MASON WORK

MASONIC MONTHLY - 1864.

THE human species have tenanted this planet for several thousands

of years. For what purpose has been this long occupancy of the

earth? Has this purpose been accomplished? or does the grand

result, as discernable in our day, exhibit, what may be construed,

as being the accomplished purpose of human existence on this

earthly sphere? These are great and grave questions, and most

difficult to answer, if answerable. If the existence of mankind for a

period so extended has any purpose towards itself as a total, then

that purpose can scarcely yet have been achieved, so the human

mind would reason, for the general condition of our race is so

unequal, so wanting in its approaches to perfection, as to require

many thousands of years, judging from the slow rate of our past

progress, before that end, if it be the end, can be reached.

What has been accomplished by those vast movements of

mankind, some of which history has recorded, others of which it

has entirely passed over, towards solving the problem of human

destiny? The innumerable wars, emigrations and immigrations,

revolutions and reformations, destructions and reconstructions of

races and societies, to what extent have these aided towards the

consummation of Heaven's purpose with us? Who can give answer

to these weighty queries? These questions, or kindred ones, have

occupied the leading minds among men in all ages, and it will be

the destiny of such minds for ages yet to come, judging from the

past, still to ponder these great problems and find them still

unsolved. Then what utility is there or can there be in raising such

questions? We can only answer that the human mind as constituted

inevitably and of some peculiar necessity propounds these riddles

to itself, and it may be that in seeking to unravel them, it is

securing that development of its faculties which may be a leading

if not the main purpose of its existence. The Sphinx well

symbolizes mankind, which is both riddle and answer combined,

for as Shakespeare hath well said, "the greatest mystery to

mankind is man."

But what has all this to do with Freemasonry? Has civilization any

higher purpose than to furnish us with all the modern conveniences

of life? - If it achieves nothing more than this, for ourselves we

would prefer a little of barbarism and its more positive manners.

What is the end and aim of all education ? As to the individual it is

to develop him to the fullest extent in all his faculties, and as to the

race, it is to elevate mankind to its highest attainable condition

short of that perfection, which we do not believe possible of

attainment on earth or in this life.

 From the birth of the first pair of human beings until this present

instant, the anxious student has been painfully poring over problem

after problem with but one object, namely, hour to realize his

highest ideal. Every power in church and state, lawful or unlawful,

he has invoked towards this end. Often has he appealed to the

sword, yet the sword has rendered him no assistance. Philosophy,

science, art, religion, every institution that ever existed has been in

turn appealed to with this ever present purpose in view, and every

institution has been weighed in the balances and pronounced either

competent to assist or found wanting in ability to assist towards

this continual aim.

Whatever answer may be given to the questions with which we

started, it does seem to us that the worthiest object which mankind

can seek is its own highest happiness both here and here-after, and

that this is only attainable through the development of all our

faculties both individually and socially to their fullest extent.

Whether or not in following this object we are in the dark as to the

proper purpose of our existence on earth, as individuals or as a

race, here we have an object worth pursuing; here we have an end

in view, however distant, yet worth living for and striving for.

Further, we think it fair to judge of the value of every human

institution, whether in church or state, by the amount of service it

can render to us towards the promotion of this grand aim. In

whatever particular, the church, the state, the college, the literary

society, civilization itself in any of its departments, fails to help us,

or succeeds in hindering us in our progress, as to that particular, we

may safely and properly pronounce each and all of them defective

and in need of reform and improvement.

Among the institutions which mankind has tried, none has longer

been sustained, none has tested his patience more thoroughly than

Freemasonry. More ancient than the oldest of existing

governments, older than the oldest of churches extant,

Freemasonry has maintained its life among men. By what peculiar

property has been secured this wonderful freedom from that death

and decay which has overtaken and obliterated so many of the

institutions of antiquity? Must there not be in the system of

Freemasonry a wonderful adaptation to the wants of man through

all ages and under all circumstances to secure this unparalleled

perpetuation of itself? Through storm and sunshine, from under the

frowns of the mighty, and out of persecutions as severe as have

overtaken any institution, it has descended to us from the remotest

antiquity, and now in this day it exhibits as much life and vigor, if

not greater vitality and force than ever before in its history.

"What has Freemasonry to do with the great problem of human

progress to which we have alluded? What is a lodge? The ancient

charges answer "a lodge is a place where Masons assemble and

work." What is their work? Whatever tends to benefit mankind,

whatever tends to its elevation, whatever is promotive of human

progress in all its phases, is true Mason's work. - Never in all

history has it been ranged on the side of tyrants against the people,

never has it aided superstition and priestcraft in their warfare

against freedom of thought, but, always allied with the friends of

humanity, ever devoted to the inextinguishable light of truth and

fraternity, it has been one with the life of mankind itself, and

therefore imperishable. "Progress," the poet sings, "is the rule of

all," and if this progress be among the purposes of our race here

below, then is Masonry intimately associated with human destiny,

and has its glorious work in the world.

Masonry has been variously defined as an art and a science, and as

a system of morality veiled in allegory. Masonry is all these, and

more than these. It is one of the worthily working institutions of

the world. It is one of the few institutions among men which has a

work to do, in harmony with that progressive development of

humanity which seems to be the great purpose of existence, and

appears to be becoming more and more important as one of the

instrumentalities by which that development is being affected.

And how does Masonry accomplish its work? By a process as old

as the oldest lodge Freemasonry is sifting community and selecting

such material as is calculated for the labors of the Craft. This

material is then led through an impressive initiation, passed and

raised to the grade of Master, and, in the language of the Ancient

Charge, made to feel "the benign influence of Masonry, as all true

Masons have done from the beginning of the world, and will do to

the end of time." Masonry accomplishes its work by taking hold of

good men and making them better, by giving them an ideal and an

aspiration which would lead them ever upward from the lowest,

even to the highest round of that ladder, symbolical of all the

virtues, whose bottom rests on the earth but whose top reacheth

unto the heavens.

To the lodges one word in conclusion would we add - see to it that

ye turn out nothing but true Mason-work.