textfiles/magazines/STB/stb-1924-04.txt

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.II     April, 1924     No.4 
 
THE SQUARE 
 
by: Unknown 
 
The Holy Bible lies open upon the Alter of Masonry, and upon the Bible lie 
the Square and  
Compasses.  They are the three Great Lights of the Lodge, at once its 
Divine warrant and its chief  
working tools.  They are symbols of Revelation, Righteousness and 
Redemption, Teaching us that by  
walking in the light of Truth, and obeying the Law of Right, the Divine in 
man wins victory over the  
earthly.  How to live is the one important matter, and he will seek far 
without finding a wiser way  
than that shown us by the Great Lights of the Lodge. 
 
The Square and Compasses are the oldest, the simplest and the most 
universal symbols of Masonry.   
All the world over, whether as a sign on a building, or a badge worn by a 
Brother, even the profane  
know them to be emblems of our ancient Craft.  Some years ago, when a 
business firm tried to adopt  
the Square and Compasses as a Trade- Mark, the Patent Office refused 
permission, on the ground, as  
the decision said, that "There can be no doubt that this device, so 
commonly worn and employed by  
Masons, universally recognized as existing; whether comprehended by all or 
not, is not material to  
this issue."  They belong to us, alike by the associations of history and 
the tongue of common report. 
Nearly everywhere in our Ritual, as in the public mind, the Square and 
Compasses are seen together.   
If not interlocked, they are seldom far apart, and the one suggests the 
other.  And that is as it should  
be, because the things they symbolize are interwoven.  In the old days when 
the earth was thought to  
be flat and square, the Square was an emblem of the  earth, and later, of 
the earthly element in man.   
As the sky is an arc or a circle, the implement which describes a Circle 
became the symbol of the  
heavenly, or sky spirit in man.  Thus the tools of the builder became the 
emblems of the thoughts of  
the thinker; and nothing in Masonry is more impressive than the slow 
elevation of the compasses  
above the Square in the progress of the Degrees.  The whole meaning and 
task of life is there, for such  
as have eyes to see. 
 
Et us separate the Square from the Compasses and study it alone, the better 
to see its further meaning  
and use.  There is no need to say that the Square we have in mind is not a 
Cube, which has four equal  
sides and angles, deemed by the Greeks a figure of perfection.  Nor is it a 
the square of the carpenter,  
one leg of which is longer than the other, with inches marked for 
measuring.  It is a small, plain  
Square, unmarked and with legs of equal length, a simple try-square used 
for testing the accuracy of  
angles, and the precision with which stones are cut.  Since the try-square 
was used to prove that  
angles were right, it naturally became an emblem of accuracy, integrity and 
rightness.  As stones are  
cut it fit into a building, so our acts and thoughts are built together 
into a structure of Character, badly  
or firmly, and must be tested by a moral standard of which the simple try-
square is a symbol. 
 
So, among Speculative Masons, the tiny try-square has always been a symbol 
of morality, of the basic  
rightness which must be the test of every act and the foundation of 
character and society.  From the  
beginning of the revival in 1717 this was made plain in the teaching of 
Masonry, by the fact that the  
Holy Bible was placed upon the Altar, along with the Square and Compasses.  
In one of the earliest  
catechisms of the Craft, dated 1725, the question is asked: "How many make 
a Lodge?"  The answer  
is specific and unmistakable: "God and the Square, with five or seven right 
and perfect Masons."  God  
and the Square, Religion and Morality, must be present in every Lodge as 
its ruling Lights, or it fails  
of being a just and truly Constituted Lodge.  In all lands, in all rites 
where Masonry is true to itself,  
the Square is a symbol of righteousness, and is applied in the light of 
faith in God. 
 
God and the Square - it is necessary to keep the two together in our day, 
because the tendency of the  
times is to separate them.  The idea in vogue today is that morality is 
enough, and that faith in God -  
if there be a God - may or may not be important.  Some very able men of the 
Craft insist that we make  
the teaching of Masonry too religious.  Whereas, as all history shows, if 
faith in God grows dim  
morality becomes a mere custom, if not a cobweb, to be thrown off lightly.  
It is not rooted in reality,  
and so lacks authority and sanction.  Such an idea, such a spirit - so 
wide-spread in our time, and  
finding so many able and plausible advocates - strikes at the foundation, 
not only of Masonry, but of  
all ordered and advancing social life.  Once men come to think that 
morality is a human invention,  
and not a part of the order of the world, and the moral law will lose both 
its meaning and its power.   
Far wiser was the old book entitled "All in All and the Same Forever," by 
John Davies, and dated  
1607, though written by a non-Mason, when it read reality and nature of God 
in this manner:  "Yet I  
this form of formless deity drew by the Square and Compasses of our Creed." 
 
For, inevitable, a society without standards will be a society without 
stability, and it will one day go  
down.  Not only nations, but whole civilizations have perished in the past, 
for lack of righteousness.   
History speaks plainly in this matter, and we dare not disregard it.  Hence 
the importance attached to  
the Square of Virtue, and the reason why Masons call it the great symbol of 
their Craft.  It is a symbol  
of that moral law upon which human life must rest if it is to stand.  A man 
may build a house in any  
way he likes, but if he expects it to stand and be his home, he must adjust 
his structure to the laws and  
forces that rule in the material realm.  Just so, unless we live in 
obedience to the moral laws which  
God has written in the order of things, our lives will fall and end in a 
wreck.  When a young man  
forgets the simple Law of the Square, it does not need a prophet to foresee 
what the result will be.  It  
is a problem in geometry. 
 
Such has been the meaning of the Square as far back as we can go.  Long 
before our era we find the  
Square teaching the same lesson which it teaches us today.  In one of the 
old books of China, called  
:The Great Learning," which has been dated in the fifth century before 
Christ, we read that a man  
should not do unto others what he would not have them do unto him; and the 
writers adds, "This is  
called the principle of acting on the Square."  There it is, recorded long, 
long ago.  The greatest  
philosopher has found nothing more profound, and the oldest man in his ripe 
wisdom has learned  
nothing more true.  Even Jesus only altered it from the negative to the 
positive form in his "Golden  
Rule."  So, everywhere, in our Craft and outside, the Square has taught its 
simple truth which does  
not grow old.  The Deputy Provincial Grand Master of North and East 
Yorkshire recovered a very  
curious relic, in the form of an old brass Square found under the 
foundation of an ancient bridge near  
Limerick in 1830.  On it was inscribed the date, 1517, and the following 
words: 
 
"Strive to live with love and care Upon the Level, by the Square." 
 
How simple and beautiful it is, revealing the oldest wisdom man has learned 
and the very genius of  
our Craft.  In fact and truth, the Square Rules the Mason as well as the 
Lodge in which he labors..  As  
soon as he enters a Lodge, the candidate walks the square steps around the 
Square pavement of a  
rectangular Lodge.  All during the ceremony his attitude keeps him in mind 
of the same symbol, as if  
to fashion his life after its form.  When he is brought to light, he 
beholds the Square upon the Altar,  
and at the same time sees that it is worn by the Master of the Lodge, as 
the emblem of his office.  In  
the North-East Corner he is shown the perfect Ashlar, and told that it is 
the type of a finished Mason,  
who must be Square-man in thought and conduct, in word and act.  With every 
art of emphasis the  
Ritual writes this lesson in our hearts,  and if we forget this first truth 
the Lost Word will remain  
forever lost. 
 
For Masonry is not simply a Ritual; it is a way of living.   
 
It offers us a plan. a method, a faith by which we may build our days and 
years into a character so  
strong and true that nothing, not even death, can destroy it.  Each of us 
has in his own heart a little  
try-square called Conscience, by which to test each thought and deed and 
word, whether it be true or  
false.  By as much as a man honestly applies that test in his own heart, 
and in his relations with his  
fellows, by so much will his life be happy, stable, and true.  Long ago the 
question was asked and  
answered:  "Lord, who shall abide in thy Tabernacle?  He that walketh 
uprightly, and worketh  
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart."  It is the first 
obligation of a Mason to be on the  
Square, in all his duties and dealings with his fellow men, and if he fails 
there he cannot win  
anywhere.  Let one of our poets sum it all up: 
 
It matters not whate'er your lot 
Or what your task may be, 
One duty there remains for you 
One duty stands for me. 
Be you a doctor skilled and wise, 
Or do your work for wage, 
A laborer upon the street, 
An artist on the stage; 
Our glory still awaits for you, 
One honor that is fair, To have men say as you pass by: 
"That fellow's on the Square." 
Ah, here's a phrase that stands for much 
'Tis good old English too, 
It means that men have confidence 
In everything you do, 
It means that what you have you've earned, 
And that you've done your best, 
And when you go to sleep at night 
Untroubled you may rest. 
It means that conscience is your guide, 
And honor is your care; 
There is no greater praise than this: 
"That fellow's on the Square." 
And when I die I would not wish 
A lengthy epitaph; 
I do not wish a headstone large, 
Carved with fulsome chaff, 
Pick out no single deed of mine, 
If such a deed there be, 
To 'grave upon my monument, 
For those who come to see, 
Just this one phrase of all I choose, 
To show my life was fair: 
Here sleepeth now a fellow who 
Was always on the Square." 
					 
 
Copyright, 1924 by The Masonic Service Association of the United States.  
The contents of this  
bulletin must not be reproduced in whole, or in part without permission. 
Published monthly by The Masonic Service Association of the United States 
under the auspices of its  
member Jurisdictions. 
Entered as second-class matter September 6, 1923, at the Post Office at 
Washington, D.C. under the  
Act of August 24, 1912.  Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage 
provided for in section  
1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized February 17, 1923.