The Builder Magazine

June 1922 - Volume VIII - Number 6

 

Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children

BY BRO. FORREST ADAIR, GEORGIA, SECRETARY OF THE SHRINERS' HOSPITALS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

A TRAIN is wrecked.  From its debris of wrathing steel, temples to suffering childhood have arisen.  A man is maimed and from his pain racked body came a tremendous force to banish pain.  Throughout North America, hospitals, to make anew helpless and hopeless crippled children, are being built by the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.  Eventually there will be scores of these hospitals on the continent and every one of them can trace its beginning back to the smoking runs of a locomotive and its inspiration back to the man who defied pain in order to keep his word.

 

In relating the history of how this came about, THE BUILDER played an imporant part in what some people might call a series of coincidences, but most people will recognize as the hand of a Divine Providence.

 

It was in the stormy year of 1914 that the train went out from Atlanta, Ga.  Ed Roberts was a member of the crew and Ed Roberts was a Noble of Yaarab Temple of the Mystie Shrine.  When he was rescued from the wreck it was discovered that a leg was crushed.  There was also a dislocation of the hip, which was overlooked by the railroad surgeons.

 

When brought back to Atlanta, Roberts called for me as I was then Potentate of Yaarab Temple, and throughout his long suffering I was a daily visitor at his bedside.  His crushed leg was amputated, but the dislocated hip, pressing on a sciatic nerve, continued to give ceaseless and terrible pain.  Opiates were constantly administered until one day I, speaking brother and counsellor, said: "Ed, don't let the doctors give you any more of that stuff.  Stick the pain out.  If you continue on the opiate it will get you the pain you are now called on to endure will be nothing compared to the suffering you'll then have undergo as a drug addict."

 

Roberts gave his word.  That word was never broken.  He was finally discharged from the hospital, but the pain remained with him.  Months passed until one day I was summoned by the wife of Brother Roberts.  I found him in agony.

 

'I dont believe I can stand this suffering any longer," he told me, "but I've given you my word about morphine.  I won't break it, but something has got be done and done quickly."

 

Now in Atlanta was Dr. Michael Hoke, one of foremost orthopaedic surgeons in America.  I called Dr. Hoke and explained the case.  Roberts was again taken to the hospital, where Dr. Hoke manipulated his hip, forcing it back into the socket.  It took weeks for its successful healing and all the time Roberts was given special nursing, and was finally sent out whole.

 

I called on Dr. Hoke for an accounting.  Yaarab is a wealthy Temple and its officials have always believved that their first duty is to their members. I knew Dr. Hoke was a high priced specialist, and was prepared to pay accordingly.

 

Dr. Hoke rendered the bill.  It was $5! I protested.  Dr. Hoke told me to mind my own busines "You haven't any idea of the suffering this man was going through," said the Doctor, "and he was undergoing it just because he had given you his word.  You have your pleasures and it's my pleasure to do something for a man like that I wouldn't have missed this opportunity for a good many $5 bills."

 

I wasn't satisfied. "I want to do something too," I explained.

 

"I'll tell you what you can do," said Dr. Hoke." You can do one of the biggest things it has ever been given man to do.  Do you know that right in this section there are hundreds of children, all gnarled and twisted, doomed to helplessness and pain, who could be made whole just like our friend?

 

"Their parents come to me every day.  I'd be glad to treat all of them.  That's my pleasure, but I haven't the money to furnish them with hospital equipment.  I haven't the money to pay a skilled orthopaedic nurse. But, I'll tell you what I'll do.  If you Masons will furnish a little house, say with three or four beds, and pay for a nurse, I'll undertake the cases of all the patients that couldn't possibly pay, and you'll get more fun out of it than anything you've ever tried.  Think it over."

 

I did think it over. I wanted to think it over all by myself, so I dismissed my car and began walking about the streets with Dr. Hoke's words chanting in my ears. It just happened that I passed the Masonic Temple and wandered in - still thinking.

 

In the temple I encountered the late Joseph C. Greenfield. He was busy writing but stopped as I entered and handed me the sheets of paper on which he was working.  It was an article for THE BUILDER and was headed "What Are We Doing?" The tenor of the article was that while we were making vast numbers of badge-wearing Masons each year, we were doing nothing tangible for the benefit of humanity.

 

Then the idea struck me.  Here was a great organization anxious to do something for somebody and not knowing where to turn.  I had just left a great man, anxious to do something very definite.  Why not bring the two together? "Joe," I said, "call a meeting of the Executive Comittee of the Scottish Rite Bodies, I have a proposition to put up to them."

 

The meeting was called and I submitted Dr. Hoke's plan.  It was enthusiastically accepted.  Then I suggested that we submit it to the entire Scottish Rite jurisdiction of Atlanta.  I wanted whole-souled cooperation in this thing, for I saw the chance for doing something big.

 

When the proposal was submitted, there wasn't a dissenting vote or voice. We were ready to do something. We leased a little cottage near Decatur, equipped it with six beds and Dr. Hooke went to work.

 

It wasn't many months before we saw that our field for doing things was limitless.  What seemed to us miracles were performed each month. We saw children who could barely crawl come out from that little cottage walking erect.  We saw life made new, not only for the little ones, but for their mothers and fathers and for us.  Gradually we added to the hospital, but we've always kept that little cottage.  Today the hospital has sixty beds and is considered a model in every way by orthopoedic specialists.

 

There was just one drawback to the whole arrangement.  We could care only for the children of our immediate section.  Railroad transportation from a distance is sometimes an insurmountable obstacle to the poor. Parents like to be near their little ones as they go through this trial.

 

Then arose another opportunity.

 

W. Freeland Kendrick, at that time Imperial Potentate of the Mystic Shrine, had become interested in a "Home" for Crippled Children in Philadelphia, his home town.  It was his idea for the Shrine to sponsor some such charity and he submitted a plan in accordance.

 

The plan did not meet with as hearty response as it deserved.  Maybe this was providential. For there is a distinction between a "Home" and a "Hospital." There have been established in a great many states and in nearly all the large cities, "Homes" for crippled children.  These little beings with club feet, twisted legs, paralyzed arms and legs, bent backs, tubercular joints and spines, have been sent to these homes, where they have been kept reared and fed until a kind Providence removed them, but in these homes practically nothing has been done to restore the child to a normal or approximately normal condition and send it back where every child belongs - to its own mammy and daddy.

 

This was exactly the work that was being accomplished in the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, and there was the great Shrine order waiting to have someone give them the opportunity to do something big and generous and constructive.

 

The Shrine has been in existence for forty-six years and has grown to a membership of 500,000.  The Shriners are organized along the lines of legitimate fun and clean sport and no body of men on earth ever get more real pleasure out of life than they do.

 

There were some members, however, a good many of them too, who I believe were undoubtedly acting under a Divine inspiration, who thought it might be well if the Shriners continued to have these good times, but at the same time began to do something for humanity.

 

Some of them had visited the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children.  Among these was Imperial Potentate Kendrick, who had already made a move in a similar direction.  Those who had visited the hospital began to dream of more hospitals and more of them until a hospital could be placed within the reach of every poor little crippled child in North America.

 

This dream became a reality when the proposal was made to the Shrine in concrete form in a resolution assessing each member $2.00 annually to carry on this work, producing the staggering total of $1,000,000 each year for the building and maintenance of Shriner's Hospitals for Crippled Children.  A Board of Trustees was named to take charge of the plan and to build these little "miracle shops" as rapidly as funds became available.

 

The work is already far advanced.  The Board of Trustees visited Atlanta and the Scottish Rite Hospital a year ago, accepted it as a model, and now five similar institutions are in course of construction in different sections of the country.  The first five to be located were in St. Louis, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Shreveport, La., San Francisco and Montreal, while five others have been tenatively located, one in Portland, Oregon, one in New England, one in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and one in the Rocky Mountain States.  As soon as these are under way five more will be authorized until there is a hospital for crippled children wherever there is a Temple of Shriners.

 

The Board of Trustees has made but two provisions of admission into the hospitals.  In the first place, the patients must be financially unable to enter a private insttution for treatment. In the second place, they must be susceptible to improvement.  There are some children so hopelessly crippled that science can do nothing for them.  The Trustees believe that under these conditions it is poor charity to have a hospital bed and hospital care and attention given where no good can result, when so many little ones who can be helped are crying for just that care and attention.

 

However, these cases are few and far between.  The orthopoedic surgeons in charge of these Shriners' Hospitals are men hard to convince that their science can not improve practically every case.

 

The science is a comparatively new one and is constantly being developed.  Operations are now successfully performed that were undreamed of just a few years ago, and research, study and experiments are part of the regular routine of these Shriner institutions.

 

For instance there was the case of the daughter of Brother Frank Higgins of New York, the Masonic writer.  This daughter, Pauline, had been stricken with that dreadful infantile paralysis during the epidemic in New York in 1916.  She spent four and one-half years in the marble wainscoted, splendidly equipped "Homes" for crippled children in New York and Philadelphia, but no surgeon's knife had ever been used and no physical therapist had ever made an effort to start her dormant muscles to renewing their functions.

 

Pauline couldn't walk a step when she was brought to the Hospital for Crippled Children in Atlanta, but five months later when her father came for her, she walked down the broad driveway to meet him.  When he had dried his tears of joy, he sat down in the hospital and wrote a wonderful article for the "New Age," headed "The Greatest Scottish Rite Cathedral on Earth," and in it he described the institution as "the temple of babies' smiles."   John H. Atwood, Past Imperial Potentate of the Shrine, an eminent lawyer now residing in Kansas City, Mo. after visiting the little hospital in Atlanta, wrote to one of his closest friends in the Imperial Council as follows:

 

"I, who fancied that I knew a lot of things, find that I knew nothing about certain aspects in life that I now feel are more important than any of those of which I have had knowledge.

 

"That such a multitude of unfortunates existed, I did not appreciate; that such marvelous things can be done to tight the wrongs done by Providence, I did not imagine was possible.

 

"To my mind, it is the finest thing I know of in the whole world today-churches, big and little, homes and harbors of refuge, as I have known them, shrivel and shrink into insignificance beside the things I saw in those unpretentious buildings among the pines in the suburbs of this good city.

 

"Better than sky-touching towers, stately halls, gorgeous paraphernalia and all the pomp and circumstances that so frequently mark Shrine activities, is a bungalow hospital or two, that might, with perfect truth - if like this Atlanta institution - be described as 'Miracle Houses.'"

 

An Advisory Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons cooperates with the Board of Trustees.  This board is now composed of Dr. Robert B. Osgood of Boston, a fanner President of the American Association of Orthopoedic Surgeons, Dr. Michael Hoke of Atlanta, Dr. John C. Wilson of Los Angeles, Dr. W. E. Gallie of Toronto, Canada, and Dr. W.E. Ryerson of Chicago.  Their services are contributed to the Shrine without cost.  They attend all the meetings of the Board of Trustees and select, subject to approval of the Board of Trustees, the chief surgeon for each of the new institutions.

 

The Shriners are very jealously guarding the integrity of the hospitals.  At the last meeting of the Board of Trustees it was decided to accept no bequests to the hospitals which carried with them provisions for memorial tablets or other methods of converting the institutions into monuments to individuals.  The hospitals are simply and solely for the relief of suffering childhood.  That is all.

 

While in the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta there hangs a picture of Noble Ed. Roberts, the man whose suffering made the whole system possible, the picture is unmarked.

 

Some months ago Brother Roberts visited the hospital.  He was being shown about by a nurse, a newcomer.  As she entered the room where the picture hangs, she pointed it out, not realizing that she was showing the visitor his own likeness.

 

"I do not know who that gentleman is," she said, "but I understand he founded this hospital."

 

An hour later he was found in an isolated spot on the hospital grounds.  He was sobbing a prayer of thanksgiving, thanks for the railroad wreck, thanks for his shattered hip, thanks for the Providence that had made him the unwitting instrument for this work, whose blessings will cover all North America.

 

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AMERICAN FREEMASONRY IN THE WORLD WAR - AN ANNOUNCEMENT

 

BY BRO. CHARLES F. IRWIN, OHIO

 

By his ability to write, speak and organize, hy his unflagging zeal, and by his standing among overseas Masons, Brother Charles F. Irwin has peculiarly fitted himself to superintend The National Masonic Research Society's efforts to collect and arrange the records of Masonic activity during, and as a result of, the Great War. Every brother who has even a grain of information to contribute is urged to communicate with Brother Irwin whose address is Eaton. Ohio.

 

AMERICAN Freemasonry in the World War has learned from the experiences of the past. The losses sustained by the Fraternity in our several wars have been incalculable because no systematic efforts were made to collect, arrange, and embody in print the incidents and events of special worth to the Craft. This condition has been foreseen by modern Masonry and a movement is afoot to rescue from the rubbish heap the innumerable occurences of value to the Craft in the Great War. Various Grand Lodges from year to year have turned their attention to this important work as attested in their Proceedings. Masons individually have been investigating and collecting material because of their zeal for the Institution. But the field is so vast that nothing short of a nation-wide effort can hope to cover the ground.

 

Various Masons throughout the United States have been gravitating toward each other as their lines of investigation have crossed each other's paths. At last a concerted plan of activity is to be put on foot. The National Masonic Research Society is logically the central organization to head this movement. Its past record merits such leadership. The experiences gained by its staff together with their intimate knowledge of active Craftsmen throughout the country assures the Fraternity that proper care will be taken to cover the whole field of war time Masonic activity.

 

The writer has been invited to become the chairman of this new movement. I have been asked to outline the policy of our department and to explain our purpose. This is done under considerable hesitancy. There are many difficulties to be faced and much labor to be undertaken. The prayer of the New England fisherman is appropriate: "O God, the ocean is so vast, and my bark is so small !"

 

It seems that the best results can be obtained through representatives in each state and territory who were themselves overseas and participated in the struggle. Their personal experiences and their contact with war time conditions fit them to express in written form the conclusions they arrived at as the war burnt its way to its final end. Among the thousands of Craftsmen who went across the ocean there are many who observed and participated in events which held a Masonic significance. Incidents isolated and unrelated to the general sweep of Craft activity, when brought into contact with other incidents, reveal the general relativity of the whole Masonic fabric.

 

Our task is to secure the material, to examine it carefully for the purpose of establishing accuracy, and to publish its results, in order that Masonry may enter into the benefits.

 

How can this objective be obtained? By contact with those who are in possession of the facts or who can lead us to the facts. It will be the purpose of our group of workers to secure the material from those who have it. This will be sought by encouraging a correspondence with the brethren who were in the service abroad. We will trace the officers of the various overseas Masonic clubs in order to secure complete histories of these organizations. We will encourage the continuance of the ties formed while we were far from home. As striking material comes to hand it will be presented to the Craft through the pages of THE BUILDER from month to month. There are stirring tales as yet unpublished. There is material to satisfy the Masonic appetite for Masonic lore.

 

Brethren will be encouraged to communicate with the chairman. The occurences which each had may seem obscure and trivial. Nothing is trivial that comes under the observation of Masons. These insignificant events may fall one by one into a chain of significant processes that explain why the world disaster came. These individual recitals may have messages needed by the Fraternity. And you, my brother, are invited to unite with us in our present undertaking.

 

Our objective as I have said will be at first the collecting of overseas Masonic data. This will be done under a number of distinct heads: Military Organizations, Camps, Depots, Combat Areas, the Enemy, our Allies, etc. To this end we shall encourage papers by active brothers embodying the conclusions reached by the writers on various Masonic principles and relationships. We shall ask and seek the answers to searching questions as to the practical worth of Masonry in times of extreme danger and distress. Observations of continental conditions will be presented. Biographies of prominent members of the Fraternity, who participated in the struggle, will be prepared and published.

 

The World War did not end with the Armistice. The after effects continue and will continue for years to come. Masonry's duties are to continue till the objectives of the war are finally attained. Only by securing the principles for which such great treasure of money and men was given can we expect to rest from our labors.

 

It is important to discover whether the sinister influences that produced the strife are destroyed. To know this requires a study of obscure currents of thought and action, on the part of men and organizations before, during, and since the war.

 

American Masonry went to Europe during the war. It carried definite benefits to peoples in desperate need. But American Masons also received definite impressions in their contact with Europe. What these impressions were, and the interpretation of them will be one of our undertakings.

 

THE BUILDER opens to overseas Masons a field for expression. The time is ripe. The Craft are ready to hear. Those who have been considering experiences have had sufficient time to arrange them into lines of definite thought. We invite such to place these ideas in written form and to send them to us. Thus we shall be doing not only our own comrades a benefit but we shall be leaving for future generations a wealth of Masonic action that will prove an inspiration to younger Craftsmen.

 

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WHY MASONIC STUDY CLUBS ARE WORTH WHILE

BY BRO. FRANK G. BURROUGHS, IDAHO

 

THE DETERMINED effort now being made by a large number of Grand Lodges in the United States along the line of Masonic Education had its inception as a response to the need of a fuller realization by Masons of Masonic opportunities and Masonic duties.

 

'Tis an unsettled world today, largely due to the great unrest created by the World War and its readjustment problems. This unrest creates Masonic opportunity and Masonic obligations. We dare no longer placidly rehearse our ritualistic obligations and relinquish all memory and thought of them when we lay aside our aprons.

 

We have work to do and Masonic wages to earn.

 

We must be taught to realize our obligations to our fellow man as well as to our brothers in Masonry.

 

We must obtain a clearer and more definite understanding of what Masonry is and what it stands for.

 

We must learn how to apply to the problems of life the principles taught within the lodge room.

 

We must obtain ritual interpretation as well as ritual instruction. We must help in that building of character which is the cornerstone of our Masonic edifice.

 

We must be brought to realize that the whole duty of man is contained within the ritual instruction of the three degrees of Masonry, and, by constant discussion and constant search, we must learn to dig out for ourselves each little bit of symbolism and every lesson contained in each word of our ritual, every little bit of our lodge furnishings, and every article of Masonic use and clothing.

 

We must learn new meanings of the word "Fraternalism," and learn the true significance of the Masonic ritual in its relation to business life, to home life, to every-day intercourse and to social obligations.

 

Masonic instruction does not imply only a delving into Masonic symbolism, or research into Masonic antiquities. It means an effort to induce Masons to view in their true light the esoteric principles of our ritual and teachings and to indicate the application of these principles in our daily intercourse with the world at large.

 

The wherefore of Masonic instruction lies in its practical application. The real Mason is he who practices outside of the lodge those virtues inculcated in it, not he who is able to deliver a ritualistic recital of those principles and straightway doffs his apron and leaves the principles sticking under the flap until again called for, meanwhile forgetting or ignoring the fact that they form a real working formula for life and conduct twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks in every year of life.

 

The practical application, then, is the ultimate end and aim of Masonic study. The Mason whose deep studies in the symbolism and ritual of the order had led him to a thorough understanding of the hidden mysteries of Masonry cannot avoid having it become a part of him and a part of his every-day life and conduct.

 

Masonry is a never-ending study, and a study that grows on one. It's something like the medical profession. A doctor is never too old to take a post graduate course and learn something new. But there is a difference. In medicine the new things come because of new discoveries in medical science, while in Masonry the thoughts have been there for ages, and need only the mental pick and shovel of the student.

 

The average Mason does not give much attention to the never-ending symbolism of Masonry, to the meaning of the working tools, to the level, the square, the compass and the apron. But he only needs waking up a little to discover how valuable and beautiful are the lessons conveyed by each act done and each word spoken, and by each and every object used in a Masonic lodge.

 

Why the square? - To square our actions, says the ritual. Why the plumb? - To teach uprightness. Why the level ? - To teach democracy. But did you ever stop to think that the combination of the three makes that all-embracing rule of life and conduct - the Golden Rule, "Do to others as you would they should do unto you" ?

 

Let's think it out.

 

If we are square, we shall easily put ourselves in the other fellow's place. If we are upright as the plumb we shall be just in all of our dealings, and if we seek no unearned advancement over our fellows, as the level teaches, we shall be able to see our own failings as plainly as we can see the other man's, and the combination of the three, the square, the level and the plumb, comprises the Golden Rule the great rule and guide of our faith.

 

The educational course in THE BUILDER is planned to arrest the attention and drive home those things not at once apparent. If once Masons realize that the ritual of the Order is not an empty thing, not a string of words to catch the ear, but an ancient composition, every word of which bristles with symbolism and every act of which contains an esoteric significance, then and then only can Masonry become that which it is intended to be a great moral force for the upbuilding of character, a power in the ethical education of millions.

 

If Masonic education realizes its ultimate logical conclusion, our Order will be lifted to an immeasurably higher plane. We shall cease to become merely members of the greatest "fraternal order" on earth, but will become members of the greatest "fraternity" that ever existed - a fraternity that will live as well as speak the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God.

 

To reach this high ideal the Masonic ritual, Masonic emblems, Masonic symbolism, clothing, furnishings, and every and each little act ordained as part and parcel of our work provide the machinery.

 

By the study of Masonry as it is we bring to ourselves the realization of our duties - our duty to ourselves, to our families, to our Masonic brethren, to our associates in business or pleasure, in a word, as our Monitor so tersely puts it, to practice outside of the lodge those virtues taught within it.

 

By Masonic study we come to a realization of the duties and obligations of fraternity. We learn that the symbolism of the cable tow obligates us to help our fellow Mason in a material way anywhere within the length of that piece of string, and that its length is only to be gauged by our ability to help and by his necessities. Our study of the cable tow will show us that we should ever be on the alert to assist the material interests of the brethren as well as our own.

 

By Masonic study we learn to apply as well as recite the lessons of the working tools. To act on the level, and, by the same token, to seek not for undue superiority, and to recognize the equality of others. To be square in all our dealings and to gauge our time properly so that after devoting a time to rest and recreation and a time to work, we may still have an equal period of time left in which we may assist a brother Mason, his widow or orphan. To be upright, straight up and down like the plumb, with no deviation from the absolute perpendicular.

 

By Masonic study we learn the meaning and everyday application of all Masonic symbolism. To keep ourselves as spotless as a piece of lambskin, to be willing to learn and to stand in the northeast corner of the world so as to be near the fountain of knowledge and follow the rising sun from the east by way of the south to the west and thence to the happy contentment of a life full of years and good deeds.

 

Brothers, we want to make our fraternity truly fraternal and a power in a materialistic world of selfish endeavor.

 

We possess the weight of numbers, we have the greatest system of ethics, we need no change, either in our ritual or our teachings - all we need is to bring home to ourselves just what our obligations obligate us to do.

 

And after we have driven that home to ourselves we shall go out into the world and proclaim our Masonic membership - not by wearing a pin or hanging a certificate on the wall of our home or office - but by conducting our lives in such a manner that he who runs may read, that those with whom we come in contact may recognize our Masonic membership by reason of our consistent practice of the ethics of Masonry.

 

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MEMORIALS TO GREtAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS

 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

MORGAN LEWIS, who was Grand Master in New York from 1830 to 1843, is recorded in history as a soldier, and Governor of New York, but he was also the popular and very active Grand Master; and also the son of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

 

He had every early advantage, and such a nature as could not be spoilt. After graduating from Princeton in the class of 1773, he began the study of law in the offices of that great diplomat, John Jay, who was afterwards the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

Though an apt pupil, and apparently much in love with his chosen profession, Morgan Lewis heeded the shrill notes of the fife when the Revolutionary War was announced, and at once volunteered his services and joined Washington's Army at Boston. He was elected Captain of a company of the New York militia but soon was promoted to the rank of Major. It is mentioned in the dispatches of General Stephens that Lewis behaved very gallantly in the battle at Germantown.

 

In 1776 Lewis was made Quartermaster-General, with the rank of Colonel under General Gates at Saratoga, and in the action at Bemis' Heights shared tne perks and tne nonors of the day with Arnold, Morgan and the other officers. After the surrender of Burgoyne he was engaged in the operations undertaken by General Clinton against the mixed force of British regulars and the hostile Indians in the northwestern part of the State of New York.

 

After the War of the Revolution Lewis resumed his law practice in the City of New York in 1788, and was soon elected to the state legislature. In this case the office sought the man; not the man the office. In the legislature he did well, but as the purposes of the people were generally in the same direction, there was no opportunity for a contest, and therefore no exciting debates.

 

Morgan Lewis moved his domicile to Dutchess County, and in a short time was appointed, first, a judge of the court of common pleas, and later, attorney general of the State of New York, and in 1801 Chief Justice of the same court.

 

His popularity was by that time nation wide. His splendid record in the Grand Lodge of New York was generally known to the brethren over the whole land. In 1804 he was elected Governor of the State, and was obliged to take up his residence in Albany. In this office he did much to advance the cause of education and to strengthen the militia, two grand steps in the interest of the republic.

 

He was elected to the state senate in 1810, and two years later at the beginning of the war of 1812 he was made Quartermaster-General in the U.S. Army with the rank of Brigadier. He was advanced to the rank of Major-General in 1813.

 

During the campaign of that year General Lewis was with General Dearborn on the Niagara frontier. He captured Fort George and was in command for some time at Sackets Harbor and French Creek. In the latter part of the year 1813 he accompanied General Wilkinson in his expedition against Montreal, and in 1814 had command of the forces which were held for the defense of the city and harbor of New York.

 

From the year 1815 General Lewis seems to have lived much in retirement, so far as politics and his profession go, but did not lose interest in Freemasonry. He lived in a time when the Order sought the man, and made strenuous efforts to keep the best man at the head. No man was elected because it was his turn in the early days of the Republic.

 

He was born in New York City in 1754 and died there in 1844. He was buried at Staatsburgh, where a beautiful memorial was erected in his honor.

 

The cut here shown was loaned by the Rev. Brother Edward Pearson Newton, rector of Saint James Parish, Hyde Park on the Hudson, who is a member of Rhinebeck Lodge No. 432, of Rhinebeck, N. Y.

 

----o----

 

No prayer is unheard, none is wasted, there is none that we shall not meet again in the world to come. Oh! when we come to die, how bitterly shall we mourn that we have prayed so little, prayed so negligently; ah; we shall see then that life was hardly life when it was not also prayer. - Faber.

 

----o----

 

Diligence is the mother of good luck. - Benjamin Franklin.

 

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THE HOLY SAINTS JOHN

 

BY BRO. BENJAMIN WELLINGTON BRYANT, CALIFORNIA

 

ST.JOHN the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist! What was their connection with Freemasonry? Is the Monitorial tradition supported by historical fact? Why does our Fraternity, firmly committed as it is to that regulation in the Constitutions of 1723 which obliges its members only to "that religion in which all men agree," dedicate its lodges to the memory of two Saints belonging distinctly to the Christian calendar? Whence came the tradition? When was it adopted? Why the St. Johns rather than St. Thomas whom tradition denominates the patron of architecture? Such are a few of the questions frequently asked and seemingly no Masonic Question Box is complete without one or more of them.  Much has been written on the subject, but unfortunately little of it appears to have any real value, or to lead us nearer to a solution of the mystery. The excuse for the present paper is not the hope that anything can be added to the accumulation of data, so much as it is an attempt to gather and arrange the available material, and possibly give some hints that may lead to a feasible interpretation.

 

There appear to have been bat two attempts at a serious and extended consideration of the subject in Masonic literature.  The first, and among English-speaking brethren, the only readily available publication, is Dr. Oliver's "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," (1) originally published in England in 1848, as a protest against the action of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813 when the Johannine dedication was discarded by that body when it adopted the Hemming lectures. Dr. Oliver collected and made accessible a great mass of material which he arranged and discussed in most readable form albeit his conclusions are too evidently biased by his own peculiar theological views to have much real value for present day Masonic scholarship.  However we must acknowledge our debt of gratitude for him for his indefatigable labors as a pioneer in what, in his day, was an unknown field.  We cannot read his writings or look upon his portrait which so clearly reflects his benign nature without loving him for his sincere and upright character and his fearless stand for the right as he saw it, even while we take exception to the eighteenth century orthodoxy which appears in almost every page of his Masonic writings.

 

The second work in which the Johannine claims are discussed at some length is the "Kunsturkunden," or "Three Oldest Professional Documents of the Brotherhood of Freemasons," which Krause published about 1810.  Although antedating Oliver's work, I have placed this second because it is little known to the English-speaking Craft, due to the fact that, so far as I have been able to determine, no translation has been published.  This is the work the publication of which was so violently opposed by the German brethren, and for which the author was suspended by the Dresden lodge.  Having access only to the meager quotations and references given by a few Masonic writers, I am not prepared to discuss its contents.

 

To these two extended works upon the subject we should perhaps add Mackey's Encyclopoedia (2) which gives many references and considerable data upon the Sts.  John, as well as several versions of the tradition as it appears in different systems of lectures.  Most of them are evidently quoted from Dr. Oliver's work. However, he has given us a hint of a broader and seemingly a truer interpretation by tracing the St. John Festivals back to the solstitial celebrations of the Ancient Mysteries. (3) Except for these three writers I have been unable to find any extended works which attempt a detailed consideration of the matter.

 

To arrive at an intelligent understanding of this rather obscure subject it seems necessary first to examine into the origin of the two festivals which are far older than Christianity.  They appear to have originated in that ancient wisdom- or light-religion in which so much of that which we now know as Freemasonry had its origin; and of which we catch some comparitively latter-day glimpses in what is commonly referred to under the general name of Ancient Mysteries. Writers and historians are notably unanimous in their agreement that the rituals of many of those ancient ceremonials included festivals in observance of the equinoxes and solstices.  This was true, not merely of one or two of the pagan lands of antiquity, but of many, for they appear to have been very widely diffused in the ancient world wherever any great degree of civilization had been attained.  The Egyptian, Phoenician, Dionysian, Adonisian, Phrygian, Eleusinian, Scandinavian and Druidical mysteries, each in its own land and time, appear to have introduced the astronomical features and all celebrated dramas and festivals in which the phenomena of nature were veiled in myth and allegory.  Thus the priests of each of those faiths of olden time celebrated, each in his own peculiar, and usually beautiful and poetical symbolism, the passing of the equinoxes and solstices as well as other natural phenomena; and hence must have possessed a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the contents of "the great book of nature and revelation"; of astronomy and its vital influence upon the rotation of the seasons.  In the mysteries of Eleusis the story of Ceres and her search for her daughter Prosperine, when divested of its mythological setting, becomes the tale of the seasonal rotation.  In Egypt the thought was the same, but veiled in the allegory of Isis, Osiris, and Horus.  Bear in mind that this is intended to refer only to those aspects of the mysteries which were held less secret and were consequently better understood and more frequently discussed, and about which considerable data has been preserved. Of the inner secrets of those Greater Mysteries celebrated in some localities, little is known with certainty. However there is good reason to believe that when the novice proven himself and won past the ordeals of the liminary initiation, he was rewarded with instruction in the eternal verities of life and its relation to Deity. Here, it is believed, he was led on from the consideration of the simpler and more evident truths of visble nature, which were embodied in his earlier initiation, to the contemplation of the more abstract truth of one God? (4)

 

Some of those early mystery-systems with their attendant festivals, were still celebrated in the early centuries of the Christian era, and while their original meaning had, to some extent perhaps, been obscured, the festival days still played an  important part in the life the people among whom Christian missionaries were seeking converts, much as do our own public holidays present day social and religious life.  They were therefore a difficult problem with which the mission and church fathers had to contend.  Of the customs prevailing in the Roman Empire at this period one author has written:

 

"And as the entire State, so also every community, every city, every circle of cities, had its special cult, well founded institutions, rich and distinguished colleges for priests and special feast days and sacrifices. Every province, every city, every village, honored with local rites its protecting divinity, and everywhere the various religious observances were most intimately connected with the civil constitution of the community and sustained by local patriotism." (5) Such was the system with which missionaries had to compete for recognition.  As a parallel situation, let us suppose that a people alien thought as well as blood were to come among us here in America and in the fire of their zeal seek to engraft their religious faith upon our thought.  It would be a difficult, nay, an almost impossible task, to wean away from the observance of Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Years, and perhaps most difficult of all to from our memories the events and traditions as ciated with the Fourth of July; and while the memory of these days persisteed in the thought-life of our people, the missionaries' success could not be complete. Such was the problem confronting the early progagandists of Christianity.  So long as the older festivals remained, the memory of the older faith remained.  So as the "heathen" retained a ghost of the memory of the original meaning of those festivals there was a weak link in the chain that bound them to Christianity.

 

It appears that the officials of the early church about the solution of the difficulty in a thoroughly diplomatic way.  Numerous authors from Sir Isaac Newton in 1733 (6), to the new volume of the Encyclopaeda of Religion and Ethics' just off the press, have given up a picture of the transition from the pagan to Christian observances.  It appears that during the third century or thereabouts, the missionaries having with the above mentioned difficulty, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and after him St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great, each advised that an attempt be made to Christianize rather than to extirpate the popular observances.  If a certain day had been previously observed as a pagan holiday, let it be changed into a Christian festival.  Thus the Christmas observances succeeded those of the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia; the Floralia gave way to the floral ceremonies of May day, and festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and various of the apostles took the place of the zodiacal observances.  Gregory Thaumaturgus, to whom Sir Isaac Newton gives credit for the institution of the movement, died in 265, hence the change began to take place very early in the history of the church.  In the fifth century, Theodoret speaks of the change of the festivals of the old heathen gods into those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, and other saints, but mentions no other names of apostles. (8) According to Gregory of Nyssa, writing about 379, the church was then observing the festivals of Stephen, Peter, Jaines, John and Paul between Christmas and New Years, on the principle that "the prodse of the proto-Martyr should be followed by a commemoration of the apostles." (9) The author of "Greek Religion" gives a picture of the transition in Greece:

 

"That in Greece itself ancient rites should persist under cover of the new religion, and that ancient deities or heroes should reappear as Christian saints is hardly surprising to one who considers the summary method by which Christianity became the established religion.  It was not so difficult to make the  Parthenon a Christian church when the virgin goddess of wisdom was supplanted by a St. Sophia (Wisdom), then by the Virgin 31axy- Siniaarly Apollo was more than once supplanted by St. George, Poseidon by St. Nicholas the patron of sailors, Aselepius by St. Michael and St. Damian, and in grottos where nymphs had been worshiped, female saints received similar worship from the same people." (10)

 

The connection of the Baptist's day with the ancient midsummer rites of the Teutonic, and Scandinavian peoples also seems well established. (11)

 

Thus we are able to trace quite clearly some of the influences which finally crystallized in the observance of the Baptist on Midsummer's day, June 24, and of the death of the Evangelist on December 27. But much odf it still remains a mystery. It is enough to note here that the nature of the festivals - the one of birth, coming in the summer and on the longest day of the year; and the other of a death falling upon the shortest day and at the season when the hand of death seems laid upon all nature - is particularly fitting.  The peculiar character and history of the men themselves as shown in records and traditions also seems to coincide with the same thought.  The Baptist is reputed to have been a member of the sect of Essenes, who were mystics and celibates and held all property in common.  He is frequently characterized as a "Seeker of Light." He was a man of stern integrity and unshakable fidelity, and bravely met death in the full bloom of his strength in the service of the Cause to which he had devoted his life.  In marked contrast to his short life and tragic martyrdom is the long life and peaceful end of the Evangelist.  While the life and teachings of the one are veiled in obscurity and can scarcely be verified with certainty, the work of the other stands out in clear colors.  The Evangelist appears to have come of a well-to-do family, his mother being one of those who contributed to the support of the work of Jesus and to have been a man of considerable learning.  Truly, he seems to have been well equipped to "finish by his learning what the other began by his zeal." In marked contrast to the simplicity of the message attributed to the Baptist is the finished and scholarly Gospel credited to the Evangelist.  Opening with the mystic doctrine of the Logos- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," he has given us a work notably at variance with that of the other Apostles.  Again, his name appears in connection with the mystic and apparently esoteric book of the Apocalypse.  At every point, in their history, their circumstances, their messages, and their methods we find the same sharp contrast that has its analogy in the extremes of the seasons in which their festivals fall.

 

Having considered the genealogy of the festival, it may be of interest briefly to note that of dedications. "Among the ancients," says Bro. Mackey, "every temple, altar, statue, or sacred place was dedicated to some divinity." This, in Rome at least, was required by law, and the necessary proceedings were definitely defined.  In the laws governing the Collegia, a fundamental legal requirement for organization was that the College should select a patron divinity.  It served in the Roman legal process as a means of identification.  Among the Jews there was a distinction between consecration and dedication; sacred things being both consecrated and dedicated, while profane things were dedicated only. (12) This custom was practiced as early as the time of Moses, the Tabernacle being both consecrated and dedicated, and the same is true of the Temple of Solomon. (13) The practice has been continued among Christians; and it is probably needless to call attention to the fact that Masonry has done the same.

 

Just where or when the Craft became connected with these saints and when it began to dedicate its lodges to them cannot be traced with any degree of certainty. A writer in THE BUILDER asserts that our dedication to them finds a counterpart in the recognition accorded them by the Comacines. Many of their churches were dedicated to one or the other of them.  The Island of Comacina was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and his festival is still celebrated annually by the inhabitants with much pomp and ceremony. (14) This is particularly significant, for many authorities now believe that the Comacines form an important link in the history of our Fraternity.  James I of Scotland in 1424 passed a statute legalizing trade societies, and provided for the dedication of each to some patron saint.  The early craft guilds of England appear to have followed the same custom, practically all of them being similarly dedicated, usually to some Saint connected with their calling, and frequently the guild was namned after him. (15)

 

"None of the Londan trades appear to have formed fraternities without ranging themselves under the banner of some saint," says Bro. Gould, "and if possible they chose one who bore some fancied relation to their trade.  Thus the fishmongers adopted St. Peter; the drapers chose the Virgin Mary, mother of the 'Holy Lamb' or 'Fleece' as the emblem of that trade.  The goldsmiths' patron was St. Dunstan, represented to have been a brother artisan.  The merchant tailors, another branch of the draping business, marked their connection with it by selecting St. John the Baptist who was the harbinger of the 'Holy Lamb' so adopted by the drapers.... Eleven or more of the guilds ... had John the Baptist as their patron saint, and several of them, while keeping June 24 as their head day, also met on December 27, the corresponding feast of the Evangelist." (16)

 

Toulmin Smith examined the records of some six hundred of these guilds and found few cases where the patron saints were omitted.

 

Other than the Comacine recognition, which cannot strictly be considered as that of a guild, inasmuch as it was their churches and their island home which were the subjects of dedication, the earliest Masonic connection of these particular saints of which we have record, appears in a, guild of Stone Masons and Carpenters at Cologne in 1430 called the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist. (17) On the other hand, the "Quatuor Coronate," or "Four Crowned Martyrs," are invoked in the Strassburg Ordinances of 1456 and those of Torgau of 1462, while in neither of these, nor in the Brotherbook of 1563, is there any reference to the Baptist." (18) Bro. Mackey says that the earliest festivals of the Operative, or Stonemasons of the Middle Ages were those of St. John the Baptist on June 24, and of the "Four Crowned Martyrs," on November 4. (19)

 

Dr. Oliver quotes a bit of doggerel verse which he says "it is confidently affirmed" was a part of the O. B. of a system in use in the fourteenth century:

 

"That you will always keep, guard and conceal, And from this time you never will reveal, Either to M. M., F. C., or apprentice Of St. John's Order what our grand intent is." (20)

 

The learned brother neglects, however, to cite his authority for the above, and Mackay, who has evidently copied the stanza from him, adds the comment, without giving reason or authority, that it is doubtful if it can be traced to an earlier date than the beginng of the eighteenth century. (21) I have been unable identify it among the MSS. listed in Gould's History. Of a similar character is the reputed antiquity of so-called Charter of Cologne, which purports to date from 1535, and which contains these Articles:

 

"E.  That the society of brethren began to be call 'the fraternity of Freemasons' A.D. 1450 at Valenciennes Flanders, prior to which date they were called 'the brethren of St. John.'"

 

"K.  Every year a feast is held in honor of St. John the patron of the community." (22)

 

The authenticity of this, like the former quotation is gravely questioned by almost every Masonic scholar so we may dismiss them both without further comment.  Among the Craft in Great Britain the earliest definite date of a Johannine reference appears to be "St. John's day in Christmas," 1561, when it is related that Queen Elizabeth sent an armed force to break up the annual Grand Lodge at York.  But the Masons, as it were, executed a counter-attack and initiated a number of the officers of the force, who returned to the Queen with so favorable an account of the objects and nature of the society that the Craft remained unmolested during the remainder of her reign. (23) This appears to the earliest reference to the festival of the Evangelist in connection with the Fraternity to which a semblance of credence can be given.  Gould gives a list of early dates which he has succeeded in verifying, where the festival of the Evangelist is mentioned in the lodge minutes, as follows: Edinburgh, 1599; Aberd 1670; Melrose, 1674; Dunblane, 1646; Atcheson Haven 1700, while the earliest notice of the Baptist's day appears in the York minutes of June 24, 1713.  These are the earliest references appearing in the records of any exclusively Masonic organization.  There is mention of the feasts of both saints in the records of Gateshead Sodality in 1671, but that was an organization of mixed trades. (24)   The earliest date, that of Edinburg, 1599, is entry in the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh No 1, providing that annually on St. John the Evangelist's day the Wardens shall be chosen. (25) A ritualistic notice appears in the Sloane MS. of 1646, the date of the initiation of Elias Ashmole, which contains the question and answer: "Where did they first call their Lodge? A. At the holy chapel of St. John." (26) In a copy the Gothic Constitutions exhibited before Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, at an assembly held on John the Evangelist's day, 1663, it was strictly joined that the Grand Festivals should be held on John's day in commoration of a custom which existed from time immemorial. (27) Both Anderson Preston refer to that meeting, but the Roberts MS states that it was held December 8. (28) According the Alnwick MS. the members were required to attend the parish church of that town each "St. John's day in Christmas", - "Clad in aprons and carrying common squares." (29) In a charter granted by the Bishop of Durham, April 24, 1671, it is directed that the incorporated body "shall upon the fower and twentieth day of June, comonly called the feast of St. John Baptist, yearely for ever, assemble themselves together before nine of the clock in the forenoone of the same day, and there shall, by the greatest number of theirs voices, elect and chuse fouer of the said fellowshippe to be there wardens, and one other fitt person to be the clarke . . . and shall vpon the same day make Freemen and brethren; and shall vpon the said fover and twentieth day of June, and att three other feasts or times in the yeare - that is to saie, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, St. John Day in Christeninas, and the five and twentieth day of March, . . . for ever assemble themselves together." (30) This was the Gateshead Sodality mentioned above.

 

The Four Old Lodges of London having constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro tem in 1716 or early in 1717, set the date for the formal revival of the quarterly communications for St. John the Baptist's day of 1717.  It is related in Anderson's Constitutions that "Accordingly on St. John the Baptist's day in the 3rd year of King George I., A. D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house." "The ASSEMBLY and Feast" was held on the same date in 1718, 1719, and 1720; but there appears no record of the observance of the Evangelist's day under the Grand Lodge until 1720 when a quarterly communication or Grand Lodge was held on that day.  This was under the Grand Mastership of George Payne.  The festival of St George the patron saint of England, which falls on April 23, was later adopted as the principal feast of the Grand Lodge.

 

The earliest known minutes of the Craft in Ireland show a meeting of the Grand Lodge of Munster on the Evangelist's day, 1726.  The annual meeting was held on the same date in 1727.  The meetings for 1728, 1730, and 1731 were dated on the Baptist's day.  In 1732, that day falling on Sunday, the Grand Lodge met on Saturday and adjourned until Monday the 25th. The year 1729 shows no record of a meeting.  The General Regulatians incorporated in the same minutes are dated as having been adopted on the Evangelist's day, 1728, but there is no other record of that communication. They provide "In due Honour, Respect, and obedience to ye right Worshipful the Grand Master, that his Worship may be properly attented for the more solemn and proper holding our Grand Lodge on St. John the Baptist's day, annually, for ever . . . . "(31) The minutes of the Munster Grand Lodge do not continue beyond 1733.  The present Grand Lodge of Ireland was established in 1730, but its earliest minutes have been lost, and Gould gives no dates of the early communications.  According to Mackey, however, the present custom includes the observance of both the Baptist's and the Evangelist's festivals. (32)

 

The Scottish Grand Lodge was established in 1736, the minutes showing a preliminary meeting on September 30, which suggests the festival of St. Michael though Gould makes no reference to it in his account of the formation of that body.  The actual organization took place an St. Andrew's day, November 30, and that day is still observed as the principal feast of Scottish Masons, thus concurring in the celebration of the feast of the patron of their country. Bro. Mackey, however, quotes Lawrie to the effect that Scottish Masons always observed the festival of the Baptist until 1737 when the change was made to St. Andrew's day. This statement is in marked variance with Gould, who, I believe, is the safer guide.  The Johannine dedication still prevails under the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the three degrees are officially designated "St. John's Masonry."

 

Enough evidence appears, therefore, to indicate that the two festivals had already attained an immemorial status in the customs and traditions of the Craft long before the dawn of the Grand Lodge era.  Even during the Middle Ages there is sufficient evidence to warrant a belief that they were quite widely recognized.  Indeed, if we may accept the Comacine theory now gaining ground among our Masonic scholars, there is, in the peculiar attention accorded these two saints and their festivals by those architects and builders, another link in the chain of Masonic evolution.  Through them the line leads back to the Roman Collegia, and thence to the ancient pagan solstitial observances. The change from the pagan to the Christian nomenclature would have been a natural result of the Christianization of the Empire.  Thus, apparently we have in our Johannine dedication and festivals a direct line of descent from the most ancient observances known to man, and from the evidence at hand, I am inclined to believe that in remarkably few instances have their celebration been entirely neglected by the Craft.  That this is not far-fetched will be realized when we remember that many a recognized and time-honored historical or genealogical tree has little more to support it.

 

(To be concluded.)

 

1. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Rev. George Oliver; J.W. Leonard & Co., New York, 1855; included in vol. 5, Universal Masonic Library., Rob. Morris, Lodgeton, Ky., 1856.

2 "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," A. G. Mackey, see articles on "Dedication," "Parallel Lines," "St. John the Baptist," "St. John the Evangelist," "Festivals," etc.

3. Ibid, article on "Dedications."

4 "History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, vol. 1, p. 15.

5. "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," Uhlhorn, p. 31.

6 "Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John," Sir Isaac Newton, 1733, Chap. XIV, pp. 204-5.

7 "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics," Ed. by Dr. Jas. Hastings, vol. 11, p. 58; New York, 1921.

8. "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," vol. 2, p. 1907.

9. "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics," vol. 5, p. 847.

10. "Greek Religion," Fairbanks, pp. 285-6.

11. "Encyclopaedia Americana," New York, 1904, Article on "Eve of St. Johns."

12 "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," article on "Dedications."

13 "THE BUILDER," vol. 3, CCB.  May.

14 "THE BUILDER," vol. IV, p. 262.

15 Essay on "History and Development of Gilds," Brentano, 1870.

16. History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p76

17. Ibid. p. 79

18. Ibid

19 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," article on "Festivals."

20. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," p. 32.

21. "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," article on "St. John's Order."

22 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 117.

23 "Some Account of the Schism," etc. Oliver, p. 7; Universal Masonic Library, vol. 5. Also "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 179.

24 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p. 75.

25 "Ibid, vol. 2, p. 79.

26 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," article on "Lectures."

27 "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 102.

28 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Saint Albans, Earl of"

29 Ibid, article on "Alnwick Manuscript."

30 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 275.

31 Ibid, vol. 3, pp. 282-3-4.

32 "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Festivals."

 

----o----

 

OUR DUTY TO THE MERCENARY CRAFTSMAN

BY BRO. FRANCIS E. WHITE, GRAND SECRETARY, NEBRASKA

 

Here is an utterance from the sagacious and much experienced Grand Secretary of Nebraska that can and should be recommended to the attention of every Master and Grand Master in the land. It deals in a telling way with a problem that has reached scandalous proportions in large centers, and will probably reach to larger proportions still if the present rate of membership increase continues. Ye editor expresses a pious hope that Brother White will follow this with another paper on those unhappy brethren who make use of the Fraternity for political and business purposes, often in the most unblushing fashion!

 

WHATSOEVER a man soweth, that shall he also reap" is as true today as it was when Paul, the Apostle, wrote it. I am assuming that the Apostle Paul used the words as a figure of speech, and with no reference to the fruits of the soil.

 

Applying this gem of wisdom to Freemasonry, we might say that we are now reaping, and will continue to do so, what we have sown, a portion of which we do not want and which we do not know what to do with. If the crop exceeds our expectations, we must remember that Nature makes allowances for losses and produces accordingly. It would be a waste of time to refer at length to the great increase in membership in the past few years. Every student of Masonic conditions knows what it has been, and the statistical tables give the facts. I believe it is safe to say that every Masonic student realized, when noting the great increase in membership, that there was a percentage without which Freemasonry could have prospered very nicely. One Masonic writer puts it rather tersely, saying, in reply to the query: "Are we making too many Masons?" "No; a thousand times no! We are making them entirely too slowly; in fact, we are not making one for every one hundred Master's degrees conferred. We are too busy making members to devote our attention to making Masons." This statement seems to me to be a little overdrawn.

 

However, we have to consider conditions as they exist and not as they might be. It is a question that needs the wisdom of Solomon to answer, and I can only give my personal views on the subject. I have always taken the view that becoming a member of the Masonic Fraternity is in the nature of a contract, whereby the lodge promises to do and perform certain things, and receives from the candidate his promise to something, not exactly in return for what we give, but to fulfill his part of the contract, not only for his own brood, but for the good of the Fraternity. After due consideration, I have reached the conclusion that we are responsible for a percentage of mercenary Craftsmen. People see our Masonic Homes, note our Relief Committees, see our funeral processions, and the little real charity that we do reaches them in an exaggerated form, and who can blame them, if from our own acts, they are impressed with the idea that to belong to the Masonic Fraternity carries with it a Masonic funeral such as the town never saw before, and a living, in case of death, to your wife, your children, your wife's kin and yours to the most remote of them. Many a wife, mother, sister, and daughter has received just such an impression as the above from some member of the family who no doubt believed it himself. Too many of our members construe charity as coming in place of going: that is to say, they expect to receive it, in place of extending it. A little education on the right lines might change a mercenary Craftsman into a charitable one; in any event, it might change some of our members and their dependents from demanding, where they have only the right to request.

 

Candidates should be advised more fully on what they can expect from the Fraternity, also on what we shall expect from them. This, however, relates more properly to a different subject than it does to the one I am trying to answer. As long as a brother continues to fulfill his promise, we are in duty bound to extend to him the same fraternal consideration that we do to our most just and upright brother. It is difficult for some of us, at times, to feel the same spirit of fraternity towards some Masonic brother that we do to others, but the time to set him apart in a different class passed when we received him into fellowship. Therefore, we must consider that he has some rights, and if he obeys the laws of the land and transgresses no Masonic laws, we must render to him a full measure of consideration.

 

The mercenary Craftsmen might be divided into three classes. First - A percentage among these brethren might, by proper proceedure, become worthy members of the Fraternity, and it is our duty to try to induce them to change their selfish natures and grow to be more in keeping with the spirit of our Fraternity. We might try to get them interested in our charity work, if we are doing any. If we are not doing anything on these lines, let us take up some of it for our own benefit as well as for the benefit of the Masonic brother. Precept and example will do much. Bear in mind that the brother you are trying to win over has some good in him and perhaps needs to be reached in the right way to produce deeds of charity that will bring abundant fruit. Do not forget that if you want the Masonic brother to walk in the paths of rectitude, charity, and brotherly love, you must walk in these paths once in a while yourself. The privilege of association with men of character and standing is one of the incentives for some men to seek admission into the Masonic Fraternity, and sometimes a mercenary Craftsman realizes that getting into the Order does not carry with it the association privilege, and when he wonders why, some one might suggest that good deeds are the only passport to full fellowship in the Fraternity. The above suggestions refer to a class of members that I believe we can benefit: members who are susceptible to good influence, and will respond to the right effort that is made to reach their better natures. Let us fulfill our part of the contract, and by persuasion endeavor to turn a part of the crop we have reaped from the seed sown, into a valuable asset, in place of letting it remain a liability.

 

The second class of mercenary Craftsmen will doubtless solve the problem as to what shall be done with them, for themselves and for us, when they learn that they can get out of Freemasonry only what they put into it, and being entirely destitute of anything to put in, many of them will drop out, either by demission or by suspension, and the laws in regard to suspension should be kept in good, first-class condition, and not be permitted to rust for the want of service.

 

The mercenary Craftsmen who will cause us the most trouble will be those who think that the world owes them a living and who are trying to collect the entire debt, as they view it, from the Masonic Fraternity. Finding neither sympathy nor financial assistance in their own Masonic lodges, the members of this class will take "to the road," and open up again the beaten path that formerly ran from the south to the north in the summer time, and reversed the line of travel at the approach of cold weather. I said that this class would cause us the most trouble, and yet it should cause us the least. We have now and for some time have had a remedy for this trouble in our own hands; but the well-learned hard luck story related to the Master of a lodge, whose sympathy is large and whose judgment for the time being is set aside, brings a few dollars that are worse than wasted. This class of mercenary Craftsmen should be dealt with kindly, firmly, and effectively. Kindly, so as to be sure that the applicant for relief is not entitled to it. Try to convince him in a kindly manner that if he were entitled to relief, he would receive it. If there is any doubt, solve it in favor of the applicant. If you are going to err in a matter of this kind, err on the right side, but do not err too much. Firmly, by insisting upon some evidence of Masonic good standing, more than a simple statement of the name and number of the lodge, and the old, old story of stolen receipts and Masonic papers. Insist upon something in the way of documentary evidence; a receipt for dues for the current year, with some authentication by the Grand Secretary, should be demanded. Effectively, by spreading the information regarding impostors, far and wide.

 

To these might be added the class of men who apply for admission to our lodges, hoping for increased business or for help of a political nature. Our duty to Craftsmen of this kind, is to ignore their mercenary proclivities.

 

To sum up this subject: Every Grand Lodge should give it careful consideration; provide ways and means for the identification of their members, so there would be no possibility of them being taken for impostors. A very small percentage of the money wasted on unworthy Masons would provide first-class documentary evidence in the way of diplomas and receipts for dues. Legislation should be enacted prohibiting lodges from contributing any of the lodge funds without such documentary evidence, showing that the applicant for relief is in good standing in a lodge that is recognized by the Grand Lodge. With a list of regular lodges before the examining committee, a diploma or a receipt for dues in the hands of a worthy brother should always and most always will receive a steady response to reasonable requests for assistance; all others should he denied.

 

----o----

 

THE SONG OF THE RED BIRD

 

BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

It was a cold and wintry day

As down a sullen city street

I made my silent, gloomy way

With heavy heart, reluctant feet.

 

The day itself, as sad as I,

Was roofed with clouds of heavy gray;

The weary wind was but a sigh;

The city street was mired with clay.

 

But from the sky's deep heart of peace,

Down wafting soft, and still, and slow,

As though to put my heart at ease,

There fell great innocent flakes of snow.

 

Above my head the maples met

With branches gray, wind-swept, and bare;

My spirit hears their mourning yet

For many sorrows lingered there:

 

And many sorrows lived in me

And many fears, regrets, and woes

While there I stood beneath that tree

And lived with it amid the snows:-

 

When all at once I heard a song,

A tender, winsome song I heard,

Too heart-enthralling to belong

Unto so small, so shy a bird!

 

My heart had broken down in me!

It lived again that holy day;

For when that bird sang in the tree,

One more long winter passed away.

 

----o----

 

THE PASSING OF CHARLES HOMER

 

BY THE EDITOR

 

"To the Past go more dead faces,

Every year;

As the Loved leave vacant places,

Every year;

Everywhere the sad eyes meet us,

In the evening's dusk they greet us,

And to come to them entreat us,

Every year.

 

ON MARCH 9 last, Charles Christopher Homer died at his home in Baltimore, Maryland, the city of his birth, after an illness of a year. His passing left a gap that will not easily be filled, because he was a man who wrought largely and in many circles. Following his father, for whom he was named, he became president of the Second National Bank of Baltimore. Later he became president also of the Savings Bank of Baltimore, and a director of the Baltimore Clearing House Association, as well as president of the National Currency Association.

 

But he was not content with his activities in banking, multifarious as they were, and never refused to place his tireless faculties, his business experience, and his trained faculties - he was a graduate of the Law School of the University of Maryland - at the disposal of worthful causes: he was a director of the German Orphan Asylum, a trustee of the Shepherd and Enoch Pratt Hospital, and he was one of the original members of the City Service Commission. In addition to all this he held membership in a large number of societies and associations, the scope of his interests being indicated by this incomplete list of them: - Academy of Political Science, American Academy of Social and Political Scienee, American Asiatic Association, American Forestry Association, American Geographical Society, American Institute of Banking, Maryland Historical Society, Municipal Art Society, National Economic League, National Geographic Society, National Masonic Research Society, National Municipal League, Navy League of the United States, Society for the History of Germans in Maryland, and the Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore Country, Baltimore Athletic, Baltimore Yacht, Merchants, Baltimore Press, Automobile and City Clubs, Baltimore.

 

Along with all these, and in some senses over and above all these, went a passionate interest in Freemasonry that waxed more and more compelling for twenty-six years. From his being made a Mason in 1896 until his death he labored tirelessly in all the Rites, and always with patience, with good humor, and with sanity. Maryland Masons gave to him the highest possible expression of their regard by electing him to succeed Thomas J. Shryock, who was serving his thirty-third term as Grand Master. When he was made Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Maryland in 1919, the Grand Chapter published a record of his Masonic affiliations, as follows:

 

Companion Homer was initiated April 2, 1896, passed May 8, 1896 and raised June 1, in Germania Lodge, No. 160; dimitted March 22, 1901.

 

Placed dimit in Kedron Lodge, May 7, 1901.

 

Filled the chairs in Kedron Lodge, No. 148, A.’. F.’. & A.’. M.’., of Maryland, serving as Master in 1906.

 

Member of the Board of Grand Inspectors in 1907.

 

Elected Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge in 1908.

 

Elected a member of the Board of Managers of the Masonic Temple in 1908, serving thereon to date.

 

Elected Deputy Grand Master in 1911.

 

Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Grand Lodge for four years.

 

Acting Grand Master, February 3, 1918 to November, 1918.

 

Elected Grand Master November, 1918; re-elected November 1919.

 

Elected member of and Treasurer of the Grand Lodge Charity Fund in 1915, succeeded by Brother Daniel J. Emich, as Treasurer, in February, 1918.

 

Exalted in Druid Royal Arch Chapter, No. 28.

 

Became charter member of the Baltimore Royal Arch Chapter, No. 40, serving as High Priest of that Chapter in 1912.

 

He was knighted in Beauseant Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar, 1897: Eminent Commander, 1906; Grand Commander Knights Templar, 1913; Concordia Council, No. 1, Royal and Select Masters; Albert Pike Lodge of Perfection, Meredith Chapter Rose Croix, Maryland Preceptory, Chesapeake Consistory, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Master of Kadosh, 1913 to 1918; Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, 1911; Coroneted 33d, October, 1913; appointed Deputy of the Supreme Council in the State of Maryland, March, 1918; Sovereign Grand Inspector General, October, 1919; member of Finance Committee and Committee on Foreign Relations of Supreme Council Scottish Rite; Treasurer of the War Relief Fund the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Member of Executive Commission and Treasurer of Masonic Service Association of the United States; appointed Provincial Magus for Maryland of Rosicrucian Society, in 1918; M. P. Sovereign St. Cyprian Council, U. S. Red Cross of Constantine; Grand Warder Encampment Knights Templar, September, 1919.

 

To this should be added the fact that he was one of of the founders of the Masonic Service Association, attended all its annual sessions, except the last, and was treasurer until illness compelled his resignation: and that, from its beginning in 1915, he has been an enthusiastic member of the National Masonic Research Society - so enthusiastic that we shall for many a long  day sadly miss his cheery presence, and his hearty voice. Peace to his ashes, and a long remembrance to  his illustrious name !

 

----o-----

 

THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

 

BY BRO.  H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

The following paper is one of a series of articles on "Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of Masonry," by Brother Haywood, to be used for reading and discussion in lodges and study clubs. From the questions following each section of the paper the study club leader should select such as he may desire to use in bringing out particular points for discussion. To go into a lengthy discussion on each individual question presented might possibly consume more time than the lodge or study club may be able to devote to the study club meeting.

 

In conducting the study club meetings the leader should endeavor to hold the discussions closely to the text of the paper and not permit the members to speak too long at one time or to stray onto another subject. Whenever it becomes evident that the discussion is turning from the original subject the leader should request the members to make notes of the particular points or phases of the matter they may wish to discuss or inquire into and bring them up after the last section of the paper is disposed of.

 

The meetings should be closed with a "Question Box" period, when such questions as may have come up during the meeting and laid over until this time should be entered into and discussed. Should any questions arise that cannot be answered by the study club leader or some other brother present, these questions may be submitted to us and we will endeavor to answer them for you in time for your next meeting.

 

Supplemental references on the subjects treated in this paper will be found at the end of the article.

 

PART XII - THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

 

OFTEN we hear it said by zealous reformers that we men must learn to be social beings, that individualism, egoism, and all such creeds are vicious in their effects, and-that the socializing of life will bring in an era of which William Morris dreamed when he wrote that "Brotherhood is heaven, the lack of brotherhood is hell." (Or did he use the word fellowship?" It matters not.) Admirable as is the spirit and intent of these reformers a fallacy lies at the heart of their theory.  We men are already social beings: we were born that way.  To tell us that we must become social is like telling the fishes to live in the water.

 

When a human babe is born it finds itself from the first in the midst of a family, and bound by indissoluble ties to father, mother, brother, and sister.  After the child grows up a little, it discovers itself to have neighbors all about it.  When school years come he learns that there are hundreds of other little people like himself.  After he has reached maturity he will marry and have a family of his own.  If he engages in an occupation he will find, almost without an exception, that his daily work is made possible by the fact that there are ther human beings to whom he is tied by all manner of common interests.

 

The social nature of man's world is reflected in the structure of his own body and mind.  He is possessed of the faculty of speech, which implies that there are others about him who have something to communicate to him, and to whom he has something to communicate. Nearly all his thinking has reference to his relations with others.  When he sets himself to the task of learning, most of his learning is about others, and what they have been or done.  The very nature of his private self-consciousness, so the psychologists have learned, is such that if a babe could grow up alone on a desert island it would be idiotic or insane, no matter how healthy it might be in body.  There is no way in which a man can set out to become a social being, because he is already a social being, and can never be anything else. Sociality is an organic fact, built into the nature of man and of man's world, from which a man can no more escape than he can escape from his skin.  This fact, so it seems to me, is absolutely essential to a right understanding of our subject.

 

Give your own definition of "brotherhood." Carefully examine in your own mind the idea that man is by nature a social being. Give other facts than those in the second paragraph to prove that man is a social being by nature.  Why would a person growm up on a desert island necessarily be an idiot? What is the difference between "sociality" and "sociability"? What has the social nature of man to do with Freemasonry? Could Freemasonry succeed in its mission if it were true that man's nature is essentially egotistic and anti-social?

 

These facts are to us so self-evident that it seems impossible that any mature person could ever have overlooked them: such however has been the case, and that with millions, for this understanding of man as by nature a social being is one of the achievements of modern thinking and scientific research.  Once psychologists assumed that man comes into existence as a lonely individual untied to others, and that he gradually assumed social relations.  Sociologists and political economists were hard put to explain how a self-sufficient individuality like man ever came to exist in communities. Rousseau advanced the theory of the "Social Contract" as his explanation of the matter: Hobbes brought forth another theory, and so on.  Economists began their treatises with an account of some hypothetical man living on a desert island and then tried to show how that man's economic interests would lead him to form industrial associations with others.  The theologians placed before their minds a picture of an individual brought into existence as a solitary unit, who had later to be brought somehow into relation with God with man.  All such theorizing, then or now, for it still lives in some form or other with many men, is useless because it begins by assuming that man is a solitary unit who must become social by his own effort, whereas the truth is that a man is a social being already, and from the very beginning.

 

This being true it is easily seen that brotherhood is anything but a merely sentimental aspiration, which sensitive people can feel, and idealistic people can strive after.  On the contrary it is already a fact, as hard and real a fact as the mother rock that makes the foundation of the mountains.  To practice brotherhood is to discover that we men are already brothers by nature and that we can never be happy, or live in harmony with the laws and forces of our own beings, until we learn to love each other, and to cultivate the fraternal spirit.  Men make a fatal mistake who suppose that we are really by nature such beings as the wolf or the tiger, that we are kept from devouring each other only by fear or custom, and that he who builds on raw egotism is the only man who has Nature on his side. The only man who has Nature on his side is he who builds on the fact that man is a social being, and therefore that he can never be happy until he is in harmony with his fellows.

 

Can you furnish other examples of how much of the thinking of the past has assumed that man is by nature an un-social being? Who was Rousseau? What is an "economist"? Is industry social by its nature? Can you name any well known theological doctrines which assume that man is by nature a separate unit? In what sense is it true that "brotherhood" is already a fact? Were the French the brethren of the German, and vice versa, during the battle of Verdun? If they were not, when were they brothers? Are they brothers now? How can they become brothers, if not? If they really were brethren all the time may that not explain the horror of the war? Do you habitually act on the supposition that each man you know is by nature an egotistic being who must be coaxed into being social? Is unselfishness as natural as selfishness?

 

Our present day psychologists, who are making such careful investigations of instincts, tell us that the old idea that the first and most powerful force in a man is the instinct of self-preservation, and that everything else must be secondary to that, is a fearful fallacy.  The truth is, so they aver, that the instincts which look towards others, such as the instinct of parenthood, and the instinct of sociality, are equally primitive and equally powerful, and that the individual who stultifies those instincts will suffer in a hundred ways.  Why is it that a man who sees some person about to drown, and that one a total stranger, will dart away from his own wife and children to leap into the water, and there risk possible death? He doesn't reason or argue about the matter, but acts on his instinct.  The need to live a brotherly life is written in the very scriptures of blood and tissue and bone, and he who lives in opposition to that need will bring himself into an abnormal condition in which his happiness will perish.  This, so it seems to me, is one of the first laws of brotherhood: it is no mere sentimental luxury, but a necessity, and that in the same sense that bread and air and water are necessities.

 

One may describe brotherhood as the normal development of the social instincts, or he may describe it as the wise, commonsense adjustment of one's self to one's fellows.  When one makes that wise and harmonious adjustment he makes it not in response to some sentimental and pious wish that such things should be, but in response to facts, to the way things really are with man's being.  Just as a man must be in right relation with the food he eats in order to maintain health, so must he likewise be in right relation to his fellows if he would live in happiness.

 

The man who understands that brotherhood is one form of wisdom, and that it is demanded by the way things really are in man's world, will not be troubled by sentimental difficulties.  Neither will he permit a few accidental private experiences to sour him of all brotherly striving.  It may be that my neighbor and I have natures that are the antipodes of each other.  What I admire he detests.  What he loves I hate.  His temperament is antagonistic to mine.  My vocation is one that is opposed to his interests.  We cannot hold social intercourse because we discover too many antipathies.  Such a thing has nothing to do with brotherhood when it is rightly understood.  Brotherhood does not demand of us that we privately like people who are obnoxious to us, or that others should like us who find our company distasteful.  Such things are in the domain of one's intimate likes and dislikes and have to do with private friendship rather than with brotherhood.

 

If I cannot like this neighbor of mine I can be a brother to him nevertheless.  I can give him exact justice in all my dealings with him.  I can always refuse to do evil to him or speak evil of him.  I can always maintain an attitude of good will to him, and wish for him good fortune and happiness.  I can ever stand ready to help him to fullness of life, insofar as circumstances make that possible, and I can always refuse to place any obstacles in his path. If I have a difference with him I can differ with him as one man to another, honestly and openly, without childish petulance.  Such in attitude is the brotherly spirit, and it can flourish where private friendship is impossible.

 

Who are the "psychologists"? What are the various instincts at the bottom of man's nature? Is the instinct of fraternalism as deeply rooted as the instinct of self-preservation? What does Brother Haywood mean by the phrase "in right relation to one's fellows"? How do you get along with persons you do not personally like? Does brotherhood demand that we have a personal liking for every man? Could such a thing be possible? What is meant by the saying in the V.S.L. that "We should love one another," and "Love your enemies"? How can a man "love" his enemies? How can one Mason love another Mason whom he personally dislikes?

 

Practical men of affairs usually like to think of brotherhood in the terms of cooperation, and that is perfectly legitimate.  The greatest things in the world - it is a banal statement to make - are accomplished by a great many men agreeing to act harmoniously together.  The National Masonic Research Society is an example of this.  We who belong to it, and work for it (this includes you as well as myself) have no desire (or opportunity) to make money out of it, or to gain private ends by means of it.  We are all interested to learn and teach more about Freemasonry and we have therefore formed a society whereby we may the better accomplish that purpose.  Such a thing is in itself brotherhood.  The great Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, founded in England in 1884, to which reference is so often made in these pages, is another case in point.  The able scholars who toiled so diligently under the aegis of the lodge, and who laid the whole Fraternity under such an obligation to them, toiled without money and without price, but solely in order that we could all know more about our Craft.  In so doing those men acted as brothers in as literal a sense as if they had all donned monk's habits and gone to live somewhere in the communal society of a monastery.

 

Can you give two or three other examples of brotherhood as being cooperation? Could one describe the cooperation, or "team play," of a baseball club as being brotherhood? Do you believe in brotherhood sufficiently to practice it? to risk things on the strength of it?

 

In Freemasonry we speak of the bond which holds men together in such endeavor as the "Mystic Tie." It is quite impossible to describe or to explain that tie, those who know what it is by experience, do not need it to be defined.  There is something of private friendship in it, for I believe that the majority of Masons have a feeling towards brother Masons that they do not have towards outsiders, and there is something of the purpose of cooperation in it, as described above.  It is a mixture of these two things, plus many other things.

 

Be that as it may it is true that what we mean by that tie is really the hope of the world.  It is only as men are bound by it, whether they are Masons or not, that the race can go on towards happiness. For after all is said and done the world is a unity, and is one. That is the nature of mankind and mankind can never be happy in living until all act in harmony with their nature.  Those who make sport of the aspirations towards racial unity, internationalism, all such endeavors to bind man closer to man, woman to woman, know not of what they speak though they know it not, it is they who are miss by sentimental illusions, and imaginary mirages, the men who work to build life on the foundations on which life was intended to rest.   In proportion as a man understands brotherhood and acts in conformity with its demands, he will always work for human unity.  In his lodge he will not be a dividing and distracting force.  In his community he will be a good citizen who knows that the community has a right to demand many sacrifices on the part of its children.  He will uphold and maintain the principles of his country, and oppose every influence that makes for its degredation and division.  He will everywhere use his efforts to break down racial antipathy, religious differences, and class hatred.  War, fanaticism, national jealousies and unjust ambitions, the base intrigues of false statesmen, and the public conivance in public vices, he will everywhere and oppose.  It is his task as a true soldier of brotherhood.

 

Masonry has played a great part in bringing about these conditions, and the part it is yet to play "is more than the twelve labors of Hercules." It is a great thing for the world that at a time when everywhere the spirit of strife and division is so rampant there should be in existence a powerful international body of men who preach and emphasize the need for unity, harmony, and international comity.  I like to think that the Fraternity is a kind of great school in which men learn brotherhood by practicing it towards fellow Masons, because he who begins by practicing it towards fellow Masons will come sooner or later to practice it everywhere.  And I like to think that Freemasonry is a world inside the world, and that in Masonry those habits of fraternity are developing which will one day take root everywhere.  While the winter winds are raging the gardener sows the seed in the protection of his hothouse.  After a while the plants will be carried outdoors to live under the sky.  Inside the protecting arms of the Fraternity is growing a spirit which, as rapidly as conditions permit, must make itself felt everywhere.  The great work of the world must be done by the combined and cooperating efforts of all the men of the world.  At present that world lies dismembered about us, bleeding at every pore.  This does not mean that brotherhood is a failure.  It means that a world without brotherhood is a failure.  It is the only practicable means of healing the hurts of mankind. Every individual who learns in the lodge the lessons of brotherhood and who goes through life everywhere practicing that lesson is helping toward the new order of things wherein will dwell peace for all men.

 

A thing that must achieve such a work as this cannot be a puny growth of private sentimentality. It is a world power capable of gigantic efforts. Those who think of it merely as a hand clasp and a slap on the back are dealing with it like children.  It is a world law, destined to change the earth into conformity with itself, and as a world power it is something superb, awe- inspiring, god-like.

 

I speak the password primeval, I give the sign of Democracy; By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.... I dreamed in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth; I dreamed that was the new City of Friends; nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love - it led the rest ..... Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and ledge that pass all the argument of the earth, And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all men ever born are also my brothers and the women my sisters and lovers, And that a kelson of the creation is love. . . . Is it a dream? Nay, but the lack of it the dream, And, failing it, life's lore and wealth a dream, And all the world a dream "  (Whitman.)

 

(P.S. I may be allowed to refer the reader to another article of mine on a different aspect of this me theme which appeared in THE BUILDER for January 1917.  H. L. H.)

 

How would you explain the "mystic tie" ? Tell in what ways Freemasonry endeavors to make brotherhood prevail in the world? Does a man have to wait to understand brotherhood before he can practice it? May it not be that he learns what it is by practicing it as far as he can understand it and believe it ? What is international brotherhood ? Who was Whitman ?

 

----o----

 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

 

Mackey's Encyclopaedia - (Revised Edition):

 

Bible, p. 104; Brother, p. 120; Brotherhood, p. 120; Brotherly Love, p. 121; Companion, p. 173; Mystic Tie, p. 501; Wisdom, p. 854

 

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OUR STUDY CLUB PLAN

 

"The Bulletin Course of Masonic Study," of which the foregoing paper by Brother Haywood is a part, was begun in THE BUILDER early in 1917. Previous to the beginning of the present series on "Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of Masonry," as we have titled it, were published some forty-three papers covering in detail "Ceremonial Masonry" and "Symbolical Masonry" under the following several divisions: "The Work of a Lodge," "The Lodge and the Candidate," "First Steps," "Second Steps," and "Third Steps." A complete set of these papers up to January 1st, 1922, are obtainable in the bound volumes of THE BUILDER for 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921.

 

Following is an outline of the subjects covered by the current series of study club papers by Brother Haywood:

 

THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

 

1. - General Introduction.

 

2. - The Masonic Conception of Human Nature.

 

3. - The Idea of Truth in Freemasonry.

 

4. - The Masonic Conception of Education.

 

5. - Ritualism and Symbolism.

 

6. - Initiation and Secrecy.

 

7. - Masonic Ethics.

 

8. - Equality.

 

9. - Liberty.

 

10. - Democracy.

 

11. - Masonry and Industry.

 

12. - The Brotherhood of Man.

 

13. - Freemasonry and Religion.

 

14. - The Fatherhood of God.

 

15. - Endless Life.

 

16. - Brotherly Aid.

 

17. - Schools of Masonic Philosophy.

 

This systematic course of Masonic study has been taken up and carried out in monthly and semi-monthly meetings of lodges and study clubs all over the United States and Canada, and in several instances in lodges overseas.

 

The course of study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information, THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia.

 

HOW TO ORGANIZE AND CONDUCT STUDY CLUB MEETINGS

 

Study clubs may be organized separate from the lodge, or as a part of the work of the lodge. In the latter case the lodge should select a committee, preferably of three "live" members who shall have charge of the study club meetings. The study club meetings should be held at least once a month (excepting during July and August, when the study club papers are discontinued in THE BUILDER), either at a special communication of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular communication at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted,all possible time to be devoted to study club purposes.

 

After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the chairman of the study club committee. The committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject to be discussed at the meeting. All members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be prepared with their material, and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother Haywood's paper by a previous reading and study of it.

 

PROGRAM FOB STUDY CLUB MEETINGS

 

1. Reading of any supplemental papers on the subject for the evening which may have been prepared by brethren assigned such duties by the chairman of the study club committee.

 

2. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper.

 

3. Discussion of this section, using the questions following this section to bring out points for discussion.

 

4. The subsequent sections of the paper should then be taken up and disposed of in the same manner.

 

5. Question Box. Invite questions on any subject in Masonry, from any and all brethren present. Let the brethren understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and enlightenment and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may be able to think of. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, send them in to us and we will endeavor to supply answers to them in time for your next study club meetmg.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

 

The foregoing information should enable study club committees to conduct their meetings without difficulty. However, if we can be of assistance to such committees, or any individual member of lodges and study clubs at any time such brethren are invited to feel free to communicate with us.

 

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STUDY CLUB PAPERS DISCONTINUED UNTIL SEPTEMBER

 

As the majority of lodges and study clubs usually "call off" during the months of Jul,y and August, the next installment of the current series of study club papers will be published in the September issue.

 

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EDITORIAL

 

THE INSTINCT FOR ANTIQUITY

 

IN HIS article on the "Mission of the Masonic Press" Robert Freke Gould had some sport with Dr. Oliver's famous remark about the antiquity of the Masonic Order. It was honest sport as the reader himself will acknowledge from the following, which is the sentence that caused the laughter: "Ancient Masonic traditions say, and I think justly, that our science existed before the creation of the Globe, and was diffused amid the numerous systems with which the grand empyreum of space was furnished." This is a fair sample of the sort of thing that used to be said by our writers about the age of Masonry, and it is little wonder that critical historians were moved thereby to feel and express a vast contempt for such so-called history.

 

But after all - there is no need to say that THE BUILDER has no patience whatever with such fables - leaving the matter of historical accuracy on one side, it was a very human and therefore justifiable instinct that led our Masonic fathers to allege so enormous an antiquity. They felt that Freemasonry was a thing of supreme value and truth, they believed that it had exercised in the world so vast an amount of good influence, that they could not believe it to be of recent origin. Believing it to be of such worth they could not help but believe that it was consequently of great antiquity. The instinct for antiquity which seems to be an ineradicable part of man's nature usually springs from such roots. What is new, man feels, cannot be very true, and what is of world-wide value cannot have been recently contrived. The ideas of antiquity and great worth go inevitably together.

 

Homer and Virgil always furnished their heroes with a pedigree from the gods. Rome, so the Romans themselves believed, was built from heaven; the Jews and the Mohammedans each also as firmly considered their own holy cities of celestial origin. The Greek Catholic is convinced that his religious system came directly from the Lord, while his Roman Catholic brother has as little doubt that his came from the same source, through the mediation of St. Peter. The Anglican Catholic, not to be outdone, asserts the same claim for his own church, or, if he chance to be an unlearned man, believes that Christianity was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. The Albigenses, who were Rome's bitterest foes during the Middle Ages, taught their children that their own faith was original Christianity undefiled by modern accretions; and Protestants and Liberals of our own day do the same thing.

 

Your scientific historian, with his pedestrian mind and his insistence on the facts in the case, will have scant sympathy for any of these pious beliefs, it may be, but what of that? One should interpret such beliefs with the more charitable faculties of the imagination. There is a great deal of good sense in the belief that what is new cannot be true, in this region at an rate, for it is inconceivable that through all antiquity men should have been left in the dark about the simple fundamentals of life. Freemasonry, in any form recognizable by us, most certainly did not exist at the beginning of the world (if the world ever had a beginning) but the men and the women who lived at that time, we may believe, were not altogether bereft of the things that give us wisdom. Those "hopes that make us men," those truths that sustain us inwardly and outwardly, which the great Order brings home to our business and our bosoms, are not mushroom growths of a day, which some learned pundit of last week chanced to come upon.

 

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FOREIGN PROPAGANDA

 

The following words have been reported of John H. Reddin, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus:

 

"If necessary, the Knights of Columbus will put its whole force of 800,000 members into the movement to end foreign propaganda in America, be it European or Asiatic."

 

These are brave words. One cannot but regret that the Knights of Columbus did not heed them when it lent its powerful aid to the Sinn Fein movement by resolution and by money. The Sinn Feiners had no more business in these United States than would the minions of the Soviets. If they, their president and their spellbinders did not carry on a "foreign propaganda" those two words have no meaning.

 

Also, one can't help but remember that the Knights of Columbus themselves are in existence here to propagate the influence of a church and a political power that is as foreign to us and to all that we stand for as are the gibberings of Lenine and Trotsky. If the Knights wish to put a stop to "foreign propaganda" they might experiment on themselves.

 

----o----

 

THE SEEING EYE

 

"How do you visualize your job?"

 

The story of three stone cutters leaves nothing of wisdom to be said. They were working on a stone. A stranger asked the first what he was doing.

 

"I'm working for $7.50 a day," he replied.

 

"And you?" the stranger asked the second.

 

"I'm cutting this stone," growled the laborer.

 

When the question was put to the third stone cutter, he answered,

 

"I'm building a cathedral."

 

- The Christian Register (Boston).

 

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THE LIBRARY

 

A COMMUNICATION FROM THE REVISER OF GOULD'S "CONCISE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY"

 

THE BUILDER is greatly pleased to publish this letter from Bro. Fred J. W. Croffe, whose Revision of Gould's "Concise History of Freemasonry" was reviewed in the Library Department last January. The rare spirit in which this communication is conceived will surely tempt a number of our readers to extend their acquaintanceship with the author. He was made a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, of London, England, in 1898, and became Worshipful Master of the same - which office was once described by Brother W.J. Hughan as the "blue ribbon" of Masonry - in 1909. He has contributed many now familiar essays to the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, one of the most notable of which was a critical examination of "The 'Charta Transmissionis' of Larmenius," published in the Ars, Volume XXIV, page 185. He has written "What Is Freemasonry," and also three Master Mason's Handbooks, one each for England, Scotland. and Ireland

 

TO the Editor of THE BUILDER:

 

I have just seen your able review of the new edition of Gould's "Concise History," which appeared in the January, 1922, number of THE BUILDER, and I am sure I may rely on your courtesy and fairness to allow me to state my side of the case in your famous journal.

 

It is always a thankless task to revise a book, because whatever line you take, someone is sure to disapprove of it, and of course everyone has a right to criticise as freely as he likes.

 

Had I done as you suggest and left the original matter intact, and inserted any revisions, etc., as footnotes, I should have largely increased the cumbrousness of the work, and considerably increased the price. On the other hand, a well known English student and author reproaches me for not having entirely rewritten it! When doctors disagree, who shall decide?

 

I was in great doubt what line to take, and finally did as you know.

 

To justify my action, I must beg to make a short personal explanation. I had the great privilege of being a humble member of a band of intimate friends which included such Masonic first-magnitude stars as Hughan, Lane, Speth, Chetwode Crawley, Murray Lyon, Sadler and others. Gould I also knew well, but not so intimately. I had conversations, and saw correspondence from and between all these, and for some dozen years I lived close to William James Hughan, and saw him almost daily on Masonic matters, so that I may claim a more intimate knowledge than most people of what they all really thought and felt. I rank Hughan highest of all. Hughan had been at work on a complete "History of Freemasonry" for some years, but he was the most unselfish man I ever knew, and when he found Gould wanted to write it, he recommended him to the publishers, and handed over to him the whole of his material, and helped him in every way, even to reading every page of the proofs. It is an open secret on this side that he actually wrote parts of the book, as he himself told me. Others also rendered much assistance.

 

When the "Concise" came out, Hughan rendered the same services, and I was often with him at the time he was at work on the proofs, and he told me he considered the opening chapters too long, and having little really to do with Freemasonry, whilst as to the Irish origin of the "Ancients" he utterly disagrees with Gould, and did his utmost to alter the chapter. The other friends did the same, but without success for Gould never liked to change his views, and so in all our minds there was a blot on the work.

 

As to the earlier part of the book being somewhat tedious and irrelevant, I may mention that when it first appeared I was shown a criticism in a very important London paper, which said, "It is neither concise nor a history." I don't know who wrote this, but it shows that I was not alone in finding it long.

 

Under these circumstances, I decided that my wisest course was to cut the chapters concerning which I had heard wide complaints of unnecessary length, and to alter the Chapter VII, of which I do not personally know a single English supporter, thus following exactly the objections of Hughan, than whom no greater authority has existed to my mind. In this way I made what seemd to me as little alteration as possible. In fact, another English critic "congratulated me on the reverence with which I handled Gould." A third, who is probably the most learned now with us said "Do be sure and cut out all that talk about 'schism' and 'schismatics' which has no foundation." You know now how diverse opinions were, and hence my difficulties.

 

I don't really see how there can be any doubt of what is Gould, and what Crowe. "Cutting" leaves the remainder still Gould, whilst I have indicated clearly what I altered. The additions you quoted from page 349 of the originals are only a list of the "Important Occurrences in Freemasonry" as given in the Official Year Book of the Grand Lodge of England from the date of the "Concise" first appearing to my own writing. Surely this must be clear, and being merely official statements of facts, it doesn't matter whether Gould or Crowe inserted them. All the other additions, I think, will be found as similiar statements of facts since the first edition appeared. I think, therefore, I have taken the only possible way of executing my task, and I cry mea culpa for any unintentional sins of omission or commission.

 

In conclusion, I thank you very sincerely for your kind compliments, and acknowledge your perfect fairness from your own point of view. I can only regret that we do not altogether see eye to eye, and I still hope our American brethren will find the new edition as useful as the old was.

 

With best wishes,

Very sincerely and fraternally yours,

Fred J.W. Crowe,

P. M. Lodge "Quatuor Coronati" 2076,

P.A.G.D.C., England, P.S.G.W., Iowa, etc.

 

* * *

 

PRESIDENT HARDING CONQUERS MR. WELLS

 

"Washington and the Riddle of Peace" by H.G. Wells. Published by The Macmillan Company, 66 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. The book sells at $2.00.

 

Through "the enterprise and driving energy of The New York World" Mr. H.G. Wells was brought to the Washington Conference in order that he might therefrom convey to an interested world his impressions of the outcome of that bold experiment in the New Diplomacy. The Wellsian articles, as the reader already knows, appeared in many dailies in the United States and abroad, and were read by multitudes of people. The twenty-nine papers have now been gathered into a volume and published under the title "Washington and the Riddle of Peace."

 

"These twenty-nine papers," writes Mr. Wells, "do not profess to be a record or description of the Washington Conference. They give merely the impressions and fluctuating ideas of one visitor to that conference. They show the reaction of that gathering upon a mind keenly set upon the idea of an organized world peace; they record phases of enthusiasm, hope, doubt, depression and irritation. They have scarcely been touched, except to correct a word or a phrase here or there; they are dated; in all essentials they are the articles just as they appeared in The New York World, the Chicago Tribune, and the other American and European papers which first gave them publicity."

 

The Wellsian style is here in all its plenitude; rushing by one like a torrent; sparkling, dipping, splashing; there is no need to review its thrice-familiar character. To the reviewer, and doubtless also to a great majority of American readers, the "feature" of the volume is the delightfully frank confession on Mr. Wells' part of his conquest by Brother Warren G. Harding, President of the United States. "I saw the President for the first time at Arlington. He is a very big fine-looking man and his voice is a wonderful instrument. He spoke slowly and very distinctly, his gestures admirably controlled. He is - how can I say it? - more statuesque than any of the American Presidents of recent times, but without a trace in his movements or appearances of posturing or vanity. Men say he is a sincerely modest man, determined to do the best that is in him and at once appalled and inspired by the world situation in which he finds himself among the most prominent figures.... I have heard much detraction of the President both before I came to America and since I have been here, but here I have found also a growing and spreading belief in him. And this address of his, rhetorical though it was in a simple and popular American way, was nevertheless a very dignified address and one inspired by a spirit that is undeniably great.... Every other gossip tells you that President Harding comes from Main Street and repeats the story of Mrs. Harding saying, 'We're just folk.' If President Harding is a fair sample of Main Street, Sinclair Lewis has not told us the full story and Main Street is destined to save the world."

 

On President Harding's great peace plan, Mr. Wells is frankly enthusiastic. These letters, he writes in his Introduction, "record - and in a very friendly and appreciative spirit - the birth and unfolding of the 'Association of Nations' idea, the Harding idea, of world pacification, they note some of the peculiar circumstances of that birth, and they study the chief difficulties on its way to realization. It is, the writer believes, the most practical and hopeful method of attacking this riddle of the Sphinx that has hitherto been proposed."

 

* * *

 

A DICTIONARY OF RELIGION AND ETHICS

 

"A Dictionary of Religion and Ethics," edited by Shailer Mathews and Gerald B. Smith, with the aid of about one hundred specialists. Published by The Macmillan Company, 66 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. Price $8.00.

 

Freemasonry is so infused with religion and ethics that any book dealing freely with the two latter subjects will be of interest to the Craft. The work under consideration contains 513 pages, 7 x 10 inches, and the articles have room for briefly defining all the words of importance in the field of religion and ethics and many of them are discussed at some length.

 

While the subjects are written apparently by those most in sympathy with them there is well maintained the historical rather than the propagandist or speculative attitude. From a strictly Masonic viewpoint, the definition of Freemasonry will for us probably have first place. Written by a well known Freemason, Brother Roscoe Pound, his examination of the subject is attractive in vision but necessarily limited in treatment owing to the amount of space permitted. Brother Pound says, in part, that Freemasonry is

 

"The 'art' or 'Mystery' of the Freemasons or Free and Accepted Masons, a universal, religious, moral, charitable and benevolent fraternal organization. It is religious in requiring belief in God as a prerequisite of initiation and insisting on such belief as one of its unalterable points. Beyond this and belief in immortality it has no religious dogmas but expects the brother to adhere to some religion and obligates him upon the sacred oath of the religion he professes. For the rest it seeks to promote morals by ceremonies, symbols and lectures, inculcating life measured by reason and performance of duties toward God, one's country, one's neighbor, and one's self. It relieves needy brothers, cares for their dependents, educates orphans and insists upon duties of charity and benevolence."

 

Following this definition there is a brief account of the Fraternity's history. Brother Pound states that there is no authentic evidence as to its origin but that the manuscripts, "Old Charges," show that in the 14th century it was an established Institution with a long past.

 

The "Dictionary" has many other items that tempt the making of similar abstracts. Among these are the following references: "Catechisms," "Cathedral Architecture," "Charms and Amulets," "Crusades," "Cult," "Drama in Religion," "Foundation Rites," "Initiation," "Inquisition," "Miracle Plays," "Morality Plays," "Mystery Plays," "Mystery Religions," "Oaths and Vows," "Rites, Rituals and Ceremonies," "Secret Societies, Primitive," "Symbols," etc. The essay on "Rites, Rituals and Ceremonies" is especially valuable. A bibliography is appended but so far as its references relate to Freemasonry this is the least useful part of the book.

R.I. Clegg

 

* * *

 

A MASONIC YEAR BOOK

 

"The Masonic Year, 1922," prepared by Robert I. Clegg and published by THE MASONIC HISTORY COMPANY, 225 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago. A few copies are available for general distribution at $1.00 per copy.

 

Brother Robert I. Clegg, who has so long been at home in these pages, and who is editor for The Masonic History Company, is making it his custom at the end of each year to gather out of his clippings and memoranda of the past twelve months such items as are most salient, and most interesting; these he collates in a little volume, bound in blue cloth, and tastefully printed which he offers to the Craft as a handbook bearing the title of The Masonic Year. The volume for 1922 runs to 142 pages and contains items clustering about some twenty-three heads, such as Masonic Enlightenment, Masonc Statistics, Unusual Masonic Events, Royal Arch Masons, Cryptic Rite, etc. The great majority of these items are taken from the Masonic press of 1921; a half dozen or so are drawn from Grand Lodge Proceedings, and two or three are of a personal character. There is not a dead paragraph in the book, or a useless fact. The volume is one that cannot but be highly prized by those who take any interest at all in contemporaneous Freemasonry. If only it possessed an index, which unfortunately it does not, there would be nothing in it to offend the most determined critic.

 

The Masonic Year is a prophecy of what may yet be done in its line. Now that the Fraternity has grown to such prodigious proportions in these States, and is everywhere making itself felt with abounding vigor, its activities have outgrown the power of any one mind, with our present facilities for knowledge, to keep pace with them. We need badly a real annual cyclopedia which would do for Masonic workers, officials, Grand Lodge members, students and laborers in all the grades what the Statesman's Year Book does for the members of the United States Congress, and what the World Almanac does for everybody. Such a volume would be worth its weight in gold. It cannot be made suddenly and out of the whole cloth, and at a leap, as it were; it will have to grow from less to more, from humble beginnings to great endings. Perhaps The Masonic Year is destined to become, some day, such an annual cyclopedia. So mote it be !

 

----o----

 

PUBLICATIONS WANTED, FOR SALE, AND EXCHANGE

 

We are constantly receiving inquiries from members of the Society and others as to where they might obtain books on Masonry and kindred subjects, other than those listed each month on the inside back cover of THE BUILDER. Most of the publications wanted have been out of print for years. Believing that many such books might be in the hands of other members of the Society willing to dispose of them we are setting apart this column each month for the use of our members. Communications from those having old Masonic publications will also be welcomed.

 

Postoffice addresses are here given that those interested may communicate direct with each other, no responsibility of any nature to be attached to the Society.

 

It is requested that all brethren whose wants may be filled through this medium communicate with the Secretary so that the notices may then he discontinued.

 

WANTED

 

By Bro. D. D. Berolzheimer, 1 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.: "Realities of Masonry," Blake, 1879; "Records of the Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons," Condor, 1894; "Masonic Bibliography," Carson, 1873; "Origin of Freemasonry," Paine, 1811.

 

By Bro. G. Alfred Lawrence, 142 West 86th St., New York, N.Y.: Proceedings of the Scottish Rite Body founded by Joseph Cerneau in New York City in 1808, of which De Witt Clinton was the first Grand Commander, and which body became united, in 1867, with the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, A. & A.S.R. Also Proceedings of the Supreme Council founded in New York by De La Motta, in 1813 by authority of the Southern Supreme Council, of which he was Grand Treasurer-General, these Proceedings from 1813 to 1860

 

By Bro. Frank R. Johnson, 306 East 10th St., Kansas City, Mo.: "The Year Book," published by the Masonic Constellations, containing the History of the Grand Council, R.& S. M., of Missouri.

 

By Bro. Ernest E. Ford, 305 South Wilson Avenue, Alhambra, California: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, volumes 3, 6 and 7, with St. John's Cards, also St. John's Cards for volumes 4 and 5; "Masonic Review," early volumes; "Voice of Masonry," early volumes; Transactions Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction for the years 1882 and 1886; Original Proceedings of The General Grand Encampment Knights Templar for the years 1826 and 1835.

 

By Brother Silas H. Shepherd, Hartland, Wisconsin: "Catalogue of the Masonic Library of Samuel Lawrence"; "Second Edition of Preston's Illustrations of Masonry"; "The Source of Measures," by J. Ralston Skinner 1875, or second edition 1894; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," volumes I to XI, inclusive; "Masonic Facts and Fictions," by Henry Sadler; "The Kabbala Unveiled," by S. L. MacGregor Mathers.

 

By Brother Geo. A. Lanzarotti, Casilla 126, Raneagua, Chile

 

All kinds of Masonic literature in Spanish. Write first quotin prices.

 

By Brother L. Rask, 14 Alvey St., Schenectady, N. Y.: "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists," by E. A. Hitchcock, Janesville, N.Y., about 1865; "Secret Societies of all Ages," Heckethorn; "Lost Language of Symbology," by Harold Bayley, published by Lippincott; "Sacred Hermeneutics," by Davidson, Edinburgh, 1843; "Solar System of the Ancients Discovered," by J. Wilson, published by Longmans Co., London, 1866; "The Alphabet," by Isaac Taylor, Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co., 1883, or the edition of 1899 published by Scribners, New York; "Anacalypsis," by Geodfrey Higgins, 1836, published by Green & Longmans, London; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," any volume or volumes.

 

By Bro. J. H. Tatsch, Union Bank & Trust Co., Los Angeles, Calif.: Fascilus 2, "Caementaria Hibernica," by Chetwode Crawley; Volumes 1, 2, 5 and 8, Quatuor Coronati Antigrapha; "Some Memorials of Globe Lodge No. 23," Henry Sadler; "Constitutions of the Freemasons," Hughan, 1869; "Numerical and Medallic Register of Lodges," Hughan, 1878; "History of the Apollo Lodge and the R. A., York," Hughan, 1894; any items on Anti-Masonry, especially tracts, handbills, posters, old newspapers, almanacs, etc., relating to Morgan incident, 1826-1840, and recurrence of same from 1870 to 1885.

 

FOR SALE

 

By Bro. J. H. Tatsch, Union Bank & Trust Co., Los Angeles, Calif.: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Volumes 6 to 26, in parts as issued, with St. John Cards; "Masonic Reprints and Revelations," Sadler; "The Natural History of Staffordshire," Dr. Robert Plot, 1686, folio; "The History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, Yorston edition, 4 volumes; "History of Freemasonry in Europe," Emmanuel Rebold, 1867; "Bibliographie der Freimaurerischen Literatur," August Wolfsteig, 1911-13, two volumes and register, paper, as issued; "History of Freemasonry," Mackey, 7 volumes; "History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders," Hughan and Stillson; facsimile engraving Picard's "Les Francmassons," 1735, fine copy.

 

By Brother A. A. Burnand, 690 South Bronson Ave., Los Angeles, California: Various Masonic publications including such as a complete set of "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum"; "History of Freemasonry in Scotland," by D. Murray Lyon, (original edition); Thomas Dunkerly, Laurence Dermott, etc.

 

By Brother Frank R. Johnson, 306 East 10th St., Kansas City, Mo.: "History of Freemasonry," Mitchell, 2 volumes, sheep; "History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, 4 volumes, cloth, in good condition; "History of Freemasonry," Albert G. Mackey, 7 volumes, linen cloth, new; Addison's "Knights Templar," Macoy, 1 volume, cloth; "Museum of Antiquity," Yaggy, 1 volume, morocco; "History and Cyclopedia of Freemasonry," Macoy and Oliver, new, full morocco. Also miscellaneous books.

 

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THE QUESTION BOX

 

THE BUILDER is an open forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its contributors writes under his 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.

 

HOW McKINLEY BECAME A MASON

 

Can you p]ease tell me when McKinley was made a Mason? There is so much doubt about the presidents that have been Masons (supposedly) and there is so little to be learned about it, that I am dutious about them all. A friend assures me that McKinley really was a member of the Order, but I prefer to make sure of it before I believe it. G.T.W., Illinois.

 

Your scruples are laudable but in this connection unnecessary, because William McKinley was a Mason beyond all peradventure of a doubt, and he was a man who thought highly of the Order. An account of his making is found in "Recollections of Thirteen Presidents," a volume written by John S. Wise, who, unless the writer is off the track, was one time governor of Virginia. The book is published by Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906, and contains personal reminiscences of thirteen presidents, including Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. Those who enjoy a volume that is rich with interesting facts, wise and witty, and often illuminating, will find this a work to place alongside Richard W. Thompson's "Personal Recollections of Sixteen Presidents." Here is the story of how McKinley was made a Mason.

 

"One day, while the Fitz Fohn Porter case was under discussion in the House, McKinley gave a party of us assembled in the cloak-room an interesting account of how, although he was a Union soldier and resident of Ohio, he became a Mason in the lodge at Winchester, Virginia, during the war. He said he was stationed at Winchester in the winter of 1864, and that Judge Richard Parker, a citizen of the town, was conspicuously active in alleviating the suffering of the people. This brought him into frequent contact with the Federal authorities. They all conceived a fondness for the old gentleman, which he in turn soon reciprocated. One of the Federal officers was a prominent Mason and discovered that Judge Parker was Master of the Winchester lodge. The lodge room had been dismantled and was probably occupied by Federal troops, but the faithful Master had all the paraphernalia in his possession. The Federal officer proposed to him to re-open the lodge. At first, as a loyal Confederate, he opposed the idea, but at last yielded to the argument that Masonry was a universal brotherhood, and that its teachings would be peculiarly available then and there to mitigate the harships of war. So the lodge was re-opened, and a number of Masons in the Federal Army attended its meetings. Masonry became a fad among the uninitiated in Winchester, and McKinley, among others, joined."

 

Should you need more detailed information, turn to the excellent article on "McKinley the Mason" which Brother Frederick W. Hart contributed to THE BUILDER for March 1918, page 81.

 

* * *

 

THE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH

 

As I am a Mason of Greek birth and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church I would like to know for my information and as a guide to investigating committees for applications of men of Greek descent and religion, something about these questions:

 

1.-Is there a schism between the Greeks and Catholic Church? 2.-Has the Greek Church ever been excommunicated by the Pope of Rome? 3.-Isn't the Greek Church more closely related to the Church of England than to the church of Rome? A. G. R., Missouri.

 

Your questions 1 and 2 may be answered together.  The real causes for the split between the churches of the East (or Greek) and of the West (or Roman, or Latin) were the same as those that split the political empire in two, and which made necessary two emperors, one at Constantinople, and one at Rome.  Christians in the eastern half of the Mediterranean world were oriental in thought and custom and lived under political despotisms; those in the western half of that same world were essentially occidental in their natures and always strove for political freedom. (This is necessarily a very broad generalization.) It was the case of "East is east and west is west." But the technical and formal split first appeared in the ninth century when pope Nicholas (863) excommunicated Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Photius, as head of the Eastern Church, immediately retaliated by publishing an encyclical in which he described the Roman church as an heretical organization (which it was in all strict literalness, for it had departed far from the rules laid down by the old General Councils).  In 867 Photius excommunicated the Pope of Rome, and thus the long feud was begun.  Efforts were made to restore amity, and excommunications were made and then recalled on both sides, but at last Pope Nicholas placed the ban on the patriarchs of Constantinople (head of the Greek, or Eastern, church) and it was never recalled.  The great rupture between the two churches, as churches, did not come until 1054, in which year Pope Leo IX excommunicated the whole of the Eastern church.  Since then many feeble attempts have been made to bring together the two branches of the Christendom but to no avail.  The theological "crux" of this long quarrel lay in the separation of view as between East and West concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.  After the phrase "and in the Holy Ghost" found in the Apostle's Creed the Eastern church added the words "who proceedeth from the Father." To this the Roman church added the term "filioque" - that is, "and the son." For this reason the theological warfare between the East and the West is often described as "the filioque controversy." There were, however, many other differences, almost any one of which, apart from this particular difference of opinion, would most probably have brought about a split. In the West churchmen themselves gradually assumed control of the church, whereas in the East church government remained largely in the hands of the Emperors, or political despots.  The Eastern theologians were speculative and mystical, whereas the Western concerned themselvs more closely with practical problems.  The monastic orders, though monasticism was originally an Eastern product, soon became stagnant in the East; they were the most militant and aggressively missionary element in the West.  Church rules and ordinances became rigidly stereotyped in the East; in the West there was more growth, change, and adaptation.  The Eastern Church became much more conservative in every way, as in its restrictions on religious art, and it never succeeded as well as the West in assimilating the rival sects within its membership.

 

3.-There is as much difference between the Church of England and the Greek Church as between the latter and the Roman Church.  The Church of England retains the "filioque" clause, which is so obnoxious to the Greeks.  The Greeks have never recognized the validity of Anglican orders.  The relation, or possible relation, between these two churches, was brought to the fore by the Oxford Movement in England, of which Cardinal Newman became the symbol. At that time there was much talk of a possible union of the two bodies but nothing ever came of it, and there was never, on either side, the slightest attempt made at official overtures.

 

* * *

 

A MASONIC POPE

 

The other day I was reading the "Story of Freemasonry" by Sibleyand on page 23 I read the following:

 

". . . The epistle of 1873 was in no better temper. It attributedMasonry to Satan, and declared the Evil One founded it andcontrived its development.  These fierce denunciations of Pius IXare of peculiar interest to Masons, because the records of theItalian Grand Lodge show His infallible Holiness to have beenexpelled from the fraternity after his election as pope.  VictorEmanuel, having been aided by Garibaldi, a 33 degree Mason, inoverthrowing the temporal power of the papacy and establishingreligious and constitutional liberty in Italy, was informed thatthe pope, when a young man, had been initiated, passed and raisedin a Masonic lodge.  He therefore caused him to be tried forrepeated violations of his obligations to the Masonic brethren. Pius IX was found guilty, expelled and the proclamation of hisexpulsion, signed by Victor Emanuel, then King of Italy and GrandMaster of Masons in that country, was sent all over the Masonicworld."

 

The above statement is very conclusive and decisive.  However, inthe August 1921 issue of THE BUILDER I read the following:

 

"So far as is known no pope has been a member of the Fraternity. This could have happened a thousand years ago when Masons were,builders of church buildings, favored by the Papal See, and allloyal churchmen, but, so far as we can discover, it has neveroccurred."

 

As you see, this statement is also very positive.  As the twostatements are contradictory to each other will you pleasegive me more Light?                     G. J. M., Manila, P. I.

 

It is difficult to ascertain the facts concerning this celebratedincident.  Each man must study the evidence for himself andarrive at his own conclusions.  Readers have been generous insending forward the various accounts that have long been current. Here is one:

 

"Apropos of the Note on p. 61, of the February 1922 number of THEBUILDER, in regard to a query as to the affiliation of the latepope Pius IX, as a Freemason, I will say:

 

"In 1868, before I became a Mason, a white-haired Scandinavianfriend told me that he knew Count Mastai (not Mastlai) Ferrettibefore the pope became a priest, and that he was then a Mason."

 

He added that Ferretti was then anything but devoutly pious.

 

In 1912, Canon J. W. Horsley, lately deceased, published a letterwhich he had received from a friend whom, so he writes, he cantrust both as a clergyman and as a Mason.  The paragraphfollowing gives the Monte Video version:

 

"In answer to your letter, it is a fact that the signature ofpope Pius IX exists in one of the native lodges of Monte Video. Soon after his ordination Mastai was sent out as an auditor tothe Vicar General of Chile.  It was generally reported that hewas initiated into Masonry in that country, although I have notbeen able to get the exact date.  Anyhow, when later on he wasappointed Apostolic delegate in the Uruguay, he appeared in thelodges as a full-blown Mason.  This matter is generally known andaccepted as historical in S. America, both among brethren of theCraft and profane persons.  I forget the name of the lodge but itwas an Italian one."

 

Another version was recently published in that scholarly Masonicjournal, The Montana Mason, and is here reproduced by permissionof its editor, Brother R.J. Lemert, whose, name is always welcomein these pages:

 

For many years it has been maintained that Pope Pius IX, whosename before his accession to the pontificate was GiovanniFerretti Mastai, had received the degrees of Masonry in hisyounger life.  The editor of The Montana Mason has sought forproof of this assertion for a number of years hitherto withoutsuccess.  Recently he came into possession of a number of oldMasonic publications in various foreign languages, among which isa copy of the "Bollettino Officiale del Grande Oriente NazionaleEgiziano" (Official Bulletin of the National Grand Orient ofEgypt), published in the Italian language at Alexandria, Egypt,in March, 1876.  This old Bulletin contains a copy of acertificate issued in 1839 by a Masonic lodge of Palmreo, Italy,styled the "Eternal Catena" (Eternal Union) lodge, in which thepope was made a Mason.  A translation from the Italian follows:

 

"Orient of Nuremburg, Lodge of Germanic Loyalty, daughter of theGrand Lodge of Bavaria, working under constitutions emanatingfrom the Grand Mother Lodge of the Three Globes of Berlin.

 

"Our archives contain, under No. 13,715, the following document,certified and authenticated in regular and required form, writtenin Italian, and bearing the great seal of the Grand Lodge LucePerpetua of Naples:

 

"'Masonic Lodge Eterna Catena of Palermo:

 

"'We, Master Masons, dignitaries and officials of the thirddegree of Masonry of St. John, certify in the name of the SupremeMaster, who directs all, that on this, the date given below, atthe hour of twelve at night, we have received in this lodge inthe form prescribed by our rituals, and with entire conformity toour constitution, the Brother Giovanni Ferretti Mastai, a nativeof the Pontifical States, who, having assuned the oath in thepresence of all of us, declared that he did not belong to anysecret society hostile to this lodge, and who has paid thecharges demanded of him.

 

"'Wherefore we call upon all the Masonic lodges of the world torecognize him and hold him as a genuine, and true Mason, receivedin a just and perfect lodge, and thus we regard and certify him,as a conscientious and honorable man.

 

"'In testimony of the entire truth of the present document, wesign in Palermo, in the profane and civil year 1839, on thefifteenth day of the month of August.

 

"'Ne varietur:  Giovanni Ferretti Mastai.

 

"'Matteo Chiava, Master of the Lodge.

 

"'Paolo Duplessi, Secretary of the Lodge.

 

"'Sisto Calano, Grand Master of the Lodge of Naples.'

 

"I certify to the truth of the foregoing, and that our archivescontain the above document under the number indicated.

 

"Wilbelm von Wittelsburg, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge ofBavaria, Prince of Bavaria."

 

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HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN NOVA SCOTIA

 

My parents spent all their lives in Nova Scotia, that solid and substantial old land. That being the ease I need not tell you that I was born there. But unfortunately, before I was old enough to know anything about Masonry I came to these states. Now I should like to learn something about the history of Masonry in Nova Scotia. I know it is too long a subject for the Question Box but I thought you might give me the "high lights." F.D.S., Michigan.

 

You will find a rather complete account of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia - albeit in barest outline form - in the Transactions (always worth seeing) of The Nova Scotia Lodge of Research, Vol. I. No. 2, for January 31, 1916. The account was written by Bro. J. Plimsoll Edwards, of Londonderry. The paragraphs given below compromise the first five pages of his narrative and omit altogether the long account he gives of local lodges.

 

It is surprising that so little has been published or ever written - so far as I know - on the history of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia, especially when we consider that not only did the Masonry of Canada originate in this province, and work actively under most distinguished social auspices for many years before its establishment in any other portion of the Dominion - but that we have in our possession a singular wealth of early records, minutes, papers and written memoranda available to any aspirant for historic work. Undoubtedly lectures and essays on the subject have been at times read; but the only works which to my knowledge have appeared in print, and faced the cold critical eye of the reading public have been limited to two; one a book entitled "A concise account of the Rise and Progress of Freemasonry in the Province of Nova Scotia from the first settlement of it to this present time 1786" - of which the only copy known to exist is in the library of the Grand Lodge of Massachusettsthe other a pamphlet of 32 pages "Early History of Masonry in Nova Scotia" - being a lecture delivered before Virgin Lodge, Halifax, in June, 1910, by our late lamented Brother Hon. William Ross, formerly Grand Secretary of this jurisdiction. This latter work is well known.

 

A monumental and most interesting history of the Craft in all Canada has been published by M.'.W.'. Bro. J. Ross Robertson, of Toronto; it is a credit not only to the Dominion but to the Empire, and few works of the sort throughout the Masonic world approach its high standard of excellence.

 

Disregarding as of minor consequence certain hieroglyphics which were found in 1827 on a stone near Annapolis Royal, we learn that the founder, and first great figure in our Masonic life was Erasmus James Philips, Major of His Majesty's 40th Regiment of Foot, who sometime prior to 1726 - the exact date is unknown, and of little importance - came to Annapolis Royal. He was made a Mason in Boston in 1737, being then 31 years of age. In 1739 or 1740 he apparently received from the Provincial Grand Master of New England a warrant as Provincial Grand Master of Acadia, and bears this title in the record of the minutes of the Boston lodge. Of his Masonic work in Annapolis we practically know nothing, but undoubtedly a lodge was established there. As far back as 1854 the then Provincial Grand Master of Nova Scotia, the Honorable Alexander Keith, in his address at the annual communication of the Provincial Grand Lodge, referred to Annapolis Royal as the "cradle of Masonry in Nova Scotia." The work done by this lodge was still in evidence when, in 1719, Halifax came into being as a civilized community. Now appears on the scene one of the most distinguished Masons in Nova Scotian life - Hon. Edward Cornwallis, founder and first Governor of town and province; and on 12th of June, 1750, a petition came to Major Philips signed by Cornwallis and four other men prominent in the social life of the young town, - Wm. Steele, Robert Campbell, William Nesbitt, and David Haldane - requesting a Warrant to be granted them to hold and establish a lodge in Halifax. This was granted, and the Warrant received on the 19th of July, on which date began Masonry in Halifax; Governor Cornwallis was the first W.'.M.'., and on leaving the province was succeeded in the chair by Governor Lawrence. On this evening Lord Colvill, a distinguished naval officer and afterwards prominent in social and Masonic life in Boston, where the duties of his profession soon led him, was initiated Entered Apprentice. Other prominent residents of the town followed in his wake, and the lodge flourished. In the following March another lodge was founded in Halifax, and the existence and success of the Craft in the province became established on a sound footing.

 

The brethren celebrated the first anniversary of St. John the Baptist in Halifax by a Masonic procession to the Governor's house, thence to church - all clothed in mourning on account of the recent death of the M.'. W.'. Bro. the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King George the Second.

 

Hon. Edward Cornwallis, as the first W.'.M.'. of the first Halifax lodge, deserves special mention. His marked ability as both soldier and administrator made him prominent in these important capacities; and as a Mason he is entitled to our homage and respect. He had in 1748 established and been Master of the lodge of the 20th Regiment of the British Army - now the Lancashire Fusiliers - warranted as No. 63 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and afterwards known as "Minden" Lodge, in honor of the great victory of that name in which the 20th took so large a part. Next year, 1749, he was seconded from active military service to be leader of the expedition to found the town of Halifax, and was succeeded in the 20th by James Wolfe, the hero of Louisbourg and Quebec. Records of Cornwallis' further career in this province are scant: but his zeal must have burned brightly, for we know that soon after leaving Nova Scotia he became for a third time the founder of a lodge, being that of the 24th Regiment, warranted as No. 426 on the Register of the Grand Lodge of England. It seems strange that so great a name in the annals of our Craft has not been perpetuated in any lodge now existing in this jurisdiction. In 1786 there was a charter granted to Cornwallis Lodge No. 15, to meet in Halifax, a lodge which included in its members some of the most distinguished and honored names of our early citizens such as Salter, Binney and Murdoch; but it surrendered its privileges in the early years of the next century. There exists therefore, ant excellent opportunity for any incoming lodge to work under ones of the greatest names in both our Masonic and Provincial history.

 

As we have seen the first lodge in Halifax - the second in Nova Scotia - was warranted in July, 1750. The lodge instituted at Annapolis Royal ten or twelve years earlier had probably ceased working at this time, and Halifax, No. 1, stood alone. Next came the second Halifax lodge warranted in 1761. At this period and for several years following, R.'.W.'. Bro. Philips acted under what was called a Deputation or Special Warrant for provincial control, for it was not until 1768 that a Grand Warrant was issued by the Grand Lodge of England, constituting him Provincial Grand Master of Nova Scotia and of the territories thereunto belonging.

 

Lodge No. 1, of Halifax, does not appear on the English Register until 1770, when it was entered as No. 109; Lodge No. 2, Halifax, apparently did not exist long and probably amalgamated with No. 1.

 

In 1768 there was warranted a lodge which has left an imperishable record in the Masonic annals of British North America, "St. Andrew's" in Halifax, Nova Scotia, warranted on 26th of March of this year as No. 155, and now not only No. 1 of Nova Scotia, but the real and authentic No. 1 of all Canada.

 

From 1757 to 1770, three other lodges were warranted but there is no record of their warrants being made effective or of any work done by them. In 1780, however, there came into being another of the long lived pioneer lodges of Nova Scotia, that known as St. John, which still flourishes as No. 2 on the Register of this jurisdiction. Of the splendid work done by this lodge during the 136 years of its vigorous life, there is no occasion to speak. It was closely followed (September 1781) by another Halifax lodge, called "Union No. 1," which existed until 1820, and which included in its membership many men of prominence in the provincial capital. The third permanent addition to the Masonic forces of Nova Scotia was made in 1782 in the formation of "Virgin Lodge" under dispensation from St. Andrew's and St. John. In October 1784 it was warranted by the new Provincial Grand Lodge but with a change of name, being called "Artillery Lodge" - due probably to the military character of its members; sixteen years later the original name was resumed, by authority of the Grand Lodge.

 

In noting the history of the Craft in our province from 1750 to 1784 we must not lose sight of the existence and work of the military lodges during this period. In Halifax in 1766 a lodge known as the "Lodge of Social and Military Virtues," and attached to the 46th Regiment of Foot, worked under a warrant issued in 1762 by the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The charter of this lodge was reissued about 1846 to certain Montreal brethren; it is now No. 1, "Lodge of Antiquity" on the Quebec Register, and still flourishes. At Louisbourg in 1768, at least six of the regiments in the great siege had lodges attached to them; these were the 1st, 16th, 17th, 36th, 47th and 48th. The 28th Regiment (which was also on duty there) fathered a lodge constituted on that historic soil by Colonel Richard Gridley, and which was warranted as Louisbourg Lodge, in honor of its birth place; there are also evidences of one existing in the 43rd Regiment. These were, however, Masonic birds of passage, and moved on in due course to take part in the great attack on Quebec which decided the fade of the northern part of this continent. In 1782 there were military lodges in the Nova Scotia Volunteers, the Royal Artillery, and the 82nd Foot, all working in Halifax under dispensation from regular lodges No. 166, and No. 211 (now respectively No. 1 St. Andrew and No. 2 St. John of the Nova Scotia Register).

 

This dispensation antedated an event which we now chronicle as being of great and far-reaching importance in our history - the organization in September, 1784, of a new governing body, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, and which thereafter assumed full Masonic authority in the province. It resulted largely from the vigorous efforts (begun in 1781) of the Halifax lodges, whose persistence was thus crowned with success. This Provincial Grand Lodge deserves our special attention. It was constituted on most liberal lines, and its charter was similiar to that granted at the same time to the Craft in Lower Canada, while that granted Upper Canada was more restricted. It gave ample power practically for every Masonic act, including ability to elect successors in office - the Grand Lodge of England reserving only the right to hear appeals and similar supreme and final privileges. This admirable charter, - a credit to that branch of the Masonic family "The Ancient York Masons" from which it emanated, - gave every facility for extension as well as self-government, and during its existence as originally granted excellent work was done by the Craft in this province; but soon after the union of the "Ancients" and "Moderns" in 1813, the liberties of the Nova Scotia and lower Canada lodges began to be impaired; and within fifteen years self-government in these jurisdictions largely ceased. To this I will refer later. I might however mention that the controversy between the "Ancients" and "Moderns" - the two somewhat hostile camps into which English Masonry was then divided - had resulted in a rather confusing issue of warrants during the preceding thirty or forty years; but our brethren of that time took little share in the dispute.

 

We have already referred to the first great name in Nova Scotia Masonry, Major Philips, and to his appointment in 1739 as Provincial Grand Master of this jurisdiction. On his death he was succeeded in office by Lieut. Governor the Hon. Jonathan Belcher, who died in 1776. During his tenure of office comparitively little activity existed in matters Masonic, and after his death the Grand Warrant lay dormant until the revival in the Craft in 1784 when the new Provincial Grand Lodge came into being. The latter was presided over by R.'.W.'. Brother John George Pyke as Grand Master, assisted by R.'.E.'. Brother William Campbell as Deputy Grand Master; R.'. W.'. Brother Joseph Peters (Postmaster-General) Secretary; Rev. Brother Joshua Wingate Weeks, Chaplain. The latter's prayer at opening was one of singular eloquence. The good effects of a recognized governing body were at once apparent, and the Craft grew and flourished. R.'.W.'. Brother Pike resigned the chair in 1785, and was succeeded by the Hon. John Parr, Lieutenant Governor of this province. Governor Parr was elected Grand Master annually until his death in November, 1791: and his funeral on the 29th of that month was the occasion of a most imposing Masonic display. He was succeeded as P.'.G.'.M.'. by the Hon. Richard Bulkeley, Secretary of the province, who held office until 1800. During M.'.W.'. Brother Parr's regime six lodges were chartered and in that of his successor eight more came into existence.

 

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RELIGION AND THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE

 

Can you give me some information on Freemasonry in France? Have they removed the requirements of a belief in God, or merely removed the Bible from the altar? There is a real difference to me. O.T.C., New Hampshire.

 

The Grand Orient of France was organized in 1736 on the basis of Anderson's Constitutions, which were purely Theistic, so far as religion is concerned. During the first half of the eighteenth century the Grand Lodge of England did not require belief in God in the sense in which it now does, neither did it keep the Bible on the altar, as now: belief in God and the Bible on the altar, were made landmarks in or about 1760. Prior to that time the Grand Orient, in its religious requirements, was like the Grand Lodge of England, and was recognized by Grand Lodges everywhere. About a century after its origin the Grand Orient adopted belief in God and the Bible on the altar as landmarks, after the fashion of England, but conditions became so different in France that after the Franco-Prussian War it was deemed wise to return to the original Constitutions, Accordingly, in 1877, M. Desmons, a Protestant Clergyman, who was a delegate to the September Convention at Paris, introduced a motion to that effect. The motion was later adopted. As one of its recent secretaries expressed it, "The Grand Orient permits to each one of its members the liberty to believe or not to believe in God." "Its only principle is an absolute respect for freedom of conscience. In matters of faith it confirms nothing and it denies nothing." Every subordinate lodge may keep the Bible on the altar, and it may obligate the candidate in the name of T.S.G.A.O.T.U.

 

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TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION IN THE UNITED STATES

 

When did American Grand Lodges first begin to claim exclusive territorial jurisdiction? D.F., Montana.

 

The first Grand Lodge to claim exclusive territorial jurisdiction, so far as the writer has been able to ascertain, was the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. In 1783 it declared itself "free and independent of any other Grand Lodge or Grand Master in the Universe," which was "a large order" but one that was subsequently made good, although one naturally can't speak with certainty about the Universe. At the same time the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts claimed jurisdiction in any other state or territory, where there was not already a Grand Lodge, over such lodges as it might establish. And it furthermore, and at the same time, declared that no person, save itself or its own Grand Master, should be permitted to exercise the prerogatives of a Grand Master or a Grand Lodge "within any part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the rightful and appropriate limits to which the authority of this Grand Lodge forever hereafter extends." Other Grand Lodges followed suit until today the right of an American Grand Lodge to claim absolute and total jurisdiction over all lodges existing within its territory is everywhere acknowledged.

 

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JOHN COUSTOS, MASONIC MARTYR

 

In reading an article in THE BUILDER we noticed your inquiry as to a volume of The Scarlet Book of Freemasonry relating to the adventures of one John Coustos. I have such a book in my possession, it being a very finely bound, printed and illuminated leather volume, handed down to me by my wife's grandfather, one Mr. George Q. Gardener, of Decorah, Iowa. Thinking the information might be of some value to you, beg to advise that it is being read by many of the Craft here as an interesting piece of history.

 

G.W. Peoples. Jr., Minnesota.

 

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It just occurred to me that in the September issue of THE BUILDER, page 246, speaking of "The Sufferings of John Coustos for Freemasonry" you say "does any reader know where a copy of this book may be had?" If you mean where it may be purchased, will have to answer, no. But if you merely wish to read it, a matter of a couple of hours, a copy is to be found in the library belonging to Kinderhook Chapter No. 263, Kinderhook, N. Y., a small village about twenty miles south of Albany, well worth a visit if you happen to be coming east to either New York City or Boston, in which case it would not be much out of your way. You might possibly persuade the Hon. R. C. Waterbury, M.D., P.M., P.H.P., etc., to loan you a copy, for I think they have two copies.

 

V.M. Irick, Vincentown, N. J.

 

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MASONIC BURIAL SERVICES

 

A brief history of the origin and first use of the present Masonic Burial Service I am sure would interest many readers of THE BUILDER, - when and where, are questions that I have been asked, but have not been able to answer.

 

C.M. Schenck, Colorado.

 

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Under caption of "The Masonic Burial Service," you have published a sentiment which I have entertained for a long time and talked about for years. Burial services usually say something like this "We consign the body of our brother to the earth there to remain until the last trump sounds" or words to that effect. And again "Soft and safe to you, my Brother, be this earthly bed. Bright and glorious be your rising from it" etc., then intimating that some time in the dim future, "on the bright morning of the resurrection" he will be raised into immortality. How few there are who believe anything of the kind! Masonry plainly teaches immortality, a part of which is right here and which never ends, nor is suspended indefinitely.

 

How much more beautiful and in accord with general belief are the words of the Senior Warden in the Scottish Rite burial service where he says in part "In what state, and where he is, we do not know; but only that he has not ceased to be, and that he is in the hands of his Father, who loves and pities him, as He doth all the children He hath made." And again, in the second part also where he says, "Our Brother still lives, though the breath of his life has returned to God that gave it."

 

Why not revise our burial service and let it be rendered in words that we can believe? For I can imagine that there migh easily be those who would not care to have the Masonic burial service rendered as it is, for it seems little less than mockery to recite sentiment which scarcely any Masons believe. Let us revise our burial service by all means.

 

L.A. McConnell, Michigan.

 

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In the February issue (page 56) THE BUILDER publish an editorial which, to judge from the great number of commendatory letters received, evidently expressed a growing dissatisfaction with the Masonic Burial Service generally in use. Of these communications the two printed above are representative. There is a short and easy road to a modification of the Service now in use; take it before your Grand Lodge. Each Grand Lodge has full power to make such a Burial Service as it may choose; the present formulary is not a landmark. As for the information requested by Brother Schenck, that has been a difficult thing to come upon. If our readers chance to possess old books or Masonic magazines containing data on the subject they will confer a favor on us all by passing on their information.

 

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THE FIRST POPE

 

I would like a little information on Roman Catholicism. Who was the first pope? J.M.A., Ohio.

 

It is impossible to tell who was the first pope, because the papacy came of slow growth, and did not reach recognizable form until the fifth or sixth centuries; but it is generally held that Leo the Great (440-461) was the first real pope, though Gregory the Great (590-604) was the first real pope in our present sense, for he was the first to exercise the claims to political as well as to spiritual domination which came to characterize the popes during the Middle Ages. Consult the following books: Milman's "Latin Christianity"; Pennington's "Epochs of th Papacy"; Lea's "Studies in Church History"; Bryce's "The Hol Roman Empire"; Guizot's "History of France", Vol. 1; an Bright's "The Roman See in the Early Church."

 

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EARLY AMERICAN MASONlC PERIODICALS

 

Will you kindly inform me through your columns if TE BUILDER has at any time published any bibliography of th earlier Masonic periodicals in the United States?

 

Before me is a bound copy of Volume 4 (1854) of the sonic Union, published and edited by R.'. W.'. Finley M. King (later Grand Master of this state) at Port Byron, N. Y. The last number of this issue was June, 1854, and in September of the same year it reappeared in connection with the Masonic Register, published by J.F. Adams at 343 Broadway, New York City, the combined monthly being called the Masonic Register and Union.

 

In the Masonic Union exchange column or by giving credit for articles reprinted, the names of several contemporary periodicals are mentioned. Among them are the Freemasons Monthly, Boston, Mass.; the American Freemason (semi‑monthly), Louisville, Kentucky; the Ancient Landmark (monthly), Mt. Clemens, Michigan; and the Masonic Signet, Montgomery, Alabama. M.W. Mitchell was editor of the latter.

 

If these periodicals contained as much interesting Masonic history as Volume 4 of the Union they would be well worth digging out of the ruins, so far as possible, and preserving for the edification of the historically inclined brother.

 

Previous to 1854 the Register was published as a Masonic weekly but Dr. Adams informed his readers that the inadequate income from that arrangement made the change to a monthly and combination with the Union necessary to keep the wolf from his door. W.R.M., New York.

 

THE BUILDER has never published a bibliography of the earlier Masonic periodicals; nor has the subject been given adequate publication except by Josiah H. Drummond in his "Historical and Bibliographical Memoranda." This is one of the best reference works for bibliographical study that has ever been compiled, but is very limited in its scope. It covers the proceedings of the different Grand Bodies, periodicals, monitors, manuals, constitutions and text-books. Thirty-two pages are devoted to the periodicals before 1882, the date it was published. Unfortunately this is one of the many valuable works that have become quite scarce.

 

Regarding the periodical literature of Freemasonry, there seems to have been certain periods when the quality was of particular excellence, one of which was the decade of 1850-60. During that period a number of exceptionally talented brethren were devoting much of their time to articles for the Masonic press, and editing Masonic magazines. Among such brethren the names of Mackey, Morris, King, Yates, Hyneman, Moore and Brennan are but a few of the more prominent.

 

The Civil War brought an end to much of the literary work in Freemasonry, and it only gradually resumed the quality it had attained. The advance that was made in Masonic study by the able efforts of Fort, Gould, Hughan, Sadler, Crawley, Lyons, Speth and many of their contemporaries in the last of the nineteenth century has brought about an entirely superior class of literature for the present student. The reader of today may avoid the fallacies of earlier times regarding the historical phases. He has the results of an abundance of critical research. The older periodical literature has a very great value, however, in showing the developments of our present jurisprudence, the changes of opinion regarding traditions, and the interpretations of symbolism. Although the brethren of the middle of the nineteenth century held many views which are now considered erroneous, we owe them a very great debt of gratitude for the foundations they laid by their literary efforts. A knowledge of the periodicals of the Fraternity is of much value to those who desire a comprehensive knowledge of both our usages and our history.

 

It will repay the efforts of any student to read any of the earlier periodicals and become familiar with the views of the pioneers who paved the way to such periodicals as THE BUILDER. The "notes" on Masonic periodicals, by Drummond ought to be republished for the information of the Craft. One hundred and forty-two periodicals are listed with very comprehensive descriptions. It may be of interest to the readers to mention the few following:

 

The American Freemason (Louisville, Ky.) was first published by Robert Morris, in 1853. It was taken over by J.F. Brennan in 1858, discontinued in 1860, and resumed in 1868 and again finally abandoned in 1870.

 

The Ancient Landmark (Mt. Clemens, Mich.) was started in 1851 and discontinued in 1855.

 

The Masonic Signet and Literary Mirror was commenced at St. Louis, in 1848 by J.W.S. Mitchell, and ran until 1854 when it was published at Montgomery, Ala. It then united with the Masonic Journal and only four numbers were published.

 

The Masonic Journal, edited by Geo. W. Chase (1854-60); The Masonic Mirror by Leon Hyneman (1852-55); The American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry by A.G. Mackey (1857); The Masonic Review by Cornelius Moore (1845-1882).

 

Silas H. Shepherd.

 

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A GERMAN BOOK ON MASONRY

 

Will you please furnish me with the name and address of the publishers of August Wolfstieg's "Bibliographie der Freimaurerischen Literature ? Can this work be purchased in U.S.? W.J.J., Minnesota.

 

Wolfstieg, August. Bibliographie der deutschen freimaurerischen Literatur. Published at Burg, b-M, by A. Hupfer for the Society of German Freemasons. 2 vol., X 990 and XVI 1041. Price, 64 Marks.

 

The price quoted was in 1916. It is the opinion of the undersigned that at present the price would be almost that many dollars. If you are thinking of purchasing, write Alfred Unger, Berlin C, Spandauer Strasse 22, Germany, or perhaps address A. Hupfer, Burg, b-M, Germany, directly.

 

Any of our good libraries can, for a week or ten days, borrow the work for you from the Library of Congress at Washington.

 

B.A. Eisenlohr.

 

----o----

 

CORRESPONDENCE

 

COUNSELLOR SCHOTT AND MODELS OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

 

In a letter published in THE BUILDER in January last page 31, Brother John F. George asked the question, "Who was Counsellor Schott?" It happens that ye editor is able to reply to this question himself with facts based on two articles that appeared in the ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM, Vol. 12 page 150, and Vol. 13, page 24. The former of these two articles was written by Bro. W.J. Chetwode Crawley, the veteran Masonic savant of Ireland. Its opening paragraph is worth transcribing entire:

 

"It is not a little remarkable that the two cardinal epochs in English Freemasonry were associated with the appearance in London of models of the Temple of Jerusalem. At the first epoch, that of the Revival of Freemasonry, the model ascribed to Counsellor Schott had arrived in London, and was on exhibition in 1723 and 1730. At the second epoch, when the organization of the Antients was struggling into existence, the model of Rabbi Jacob Jehuda Leon was on view in 1759-1760. The former exhibition seems to have won its way to popular favor, and cannot have been without effect on the rank and file of Freemasons at the very time when our legends were being moulded and harmonized. Much of the outside interest in the affairs of the Craft was doubtless due to the object lessons presented by the models of the building to which, it was understood, Freemasons referred their origin. As a matter of history, the three years we have specified, 1723, 1730 and 1760, were severally marked by an otherwise unaccountable outburst of spurious rituals, called forth by the curiosity of outsiders."

 

Counsellor (or Rathsherr) Gerhard Schott was born in Hamburg, Germany, on April 16th, 1641, and lived there until his death in 1702. He was founder, manager, and proprietor of an Opera House in which an opera was produced that was called "The Destruction of Jerusalem." "At first the public were by no means satisfied with the scenery at the conclusion of the first portion. This consideration, combined with a religious bent of mind, with the general admiration, at that period, of the Temple as an architectural masterpiece, and with a genial devotion to the scenic decoration of his musical plays, caused in Schott . . . the determination to reproduce the whole Temple, with all its personnel, sacrifices and ceremonial, in actual model form." The model was completed in 1692 or 1694 and placed on exhibition in a special building at the rear of the Opera House. In 1717 the model was sold to an Englishman who moved the huge structure to London where it was placed on exhibition, much to the general interest of the public, as already described by Crawley. Drawings of the model have been pretty generally distributed over the world; one encounters these pictures in many Masonic temples.

 

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ALBERT PIKE'S ELECTION AS SOVEREIGN GRAND COMMANDER

 

I note that in your review of Allsopp's "Life Story of Albert Pike," on pages 58-59 of the February issue of THE BUILDER, you noted some of the misinformation therein given. It appears to me that it might be well to add that General Pike was Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Consistory of Louisiana when, in 1857, he received at the hands of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, the 33d of the A. & A.S.R., and on the same date he was appointed Deputy of the Supreme Council. He was elected to active membership in the Supreme Council in 1858, and was elected Sovereign Grand Commander, ad vitam, January 2, 1859. He was elected by a "Letter Vote in Vacation," and the last vote electing him was received January 2, but the election was not announced, formally, until January 3, 1859. M. W. Wood, Idaho.

 

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A WORD TO THE CANDIDATE BEFORE INITIATION

 

My Friend: Before we proceed with the ceremony of admitting you into our Order I wish to make a few remarks concerning the nature of Freemasonry, so that you may understand in a general way what you may expect and what will be expected of you.

 

Some of your friends may have referred jokingly to your initiation, and may have led you to believe that you will be required to submit to certain humiliating or embarrassing experiences, in order to provide amusement for those of us who are already members. If you have any such idea, I beg of you to dismiss it from your mind at this moment.

 

Masonry is a serious undertaking. Its ceremonies are intended to teach great moral truths. Some of these ceremonies partake more or less of a religious nature. And while Masonry does not adopt any particular form, or creed, or denomination of religious observance, yet one of its fundamental and essential requirements is a belief in a true God as the Father of the universe; and if you cannot earnestly and conscientiously subscribe to such a belief, I would advise that you withdraw now and make no further attempt to proceed in our ceremonies.

 

You will find that Masonry has no place for frivolity. You will perhaps find it entirely different from all your preconceived ideas, and you will possibly be surprised at the character of the ceremonies through which you will pass. You will, I hope, be pleased and benefitted by the revelations which will be made to you, and by the associations which will come to you through membership in our Fraternity.

 

I have simply to suggest; therefore, that as you pass through these ceremonies, you place yourself as much at ease and in as receptive a frame of mind as possible. Let your mind be open to receive impressions as they come to you. Pay close attention to what is said and done at all times, and try to remember as much as possible of what occurs. At each stage of the ceremonies there will be someone near at hand to assist you, and to tell you or show you what to do and how to do it. And you need have no fear of humiliation, embarrassment or annoyance.

 

With these preliminary suggestions I beg to request that you make yourself as comfortable as possible hare until your presence is desired in the preparation room of the lodge.

 

Mark A. Hall, Iowa.

 

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SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATING COMMITTEES

 

In the February 1922 issue of THE BUILDER, under the title of "Committees of Investigation," you quote from the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, on the difficulty of securing the proper information on petitioners.

 

We have a small lodge of one hundred and thirty members, and always have from one to a dozen petitions every meeting. We have adopted the following plan, and find that it works nicely:

 

A standing committee on petitions is appointed by the Worshipful Master composed of Past Masters and the Secretary of the lodge. The Secretary is always paid a salary that should enable him to have sufficient time to get the desired information, and in addition, always has the necessary papers on file at any time. There is a small liklihood of a Past Master not being in a position to get information along any line that might be denied "Dick, Tom and Harry," if you will permit me to use the expression in speaking of the members of the Craft as such. We find that the members will confide in the older men of the lodge more quickly than they will the younger ones, which is of course to be expected, and we are getting excellent results from this work, together with not being forced to let petitions lay over due to the absence of the Investigating Committee on that particular petition.

 

I see no reason why this could not be done with any number of petitions, regardless of the size of the lodge.

 

Luther E. Davis. Tennessee.

 

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A MASTER AFTER OUR OWN HEART

 

We have recently adopted the Study Club plan of the N.M.R.S. in Day Star Lodge No. 798, Brooklyn, N.Y., of which I awn Master.

 

I have made it my duty (and it certainly is my pleasure) to speak of the necessity for some such course of Masonic study as a regular policy in all lodges wherever and whenever I could, and as a result I have had many lodges, or rather the Masters, ask me to speak on the subject at their meetings. Whenever possible I have done so, and I am quite sure that many other New York and Brooklyn lodges will follow the lead of Day Star lodge by adopting the Society's Study Club plan in the very near future.

 

It seems astounding that this, or similar courses, have not been made just as compulsory a part of the work of the lodges as the conferring of degrees.

 

For the life of me I cannot see how the responsibility of the lodge to the candidate ends with the conferring of the Third degree. Perhaps my opinion has been influenced by my over zealousness. Nevertheless, I hope my disease gets to such a malignant stage that every Mason with whom I come into contact will get the same thing, if possible in much shorter time.

 

H.W. Dunn, New York.

 

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A SEARCHER FOR LIGHT

 

You have it! The only fault I can find with your work is that your obligation stops you from explaining some things on which I need light.

 

A brother handed me Volume II of THE BUILDER and in running through these copies Masonry began to unfold. As committing to memory is easy for me, I took up the work and was rapidly advanced in the chairs, all the while foolishly bebelieving Yours Truly was getting to be "some old head" in Masonry. Then Brother Louis Block, in your issue of August last, calls me a "Phonograph," highly insulting my egotism.

 

Why did not some brother insult me long ago, and maybe I would have known what I have been talking about to the candidate by this time.

 

My mind is now "muddled." There is no one in this vicinity who can answer my questions and I can't write them to you. Until such time as I am able to explain some of the deeper meanings of our ritual, I will feel guilty when assisting with the work. It is true there is a great moral lesson in the bare "work," but to me it would be great if every member could understand the deeper truths and take the ritual more seriously, eliminating the occasional snicker. "Give Us Light."

 

S. G. Davis, Idaho.

 

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"DOME OF THE ROCK," ON SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

 

Here is an item that I believe may be of some interest to our circle. I found it while reading an article in the magazine "Adventure" for December 10, 1921. I have read many magazine articles and books by Talbot Mundy and know him to be well informed on matters about which he writes. The article states:

 

"The Dome of the Rock - more commonly miscalled the Mosque of Omar - is the next most sacred place after Mecca and Medina in the Moslem world; and being on the site of Solomon's and Herod's Temples, it is equally. sacred to Christian and Jews. In fact, few orthodox Jews will enter the precincts for fear of treading unaware on the spot (now unknown) where the Holy of Holies stood.

 

"Excavation under the Dome of the Rock is, of course, absolutely forbidden. Any attempt at it, if known, would be certain to stir fanaticism to its depths. But there was a German or Austrian (I am not sure which) who did contrive to excavate pretty much as told in the story; he was caught, the affair was hushed up, and Grim is one of the very few who know what lies under the Rock of Abraham." N.W.J. Haydon. Ontario.

 

 

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