204 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
204 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IX May,1931 No.5
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FIVE POINTS
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by: Unknown
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The Five Points of Fellowship, as every Master Masons knows, contain
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the essence of the doctrine of brotherhood. But many a new brother
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asks, pertinently, “why are they called “Points?”
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In the Old Constitutions, as explained in the Hallowell or Regius
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manuscript, are fifteen regulations, called “points.” The old verse
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runs:
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“Fifteen artyculus there they soughton And fifteen poyntys there
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they wrogton.”
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Translated into easy English, this reads:
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“Fifteen articles there they sought And fifteen points there they
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wrought.”
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Phillips “New World of Words,” published in 1706, defines “point” as
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“a head, or chief matter.” Moreover, an operative Masons “points”
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the seams of as wall by filling in the chinks left in laying bricks
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or stone, thus completing the structure.
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In older days of the Speculative Art there were “twelve original
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points” as we learn from the old English lectures, done away with by
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the United Grand Lodge of England at the time of the reconciliation
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of 1813. They were introduced by the following passage:
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“There are in Freemasonry twelve original points, which form the
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basis of the system and comprehend the whole ceremony of initiation.
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Without the existence of these points, no man ever was, or can be,
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legally and essentially received into the Order. Every person who is
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made a Mason must go through these twelve forms and ceremonies, not
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only in the first degree, but in every subsequent one.”
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The twelve points were: Opening, Preparation, Report, Entrance,
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Prayer, Circumambulation , Advancing. Obligation, Investure,
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Northeast Corner and Closing; and each was symbolized by one of the
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Twelve Tribes of Israel for ingenious reasons not necessary to set
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forth here.
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The twelve original points were never introduced into the United
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States, and are now no longer used in England, although the
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ceremonies which they typify, of course, are integral parts of all
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Masonic rituals.
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Our Five Points of Fellowship are not allied to these, except as they
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are reflected in the word “points.” We also find this relationship
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in the Perfect Points of our Entrance, once called Principal Points.
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Dr. Oliver, famous, learned and not always accurate Masonic student
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and writer (1782-1867) sums up the Five Points in his “Landmarks,” as
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follows:
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“Assisting a brother in his distress, supporting him in his virtuous
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undertakings, praying for his welfare, keeping inviolate his secrets
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and vindicating his reputation as well in his absence as in his
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presence.”
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by which it will be seen that in Oliver’s day the Five Points were
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not exactly as they are with us now.
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Strange though it seems, a change was made in the symbolism of the
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Five Points as recently as 1842, at the Baltimore Masonic Convention.
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Prior to that time, according to Cole, the Five Points were
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symbolized by hand, foot, knee, breast and back. After 1842, the
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hand was omitted, and the mouth and ear tacked on as the fifth.
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Mackey believed that:
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“The omission of the first and the insertion of the last are
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innovations and the enumeration given by Cole is the old and genuine
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one which was originally taught in England by Preston and in his
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country by Webb.”
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Some curiosities of ritual changes, though interesting, are more for
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the antiquarian than the average lodge member. Most of us are more
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concerned with a practical explanation of the Five Points as they
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have been taught for nearly a hundred years.
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For they have a practical explanation, which goes much more deeply
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into fraternal and brotherly relations than the ritual indicates.
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A man goes on foot a short distance by preference; for a longer
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journey he boards a street car, rides in an automobile, engages
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passage on a railroad or courses through the air in a plane. Service
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to our brethren on foot does not imply any special virtue in that
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means of transportation. The word expresses the willingness of him
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who would serve our own pleasure and refuse to travel merely because
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the means is not to our liking would hardly be Masonic.
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We assist our brethren when we can; also we serve them.
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The two terms are not interchangeable; we can not assist a brother
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with out serving, but we may serve him without assisting him. For a
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wholly negative action may be a service; suppose we have a just claim
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against him and, because of our Fraternal relations, we postpone
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pressing it. That is true service, but not active assistance, such
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as we might give if we gave or loaned him money to satisfy some
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other’s claim.
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How far should we go “on foot” to render service?
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Nothing is said in the ritual, but the cabletow is otherwise used as
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a measure of length. That same Baltimore Masonic Convention defined
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a cabletow’s length as “the scope of a brothers reasonable ability.”
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Across town may be too far for one, and across a continent not too
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far for another. In better words, our own conception of brotherhood
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must say how far we travel to help our brother.
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Mackey expressed thus:
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“Indolence should not cause our footsteps to halt, or wrath to turn
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them aside; but with eager alacrity and swiftness of foot, we should
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press forward in the exercise of charity and kindness to a distressed
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fellow creature.”
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The petition at the Altar of the Great Architect of the Universe
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before engaging in any great and important undertaking is sound
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Masonic doctrine. To name the welfare of our brother in our
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petitions is good - but not for the reasons which the good Dr. Mackey
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set forth; the great Masonic student’s pen slipped here, even as Jove
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has been known to nod! He Said:
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“In our devotions to almighty God we should remember a brother’s
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welfare as our own, for the prayers of a fervent and sincere heart
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will find no less favor in the sight of heaven because the petition
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for self intermingles with aspirations of benevolence for a friend.”
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Apparently we should pray for our friends because God will look with
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favor on an unselfish action on our part - which is un Masonic and
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selfish! Cole, writing years before Mackey (1817) said of his Third,
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our Second Point:
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“When I offer up my ejaculations to Almighty God, a brother’s welfare
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I will remember as my own, for as the voices of babes and sucklings
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ascend to the Throne of Grace, so most assuredly will the breathings
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of a fervent heart arise to the mansions of bliss, as out prayers are
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certainly required of each other.”
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This seems to be interpretable as meaning that we should pray for our
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brethren because we love them, and because, knowing our own need of
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their prayers, we realize their need of ours.
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Anciently, it was written “Laborare est orare,” - to labor is to
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pray. If indeed prayer is labor, then to pray for our brethren we
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may labor for our brethren, which at once clarifies the Second Point
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and makes it a practical, everyday, do-it-now admonition. To work
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for our brother’s welfare is in the most brotherly manner to petition
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the Most High for him.
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We often associate with the idea of a “secret” something less than
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proper; “He has a secret in his life,” “He is secretive.” “He says
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one thing but in his secret heart he thinks another” are all
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expressions which seem to connote some degree of guilt with what is
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secret. We keep our brother’s secrets, guilty or innocent, but let
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us not assume that every secret is of a guilty variety. He may have
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a secret ambition, a secret joy, a secret hope - if he confides these
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to us, is our teaching merely to refuse to tell them, or to keep them
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in the fine old sense of that word - to hold, to guard. to preserve.
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The Keeper of the Door stands watch and ward, not to keep it from
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others, but to see that none use it improperly. Thus we are to keep
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the secret joys and ambitions of our brethren, close in our hearts,
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until he wants them known, but also by sympathy and understanding,
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helping him to maintain them.
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Even without this broad interpretation, the keeping of a brother’s
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confidence has more to it than mere silence. If he confides to us a
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guilty secret, since to betray him may not only make known that which
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he wishes hidden, but places him in danger. To betray a trust is
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never the act of a brother. In ordinary life an unsought trust does
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not carry with it responsibility to preserve it; in Freemasonry it
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does! No matter how we wish we did not share the secret, if it has
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been given us by a brother, we can not suffer our tongues to betray
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him, no matter what it costs us to remain silent, unless we forget
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alike our obligation and the Third Point.
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“Do you stumble and fall, my brother? My hand is stretched out to
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prevent it. Do you need aid? My hand is yours - use it. It is your
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hand, for the time being. My strength is united to yours. You are
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not alone in your struggle - I stand with you on the Fourth of the
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Five Points, and as your need may be, so “Deo volente,” will be my
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strength for you.”
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So must we speak when the need comes. It makes no difference in what
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way our brother stumbles; it may be mentally; it may be spiritually;
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it may be materially; it may be morally. No exceptions are noted in
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our teachings. We are not told to stretch forth the hand in aid
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“If,” and “perhaps,” and “but!” Not for us to judge, to condemn, to
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admonish . . . for us only to put forth our strength unto our falling
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brother at his need, without question and without stint.
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For such is the Kingdom of Brotherhood.
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More sins are committed in the name of the Fifth of the Five Points
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than in the name of liberty! Too often we offer counsel when it is
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not advice but help that is needed. Too often we admonish of motes
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within our brother’s eye when our own vision is blinded by beams.
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What said the Lord? (Amos VII, in the Fellowcraft’s Degree.)
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“Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I
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will not again pass by them any more.”
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“In the midst of my people Israel” - not in the far away land; not
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across the river; not up on the mountain top, but in the midst of
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them, an intimate personal individual plumb line!
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So are we to judge our brethren; not by the plumb, the square or the
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level that we are each taught to carry in our hearts, but by his
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plumb, his square, his level.
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If he build true by his own tools, we have no right to judge him by
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ours. The friendly reminders we must whisper to him are of incorrect
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building by his own plumb line. He may differ from us in opinion; he
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may be Republican where we are Democrat, Methodist where we are
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Baptist; Wet where we are Dry; Protectionist where we are Free trade;
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League of Nations proponent where we are “biter enders” - we must not
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judge him by the plumb line of our own beliefs.
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Only when we see him building untrue to his own tools have we the
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right to remind him of his faults. When we see a brave man
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shrinking, a virtuous man abandoning himself to vice, a good man
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acting as a criminal - then is his building faulty judged by his own
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plumb line and we may heed the Fifth of the Five Points and counsel
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and advise him to swing back, true to his own working tools.
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And finally, we do well to remember Mackey’s interpretation of the
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Fifth Point:
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“. . . we should never revile a brother’s character behind his back
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but rather, when attacked by others, support and defend it.”
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“Speak no ill of the dead, since they can not defend themselves”
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might well have been written of the absent. In the Masonic sense no
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brother is absent if his brother is present, since then he has always
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a champion and defender, standing upon the Fifth Point as upon a
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rock.
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So considered - and this little paper is but a slender outline of how
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much and how far the Five Points extend - these teachings of Masonry,
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concerned wholly with the relations of brother to brother, become a
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broad and beautiful band of blue - the blue of the Blue Lodge - the
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True Blue of Brotherhood.
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