December 1948
Contents
Christmas Songs All the World Loves A MASONIC SOLILOQUY
THE GREAT LIGHT IN FREEMASONRY In Memory of
ANCIENT EVIDENCES YOUR MASONIC APRON
NOTES ON MASONIC HISTORY Biographical Sketch of John Milton Chivington
Reflections of An Old Philosopher On History WILLIAM TREMAINE CORBUSIER, M.P.S.
Christmas Songs All the World Loves
NO EVENT in the history of mankind has called forth more songs of praise than the birth of the Saviour. But of the thousands of Christmas hymns that have come from the hearts of people who felt an urge to voice their sentiments of joy and adoration only a few have stood the test of time. Words and melody must be wedded or in other words the melody must lend wings to the words.
Reading through the most loved Christmas hymns we find that the words are short and simple the thought clear and the rhyme and rhythm pleasing. And humming the melody when alone or joining with the multitude or better still listening to the sweet joyous voices of a childrens chorus we feel that the melody and words belong to each other.
Usually the main message of the hymn is contained in the first lines or the first verse. Space forbids us to call attention to more than a few of the songs without which Christmas would hardly be complete.
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
'Round yon Virgin Mother and Child.
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
This is the most tenderly touching of all Christmas carols. The first line in all its simplicity ushers the solemn sacred festival into hearts and homes. It floods the soul with memories and fills the earth with heaven. It is not definitely known by whom it was written.
O little town of Bethlehem
Holy still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
Phillips Brooks wrote this glorious hymn when he was still a young and comparatively unknown man. He wrote it for a Christmas Festival to be given by the church of which he was rector and asked the young organist Lewis H. Redner to write a tune for it. Redner consented but his many duties as organist and Sunday School Superintendent occupied so much of his time that the evening before the Festival arrived without the tune having been written. Redner went to bed weary with his many duties but with the thought of the tune for Brook’s hymn uppermost in his mind. During the night he was awakened by the srains of a beautiful melody. He arose and quickly jotted it down.
It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To torch their hasps of gold;
"Peace on the earth good toils to men
From heavens all-gracious King":
The world in solemn stillness lag,
To hear the angels sing.
These golden words were written by Edmund Hamilton Sears, a native of New England. Sears believed implicitly in the deity of Christ.
A way in a manger no crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head;
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay, -
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hall .
If ever the stars sing it must be when on Christmas Eve they join the small thin voices of little children with rapt uplifted faces singing to the listening night Luther’s lovely hymn.
Harks the herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born King;
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled !
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim,
Christ is born in Bethlehem -
Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the New-born King.
This joyous hymn set to the glorious winged music of a Mendelssohn cantata rings out crystal-clear and as it goes souring into clean space it is not difficult to believe that it mingles with the voice of the heavenly host. It was given us by Charles Wesley.
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let even heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
This paraphrase on the ninety-eighth Psalm by Isaac Watts is a Christmas hymn of exultant joy - joy that the Lord has come and reigns.
----o----
By Myril J. Greely, M. P. S.; Great Falls, Montana
FREEMASONRY? Why don't they stop asking me what Freemasonry is? I am a Freemason and have been one for a long time. Sometimes I feel as though I had been born a Freemason, because being one evokes a sensation of moral strength. It makes you tingle from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, a feeling analogous to coming out of a cold shower and rubbing yourself briskly with a thick turkish towel. Why do I keep giving my questioners abstract answers like "the Fatherhood of God," and "the Brotherhood of Man?" After all, I am a Freemason who has received forty-two different Masonic rituals and I possess such endearing titles as Brother, Companion, Sir Knight, and Master of the Royal Secret.
Freemasonry is a concrete thing. Contemporary Masonry is over two centuries old. It has lived long; survived many things, and is growing stronger. Surely, such a Fraternity is deserving of something better than mere abstractions when you attempt to define it. There have been millions of Freemasons in the world, and other millions of Freemasons are living today. Are they all being asked "What is Freemasonry ? . . . What does Freemasonry mean to you? However, I must satisfy myself. I recollect now - - a definition that has been used for more than one hundred years and is the most beautiful single contribution to the Fraternity, penned by Brother Dr. Samuel Hemming, who passed away in England in 1832: "Freemasonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." So many have tried to find a better definition of Freemasonry, yet these simple words are still being repeated around the world today. And they will continue to quote them over and over again to Newly-Made Masons who bluntly ask to define Freemasonry. Doctor Hemming, with apologies to you and to all the distinguished and illustrious Freemasons, living and dead, who have tried to define Freemasonry, I am going to try it now.
"Freemasonry is a universal system of voluntary learning, whose curriculum embraces art, religion, philosophy, and science. Its purpose is the attainment of truth, perfection and happiness for the individual and society at large. Its only pre-requisites are a belief in a Deity and Immortality."
This definition isn't very good, Doctor, but I am trying. Perhaps I am getting a little closer to the true meaning of Freemasonry. Let's begin again.
It seems like yesterday that I submitted my petition to my Blue Lodge and was notified that the E. A. Degree would be conferred. I shall never forget how lonely I felt when I slowly moved up the long concrete walk and entered, for the first time, the front door of our Masonic Temple. My imagination and fears were overpowering - so many had talked about "riding the goat" - and "that I would be surprised and really get something I did not expect." My reaction to all this was marked by A strong mental excitement. "This is a continuation of my undergraduate days in College and, at forty, this was going just a little bit too far," I said to myself. But how wonderful it is for life to be so full of compensating factors! I now believe that any man possessing the sense of smell, hearing, seeing, and feeling, or who has any emotions within his body, after once kneeling at the altar of Freemasonry will arise from that altar a changed and different man. One has the feeling of cleanliness and reverence and, having lost a great deal of vanity and selfishness, the body, mind and spirit for the first time in life, function in unison. You realize then that men who preceded you and the others who will cannot stand naked and humble before the altar of Freemasonry without being inspired with faith in their fellow-men and Brothers. David Lilienthal said: "America is great not for its material things, but for the 'Faith' Americans have in one another." Let me change this thought just a little.... Freemasonry is great because of the faith one Freemason has in another.
Somehow I feel as though I am getting a little closer to the true definition of Freemasonry.
Last Memorial Day, my dear wife and I made our usual visit to the cemetery. After I had laboriously cleared the volunteer grass so that she could plant the flowers she had brought with her, I casually wandered some distance from where she was planting, observing the head-stones on the graves as I passed by them. I found several names which were familiar, friends and people who had lived and died in my community, and who were buried there. All at once my attention was attracted by a very simple head-stone that had the following inscription:
Lloyd Harrington Caldwell
Born: January 15, 1890
Died: May 30, 1947
and below this inscription was a small, neatly carved square and compass. I had never heard of this name before, but somehow I felt a strange closeness to that grave. And then these words came to me and I recited them softly to myself: "This apron is yours, yours to wear throughout an honorable life, and at your death, to be placed upon the coffin that shall contain your earthly remains, and with them, be laid beneath the silent clods of the valley," and these words were spoken softly .... "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of Thy Lord!"
I knew then that Brother Caldwell was my friend too, and that the "record of his life and actions" were known to his friends, his dear ones, and to me. How significant and full of meaning just one symbol can be! Lloyd Harrington Caldwell knew the definition of Freemasonry and I am grateful for helping me to evaluate it more fully.
But perhaps I am mistaken. Just the other day, a salesman came into my office, hawking his wares in a loud and obnoxious voice. There was a very large Masonic emblem in his lapel, his tie was held in place by another, and on one of his fingers was an over-size ring inscribed with another Masonic emblem. As soon as I could interrupt him, I inquired about his Masonic affiliations. He then produced his membership card in the Mystic Shrine, and I quietly muttered to myself, "Thank goodness he is not in our Jurisdiction." In the course of the conversation, he told me that he was urging his son to petition for the degree of Freemasonry, going so far as to place a blank petition into his hands. He was having difficulty, however, because his son's employers had been black-balled by the Masons and as far as he was concerned, Freemasonry seemed bad for any man. Some day, of course, our "watch-fob" Brother will be without his wares to sell and have only his Masonic jewelry. I do not wish to appear abusive or intolerant, but somehow I feel very sure that our Brother (?) will never know the real meaning of Freemasonry. He has lost the reality of Masonry and all that the Craft has to offer in vision, faith, happiness and understanding.
Freemasonry is concrete; it is real and a living thing! Masonry is Men!
And to my Brothers: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Pike, William Preston, Thomas Smith Webb, Louis Tschoudy, Sam Houston, Albert Mackey, Roscoe Pound, Robert Burns, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Freke Gould, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lafayette, Paul Revere, Luther Burbank, Charles Wilson, Dr. Charles Mayo, General Douglas McArthur, Jonathan Wainwright, Omar Bradley, John Cowles, George Moore, James Richardson, Thomas Dewey, Eddie Rickenbacher, Harry Truman; and you, too, Brother Clark Gable, and thousands more just like you, how beautiful you have all defined Freemasonry, in thoughts, words, actions, and accomplishments. All of you have had full and complete lives and have made your Fraternity stronger, greater, and better because of it.
I am sure now that I know just what Freemasonry really means to me; what it can mean to others - - to great and ordinary men; to brilliant and slow-thinking men: to poor and wealthy men; to proud and humble men.
I want the principles and tenets of Freemasonry to penetrate my muscles and nervous system, to be absorbed into my blood stream, to seep into the very marrow of my bones. I want to LEARN Freemasonry - LOVE and LIVE it. The world and I will be better because of it, not in spite of it.
And like you, Brother Johann Goethe, creator of Faust, I repeat the last two words you ever spoke: "MERE LIGHT" - "MORE LIGHT" - "MORE LIGHT!"
Cum multis aliis
----o----
THE GREAT LIGHT IN FREEMASONRY
By Burl E. Taylor, M.P.S.; Albuquerque, New Mexico
TIME is a river and books are boats. Many volumes have started down the stream of the years only to be wrecked and buried forever in the sands. No book lives save it tells of that in the life of man which does not grow old nor fades away. Our Bible is not just a book, but a Divine Library. It is not the record of one mind or one age, but of many minds covering a long period of time. Open it where you will and the first impression is that of vastness. Great and wide like the world, it is rooted in the abyss of creation and rises into the blue mysteries of heaven.
In other books we see humanity struggling upward; here we feel that something descends upon man. There is a quality so delicate, so elusive and yet so strong, that mere words cannot hope to capture or define. We term it spirituality, an indwelling presence. We know what it is, we feel it; it rises from the pages like a perfume . . . but no one can put it into words. Not only was the Bible the loom on which our own language was woven, but it has a place equally in the history and the heart of mankind which no other volume may ever capture. It is indeed the Book of Life, not a mere record of intellectual speculation about life, and as one scans its pages he sees, as in a mirror, the history of his own soul.
Let us take this wise Book to our hearts and not only love it but live with it, making it the prophet of our inner life, lest our faith be crushed by the tramp of heavy years. He who has lost his God can find Him again in this sacred Volume, and he who never knew Him will be impressed with the breath of the Divine Word. The common need is to listen to its great and simple words, telling the story of God and the human soul and their eternal life together.
Of the influence of the Bible on civilization much can be written, but the story can never be told; it is as bright as the morning light, exempt from the touch of time because it is timeless. If we are to understand any part of it we must know, if possible, when it was written, where, by whom, and for what purpose, and here the whole world of scholarly research is ready and eager to aid us. If we read it wisely, we may commune with those in whom God dwelt, even as He dwells in us. 'The supreme office of the Bible is to show us Christ, and in Him is all that we need to know, even if we never see any other book.'
There is a beauty and majesty about the stately words in this volume which remind men that God is speaking, and with grateful hearts we find the help we may seek. It speaks our language, it finds us where we are and points to a place we want to go. It helps us in perceiving eternity in the midst of time, to judge events and movements in the light of the future, according to God's plan.
In these days there dawns upon us the conviction that within the Holy Bible are locked the mysteries which far transcend the wildest imagination of the mind. An examination of its pages will obtain a higher and more spiritual conception of all things worth while. Its golden rays of truth will shed their beneficent glory about us, and may we ever follow this chart of our Masonic destiny.
To treat the Great Light in Freemasonry with indifference, to make but little of its wonderful teachings our own, to think of it as but an ordinary inanimate article, is to show to the world that we are not well informed, earnest and conscientious Freemasons. Preserve this 'Star of Eternity' whereby the frail bark of man may navigate the sea of life and at last reach the shore of everlasting peace. This sacred volume is the Freemason's trestleboard of character-building, that important work to which each has dedicated his life.
Think for one moment about the composition of the Bible. Its sixty-six books were written by some forty different writers and record the history of God's chosen people and His church through more than four thousand years. They include men who lived in royal courts, others who dwelt in the huts of the poor, some who had worldly knowledge and many of little learning. The Bible is a source of all wisdom, the foundation of a social order, the basis of civil and criminal law, the exponent of good literature and the greatest influence for higher ideals and proper standards.
What is truth ? This question still echoes down through the ages and the answer is ever the same: 'Thy word is Truth.' Our Bible is the book of truth and it has stood the test of time. On its pages we will find the true answer to those questions which lie closest to our hearts. So great an influence has this sacred volume exerted upon the Craft that everything in Freemasonry has a direct or indirect reference to God. Not a degree, symbol, obligation, lecture or charge but finds its meaning and derives its beauty from God ... the G.A.O.T.U.... as revealed in the Holy Book.
What have its sacred pages to say concerning the darkness to which we go? They say that there is something more lofty further on. Our faith in a better life at times loses its intensity because we cannot picture something we have not experienced. To be sure, the Bible does not give us a definite direction to follow in every emergency nor precise rules which we are to obey, neither does it solve individual difficulties, but it reveals to us the source of all wisdom.
If this Book had suddenly disappeared from America, in our language many figures of speech and well known phrases would have been forgotten. Our churches, which have stood as bulwarks of faith would have gone, indeed a catastrophe far greater than a global war would overtake man if this sacred Book and its universal influence were to be blotted out. One of our most exalted desires is for light . . . physical light to guide the body, intellectual light to guide the mind, and spiritual light to guide the soul. It is a treasure house of wisdom and the fountain-head of true character. Every problem of the human soul has its solution in this divine library of sixty-six books, and from it God speaks to the human heart.
When a captain of a ship starts out on a voyage upon the trackless ocean, he must have a compass to guide him. Without a compass he would soon lose his bearings. In a like manner, in our voyage through life we must of necessity have a reliable guide to direct our minds on the right way.
As we said before, the Bible was not written at any one time or in any one place, but it covers a period of fifteen centuries. The man who wrote the closing portion had no communication with the one who wrote the beginning. The writers lived in various countries and spoke different languages. But only one mastermind planned it all, inspired the entire volume and gave to each writer the idea for his text. One voice speaks through it all and that is the voice of God.
The Bible has influenced the imagination of the world and the history of the human race more than any other book. Nations have lived by it and died quarreling about it. There never was a time when it had so much to say to man as now. As we read its sacred pages they lift our spirits out of the complex perplexities into which we have drifted and inculcate in us a new standard of values, helping us to see our problems by the light that shines from above. As we compare the nations of the world, we find that economic, social, intellectual and religious progress has gone forward through the leadership of men who knew the Bible. On its sacred pages we place the Square and Compass, with the aid of which we are to design the plan for our lives. The Square represents the perfect balance of things, material and moral in the natural world. The Compass is the symbol of that which controls and guides energy and power.
Study the Bible with reverence and a sincere desire to know and accept the truth. If we compare the easily understood passages with those more difficult, we will be able to better understand the difficult ones. Through the recovery of the knowledge of ancient civilizations by the excavation of cities long buried in the desert sands, and the decipherment of thousands of inscriptions and writings on tile, pottery and stone slabs, the Bible records have been fully vindicated.
It is said that the first ten American colleges were founded by educators whose dominant purpose was the development of character through a knowledge of the Christian principles to fit the youth to serve their nation and their God. Education and cultures are fundamentally incomplete without a knowledge of the Bible.
This gracious volume gives us a picture of our ultimate destiny. It answers three fundamental questions . . . 'where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going.' In compiling the history of the world, the Bible writers, moved by the spirit, were not handicapped by time or space. They told of events which were to take place centuries in the future, in nations not yet in existence, in lands as yet undiscovered. Although this sacred volume was written by many writers, there is no discord or contradiction. This is thus explained . . . it has but one Author, God, therefore all prophecy fits into a complete unit. The accuracy and fulfillment of the prophecies prove that God guided its writing, for only God can tell the future.
----o----
In Memory of SAM B. CANTEY, JR., F.P.S. and FRED WILLIAM HARTMAN, M.P.S.
We regret to announce the passing into the Eternal Grand Lodge of two Past Grand Masters of their respective states, Brothers Sam B. Cantey, Jr., of Fort Worth, Texas, on August 21, and Fred William Hartman, of Portland, Oregon, on August 10.
Brother Cantey, born on July 17, 1893, at Fort Worth, Texas, was Past Master of Julian Field Lodge No. 908, A.F. & A.M.; Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas; Past High Priest, R.A.M.; Past Thrice Illustrious Master, R. & S.M.; a Thirty-Third Degree Mason in the Scottish Rite; Past Potentate of Moslah Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S.; Past Sovereign of St. Timothy Conclave, Red Cross of Constantine, and a member of Worth Commanders No. 19, K. T.
At the time of his death he was Editor of the Grand Lodge of Texas Magazine, and a member of the Ft. Worth Club; River Crest Country Club, and the Ft. Worth, Texas and National Bar Associations.
During August, 1940, he became a Fellow of the Philalethes Society upon the recommendation of the late Brother Silas H. Shepherd.
His remains were laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery Ft. Worth by the Grand Lodge of Texas. His immediate family surviving him are his wife and two sons.
* * *
Brother Hartmon born November 19, 1890 at St. Paul Minnesota was Past Master of Mt. Hood Lodge No. 157 A.F. & A.M. Portland Oregon; Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Oregon; Past Master of Research Lodge of Oregon No. 198; Past High Priest Mt. Hood Chapter R.A.M.; a Thirty-Second degree K.C.C.H. Mason in the Scottish Rite; and a member in Multnomah Council R. & S.M.; St. Laurence Conclave Red Cross of Constantine; Tancred Commandery K. T. and the Royal Order of Scotland.
At the time of his death he was personnel superintendent for the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. and aside from his Masonic activities his life was closely tied into the social and religious interests of Portland. In December 1923 he married Katheleen M. Parker, who survives him.
Masonic funeral services for our Brother were held at Finley's Morninglight Chapel and commitment was at the Portland Crematorium and mausoleum.
(signed) Allister J. McKowen
Secretary
"The Philalethes Society"
----o----
By G. W. Baird, P.G.M. District of Columbia
IT WAS the good fortune of the writer to see the great obelisk called "Cleopatra's Needle," as it stood at Alexandria, and also to witness the "opening of a house" in Pompeii. The two Monoliths known as Cleopatra's needles had been brought to Alexandria in the time of the Caesars. They were originally in front of the University at Heliopolis, that great school where Moses, the law giver, was once a student. How long they were in Heliopolis no one knows, nor is it known when they were carved or erected.
One of these magnificent monuments was given to England, and the other to the United States. The latter was brought to this country by Brother Lieutenant Commander H. H. Gorringe, U.S.N., the entire expense of which was borne by the late Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, of New York.
When Gorringe lifted the monument, for the purpose of shipping it, he was surprised to find, under its base, so many symbols which seemed clearly Masonic. The Grand Lodge of Masons in Egypt, among whom there was a number of Egyptologists and Archaeologists, sent a committee of its best men, at the request of Gorringe, to examine these emblems and give an opinion. They were unanimous in the opinion that the emblems were Masonic, and gave the following definitions. Gorringe had a drawing made, not only to show the emblems and their relative positions, but for use in replacing them when the shaft should be erected at New York.
The block C was believed to be the rough ashler, A the perfect ashler; the square B is very distinct, and has been so identified with Masonry, in all ages, that its presence added great weight.
The Committee thought the stone, with figures, resembling snakes, was emblematic of Wisdom. They thought the "axis stone" represented the trestleboard and the marked stone bore the mark of a Mark Master. The two implements, the trowel and the lead plummet, are emblematic of Freemasonry; the white stone is the symbol of purity, as we have always understood it.
A French Archaeologist, in New York, was the only person to question the opinion of the Egyptologists, but as he was not a Mason, Gorringe thought he was not competent to be a judge.
The Obelisk was brought to New York and erected in Central Park, where it now stands. The corner stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies on the 2nd of October, 1880, and the emblems were replaced exactly as they had been found at Alexandria.
* * *
In the National Museum, at Naples, there is an equally remarkable evidence, which was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, in 1896.
It is a mosaic table top, or altar top, which was situated in the center of a rectangular room, exactly as Masonic Altars have been erected in lodge rooms. The workmanship is excellent, and the coloring, when the discovery was made, was bright and fresh, but has probably faded some, as all the Pompeii colors have done. Mural paintings, so many of which have been found in those ruins, have all suffered the same fate.
This beautiful mosaic, which is believed to be the top of the altar, shows a large square, above deathshead, with a plumb line from the angle of the square to the middle point of the crown of the head. From each arm of the square there is suspended a robe; one was scarlet, the other purple, which are distinctive colors used in the Royal Arch degree. Below the chin of the head is a butterfly, beautifully colored, and under the butterfly is a circle, that Masonic emblem of Diety, without beginning or end.
In addition to this there were found, in the same room, several articles inherent in Blue and in Royal Arch Masonry, a little urn, which is believed to be the pot of manna, a setting maul, a trowel, a spade, a small chest, thought to be an imitation of the ark of the covenant, and small staff, thought to be phallus. These evidences, potent as they are, are confirmed by the inscription over the door of the house, which is DIOGENE SEN, which means Diogenes the Mason.
The writer gives these facts as to the Pompeii find, as he received them from the late Brother S. G. Hilborn, then a member of Congress from California. We have not been in Pompeii since 1878, when with General Grant, but the existence of the altar top may be verified by a visit to the museum at Naples.
The evidence, to an enthusiast, is convincing; to the writer they seem every bit as good, maybe better, than the evidence which Rome has accepted and propagated as to the Apostolic succession. (The Builder, January. 1915. Reprinted be permission).
----o----
By V.M. BURROWS, M.P.S.
Long Beach, California
Knowledge which is now imparted by books was formerly conveyed by symbols. Freemasonry still follows the ancient manner of teaching, by presenting the symbols for our instruction. The lectures are endeavors to interpret these symbols. However, he who would be a well-informed Freemason should not be content merely to hear the lectures. tie ought to study, interpret, and develop these symbols for himself.
Consider, for example, the symbolism of the Masonic Apron.
We are told that the proper form of the Apron is a perfect square, and that the flap is to be a perfect triangle.
To this writer, the Apron signifies a representation of the Great Pyramid, with base in the form of a perfect square, and with four sides, each of which is formed by an equilateral triangle. The base is an emblem of the world, as shown in records of the Ancients. The Pyramid is emblematic of stability of relationship when all men look up to the Deity with faith. The flap of the Apron has for its base line a representation of our relationship to our brother, and as both look up with faith to our Deity, we form the perfect triangle. This is the equilateral revered by the Ancients, but as we look at the Pyramid from above, the flap appears as a right triangle. On the Master's Apron the flap bears an emblem of the All-Seeing Eye.
The Great Seal of the United States was designed by a committee of our forefathers, with Benjamin Franklin as the leader. It is therefore quite probable that Masonic significance is to be attached. It is shown on the dollar silver certificate of the United States of America. Above an uncompleted pyramid is a representation of the All-Seeing Eye. The latin motto below is translated "The new Order of the Ages." The latin motto above means "God has smiled on our undertakings."
Some form of apron has frequently been included with ceremonial dress of many different tribes and peoples, through all the years of history. Someone has said: "The Apron means something." And so we fervently hope that today the Apron really "means something" to the individual Freemason. Its pure and spotless surface should be a constant reminder of a purity of life and rectitude of conduct . . . a never-ending argument for higher thoughts, for nobler deeds, for greater achievements!
I believe that it was Brother Carl H. Claudy, F.P.S., who wrote: "It signifies that by honest toil, moral virtues may be learned and applied, and that honest toil must be done in purity and with innocence."
----o---
By Dr. Ross Hepburn, M.P S.; Christchurch, New Zealand
THE THEORY that Freemasonry is derived from the Egyptian Mysteries appears to have been invented by the late Brother Rev. Dr. George Oliver (1782-1876), who has been described as the most voluminous Masonic writers that has ever lived. He was also one of the most unreliable and his works are too uncritical and fanciful to find much favor with Masonic students at the present day.
Oliver's version of Masonic history was accepted and repeated by other Masonic writers for many years until it was eventually exploded by Gould, Speth, Hughan, Woodford and others, Brethren who founded the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1884. These Brethren who are known as the authentic school, rendered a great service to Freemasonry by clearing Masonic history of the mass of legend and lumber that had accumulated around it through the efforts of imaginative writers of an earlier period. They placed Masonic history on a sound basis by refusing to accept anything as a fact which could not be proved by reliable historic evidence. The statement that Freemasonry is derived from the mysteries of ancient Egypt, which appeal s in various forms in our First and Second Tracing Board lectures, is actually a recent addition or accretion to the Ritual, giving it a spurious air of antiquity.
The late Brother Lionel Vibert, F.P.S., in a paper, "Vestiges of Early Dams,'' published in the Transactions of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research, Volume 16, in discussing the difference between genuine survivals and mere accretions or additions to the ritual compares the latter with Cleopatra's needle, the Obelisk on the Thames Embankment which, though ancient in itself, was placed in its position in modern times, in 1878 to be exact. Brother Vibert states that many Cathedrals or Abbeys (in England) while obviously of say 14th century or perhaps Tudor architecture contain some fragment dating from an earlier period. We may not be able to say much about the earlier building of which only one fragment has survived, but we can say with absolute certainty that there was such a building, and in the absence of our bit of stone, there might have been no evidence at all for it: the later builders may have swept away every other trace.
Now in the Craft we have this very phenomenon. We have at various periods had reconstructions the authors of which were in no way concerned to preserve all the old material. Yet there appears today in our ritual and our customs fragments preserved like the carved stones above described. These are genuine survivals.
The fragment of Norman sculpture in a church wall is susceptible of a natural and obvious explanation. We may have no other record that the church we see was preceded by one built two or more centuries earlier. But that bit of carving is definite evidence it being a fact which in itself is not only possible but eminently probable from what we know of church building in England.
"But the phenomenon occurs in another form; for instance we find on the Thames Embankment, itself a work of the XlXth century, an Egyptian Obelisk: but we shall not be justified in drawing the deduction that the Thames had been previously embanked by Rameses the Great, or Thothmes III whose names that obelisk bears. In this case our knowledge of history is sufficient to enable us to assert that the obelisk was brought to its present place and is no more than an accretion with no part in the history of the locality that it now adorns. Now our English Craft today is not without its obelisks; we have incorporated into our system matters that take us or seem to take us very far from England and back into very remote times. We have to recognize that all through its history the Craft has been subject to a continual process of accretion: that bits of symbolism or ritual which are now our very essence, may nevertheless have been imported at a comparatively late date, may be, not survivals, whether accidental or intentional, of an earlier stage in our history but deliberate introductions from an alien source. They are not the carved fragments in our wall, but ornaments brought from afar to stick on it."
Brother Lionel Vibert in a Lecture "Origins" printed in Miscellanea Latomorum, Volume 24, states on page 85: "In fact to-day our ritual bears clear indications of a considerable process of accretion by the introduction of matter from elsewhere, features that are not in themselves natural incidents of a builder's workroom. Thus . . . our penalties remind us of the treason penalties of the old admiralty courts; we here and there use a terminology suggestive of the Kabbalah, which was much studied in the fifteenth century; we have numerous symbols in common with the Rosicrucians and Hermeticists, philosophers who flourished in the seventeenth century: and our interpretations of Hebrew words are borrowed from the Geneva Bible, which was the Bible of England till well into the eighteenth century.
"The process then has been one of constant accretion; but the Craft is, in its essence, like the Gothic in the midst of which it developed, an institution of British growth on British soil."
I will conclude with a short quotation from Knoop and Jones "Short History of Freemasonry to 1730" on the subject of earlier Masonic writers with special reference to the last sentence thereof.
"Some of them . . . were insufficiently aware of the fact that the history of building is not the same thing as the history of Freemasonry. Others conceiving of Freemasonry mainly as a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, explored the ancient history of symbolism without realizing that symbolism became a characteristic of Freemasonry only in relatively modern times. Still others, primarily interested in Masonic ceremonies, sought to connect Freemasonry with one or other of the ancient or medieval societies which practiced initiatory rites; but these investigators commonly ignored the fact that the influence, if any, of the old rituals could have been exercised upon Freemasonry only in and after the third decade of the eighteenth century." (May 1948, issue, Transactions of the Masters' and Past Masters' Lodge No. 150, Christchurch, New Zealand).
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Biographical Sketch of John Milton Chivington
First Grand Master of Masons in Colorado
BY EDWARD E. HEDBLOM, M.P.S., DENVER, COLORADO
John Milton Chivington, the first Grand Master of Masons in Colorado, was born January 27, 1821, near Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio. His father, an Irishman, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1790, and his mother, also from Virginia, was a Runyan (Scotch). They were married near Lexington, Kentucky, and later moved to Ohio, locating twelve miles from Cincinnati on a farm of two sections which they bought for six and one-fourth cents per acre. John was one of six children and he inherited the physique of his father, being six feet, four and one half inches tall and well proportioned, the fighting qualities of his race, becoming a Colonel in the United States Army.
We find no record of his early schooling, but know that he was educated as a Methodist minister and began to preach at Zoar, Ohio, church in 1844. In 1848 he moved to Missouri and joined the M. E. Conference at Pleasant Green. Here he served several communities and became what was known as a "circuit rider." During his eight-year stay in Missouri, he became prominently engaged in the anti-slavery fights of those stirring times. His life was continuously in danger, and, at the insistence of many of his best friends, he left for Omaha, Nebraska, where he became a presiding elder of the Methodist church. From 1858 to 1860 he made his home in the Nebraska City.
In 1860 he came to Colorado as the presiding elder of the Rocky Mountain district, and served in that capacity for most of two years. Feeling that it was his duty to serve his country, he volunteered for the United States Army, receiving a commission as Major, and was placed in command of the First Colorado Cavalry at old Fort Weld, the present site of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad shops in Denver. He distinguished himself in military service, particularly in halting several costly Indian depredations, and this resulted in his promotion to the rank of Colonel .
At the conclusion of the Civil War, he resigned his commission, spent several years in Ohio, returning to Denver, Colorado, in 1875, where he engaged in the freighting business until his final illness. During that period he filled several civic offices with marked ability.
Colonel Chivington was made a Mason in Bartlesville (Ohio) Lodge No. 135, F. & A.M., in June and July, 1846, and in the same year he received his Capitular degrees in Lebanon, Ohio. No record is available regarding his Knight Templar affiliation. He demitted from his Ohio Lodge in 1848 and acted as Worshipful Master of Wyandotte (Kansas) Lodge, U.D., which became No. 3 of that State when the Grand Lodge of Kansas was formed, in 1856. In Omaha, Nebraska, he assisted in the formation of Capitol Lodge of Nebraska, in 1857. Coming to Colorado, he became a charter member of Union Lodge No. 7, A.F. & A.M., a member of Colorado Chapter No. 2, R.A.M., and a charter member of Colorado Commandery No. 1, K. T.
On August 2, 1861. the representatives of three chartered Lodges of Colorado Territory held a Masonic Convention at Golden City, organized the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Colorado, and elected Brother John Milton Chivington as their first Grand Master. At the first Annual Communication, held in Denver on December 10, 1861, he was reselected, but was unable to be present at the second Annual Communication owing to his being in military service.
M. W. Brother Chivington passed to his Eternal reward on October 4, 1894. It was his dying request that he be buried by the Grand Lodge. Accordingly, an Emergent Communication was called for Sunday, October 7, with services held at the Trinity Methodist Church, and interment at Fairmount Cemetery. M. W. Brother William L. Bush, Grand Master, presided; Union Lodge No. 7 acted as escort to the Grand Lodge, and more than six hundred Freemasons were in the procession. The funeral sermon was given by Rev. Robert McIntyre, one of Brother Chivington's closest friends. He took for his text Second Timothy iv., 5: "I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith," and he said, in part: "I have preached hundreds of funeral sermons, and have probably preached from this same text a score of times, but never have I used it with such perfect aptness and appropriateness as today. I never in my life knew a man who so represented the soldierly element in Christianity as did the man whom we are here to honor in the last sad rites of Humanity. As a pioneer, as a spiritual warrior, as a pathfinder and a patriot, he combined the elements of a Christian and a man. He did not know what it was to be afraid. There was no flinching from the path of stern duty. When Colorado lifts aloft the scroll of honor, the name of Colonel John Milton Chivington will be emblazoned near the top."
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Tiler, like the word "cable-tow," is a word peculiar to the language of Freemasonry, and means one who guards the lodge to see that only Freemasons are within ear-shot. It probably derives from the Middle Ages when the makers of tiles for roofing were also of migratory habits, and accompanied the Free-masons to perform their share of the work of covered buildings. Some tiler was appointed to act as sentinel to keep off intruders, and hence, in course of time, the name of Tiler came to be applied to any Freemason who guarded the Lodge.
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Reflections of An Old Philosopher On History
By "P.P." in Chaine D'Union, Paris, November, 1947
Translated from the French of Leo Fischer. F.P.S.
THEY TAUGHT us too much history in school. To many of us it has left a disagreeable recollection of countless facts and innumerable dates to remember which have little by little slipped from our memory.
Those who have not forgotten them, have probably learned from them a first lesson, namely, that man in general does not in any manner justify the maxim that makes him a reasonable being, because one may well call history in its outstanding features the result of follies of the human species: conquest, rapine, mass murders. Interest and ambition are ever the powerful motives of our discord. And, to hew closer to the truth, we can without being charged with temerity cite another perhaps more nefarious cause: the errors excesses and misdeeds of ideology. Because you can find ideology at the root of all the wars that have never ceased to shake the world.
Without going back to Alexander and Caesar; but considering events not so far distant in the night of time, it will supine to remember the great venture of the Crusades which for two centuries swallowed up innumerable lives and abundant wealth without any result; the horror of the "Holy" Inquisition; the massacre of Saint Batholomew, and the religious wars which ravaged Europe for such a long time. Alas! How can one associate war and religion? The two terms clash when you join them. If there is a tree religion . . . and to my mind it is necessary . . . it is incapable, by its essence, to foment wars.
Must we recall as a period more recent, what has been called the Napoleonic epopee? (Literateurs always choose grandiloquent words to express misfortune). The fate of the ephemeral master of France had been decided at Trafalgar; yet the blood-letting continued for ten years after that. With victory following victory, the loss of that empire became fatal.
Let us go no further. There is an abundance of other examples and as unfortunately inclined to believe that the end is not yet.
During the German occupation I heard a very brief dialogue I shall never forget between a German officer and an old lady before the tomb of Napoleon at the Invalides.
The German officer who spoke French very well pointed at the catafalque and said, addressing the old lady: "There is your great man."
No, sir, turn about and you will find a much greater one there, she replied, pointing at the statue of Pasteur at the end of the Avenue de Breteuil. The German officer did not answer. Had he understood the lesson?
Another lesson of history is, that to study it serves no purpose, for the simple reason that our political men have no memory. I shall for the present mention only one example.
Nationalization is perhaps, ideologically, for numerous utopian minds a means to make a better distribution of the wealth of a country; but in practice one need not be a great statistician to show quite the contrary. It would be superfluous to enumerate the causes: they are without number. To convince one it will be sufficient to recall the deplorable bankruptcy of the National Workshops of 1848. History repeats itself, but decidedly it does not teach us anything.
I shall conclude with the following phrase of Tocqueville who resumes what I have been endeavoring to tell you in much more adequate terms: "History is a gallery of paintings containing many copies but little original work."
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The gavel which George Washington used when laying the cornerstone of the Capitol building in 1793 was used on more than fifty-five occasions between 1793 and 1907. It was used officially by the following Presidents, in addition to its first use by Washington: James K. Polk, cornerstone, Smithsonian Institution, 1847; James Buchanan, Clark Mills' statue of Washington, 1860; William McKinley, Washington Centennial exercises, Mount Vernon, Virginia, 1899; Theodore Roosevelt, at the sesqui-centennial celebration of Washington's initiation into Freemasonry, held at Philadelphia, 1902; Herbert Hoover, at the cornerstone laying of the Department of Commerce Building in Washington.
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The Philalethes - December, 1948; Volume 3, Number 8. Board of Editors Walter A. Quincke F.P.S.; Leo Fischer, F.P.S.; and Lee Edwin Wells, F.P.S. - The official publication of the Philalethes Society; 274 South Burlington Avenue; Los Angeles 4, California, where all communications should he directed. - Publication schedule: Eight (8) issues per year or volume: January; February; March; May (April-May); July (June-July); September (August-September); November (October-November), and December. No advertising in any form is solicited or accepted. When requesting a change of address, please give the old as well as the veto addresses, together with your postal zone number, if you have such. Annual subscription, in the United States, $3.00; elsewhere, $4.00, payable in advance. - The columns of ''The Philalethes'' are reserved for the literary contributions of the members of the Society, and the material is selected for its quality and timeliness rather than upon name. All published articles, however, express the ideas and opinions of their contributors only, and in no way need they be the opinion of the Society. - Member-Editors of Craft magazines, here and abroad, are privileged to reprint, in part or in full, any articles first published in "The Philalethes," but are expected to give due credit to its source. - The Philalethes Society was founded October 1, 1928, and is an International Body of Freemasons who have Light to impart and Freemasons who seek more Light. - The Society's current year book, "The Informant," tells the story since its inception and enlightens one on our aims. A copy will be mailed free of charge to any Freemason requesting the same.
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In 1727 the officers of all subordinate Lodges were ordered to wear "the jewels of Masonry hanging to a white apron." In 1731 we find the Grand Master wearing gold or gilt jewels pendant to blue ribbons about the neck, and a white leather apron lined with blue silk.
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WILLIAM TREMAINE CORBUSIER, M.P.S.
Brother William Tremaine Corbusier, whose portrait appears on the cover page of this issue, was born in Elmira, New York, January 31, 1882. Within a couple weeks he left his birthplace for Ft. Mackinac, Michigan, where his army officer father was stationed. At the age of two and one-half years he travelled by sleigh over the ice, then by boat, train and army ambulance to Ft. Grant, Arizona.
In addition to attending grade schools in many States, he received his education at the Polytechnic High School, San Francisco, California; Cayuga Lake Military Academy, Aurora, New York; New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, and the Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
Following the Electrical Engineering trend, he became superintendent of the Schuylkill & Dauphin Traction Company, in Pennsylvania; Division Traffic Manager of the Public Service Railway, Newark, New Jersey; Telephone Engineer with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, Elmira, New York, and, in 1918, he wound up in California as the Safety Engineer for the Southwestern Shipbuilding Company, the Long Beach Shipbuilding Company, and the Western Pipe & Steel Company.
Brother Corbusier was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on December 23, 1921, in Seaside Lodge No. 504, F. & A. M., Long Beach, California, and served it successfully as Treasurer, Tyler, Chaplain, Junior and Senior Deacon, Junior and Senior Warden, and, in 1932, as Wor. Master.
He is a member of Long Beach Chapter No. 84 R.A.M.; Long Beach Council No. 28, R. & S.M., Long Beach Commandery No. 40, K.T.; and Long Beach Consistory, A. A. Scottish Rite. Since 1937 he served as the Secretary-Manager of the Long Beach Masonic Board of Relief and Employment Service.
The development of his hobbies were largely influenced by his geneological, anthropological, ethnological, linguistic, searching surgeon father and by intimate contacts with such men as Thomas Wilson, Dorsey, Fewkes, General Hugh Scott, General Anson Mills and many others. Early in life, as now, his greatest interests have been Masonic Symbolism, the Swastika and the Great Pyramid. Inevitably, stamp collecting was always interwoven with these. And just as inevitably, Freemasonry has lead him to his real work - service to his fellow-man - without which life would indeed be empty.
We are proud, indeed, to introduce Brother Corbusier as a member of the Philalethes Society.
W.A.Q.
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Our Supreme Mission
We hear a great deal about the mission of Freemasonry. But after all is said and done, its supreme mission is to bring men into harmony through a better understanding of one another and by the breaking down of prejudice and hate. No need of the present day is greater than this. Upon understanding depends all there is to human happiness in so far as social relationships are concerned and Freemasonry is bringing this about all over the world.
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The thoughts of all the greatest and wisest men have been expressed through mythology. - Ruskin.
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By J. Corneloup, F.P.S., Levallois-Perret, France
Translation from the French by Charles E. Holmes, M.P.S., Montreal, Canada
IT IS QUITE natural that the Freemason, as a citizen, is preoccupied by what is happening to his city or his country. Therefore, we understand that our American Brethren should look askance at politics as practiced by URSS. We realize the cause of their uneasiness in less wounded national pride than fear that peace and liberty be seriously menaced. We, too, see those dangers and experience the same fears.
Yet we are frankly distressed to see transposed to a Masonic plane what should remain strictly on the profane plane, since it appears to bring about a breach or at least an oversight of the precept layed down in Anderson's Constitutions (Vl-2): ". . . we are also of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds and Languages, and are resolv'd against all Politicks, as what never yet conduc'd to the Welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will."
True, until now only a few publications of the American Masonic Press seem to have been guilty of this breach of oversight, yet, in comparatively recent issues we have read articles that were definitely anti-communistic, such as those titled: Communism is Freemasonry's battle," or "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine to combat Communism."
Therefore, if an oversight has occurred it happened on the portico of the Temple and not within its portals ...., yet that is so close to the entrance that, unless the Inner Guard is very attentive, it might well slip, unnoticed, into the Lodge. We must not forget that if we, as Freemasons, know how to distinguish the Lodge proper from its portico, do you American Brethren not think the profane who read your papers might, judging by such imprudent scareheads as those quoted above, be unable to distinguish the Lodge from its portico? Surely there is danger that these uninitiated will attribute what is really only the thought of a few Freemasons or a few editors of Masonic journals and thus Freemasonry in America may well be accused of dabbling in politics just as Freemasonry in France has so often been accused of doing, even if such a view would be unfair to American Freemasonry as it has been to French Freemasonry.
We hope no one will misinterpret our intentions, and we will certainly not allow such misinterpretations to take place. We do not in any way wish to be accused of being the apologists of Communism. We have long memories and we have not yet forgotten that Communism has condemned Freemasonry and that French Freemasonry has barred from admission in our order any partisan of Communism. When, in 1946, the French Communist Party was requested to define its attitude toward Freemasonry, its answer, though less hostile than formerly, still was quite alarming. In consequence, we do not entertain tender feelings towards Communism. Yet, as Freemasons, we must not take a definite stand for or against it, nor must we commit the fault of confusing Marxism with the actions of the URSS, as too many do in present times.
Our sole purpose in writing this is to warn our Brethren, in America as well as elsewhere, against adopting such an attitude and to advise them against the use of such scareheads, for fear their actions may react against themselves and against Freemasonry as a whole.
Freemasons should consider these things from a higher plane than the mere point of view of present difficulties, no matter how serious they may seem. Such an attitude will not prevent us from fully appreciating the intent of Doctor Neibuhr, of the New York Theological Institute, who, at Amsterdam, proposed to the Oecumenical Council of Christian Churches meeting there, the adaption of the definitions submitted by Bishop William Temple, former Archbishop of Canterbury, to the effect that "Communism is a Christian heresy," whereas "Fascism is anti-Christian paganism." These two divergent definitions provide ample food for thought to our American Brethren and our Colleagues.
We may add that the definition of Communism given above agrees with the considerations published in "Les Symbolisme" over three years ago, over the signature: "The Lettor G."
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Another Victory For ALPINA
The account of the Annual Communications of the "Grootoosten" of the Netherlands, on June 20, 1948, as published in the official organ of that Grand Body for June 30, contains very interesting information. Grand Secretary Galestin states that Dutch Freemasonry can report a good year; that 140 candidates have been admitted to its Lodges since the liberation; that the membership, which was some 2,700 immediately after the liberation, has grown to 3,251 since then; that over 100 members of Dutch Lodges perished during the war; that the number of Masonic victims in Netherlands East India was unbelievably great and is estimated to have been 1,000 out of a total of 1,600.
It gives us great pleasure to reproduce a paragraph from the report on the Grand Master's address: "As regular Grand Masonic Bodies there must be considered in Europe, in the first place after the three British and the three Scandinavian Grand Lodges, also the Grand Lodge ALPINA. Our Grand Master has come to the defense of the Swiss Grand Lodge last mentioned. ALPINA sticks close to the Old Landmarks and feels that strong spiritual bonds unite it with these Low Lands. The result of the efforts of our Grand Master has been that the British Grand Lodges have now recognized ALPINA as regular." - L. F.
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Ignorance breeds prejudice and prevents the realization of the fulness of life. - Charles J. Dennis.