January 1947
Contents
A PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR FRENCH MASONS MEET MASONICALLY IN NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP
BEING A MAN The Philalethes Society News
THE HOME INFLUENCE GREAT AND INVALUABLE PRIVILEGES
SALVATION CERTAIN THE GOAL AND MEANS OF MASONRY
MASONRY IN FOREIGN LANDS OUR HABITS
DRAW NIGH TO GOD. CLEANSE YOUR HANDS, YE SINNERS; AND PURIFY YOUR HEARTS, YE DOUBLE MINDED - SPEAK NOT EVIL ONE OF ANOTHER, BRETHREN. THERE IS ONE LAWGIVER. - James 4:8-11-12
O, Thou Jehovah We would draw nigh to Thee as we stand upon the threshold of the New Year; we would ask for a clean heart, clean soul and a consecrated spirit. May every thought and every act have Thine approval. May we seek to know the Truth, and then have strength sufficient to put the truth into action.
Loving Father Come Thou graciously near, so that we may feel Thy presence, and recognize Thy voice, and receive with open mind and heart the great Truths Thou wouldst impart. When we are tempted to do or say the thing which is not in accord with Thy Divine will; help us to have an abundance of overcoming Grace with which to gain the victory.
Almighty God May we have a horror of sin - sins of omission as well as sins of commission. Deliver us from self-service; also from the misery of careless and half-hearted devotion. Grant unto us a clearer vision of duty, so that we may find service, and then have a willing spirit; motivating us. to do and dare; conscious always that we cannot grow in Grace unless we are willing to serve unto the uttermost.
God, Our Strength. Help us not to speak evil one of another. May brotherly love abound yet more and more. May we feel that we are not simply our "brother's keeper," rather that we are our brother's brother. Help us not to judge our neighbor - remembering always that God is the Judge as well as the Lawgiver. May we learn, to "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Deepen our longing to understand one another, so that we may enter more perfectly into the problems and troubles that beset those with whom we daily ctome in contact. Gladly may we share Thy best gifts, working together for a better order, in a world that sorely needs God's best gifts. May grace! abound unto us and our fellows, yet more and rnore
- Amen.
FRENCH MASONS MEET MASONICALLY IN NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP
By M. JATTEFAUX
Deputy Grand Master, Grand Orient of France
Introduction. At the request of Bro. Roumilhac M.P.S., of Marseilles, France, Bro. Jattefaux gives NS in the following article a brief account of the Masonic activities of a number of French Brethren confined in the horrible Nazi internment camp of Buchenwald. We are grateful to both these Brethren, and are especially gratified to learn from Bro. Roumilhac that very few French Masons had to be expelled for unpatriotic conduct as a result of the strict investigations made in the Lodges after the liberation of France. Bro. Jattefaux displayed great courage during the German occupation and escaped arrest by the Gestapo until 1944. We translate his story literally from the French original. - Leo Fischer. F.P.S.
* * *
Upon my arrival at the Camp of Buchenwald, on May 14, 1944, I was informed of the presence there of a number of my Brethren. They had arranged for secret meetings which were held every Sunday at the end of the Little Camp, which was the enclosure where new arrivals were held in quarantine awaiting their assignment to work commandos, and which served for the permanent accommodation of deportees classed as invalids or as fit for only light work by the SS. I was told to be cautious in attending these meetings, in order to avoid attracting attention by too numerous a gathering
On the next Sunday, towards 4 p. m., I walked towards the end of the Camp and there found some of our friends who received me very affectionately and asked me what was going on in France, why the Gestapo had arrested me, what I had been made to suffer, etc. I also learned that some of our friends who were favorably situated or well considered by the Kapos, were in a position to see that comrades were riven good assisrnments.
Shortly after that one of our Brethren, Col. Cahuzac, passed away. It was decided to hold necrological services the next Sunday. They were held in a place other than the Little Camp, along one of the blocks. An orator pronounced the eulogy of the deceased, who had been Master of a Lodge in the Paris region. Some twenty Brethren responded to the call. The meeting was closed with a battery of mourning.
Beginning with October, the number of Brethren in the Camp increased until it went up to about one hundred. It was then decided to have a more complete organization of Masonry and I was entrusted with directing the work. A committee, a regular corps of officers consisting of seven members, was created. This committee met daily in a block of the Big Camp. Each day it met at a different hour and in a different block, in order not to attract attention. My permanent pass (Dauer Ausweiss), issued to me as a nurse for my block, made it possible for me to go about from one block to the other, despite the gatekeepers (Torhueter) .
First we studied the administrative organization. A very exact roll was prepared of all our Brethren, classified by blocks. There was a Brother in charge of each block, designated by the others. Each member of the Committee had the supervision of two or three blocks, which he was required to visit regularly in order to maintain almost daily contact. A careful account was kept of all changes in blocks and of all departures and new arrivals. We were requested to establish contact with Masons from other countries, especially with Czech, Belgian and Spanish Brethren. The latter asked to contribute to our studies.
The cultural work received our special attention. The Committee thought that in view of the low state of our morale and of the insufficient alimentation which was becoming harder to support from day to day after the Allied armies had landed and begun to advance, it was our most essential duty to keep up the morale among our Brethren. By occupying their minds and giving them intellectual nourishment we would prevent them from thinking too much about their hunger and would relieve their anxiety concerning the events which to us appear to progress with sometimes disheartening slowness.
The Committee would choose a subject, work at it, and prepare a questionnaire, which would be transmitted by each Committee member orally in the blocks under his supervision and would be the subject for study. Each block would then have a resume of its conclusions ready for the Committee member concerned who, on his next visit, would pick it up and take it to the Committee. The latter would then communicate the result to all concerned by the same method. Here are some of the subjects which were studied: The future constitution of France; the question of non-religious schools; symbolism in the Lodges: the Rose Croix work, etc.
Once we were summoned to judge one of our Brethren who had offended. The Brethren met one evening in the wash rooms in the block concerned. I was president of this Masonic court. The case was fully tried and the defendant was suspended from all the rights and privileges of Masonry until his return to France.
To-day, a year after the Camp was liberated by the American forces commanded by the late lamented General Patton, the Brother Masons of the Camp of Buchenwald are proud of the fact that they did Masonic work in that death camp, running the risk of being hanged if their organization should be discovered. They believe that by their initiative and their action they kept up the morale of their Brethren, that morale which to us behind the barbed wire seemed to represent 80% of the life of man.
----o----
"BEING A MAN!"
By Sidney E. Harris, M.P.S., Wells, Nevada
The Greek had an ideal and it was the man perfect in body, mind, and soul. He was a friend, not a recluse; did not sit on a pedestal and talk down to the people. Luke 7:s4: "The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!" He had a perfect mental poise and was unafraid. Luke 8 records that Jesus slept in a boat and it was about to sink. The disciples woke Him; they were in great terror. Jesus rebuked the waves and there was great calm, and He said unto them: "Where is your faith?" And they, being afraid, said one to another: "What manner of man is this, for He commandeth the wind and waves and they obey Him."
A Samaritan village refused to receive Him; the disciples, like some of our politicians of today wanted to have destruction rain upon them. But Jesus said (Luke 9:55): "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."
The fundamentalists of His day, the Scribes and Pharisees, sought to destroy Him. So He entered into the home of Zachaeus, the taxgatherer, and said (Luke 19): "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
When the rulers brought Jesus to cynical Pilate, he said: "I find no fault in Him."
Being a man does not mean being a bully. It does not mean being objectionable by indulging in habits that make other people uncomfortable. One time Horace Greely met a drunken congressman who said he was a self-made man. Greely replied: "That relieves God of a great deal of responsibility."
We read that God created man in His own image and likeness. This refers to God's intellectual and moral nature, and also to His conception of what man should be. Sin came as the result of man's free choice. We cannot say moral choice, for as yet he had no experience of sin.
Theodore Parker, seeking to express the idea that every individual has his limitations, says "No man is as great as mankind." The movies picture a great man as one whose life is filled with glamor; but this is most certainly untrue to life. Goethe says: "One cannot always be a hero; but one can always be a man."
Being a man is something that is supremely difficult. A true man has the strength, the vigor, the self-reliance of the male; the gentleness, the true refinement, and the sympathy and compassion of the female. Bailey says: "Let each one of us think himself an act of God, his mind a thought, his life a breath of God."
A true man is manly and self-reliant without bluster; temperate in all things without being offensive; calm without being cold and indifferent. He is courteous and cultured; endowed with a proper appreciation of the niceties and refinements of conduct, and yet always able to accommodate himself to the limitations of others. He is one who, nevertheless, never loses sight of the inner meaning of personal purity, integrity, truth, justice, and brotherly love. He lives his life as in the sight of God and always has a deep and abiding consciousness of eternity.
Kipling, in his poem "If," gives a very fine definition of the true man. One thing that needs to be constantly emphasized, and that is the true man's unconquerable spirit. "If you cannot meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same."
Being a man means having a body that is the embodiment of health; that is clean and vigorous. I am not forgetting that there are people who are handicapped; but even those can make the best of what they have.
Being a man means standing up and facing the world fearless and unafraid; it means doing our dutyunder all circumstances, regardless of consequences. It means accepting fully all the implications of the word "Brotherhood."
----o----
NEW MEMBERS
Charles Vernon Eddy; 430 Flairmont Avenue, Winchester, Virginia.
Carl Algot Friman; Box 5058, Gothenburg 6, Sweden.
Francis Robert Hobson; 398 Ambrose St., Port Arthur (Ontario), Canada.
Abram Kantsiper; 225 West Broughton Street, Savannah, Georgia.
Lee Edwin Wells; 346 South Woods Avenue, Los Angeles 22, California.
* * *
RESIGNED
Burt Bernard Stemmons; Avills (Jasper County), Missouri
----o----
A reader of "The Philalethes" inquires about the swastika in our seal or emblem not being turned in the right direction. To enlighten him and others I might say that it all depends on which way you look at it. The arms on the seal of the Philalethes Society are turned to the left because they are supposed to be flames streaming out behind from the cross as it revolves "clockwise." If they were turned to the right it would indicate that the cross, the Mundane Cross or Great Breath, was revolving "widdershins" or against the sun and contrary to the direction the candidate is taken in his circumambulation.
- Walter A. Quincke.
----o----
To go back to Plato is to make progress.
- Emerson
----o----
By V. M. Burrows, M.P.S.,
Long Beach, California
There is no greater duty for the Mason than the obligation to live and act the proper life of a parent.
America needs the continued home influence of good parents.
While the child is in school, his time is scheduled for him. He is regulated and told where to go, and when. His text books direct his attention into channels, according to a well-ordered plan. It almost seems that his thinking has been done for him. But the background of faith in the wisdom of doing right and of interest in following directions. of his school training are highly dependent on the nature of the home influence.
After a period of school training, he is "on his own." He must think for himself, and plan according to his own judgment and design. He goes through a period of busy engagement, until suddenly, with no warning of any kind, he comes face to face with what appears to be stark tragedy. Nothing that he can think and nothing that anyone can say to him will have any effect to give him faith or hope or any other form of mental relief or explanation. Instinctively, he turns his thoughts to God. Remembering the examples of a good home influence, he has the foundation of faith. Heretofore he has had someone to pray for him .... now he must pray for himself. He talks directly to his God. He does not hear His answer .... he does not feel able to realize His presence. But in some unexplainable manner, he feels relieved; he seems to be supported, and he feels a spirit of thankfulness for having turned to his closest personal friend.
But we cannot afford for men to live their lives without conscious attention until such time as difficulty and danger shall cause them to put their trust in God. The individual must be helped, and guided, and advised by precept and by example. Herein lies our greatest duty and personal obligation .... the effect of our close contact on children, on friends, and on other observers, must be helpful .... not discouraging and not deceiving.
A nation cannot drift to success, it must blueprint the way. Our aim should be, not so much to make a few men great as to raise the common level of our citizens. If men are left to their natural tendencies, they tend to degrade to the lower level of the group. But good home influence will teach individuals the wisdom of coming into contact with those provisions who can kindle them for fine, heroic living.
Some good thinkers are saying today, that man's ultimate destiny depends not on whether he can learn new lessons, or make new discoveries and conquests, but, on his acceptance of the lessons of history. The best religious principles were taught 2000 years ago, but they have been many times perverted.
Sound nutrition and thoughtful parental training produce superior human beings. If the coming generations of America become superior it will not be by virtue of race or color, but by guidance of good influences of the home and of the school. The liberty which we desire is the right to cooperate, to coordinate, and to discipline ourselves voluntarily, rather than to have our lives ordered by others without our consent. In order to win this right, or to reclaim the right bequeathed to us, we must fulfill our obligations. In the home we must have the spirit of the good American pioneer. The influence of good mothers contributed to the upbuilding of America, as exemplified in the childhood of Abraham Lincoln.
History gives us the name of Nancy Hanks, as the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The boy was only nine years old when his mother died. Successor to Nancy Hanks, as the wife of Thomas Lincoln, was Sarah Bush, who became the step-mother of Abraham Lincoln.
Through their ten years or more under the same roof, she it was who gave him what he needed most .... loving care, kind words, and gentle treatment, appreciation and encouragement, always. And from the first, she urged him to study. She was the Food angel who made the boy, who laid in him the foundation of the man he came to be. In the midst of countless daily household tasks in a large family, she somehow found time to foster in her step-son the desire to know things.
By a former marriage to Daniel Johnston, Sarah Bush was left a widow with three small children. She knit the right persons in the new household into one family, the Lincoln children and her own, making up to one another and getting along in harmony as if all of the same parents. Sarah Lincoln set a high mark for step-mothers. The Lincoln home, instead of being divided by rivalries, jealousies, favoritisms, was a place of happy accord, of fairness, kindness, because of the directing spirit that accepted responsibility and met it bravely.
Abraham at times attended a school taught by William Sweeney. That ended his schooling, an aggregate, all told, of less than a full year. In school work and home reading his step-mother encouraged him constantly. She induced her husband to permit the boy to read and study at home. He read every book he could get. Passages that pleased him he would write down in a sort of scrapbook for keeping. Always, she said, when he had copied out some piece on paper, he would bring it to her and read it, asking her opinion of it, explaining it if necessary. The picture is appealing; the eager boy and the sympathetic mother who could not read what he showed to her.
Ward H. Lamon wrote in his biography of Lincoln that "When in after years, Mr. Lincoln spoke of his saintly mother, and of his angel of a mother, he referred to Sarah Bush Lincoln, the stepmother."
(to be continued
----o----
GREAT AND INVALUABLE PRIVILEGES
By N.W.J. HAYDEN, F.P.S., Toronto, Canada
In the course of our Masonic experiences we hear this word privileges on various occasions. Even as an applicant for admission we have to explain our reasons for hoping to obtain a knowledge of the Mysteries and Privileges of Ancient Freemasonry.
These being satisfactory, and our request being granted, in some measure, we again find ourselves required to give our reasons for hoping to obtain further privileges in our new associations.
This test is even more personal than the former, because it involves an estimate of our capacity to show a suitable reaction to instruction already givem If we fail to show such capacity further advancement may be, and should be, denied; sometimes this happens !
Assuming, however, average intelligence in reception and diligence in action, the barriers are removed and more Light is provided with, of course, additional responsibilities.
This, early in our Masonic career, if not previously in other groupings, we learn that privileges and duties are ethically inseparable. Any misguided attempts to enjoy the first, while evading the second, lead inevitably to tragedies, both personal and communal.
These lessons being well implanted, we approach once more that entrance, symbolic of our inner state, requesting yet further privileges and offering proofs of suitable preparation. These being accepted and appropriate action resulting, become entitled to demand the last and greatest test of ability to receive and endure the privilege of instruction in the final mystery of human life. This test requires a mind moulded by virtue and science for, lacking such inner strength, our human frailty would be likely to collapse under the effect of outer appearances.
All these tests and gifts may, perhaps, not be considered additional privileges, since they indicate personal elements. Human nature is often ungrateful and to have one's consciousness awakened to qualities and powers which are within ourselves, but had remained unrecognized because they were dormant would not seem, to many Brethren, equivalent to powers conferred from some outer source.
But the Craft does not thus limit its privileges, even though it does not make a Christmas Tree of itself, but requires them to be gained by merit and ability, as individual capacities and tendencies may serve. It may safely be said that, while the outer privileges of association, in some intimacy, with a new group of men of diverse qualities, capacities and outlooks on life, has per se a formative effect on oneself, the inner growth from such experiences requires a considerable perspective in time before it can be seen, measured, and valued.
Take friendship for example. As a general rule, the better it is, the slower it grows. Its value is readily admitted; it is eagerly desired by most men; many attempts are made to foster its growth by artificial methods, some of them meretricious and a source of disappointment, if not distasteful to us.
But even a few years of regular attendance at lodge will reward us with the discovery of certain affinities; 'like calls to like’ and the psychological effects of such attraction is seen in the blossoming of Friendship, even among men of reserved type. As Anderson put it, in his famous Constitution: "Masonry becomes the center of union and the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must else have remained at a perpetual distance."
In the realm of religion, not theology, with its background and foundation in an esoteric and mystic quest, the circumstances of our ceremonials are of value as suggestions towards that direct communion with the best we can think of. Such titles as 'Great Architect,' 'Grand Geometrician,' with their implications of plan, foresight, composition, and combination, on a cosmic scale, find reflections in the thoughtful mind, which slowly make one aware of that Gnosis so highly valued by saints-in-making, even if they are not immediately aware of such an outlook and would blush to admit it.
Along educational lines; one must admit, our Masonic privileges are vastly limited today compared with those available to Brethren of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when our ritual was a-building. Operative secrets, valuable as they were, and are, to the working Mason, had become useful only as allegories and symbols to the new organization. Consequently they also became mere archaisms, which have been greatly reduced from their appropriate settings by Brethren in authority, whose desire to improve the ritual was much greater than their understanding thereof.
Education beyond the "three Rs" was then largely the privilege of the wealthy, and the works of Preston, in his "Illustrations of Masonry"; of Hutchinson, in his "Spirit of Masonry"; augmented by the polific pen of Dr. Oliver, are monuments to their efforts to make education a real privilege for their Brethren in Freemasonry. But today, the design of our Past Masters jewels is taught in our public schools, and our high school pupils would laugh at the memnonic formula with which the Fellow of the Craft concealed the secret of making his most valued tool - the "Square."
The Craft, however, still provides a wide field of research at all who wish to understand its mysteries, and are willing to labor therein. In ranks and dignities one may occupy the highest seats of honor but only for a limited period. Always the occupant becomes "Past" so and so, and must see his duties carried on by others, who may, but often do not, continue his efforts. In this field there are no such limits; its privileges may be enjoyed as long as the mind is alert and the interest unabated. One of our poets has haps pily expressed this truth, and I will close with a quotation:
"O happy is the man who hears
Instruction's warning voice,
And who celestial Wisdom makes
His early, only, choice.
According as her labors rise
So her rewards increase;
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace."
----o----
By RABBI HIRSH GEFFEN, F.P.S.,
Savannah, Georgia
Masonry, in one of its Symbolic Degrees, teaches us to refrain from selfishness. The Ephraimite could not pronounce "plenty" because he was never satisfied with what he possessed and never said that he had plenty of anything, and that is what caused the trouble, as Masons well know.
Cities are polluted by selfishness. Wars would not have been waged if selfishness had been eliminated. In endeavoring to build up our character, we must procure to have unselfishness as a foundation. The teachings of Masonry prevent our building upon the distress, need, shame, and despair of others; but demand that we raise the temple of our character upon the love, wellbeing and gratitude of our fellow-men.
Unselfishness is the spirit of sacrifice; it is love universal. The brotherhood of man is impossible without unselfishness. Unselfishness is a great Masonic doctrine that we have to learn, preach, and live. Masonic unselfishness must be our constant companion and guide from the moment that we wake up to the duties of the day. It must be our armor against all temptations of personal interests. It must make us a source of light, strength and wisdom to all around us. It must make us grand and sublime. Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon might have been saints had they kept themselves in subjection. Selfishness is the real motive of all crime and the explanation of all the follies of the earth. Selfishness is responsible for the havoc created and the hearts broken by the forces unchained by it.
Masonry teaches us to suppress what selfishness there may be in us and to renounce greed. It commands us to be contented with what God in his great mercy has bestowed upon us.
Selfishness is ever a stumbling-block in our way toward perfection and conceals the true path to progress from our sight. Darkness and gloom are spread upon the path of man by selfishness which keeps him perplexed by trouble.
If man would but cast away selfishness, no one would seek to enrich himself at another's loss or expense; every individual would feel that the whole human species are his brothers, and the chief purpose of the teachings of Masonrv would be attained.
----o----
By JAMES ES. REMICK, M.P.S.,
San Diego, California
There is vouchsafed us in the "Great Light", (Romans, 13:8) the admonition, "Owe no man anything but to love one another." Which places us all as debtors eternal on the ledger of Life, and under nerennial obligation unliquidated to love our neighbors. There is far more to this term "Love" than a mere surface and effusive sentimentality. Realizing that the force called Love is the cohesive energy that maintains the macrocosm and microsm in harmonious activity, we arrive at a deeper concept of our eternal debt.
And as Charity is an attribute of the Love principle we arrive at the realization that it is more than the transfer of things from him who has to him who has not. No one wishes to decry the motive of organized charity, nor the devoted sacrifice noble men and women make in its promulgation, though in operation it does not seem to have corrected a growing disharmony in social relations, and it is or should be a matter of nationals concern that such organizations seems necessary on such a vast scope.
The law of balance is infallible, and early or late, the unobligated bestowal of goods or the means to acquire them under the illusive concept that the process fabricates a good neighbor, is found to be etherial, and the giver in delusion believing only in effects and not in causes, beholds his castle on the sands disintegrate, and an enemy created promptly upon cessation of the mistaken charitable effort. It requires more than the phantom worship of things to create a one world of harmonious living. The race has been millenia feeling its way under the false equations in materialism. Today another cross-road is open. Let us pray it be illumined with the incandesence of a real charity.
That he who gives will get is a law of Nature, but to really give is a thing of the spirit, and has but little to do with things. He who rejoices in the fact, and from within himself gives to his neighbor the full possession of the glow of radiant health, though suffering in body himself, is giving more than gold. He who rejoices in, and from within himself gives to his neighbor abundance and fine possessions, though perhaps under limitation himself, is giving more than silver. He who honestly from his heart gives to all men his acknowledgment that all are children of the Most High, and that there are no favorites in the great school of life, knowing that the force of charitable Love is Cause and things but an effect, will have bestowed not only upon his brother, but upon himself a priceless gift far transcending gold and silver.
Indiscriminate moneyed gifts, though clothed with the best intent frequently can work a positive harm; however the Masonic Body, ever mindful of its high calling to help, to aid and to assist has set up instruments of a positive and constructive essence that rehabilitates the lesser privileged in childhood and old age, without encroaching upon the integrity and sacredness of the individual. There being nothing negative in this form of social cooperation, the result has been a remarkable growth throughout the years of the institution that makes such a real distribution of real charity, the placement of the young into useful activity, and a loving protection for those who have performed well in the theatre of life and can gaze upon the twilight in tranquility.
----o----
By FRED B. LEYNS, F.P.S.,
Grand Rapids, Mich.
"Religion is merely the law which binds man to his Creator. In purity it has but these elements, God, the Soul and their mutual Recognition."
- Ben Hur - Wallace.
THERE, is a most beautiful, profound and concise statement of a great Truth!
In the book, Ben Hur, Wallace puts this speech into the mouth of Balthasar, the Egyptian, when the three Wise Men meet in the desert. He also adds that the curse of curses is that men will not let truths like this alone.
It seems to me that this great Truth is exactly what the Masonic work is trying to demonstrate. And if it can succeed in bringing this mutual recognition within the grasp of any Brother, that Brother will have all the religion which he needs. He will have "found in his soul full comfort for his soul." He will have found the "Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." He will have found the "Master," in the "Middle Chamber," - the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus said was within.
Masonry, as I have often said before, is more than a religion, because it is Truth in Symbol and Allegory, and Truth is greater than any religion.
A certain lecture of one of our Grand Juridictions starts as follows: "My Brother, Freemasonry may be traced by history and tradition to the remotest ages of antiquity." This is entirely correct in that it may be traced by history to the early part of the eighteenth century, and by tradition, as far back of that, as there is a record to read or a relic to regard. This, because it is a symbolic pageant of man's origin, evolution, and destiny.
It starts the candidate with the creation of the world and the ordaining of Light, and leaves the newly raised Brother just where most of us are standing today, wondering if we will have to wait for a future incarnation to obtain the True Word.
Let us for a moment consider Masonry as a presentation of man's creation, evolution and destiny.
It first refers the candidates briefly to the creation as in Genesis. Then he receives Light by order of the W. Master and with the assistance of the Brethren. This may be taken to symbolize Divine Inspiration, supported by the testimony of Brothers who have gone before. Our Bible, as well as many other equally inspired writings, comes down to us from the labors of Advanced Brothers who have passed in evolution before us.
Under the guise of the "Middle Chamber," it introduces the candidate to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within his own inner consciousness and is lighted by that "Light which lighted every man that cometh into the world."
This "Middle Chamber" is reached by a gradual ascent, as much as to say that it will not be attained all at once, nor without effort. There, alone, in the silence of meditation, in prayer to the Universal Consciousness (or the Father in Heaven as directed by Jesus) the "mutual recognition" may be achieved.
When the candidate has been raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, he learns, inferentially, that he may have to wait for another incarnation to obtain the True Word.
Now, at a certain stage of his experience, it appears that he failed to make proper preparation for the adventure immediately at hand. Some Brethren have taken exception to this idea but nevertheless it appeared that after the smoke had cleared away, there were no designs found on his trestleboard. This, if you will allow me the expression, is the joker in the Third Degree. It is there, and we cannot get away from its significance.
Thus does Divinity shape our, ends, rough hew them as we will.
If we make the proper designs on our own, individual trestleboards, we may be able to do better. And there is no time like the present.
This, in a nutshell, is the Masonic work, in essentials, as it appears to me.
Now you will find this idea of the mutual recognition, fully in accord with the teachings of Jesus, and outlined in the first 12 verses of St. John. See also the 14th and 15th chapters of St. John.
If you care enough about it to do a very little checking-up, you will find practically the same story in the Song Celestial.
In book Nine of that wonderful work, "A Royal Lore, A Kingly Mystery" there is a presentation of the same great truth as in the first 12 verses of St. John's Gospel, with additions and further glimpses of the evolutionary plan. There is also this glorious promise:
Nay Prince!
If one of evil life turn in his thought
Strictly to me, count him amidst the good;
He hath the highway chosen, he shall grow
Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace
Which changes not. Thou Prince of India!
Be certain none can perish trusting me!
If you get this Song Celestial, I suggest that you read it as if it were the Divine Father speaking directly to you, and if you can so receive it, act accordingly.
The Song Celestial is a translation by Sir Edwin Arnold into English verse of a portion of the great Hindu Epic, the Bhagavada Gita. It represents Krishna, the Supreme Being, in the guise of a charioteer, instructing the disciple, Arjuna. A study of this great work is very much worth while. Book 9, I believe, will give you another and more profound appreciation of the 23rd Psalm. If you can learn the 23rd Psalm by heart and repeat it mentally as if it were your own personal discovery of Truth and rely on it in implicit Faith, you will not be far from the "Mutual Recognition."
In support of these ideas, I have cited the first twelve verses of St. John, said to be an "eminent Christian Patron of Freemasonry." I have cited the Song Celestial and all the teachings of Jesus. I might add that little jewel of a booklet, "Light on the Path."
Why do I write all this?
Because I wanted to call attention to the supreme importance and simplicity of the little definition of Religion at the head of this article. For myself, I am certain of the truth of what I have put forth.
I wanted to call attention to the wonderful agreement in essentials, between the Holy Bible and the Song Celestial. There is much background and much non-essential matter in both the Bible and the Song Celestial. There is also much, very much excess baggage in the Masonic Work, in particular, the tedious, superfluous platitudes repeated at great length in the Third Degree "charge." I do not wonder that so many Brothers get up and leave before it is given.
The ninth book of the Song Celestial is the best short statement I can give of what I may say I know.
Somewhere I have read that the Adepts never argue about anything. They say to the disciple, such and such a thing is Truth. Here are the keys of knowledge. Go now and see for yourself.
Any Brother who wishes to achieve the mutual recognition, will have to do a little study and exercise a little discrimination on his own account. His own hand must knock on the door, his own faith and patience must await the answer; and according to his faith will it be unto him.
----o----
By MARIUS LEPAGE, F.P.S.
Being an Oration delivered in Volney Lodge, Laval, France, on November 25, 1945.
Translated from the French by Leo Fischer, F.P.S.
CHAPTER IV
The Supreme Goal
The supreme goal of Masonry is to lead you to deliverance, to free you from the bonds of casualties, to lift you, however laboriously, from fragmentation to unity. The supreme action of the human mind is to recognize the divine wherever it may exist, and to find it everywhere: in the blade of grass bent to the ground by a butterfly, in the enormous sun spinning millions of light-years distant from our minute planet, in your Brother who thinks with you in the bosom of the Masonic Lodge, in your enemy who insults you, curses you, and strikes you.
Masonry will demand of you that you pass beyond what is contingent and relative; that you recognize that everything is illusion here below.... "We perceive only appearances: reality escapes us. However learned we may be, we know nothing absolutely certain. Our representations are the result of phantasmagoria; the world is to us what we imagine it to be, the projection of our subjective impressions on the screen of objectivity." (Oswald Wirth, "Les Mysteres de l'Art Royal," p. 187). Masonry will take you to the domain of absolute liberty, beyond good and evil, to identification with the Inconceivable. And nevertheless, proceeding with extreme delicacy, it will never abandon you to the idle dreams in which many religious minds, many tired mystics, believe they have found repose.
The true mystic is a man of action. The true Mason is a man of action. He knows how to manipulate the gavel, the trowel, and the chisel and, especially at the extreme points of his mystic flights, he always circumscribes the flights of his mind between the points of the compasses and corrects with the gauge and the square any defects he may find in them.
How are we to attain to this goal which seems so far distant? By first being ourselves, by striving ourselves. Strike your Rough Ashlar, make the chips fly until the outlines of the Perfect Ashlar appear. "In listening to oneself, one must perceive the universal echo of the truth." (Oswald Wirth, "Les Mysteres de l'Art Royal,'' p. 187).
Be then your Brother, not only in words but from the depth of your heart. Understand that all men are multiple facets of the Unit. Thus you will accept them all, with their weaknesses, their smallness, their imperfections, which are also your weaknesses, your smallness, your imperfections.
This will render easier the final fusion with the Unit, the object of our researchers and our efforts, and the reward of our labors.
You now know our goal and our means. In view of the purity of our intentions and actions you will no doubt be surprised, and justly so, by our silence and secrecy. The multitude is not ready for the saving truths of the spirit. To say the truth, it will never be ready in its entirety. The non-Mason has a marked tendency to abide by the letter and refuse the constraints of the spirit. If the Masonic ideals were to spread unrestrainedly throughout the world, the world would not understand the ideal of self-denial which is their essential object. Our beautiful independence of mind would be converted into a right to reject everything without previous examination; our absolute liberty, our rejection of useless restraint would become license. You well know that the mind of man, like his tongue, is the best he has as well as the worst.
That is why we always work in a tiled Lodge, and that is why we close the Lodge with a vow of secrecy.
The Lodge is the rampart against the assaults of the modern world. All passions, agitations, and profane prejudices must die at the door of the Lodge.
But the Lodge must dispense its light with discretion, which is not incompatible - rather the contrary - with efficiency. The true Mason never falls into the absolutely untraditional error of proselytism.
You have knocked at the door of the Lodge and we have opened unto you. You have asked for Light because you were in darkness, and we have given you Light. You have been "initiated."
We shall continue to guide you on the initiatory paths as the Brethren who accompanied you did at your reception.
However, never forget the last injunction which the Brother Orator gives you to-day:
We have "initiated" you, that means, we have started you, we have opened your eyes to new horizons, we have given you working tools and we shall teach you how to use them.
But you alone must work the Ashlar; no one can do that for you.
We have created you Masons. You must now become Masons yourselves.
----o----
By LEO FISCHER, F.P.S.,
Alhambra, California
FRANCE. The most important Masonic events of the year in France were doubtless the annual communications of the Grand Orient of France and the Grand Lodge of France, both held in Paris, that of the former from September 16th to 19th and that of the latter from September 19th to 22nd.
Our Brother J. Corneloup, F.P.S., says that the Communication of the Grand Orient of France was very successful, thanks to the methodical and firm leadership of its presiding officer, M.W.Bro. Caron. "Among the decisions adopted by the Communication must be stressed the ratification of the agreement between the Council of the Order of the Grand Orient and the Grand College of Rites. By virtue of this agreement, the Grand College of Rites became autonomous as Masonic Power with jurisdiction over the higher degrees. Thus the Grand Orient, by separating into two distinct autonomous organizations, its Blue Lodges on the one hand and its Higher Bodies on the other, has fallen into line with the universally adopted international practice. This is an action the importance and significance of which must not be underestimated. The date of that ratification, September 17, 1946, may well become an important one in the history of French Masonry. It is hoped that the new situation thus created may render negotiations possible between the Grand College of Rites and the A. & A. S. R. Supreme Council of France and, perhaps, bring about an understanding which may result in a union, or at least in unity, in French Masonry. The presence, at the closing session of the Communication of the Grand Orient, of an important delegation of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council headed by the Grand Commander, Ill.Bro. Raymond, can already be considered as significant. There were numerous other delegations present. That from the Grand Lodge of France was headed by Deputy Grand Master Chadirat; that from the Swiss Grand Lodge ALPINA by Grand Master Pastor Boeni; that from the Grand Orient of Belgium by Grand Master Maerdens. The Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia was represented by Bro. Tomitch. The Symbolic Grand Lodge of Hungary and the Spanish Grand Orient (which is being reconstituted) were also represented. The various addresses that were made, especially those of Pastor Boeni and Bro. Maerdens, prove that the Masons of all countries of continental Europe fully realize the necessity of a close union of all Masonries for the safeguarding of civilization and peace."
We note with pleasure the election as member of the Council of the Order of the G.O.F. of our Bro. J. Roumilhac, an enthusiastic member of the Philalethes Society.
In opening the Communication of the Grand Lodge of France, Grand Master Michel Dumesnil de Gramont reminded his audience of the words of our late Bro. Franklin D. Roosevelt in describing the present world situation. He stated that the relations of the Grand Lodge with the Grand Orient of France were good, which was not the case a year ago. The charitable institutions of the Grand Lodge are being re-organized. Grand Master Michel Dumesnil de Gramont was reselected.
* * *
GERMANY. In a letter dated August 30, 1946, Bro. Otto Arnemann, Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Hamburg, informs us as follows concerning Masonic conditions in Germany:
"On November 10, 1945, the four humanitarian Grand Lodges, to wit, those of Frankfurt a/Main (Grosse Mutterloge des Eklektischen Freimaurerbundes), Darmstadt (Grosse Freimaurerloge zur Eintracht), Bayreuth (Grossloge zur Sonne), and Hamburg united as Bundesgrossloge von Deutschland Zu den Alten Pflichten', and since these Grand Lodges had the right to have constituent Lodges in every part of Germany, it was decided to assign to each a certain district with sole jurisdiction therein over symbolic Lodges. The Grand Lodges of Darmstadt combined, forming the Grand Lodge of Gross Hessen; a new Grand Lodge, the Grosse Loge von BadenWuerttemberg, was formed; and the Grand Lodge at Bayreuth changed its n ame to Grosse Loge von Bayern. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg retained its old denomination and accepted as jurisdictional territory North Western Germany, i.e., the British Zone of Control.
"Each of these four Grand Lodges is sovereign and is the highest Masonic authority within its territory. The Bundesgrossloge (Federal Grand Lodge) is merely an organization to ensure uniformity of work, by-laws, etc., and to represent German humanitarian Masonry as a whole.
"The three so-called Old Prussian Grand Lodges, namely, Die Grosse Landesloge der Freimaurer von Deutschland,'die Grosse National Mutterloge zu den drei Weltkugeln, and Die Grosse Loge von Preussen gen. zur Freundschaft, have also been reconstituted. They admit, as you perhaps know, only men of Christian belief, but of no other confession. All three have been granted permission by the American Military Government for the American-occupied zone of Berlin only. No further permits for other districts of Germany, including the American-occupied zone of Southern Germany, are granted to any of them. However, the third of the Grand Lodges mentioned, Zur Freundschaft, is at present losing many members, especially in the territory assigned to the Grand Lodge of Hamburg, to the latter, that means, to the humanitarian (proper Masonic) system which adheres to our Ancient Charges that teach us the universality of mankind without distinction of creed.
"What the Grosse Landesloge of Sachsen intends to do is uncertain since Saxony is occupied by the Russians who, as is well known, are opposed to Masonry.
"The Grand Lodge of Baden-Wuerttemberg (a member of the Budesgrossloze, as stated before) has a permit from the American Military Government, and its Lodges in that territory are working. Why the other two members of, the Bundesgrossloge in Southern Germany, viz., the Grand Lodge of Bavaria and the Grand Lodge of Gross Hessen, both also in the American Zone, have not been granted a permit is as yet not known to us, especially as the seven Lodges in Berlin owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Hamburg have, like the three Prussian Grand Lodges, been granted a permit by the American Military Government. Consequently, only these seven Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Hamburg can work masonically, while all others are still waiting. As soon as the much desired permit is granted, our Grand Lodge will resume labor, all preparatory and organizing work having been completed.
"It may interest you to know that the' Grand Lodge of Hamburg has constituted a Provincial Grand Lodge at Berlin and another at Hannover. Both are to take care of the Blue Lodges in their territory but remain dependent upon and are part of our Grand Lodge."
As far as we know, our Brethren are still waiting patiently for permission from the British authorities to resume labor.
* * *
MEXICO. The Spanish Grand Orient in Exile, of which Bro. Lucio Martinez Gil is Grand Master and Olvidio Salcedo Secretary, (Artes 63, Apartado Postal No. 2314, Mexico, D.F.), has sent an official telegram of protest against the Franco Government in Spain and a lengthy exposition of the cruelties and deeds of violence committed by that Government, to the Subcommittee on matters relating to Spain, of the Council of Security of the United Nations. In that document Bro. Martinez relates not only the outrageous conduct of Franco's hordes and followers throughout Spain; but he describes the anti-Masonic legislation of the Franco Government and the procedure adopted by the so-called courts in cases where the only "crime" of which a person was accused was that of being, or having once been, a member of the Masonic Fraternity. In this protest the Federation of Regular Grand Lodges of the United States of Mexico has concurred, and the Masonic bodies of many of the Latin-American countries have addressed similar documents to the Security Council. Our Spanish Brethren in prison, or in exile, and their dependents living in utter misery in Spain are entitled to a prompt hearing and speedy relief. Will they get it, and will anything worthwhile be done in their cases? That is still the question.
* * *
URUGUAY. It appears that the Interamerican Congress of Symbolic Masonry to be held at Montevideo on October 12, 1946, has had to be postponed until next April. Unsurmountable difficulties presented themselves and the organizers decided to wait six months and have a successful gathering rather than holding the congress as scheduled and have it prove a failure.
* * *
YUGOSLAVIA. Bro. D. Tomitch, ex-delegate of the Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia to the Executive Committee of the International Masonic Association of Geneva, has published another pamphlet in French entitled "Communication No. 2 to the American and European Masonic Grand Jurisdictions. The Responsibility of the Vatican for the Atrocities committed by the Catholic Clergy in Yugoslavia." The author demands that the war criminals of Yugoslavia be punished like those of Germany and Japan. He has ample evidence that many of the massacres of men, women and children of the orthodox and Jewish religions, were instigated and carried on with the active participation of the Roman catholic clergy and that a million persons thus perished during the war in Yugoslavia. As in similar cases, the Masons were hunted down, imprisoned and slain wherever found. A number of the murderous monks and priests have already been tried and executed by military courts but the ecclesiastical superiors of the others are not doing anything to bring them to justice. Bro. Tomitch is a resident of Paris.
* * *
FINLAND. Masonry in Finland suffered a great loss when, on September 2, 1946, the Grand Master of Masons, M.W.Bro. J. Viljanen, was called to the Grand Lodge above. He died of a cardiac attack upon his return from a very trying journey. In him, the Fraternity loses a staunch, enthusiastic Mason and able leader. The departed was one of the first to be received into Masonry when, in 1922, our Finnish Brethren, with the generous assistance of the Grand Lodge of New York, revived our Institution in their country where it had been prohibited for a century. The funeral was held on September 9th; with full Masonic rites, from the "Old Church" at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. M.W.Deputy Grand Master Arvo Aalto now heads the Grand Lodge of Finland.
We deeply sympathize with our Brethren in Finland in their bereavement.
* * *
SWEDEN. Among the Masonic Grand Jurisdictions that prospered exceedingly in 1945 is the Grand Lodge of Sweden. The number of applicants for the degrees in that year was 763, a record for Swedish Masonry. There are 23,000 Masons in Sweden.
* * *
DENMARK. The bicentenary of the introduction of Masonry into Denmark was celebrated by the Grand Lodge of that kingdom on October 25, 1946. It should have been observed in 1945; but the Grand Lodge Building was then occupied by German refugees.
----o----
THE word habit is in danger of degeneration. It is inclined to go the same way as that one-time good word notorious, which, from meaning noteworthy, now invariably means wicked.
We say, wits a snake or the near, "I'm afraid it's becoming a habit," or "He's a slave to habit," meaning always a bad habit.
Yet habits may be good; they may be beneficial, the very foundation Stones of orderly and beneficent living.
To train a good impulse, which may be fleeting, into a habit that is confftant is surely to strengthen and ennoble character.
The efficiency of a machine depends upon the exact co-ordination and cooperation of all its parts. There must be nothing jerky, occasional, spasmodic about any of its wheels, cranks or spindles. They must all have the mechanical habit of working in unison.
We are not machines; nor do we desire to become machines. But if we are to be efficient, we must form certain somewhat machine-like habits of regularity, reliability, punctuality, industry and thoroughness. We will then work with the smoothness and efficiency of a machine, whilst we need not sacrifice our power of initiative, forethought, and the adventurous spirit of discovery.
There are nobler habits than these, which are only habits of the mind. Are there no habits of the spirit? I think so. A man may be efficient, yet not patient; economical, but not generous; orderly in his work, but disorderly in his emotions. We have all known men and women whose habits seemed to work perfectly in ordinary circumstances but who lost control and "crashed" when struck by adversity and trouble. They have neglected to form the habit of calm self-containment, which is something higher and more spiritual than stoicism.
Good habits, carefully and delibetately formed, often serve us better than great natural gifts, for one bad habit has often proved capable of rendering the greatest gifts almost useless - "the little rift within the lute which, by and by, makes all the music mute."
Good habits are built to stand wear and tear. Being slow of growth, they are less liable to fall before "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
There is a note of warning which needs to be sounded. We say a person has become the slave of habit. It is a true saying both for the good and the bad. A man may become the slave of a good habit. I have known men so tidy that they got nothing done.
In its larger implications, it is what Tennyson meant when he said:
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
So let us see that our good habits ever remain our servants and do nor become our masters, for the spirit of a man is higher than any habit he may form.