162 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
162 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.V April, 1927 No.4
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MORE LIGHT
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by: Unknown
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Goethe was one of the myriad-minded men of our race, and a devout
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member of our gentle Craft. When he lay dying, as the soft shadow
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began to fall over his mind, he said to a friend watching over his
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bed : "open the window and let in more light!" The last request of a
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great poet-Mason is the first quest of every Mason.
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If one were asked to sum up the meaning of Masonry in one word, the
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only word equal to the task is - light! From its first lesson to its
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last lecture, in every degree and every symbol, the mission of
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Masonry is to bring the light of God into the life of man. It has no
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other aim, knowing that when the light shines the truth will be
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revealed.
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A Lodge of Masons is a House of Light. Symbolically it has no roof
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but the sky, open to all the light of nature and of grace. As the
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sun rises in the East to open and rule the day, so the Master rises
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in the East to open and guide the Lodge in its labor. All the work
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of the Lodge is done under the eye and in the name of God, obeying
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Him who made the great lights, whose mercy endureth forever.
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At the center of the Lodge, upon the Altar of Obligation, the Great
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Lights shine upon us, uniting the light of nature and the whiter
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light of revelation. Without them no Lodge is open in Due Form, and
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no business is valid. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, as
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the stars are seen only when the sun is hidden, so the Lesser Lights
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follow dimly when the Greater Lights lead.
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To the door of the Lodge comes the seeker after Light, hoodwinked and
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groping his way - asking to be led out of shadows into realities; out
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of darkness into light. All initiation is "Bringing Men To Light,"
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teaching them to see the moral order of the world in which they must
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learn their duty and find their true destiny. It is the most
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impressive drama on earth, a symbol of the Divine education of man.
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So, through all its degrees, its slowly unfolding symbols, the
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ministry of Masonry is to make men "Sons Of Light" - men of insight
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and understanding who know their way and can be of help to others who
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stumble in the dark. Ruskin was right: "To See Clearly is Life,
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Art, Philosophy and Religion - All In One." When the light shines
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the way is plain, and the highest service to humanity is to lead men
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out of the confused life of the senses into the light of moral law
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and spiritual faith.
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To that end Masonry opens upon its Altar the one great Book of Light,
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its pages glow with "A Light That Never Was On Sea Or Land," shining
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through the tragedies of man and the tumults of time, showing us a
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path that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. From its first
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page to the last , the key-word of the Bible is light; until, at the
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end, when the City of God is built it will have no need of the sun or
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the moon or the stars; for God is the Light of it.
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And God Said, Let There Be Light; And there was light.
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God Is Light, And In Him Is, No Darkness At All. Thy Word Is A
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Lamp Unto My Feet;
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And A Light Unto My Path. The entrance Of Thy Word, Giveth Light.
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The Lord Is My Light And My Salvation; Whom I Shall Fear.
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There Is No Light For The Righteous, Gladness For The True.
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The Lord Shall Be To Thee An Everlasting Light.
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To Them That Sat In Darkness, Light Is Sprung Up.
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He Stumbleth Not, Because He Seeth The Light.
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I Am Come A Light Into The World, While Ye Have The Light, Believe
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In The Light.
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Let Your Light Shine Before Man.
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To find the real origin of Masonry we must go far back into the past,
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back before history. All the world over, at a certain stage of
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culture, men bowed down in worship of the sun, moon and the stars.
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In prehistoric graves the body was always buried in a sitting
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position, and always facing to the East, that the sleeper might be
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ready to spring up early to face the new and brighter day.
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Such was the wonder of light and its power over man, and it is not
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strange that he rejoiced in its beauty, lifting up hands of praise.
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The Dawn was the first Altar in the old Light Religion of the race.
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Sunrise was an hour of prayer, and sunset, with its soft farewell
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fires, was the hour of sacrifice. After all, religion is a Divine
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Poetry, of which creeds are prose versions. Gleams of this old Light
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religion shine all through Masonry, in its faith, in its symbols, and
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still more in its effort to organize the light of God in the Soul of
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Man.
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Such a faith is in accord with all the poetries and pieties of the
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race. Light is the loveliest gift of God to man; it is the mother of
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beauty and the joy of the world. It tells man all that he knows, and
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it is no wonder that his speech about it is gladsome and grateful.
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Light is to the mind what food is to the body; it brings the morning,
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when the shadows flee away, and the loveliness of the world is
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unveiled.
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Also, there is a mystery in light. It is not matter, but a form of
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motion; it is not spirit, though is seems closely akin to it. Midway
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between the material and the spiritual, it is the gateway where
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matter and spirit pass and repass. Of all the glories in its
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gentleness, its benignity, its pity, falling with impartial
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benediction alike upon the just and the unjust, upon the splendor of
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wealth and the squalor of poverty.
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Yes, God is light, and the mission of Masonry is to open the windows
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of the mind of man, letting the dim spark within us meet and blend
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with the light of God, in whom there is no darkness. There is "A
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Light That Lighteth Every Man That Cometh Into The World," as we
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learn in the Book of Holy Law; but too often it is made dim by evil,
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error and ignorance; until it seems well nigh to have gone out.
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Here now some of the most terrible words in the Bible: "Eyes they
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have, but they do not see." How many tragedies it explains, how many
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sorrows it accounts for. Most of our bigotries and brutalities are
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due to blindness. Most of the cruel wrongs we inflict upon each
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other are the blows and blunders of the sightless. Othello was
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blinded by jealousy, Macbeth by ambition; as we are apt to be blinded
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by passion, prejudice or greed.
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With merciful clarity Jesus saw that men do awful things without
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seeing what they do. "Father, forgive them for they know not what
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they do." The pages of history are blacker than the hearts of the
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men that made the history. Man is not as wicked as the wrongs he has
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done. Unless we see this fact, much of the history of man will read
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like the records of hell - remembering the atrocities of the
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Inquisition, the terrors of the French Revolution, and the red horror
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of Russia. It is all a hideous nightmare - man stumbling and
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striking in the dark.
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No, humanity is more blind than bad. In his play, "St. Joan," Shaw
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makes one of his characters say: "If you only saw what you think
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about, you would think quite differently about it. It would give you
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a great shock. I am not cruel by nature, but I did not know what
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cruelty was like. I have been a different man ever since." Alas, he
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did not see what he had done until the hoodwink had been taken off.
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More and more some of us divide men into two classes - those who see
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and those who do not see. The whole quality and meaning of life lies
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in what men see or fail to see. And what we see depends upon what we
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are. In the Book of the Holy Law the verb "to see" is close akin to
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the verb "to be," which is to teach us that character is the secret
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and source of insight. Virtue is vision; vice is blindness.
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"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see god."
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Thus our gentle Masonry, by seeking to "Bring Men to Light," not
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simply symbolically but morally and spiritually, is trying to lift
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the shadow of evil, ignorance and injustice off the life of man. It
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is a benign labor, to which we may well give the best that we are or
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hope to be, toiling to spread the skirts of light that we and all men
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may see what is true and do what is right.
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What the sad world needs - what each of us needs - is more light,
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more love, more clarity of mind and more charity of heart; and this
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is what Masonry is trying to give us. Once we take it to heart, it
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will help us to see God in the face of our fellows, to see the power
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of a lie and its inherent weakness because it is false, to see the
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glory of truth and its final victory - to see these things is to be a
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Mason, to see these things is to be saved.
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O Light that followeth all my way, I yield my flickering torch to
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thee;
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My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in thy sunshine's blaze,
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Its day may brighter, fairer be.
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