286 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
286 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.I May, 1923 No.5
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SPIRIT OF MASONRY
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by: Unknown
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Outside of the home and the House of God there is nothing in this world
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more beautiful than the Spirit of Masonry. Gentle, gracious, and wise; its
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mission is to form mankind into a great redemptive brotherhood, a league of
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noble and free men enlisted in the radiant enterprise of working out in
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time the love and will of the Eternal. Who is sufficient to describe a
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spirit so benign? With what words may one ever hope to capture and detain
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that which belongs of right to the genius of poetry and song, by whose
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magic those elusive and impalpable realities find embodiment and voice?
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With picture, parable, and stately drama; Masonry appeals to lovers of
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beauty bringing poetry and symbol to the aid of philosophy and are to the
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service of character. Broad and tolerant in its teachings it appeals to
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men of intellect, equally by the depths of its faith and its pleas for
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liberty of thought - helping them to think things through to a more
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satisfying and hopeful vision of the meaning of life and the mystery of the
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world. But its profoundest appeal, more eloquent than all others, is to
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the deep heart of man out of which are the issues of life and destiny.
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When all is said, it is as a man thinketh in his heart whether life be
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worth while or not, and whether he is a help or a curse to his race.
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Here Lies the tragedy of our race:
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Not that men are poor;
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All men know something of poverty.
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Not that men are wicked;
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Who can claim to be good?
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Not that all men are ignorant;
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Who can boast that he is wise?
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But that men are strangers!
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Masonry if Friendship - friendship, first, with the great Companion, of
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whom our own hearts tell us, who is always nearer to us than we are to
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ourselves, and whose inspiration and help is the greatest fact of human
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experience. To be in harmony with his purposes, to be open to His
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suggestions, to be conscious of fellowship with Him - this is Masonry on
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its God-ward side. Then ,turning man-ward, friendship sums it all up. To
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be friends with all men, however they may differ from us in creed, color,
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or condition; to fill every human relation with the spirit of friendship;
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is there anything more or better than this that the wisest and best men can
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hope to do? Such is the Spirit of Masonry; such is its ideal, and if to
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realize it all at once is denied us, surely it means much to see it, love
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it, and labor to make it come true.
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Nor is the spirit of friendship a mere sentiment held by a sympathetic, and
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therefore unstable, fraternity, which would dissolve the concrete features
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of humanity into a vague blur of misty emotion. No; it has its roots in a
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profound philosophy which sees that the universe is friendly, and that men
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must learn to be friends if they would live as befits the world in which
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they live, as well as their own origin and destiny. For, since God is the
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life of all that was, is, and is to be; and since we are all born into the
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world by one high wisdom and one vast love, we are brothers to the last man
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of us, forever! For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and
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in health, and even after death us do part, all men are held together by
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ties of spiritual kinship, sons of one eternal friend. Upon this fact
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human fraternity rests, and it is the basis of the plea of Masonry, not
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only for freedom, but for friendship among men.
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Thus friendship, so far from being a mush of concessions, is in fact the
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constructive genius of the universe. Love is ever the Builder, and those
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who have done most to establish the City of God on earth have been the men
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who loved their fellow men. Once you let this spirit prevail, the
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wrangling sects will be lost in the great league of those who love in the
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service of those who suffer. No man will then revile the faith in which
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his neighbor finds help for today and hope for the morrow; pity will smite
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him mute, and love will teach him that God is found in many ways, by those
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who seek him with honest hearts. Once you let this spirit rule in the
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realm of trade the law of the jungle will cease, and men will strive to
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build a social order in which all men may have the opportunity "To Live,
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and to Live Well," as Aristotle defined the purpose of society. Here is
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the basis of that magical stability aimed at by the earliest artists when
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they sought to build for eternity, by imitating on earth the House of God.
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Our human history, saturated with blood and blistered with tears, is the
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story of man making friends with man. Society has evolved from a feud into
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a friendship by the slow growth of love and the welding of man, first to
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his kin, and then to his kind. The first man who walked in the red dawn of
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time lived every man for himself, his heart a sanctuary of suspicions,
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every man feeling that every other man was his foe, and therefore his prey.
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So there was war, strife and bloodshed. Slowly there came to the savage a
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gleam of the truth that it is better to help than to hurt, and he organized
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clans and tribes. But the tribes were divided by rivers and mountains, and
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the men on one side of the river felt that the men on the other side were
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their enemies. Again there was war, pillage, and sorrow. Great empires
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arose and met in the shock of conflict, leaving trails of skeletons across
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the earth. Then came the great roads, reaching out with their stony clutch
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and bringing the ends of the earth together. Men met, mingled, passed and
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repassed; and learned that human nature is much the same everywhere, with
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hopes and fears in common. Still there were many things to divide and
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estrange men from each other, and the earth was full of bitterness. Not
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satisfied with natural barriers, men erected high walls of sect and caste,
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to exclude their fellows, and the men of one sect were sure that the men of
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all other sects were wrong - and doomed to be lost. Thus, when real
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mountains no longer separated man from man, mountains were made out of
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molehills - mountains of immemorial misunderstanding not yet moved into the
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sea!
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Barriers of race, of creed, of caste, of training and interest separate men
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today, as if some malign genius were bent on keeping man from his fellows;
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begetting suspicion, uncharitableness, and hate. Still there is war,
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waste, and woe! Yet all the while men have been unfriendly, and, therefore
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unjust and cruel, only because they are unacquainted. Amidst feud,
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faction, and folly; Masonry, the oldest and most widely spread order, toils
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in behalf of friendship; uniting men upon the only basis upon which they
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can ever meet with dignity. Each lodge is an oasis of equality and
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goodwill in a desert of strife, working to weld mankind into a great league
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of sympathy and service, which, by the terms of our definition seeks to
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exhibit even now on a small scale. At its Altar men meet as man to man,
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without vanity and without pretense, without fear and without reproach; as
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tourists crossing the Alps tie themselves together so that if one slips,
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all may hold him up. No tongue can tell the meaning of such a ministry, no
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pen can trace the influence in melting the hardness of the world into pity
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and gladness.
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The Spirit of Masonry! He who would describe that spirit must be a poet, a
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musician, and a seer - a master of melodies, echoes, and long far-sounding
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cadences. Now, as always, it toils to make man better, to refine his
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thought and purify his sympathy, to broaden his outlook, to lift his
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altitude, to establish in amplitude and resoluteness his life in all its
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relations. All its great history, its vast accumulations of tradition, its
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simple faith and its solemn rites, its freedom and its friendship are
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dedicated to the high moral ideal, seeking to tame the tiger in man, and
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bring his wild passions into obedience to the will of God. It has no other
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mission than to exalt and ennoble humanity, to bring light out of darkness,
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beauty out of angularity; to make every hard-won inheritance more secure,
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every sanctuary more sacred, every hope more radiant!
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The Spirit of Masonry! Aye, when that spirit has its way upon earth, as at
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last it surely will, society will be a vast communion of kindness and
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justice, business a system of human service, law a rule of beneficence;
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home will be more holy, the laughter of childhood more joyous, and the
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temple of prayer mortised and tendoned in a simple faith. Evil, injustice,
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bigotry, greed, and every vile and slimy thing that defiles and defames
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humanity will skulk into the dark, unable to bear the light of a juste,
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wiser, more merciful order. Industry will be upright, education prophetic,
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and religion not a shadow, but a real Presence, when man has become
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acquainted with man and has learned to worship God by serving his fellows.
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When Masonry is victorious every tyranny will fall, every bastille crumble,
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and man will be not only unfettered in mind and hand, but free of heart to
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walk erect in the light and liberty of the truth.
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Toward a great friendship, long foreseen by Masonic faith, the world is
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slowly moving, amid difficulties and delays, reactions and reconstructions.
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Though long deferred, of the day, which will surely arrive, when nations
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will be reverent in the use of freedom, just in the exercise of power,
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humane in the practice of wisdom; when no man will ride over the rights of
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his fellows; when no woman will be made forlorn, no little child wretched
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by bigotry or greed, Masonry has ever been a prophet. Nor will she ever be
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content until all the threads of human fellowship are woven into one mystic
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cord of friendship, encircling the earth and holding the race in unity of
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spirit and the bonds of peace; as in the will of God it is one in the
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origin and end.
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Having outlived empires and philosophies, having seen generations appear
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and vanish, it will yet live to see the travail of its soul, and be
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satisfied - When the War Drum throbs no longer, And the Battle Flags are
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furled; In the Parliament of man, The Federation of the World.
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Manifestly, since love is the law of life, if men are to be won from hate
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to love, if those who doubt and deny are to be wooed to faith, if the race
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is ever to be led and lifted into a life of service, it must be by the fine
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art of Friendship. Inasmuch as this is the purpose of Masonry, its mission
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determines the method not less than the spirit of its labor. Earnestly it
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endeavors to bring men - first the individual man, and then, so far as is
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possible, those who are united with him - to love one another, while
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holding aloft, in picture and dream, that Temple of character which is the
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noblest labor of life to build in the midst of the years, and which will
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outlast time and death. Thus it seeks to reach the lonely inner life of
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man where the real battles are fought, and where the issues of destiny are
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decided, now with shouts of victory, now with sobs of defeat. What a
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ministry to a young man who enters its Temple in the morning of life, when
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the dew of heaven is upon his days and the birds are singing in his heart!
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From the wise lore of the East Max Muller translated a parable which tells
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how the Gods, having stolen from man his divinity, met in council to
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discuss where they should hide it. One suggested that it be carried to the
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other side of the earth and buried; but, it was pointed out that man is a
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great wanderer, and that he might find the lost treasure on the other side
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of the earth. Another proposed that it be dropped into the depths of the
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sea; but, the same fear was expressed - that man, in his insatiable
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curiosity, might dive deep enough to find even there. Finally, after a
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space of silence, the oldest and wisest of the Gods said: "Hide it in man
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himself, as that is the last place he will ever think to look for it." And
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so it was agreed, all seeing at once the subtle and wise strategy. Man did
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wander the earth, for ages, seeking in all places high and low, far and
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near, before he thought to look within himself for the divinity he sought.
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At last, slowly, dimly, he began to realize that what he thought was far
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off, hidden in the "The Pathos of Distance, is nearer than the breath he
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breathes, even in his own heart.
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Here lies the great secret of Masonry - that it makes a man aware of that
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divinity within him, wherefrom his whole life takes its beauty and meaning,
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and inspires him to follow and obey it. Once a man learns this deep
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secret, life is new, and the old world is a valley all dewy to the dawn
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with a lark song over it. There never was a truer saying than, the
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religion of a man is the chief fact concerning him. By religion is meant
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not the creed to which a man will subscribe, or otherwise give his assent;
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not that necessarily; often not that at all - since we see men of all
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degrees of worth and worthlessness signing all kinds of creeds. No; the
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religion of a man is that which he practically believes, lays to heart,
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acts upon, and thereby knows concerning this mysterious universe and his
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duty and destiny in it. That is in all cases the primary thing in him, and
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creatively determines all the rest; that is his religion. It is, then, of
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vital importance what faith, what vision, what conception of life a man
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lays to heart, and acts upon.
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At the bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts being the artists
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who give color to our days. Optimists and pessimists live in the same
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world, walk under the same sky, and observe the same facts, Skeptics and
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believers look up at the same great stars - the stars that shone in Eden
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and will flash again in Paradise. Clearly the difference between them is a
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difference not of fact, but of faith - of insight, outlook, and point of
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view - a difference of inner attitude and habit of thought with regard to
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the worth and use of life. By the same taken, ant influence which reaches
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and alters that inner habit and bias of mind, and changes it from doubt to
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faith, from fear to courage, from despair to sunburst hope, has wrought the
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most benign ministry which a mortal may enjoy. Every man has a train of
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thought on which he rides when he is alone; and the worth of his life to
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himself and others, as well as its happiness, depend upon the direction in
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which that train is going, the baggage it carries, and the country through
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which it travels. If, then, Masonry can put that inner train of thought on
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the right track, freight it with precious treasure, and start it on the way
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to the City of God, what other or higher ministry can it render to a man?
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And that is what it dies for any man who will listen to it, love it, and
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lay its truth to heart.
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High, Fine, Ineffably rich and beautiful are the faith and vision which
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Masonry gives to those who foregather at its Altar, bringing to them in
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picture, parable, and symbol the lofty and pure truth wrought out through
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ages of experience, tested by time, and found to be valid for the conduct
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of life. By such teaching, if they have the heart to heed it, men become
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wise, learning how to be both brave and gentle, faithful, and free; how to
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renounce superstition and retain faith; how to keep a fine poise of reason
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between falsehood of extremes; how to accept the joys of life with glee,
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and endure its ills with patient valor; how to look upon the folly of man
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and not forget his nobility - in short, how to live cleanly, kindly, open-
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eyed and unafraid in a sane world, sweet of heart and full of hope. Who so
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lays this lucid and profound wisdom to heart, and lives by it, will have
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little regret, and nothing to fear, when the evening shadows fall. Happy
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the young man who in the morning of his years makes it his guide,
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philosopher, and friend.
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Such is the ideal of Masonry, and fidelity to all that is holy demands that
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we give ourselves to it, trusting the power of truth, the reality of love,
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and the sovereign worth of character. For only as we incarnate that ideal
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in real life and activity does it become real tangible, and effective. God
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works for man through man and seldom, if at all, in any other way. He asks
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for our voices to speak His Truth, for our hands to do his work here below
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- sweet voices and clean hands to make liberty and love prevail over
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injustice and hate. Not all of us can be learned or famous, but each of us
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can be loyal and true of heart, undefiled by evil, undaunted by error,
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faithful and helpful to our fellow souls. Life is a capacity for the
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highest - an eager incessant quest of truth; a noble utility, a lofty
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honor, a wise freedom, a genuine service - that through us the Spirit of
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Masonry may grow and be glorified.
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When is a man a Mason? When he can look out over the rivers, the hills,
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and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast
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scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage - which is the root
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of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart every man is as
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noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself; and seeks
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to know, to forgive and to love his fellow man. When he knows how to
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sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins - knowing
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that each man fights a hard fight against many odds. When he has learned
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how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends
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with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and
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feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a
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little child. When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudg-
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eries of life. When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on the
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flowing waters, subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long
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dead. When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hands
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seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that
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helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in
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life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a
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wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most
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forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows how to
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pray, how to love, and how to hope. When he has kept faith with himself,
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with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his
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heart a bit of a song - glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a man
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has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying
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to give to all the world.
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