When is a man a Mason? When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage. When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins - knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.
When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead.
When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of higher things, and to see majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something besides mud, and into the face of the most forlorn mortal and see something beyond sin.
When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword to battle evil, in his heart a bit of a song - glad to live, but not afraid to die!
In such a man, whether he be rich or poor, scholarly or unlearned, famous or obscure, Masonry has wrought her sweet message! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world.
(Joseph Fort Newton)
THE PLUMB:
Build up your life like the temple of old,
With stones that are polished and true;
Cement it with love, and adorn it with gold,
As all Master builders should do.
Upon a foundation, well chosen and strong,
Build now for the ages to come:
Make use of the good, while rejecting the wrong
And test all your work with the plumb.
(Neal A. McAulay)
THE ALTA VENDITA
Several Catholic newspapers, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, have been running a story with the headline the "Alta Vendita" with a subheadline "A blueprint for the subversion of the Catholic Church".
There follows a story about the "secret" plan of the Freemasons to infiltrate the Catholic Church, particularly by introducing such ideas as the "Principles of 1789" which include: pluralism, equality of religions, and separation of Church and State. The "Alta Vendita" plan was supposed to have been introduced around 1820.
Supposedly the "Alta Vendita" was the highest lodge of the Carbonari (an Italian Secret Society), and their secret papers fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI who ordered their publication.
Because the story has had such wide circulation, we thought our readers should have some background as to its origin.
The story itself is baseless and false. Freemasonry neither had or has a plan or a desire to infiltrate or try to destroy the Catholic Church. As best as we can determine, this particular story is being retold by extremists within the Church to strengthen their own position. Much as anti-Masonic material is distributed by extremists within several Protestant denominations.
Freemasonry is making every attempt within its power to establish cordial relations with the Catholic Church, based upon mutual respect and toleration. We shall continue this effort!
FOCUS MAGAZINE June,1997
(a publication of the Masonic Information Center of the Masonic Service Association of North America.)
LANDMARKS:
A young brother recently asked me to help him understand the meaning of the word "Landmarks" as it is used in our Fraternity. The brother had read a great deal of Masonic literature in the short time since he was raised, but was confused by the conflicting information he was presented. Frankly, he is not alone!
The matter of what is and is not a "Landmark" is one of the most debated issues in Masonry. The word "Landmarks" was, in 1856, defined by Albert Mackey, the prominent Masonic writer, as "those ancient and universal customs of the Order, which either gradually grew into operation as rules of action, or, if at once enacted by any competent authority, were enacted at a period so remote that no account of their origin is to be found in the record of history."
Mackey also lays down three requisites of characteristics of "Landmarks": (1)immemorial antiquity (2)universality (3)absolute irrevocability.
The concept of Masonic "Landmarks" appears in Payne's "General Regulations" which was published with Anderson's Constitutions of 1723. It is generally accepted that Payne used manuscripts of the Operatives. These Operatives appeared to use the word in the sense of the old traditional secrets of the builders craft.
Preston, in his 1772 "Illustrations of Masonry" clearly uses "Landmarks" as synonymous with established usages and customs of the Craft. He refers to the ritual of the Master Mason's degree as the preservation of the ancient "landmarks". His arguments have serious weight as his work was expressly sanctioned by the Grand Lodge of England.
He also refers to the Charges in the Installation of the Master-elect, wherein the Master-elect is required to promise to "strictly conform to every edict of the Grand Lodge which is not subversive to the principles of Masonry" and further, "that it is not within the power of any man or body of men to make alterations or innovations in the body of Masonry."
As Roscoe Pound, a Past Master who for many years was a professor of Law at Harvard University, wrote in his 1941 book "Masonic Jurisprudence" "these principles, this groundwork, this body of Masonry, whether we use the term "Landmarks" or not, convey the very idea which has become familiar to us by that name."
In 1856 Dr. Mackey attempted to set down the actual "Landmarks" as he saw them. He determined there to be twenty-five in all. Seven years later, in 1863, George Oliver published his "Freemason's Treasury" in which he listed forty "Landmarks." In more recent times a number of American Grand Lodges have attempted the daunting task of enumerating the "Landmarks", ranging from West Virginia (7) and New Jersey (10) to Nevada (39) and Kentucky (54).
Brother Joseph Fort Newton, in his wonderful writings called "The Builders", attempts to define "Landmarks" in a single statement: "The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the moral law, the Golden Rule, and the hope of life everlasting."
I personally find favor in the seven "Landmarks" preferred by Roscoe Pound.
(1)Belief in God
(2)Belief in a persistence of personality
(3)A "book of law" as an indespensible part of the furniture of the lodge
(4)The legend of the 3rd degree
(5)Secrecy
(6)The symbolism of the Operative Art
(7)That a Mason be a man, freeborn, and of age.
Belief in God, the Great Architect of the Universe, is clearly on all lists of "Landmarks".
The persistence of personality can more clearly be called the immortality of the soul for Christian Masons. However, even the Buddist doctrine of transmigration and ultimate Nirvana would meet this requirement.
The third of Pound's "Landmarks" is "the book of law", that volume which, by the religion of a country, is believed to contain the revealed word of the Great Architect. For lodges in Christian countries this would be the Bible of old and new testament. In countries where Judaism prevails, it would the Bible of old testament. In Islamic countries it would be the Koran. In Hindu countries the Shasters.
In India before Independence, it was common for Christian Englishmen to sit in lodge with Hindus and Moslems. Such lodges kept a Bible, a Koran, and a Shasters on the altar. The essential idea of this is to emphasize that Masonry, while not a religion, IS an institution which recognizes religion and seeks to be a co-worker with religion in the quest for moral progress.
It was the action of the Grand Orient (Grand Lodge) of France, which in 1877 substituted the "Book of Constitutions" upon its altars for the traditional book of law that resulted in the cessation of recognition of that Orient by the majority of Grand Lodges of the day.
The fourth is "the legend of the 3rd degree." Mackey said of it "any rite which would exclude it or materially alter it, would at once...cease to be a Masonic rite."
The fifth is secrecy. If anything in Masonry is immemorial and universal, this is it. Here is clear evidence of our connection to the ancient rites.
The sixth, symbolism, is also clearly inherited from the early rites of the Craft.
The seventh and last supports the tradition that a Mason must be a freeborn man, of full and lawful age, according to the custom of the place.
So, I said to the young brother, these are the "Landmarks" of Brother Pound and those with which I find myself most at ease. Are they a complete set? It is not for me to say. Rather, every Mason must do as this young brother has done - explore this matter and satisfy himself!
(Michael A. Botelho)
THE ARTISAN:
The artisan may give a man a compass and square, but he cannot make him skillful in the use of them.
A square and compass perfect squares and circles line,
Model of Human kinship's best, the Saint doth shine.
(Mencius)
THE LADDER:
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put his other foot somewhat higher.
(Thomas Huxley)
A SONNET:
So many men before thy altars kneel;
Unthinkingly, to promise brotherhood;
So few remain, humbly to kiss thy rood;
With ears undeafened to thy mute appeal;
So many find thy symbols less than real;
Their teachings mystic, hard to understand;
So few there are, in all thy far-flung band;
To hold thy banner high and draw thy steel;
And yet - immortal and most mighty, thou!
What hath thy lore of life to let it live?
What is the vital spark, hid in thy vow?
Thy millions learned, as thy dear paths they trod;
The secret of the strength thou hast to give;
"I am a way of common men to God!"
(Carl H. Claudy)
FRANKLIN ON FREEMASONRY:
Freemasonry has tenets peculair to itself. They serve as testmonials of character and qualifications, which are only conferred after due course of instruction and examination. These are of no small value; they speak a universal language, and act as a passport to the attentions and support of the initiated in all parts of the world. They cannot be lost as long as memory retains its power. Let the possessor of them be expatriated, shipwrecked or imprisoned, let him be stripped of everything he has got in the world, still those credentials remain, and are available for use as circumstances require. The good effects they have produced are established by the most incontestable facts of history. They have stayed the uplifted hand of the destroyer; they have softened the asperities of the tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have subdued the rancour of malevolence; and broken down the barriers of political animosity and sectarian alienation. On the field of battle, in the solitudes of the uncultivated forest, or in the busy haunts of the crowded city, they have made men of the most hostile feelings, the most distant regions, and diversified conditions, rush to the aid of each other, and feel a special joy and satisfaction that they have been able to afford relief to a Brother Mason.
(Benjamin Franklin)
GOOD DEEDS:
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues, Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike ... As if we had them not.
(William Shakespeare)
NEEDED - GOOD SAMARITANS:
Open your eyes and look for some man, or some work for the sake of men, which needs a little time, a little friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human toil. Perhaps it is a lonely person, or an embittered person, or an invalid, or some unfortunate inefficient, to whom you can be something. It may be an old man or it may be a child. Or some good work is in want of volunteers who will devote a free evening to it or will run on errands for it. Who can reckon up all the ways in which that priceless fund of impulse, man, is capable of exploitation! He is needed in every nook and corner. Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity. Do not be put off if you find that you have to wait and to experiment. Be sure that you will have disappointments to endure. But do not be satisfied without some side line in which you may give yourself out as a man to men. There is one waiting for you if only you are willing to take it up in the right spirit.
(Albert Schweitzer)
THE TRUTH:
It is most true, that Truth is a Divine attribute and the foundation of every virtue. To be true, and to seek to find and learn the Truth, are the great objects of every good Mason.
(Albert Pike)
WASHINGTON ON MASONRY:
Flattering as it may be to the human mind, and truly honorable as it is to receive from our fellow citizens testimonies of approbation for exertions to promote the public welfare, it is not less pleasing to know that the milder virtues of the heart are highly respected by a Society whose liberal principles must be founded in the immutable laws of truth and justice. To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished that the conduct of every member of the Fraternity, as well as those publications that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the great object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race.
(George Washington)
© 1997 emmgmt@ipa.net
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