123 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VI August, 1928 No.8
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THE WONDER OF MASONRY
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by: Unknown
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One of the Unwritten Sayings of Jesus, picked up in a rubbish heap in
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Egypt, is as follows: "Let him that seeketh desist not from his
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quest until he hath found; and when he hath found, he shall be
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smitten with wonder; and when he hath wondered, he shall come into
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his Kingdom, and coming into his Kingdom, he shall rest."
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A great English critic said that there are two impulses by which men
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are governed; the impulse of acceptance - the impulse to take for
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granted and unchallenged the facts of life as they are - and the
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impulse to confront those facts with the eyes of inquiry and wonder.
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Men are of two kinds, according as they obey one or the other of
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these two impulses.
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As Watts-Dunton goes on to point out, in the latter years of the
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eighteenth century it was the impulse of acceptance that held sway;
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and it was precisely those years that made the winter of English
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poetry, when Pope and Dryden shone like stars on a frosty night.
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Then came what he has called "The Renascence of Wonder,: and we heard
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again the bird notes of spring, of Cowper and Burns, of Wordsworth
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and Coleridge, of Shelly and Keats.
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In the same way, Masons may be divided into two classes: those who
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take Masonry as a matter of course, and those who confront it with
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the eyes of inquiry and wonder. Let it be said at once, a man may be
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content - as, indeed many are - with the impulse of acceptance, and
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may live a Masonic life without reproach; but he will never feel the
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thrill of Masonry as one of the great romances of the world.
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II
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To some of us Masonry is more fascinating than any fairy story - a
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thing so wonderful that we can never think of it without
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astonishment. The very existence of such an order, older than any
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living religion, in one form or another going back into a far time
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where history and legend blend, like the earth and the sky on the
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horizon, is a fact amazing beyond words. If its real story were
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tellable, it would make other romances seem flat and tame.
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Deep in the heart of man is an instinct, if we may call it such, by
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which he feels that there are truths so high and faiths so holy that
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they are not to be trusted to men unless they are trustworthy, lest
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the most precious possessions of humanity be lost or debased. Out of
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this feeling grew the idea and practice of initiation, as we see it
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in the Men's House, and trace it through all lands and races.
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No matter what forms the old initiations may take, at the heart of it
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all, somewhere, one finds the rudiments of and remsemblances to the
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great drama of the immortal life, showing that from earliest time man
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defied death and refused to let it have the last word. How this
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instinct for initiation, if one may so describe it, linked itself
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with the art of architecture, using simple symbols to teach moral
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truths; as if to teach man that he must build up the eternal life
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within himself - how can one think of such a fact without wonder and
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a strange warming of the heart!
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Yet there are brethren who seem to take it all for granted, as a
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matter of rite and rote, and nothing more. They remind one of the
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letter of Horace Walpole written from Florence: "I recollect the joy
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I used to propose to myself if I could but once see the Great Duke's
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Gallery: I walk in it now with as little emotion as I should into
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St. Paul's Cathedral. The farther I travel, the less I wonder at
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anything."
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Truly, those words tell a pitiful tale of a jaded, blas<61> tourist who
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walked through ancient shrines of beauty and prayer with sealed,
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unwondering eyes. Yet, more marvelous than any cathedral is the
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story of the Builders, out of whose faith and dream and skill the
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cathedral was born and built; and it is Masonry that tells us who the
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builders were, why and how they wrought, and how we must be builders,
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too, of a House not made with hands.
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III
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To name the marvels of Masonry would require many books, but two may
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be mentioned, and the first is its anonymousness. Who made Masonry
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no one knows; when and how it was made no one has told us. Much is
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said about the "Revival" in 1717, but back of that date lies a long
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history, only glimpses and fragments of which we glean. Neither
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author, nor date, nor locality is attached to it. It is a monument,
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not of an individual, but of a mighty and mysterious past - like a
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cathedral the names of whose builders are lost. The genius that
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produced it has been forgotten in the service rendered.
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Today we sit in a lodge listening to a ritual, not knowing when, or
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where, or by whom it was written. It is a lyric fragment detached
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from time and place; it has come down to us singing its way on the
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unrelated wings of time. Its anonyousness is a part of its power.
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It is universal; it is not of an age or a race, but of the world.
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Someone ought to write a book entitled "The Anonymous in Life,"
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though is would assuredly take many volumes to tell the story of the
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wonders wrought by unknown, unnamed pilgrims of the past.
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Think how much of the Bible is anonymous. Who wrote the idyll of
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Ruth, with the color of the loveliest sky on it and the wine of the
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purest love flowing through it? Who wrote that sublime epic of the
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desert, in which Job struggles with the mystery of undeserving
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suffering, and discovers a new dimension of faith in God? Who wrote
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the Epistle of the Hebrews, one of the most refined and gracious
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books of the New Testament? Origen said long ago, "No one knows but
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God."
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Anonymousness takes all the egotism out of genius, gives absolute
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disinterestedness, converts the particular into the universal, and
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burdens it with a beauty and pathos, a dignity and nobility, which
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belong to humanity; as if the very soul of the race spoke to us, as
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the organ of the Infinite, instructing us, illuminating us. What
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Goethe said is true:
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But heard are the voices, Heard are the Sages, The Worlds and the
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Ages.
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How much of Masonry is anonymous! We do not know who is speaking to
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us. Their names are lost, like autumn leaves long fallen into dust.
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Like us, they were pilgrims and had to pass on. Yet, what a legacy
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of inspiration and instruction they left us for our guidance on the
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old-world human road. They told us what they learned by living,
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leaving their marks on the walls and arches of the Temple; and the
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rest is silence.
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