
Answer: "All virtuous men and women are our friends but we only recognize men and women who are Masons as our brethren and sisters."
Grand Master: "To what ought we to apply ourselves?"
Answer: "To the purification of our morals."
Grand Master: "What is the duty of all Masons?"
Answer: "To listen, to obey, to work, and to be silent."
Grand Master: "What is that you hear?"
Answer: "The explanation of our mysteries."
Grand Master: "What is the quality of our obedience?"
Answer: "Free and voluntary."
Grand Master: "What is the aim of our work?"
Answer: "To make us useful and agreeable to our brethren and sisters."
Grand Master: "In what are you silent?"
Answer: "In the mysteries of Freemasonry."
Grand Master: "Why were you introduced by five raps?"
Answer: "To bring to our remembrance the five points of Masonry, which are the love of our neighbor, the desire of meriting the esteem of our brethren and sisters, the wish to oblige them, cautiousness, and obedience."
Grand Master: "What is the password?"
Answer: "Etamic, which signifies amity in order to teach us that amity is the basis of virtue and leads to true felicity."
MANNER OF CLOSING A LODGE
Grand Master: "At what time do we close the lodge?"
Answer: "At the hour to rest."
Grand Master: "What time is it now?"
Answer: "It is the hour to rest."
Grand Master: "Brother Inspector and Sister Inspector, ask the brethren in your neighborhood if they have aught to propose for the benefit of the Order."
The command having been obeyed a collection is made for the benefit of the poor and distressed. This custom is never omitted, each one contributing according to his or her ability.
Grand Master: "Brother Inspector and Sister Inspector, advise the brethren and sisters in your respective neighborhoods that seeing it is the time to rest, the hour for ceasing to work has arrived."
The Grand Master then gives the command for the brethren to stand to order and each brother takes his sword in his hand.
Grand Master: "Brethren and sisters, we have listened, we have obeyed, we have worked, and we are silent; since this is the hour to rest, the lodge is closed."
These words are repeated by the two Inspectors; the usual signs and acclamations are given and each one says five times "Vivant."
MANNER OF OPENING A LODGE
Grand Master: "At what time do Masons begin work?"
Answer: "At the moment of awakening."
Grand Master: "What is the duty of a Mason?"
Answer: "To see that the lodge is properly tyled."
Grand Master: "Sister Inspector, command the Brother Inspector to see that this duty is performed."
This being done, the Brother Inspoetor says: "Grand Master, the lodge is properly tyled."
Grand Master: "What time is it?" Answer: "The time for awakening and the hour for working."
Grand Master: "Sister and Brother Inspectors, inform the brethren and sisters in your respective neighborhoods that this is the time for awakening and the hour for working."
This being done the Grand Master gives five raps with his trowel and says:
"Brethren and Sisters, in the name of T.G.A.O.T.U.; in the name of our recognized superiors; and by the power invested in me by this assembly, I declare this Lodge of Apprenticed Adoptive Masons open."
The Sister and Brother Inspectors also give five raps with their trowels and say:
"Brethren and sisters, this lodge of Apprenticed Adoptive Masons is open."
At a signal from the Grand Master all the brethren and sisters give the sign of Jacob's Ladder and the acclamation by saying five times "Vivant."
Grand Master: "Sister Inspector, are you a Mason?"
Answer: "I believe so."
Grand Master: "If you believe it, why are you not sure?"
Answer: "Because an Apprentice is not sure of anything."
Grand Master: "What is the duty of a Mason?"
Answer: To listen, to obey, to work, and to be silent."
Grand Master: "For the first proof of your obedience, Sister Inspector and Brother Inspector, request the brethren and sisters in your respective neighborhoods to trim their lamps for a ceremony I propose to carry out."
These words are repeated by the Sister and Brother Inspectors who, when all the lamps are trimmed, reply:
"Master, all the lamps are trimmed."
The Grand Master then gives the call to order. The brethren and sisters stand when the Grand Master gives the command to work, by saying:
"Raise your right hand to the lamp; raise the lamp, blow the lamp; Quicker; Blow out the lamp."
(NOTE.-This is the formula adopted also at the drinking of toasts, the drinking of wine being known as the trimming of the lamp. In the days when this ritual was in vogue it was customary always to honor five toasts at the banquets which followed the lodge meetings. The first was the King and Royal Family; the second, that of the Sister Duchess of Bourbon, the Grand Mistress and the Officers of the Grand Lodge; the third that of the Grand Master of the lodge; the fourth, that of the sister and brother Inspectors; and the fifth, that of the Initiates. Sometimes toasts were added for the visitors and sisters and brethren in distress.)
Adoptive Masonry found its way into Italy and the following description of an initiation ceremony appeared in an Italian paper Correspondence, published in Rome in 1862:
"In a room hung with black was raised a table covered with black cloth; on the table was a skull and above it was a lamp, which shed a funereal light. Eight personages: a venerable Grand Master, a venerable Grand Mistress, a Brother Orator, dressed as a Capuchin, a Brother Inspector, a Sister Inspectress, Brother and Sister Depositaries, and a Sister Introductress. These dignitaries wore on their breasts each a wide violet ribbon, to which was suspended a little gold trowel. The Grand Master held a hammer which served as his sceptre and marched at the side of the Grand Mistress, elevated to the rank of horrorable companion. The brothers and sisters of the lodge all wore the mystical apron and white gloves. A novice was to be introduced. The Grand Master struck his hands together five times and solemnly asked one of the dignitaries: 'What are the duties of a Masonic aspirant?' The answer was: 'Obedience, labor, silence.' The Brother Orator then took the novice by the hand and conducted her to a dark room, where, having bandaged her eyes, he read her a homily on virtue and charity. When the bandage was removed she found herself surrounded by the brothers in a circle, their swords crossed over her head. After another homily, pronounced this time by the Grand Master, he asked her if she had well reflected before entering a Society which was unknown to her, and then, after mutual explanations, the proselyte repeated the formula of the oath: 'I swear and promise to keep faithfully in my heart all the secrets of Freemasonry and engage to do so under the penalty of being cut in pieces by the sword of the exterminating angel.' The Grand Master then showed her the sign by which the brothers and sisters recognized each other, and gave her the password of the Order. Then, taking the sister by the hand, he respectfully gave her five kisses of peace and handed her an apron and a pair of gloves."
L'Ordre de la liberte, of which Moses was claimed to be the founder, admitted both men and women. The members wore in their button holes a chain with a jewel representing the two tables of the Law, but, instead of the ten commandments, the jewel had two wings to signify Freedom, with the motto "Virtue dirigit alas." On the other side was an "M" for Moses and the date 6743. The commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery" is said to have been purposely omitted from their decalogue.
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COMBINATION OF THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
It is the almost universal custom in these United States to arrange the Square and Compasses, when used as seals or as illustrations, in the following form: The Compasses are extended and laid upon the arms of the Square. Within the extended Compasses is placed the letter "G." I suppose that letter, in that combination, is intended to be the initial letter of the word God, and not of Geometry. The intended symbolism, if indeed any symbolism is meant, is not known to this writer.
This is not the custom in foreign lands, nor was it the custom of the days when that combination began to be made as seals of the lodges. In all the illustrations of this combination of the Square and Compasses made by foreign lodges I have not found the "G" combination. The All-seeing Eye is the most usual, though the globe, the sun, or some other special device or letter are frequently found. It is also frequently found that nothing is inserted between the Compasses.
The symbolism of the combination, with the All-seeing Eye inserted, is quite plain, going back to the older Mysteries. The Square, referring to the earth, and hence to the earthly in man, viz.: his passions and appetites, which are represented by the two arms of the Square, is dominated by the two arms of the Compasses, which refer to the heavens, and hence to the spiritual in man, his reason and the moral sense; symbolizing that through the light of Freemasonry we have subjected our passions and appetites to the control of our reason and our moral sense. The All-seeing Eye symbolizes that oversight of Almighty God necessary to maintain that domination of the spiritual over the earthly, or material.
If there is an instructive symbolism in the way we introduce the letter "G" perhaps it is by using the "G" in the same way as is suggested for the use of the All-seeing Eye. The "G" being used as the initial of two words is liable to be misunderstood, while the eye could not be misinterpreted.
- Geo. C. Connor, Tennessee.
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THE TEMPERATURE OF THE LODGE
Title Suggested by Brother Geo. L. Schoonover
BY BRO. L. B. MITCHELL, MICHIGAN
Is not the heart-beat of the lodge today
A bit above the old-time normal way?
Does it not in a fevered mood beguile
The hours that make them so much less worth while?
It seems in haste to see that they are o'er
And hurries up its work upon the floor.
Its temperature seems feverish today,
It corners cuts and hastens on its way,-
That is, it so speeds up the work in hand
That much is lost of its conception grand.
The hurrying world seems to sidestep the Art,
It seems to be, of it, the ruling part.
To some, as yet, these ways do not appeal;
Time was when it was all so really real;
But now, those who may come into the fold
Lose much that so appealed unto the old.
And so we find the Craft exposed today
To much that hurts the heart of Masonry.
EARLY KNIGHT TEMPARLY IN IRELAND
BY BRO. JULIUS F. SACHSE, GRAND LIBRARIAN, PENNSYLVANIA
Reprinted from "History of Masonic Knights Templar of Pennsylvania," by permission of R.’.W.’. Bro. John S. Sell, Grand Master of Masons in Pennsylvania.
THE EARLIEST documentary evidence in the Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, showing the existence of Modern or Masonic Templary in connection with Craft Masonry is found in the Irish Craft Certificates and the Masonic History of Ireland.
About the middle of the eighteenth century innumerable new and fanciful degrees and fantastic rites were invented and attempts were made to engraft them upon the primitive stock of Speculative Masonry, which had been evolved out of the Operative Gilds. (1) Most of these degrees had their origin in France; none of these so-called Ramsay rites, (2) however, seem to have been adopted in Ireland.
Toward the middle of the century, there appears to have arisen a desire among Irish Freemasons to strengthen the correlation of Christianity and Freemasonry, an origin for the organization of the Craft was sought in the medieval orders of Christian chivalry. Among the multiplicity of such orders, two stood forth conspicuously challenging the fond admiration of the Masonic enthusiast, the Knight Hospitallers and the Knights Templar.
The name of the latter order was chosen and a suitable ritual for conferring the order was evolved. The probable cause for this selection was that during the Reign of Henry II, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar superintended the Gild of Operative Masons, and employed them in building their Temple in Fleet Street, London, A. D. 1135. Masonry continued under the patronage of the order until the year 1199. (3)
The Royal Arch had been conferred in Ireland by the Blue lodges under their Craft Warrants for some years. So when Templary was authorized, it was at once adopted by the Irish lodges, both civil and military.
How universal the adoption of the Royal Arch and Templar degrees became among the Craft lodges of Ireland is shown by the Francis C. Crossle collection of ancient Irish seals, in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Most if not all of the Irish lodges had different or separate seals for the Symbolic or Craft, Royal Arch and Templar degrees. Thus in the Crossle Collection (4) we have no less than 259 seals representing 118 Irish lodges. One hundred of these had a seal for each degree, viz.: Craft, Royal Arch and Knight Templar, thus showing that in the early days all the higher degrees were invariably conferred under the sole authority of a Craft Warrant, "the only limit to conferring of them being the possession among the members of a brother capable of working the ceremonies." (5)
The earliest evidence of both Royal Arch Masonry and Templary in Ireland is without doubt shown by the seals - both Royal Arch and Templar now in the Crossle collection, in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania of Craft Lodge No. 205, Irish Constitution, originally attached to General Blakeney's Regiment of Foot, subsequently the 35th Regiment of the Line, 1749 - 1790. (6) These seals together with the Royal Arch Banner of the lodge, bearing the inscription "THE WONDEROUS ARCH IN YONDER VAULTED SKY, OUR MIGHTY KEYSTONE, THE ALL SEEING EYE 7, Feby. 1749 Anno Laotomiae 5749 Lodge No. 205" appear to be proof that Templary was practiced in Ireland as early as the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth century, by this Military lodge working under its Irish Warrant.
Craft Lodge No. 205 accompanied the regiment in its ordinary course until 1790, when the Warrant - that is the original Military Warrant, not a fresh one under the same number - was transferred to Moy in the County of Tyrone, August 3, 1790. (7)
The Royal Arch Banner of Lodge No. 205 was found together with some of the Craft implements of Lodge No. 205, of which the three-cornered gavel and the Senior and Junior Wardens' truncheons are now in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
The Knight Templar Banner of Lodge No. 465 also stationed at Moy, Tyrone County, was found at the same time by Brother William Tait of Belfast in an old building at or near Moy early in the year 1913. Brother Tait's researches further show that meetings of Lodges 205 and 465 were held at Crew, a hamlet outside of Moy proper. (8)
The Templar Banner of Lodge No. 465 is one of the most interesting relics of Irish Templary. The banner is painted on both sides, the inscriptions so far as can be made out on the obverse reads "CREW 2d FEBY 1769 ANNO LAOTOMIAE 1769 Lodge 465," on the three steps approaching the lodge "CHARITAS SPES FIDAS."
In the center of the banner there is a building with a pediment resting upon pillars below which are two cherubim over an open doorway; above the building is seen the sun, moon and stars, while at the sides are the various craft implements including the jewels of the Master, Past Master, Treasurer and Secretary.
The reverse of the banner is patterned after the Royal Arch Banner of Lodge No. 205, having the same inscription in the circle. From the keystone in the middle of the arch is suspended the five pointed star with the letter "G" in the center; below the arch there are three lines:
S [OLOMON] RE [X] I [SRAEL]
HI [RAM] RE [X] TY [RE]
HI [RAM] A [BIFF]
Between the columns there is an equilateral triangle upon which are the twelve burning tapers. In the center of the triangle is a coffin with skull and bones and the words "MEMENTO MORI AMEN." Beside the coffin there are an incense vase, baldric with sevenpointed star and a cock.
In the fields between columns and triangle there is (left) the ark and trowel, (right) paschal lamb and a serpent; outside of both columns is the crucifix and other emblems.
This we think is the first instance where the Templar triangle was publicly shown with the lighted tapers. It, however, appears upon several of the early Irish Templar Seals in our collection.
The chief use of these banners was at the celebration of St. John's Day, both the festival of St. John the Baptist and that of St. John the Evangelist being religiously observed by the Irish Craft lodges in those early days, when the brethren paraded to church with music and their banners, where they heard a sermon appropriate to the occasion, after which they returned to the lodge room for refreshment. (9) Photographs of the above banners are in our library collection.
From the seals in the Crossle Collection it appears that there was an order or degree above but concurrent with that of the Temple as conferred in the Craft lodges of Ireland. This organization was known as "THE UNION BAND OF - KNIGHT TEMPLAR PRIESTS." There is, however, no record that this degree was ever introduced in America.
This "Priestly Order" as it was commonly called according to Brother Crossle in his History of Newry Lodge, XVIII, Newry, (10) in former days was pretty generally worked all over the northeast coast of Ireland. No definite records of this organization or degree have thus far been found during the present investigation. The question naturally arises whether it was not an organization similar to that of "Melchizedek" of the present day which is composed of Past High Priests of the Royal Arch Chapter. From the seals of the "Priestly Order" it would appear that there were seven degrees in this order each having its own seal. That the order was strictly Christian and Trinitarian is evident from the emblems in the large seal of the "Priestly Band." In our Crossle Collection of Irish Craft Seals we have evidence that at least fifteen Craft lodges (11) that conferred the Temple also had the "Priestly Order."
The mottoes on the seven smaller seals read: No. 1, "LET TRUTH"; No. 2, "STAND"; No. 3, "THOUGH THE"; No. 4, "UNIVERSE"; No. 5, "SHOULD"; No. 6, "SINK INTO"; No. 7, ''RUINS.'' (12) This order was established in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and so far as the investigations of the late Brother Francis C. Crossle go, the County of Down seems to have been its headquarters in Ireland. (13) Each center of this branch of Freemasonry was known as a Union Band of Knight Templar Priests and its working was generally carried out under the sanction of two or more neighboring Craft lodges.
According to the same authority each Union Band was governed by a president and seven masters, each of whom had his seal, that of the president being much larger than those of the masters. Each master in his absence, was permitted to appoint a proxy, whose authority to act was the production of his seal, and no document or certificate issuing from the band was perfect without the impression of the eight seals of the President and his seven masters. All candidates for the degree of Knight Templar Priest were obliged to produce evidence of having already received the Craft, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar degrees, in addition to being "recommended by two members of the band who are 'To answer for his being a regular or ordinary member of a' regular lodge, and for his moral character." (14)
Another proof of the Irish origin of Masonic Knights Templary is a footnote to a Templar Poem in Laurence Dermott's Belfast Edition of the Ahiman Rezon of 1795, (15) wherein it is stated that at "Fethard, in the County Tipperary, was the First Town in Ireland, where Knights Templars were made."
Other evidence of early Irish Craft Templary in the Grand Lodge Collection are interesting certificates.
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY GLORIOUS AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY FATHER, SON, & HOLY GHOST. (16)
WE the Captn GENL. &c &c &c., of the General Assembly of Knights Templars and Knights of Malta do hereby Certify that the Bearer Our Faithful True and Well beloved Br Sir Adam Rice was by us Dubb'd Knight of that most Holy Invincible and Magnanimous Order of Knights Templars the true and faithful soldier of JESUS CHRIST as also of the order of St. John of Jerusalem now Knights of Malta he having with our Honour and Fortitude, justly supported the amazing Trials attending his admission and as such We recommend him to all Br Knights Templars and Knights of Malta on the Face of the Globe. Given under our hands and Seal of our Lodge and General Encampment Held in Newry under the sanction of a Warrant No. 706 and of the order of Knight Templars.
3789
And of the Order of Malta 921
And of Ark and Mark Masonry 3791
In Royal Arch Masonry 4138
Book of the Law, Found 2415
ADAM RICE R.G. Sy
Mattes Campbell C. Gl
Robt McCallaugh, G.M.
Robt Cassidy, G. A'
G. CHANCELLOR
IN THE NAME OF YE MOST HOLY GLORIOUS & UNDIVIDED TRINITY FATHER SON & HOLY GHOST. (17)
WE Captain General &c &c &c of the Grand Assembly of KNIGHTS TEMPLARS & KNIGHTS OF MALTA Held in Trillick & on the Registry of Ireland - Do hereby Certify That the BEARER Hereof Our Truly Beloved Br Sr Robt Brown was by us Dubb'd KNIGHT of that Most Holy Invincible & Magnanimous Ordr of KNIGHTS TEMPLARS Ye True & Faithful Soldier of JESUS CHRIST as also the Saints of JERUSALEM now KNIGHTS OF MALTA he having with Due Honour & Fortitude Justly Supported.
The Amazing Trials of skill & Valour Attending his admission & as such WE Him recommend to all True & Faithful Brs Srs. KNIGHTS TEMPLARS around the GLOBE. Given undr our hands & Seal of General Assembly held in Trillick In the County of Tyrone This 20th day of May 1795 & of Masonry 5795 & of the Ordr of KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 3795 & of the Ordr of Malta 675
ANDW FUNSTON Secretary
THOS PORTER
Signed by Order
Captain General
HENRY GAULT G. W a-n
Wm NEVILL G W a-n
IN THE NAME OF TEIE MOST HOLY MOST GLORIOUS AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY FATEIER, SON AND HOLY GHOST. (18)
WE THE CAPTAIN GENERAL &c of the general Assembly of SIRS KNIGHTS TEMPLARS and KNIGHTS OF MALTA held under the Sanction of LODGE No. 835 at Douglass Bridge in the County of TYRONE on the Regestry of Ireland SO CERTIFY that the Bearer hereof our trusty true and well beloved Br Sir Wm Arthur was by us dubed a Knight of that most holy glorious and magnanimous order of Sir Knights Templars and Knights of Malta the true and faithful Soldier of JESUS CHRIST he having with honour Justly supported the amazing Trials of skill and valure attending his admission We therefore now recommend him as such to all Sir KNIGHTS TEMPLARS and KNIGHTS OF MALTA round the GLOBE.
Given under our hands and Seal of our Genl Assembly this 9th day of June 1798
CHRISTOPHER DICKY, C. General
James Litle G. W.
James Pollock, D. G.W.
Jno . McClausland, Sec.
IN THE NAME OF TIIE MOST HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY FATHER SON & HOLY GHOST AMEN. (19)
WE the undernamed Presiding Chiefs over A Magnanimous and Invincible Encampment of that Most Holy Noble and Christian order of Sir Knight Templars held in Raffry under the Sanction of Raffry True Blue Lodge No. 649, held under the Grand Registry of IRELAND
Do hereby Certify That our Worthy and Faithful Brother and Constituted Friend SIR SAMUEL JAMISON the bearer hereof after having passed the EXCELLENT SUPER EXCELLENT ROYAL ARCH DEGREES OF MASONIC ORDERS was DUBBED INITIATED and Confirmed in all the rules Ceremonies and Mysteries of that Most Holy Noble and Christian order of HIGH KNIGHT TEMPLARS in A GRAND ENCAMPMENT and was initiated into the Several degrees of ARK MARK and WRESTLE and since his instruction therein he has discharged the relative duties of A Sir Knights Companion with affection and Integrity having with much EXCELLENT SKILL FORTITUDE AND VALOR Previously withstood and resisted Various trials and Temptations preparatory, to his admission and as such.
We him recommend to all faithful Brethren of the KNIGHT TEMPLAR order and all ARK MARK and WRESTLE MASON round the globe.
Given under our hands and Seal of our KNIGHT TEMPLAR Encampment in our Lodge Room in Raffry, Parish of Killimky, County of DOWN, IRELAND.
This 9th day of April A.D. 1811 A.L. 5811 of Kt Templars 698
Hance Casbey, Gr. Master
William Thomson G Senr Warden No. 649
Richard McBride G Junior Warden - Raffry
James Snoddon Grand Secretary
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU EVEN UNTO THE END, (20)
WE the GAPTAIN GENERAL &e &e &e of AN Incampment of Knight Templars held in Poyntzpass under the sanition of No. 52 held under the Grand Lodge of Ireland, do hereby certify the bearer Sir Richard Andreu was subsequently dubbed, an Night and likewise Tud the Red Cross and after having withstood with skill and valure the amazing trials attending his admission and as such we recommend him to all Red Cross and Sir Knight Templars round the Globe Given under our hands and seal of our Lodge this 3rd Day of April 1822 and of Knight Tempplars 665 years.
ALEXdr HALL, F. G.G.
ALEX RICHMOND S. C. G.
JOHN WHITE H. P.
CHAS Mc. DONNELL, Secty
LODGE OF LOVE & UNITY NO. 845. (21)
In the name of the Most Holy Glorious and undivided Trinity Father Son & Holy Ghost Amen.
We the Captain General &c High Priest and Grand Marshal of the Grand Encampment and assembly of Sir Knight Templars and Knights of Malta held under sanction of the above Lodge, on Registry of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, DO. CERTIFY That our Trusty and well beloved brother
John Galbraith has been by us initiated into the most Holy and Glorious orders Dubb'd Sir Knight of the Most Holy orders of Sir Knight Templar Mediterranean passman and Knight of Malta.
The true and faithful soldier of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, HE having with great skill fortitude and valour Justly supported the amazing trials attending his admission and as such WE HIM recommend to all true and faithful Knights in the universe....
Given under our hands & seal of our Grand Encampment at Belfast this 7 day of June 1826 Six
And Knight Templars 709 nine
And of Knights of Malta 303 three
Thomer Nully C.G. G.M, G.A. G.G. S.B.
William Mugeean, Grand Scribe.
As to the actual Ritual used in conferring the order of the Temple by the Irish Craft lodges, nothing is definitely known to a certainty except that it was strictly a trinitarian degree, wherein the belief in the Holy Trinity was the chief feature. This is shown by a copy of the certificate engraved by Quin, Belfast, 1822, (22) viz.:
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY; AMEN GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST
Peace on Earth
Good Will to Men
FATHER SON AND HOLY GHOST
WE THE HIGH PRIEST
CAPTn GENERAL & GRAND MASTERS
of an excellent and superexcellent
ROYAL ARCH CHAPTER &
Grand Assembly of Knights Templars under the sanction of the Lodge of Love & Unity Lodge No. 645 on the Registry of IRELAND Do hereby Certify that Our dearly beloved Brother the Worshipful Sir JOHN GALBRAITH after having duly Passed the Chair of the aforesaid LODGE was made an excellent Superexcellent & ROYAL ARCH MASON & Subsequently dubbed him a KNIGHT of the most noble and Right Worshipful Order of KNIGHTS TEMPLARS KNIGHTS OF MALTA AND KNIGHTS OF THE RED CROSS, We have also Expounded unto him all the Secrets of the MEDITERRANEAN PASSES. He having through the whole ceremony, Given us the strongest proofs of his Skill Fortitude and Valour during the amazing & Mysterious TRIALS attending his admission
We also grant unto him all those privileges which from the time immemorial have belonged & now of right appertain to those of our ORDERS not doubting but he will be permitted to Reap & Enjoy the Same with all our DEAR and excellent Companions wheresoever dispersed we therefore GREET WELL all our Worthy BRETHREN KNIGHTS COMPANIONS of the above illustrious Orders throughout the universe TO accept of him as such and to take him under their Brotherly Care and PROTECTION Given under our ano the Seal of our ENCAMPMENT hereunto appended at BELFAST this 19 day of June in the year of our Lord 1826 of Light 5826 R.A. 4826
THOMAS KELLY High Priest
JOHN REILLY Capn General
JAMES HAMILTON 1st
JOHN GALBRAITH, 2nd Grand Master
JOHN BOYD 3rd.
WILLIAM MAGUAN, Secretary
From the above Certificates it appears that, beside the Degrees of Knights Templar, St. John of Jerusalem and Malta, there were conferred by the Irish Craft lodges the Ark, Mark, Wrestle, Red Cross and Mediterranean Pass.
In perusing these certificates it will be seen that particular stress is laid in the beginning of all upon a belief in an undivided Trinity; also that the Conclaves in which the order was conferred, were variously known by different names, such as "General Assembly," "Grand Encampment," etc.
Nor do we find any strict regularity in the presiding officers. Thus where one is signed by the "Captain General," "Grand Master" and "Grand A" (?), another by the "Captain General" and two "Grand Wardens," "Captain General," "Grand Warden" and "Deputy Grand Warden," "Grand Master," "Grand Senior Warden," "Grand Junior Warden," "High Priest," and lastly one signed by "Captain General," "Grand Marshall," "Grand A," "Grand G" and S. B. (standard Bearer ?) .
As to the Templar Ritual used by these Craft lodges little or nothing is known, except that brethren of the Royal Arch and Templar degrees wore aprons edged with ribbons of blue, red and black.
No efforts have been spared to obtain a specimen of one of these Ancient Craft Templar Aprons, which are exceedingly rare; Frater W. Redfern Kelly, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Temple in Ireland, one of the highest Templar authorities, in a letter to the writer, states, with respect to your latter communication relative to the old "Irish Craft Aprons," which show the three colors Blue, Red and Black: "I may state that these old Aprons were supposed to be quite rare; were of purely fanciful pattern, and were adopted without any Craft or other authority by such brethren as felt so disposed, and who had received the three degrees of Craft, Royal Arch and High Knight Templar.
"The three colors, so worn, were never at any time (so far as is known) officially recognized by the Craft lodges, as authorized to be worn in connection with Symbolic Masonry. They were simply tolerated, in those good old 'happy-go-lucky' times, when regular Craft Warrants were quite unknown."
In our Museum Collection we have however an aprons showing the Craft, Royal Arch and Templar colors and emblems. This Craft Apron, made of lambskin, bound with light blue silk ribbon, is decorated with hand-painted symbolic emblems.
At the top over all is the All-Seeing Eye, then we have the Bridge of the Mediterranean Pass and the Templar Tent, below on either side are Craft and Royal Arch emblems. In the center are two large columns surmounted respectively by the sun, moon and seven stars; between the columns is the tessellated pavement in red and black indicative that the wearer had received the Royal Arch and Templar degrees.
This interesting relic of former days belonged to our late Brother Samuel H. Perkins, a member of Columbia Lodge, No. 91, St. John's Encampment, No. 4, E.G.M., 1829-30, and who during years 1839-40 was R. W. Grand Master of Pennsylvania.
There are evidences that this apron was made in Philadelphia, as on one of the pediments we have the legend of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, viz.: "SILENCE AND VIRTUE.'
If this surmise is correct, it is another evidence of the Irish influence lingering in the development of Masonic Knight Templary in Pennsylvania during the early years of the nineteenth century.
(1) "Ars Quatuor Coronati Transactions," Volume XXVI, p. 145.
(2) Chevalier Ramsay (Andrew Michael Ramsay) was a Scotchman, born at Ayr about 1680; toward the middle of the eighteenth century, we find him in France, where he developed as an inventor of Masonic Degrees, as well as a founder of a Masonic Rite. For a hundred years and more the stock histories of Freemasonry have vied with each other in ascribing to the Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay, the introduction of the higher degrees, and notably of Masonic Knight Templars. - f. "A.Q.C. Transactions," Volume XXVI, p. 60; "The History of Freemasonry," by Robert Freke Gould, London, 1887, Volume III, p. 77.
(3) Cf. "Illustrations of Masonry," by William Preston, First American edition, Portsmouth, 1804, p. 137.
(4) Dr. Francis Clements Crossle, of Trevor Hill, Newry, Ireland, was one of the highest Masonic authorities in Ireland. He served as secretary to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Down from 1888 to 1901, when he was raised to the position of R.W. Deputy Provincial Grand Master by the Duke of Connaught; he was appointed Grand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masonry in Ireland. He was also a Past Preceptor of the PTewry Preceptory of Knights Templar and was exalted to the position of P.G.K.C. For many years he used his spare time in the investigation of Masonic history and archaeological investigations.
Among his works are "A History of Freemasonry in the Province of Down," "The Three Veterans," "A History of St. Patrick's Lodge, No. 77," and of "Newry Lodge, No. 18."
In his antiquarian researches he collected impressions from seals of all of the Ancient Irish Craft lodges that could be reached. This valuable collection he presented some years ago to the writer, and it is now in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Brother Dr. Crossle died at his home on Trevor Hill, Newry, October 15, 1910. Nos. 4001-4060, Trays Nos. 18-21.
(5) "History of Nelson Masonic Lodge, No. XVIII, Newry, Ireland," by Francis C. Crossle, Newry, 1909.
(6) “A.Q.C. Transactions." Volume XXVI, p. 148.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Cf. Crossle, before quoted, p. 37.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Lodges No. 333, 336, 662, 888, 443, 211, 521, 675, 891, 822, 732, 257, 915, 923. In Crossle's collection.
(12) Cf. "Three Masonic Veterans," by Francis C. Crossle, Newry, 1897, p. 6.
(13) Ibid., p. 6.
(14) Ibid., p. 7.
(15) Volume 277, Archives of Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, p. 183.
(16) Certificate No. 2240, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(17) Certificate No. 6628, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(18) Certificate No. 6631, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(19) Certificate No. 6629, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(20) Certificate No. 2284, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(21) Certificate No. 2258, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
(22) Certificate No. 2241, Tray 45, Archives of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Size of certificate 15 1/2 x 11 1/2. Engraved by J. Quin, Belfast, 1822.
(23) Museum Collection, No. 1005, Tray 216.
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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PATRIOTIC SERVICE OF THE GRAND LODGE OF NORTH DAKOTA
Your Committee on Patriotic Service submits the following report, which embodies among other things those portions of the Grand Secretary's report dealing with public education which were referred to this Committee.
We re-affirm the principles for which Masonry has stood in the past, among which we deem of fundamental importance democracy in government, equality in education and justice to all.
There are in America today many forces operating, directly or indirectly, to undermine and destroy our system of government and free institutions. Whereas we emphatically advocate progress and growth by the natural process of evolution, yet we more emphatically denounce the doctrines of radical revolution. We have no sympathy with those who would supplant our orderly government with anarchy and chaos, "red" socialism, or any new and untried Utopian scheme.
To attain our ends and preserve for ourselves and posterity those priceless blessings of liberty and free government ordained and established by our forefathers and paid for in life-blood and treasure, we deem it essential that Masonry, but more especially the Grand Lodge of North Dakota, commit itself to the promulgation of the following propositions, namely:
First: That the Stars and Stripes marks the high tide in the ideals of mankind, and we would therefore urgently advocate the passage of a law which would prohibit under heavy penalty all display of emblems other than Old Glory, whose purpose is to swerve the loyalty of our citizens from the true principles of Americanism.
Second: That "this government is based upon a loyal and intelligent citizenship, and therefore it must control the agencies which train that citizenship, i.e., the elementary public school." To do this effectively, it is necessary that the English language as spoken by Americans be the sole medium of instruction in that school.
Third: We much prefer the elimination of the private and parochial elementary schools since the one makes for class distinction and the other for religious intolerance; but if such elimination is found inexpedient at this time, we recommend that such schools be under the close supervision of the public school officials of the state and nation, and that they be compelled to maintain the same standards required of the public schools.
Fourth: In connection with this supervision, it is the sense of this body that the just and lawfully constituted powers of the State Department of Education be returned to the official duly elected by the voters of the state for their exercise.
Fifth: In order that the standards of education in this state may be raised to the highest possible degree of efficiency, and, further, recognizing the present problem of teacher shortage and the low standard of preparation of teachers to be in the last analysis one of economics, we favor, first, a higher standard of qualifications, and, second, a compensation of teachers commensurate with the maintenance of this standard, and recommend the passage of whatever appropriate legislation that may be necessary to accomplish these ends.
Sixth: We most heartily approve the action of the Grand Lodge at its annual communication in organizing corps of Masonic Minute Men in the constituent lodges, and recommend the retention of these forces for the purposes heretofore avowed of creating among Masons a greater interest not only in Masonry, but also in the proper solution of the social and political questions which confront us as a people today.
Report adopted by Grand Lodge. June 17th. 1920.
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Where Liberty dwells there is my country. - Franklin.
A CUBAN VIEWPOINT OF WORLDS FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. F. DE P. RODRIGUEZ
CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE, CUBA
The Report of the Committee on Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Cuba is given to readers of TIIE BUILDER in advance of its publication in the Cuban Grand Lodge Proceedings. We feel sure that our members will find it of peculiar interest.
WE ARE in Lent, (1) the hurrahs and hosannas, the palms and the festivities remind us of the triumphs of new ideas even more than of the martyrdom of the Nazarene. Everything invites to meditation and rest, a full and sincere repentance cleanses the souls of the most indurate; faults must be overcome.
The same thing happens to society; reports and messages are spontaneous confessions by means of which those obliged to present them very often pronounce a mea culpa before their audiences and, notwithstanding the good faith involved in submitting to the critic the laudatory or defe'ctive deeds, socially speaking a true amendment is always supposed to come from us Masons, more than from other persons, especially when we remember that the mission of Freemasonry in the modern world is the task of redemption.
Peace is always grand, divine, necessary, and who can excel us not only in loving and desiring it, but also in preaching and applying it, praising with fruition its arrival among friends and foes? For that reason those who suffer the most to obtain it, those who sacrifice themselves the most to secure it, know best how much it is worth, and excel most in glorifying it, in singing its praises, in pretending to perpetuate it, offering on its behalf the palms and hurrahs which in times past belonged only to those who gained the material victory and today are common property, starting always with the greatest loser.
England and, on her behalf, her Grand Lodge, have been in this case the forerunners. The week included between the twenty-third and thirtieth of June, 1919, was of such immense joy to London Masons, on account of the Celebration of Peace and the entertainment afforded their guests, that it has no equal in history.
All English-speaking Grand Lodges were invited, the Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries accepting the invitation becoming the special guests of the United Grand Lodge of England while attending the ceremonies. Representatives of most of the Grand Lodges of the United States, Canada and Australia attended and, by the strangest of coincidences, nearly all of the American visitors crossed the ocean on board the Mauretania, sister ship of the ill-fated Lusitania. The kindness shown and the banquets offered culminated in a mammoth Communication held, not in the Temple in Great Queen Street - that was too small - but in Royal Albert Hall, beautifully decorated with bunting and flags, which comfortably sheltered that day 8,500 Masons, presided over by the Pro Grand Master, Lord Ampthill, the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, being unable to attend on account of sickness. How satisfied our brethren must have been when together with "God Save the King" and "The Star Spangled Banner" the exclamation "Pax Vobis" reached also the most distant places of the earth.
That was the grandest act the world has ever seen in matters Masonic, but not the greatest that could have been seen. How much better would it have been if, together with those beautiful and patriotic hymns, other national hymns were heard, as La Brabaconne, La Marseillaise, Garibaldi, and even the most humble of all, the Bayamo Hymn, (2) which, proceeding from af small nation, is not less grand or not less worthy, since for it blood was shed and many lives were lost. Let them tell us if it is not true that "to die for the country is to live," (3) living, as we do live, only to have our flag floating glorious and proud in order to keep close to us that peace so anxiously coveted.
Albion went to war ostensibly to defend the rights of a very small non-English-speaking nation; the armies of the entente were led to victory under the unique direction of a non-English-speaking General. And even Cuba, this microscopical grain of sand in the Carribean Sea, where English is not spoken by her people, contributed to the cause of the Allies (a fact still ignored by many) among other things by giving them special prices on her sugar, amounting to a gift of $160,000,000. When England, during war times (1917) celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of her Grand Lodge, all the non-English-speaking Grand Lodges immediately congratulated her, and, even more, celebrated at home, each of us, so important an event. We could have declined the advantages of the lodging, as we eat little and drink much less, we could have been satisfied with the warmth which, like that offered by the hen to her chicks, the mother owes to all her children.
* * *
We have always entertained the most firm belief that the progress which marked the nineteenth century, and even the present one, has been international and, of course, with no relation whatever to political or ethnological limits, and much less to those of philological order; but nevertheless, as this is somewhat theoretical, when we arrived at practical facts we found that education, universally considered, has intensified the devotion for the language, the ideals and even the aspirations of the various nations. As a proof of this we can refer to our North American friends.
It is generally known the influence that European immigrants has had in the neighboring Union. Immense groups of Teutons, Slavs, Irish Cents, Magyars and Italians were admitted to the country by wholesale; many of them forming afterwards special colonies which were never reached by the national language, and several not even by hygiene. Matters continued long in that way; the cries of alarm from Tangier, Agadir and Serajevo, in crossing the Atlantic, reached there so attenuated by the immense waves of the ocean that but little attention was paid to them. The legislators, protected by the historical phrases of Washington that tended to separate his country from European complications, gave themselves up to the dulce far niente. But truth triumphed, and the moment arrived when the immense waves were of no avail and they had to be crossed in haste in order to revindicate universal civilization, trampled upon, scorned and threatened with extinction. Alas, when the bugle sounded, calling to arms, no matter whether its thrilling notes were heard in those half-foreign colonies, the commanding voices were not so, because given in the official language of the country extensive groups in Wisconsin, Illinois and even in New York did not understand them, a great number of the concerned being American citizens nevertheless. Reaction immediately set in and desperate measures were immediately adopted; at the same time the military drill and the most pure English had to be taught the recruits as they were proficient in neither. The case was so original that once the American movement was started it reached as far as the Masonic lodges, since whole districts in Milwaukee, Chicago and even in the eighth, ninth and tenth districts of New York, and some particular lodges elsewhere, performed their Masonic work in their respective native languages.
The American nation entering the war, Teutonic sympathy, which was most common before, turned over, and the father, the brother or the son whose relatives had perished upon the banks of the Marne, or on the Somme, at Chateau Thierry or in the Belleau Wood began to resent hearing the notes of the German language. What to do? The example of England, where in similar cases the German brethren, to avoid friction, were asked to absent themselves from the lodges as long as the war lasted, was not heeded. Instead, force was appealed to. The principal Grand Lodges, New York and Illinois at the head, required from all their lodges the exclusive use of the English language in their Masonic labors.
The words of Grand Master Farmer, of New York, are worthy of being noted:
"That was done," he says, "not because the Masons of this jurisdiction bear any antipathy or ill will toward brethren who speak a language other than our own, not in the spirit of denunciation of foreigners or foreign language, not because we doubt any man's loyalty or integrity; but it was issued simply and solely because I believe we, as Masons, should do our part for the United States. Nations have been disrupted by differences in languages. Differences in languages have caused more wars than differences in religion; more unhappiness than all other causes combined. Any other language will offer the part of view of the foreigner, and we must not entertain any other objective than the American spirit."
We agree with that. We believe the measure perfectly legal and anyone at liberty to adopt it in his locality; but there is something to say against it. It is not equitable. It is all right that the native or naturalized citizen of a country should speak the official language of that country, but the foreigner, the diplomat, or any other resident who for many reasons does not lawfully belong to the country protecting him, is our guest, and all nations on earth should try their best to have him live comfortably in the place where he is a visitor as long as he does not trespass the laws. Such persons, we believe, do not deserve to be deprived of the use of their own language, as neither can they be deprived of their ideals nor of remembering or loving their native land. Why was a measure caused by a reprisal to the Teuton extended to thousands of Allies who communicate in the same church as Americans ?
Everyone who has for a shorter or longer period resided outside of his own country knows how his heart beats when he hears spoken a few words of his native tongue. How one expands himself when another countryman is heard speaking. He seems to have changed his residence to another world, to have returned home, especially if he is an exile or an emigrant. Fraternity and La Universal Lodges (4) will no longer be the meeting places of Cubans and Spanish-Americans, and perhaps to Cervantes (5) and Dr. Felix Varela (6) Lodges will happen the same thing if Louisiana and Florida are contaminated by New York and Illinois.
But it goes a little further yet. The forced measures which in these cases apply also to the allied brothers could also bring retaliation. What would our brethren of the Hudson shores think if any foreign Grand Lodge, imitating them, would prohibit the use of the English language in their English-speaking lodges? I do not know how other people think on this matter, but as to Cuba I believe I express the ideas of my companions in assuring the English-speaking brethren who live among us that no variation will take place. Let everyone speak his own language, let all of them maintain in our country the usages and manners peculiar to their own country. For them our arms will always be wide open, our halls also. We shall not break the laws of hospitality. As the Russian proverb says: "My friends' friends are my friends too." Let our American residents follow their proper labor, keeping in mind that "some day not far off these orders will be revoked, they are the result of patriotic exaltation the same with Latins as with Anglo-Saxons."
* * *
The results of the world war need to be studied more; it is France, the nation, that knocks at our doors. "Are we friends, or not?" they ask of those whom they received as brothers and rescuers when as they crossed the seas, remembering La Fayette by declaring "Here we are!" The question of the recognition of the Grand Orient of France has not yet been resolved by us, but this will not forbid us presenting before our companions the status of that desired rapproachement.
The question was purely dogmatic when England laid it on the board in 1877 - it was nearly forgotten when the first step in Brest of the American soldiers, in 1918, revived it. Western soldiers were received with wreaths and flowers; France is always France and always courteous and polite; none has gone further than she, the struggle between the heart and old ideas was readily begun; from then to this day, in the short space of two years, the Fraternity in North America has greatly agitated in that way. Results are evident, and if we remember that the majority of Grand Lodges in the United States meet only once a year and that general usage prescribes a motion to be presented at one Communication and acted upon at the next after hearing the report of the respective committee, we ought not to be surprised at the result. Eight Grand Lodges have already recognized the Grand Orient, fifteen the Grand Lodge of France, and two the Independent Grand Lodge - twenty-five in all. Six Grand Lodges have granted to their members the right to visit the Grand Orient, nine the Grand Lodge, six the Independent Grand Lodge, and six all French Bodies. Twenty-three are not yet in amity with any of the French Grand Bodies, while only one has granted the right to visit the French Bodies and denied to French Masons the right to visit its Grand Lodge.
All these evolutions remind us of Sir Edward Grey's doings when he tried to impose his criterion on the London Conference; by his lack of opportunity he did not avoid the second Balkan war which he hastened with the treaty of Bucharest; Albania and Macedonia continued to be the bone of contention of Slavs, Greeks and others, and the debacle came very soon.
It is time to look forward. Our Albania and Macedonia are now the extension of French liberalism which does not accept discrimination in the religious and philosophic ideas of its members. When Voltaire could sit as a Mason next to Franklin in the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris, any other man can be a Mason. Who is to blame for what happens in the American Masonic field which, as the snowball, grows by moments? Let everyone examine his own conscience.
* * *
We continue with the consequences of the war. Although it is ended, our compromises are still extant. It is no secret to anyone, the enormous defeat inflicted to American Masonry by the terrible blows of the Roman Catholic authorities in that country. Masonry did not make her benefits felt in the field of war. That was a glorious deed for the Tumultys, the Fosdicks and near of kin. In our last report we noticed it and even announced the formation in Iowa of the Masonic Service Association to eliminate the deficiencies of the American Masonic system. The coveted solidarity has been attained, the new Association progresses satisfactorily, having been accepted by nearly all of the Grand Lodges of the country. This was to be expected, as in that nation nothing is left half-done; but what has surprised many is that besides the purely philanthropic ideas, the Society has qualified as a most opportune one and, together with economic betterments, they are working in another way. Their by-laws and their organization are excellent, but it is their platform which pleases us the most. Here are some interesting points:
"1. To recast the ideals of government on the basis of the recognition and execution of our duties toward others, rather than as at present in our rights as against others; the basing of civilization on declarations of dependence, instead of on declarations of independence; on altruism instead of selfishness.
"2. To combat destructive tendencies and agencies seeking to undermine and destroy free institutions, by teaching constructively the true principles and functions of government and civilization.
"3. To arouse the conscience of every individual Mason to the necessity for his own practical application of Masonic principles to his activities in life, governmental, social, business and otherwise."
What do you think of that, now ? Were we right or not when two years ago we started sociological studies in our lodges ? Then and even now we believed that Masonry plays a most important part in the coming reconstruction of the world.
* * *
Many persons still believe that the League of Nations, now in vogue, is perhaps Utopian, and that it will not be practicable. This may be so, so far as some minor details are concerned, but taken as a whole some benefit will result - as a proof of this a League of Masons is already talked of. The idea came from Sir Alfred Robbins. Hear the initial paragraph of its exposition:
"The time has come when the ideal must be our lighthouse to guide us toward the real; not to disclose our divergences but to point the way to a still closer union. Let there be harmonious unity in all essentials, divergence in all unessentials, and in all things let us act in a spirit of charity.... May we find ways of knowing each other better, of better appreciating our various methods, ideas, realizations of the same; for the first condition of friendship is to clear away all mutual ignorance. Whilst statesmen strive to set on foot the League of Nations, let us strive to set up a League of Freemasons among ourselves and those brethren with whom we have always been in agreement on all matters of principle and practice."
I think it proper to here record some fundamental principles of sociology:
"Institutions with great difficulty cross over the frontiers of nations, the opportune moment for it has to be waited for, when a sufficiently prepared people should ask for it, it is necessary then to prepare characters that fundamental ideals should spring in them."
The present moment is opportune; the nation in this sense is the Masonic fraternity, preparation is already possessed, the exposer is Sir Alfred Robbins who, although he has addressed his call only to the brethren of his own race residing on this side of the sea, we suppose it is extended to "all with whom he has always been in agreement on all matters of principle and practice," and we believe too that this call, unlike that of the Peace Celebration, will not be confined to his English-speaking fellows because then the League would be incomplete and accordingly non-effective and would prove, besides, the expressions "Brotherhood of Man" and "Fatherhood of God" so common in Masonic rituals, to be farcical.
In olden times nations took hold of smaller ones simply to exploit them. Today democracy reigns, the former exercise their influence upon the latter for the purpose of upholding their rights, exercising over them not a sovereignty but a tutelage. Shall an International Grand Lodge come out of this proposition of a Masonic League, so opportunely presented? We shall perhaps see it, we highly desire it. Think it over carefully, whoever is certain in sustaining that Masonry unites and never disintegrates.
* * *
It seems that Masonic rapproachement will be carried on this year in an unusual way, perhaps on account of past reverses. We like Masonic Congresses, union is proclaimed in them and the regularity of their components shines in them in a clear and effectual manner.
Two Congresses will be held this year. The first, called for September 20th, in Rome, will not be so important, because the event to be commemorated will be the attainment of Italian unity - a local affair which will surely interfere with the present division of Italian Masonry. The second Congress, although decided upon for this Fall, will probably not be held until next Spring. It will assume greater importance, and will not be circumscribed to any special race or local Masonry. It will take place in Switzerland and judging from the preparations the results may be beneficial. According to the announcement sent out, the occasion must not be deferred, even if nothing more than an exchange of ideas is to be obtained. The initial paragraph of the announcement states:
"During the past years of war we frequently considered whether or not it was our mission to invite the brothers of all countries to participate in a convention for the purpose of bringing them into closer relations with one another, but after due consideration we felt convinced that the proper time had not yet arrived, and that this wish coald be realized only after the cessation of the bloody strife. Now the war is ended. Nations are beginning to resume their relations. The broken threads of manifold skeins of destiny are to be repaired. In this work qf reconstruction Freemasonry must not continue its attitude of waiting. It must no longer remain idle. For is not Freemasonry the one organization that is best qualified to further conciliation between the peoples and, by means of personal contact among its members, to aid in the advancement of Masonic ideas?"
In 1921 there will be held a Congress of Supreme Councils of the A. & A. S. R. at Lausanne, Switzerland, which should be most beneficial to members of that Rite.
* * *
Allow me, brethren, before finishing this report, leaving modesty aside, to applaud and congratulate you for the compliments and good words spoken of Cuban Masonry by sister Grand Lodges. We have, it seems, lived in a garden, and are no longer the lonesome Masons of past times. The spirits of Cassard, Castro and Almeida (7) care for us and perhaps try to keep our friends abroad well posted in our doings, that they may be appreciated when better known; the seed sown half a century ago is already producing well-seasoned fruits of which we ought to make good use.
But of all the praises lavished upon us none have gone so high as those coming from our, in past times, antagonistic sister, Illinois, the Grand Lodge which kept us waiting many years without considering us worthy of her friendship; she does not confine herself to the printing of excerpts from our reports as others do, and with an unlimited sincerity when reviewing our Report on Correspondence, says:
"The Report of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence is printed in full because it is unique and it mirrors the fraternity of the world as it is viewed by one who is working out Masonry, as he understands it, on the distant island of Cuba."
And printed in full it is. Not a letter is added nor taken from it. That, my dear brethren, is a victory for you, since I in this case have been but your mouthpiece; the trumpet of fame that has made the deeds, the tenacity and the perseverance of Cuban Masons reach the far-off lands. Accept my congratulations for it; with them goes my full soul, my best wishes and the good hope I have that among the faults that our institution may have, as a human society that it is, glories are found too, glories necessarily produced by the continued labor of the Masonic workman. Permit me to compare this victory of ours to another victory, that won on the banks of the Marne a short time ago which fully changed the destinies of Europe, to both of which applies the brief allocution addressed to his army by General Joffre, the modern Fabius, the grandpapa of his countrymen. If you substitute it in terms, days and places, you will therein find yourselves:
"The battle that has lasted five days has ended with a victory. We have successfully recuperated a most vigorous offensive. All of you, officers and soldiers, have answered nobly to the call. The country owes you much."
(1) The Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Cuba was held late in March.
(2)The Cuban National Anthem.
(3) Words of the Cuban National Anthem.
(4) The two Spanish-speaking lodges of New York City.
(5) The Spanish-speaking lodge of New Orleans.
(6) The Spanish-speaking lodge of Key West, Florida.
(7) hree most prominent Cuban Masons.
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The sublime teachings of Masonry are not simply our idealization, but a realization, and it is the ambition of every true Mason so to live that his brother man may see in him a living witness to this one great Masonic truth - the greatest possible usefulness is the highest law of Masonic life. No man is worthy of its name who is content to absorb its sunshine and yet shed no ray of light or warmth upon his fellow man. - Rev. William Wallace Youngson, Grand Orator, Oregon.
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No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. - Ben Jonson.
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Let us not say, Every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, Every man is the architect of his own character. - G.D. Boardman.
THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN PAUL JONES
BY BRO. GILBERT PATTEN BROWN, NEW JERSEY
MODESTY of station is the one quality ever commendable in the life of a great man. It is noticeably lacking in many leading men in our present civilization. Honesty of purpose is one of the many things that go to make up round character.
These are but two of the many virtues possessed by the patriot upon whom the author will touch briefly in his days of the warrior's glory, his honors and his declining years.
In the hamlet of Kirkbean, Leith, Scotland, was born on July 6th, 1747, one who was destined to play an important part in the world's progress. John Paul was the son of a poor gardner. At twelve years of age he made a voyage to Virginia, and another in 1773. His brother, who had been adopted by a planter in that State, had recently died. The old Virginia farmer had so loved the Paul boy that he had given him his name.
The connection of our hero with Freemasonry is unique and interesting. The records of St. Bernard Lodge No. 122, Kilwinning, Scotland, under the date of Nov. 27, 1770, read that "Captain John Paul of the Brig 'John'" was "entered and passed" upon that date. He was proposed by Brother James Smith who signed his name under the following language: "I do attest the petitioner to be a good man and a person whom I have no doubt will in due time become a worthy brother."
Captain Paul was at the time in the African slave trade. The Brig "John" was a "flash packet" as we sailors used to say. His application for the degrees appears in his own hand writing and is worthy of more than a passing notice for its good English, well timed philosophy and honesty of purpose. It is as follows:
"To the Worshipful, the Master, Wardens and Permanent Brethren of Free and Accepted Masons of the Lodge of St. Bernard held at Kirkcudbright. The petition of John Paul, Commander of the 'John' of Kirkendal, humbly sheweth - that your petitioner, for a considerable time past, hath entertained a strong and sincere regard for your most noble, honourable, and ancient Society of Free and Accepted Masons, but hitherto not meeting with reasonable opportunity, do now most humbly crave the benefit of receiving and admitting me into your Fraternity as an Entered Apprentice, promising, assuring and engaging to you that I shall in all rules and orders of your Lodge be most obsequient and observant. That I shall in all things deport, behave, and act answerable to the laws and instructions of the lodge, and in every thing to which I may be able liable, promising faithful obedience. The complyance of you, Right Worshipful Wardens and rest of the Brethren, will singularly oblige and very much honour, Right Worshipful, your most humble petitioner and most humble servant.
John Paul."
Such an application would in these days call the attention of the most critical of philosophers. Even such Masons as the diplomat, Benjamin Franklin, the tender Robert Burns, the scholarly Voltaire, the patriotic Thomas Paine, the honest Henry Clay, or the prudent Thomas Jefferson, could have found a fitting lesson in candor and the spirit of universal brotherhood in this application of a humble Scottish sea captain at the ebb of British despotism in the new world. There in the old "fore and aft," square rigger days nearly all sea Captains were Masons, and the deep water John Paul wished to be as good as any other man on the "quarter deck" of either merchant ship or a line of battle frigate.
Scotland is known as the home of the world's purest Masonry, and it was here that one of the cleanest minded men of the great American Revolution received his first light in Masonry.
The narrator is indebted to Past Grand Master Charles Theodore Gallagher of Massachusetts for the Masonic data here used. The spirit of liberty was in the air in the thirteen colonies, and in a day John Paul, the young sea captain, became John Paul Jones, the champion of freedom. We next see him in Philadelphia. His appearance pleases every patriot except John Adams. "Give me a ship and I will strike a blow for liberty," said the young sailor, and upon meeting the members of Continental Congress he found himself among his brethren in Freemasonry. Hancock, Bartlett, Paine, Witherspoon, Whipple, Jefferson, Clark, Rush, Lee, Thornton, Hooper and Franklin were his friends. In 1777 we find him at Portsmouth, N. H., fitting out the "Ranger." While at Portsmouth he attended church on Sunday, kept an eye on the affairs of the Colonies and soon showed the world what real sea fighting was. At that place he became associated with Captain Elijah Hall. Captain Jones chose Hall as first lieutenant of the "Ranger." The first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was celebrated by the local Masonic lodge by making Captain Hall a Mason. "May you ever abide by its lessons," said Jones to Hall. "My men for the 'Ranger'," said Captain Jones, "shall be the picked sons of New England."
It is more than probable that Captain Jones visited St. John's Lodge No. 1 of Portsmouth while there fitting out the "Ranger," as his chief associates in that place were active members of this the second oldest lodge in New England. In more than a score of places do the records read "and visiting brethren." Sometimes the secretary would use the initials "V. B." While at Portsmouth he was the lion of society. His brethren in the Craft, Commodore Abraham Whipple, John Manley, Samuel Tucker and Edward Preble - New England Masons and active in the War of the Revolution, held him in high esteem.
The "Ranger" did invaluable service. Victory after victory crowned Jones' name. Upon arriving in Paris upon one celebrated victory he was honored. The "Lodge of Nine Sisters" of Paris, of which Franklin was Senior Warden, elected the hero of the seas to active membership. In open lodge that evening Captain Jones said, "Brethren, this is the proudest moment of my life." It was truly a "gathering of the gods" - the great men of Paris were present. Scientist and peasant, Catholic and Protestant - all members of the world's most cosmopolitan Masonic lodge greeted the greatest of naval warriors upon that sublime and august occasion. Several Jesuit priests, members of the lodge of the Nine Sisters and other French lodges, were present in clerical garb. The handsome, modest and God-loving John Paul Jones greeted them all with a heart free from bigotry and a welcome hand to all right thinkers.
The next honor conferred upon him was by Louis XVI, who knighted him for his victory over the Serapis, making him a Chevalier of the Royal Order of Military Merit, and giving him a gold mounted sword, both unusual honors. Congress was large of heart but small of means and it thanked him.
Of these honors it is hard to say which Jones appreciated the more. He was proud of the title "American," but his tastes made the attentions of the polished society of France highly congenial.
In spite of his fame, Paul Jones, the Knight, had quite as many difficulties to surmount as had young John Paul, the Scottish sailor lad from the banks of the Solway.
When he took his prize into the Dutch port at the Texel, after the great fight off Flamborough Head (Sept. 23, 1779), he was denounced by the British Minister to Holland as a pirate. In the contest covering several weeks Paul Jones showed himself as much a diplomat as the British Minister, and managed to keep his ships in port until a favorable opportunity came for him to escape, which he did in a gale that drove the British fleet that was watching him off the coast.
But he was deprived of command of the captured Serapis, on which his heart was set. She was claimed as a King's prize, because the ship in which he made the capture, the Bon Homme Richard, had been given him by Louis.
This was a hard blow to Jones, but he bore it with fortitude. He next expected to command the Alliance, from which the mad Landais had fired on him in the battle with the Serapis. Here again fate thwarted him. Arthur Lee, who had been one of the American Commissioners to France, plotted for Landais to retain the Alliance, contrary to Dr. Franklin's orders, and Landais sailed in her to America, only to be arrested by his own officers on the voyage as insane.
Jones was delayed in Europe, exchanging prisoners and looking out for the prize money due him and his men, until late in 1780, when he came to the United States in the Ariel.
Before the matter of his prizes was settled the war was over. His last important command, therefore, was the one that had brought so much glory to the flag, that of the old Bonne Homme Richard. He was on active duty five years and five months.
Jones' contentions for his prizes called him to Norway, to Denmark and to Holland, where for many months he acted the part of an admiralty lawyer combined with that of a diplomat. This work occupied him until he entered the service of Catherine of Russia, a chapter in his career little understood, but entirely to his credit. The Empress conferred upon him the rank of Rear Admiral. Foreign ambassadors and nobles thronged his residence.
It has been claimed that he "abandoned the American service," but this was unjust criticism. Until his death he considered himself an American naval officer, subject to the call of his country.
It is with Jones as a lover in his last days that the student of history lingers. He was knighted June 28, 1780. At this period of his career he was the idol of the best society in Paris, the lion of the hour in the most fashionable drawing-rooms, the best-dressed and the wittiest man in every assemblage he graced. He was then 33 years old. What a picture was his, handsome and brave a bachelor before the society of France. Widows courted him by the score. The slight defects of character in Jones sprang from his want of early education. The name of Paul Jones was upon the lips of all France.
At this time he met a girl of 20, the winsome Aimee de Telison. She was a daughter of Louis XVI. She was small, vivacious, witty and handsome, with a mass of dark auburn hair, and a clear, rosy complexion.
She fell in love with Jones, and he with her. Although he had been smiled upon by the handsomest and highest women of the court he turned from them all to this modest girl, who figured socially merely as the protege of a highborn duchess.
Their love had the enduring foundation of mutual respect and congenial tastes, and furnishes a fitting lesson for all young people of the twentieth century. It had not many months to ripen before Jones was obliged to leave France for the United States; but in the years that followed there beat always for him one pure heart in Paris that of Aimee de Telison.
When Jones was in France she acted as his secretary, helping him with his voluminous correspondence, translating letters and documents, advising and suggesting as only an intelligent and educated woman seeing with the eyes of love could, and in every way assisting him in his career.
The letters they exchanged in his long absence have not all been preserved, but those saved breathe a pure and lofty devotion on both sides.
When death claimed Paul Jones, but one heart was wrung with grief that could not be softened, and that was Aimee de Telison's. She was near him in his last days - her home was not far from the house where he lodged in Paris - his devoted nurse. In his will he gave her a third of his property and settled an annuity on her.
Once during the most pleasing days of Jones' social life in France "a charming but antiquated widow" of Paris made love to the bachelor-hero, and during her affectionate remarks, inquired of the peerless seafighter why he cared so much for the young lady in question. In all the ardor of his frank manhood he replied: "She is the most beautiful young woman I ever met, I love her for her loyalty, all that belongs to me I would trust in her care." During his remarks he looked the antique widow "straight in the eyes." She soon made her way from his office to seek greener fields.
The storm of the French revolution was then about ready to break and the future looked dark to all connected with the royal house of France. The King and Queen were to go to the block, but Aimee de Telison survived and lived to earn her living, when the war had passed, as a translator for a Napoleonic newspaper and also as a teacher of English. Trace of her career after the fall of Napoleon had been lost.
John Paul Jones died in Paris July 18, 1792. Patriotism was his watchword, creed entered not into his life.
He left a name that shall live as long as a ship of any sort rides the billows of the mighty deep. On American soil rests that Christian without a creed, the best of whose life went forth to the cause of liberty. He loved all and hated none.
One cannot think of John Paul Jones, the poor bov. the sailor lad at sea. the merchant marine captain, the volunteer for liberty, the naval officer, the humbler of Mother England's pride, the Knight at the Court of France, the Worshipper at Masonry's Shrine, and finally the hero lying more than a century in a lost grave in Paris, to be claimed at last by a grateful Nation, whose glory he had first emblazoned to the world on the seas - without thinking also of the one permanent love interest in his life, the devotion of the young, beautiful, soft-hearted and good Aimee de Telison.
The Russian Government, shortly before his death, voted him a command in the navy of that country with the rank of Vice Admiral. Admiral Jones viewed it as a call to take part in a race war and as he was not of that type of a man refused the command.
The one thing above all ever commendable in the life of our hero was that he was chivalric in his admiration of women.
The last days of John Paul Jones give a never tiring charm to world biography. While the stars shine and the Navy of the great western Republic sails the Seven Seas, the name of John Paul Jones will serve to inspire all lovers of universal liberty. In every State in these United States there should be at least one body of the Masonic Institution named in honor of the world's peerless warrior on the great deep.
THE CROSS AND THE ROSE
BY BRO. C. SPURGEON MEDHURST, CHINA
Notes Of an address delivered before the Tung Te Chapter of the Rose Croix, No. 4, Peking, China.
The highest truths can be communicated only in symbol. Masonry could not, if it would, state in plain language all that it means. It is an attempt to dramatize by a variety of devices a universal experience - the consciousness that something essential to complete happiness is often sought for, is never found. To demonstrate this by examining each of the thirty-two of our Masonic degrees would be on this occasion impracticable. I confine myself, therefore, as is appropriate to our present convention, to an attempt to elucidate the meaning of the emblem of the Chapter of the Rose Croix.
Both the rose and the cross are wide-spread religious symbols, but it would serve no good purpose at this time to catalogue the places where the symbology crops up. You will find a brief resume in "Morals and Dogma," and more extensive references in any standard work on comparative religion. Few symbols are more universal. The Cross represents the Eternal in time; the Rose the Eternal in timelessness. We cannot have one without the other.
The Cross points to the four quarters of the compass. The Cross then as a symbol is coextensive with Creation. Nevertheless the Cross is something cut from the whole. It is a part only; it is not the whole. Its story is a tale of limitation, and limitation is loss, pain, sacrifice. The Cross is hard and harsh. It speaks of crucifixion, and our religious records tell us of several crucifixions besides the great World-Story of Redemption told in connection with Christianity, for what is crucifixion but one-pointed concentration on the ideal of life, a stretching of the whole being towards the attainment of the One Thing which will satisfy. Only this way can we reach the Rose.
If the Cross symbolizes the necessary limitations of our human conceptions the Rose is the emblem of their transcendence. Permit me to explain myself a little more fully. This universe lies under the law of opposites. You cannot think of anything without thinking of its opposite. The thought of good suggests evil, you cannot conceive evil except in relation to good. Yet, though bound hand and foot by evil, you cannot escape reverence for the good. There was never yet a man so bad that he did not respect someone else because he felt that other was better than he. The law of opposites extends to the most inner of the worlds we know; it reigns, as far as we can see, in the outermost regions of all that we are acquainted with, and we are conscious that while subject to this opposition we shall never hear the mystic "Peace be Still," for the utterance of which we axe all longing. The truth therefore, the Reality, must lie beyond our world of opposites. It can neither be good nor evil, but something else which, in some way beyond our apprehension, is the fruit of both. This Third, the Lost Word, the Something for which we are looking but never find, is symbolized by the Rose. Our rituals cannot fully explain. They only supply substitutes. No man can do more than this for his brother. The attainment of the Rose which springs from the Cross is not an intellectual process translatable into language; it is a mystic inner growth, realized only by Life. It is a realization of the integral unity of all, a variant of the instinct which causes each cell in a living body though living for itself, and feeding itself, to respond to a common reaction and to work as a unit when the need's of the controlling life so demand. This is why the beehive finds a place among our symbols. Though not organically one, bees are so organized that no individual of the hive can live separate from the rest, beyond a certain time.
I therefore invite you to the Cross that you may know the Rose it bears. This flower grows nowhere else. It has its roots in pain and limitation. In other words we only appreciate the beauty and fragrance of the Rose as we face the strain of the crucifixion of the Cross. Let us not fear the discipline of the Cross, it is the highway to the Rose. When we bury our faces in its velvety petals, repenting of our past unbrotherlinesses, and our past harshnesses, we find that we ourselves are the heart of the Rose, that eternal flower of perennial beauty at the centre of things. Know then, knights and brethren of the Rose Croix, that one day, when you shall be able to part from this self which for the sake of self-development you have cut out from the whole, even as the Cross is a fragment of Infinity, you will find a grander, greater, finer, and more comprehensive individuality in the unity of The Whole. This I take it is the alpha and omega of Masonry, it welds us together as brothers pledged each to support the other, that it may teach us this great lesson. This, I take it, is the meaning of the Lost Word, a word which is indeed ineffable, though the tenor of its significance may be caught from a saying of the first Wise Master of the Rose Croix: "At that time you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me and that I am in you"; and also from a statement by another great master in our order: "Then cometh the End, when he is to surrender the kingship to God, the Father, when he shall have overthrown all other government and all other authority and power." (1 Cor. 15-24).
EDITORIAL
BUILD FOR TOMORROW
THE FRENZY with which we are living these days is likely to render us incapable of the reflection that is conducive to our happiness. We often hear it suggested that it is more of work that our generation needs, that it is too indolent, likewise too extravagant. But here, be it observed, there.is an apparent contradiction, as the restlessness that is allied to our extravagance gives ample proof that we are not indolent. There does not seem to be any lack of the expenditure of energy. The complaint must be that the energy is expended unwisely. The mad frenzy which has gripped us has hurried us into an incoherent way of living. The world, rushing pen men towards what seems like inevitable disaster cannot be aware of the danger and peril that is attending it.
Hence, as always, the halt must be called and a detachment from life must be made in order that the extremities to which we are coming, if something is not done to prevent, may be fully apprehended.
The lives of all who have acquired greatness, reveal the fundamental necessity of detachment from their usual activities in life.
We have, during the latter years, heard a great deal among Masons of that Oriental philosophy, mystic in its nature which has counselled men to withdraw and get acquainted with their inner selves. Such advice may be eminently worth while, but our reason for desiring the detachment from the outward activities for a brief while (and it is only a brief while that can be spared) is that more may gain the clear perception that will reveal to them things as they really are in the world.
We recall in connection with the lecture on the twenty-four-inch gauge, that in its being divided into twenty-our equal parts, it is emblematical of the twenty-our hours of the day. Eight hours we learn are for the service of God, and a distressed worthy brother; eight hours are for our general vocations, and eight for our refreshment and sleep. To an observance of this Masonic rule as a principle for the world, men are gradually responding. The regrettable thing is that Masons who have been enjoined to be governed by this rule observe it more in the breach than in action.
Work and play to most people today are the two poles of life, but if we would believe the wise men who sponsored the rule that the twenty-our-nch gauge symbolizes man's life, we live not only by work and play, but by worship as well, and worship suggests quiet, meditation, introspection and retrospection. It is the channel whereby poise is acquired, courage renewed and inspiration derived. It is the march to the mountain top whence things may be seen in their proper proportion, and if we were to epitomize in one word the main cause of our ills individually and socially, these ills and diseases would have to be suggested by the word disproportion.
We view things from individual angles with our biases, prejudices, grievances and hatreds. To consider other men's problems from their point of view is a custom that the world is pretty much alien to. If we have grievances our continuous dwelling upon them magnifies them out of all proportion and thus we become obsessed with the thought that we of all men are the most burdened with trials and tribulations. If we generalize this thought, so as to affect society, we will readily appreciate how the various classes with their individualistic contention for recognition of demands, frequently magnify their grievances out of all proportion.
This habit of thinking selfishly leads men into grooves that transform them into a disgruntled and egotistic set, and they become a menacing power. While things are bad, let us assure ourselves that they are not so bad as yet, but that they might become worse, if a continuance of class antagonism is persisted in. To clamor for certain things may ultimately bring them, but with their attainment may come also damaging consequences which will render their attainment utterly worthless. Ambition overleaping itself brings retribution.
The apparent apology for the ambitions of various groups of men seems to be on the ground that they are entitled to more of this world's goods than they possess. So far so good. We have no question but that exploitation of the working man has inflated the pocketbooks of many, and the arrogancy of profiteer and exploiter no doubt arouses to immeasurable anger those who feel that they have been exploited. Calm reflection regarding the issue of such discontentment which manifests itself in industrial warfare warrants us in declaring that the wise way of adjusting economic troubles, so that the legitimate balance is arrived at, is through those channels that Constitutional Government provides for the adjustment of all troubles affecting people living under its authority.
In the meantime, let the work of production and distribution continue. For the reflection that we induce men to make will bring to their notice that neither strike nor lock-ot has ever been conducive to the happiness and welfare of men. Constitutional government affords any group under its authority with the means to redress their wrongs, and since the ballot has been obtained and is fast becoming the universal possession of both men and women, it ought not to be hard to bring conviction that ballots are more powerful than bullets, whether those be of lead or of the strike, which often hits a people as vitally as bullets.
Striking, no matter how justified it might have been, and is in some instances even yet, has become a pernicious habit and it is readily seen that prices and wages but accentuate the pyramid of the high cost of living, and in no wise assure a satisfactory solution for our grievous economic problems.
If the world could but afford to take a week's vacation and had sufficient quietness of mind to apprehend with what fury and frenzy we have conducted things since the close of the great war, it would readily come to the conclusion that no ultimate end which would be worth while could be obtained by a continuance of the frenzied mode of living. The hope of the idealist during the great war was that through its instrumentality certain great lessons of humanity would be learned that would tend to make all peoples seek a common ground where the adjustment of problems would obviate the necessity of war. Such a hope, on an international plane, because of the cupidity manifested by great powers, is fast becoming a matter of despair. Likewise it was believed that in national activities where all national agencies are woven into a co-perative whole to pursue the desired end would result in impressing upon a people that their mutual happiness was best assured as community interests gained pre-eminence in their consideration rather than individual interests. The flagrant abuses of privileges enjoyed, the lessening of efficiency and the growing arrogance of some corporational workers who were supervised by the government, instead of being conducive to economic harmony, ushered men everywhere into the maelstrom of selfish greed.
We believe that among the things that are fundamentally wrong is the failure to grasp in a different way the universal need of the hour. That men should have work at which they receive a living wage whereby they are enabled to live in comfort and propagate and educate their kind is a fundamental necessity. That they sue for wages and conditions of labor for this end is truly laudable, but observation seems to indicate that where men could live within such a province they are actuated by an ulterior motive which urges them to desire luxuries that could be lived without. We must emphatically face this fact too, that where classes seek power through certain of their numbers, those whom they champion for power and leadership must be men of comprehensive vision of the needs of all the people.
It must no longer be said either, that corporational power through the instrumentality of certain men that they studiously support, can thereby corrupt the vested interests. Reverting to one of the great lessons of the war, we adjudge the necessity of the moment would be that the sacrifices that were manifested at that time should be translated into the variety of activities that are incident to a nation at work today until the equilibrium of national stability is again arrived at. We venture further to promulgate the theory that doing unto others as we would have done unto us is eminently practicable as a rule for the government of men. Indeed only under such a rule can the brotherhood of man be transformed from a theoretical concept into a practical working ideal. Let the cupidity fed capitalist who thrives on the blood of children coined into profits come to the place where he postulates that child as his very own. Let the malevolent plotters of strikes and black lists be brought face to face with that vast innocent third party which is murderously affected by their obedience to the mandates of industrial demagogues. Let all of us who live under the Stars and Stripes and claim this land as our very own, apprehend thoroughly that this land belongs to no one party, clique or sect, and that each of us is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and legislate in the light of these golden principles. Then will it be that we will make headway towards the realization in these United States of that fraternity of interests that will manifest us to the world, as a people worthy of being distinguished under the appellation "America" and not as a conglomeration of units, without program or policy for their government or mutual intercourse. Brain power and brawn power must be granted the legitimate rights that are within the gift of the republic.
The exploiter who by the trick of trade amasses his millions over night, and the land monopolist who is persistently making more aggravating the housing problems, together with the four-flushing politician and agitating demagogue whose highest glory are the plums of office, must be repudiated once and forever.
As Masons we must stand behind those men, true and tried whether they be of us or not, who can represent people without the reference to the clamorings of his native constituency for this or that reform which enhances his chances for reselection. Such a man will have the courage to go against the people when the people are wrong. The shibboleth of the voice of the people being the voice of God must be done away with. For experience teaches us through such trials as were incident to the French Revolution, that the voice of the people very frequently is the voice of madness.
The period of reflection that we enjoin will be the period in which man comes face to face with the issue that things to be fundamentally right must be right in the sight of God. Except the Lord build the house, they who labor build in vain and it must be built with reference to men, women and especially little children.
We must look beyond today and shape our policies with reference to tomorrow. Men should live with reference to posterity. What we have missed, our children should realize; and if by any means we damn their lives by pernicious and easy living and mad warfare today, thrice damned will we be in their sight in the tomorrow. - Robert Tipton.
THE LIBRARY
EDITED BY BRO. ROBERT TIPTON
The object of this Department is to acquaint our renders with time-tried Masonic books not always familiar; with the best Masonic literature now being published; and with such non-Masonic books as may especially appeal to Masons. The Library Editor will be very glad to render any possible assistance to studious individuals or to study clubs and lodges, either through this Department or by personal correspondence.
It will be our aim to publish in this Department each month a list of such publications as we may be able from time to time to secure for members of the Society. However, a book listed herein this month may be out of stock next month, and further copies unobtainable, and for this reason it is recommended that when ordering books or pamphlets from these lists the latest monthly issue of THE BUILDER be consulted, and no orders be made from lists more than thirty days old.
In the monthly reviews the names and addresses of the publishers of the books are given in order that our readers may order such books direct from the publishers instead of through the Society. In many instances the books may be found in stock at local book stores.
THE SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY
"The Symbolism of Freemasonry," by Albert G. Mackey. Obtainable through the Office of the Secretary, National Masonic Research Society, Anamosa, Iowa, at $3.15, postpaid.
THE GENIUS of Freemasonry from its beginning has been expended in bringing men to the knowledge of the sovereignty of God and the immortality of man's soul. The manner in which its genius was most potently manifested was through the utilizing of the symbol and legend in communicating the knowledge of the eternal verities to men. Man is but a grown up child, and as long as the earth remains will his apprehension and understanding of certain things of primary importance be through symbolic teaching. For today, as of yore, man's amazement and natural limitations forbid him articulating in speech the thing which he feels deepest within him.
To watch him as he emerges from the darkness into the dawn is to appreciate his great dependency upon the heritage bequeathed to him by a remote ancestry, who had presupposed certain things as significant of necessary truths and had treasured those legendary tales which were powerful determining factors in his life.
Whence man obtained the first ideas of God and immortality of the soul no man truly knoweth. Modern studies in animism and kindred subjects might lead one to dispute the naive statements made by Dr. Mackey, that most probably the ideas of God and immortality had been communicated by direct inspiration from God to man. But if some have grown so wise and learned that they cannot bear to identify God as a direct inspirer of these fundamental truths to which man has clung from the remotest antiquity (and needs must explain the early work and worship of the most primitive man on anthropormorphic grounds), he will still find in Dr. Mackey's work the only plausible solution of how truths were handed down from one generation to another, shaping their moral aims and determining their destiny.
There is no need to quarrel with this work so charmingly written and no less valuable because of its major premise suggesting that at the beginning of time God, by direct inspiration, had communicated the imperishable doctrines that are destined to be man's last interest upon the earth, as well as his first.
Masonry as a philosophy seeks to reveal and interpret the significance of fundamental phenomena of human experience. It endeavors to grasp the ultimate, and from remotest times man's energy has been directed in this channel. The two primary questions of importance that nave engaged the minds of all primitive peoples have been the idea of God and life after death. The animistic view of things modern scholars conceive of having been as universal among primitive peoples. The world was governed, if primitive mind could apprehend government at all, by arbitrary rulers, whose favor must be courted and whose wrath must be appeased. And man's belief in after life was actuated by the dreams he had. He conceived of himself not as a material body and an immaterial mind, but rather an acting, feeling, thinking body. But alongside of this modern concept explaining to the scientist the anthropormorphic belief, we have that mass of legend to which Doctor Mackey gives credible support and which discovers for us that the concept of God and immortality were well defined beliefs in the minds of men in the early dawn of human history; that through the great patriarchial line, spoken of in the bible, these truths were transmitted from one generation to another.
Mackey's chapter on the Noachites intimates at what has become the explanation of modernism in regard to primitive belief, but refers to them as being corruptions and deteriorations of the doctrines so zealously transmitted by Noah to his descendants.
As an aid to research, this work of Doctor Mackey's will lend the proper impetus to the young student in Masonry. Of interest will be Mackey's suggestion regarding pure Freemasonry and spurious Freemasonry. Spurious Freemasonry he will discover to be those mysteries of Greece and Egypt, whereby the uninitiated were brought into an atmosphere of learning, and whereby, through the aid of symbolism, they were acquainted with the truths of God and immortality. An acknowledgment of the rightness of Mackey's contention as to how spurious Freemasonry was generated might be hard to obtain among scholars of today.
The evolutionary theory, which has saturated thinking people so thoroughly, would forbid the acceptance of what seems in Mackey's opinion to be very much like the worn out dogmas of ecclesiasticism. Nevertheless the work will enhance interest in the true nature of Freemasonry.
Primitive Freemasonry no doubt consisted entirely in philosophic speculation, but with the race development and the increase of what Doctor Mackey suggests as a sort of social degeneracy, the necessity of using the symbol became imperative. We delight in the reference the author makes to the veracity of the legend, irrespective of whether the legend has any historical basis or not, as the truth set forth by aid of the legend is the all-important thing in Freemasonry. Whether or not there be any historical warrant for the drama of the Third degree, the truth communicated through it is the unceasing verity necessary for man's human comfort.
In almost elementary fashion Doctor Maekey has succeeded in giving the sources and suggestions of the development of the legendary matter which makes up so much of Masonic teaching. As he says, the nineteen propositions announced contain a brief but succinct view of the progress of Freemasonry, from its origin in the early ages of the world simply as a system of religious philosophy, through all the modifications to which it was submitted in the Jewish and Gentile races, until at length it was developed to its present perfected form.
It will be of interest to observe the primary reason for the necessity of such an institution as Freemasonry. The corrupt but worldly mind appears ever as unfit to receive the choicest truths that man may know anything about. All great masters of men have drawn unto themselves those rare spirits that could enter into their thoughts and appreciation of the moral worth and beauty of the things that they transmitted to them.
From the standpoint of present day learning it is easily apprehended how, through the channel of oral transmission, many of the precious things communicated in their purity could ultimately become distorted and, as we have read somewhere, no doubt these distortions ultimately acquire such proportions that the true symbolic significance would ultimately become entirely lost. But we can well assure ourselves that since Freemasonry has succeeded in perpetuating the primary concept of the sovereignty of God and the hope of immortality, that the things of symbolism whose true meaning has been forever lost could not have been of the great importance that probably some have attached in latter-day speculation to the significance of the symbol. Of particular value for Masons today will Doctor Mackey's book be, when we apprehend the trend of the present movement in Freemasonry to apply itself more persistently in the shaping of our social destiny.
Of little value indeed is any institution today unless it has a word to say in the effort to bring about human adjustment to highest ideals. The tenor of Masonic thought hitherto has been in view of the after life.
A preparation in this world through the practice of wise morality which would insure immortality to man has been the burden of Masonic teaching. But even as institutional religion has been concerned with the saving of men for heaven yonder, and today are feeling the urge to create, establish and continue a heaven here so that man will be worthy of a heaven hereafter, even so the gist of Masonic efforts is identically in the saxne direction. But the pendulum may swing too far, and instead of creating in man a proportional view of life which may direct him strenuously in the channels of earth activity it may swing toward malting his ultimate destiny an oppression by a materialistic philosophy which but bodes a fullsome enjoyment of this earth, but leaves man as most miserable through not preserving within him a strong hope of immortal life.
Freemasonry, through symbolical and legendary teaching, will save those who are admitted into the fold from such crass materialism. No man initiated today as men were initiated into the Egyptian mysteries of centuries ago, can release himself from the unforgettable scenes of the significance of life and death as demonstrated in the dramatized Hiramic legend. To know the history and purport of Masonic legend read this concise exposition of Doctor Mackey.
AUGUST BOOK LIST
The following list embraces practically all the standard works on Masonry which we are able to secure and keep in stock for the accommodation of individual members of the Society, Study Clubs and Lodges.
We are finding it more difficult each year to procure new or second-hand copies of the earlier works on Masonry of which, owing to the limited market for them at the time of their publication, but a small number of copies were printed.
We are continually in search for additional items which will be listed in this column whenever it is our good fortune to secure them.
It is suggested that the latest list be consulted before sending in orders and that no orders be made from lists more than one month old, since our stock of these books is limited and a book listed this month may be out of stock by the time next month's list is published.
Since the publishers are constantly increasing their prices to us the following prices are subject to such changes.
PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BY THE SOCIETY
1915 bound volume of THE BUILDER $3.75
1916 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1917 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1918 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.75
1919 bound volume of THE BUILDER (for delivery about
February 1st or 15th) 3.75
Philosophy of Freemasonry, Pound 1.25
Freemasonry in America Prior to 1750, Melvin M. Johnson, P.G.M., Massachusetts 1.35
1722 Constitutions ( reproduced by photographic plates from an original copy in the archives of the Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids). Edition limited, 2.00
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," Bro. J. W. Barry, P. G. M., Iowa, red buffing binding, gilt lettering, illustrated. A story of the Flag and Masonry, 1.25
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," paper covers .50
"Further Notes on the Comacine Masters," W. Ravenscroft, England. A sequel to "The Comacines, Their Predecessors and Their Successors," a Masonic digest of Leader Scott's book "The Cathedral Builders" and containing the latest researches of Brother Ravenscroft which present a very logical argument for the connection of Freemasonry of the present day with the Roman Collegia and traveling Masons of the early times, paper covers, illustrated .50
Symbolism of the First Degree, Gage, pamphlet .15
Symbolism of the Third Degree, Ball, pamphlet .15
Symbolism of the Three Degrees, Street, 68 pages, paper covers. The lessons and symbols of each degree traced to their origin, in every instance that it has been possible to so trace them. Brother Street gives many explanations of our symbols in this little book on which our monitors but vaguely touch .35
Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, Waite, pamphlet .15
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PUBLICATIONS FROM OTHER SOURCES IN IN STOCK AT ANAMOSA
"The Builders," a Story and Study of Masonry, by Brother Joseph Fort Newton, formerly Editor-in-Chief of THE BUILDER $ 1.75
Mackey's Encyclopaedia, 1919 edition, in two volumes, Black Fabrikoid binding 16.00
Symbolism of Freemasonry, A. G. Mackey 3.15
Masonic Jurisprudence, A. G. Mackey 3.15
Masonic Parliamentary Law, A. G. Mackey 2.65
Concise History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould 4.50
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The foregoing prices include postage and insurance or registration fee on all items except pamphlets. The latter will be sent by regular mail not insured or registered.
MASONRY ON SOUTH AMERICA
(COMPILED BY BRO. ROBERT I. CLEGG, NEW YORK)
Country
Country Lodges Lodges Members Members
1913 1919 1913 1919
Argentine (Grand Lodge) ----- 50 ------ 2,500
“ (Grand Orient) 139 139 4,500 4,500
Brazil (National Grand Orient) 390 582 15,000 40,000
“ (Rio Grande do Sul
Grand Orient) 39 40 2,142 2,337
“ (Independent Grand
Orient do San Paulo) ---- ----- ------ ----
“ (Grand Orient at
Curutyba) 12 12 580 580
Chile (Grand Lodge) 27 27 3,618 3,618
Colombia (Grand Orient) --- 7 --- 400
" (Grand Lodge) --- 9 --- 400
Ecuador --- 5 --- 200
Paraguay (Grand Orient) 9 9 812 912
Peru --- 33 --- 1,000
Nicaragua --- 3 --- 150
Uruguay (Grand Orient) 18 18 --- 580
Venezuela (Grand Orient) --- 1 --- 92
“ (Grand Lodge) 24 20 1,673 2,440
“ (Sovereign Grand
Lodge) --- 9 --- ---
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A man must require just and reasonable things if he would see the scales of obedience properly trimmed. From orders which are improper, springs resistance which is not easily overcome. - Basil.
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Let us have faith that Right makes Might and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it. - Lincoln.
THE QUESTION BOX
THE BUILDER is an open forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its contributors writes under this own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. Believing that a unity of spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research Society, as such, does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over against another, but offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, leaving each to stand or fall by its own merits.
The Question Box and Correspondence Column are open to all members of the Society at all times. Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects are earnestly invited from our members, particularly those connected with lodges or study clubs which are following our "Bulletin Course of Masonic Study." When requested, questions will be answered promptly by mail before publication in this department.
MEMBERSHIP OF VARIOUS FRATERNAL ORDERS
What is the membership of the following Societies according to the latest figures:
Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus, B.P.O. Elks and Knights of Pythias? S. D., Wisconsin.
The following tables of membership are quoted from the latest available reports as published in the World Almanac for 1920:
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Grand Lodges 68. Subordinate Lodges 17,621. Membership, Dec. 31, 1918, 2,226,562. (These figures comprise the United States and foreign countries.)
Knights of Columbus. Councils 1,894. Membership, Sept. 1, 1918, Insurance 156,469, Associate 395,674, total 541,143. The New York World of June 2, 1920, in the report of the State Convention just then being held in Glens Falls, N. Y., noted that there were 1,975 Councils and a membership of 633,978, a gain of 160,000 in the last year, of which 37 per cent. (23,695) was gained in New York State.
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Lodges 1,374. Membership 600,000.
Knights of Pythias. State Domains 55. Membership, Jan. 1, 1919, 698,840.
On pages 83 and 84 of the March, 1920, issue of THE BUILDER will be found a statistical table of the Masonic membership in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and Australia totaling 19,235 Subordinate Lodges and 2,607,399 members. It will be noted that these figures do not include South America or European countries other than Great Britain which would probably bring the world total closely to 3,000,000.
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ADMIRAL SIMS AN EPISCOPALIAN
Will you please inform: me through the columns of THE BUILDER if Admiral Sims of the U.S. Navy is a Mason?
R.F.C., Kansas.
Admiral Sims is not a Mason. His church affiliations are Episcopalian.
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DETAILS OF THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
Have you any information regarding the details connected with the relationship of Solomon, King of Israel, and Hiram, King of Tyre ?
How the Sidonians helped at the building of the Temple?
Just how, in detail, they found the timbers ? How they were paired off as workmen ? As overseers ? Their names ? What were they called? How the material was transferred to the Israelites ? E. H., Iowa.
Almost little is known sn the above subjects save such information as we have in the Old Testament. Certain portions of that account cannot bear critical examination, but most of it can, and the student who is curious to learn how the story of the building of the Temple has survived the ordeals of biblical criticism is advised to read some good modern commentary, sueh as any volume found, for example, in The International Critical Commentary.
Archeologists (some of whom were English Masons, by the way,) have unearthed some of the original foundation stones on some of which the old Phoenician Mason Marks are still discernable. H. L. H.
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CORRESPONDENCE
MORMONS AND MASONS
Under the above heading in the Correspondence Column of the May issue of THE BUILDER appear two or three statements which seem not quite to accord with the facts. While, it is true, these are not matters of importance, it is well for us to endeavor to keep the "record straight."
In the first place, the writer of these lines does not agree with the negative answer returned to the question: Was Brigham Young, the Morman, a Mason ? The following considerations have led to the conviction that Brigham Young was a Mason.
1. Apparently all of the leaders and principal men, as well as large numbers of the rank and file of the Mormon church in the Nauvoo days, were members of the Nauvoo lodges. In the absence of any statement to the contrary, or even so much as the suggestion of a reason to account for a different course on the part of this one prominent leader, the presumption would be strongly in favor of his having taken the degrees.
2. In a finely illustrated booklet published by the Deseret News in 1906, entitled "The City of the Saints in Picture and Story," is to be found another bit of evidence which points in the same direction. Concerning this work the publishers state "The contents of the work may be relied upon as authentic and up-todate, having been compiled with the utmost care from the latest obtainable data."
On page 34 of this book is a picture of "Brigham Young as Governor of Utah in 1850." This picture has the appearance of having been reproduced from an ambrotype. In the center of the shirt front shown in this picture is the conventional Masonic emblem - the square and compasses. It is hardly conceivable that this emblem would have been worn if the wearer had not been introduced to the mysteries of Masonry.
3. On page 191, volume I, of Apostle Orson F. Whitney's ponderous History of Utah occurs a statement which furnishes more conclusive evidence. After speaking of the return of the Apostles from Europe; the plans for building up Nauvoo, and of the recent impetus given to the work of building the Temple, the writer says "A Masonic Temple was likewise projected at Nauvoo, and Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young and other leading Mormons became Freemasons."
The foregoing facts, taken together, seem to leave little room for doubt that Brigham Young was a Mason.
At the beginning of the second paragraph, under the above caption, occur the words: "From Gould's History we learn that the Grand Lodge of Illinois, in 1842, granted a dispensation for a lodge at Nauvoo...." This statement is not quite accurate. The records show that Grand Master Abraham Jonas and not Grand Lodge, granted the dispensation to Nauvoo Lodge (Proc. Ill., 1842, p. 52), and that the year was 1841 (Oct. 16) and not 1842 (ibid p. 68).
Of course, Gould's statement may have been intended to be general, only.
The necessity for the appointment of a committee "to examine the work of the lodge" - referred to in the paragraph under consideration - would have been made apparent had the additional fact been noted that the "286 candidates initiated and nearly all passed and raised," were given the degrees in less than five months (Proc. Ill., 1842, p. 59).
The lodge was not set to work till March 15th, 1842, and this function was made the occasion of three days of "high jinks," during which - a contemporary writer informs us - Grand Master Jonas publicly "constituted" the lodge, "installed" its officers, and made Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon Masons at sight (Times and Seasons, vol. III, pages 749-50; Reynolds' History of Masonry in Ill., p. 175).
One other matter dealt with in the article under consideration is worthy of passing notice, at least. This relates to the efforts of Mt. Moriah Lodge, Salt Lake City, to obtain a charter.
The course of events is correctly traced, save for one interesting omission. Following the refusal of the Grand Lodge of Nevada to act favorably upon their first petition for a charter, the Salt Lake brethren settled down "to work in the yoke," as they expressed it, "till the meeting of Grand Lodge." But this decision did not hold for any considerable length of time. The Grand Lodge of Nevada met that year (1866) late in September. Early in November, following, the brethren of Mt. Moriah addressed a communication to Grand Master Chase Withrow, of the Grand Lodge of Colorado, which he received on the 17th of that month. In this letter they asked the Grand Master if he would grant them a dispensation provided they would surrender the one they held from the Grand Lodge of Nevada. The reason assigned for this request was that "they disliked certain instructions from the Grand Lodge of Nevada, forbidding their making Masons of Mormons, or to allow them to affiliate or visit." When reporting this incident to Grand Lodge, Grand Master Withrow gave the substance of his reply in the words:
"That while I might differ in opinion from the Grand Master of Nevada, I did not think it the policy of this Grand Lodge to interfere with the matter; and inasmuch as they had a dispensation from Nevada, and were working under it, they had better work along another year; then, if they failed to get a charter they could surrender their dispensation and, if they chose, apply elsewhere." (Proc. Colo., 1867, p. 177).
While, as stated at the outset, these are not matters of any great importance, yet the additional facts given may be of interest to some of the readers of THE BUILDER.
S. H. Goodwin, Utah.
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THE ORDER OF DE MOLAY FOR BOYS
About a year ago last March, there originated in the mind of Brother Frank S. Land of Kansas City a plan to meet the great need for a better organized, more elevating social life for boys nearing the age of manhood. It was realized that, when a boy has reached the age of sixteen, his interest in boyish things decreases to such an extent that he is no longer a real boy, and yet the affairs of manhood are not yet open to him. During this period in the boy's life, it was seen that many were drifting on the reefs of life for the want of systematic social guidance.
To meet this need Brother Land conceived the idea of having the powerful and well organized Masonic organization foster a fine bit of social service for the benefit of boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. A very fine two-degree ritual was prepared by Brother Frank Marshall of Kansas City. The initiatory degree has some of the very finest, most uplifting and most inspiring lessons taught anywhere. The second degree is built around the burning of Jaques DeMolay by the bloody-minded inquisition on March 11, 1313, because he refused to reveal the secrets of the Templars, of which organization he was the head. The lessons of fidelity taught in this degree are such as are sure to be lasting in their effect. The organization was named the Order of DeMolay for Boys. Any Masonic organization in any community can call together a group of the best boys in the community, and organize and foster the Order of DeMolay.
The chapter in Kansas City was the mother chapter. Several months ago a chapter was chartered at Omaha, Nebraska. Soon afterward one was chartered at Trenton, Mo., under the leadership of Brother Ray V. Denslow. The Omaha chapter was organized under the leadership of Brother Dr. Clark. On May 24th last, a chapter was instituted at Kirksville, Mo., under the leadership of the writer, this chapter being the fourth in the country. Those who have made most careful investigation of the new order are convinced that it is one of the finest moves made by Masonry in a long, long time. It has a powerful pull for moral betterment on the boys at a time when they stand most in need of such a steadying influence. There is no "horseplay" in the work of the order and no place for any. It is serious business for serious-minded boys. Any Master Mason is entitled to visit the chapter at any time and to help out with the ritualistic work. Only the boys can vote or hold office.
There is appointed by the Masonic body fostering each chapter, a Board of Advisors to serve as the balance wheel, so to speak, for the boys. On May 29th, 1920, there assembled in Kansas City delegates from all four of the organized chapters of the new Order for the purpose of witnessing the exemplification of the degrees on a class of 350, and to discuss the perfecting of the temporary arrangements for the national organization. The work was very well done by the boys of the Kansas City Chapter, and their hospitality was most impressive. Arrangements were made whereby the Advisory Board of the mother chapter constitute the body authorized to grant temporary charters, make temporary regulations and foster and extend the Order. Accordingly, those who would like to investigate the Order for the purpose of instituting a chapter should write Brother Frank S. Land, Scottish Rite Temple, Kansas City, Mo. It is hoped that the new organization will spread with great rapidity in all parts of the country within the next few months. In about six months it is expected that another national convention will be called for the purpose of perfecting the national organization, and drawing up permanent constitution and by‑laws. All chapters organized at that time will be given an opportunity to be represented in that meeting. The Order has already passed the experimental stage, and is ready to be taken up by Masons everywhere for the everlasting benefit of the boys. Incidentally it will be a great benefit to Masonry itself, though that side of the question is entirely subordinate and a secondary matter in view of the great good that may be accomplished among the boys. The Order is not a junior Masonic organization in any sense of the word but it will certainly repay any Masonic organization to foster a chapter of the new Order.
Willis J. Bray, Missouri.
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FREEMASONRY IN HOLLAND
Extracts from a Circular Recently Addressed to All Lodges Under the Grand East of the Netherlands.
To the Lodges Belonging to the Grand East of the Netherlands:
Whereas repeated enquiries are being received from lodges seeking guidance concerning their labours, the Grand East has the privilege of communicating its opinion thereon in the following circular:
CHAPTER V.
A. II - MUTUAL EDUCATION
It is necessary, first of all, clearly to keep in mind the fact that Masonic work can only yield fruit if the "atmosphere" of the lodge is in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitutions. Brotherhood must be the Alpha and Omega of lodge meetings and relationships. For this reason, part of our work must consist of the study and development of a Masonic doctrine of conduct - Study and Development: Word and Deed. It would be of the greatest benefit occasionally to discuss the factors necessary in the relationships which should exist between members of a lodge. Example is better than precept - the former must be regarded as pre-eminently the factor. Where the spirit in the lodge is good, the newcomer is struck by the tone that prevails. He realizes that he is in a totally different milieu to that of ordinary meetings: that different maxims guide the corporate life and work. The Masonic education required to the Entered Apprentice is to learn how to conduct himself, how to exercise selfcontrol and brotherly feeling. How is he to receive that education ? Partly by precept, the spoken word, but principally by practice, by the deed itself, and by the example of others. To which may be added the corollary, admonition and correction by elders.
Is this the manner in which the education is always given? The question, we fear, must be answered in the negative. There are many lamentations over the shortcomings of brethren in respect to the absence of real brotherly feelings. Is admonition given by elders to juniors in a brotherly manner ? Yet this must be regarded as one of the great advantages of Masonic communion. Each Master Mason who is really worthy of the name must be ready and qualified to give guidance to juniors, not as a moral censor, nor as one who feels himself placed on a higher pedestal, but as an elder brother, one who from love and devotion wishes to cooperate in the welding of a firm and solid link in the Masonic chain. To this end, however, it is necessary that brethren should be closer in touch with one another.
A. lll. - PHILOSOPHIC. ETHICAL, RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND PHILANTHROPIC SUBJECTS
This is the section which monopolizes interest more, perhaps, than any other, and not without reason. As already stated, the Freemason must absorb that which is peculiar to himself, and assimilate it so that it forms part of his existence. He must be an expert, not only in knowledge but in its application. He must be eager and able to promote everything that will transform spiritual poverty and material welfare. He must not only labor for the uplifting of humanity by his own gifts and personal devotion, but he must also know how to impart to others those principles which guide him, so that power may also be exercised by and through them. The individualism formerly frequently predominant among brethren must be elevated and changed into a sense of communal possession. The programme must include all that equips the individual for this missionary work. To this end the Freemason must, in the first place, acquire insight into the great problems which life offers. Part of the time should, therefore, be devoted to the subjecting Masonic principles and to the drift of other spiritual and political currents and to dealing with social questions. The treatment must be from the standpoint of Masonic principles, and this connection must stand out clearly. All subjects having no connection with Masonic principles must be kept rigidly outside the lodge. Time and circumstances must, of course, govern the choice of subjects. Such subjects as are, for the time being, absorbing public attention will, in the nature of things, awaken the greater interest. As an example, we may take the question of education, which claims the attention of everyone. It is clear that where a number of fundamental principles are calling for realization in our social life, the Freemason is in duty bound to take notice of them and make his choice, always keeping clearly in mind that he is a Freemason.
A. IV. - PREPARATION FOR SOCIAL WORK
Where devotion to the well-being of the community is asked of the Freemason, he will often feel it to be his duty to afford support and cooperation to those of like mind who are already at work in his field. In other words, it is the duty of the Freemason to accord his support to social work wherever possible. For this purpose preparation and organization are necessary, and these may be regarded as forming part of the work of lodges. The necessary discussions and consultations to this end are closely associated with the subjects already mentioned.
A. V. - READING, ESPECIALLY OF MASONIC WRITINGS
It seems strange, but it is necessary to emphasize the fact, that the reading of Masonic writings can contribute very largely to the moulding of the Freemason. It is necessary because of the lack of interest which brethren appear to take in Masonic literature. Editors of Masonic journals are constantly complaining of this feature, and the Grand Directorate is complaining frequently of the lack of interest in this respect evinced by brethren, and again appeals to the officers of all lodges to endeavor to effect an improvement in this matter by their own example and stimulus. It is not inferred that in this matter there is any intentional lack of co-operation, but rather a laxity which must be overcome. Brethren should also remember that it is impossible for the many who devote much of their time to the interests of the Order to maintain their zeal at a high level if their brethren do not take any interest in what they do. It is only by continual exchange of thought that it is possible to approach Masonic truth. Let each one of us be mindful of our duty in this respect.
B. 1. - DISSEMINATION OF PRINCIPLES BY PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE
No small portion of the Freemason's duty consists in the dissemination of Masonic principles - the furtherance of the Masonic idea - by precept and example. The time is past when the Freemason need hesitate to avow himself as such in public. Although the character of the work done at lodge meetings precludes the whole of the proceedings being submitted to the criticism of the outer world, yet it is our firm conviction that publicity is one of the most conspicuous characteristics of our time and it demands that we lay aside any undesirable secrecy and place in the fullest possible light the great principles by which our work is guided. It is sufficient to remind brethren that lodges should seize every possible opportunity of bearing witness to the light that is, or ought to be, in us.
And the means? Public lectures, direct influence in social and other work, dissemination of suitable Masonic literature, and the use of the public press. Only when Freemasonry shall be recognized generally as a factor of great importance in culture, and when that influence is felt all round, may this part of Masonic labor be regarded as accomplished. Several subjects included in the list at the end of this circular are associated closely with this important part of our Masonic task, and for this reason are warmly recommended to the attention of the brethren.
C. I. - PROMOTION OF THE ORDER AS AN ORGANIZATION
Over this heading we should like to place the well-known motto, Mens sana in corpore sano, a proverb as wise as it is ancient, but the truth of which, perhaps, for this very reason, is only too frequently lost sight of. The spirit of the Order and of the lodge must, however, be sound and purposeful. It awakens the thought of unity, harmony, and cooperation. These must be the characteristics of the spiritual bond uniting the brethren together into a lodge, possessing a real life of its own. And the impulse emitted by the central organ should act conversely in making its influence felt on the work of all the brethren. He that realizes that this is necessary and indispensable to the life of the Order can no longer think lightly of such internal matters as ballots, elections, agendas, election of candidates. etc.
C. II . - THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORDER
Under this heading may be discussed the question as to what way cooperation between lodges and the Grand Directorate may be improved. As we have said already; there ought to be continuous reciprocal working, and the questions to be considered are: By what means can that be furthered? Has the work done by the Grand Directorate of late years received the approval of lodges and the brethren? What can be done to improve it? In what way can it be further extended? These are important matters for the life of the Order.
C. III. - THE OUTWARD LIFE OF THE ORDER
This heading immediately conjures up important questions. The vision of a world-Freemasonry will not leave us, in spite of all that has happened to obliterate it during the last few years. To each it must give cause for shame that Freemasons, who speak so glibly of a Brotherhood spread over the surface of the earth, who are all supposed to be striving towards a Universal Brotherhood of man, who have assumed the task of removing all that divides spirits and minds, that we should only have reached a point in which the great Masonic Powers of divers nationalities stand towards each other in an attitude of moderate indifference, if not of hostility. It should be the object of our unfailing solicitude to bring this humiliating state of affairs to an end as soon as possible. This work, of course, belongs more to the Order as a whole, rather than to the lodges in particular, but the discussion of these matters in the lodge can awaken visions which will be of great import for the realization of the idea of world-Freemasonry.
Meanwhile, the Order must determine with accuracy its position in our country itself. Is it, although moving more in the open, to maintain its isolation? Or is it to lend an ear to the voices which are continually calling it to corporate work? It is very alluring to discuss more in detail the advantages and disadvantages of the outward work of the Order as such, but in our opinion this is not the most opportune moment for so doing. The subject is simply commended to the consideration of the lodges as being of the highest importance, bearing in mind the recommendation of the last Masonic Congress concerning the spreading of the principles of the Order, its aim and endeavor, which must not be confused with the operations of the Order as a corporation for the attainment of definite and clearly circumscribed, albeit more or less material, successes in social life.
C. IV. - HISTORY OF THE ORDER
This last item in the program of work demands little explanation of recommendation, for the utility and necessity of a study of the history of the Order are self-evident. Not only because every society which respects itself will take an interest in the adventures which have happened to it in the past, but rather because history, the guide of nations, can be for us also a trustworthy pilot to warn us of the rocks on which our predecessors have been stranded, and a signpost to point the way we must follow in order to preserve the continuity of the life of the Order. It may be regarded as a favorable phenomenon, as an indication of the renewed youth of the Order, that its history is engaging the attention of an increasing number of investigators, and we hope it will continue so to do. As one advantage which cannot be too highly appreciated, the study of the history of our Order will awaken in us an increased significance of the work of our Order and its force in the cultural development of nations.
We recommend all lodges to consult the scheme laid down herein when framing their annual programs of work, care being taken that the plans shall be progressive, and that they shall be so thought out and arranged as to make as much as possible for unity and continuity.
SUGGESTED SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. In what respects are changes in ritual desirable? Can the connection between the rituals of the degrees be improved?
2. In what way can cooperation between the lodge and the Grand Directorate be furthered?
3. Study and development of - a considered plan of Masonic conduct.
4. In what way can the public press be used for the dissemination of Masonic principles?
5. In what way can the dissemination of Masonic literature be developed - periodicals, as well as books?
6. Development of a national conseriousness and education of the entire Dutch nation, with a view to inward refinement and order.
7. The permeation of the people with our fundamental principles, by the establishment of non-Masonic societies with a Masonic tendency, intention, and aim.
8. Study of the conceptions and ideals of the various parties of the State in our country from a Masonic point of view, in order to be able to express well-considered judgments concerning them.
9. Study of the basic principles and aims of the various moral bodies which strive for the development of the spiritual life, and the advancement of such bodies from a Masonic point of view.
10. Mutual education in the Masonic sphere.
It seems desirable to the Grand Directorate that every year two subjects at least should be chosen for discussion in all lodges with the intention that reports on same should be forwarded to the Grand Directorate in order that that body should frame a general report, which shall be communicated in turn to the lodges. Before the commencement of the working year these subjects should be announced to the members in good time in order that the members may have full information as to the nature of the proposed work.
The foregoing communication is the result of lengthy discussions among the members of the Grand Directorate. play the outcome conduce to the uplifting of the life of our Order and to our individual happiness, as well as to that of the community, for whose well-being we have made it our aim and duty to cooperate.
With the heartiest fraternal greetings,
M. S. Lingbeek, Grand Master.
H. Pl. Van Nieuwenberg, Grand Secretary.
* * *
A CORRECTION - SECRETARY OF THE NAVY DANIELS A METHODIST
In the Question Box of the June issue of THE BUILDER, on page 166, replying to a query of "R.F.C." of Kansas, the assertion is made that Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, is a Catholic. In this connection I have before me a list of members of President Wilson's Cabinet, published in the Central Christian Advocate during the year 1919, the list having been compiled by the Kansas City Star on inquiry direct to the President's secretary. The list is as follows:
President Wilson - Presbyterian.
Secretary of State Lansing - Presbyterian.
Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo - Episcopalian.
Secretary of War Baker - Episcopalian.
Attorney General Gregory - Presbyterian.
Postmaster General Burleson - Family Baptists.
Secretary of the Navy Daniels - Methodist.
Secretary of the Interior Lane - Presbyterian.
Secretary of Agriculture Houston - Episcopalian.
Secretary of Commerce Redfield - Episcopalian.
Secretary of Labor Wilson - Presbyterian.
The present Secretary of the Treasury, Glass, is a Protestant. General Pershing and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson are Episcopalians. V. E. Vieira, Tennessee.
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H.T.W.S.S.T.E.S.
BY BRO. WM. HARVEY LECKIE. TEXAS
Happy is the man whose thoughts will bear,
The rigid test of the unerring square;
Who walks the path that must ever be trod,
Steadily on towards his Maker - God, -
Striving in acts of charity and love,
To gain admission to the Lodge above,
Knowing the stone 'mongst the rubbish cast,
Shall crown our Master's work at last.
Hiram of the ages, a widow's son;
Thou symbol of the faithful and true;
Whose life was but a pledge for work well done, -
Son of the widow, - All Hail to you.
Sprig of Acacia, marking the spot,
That hid the foul deed of the low and the base,
Kernel of hope that the Temple's dark blot,
Shall be cleansed by the power of the Master's Grace.
