textfiles/magazines/STB/stb-1927-05.txt

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.V    May, 1927   No.5

WHAT MASONRY MEANS

by: Unknown

There were four of them in the Ante Room besides the Tiler; a Past 
Master, a Junior Officer, the Oldest Member and a newly raised 
brother.  They had been telling the newly made brother what they 
could of the Ancient Craft, what he night expect from it and in it, 
and how he could proceed to get the greatest benefit from it.

When they had finished, he asked:  "Tell me, you are old and 
experienced in Masonry, what does it really mean to you?"
"What does Masonry mean to me?  The Past Master stopped to weigh his 
words.  "I think it means the chance of being of service to my fellow 
men.

"I have had the distinguished honor of being selected, at one time, 
to preside over this lodge.  The honor, deserved or not, came because 
I was willing to serve my fellow members and work for the good of the 
Order.  As I look back on it, I see that readiness to serve was 
created in me by my feeling of gratitude to the Fraternity for what I 
had received from it.  Yet, all that I did receive - friends, good 
times, instruction and a new idea - came to me from serving.  So, in 
a way, I have to say that a desire to serve came from serving!

I think every man has a desire to be of use in the world.  It may be 
in the big outside world, or some inner, restricted world; but the 
desire to serve is the same.  The teacher in the schools is not one 
because of the rewards; a good teacher has to teach.  He or she can't 
be happy doing anything else.  The Minister in the church is seldom 
rewarded materially as he might have been in some other profession.  
His reward has to come from the consciousness of having been of use.  
I have talked to a great many men who are distinguished successes in 
their several lines, and none of them ever considered their material 
success as their greatest reward.  I know a railroad builder who is 
far more proud of his success in tunneling a mountain than in the 
riches he has won for his family.  I know a banker who points with 
much more pride to the businesses he has helped to build than to his 
own substantial fortune.  And so I find it in Masonry - there is a 
much greater joy in the actual feeling that one is of use to his 
fellows, than there is in the honor of being selected as one to lead, 
for a while, an organization.  

"I am still active in this lodge.  There are no more honors for me to 
win here.  I shall never be anything but a Past Master.  Yet I find 
real pleasure in working on the Educational Committee, and in being a 
member of the Instruction Committee.

"I believe that many men, especially those whose vocations in life do 
not appear, on the surface, as being of conspicuous service to 
mankind, find in Masonry an opportunity to express that altruism 
which is deep in every man's heart.  They here express themselves as 
servants of men.  They learn in order to teach.  They work, in order 
that other men may have a better time, be happier and more 
comfortable.  They call on the sick, not because it is the thing for 
a Mason to do, but to render to their unfortunate brethren some mead 
of comfort from their own state of health and happiness.   

"The lodge to me is place of labor - a place where I can be of some 
use in the world without thought of reward or hope of any material 
pay.  Yes, I think I can answer your question by saying; "Masonry 
means to me the chance to be of service."

The Junior Officer took up the conversation.

"To me, Masonry means inspiration," he stated.  "I am a Municipal 
Court Judge.  My daily work is concerned entirely with the lower, 
harder, meaner and dirtier side of life.  I spend my day with 
bootleggers, wife-beaters, thieves, sneaks and dope-peddlers.  I hear 
only the sadder sort of stories.  If I believed all life was like 
what I see of it, I wouldn't want to live.

"But, I don't believe it.  A very wise old Judge, with whom I talked 
before I went on the bench told me that the most important thing a 
Judge had to do was to keep a sane viewpoint.  He said a Judge who 
allowed himself to become warped in his valuation of human beings was 
not a good Judge.  Masonry is the inspiration that keeps me from 
allowing what I see, to be, to me, all there is of life.

"In Masonry I find only an altruistic viewpoint.  There is not, 
anywhere in Masonry a single thing that is selfish.  There is in it 
not a prayer for self.  There is in it not a single act which a 
Brother does which is for himself.  Officers in the Lodge, of whom 
I'm proud to be one, work hard to put on a good degree, doing the 
work correctly, trying to make it impressive - why?  Not for 
themselves,  Not that they may get anything out of it, but in order 
that the candidate be properly impressed and instructed - so that he 
can make something of Masonry his own and thus be a better man.
"Brethren appointed on an investigating committee must go out and 
work.  They must take time from their own pleasures or labors to look 
into the qualifications of anyone who wants to be a Mason, and has 
submitted a petition.  There is nothing in it for them.  They do it 
unselfishly, for their fellows, and the petitioner.  That is 
inspiring.  It shows that there is another side to life than the one 
I see all day long.

"Anyone who sits all day in my sort of a court might well be excused 
for thinking that God has deserted a part of the earth, and some of 
His people.  It's hard to believe that the drunken sot who beats an 
innocent child, the dope-peddler who deliberately tries to turn a 
school boy into a cocaine fiend so he can sell him "Snow," the 
bootlegger who deliberately sells, to unsuspecting fools, booze he 
knows to be poisonous; can have any good in him.  Masonry teaches me 
that there is good everywhere, in every man, if you only hunt deep 
enough.  Masonry never lets me forget that a Perfect Ashlar is made 
of a Rough Ashlar - that the perfect stone is inside the rough stone 
all the time, only waiting the cunning hand of the workman to knock 
away the rough-nesses to reveal the perfection underneath.  Masonry 
teaches me there is a perfect ashlar under the rough exteriors I see.  
I am not sure I could keep on knowing that, if it wasn't for 
Freemasonry raising my eyes upward and keeping always in my heart the 
knowledge that more men are good than bad, more men helpful than 
hindering, more men God-Fearing than God-Hating.  So I must answer 
you, my brother, that to me Masonry means inspiration, a holding 
constantly before my inner eyes a spiritual ideal, so that I can 
forget the material wrong and evil which is so rife in the world in 
which I live."

"Well, I'll agree that Freemasonry may be all things to all men," the 
Oldest Mason began, seeing that the Junior Officer had finished.  
"And perhaps you won't think that what Masonry means to me is as big 
and as fine as the opportunity for service that the Past Master sees, 
and the inspiration that the Junior Officer finds.  To me, Masonry 
means the chance to make friends.

"The young man thinks that friends are easy to make, and I dare say 
many a man thinks he could make them as easily in a club or a board 
of trade as he could in a lodge.  But there is a great difference 
between the friendships made in profane gatherings, and those which 
result from meeting ON THE LEVEL.

"As I see it, there must be some sort of mutually shared background 
for any real friendship.  Two men must have something to which both 
can hold if they are to draw themselves together, against the 
naturally repellent forces which makes us all suspicious of all the 
rest of humanity.

"There is a GOLDEN CORD in Masonry to which we can all hold.  We all 
have a cable tow about us, and by it we can pull ourselves closer 
together.  We meet on a common level.  We think the same sort of 
thoughts at the same time.  When we worship the grand Articifer of 
the Universe, we do it in the same way, with the same words, at the 
same time.  It is not germane to say, BUT SO THEY DO IN A CHURCH. for 
there are a great many churches, each with its own way of approach to 
the throne of the Most High.  But in all Masonic lodges, the approach 
is one ground of unity, on which friendships may be formed. 

"There is another. How says our ritual?  To relieve the distressed is 
a duty incumbent upon all, but particularly on Masons, who are linked 
together by an indissoluble chain of sincere affection.  To soothe 
the unhappy, to sympathize with their misfortunes, to compassionate 
their miseries and restore peace to their troubled minds, is the 
great aim we have in view.  On this basis we form out friendships and 
establish connections.  I find the charity and the sympathy of a 
Masonic Lodge a great force in the making of friends, and strangely 
enough, it makes little difference which end of the golden cord the 
individual brother holds.  If I sympathize and try to help my 
brother, I become friendly toward him.  If I am in trouble, and he 
sympathizes with and tries to help me, I feel friendly toward him.  I 
feel friendly to the new young brother just coming into the lodge 
because he has won his way against odds, into out charmed circle, and 
I wish him well.  The mere wishing him good luck makes me feel 
friendly.  To the older members, with whom I have stood so many times 
in lodge prayer, with whom I have joined so many times in degrees, 
with whom so many times I have visited the sick, attended funerals or 
enjoyed innocent gaiety at refreshment.  I am friendly because of our 
common interests and feelings.

"I have made, and I think that every good Mason does, some of the 
best friends in the world, through Masonic association.  Masonry 
picks her brethren.  We are all alike in a few fundamentals, before 
we become Masons.  So we have an unusual opportunity to make friends 
in Masonry.  I think that must stand as my answer to our young 
brother's question, what Masonry means to me - an opportunity to make 
friends.

"Now that our young friend has heard us, I should like to hear what 
he thinks.  What, my brother, does Masonry mean to you?"
The newly raised brother flushed a little, embarrassed at being 
called on for an expression of opinion in the presence of those so 
much older and wiser in the Craft.

"It's all so new to me," he answered, hesitating a little, "I am 
quite willing to take your several interpretations of Masonry and its 
meaning.  But so far none of you has mentioned what it is to me, the 
of the opportunity which Masonry gives.  To me, Masonry means a 
chance to learn.  I have been instructed that I should study the 
seven liberal arts and sciences, and the several degrees all put a 
good deal of stress on the teachings of Masonry.  I have read one or 
two books which hint at a great deal that is concealed, much more 
than is revealed.  It seems to me that the world of study and 
information which Freemasonry opens up to her initiates is her 
greatest boon.  I  find a great many different interpretations of 
Masonic symbols.  Unless I conclude that some are right and some are 
wrong, a symbol must have many meanings.  Yet only one is given in 
the degree.  That must mean that it is intended that I study them, 
and dig into them for myself, and try to find all the various 
meanings.

"My business in life is that of a teacher of English.  
I know how peculiar is the symbolism of words.  Take the word 
profane, which one of you used.  It comes from pro - without - and 
fane, the church.  You used it as meaning just that - some one 
without the Temple of Freemasonry.  Time has corrupted that good old 
English word to mean something entirely different - most of us think 
of something profane as meaning opposed to what is sacred; to profane 
is to make light of, or blaspheme that which is Holy.  It seems to me 
that some Masonic symbols may have been changed by time, too, as 
words are changed, and that the patient digger after facts might 
uncover a mine of interesting and valuable information if he is 
willing to study.  So, without in any way putting my thoughts forward 
as better than those I have heard, I think Masonry means to me, at 
least so far, an opportunity to increase my knowledge."

"We haven't heard from the Tiler yet!"  The Past Master turned to the 
Guardian of the Door.  "What does Masonry mean to you?"

"You've all wasted a lot of words to say something you all mean!" 
responded the Tiler.  "One of you thinks Masonry means SERVICE, 
another thinks it means INSPIRATION. and another thinks it means 
FRIENDS, and still another thinks it means KNOWLEDGE.  They all come 
from the same source.  And that is what Masonry really means.

"You have overlooked what is to me the most significant symbols.  If 
Masonry means SERVICE,  and FRIENDS, and INSPIRATION, and KNOWLEDGE; 
what else can you say it means, except just GOD?"