textfiles/magazines/STB/stb-1927-01.txt

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.V   January, 1927   No.1

SECRECY

by:  Unknown

An old Greek philosopher, when asked what he regarded as the most 
valuable quality to win and the most difficult to keep, he replied: 
"To be Secret and Silent."  If secrecy was difficult in the olden 
times, it is doubly difficult today, in the loud and noisy world in 
which we live, where privacy is almost unknown.

Secrecy is, indeed, a priceless but rare virtue, so little effort is 
made to teach and practice it.  The world of today is a whispering 
gallery where everything is heard, a hall of mirrors where nothing is 
hid.  If the ancient worshipped a God of silence, we seem about to 
set up an Altar to the God of Gossip.

Some one has said that if Masonry did no more than train its men to 
preserve sacredly the secrets of others confided to them as such - 
except where a higher duty demands disclosure - it would be doing a 
great work, and one which not only justifies its existence, but 
entitles it to the respect of mankind.

Anyway, no Mason needs to be told the value of secrecy. 

Without it, Masonry would cease to exist, or else become something so 
different from what it is as to be unrecognizable.  For that reason, 
if no other, the very first lesson taught a candidate, and impressed 
upon him at every turn in unforgettable ways, is the duty of secrecy.
Yet, strictly speaking, Masonry is not a secret society, if by that 
we mean a society whose very existence is hidden.  Everybody knows 
that the Masonic Fraternity exists, and no effort is made to hide 
that fact.  Its organization is known; its Temples stand in our 
cities; its members are proud to be know as Masons.  Anyone may 
obtain from the records of a Grand Lodge, if not from the printed 
reports of Lodges, the names of the members of the Craft.
Nor can it be said that Masonry has any secret truth to teach, 
unknown to the best wisdom of the race.  Most of the talk about 
esoteric Masonry misses the mark.  When the story is told the only 
secret turns out to be some odd theory, some fanciful philosophy, of 
no real importance.  The wisdom of Masonry is hidden, not because it 
is subtle, but because it is simple.  Its secret is profound, not 
obscure.

As in mathematics, there are primary figures, and in music 
fundamental notes, upon which everything rests, so Masonry is built 
upon the broad, deep, lofty truths upon which life itself stands.  It 
lives, moves, and has its being in those truths.  They are mysteries, 
indeed, as life and duty and death are mysteries; to know them is to 
be truly wise; and to teach them in their full import is the ideal at 
which Masonry aims.

Masonry, then, is not a secret society; it is a private order.  In 
the quiet of the tiled lodge, shut away from the noise and clatter of 
the world, in an air of reverence and friendship, it teaches us the 
truths that make us men, upon which faith and character must rest if 
they are to endure the wind and weather of life.  So rare is its 
utter simplicity that to many it is as much a secret as though it 
were hid behind a seven-fold veil, or buried in the depths of the 
earth.

What is the secret in Masonry?  The "Method" of its teaching, the 
atmosphere it creates, the spirit it breaths into our hearts, and the 
tie it spins and weaves between men; in other words, the lodge and 
its ceremonies and obligations, its signs. tokens and words - its 
power to evoke what is most secret and hidden in the hearts of men.  
No one can explain how this is done.  We only know that it is done, 
and guard as a priceless treasure the method by which it is wrought.
It is the fashion of some to say that our ceremonies, signs and 
tokens are of little value; but it is not true.  They are of profound 
importance, and we cannot be too careful in protecting them from 
profanation and abuse.  The famous eulogy of the signs and tokens of 
Masonry by Benjamin Franklin was not idle eloquence.  It is justified 
by the facts, and ought to be known and remembered:

"These signs and tokens are of no small value; they speak a universal 
language, and act as a password to the attention and support of the 
initiated in all parts of the world.  They cannot be lost so long as 
memory retains its power.  Let the possessor of them be expatriated, 
ship-wrecked or imprisoned; let him be stripped of everything he has 
in the world; still these credentials remain and are available for 
use as circumstances require.

"The great effects which 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 aspirates of the 
tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have 
subdued the rancor of malevolence; and broken down the barriers of 
political animosity and sectarian alienation.

"On the field of battle, in the solitude of the uncultivated forests, 
or in the busy haunts of the crowded city, they have made men of the 
most hostile feelings, and most distant religions, and the most 
diversified conditions, rush to the aid of each other, and feel a 
social joy and satisfaction that they have been able to afford relief 
to a brother Mason."
	
What is equally true, and no less valuable, is that in the ordinary 
walks of everyday life they unite men and hold them together in a 
manner unique and holy.  They open a door out of the loneliness in 
which every man lives.  They form a tie uniting us to help one 
another, and others, in ways too many to name or count.  They form a 
net-work of fellowship, friendship, and fraternity around the world.  
They add something lovely and fine to the life of each of us, without 
which we should be poorer indeed.

Still let us never forget that it is the spirit that gives life; the 
letter alone is empty.  An old home means a thousand beautiful things 
to those who were brought up in it.  Its very scenery and setting are 
sacred.  The ground on which it stands is holy.  But if a stranger 
buys it, these sacred things mean nothing to him.  The spirit is 
gone, the glory has faded.  Just so with the lodge.  If it were 
opened to the curious gaze of the world, its beauty would be 
blighted, its power gone.

The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by 
those who seek it, serve it and live it.  It cannot be uttered; it 
can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each 
man knows it according to his quest and capacity.  Like all the 
things most worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no one 
can know it alone.  It is known only in fellowship, by the touch of 
life upon life, spirit upon spirit, knee to knee, breast to breast 
and hand to hand.

For that reason, no one need be alarmed about any book written to 
expose Masonry.  It is utterly harmless.  The real secret of Masonry 
cannot be learned by prying eyes or curious inquiry.  We do well to 
protect the privacy of the lodge; but the secret of Masonry can be 
known only by those who are ready and worthy to receive it.  Only a 
pure heart and an honest mind can know it, though they be adepts in 
all signs and tokens of every rite of the Craft.

Indeed, so far from trying to hide its secret, Masonry is all the 
time trying to give it to the world, in the only way in which it can 
be given, through a certain quality of soul and character which it 
labors to create and build up.  To the making of men, helping self-
discovery and self development, all the offices of Masonry are 
dedicated.  It is a quarry in which the rough stones of manhood are 
polished for use and beauty.

If Masonry uses the illusion of secrecy, it is because it knows that 
it is the nature of man to seek what is hidden and to desire what is 
forbidden.  Even God hides from us, that in seeking Him amid the 
shadows of life we may find both Him and ourselves.  The man who does 
not care enough for God to seek Him will never find Him, though He is 
not far away from any one of us. 

One who looks at Masonry in this way will find that his Masonic life 
is a great adventure. It is a perpetual discovery.  There is 
something new at every turn, something new in himself as life deepens 
with the years; something new in Masonry as its meaning unfolds.  The 
man who finds its degrees tedious and its Ritual a rigmarole only 
betrays the measure of his own mind.

If a man knows God and man to the uttermost, even Masonry has nothing 
to teach him.  As a fact the wisest man knows very little.  The way 
is dim and no one can see very far.  We are seekers after truth, and 
God has so made us that we cannot find the truths alone, but only in 
the love and service of our fellow men.  Here is the real secret, and 
to learn it is to have the key to the meaning and joy of life.

Truth is not a gift; it is a trophy.  To know it we must be true, to 
find it we must seek, to learn it we must be humble; and to keep it 
we must have a clear mind, a courageous heart, and the brotherly love 
to use it in the service of man.