Contents
Freemasonry:
A Baptist Layman's Charge
John Graves Simcoe
The Temple of Solomon
A Fresh Look At William Morgan
The Sabbath and the
Lord's Day
Where Did It Go Wrong
The Scripture Readings
The Masons in Texas' Bloodiest
Feud
the philalethes
The Journal of Masonic Research and Letters
Charles S. Guthrie, FPS Acting Editor
1660 Normal Drive
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OFFICERS
Wallace E. McLeod, FPS President
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Forrest D. Haggard, FPS 1st Vice President
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Royal C. Scofield, FPS 2nd Vice President
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Allen E Roberts, FPS Executive Secretary
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Henry G. Law, FPS. Treasurer
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Harold L. Davidson, FPS Librarian
The Philalethes Society 1903 10th St. W.
Billings, MT 59102 (406) 259-1552
LIVING PAST PRESIDENTS
Philalethes Society
William R. Denslow FPS
Robert V. Osborne, FPS
Dwight L Smith, FPS
Robert L Dillard Jr. FPS
Bruce H. Hunt, FPS
Allen E. Roberts, FPS
John Mauk Hilliard, FPS
CONTENTS
Freemasonry: A Baptist Layman's Charge
Annual Meeting Announcement
John Graves Simcoe - Statesman, Soldier and Freemason
The Editor's Quarry
The Temple of Solomon Its Mystical Significance
A Fresh New Look at William Morgan and the Anti-masonic Party
The Sabbath and the Lord's Day
Where Did We Go Wrong? And What Can We Do About it?
The Scripture Readings of the Three Degrees
The Masons in Texas' Bloodiest Feud
Through Masonic Windows
ON THE COVER
Continuing our covers depicting Freemasonry's tribute to its most illustrious member - the George Washington Masonic National Memorial atop Shooter's Hill in Alexandria, Virginia. This is the lodge room of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 where hundreds of men from all over the country have been Raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason.
Courtesy of the GWMNM Association: Photo by Arthur W Pierson.
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Freemasonry: A Baptist Layman's Charge
by Marion O. Reed, Editor, Masonic Home Journal
SURPRISED? Well I was. Having been a Mason for 47 years and a Baptist for more years than that, I was surprised when informed that a recommendation would be presented at the 1992 Southern Baptist Convention to appoint an ad hoc committee "to study the Masonic lodge and report back to the convention in 1993 with a recommendation for action. "
James "Larry" Holly, a physician of Beaumont, Texas, is said to have mailed a packet of information condemning Freemasonry to 5000 Southern Baptist Convention leaders and is said to have distributed 5000 additional copies to Messengers (delegates) at the convention's annual session at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, June 9-1 1.
A synopsis of the motion is as follows:
James L. Holley (TX)--motion to direct the President elected by the 1992 Southern Baptist Convention to appoint an ad hoc committee to study all branches of Free Masonry; and to instruct the ad hoc committee to make their report and recommendations to the 1993 Southern Baptist Convention.
The motion as amended:
Alvin Rowe (FL) moved to amend the motion, referring the study to the interfaith Witness Department of the Home Mission Board. The amended motion reads:
"The Southern Baptist Convention in annual session June 9-11, 1992, at Indianapolis, Indiana, directs the Interfaith Witness Department of the Home Mission Board to study the compatibility with Christianity and Southern Baptist doctrine of the organization known variously as the Masonic Lodge, Masonry, Freemasonry, and or Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry. The study is to encompass any and all branches and/or lodges thereof. Furthermore the convention charges the Home Mission Board with the responsibility of bringing a report with recommendation to the Convention which is to meet in Houston, Texas, June 1993."
The amended motion passed.
Traditionally. Freemasonry has reframed from entering into any discussion or argument with a religious or political body. However, the enormity and far-reaching consequences of this proposed "study" of Freemasonry, in my opinion, makes it necessary for all Freemasons, especially those who are members of Southern Baptist Churches, to be made aware of what is taking place.
A book (58 pages), produced by Mr. Holly, is a lengthy dissertation on the evils of Freemasonry, calling it a satanic religion and a cult. He spends many pages and much rhetoric on this subject, defining the occult, Satan worship, ancient societies and their evil teachings and practices. He then associates Freemasonry with these as he takes parts of Masonic ritual and tradition, and the writings of those whom he deems as Masonic authorities, and uses them for his purpose. This book is especially critical of the degrees of the Scottish Rite, particularly the 30th degree. He also cites in lengthy detail the writings of Albert Pike and Albert G. Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.
Mr. Holly's book, entitled The Southern Baptist Convention and Freemasonry, is designed to appear to be the official position of the Southern Baptist Convention. Even the insertion of the logo of his "Mission and Ministry to Men, Inc.", which, not surprisingly, resembles the SBC logo, might lead the unsuspecting reader to understand it as actually a Convention Program.
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John M. Boersma of Canada Lecturer at the
Assembly/Feast/Forum Friday, February 19, 1993
One of the most talented and accomplished Masonic students of our time will deliver the Philalethes Lecture at the Annual Assembly and Feast next February. Brother John M. Boersma (Dutchman by birth, Canadian by choice) became a Mason in Occident Lodge, No.346, Toronto, in 1972 and served as Master in 1980. In 1988 he was chosen as Grand Senior Warden. Over the past ten years he has developed a number of spectacular and appealing audio-visual productions that are concerned with Freemasonry, and has presented them with great success in both the United States and Canada. Some of you will recall seeing his impressive treatment of Masonic composers at the Semi-Annual Meeting in Toronto a few years ago. His topic at the Assembly and Feast will be
The Date:
Friday, February 19,1993
"Brother Mozart:
His Trademark was Harmony;
He Personifies Universality;
By performing his Alloted Task while it was yet Day,
He Gained Immortality."
The Time:
6:00 p.m. sharp for
the Assembly & Feast
The Investment:
$28 for the Feast for reservations before
Feb.1, 1993; thereafter $32, including
those made in the lobby until noon on the
day of the Feast; no reservations after
12 o'clock noon.
The Place:
The Hotel Washington, Washington. D.C.
Who ?
Master Masons only.
THE FORUM
Members of the Society's newest Chapter, Cornerstone Computer, will be featured during the Forum on February 19, 1993. They will be demonstrating the use of computers and modems. They will show us how to be immediately linked together, how to exchange information and how to stay abreast of what's happening right now. Look for more details in the December issue.
For Reservations:
Send checks for $28 before February 1 to: Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 70, Highland Springs, VA 23075-0070
Make checks payable to:
The Philalethes Society
We strongly suggest that reservations be made for hotel rooms immediately by calling the Hotel at 1-800-424-9540
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John Graves Simcoe - Statesman, Soldier and Freemason
by Nelson King, MPS
We Canadians are normally very reserved about our heroes, but we do have our Daniel Boones and our George Washingtons. We have our quiet heroes, who were Statesmen, Soldiers, and Freemasons. One such man Metropolitan Toronto, and several other Ontario Communities honour on the first Monday in August, by proclaiming that day a Civic Holiday, Simcoe Day.
John Graves Simcoe was born on the 25th of February 1752, at Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, the son of Captain John Simcoe, R.N., and Catherine Stamford. Captain Simcoe and his wife had moved to Cotterstock shortly after their marriage on the 8th of August, 1747. It was in Cotterstock that their four sons were born. The first two, Paulet William and John died in infancy and the fourth, Percy William, was drowned in 1764. John Graves was the third son, was named after his father and his godfather, Admiral Sir Thomas Graves. In 1757 Captain Simcoe joined H.M.S. Pembroke, as Commander, with the famous explorer Captain James Cook as Master, and in 1759 sailed for Canada in the fleet under the command of Admiral Saunders. Captain Simcoe was not to reap the rewards of his years of service, for on the 15th of May 1759, while H.M.S. Pembroke was nearing the island of Anticosti, he died of pneumonia. Mrs. Catherine Simcoe then moved to Exeter, where she had many friends and where she would be better able to educate her two sons.
The future Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada received his primary education at the Free Grammar School in Exeter, and in 1766, his fifteenth year, he entered Eton. In 1769 he went to Merton College, Oxford, but does not appear to have graduated, for in the years 1770-1771 he was at his mother's home in Exeter under the guidance of a tutor. These years were spent in acquiring a general knowledge, and especially in studying military tactics, for he had been promised an ensign's commission from friends of his mother in the War Office.
The muster rolls of the 35th Foot show that Simcoe entered the army soon after his eighteenth birthday, for on the 27th of April 1770 he was gazetted an Ensign in Captain William Gaull's company and stationed at Plymouth. In 1773 while back in Exeter, Adjutant Simcoe was initiated into Union Lodge No. 307 E.R.[M]. The Lodge record reads as follows.
Towards the end of 1773, several fresh candidates were admitted. Amongst them was Peter Davis Foulks, Esq., Sir Wilmot Prideaux, Mr. Savery and Mr. John Graves Simcoe ; also Henry Brown, Esq., 20th Regiment, was proposed, balloted for and accepted, and being a case of emergency was made E.A. and F.C. &c.
As a matter of interest this Lodge is the oldest Lodge in the Province of Devonshire, and has worked since 1732. The Lodge has had various names, Union Lodge, St. John Lodge, and its final and present name, which it has held since 1821, St. John the Baptist Lodge, No. 39. As a matter of fact, our Past and Master, M.W. Bro. John Ross Robertston secured the gavel that was used at Bro. Simcoe's initiation, and it was used by M.W. Bro. Augustus T. Freed, when he opened our Grand Lodge at Niagara in 1909.
Simcoe now progressed steadily through the ranks of the military until the 27th of December 1775, when he was promoted to the rank of Captain and permitted to purchase command of the Grenadier Company of the 40th Foot; with it he sailed for Halifax in March of 1776. Early in July 1776 he landed on Staten Island, New York, and with his Regiment took part in the military operations in Long Island and the Jerseys, winning many commendations for his services.
While in winter quarters at Brunswick, in l776-1777,he went to New York to see Sir William Howe, to ask for the command of the Queen's Rangers, then vacant. Unfortunately his ship was driven off course by a severe storm and was delayed, and on his arrival in New York he found that the post had been filled. With his ambition for an independent command unsatisfied, he wrote to General Grant under whom he was serving, and asked if Grant would use his influence to secure for him a command similar to that of the Queen's Rangers, should such another corps be raised. Shortly afterward he led his company at the Battle of Brandywine and received a wound from which he never fully recovered, although he was able to resume his duties.
At last his ambitions were realized, for on the 15th of October 1777, Captain Simcoe was appointed Major-Commandant of the Queen's Rangers and on the 18th joined his new command, then encamped near Germantown, just to the north of Philadelphia. In June 1778, he was granted the provincial rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and on the l9th of December 1781, his rank was made permanent in the Army.
At about this time, an advertisement was printed in Rivington's Royal Gazette, which read:
All aspiring Heroes.
Have now an opportunity of distinguishing themselves by joining The Queen's Rangers Huzzars, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe. Any spirited young man will receive every encouragement, be immediately mounted on an elegant horse, and furnished with clothing, accoutrements, &c. to the amount of Forty Guineas, by applying to Cornet Spencer at his quarters, 1033 Water Street, or his rendezvous Hewitts Tavern, near the Coffee House, and the depot at Brandywine on Golden Hill.
Whosoever brings a Recruit shall instantly receive Two Guineas.
Vivant Rex et Regina.
In December 1781, Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe returned to England and on the 30th of December 1782 married Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim, then in her seventeenth year, at the church of St. Mary and Giles in the parish of Buckerall, Devon. On the 14th of January 1783, Simcoe was released from his parole given to the United States in 1781, by Benjamin Franklin, the Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, to the Court of France.
On the 18th of November 1790, Simcoe was granted the rank of Colonel in the Army, and during the same year was elected to Parliament as member for the borough of St. Mawes in Cornwall. During his brief political career, he was able to take an important part in the debates culminating in the passage of the Constitutional Act of 1791, which divided Canada into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. In the same year he received a commission as Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Upper Canada, and in accepting the post of Lieutenant-Governor, he asked that troops be allotted to the new province. He was then instructed to reorganize The Queen's Rangers. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, accompanied by his wife and two of their children sailed for Quebec, on the 26th of September 1791 on board H.M.S. Triton. Before sailing he was offered by the War Office the rank of Brigadier-General, but for various reasons he declined; one reason was his disinclination to have seniority over the King's son, the Duke of Kent, then in command of the 7th Fusiliers at Quebec.
H.M.S. Triton arrived at Quebec on the 11th of November 1791, and on the following day Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe delivered the various commissions with which he had been entrusted, to the acting Governor-General, MajorGeneral Alured Clarke. Major-General Clarke was acting as administrator during the absence of Lord Dorchester, who was in England. The official proclamation and the text of the Act dividing the old province of Canada, into the new provinces of Upper and Lower Canada was issued on the 18th of November 1791, and was published in the Quebec Gazette of December 1st.
In December of 1791 Simcoe had paid a short visit to Montreal but he went no farther west. On the 8th of June 1792 with his wife and children he left Quebec, Lower Canada, for Kingston, Upper Canada, in a bateau. They arrived in Montreal on the 17th, left on the 27th, and reached Kingston on the 1st of July. On the 8th of July, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe was sworn into office by Chief Justice William Osgoode.
From Kingston Governor Simcoe and his family sailed on the Government Schooner Onondaga for Newark [Niagara], where they arrived on the 26th of July. Pending completion of repairs to Navy Hall, the Governor and his party were housed in marquees pitched on the hill above the Hall.
In February of 1793 the Governor visited the western parts of his province. The party proceeded to a Mohawk village on the Grand River, [Brantford], then to the Moravian settlement of the Delaware Indians, [Moraviantown], and returned by the way of the present site of London Ontario, which at a later date Simcoe recommended as a proper place for the capital of the province. However, on the 2nd of May he visited the site of Toronto for the first time. He returned to Navy Hall on the 13th and spoke in praise of the harbour and "a fine spot near it covered with large oaks," which he intended as a site for a town. This fine spot was on the bay front, east of the present George Street extending as far as Berkeley Street.
The Upper Canada Gazette of the 1st of August, 1793, has the following.
A few days ago, the first division of His Majesty's Corps of Queen's Rangers, left Queenston for Toronto [now York], and proceeded in a bateaux round the head of Lake Ontario, by Burlington Bay, and shortly afterwards another division of the same regiment sailed in the King's vessels, Onondaga and Caldwell for the same place. On Monday evening, His Excellency, the Lieu.-Governor left Navy Hall and embarked on board His Majesty's schooner, Mississauga, which sailed under a favorable gale for York with the remainder of the Queen's Rangers on board.
Mrs. Simcoe in her diary under the date of the 30th of July 1793, wrote:
The Queen's Rangers are encamped opposite to the ship. After dinner we went on shore to fix a spot whereon to place the canvas houses, and we chose a rising ground divided by a creek from the camp, which is ordered to be cleared immediately. The soldiers have cut down a great deal of wood to enable them to pitch their tents. We went in the boat two miles to the bottom of the bay, and walked thro' a grove of fine oaks, where the town is intended to be built. A low spit of land, covered with wood, forms the bay, and breaks the horizon of the lake which greatly improves the view which indeed is very pleasing. The water in the bay is beautifully clear and transparent.
Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe wrote on the 23rd of August 1793:
I have determined to hut the Queen's Rangers, and probably to remain this Winter at this place. It possesses many eminent advantages, which I shall do myself the honor of expatiation on, by the 1st opportunity, and expatiating on such places as appear necessary to me for permanent barracks, and fortifications to be erected, adapted to present circumstances, but which may be increased, if it shall become necessary, and, at a less expense, be rendered more impregnable than any place I have seen in North America.
Later in the year, on the 20th of September 1793, he wrote:
Upon the first news of the rupture with France I determined to withdraw the Queen's Rangers from the unhealthy vicinity of Niagara where they were encamped and to occupy York. I submitted to the Commander-in-Chief my intentions and desired his sanction to authorize me to construct a block house to defend the entrance to the Harbour.
William Jarvis, Substitute Provincial Grand Master of Upper Canada E.R.[A], and the first Provincial Secretary of Upper Canada had previously granted a warrant (even though he was not authorized to do so) for Lodge No. 3 The Queen's Rangers, 1st American Regiment and they had held meetings at Butler's Barracks, in Newark. This warrant was a traveling warrant, and was now transferred to York, with the Queen's Rangers.
In December of 1793, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe communicated the fact of the removal of the Rangers to York. The document, addressed to Lord Dorchester, the Governor-General, is as follows:
Should I have the pleasure of seeing your Lordship at this place, I make no doubt but the arrangement of the log huts for the Queen's Rangers, and the public store I shall build the ensuing Spring on Pt. Gibralter, will be such as, in your Lordship's estimation, with a due proportion of artillery and an equal garrison, will appear to be more defensible that Detroit, and scarcely less so than Niagara.
J.G. Simcoe
The log huts for the Rangers were erected on the left side of the eastern entrance to the present fort at Toronto. It was in one of these log huts that the Queens Ranger's Lodge No. 3 met. It is said Simcoe did not look with unfriendly eyes on the meeting of Craftsmen which took place month after month in his regiment, even though he could not himself attend the meetings, as he was a member of the "Moderns" Grand Lodge, and Lodge No. 3, Queen's Rangers was warranted under the "Ancients" Grand Lodge. It is interesting to note that this site is where the Toronto Historical Board has recently unearthed fragments of clay tobacco pipe bowls. This is not in itself unusual, but these fragments are fragments of clay tobacco pipe bowls with Masonic designs. On the left side of the bowl there is the Square and Compasses, with a letter G in the center, five pointed stars, a pentagram, and laurel leaves or acacia leaves. On the other side of the bowl is a standing bird with either one or two wings outstretched.
The Governor-General, Lord Dorchester, and Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, were not the best of friends, and the friction between them did not cease until both of them left Canada in 1796. Indeed it looked as if Dorchester had determined to make Simcoe's life as uncomfortable as possible. Official correspondence shows that Dorchester seized every opportunity to clog the wheels of Simcoe's government, and often in a manner most mortifying to Simcoe. Simcoe had not forgotten "the unjust, humiliating and disgraceful" order, as he termed it, of Sir Guy Carleton, (as Dorchester was in 1783), concerning a charge made against the Queen's Rangers as being guilty of "plundering and marauding" on Long Island Sound during the War of Revolution, a charge, by the way, that was without foundation. The continued friction between the two led to the resignation of both in the usual form of "leave of absence. " The Simcoes said farewell to Upper Canada on the 21st of July 1796, and on the 10th of September, they sailed from Quebec on H.M.S. Pearl for England.
At this time the British Government wanted an officer to take charge of the forces in San Domingo. Lord Simcoe who had been gazetted Major-General on the 2nd day of October 1 794, and was now offered the post if he would prefer it to retaining his appointment in Upper Canada. Simcoe accepted the new position and on the 3rd of December 1796, was appointed Civil Governor and thought he was to be Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in San Domingo. Simcoe was disappointed for he had expected to succeed Sir Ralph Abercrombie as Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in the Island, but now found that Abercrombie retained that office. In a letter to the Duke of Kent, he refers to this disappointment and also points out that his "services in Canada had been slighted in that as Lieutenant-Governor he had a fair claim to the command of the Royal Americans in preference to General Hunter." The same letter further shows that he had been promised the position of Governor-General of Canada and also a peerage.
In 1797 General Simcoe proceeded to his new post, with instructions to aid the French in restoring, if possible, order to the island. While the General did excellent work in his command, he became wearied of the kind of warfare in which he was engaged and after eight months he returned to England, either to procure an adequate force for the work or to abandon the effort altogether. From the 18th of January to the 18th of June 1798, he was Colonel of the 81st Regiment and on the latter date was appointed Colonel of the 22nd Foot, which appointment he held until his death in 1806. Lord Simcoe did not return to San Domingo, and on the 26th of February 1798, he was appointed Lieutenant of the County of Devon, and in the following October was gazetted Lieutenant-General.
Owing to the fear of invasion by Napoleon, the forces of England were strengthened in 1799, and on the 21st of November of that year Lieutenant-General Simcoe was appointed to the command of Plymouth. On the 1st of January 1801, he was appointed to serve on the Staff of the Army in Great Britain, and in the same month was commissioned to command the Western District, which included the Counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. On the 14th of May 1803, he was again appointed to the Army Staff in Great Britain.
In July, 1806 General Simcoe was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in India, and at once began preparations for departure to his distant command. While in the middle of packing, an entire change of plan came from the authorities in London. Information had been received that Napoleon was contemplating an invasion of Portugal. The fleet under Earl St. Vincent, then cruising off Brest, was ordered to the Tagus, while Lord Rosslyn and General Simcoe were ordered to join the Earl at Lisbon.
Simcoe had been in poor health for some time, and it was only by exercising the greatest care that he was able to cover the great amount of work assigned to him in the Western District. He was so confident of his physical strength that he did not hesitate to accept the command in India when it was offered. Indeed it was expected that after completing the negotiations he was to carry out in Lisbon, he would return to England and then sail for India.
He took ill on the voyage to Lisbon and had to return to England. After some delay he sailed on 26th of September, 1806, on H.M.S. Illustrious, and on the 21st of October, landed at Topsham. The next day he was carefully driven to the house of his friend, Archdeacon Moore in Exeter. He was too ill to make the journey to Wolford, and the following Sunday the 26th the General passed to the Grand Lodge above.
The body was embalmed and kept in Exeter until the 4th of November, in order that the funeral arrangements might be perfected. It was an imposing funeral and every mark of respect was paid by the civil and military authorities alike. Along the fourteen miles between Exeter and Wolford the cortege passed between lines of the militia of Devon. At the third mile a squadron of Dragoons was drawn up and escorted the remains to Wolford. At six o'clock in the evening the burial took place by torchlight in the presence of his widow and family and the leading men of the country. The remains were interred at the east end of the private chapel, erected by the General on his estate. The inscription on his monument reads:
Sacred to the memory of John Graves Simcoe, Lt. Gen. in the Army and Col. of the 22nd Regt. of Foot, who died on the 26th day of October, 1806 aged 54.
In whose life and character the virtues of the Hero, the Patriot and the Christian were so eminently conspicuous, that it may be justly said he served his King, and his Country, with a zeal exceeded only by his piety towards his God.
I can find no record of Masonic Funeral Honours being paid to our Lieutenant-Governor.
Thus ended the life of this great man, hero of the Revolutionary War, the Founder of Ontario, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, Statesman, Soldier and Freemason. We do well to recall his exploits in loving memory every August.
The Editor's Quarry
We have dug almost through our backlog of articles.
We need manuscripts which will contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of Freemasonry. Historical articles are especially welcome, with sharp black and white photographs or line drawings if possible.
Contributors should always give their names, complete addresses, and telephone numbers so I can better communicate with them if necessary. Indicate whether you are a member or Fellow of the Philalethes Society. I will publish articles by others (even by non-Masons), but if you are a Philalethes member, indicate it. Otherwise I cannot print MPS or FPS after your name.
Color slides are needed for the covers.
From time to time I receive letters expressing various opinions on articles published or on other matters. Most of these are too long, and regrettably, some are in poor taste.
I propose to start a column of letters, and give the following as guidelines for those who want to write:
1. Nothing libelous or in poor taste will be published.
2. All letters will be edited, and may be excerpted.
3. Letters should be short--not over 300 words.
4. Letters must be double-spaced.
5. They must be signed and the author's address and telephone given.
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Its Mystical Significance An Esoteric Interpretation of Masonic Symbolism
by Louis Warter, MPS
On February 22, 1982, the Masonic Fraternity celebrated the 250th birthday anniversary of George Washington at Arlington, VA., where a beautiful memorial had been built for the first President of the United States, 50 years ago, on his 200th anniversary. Washington's dedication and commitment were to "Liberty and Country."
Albert Pike, famous Masonic symbolist, states that "Masonry existed, as it now exists, the same in spirit and at heart, not only when Solomon builded the Temple, but centuries before--before even the first colonies emigrated into Southern India, Persia, and Egypt, from the cradle of the human race. Masonic principles generated form, organization, and symmetry, with the building of the Temple of Solomon. "
Every temple in the ancient world was the universe in miniature, and so the whole world was one grand temple. Pike quotes Plato as saying, "The real temple of the Deity is the World. "
The overall idea of Freemasonry and its symbolism revolve around the Temple of King Solomon and the Hiramic Legend.
Preamble
The story of King Solomon and "Solomon's Temple" have been shrouded in mystery for ages, and the many interpretations have added to the confusion. Some authorities and researchers state that the actual facts may never be known.
The story depicts some of the most profound universal wisdom expressed in a magnificent set of mysteries and enigmas that have remained, sphinx-like, down through the ages...hidden behind the popular phrase, "The Lost Keys of Masonry. " It is as if the lid of the box had been sealed and the key deliberately thrown away. Most writers agree, however, that the entire story is beautiful symbolism.
The purpose of this article is to delineate this mysticism in language and image that can be understood by the rank and file of Master Masons. The intention is to awaken the human consciousness to the realization that all this material and the explanations pertain to us--you and me--individually and collectively, especially those who are seeking more light in Masonry. Through these pages you will gain a fresh insight into the esoteric and mystical significance of Freemasonry's foundation structure--the Temple of Solomon.
There are fundamentally two aspects to this phenomenon--the physical and the spiritual. The physical, material structure is the objective expression of the subjective reality, or spirit. The material, physical plane is the medium through which spirit finds its expression. This relationship exists in everything that comes into our experience--the constant interplay between spirit and matter. We are living in a world of Cause and Effect or the Law of Cause and Consequence that governs the material world. Spirit, or the realm of the absolute--the abstract--comprises the element of cause, and matter, the realm of the concrete, becomes the effect, or the result of the causes that set them into motion.
Added to my own knowledge of symbolism and esoteric philosophy, you see here several books that provided my source material, compiled by men who have devoted their lives to the study and compiling of this information. Before going into detail, it is well to have some background information.
In his Encyclopedia of the Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall states that the entire Hiramic Legend assumes the position of the redemption of the human soul after it has experienced eons of trials and tribulations and learned many lessons through its countless sojourns on the earthly plane.
The Masonic scenario is based on the idea of the Trinity, which is found as a key to most major religions. The three great masters, then, become the Causal Triad of the Cosmos--the Triune Foundation of Existence, delineated in the various religions as follows:
In the Hebrew tradition Jehovah, Elohim, Adam
In the Christian tradition Father, Son, Holy Spirit
In the Vedic Teachings in India Brahma, Vishnu, Siva
In the Egyptian Triad Osiris, Isis, Horus (Ancient Egypt) Soul, Mind and Body, the Human triad
Fundamentally, it is the creative triangle--father, mother, son, or offspring.
The most authoritative portraiture of the triadic principle is presented by the Qabbalistic Tree of the Ten Sephiroth, or Rays--the divine names assigned to the realm of creation and its spiritual functionaries. The illustration of the tree is made up of circles or globes, connected to each other, numbered and named. From the top center, or kether, stream forth divine emanations of nine other circles or intelligences, completing the cycle of ten. Positioned like the three heads, or Yods, of the letter Shin, the twenty-first of the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, are the three circles or globes, on top of the tree:
From the blending or fusion of these two principles are produced the worlds and the living generation of beings--au that is. The process of creation and destruction is continuous, with ever improvement over the past. Infinite intelligence throughout the cosmos is ever experimenting and improving its creation.
Kether itself is the outgrowth or expression of the Qabbalistic Yod, the Dot, or the Ain Soph of the Qabbala--Deity-whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. The dot is also the beginning of all symbolistic drawings and illustrations .
Albert Pike, philosopher and famous Masonic historian and symbolist, writes that Qabbalism is a key to Masonic esotericism. Its elements and principles are beautifully harmonious with Masonry and can be used as foundation material for interpreting Masonic symbolism. It was the Creative Triad of the Qabbalists that inspired the use of the triune principle as a foundation for the western religions.
Madam H.P. Blavatsky, great seer of the nineteenth century, author of "The Secret Doctrine " and founder of the Theosophical Society, states that the Ten Sephiroth, in their totality, represent the archetypal man--Adam Kadmon. More will be given later delineating Masonic symbolism in the light of the man body or the human species--the highest of all divine creations on planet earth.
Ancient Origin of Masonry
To find the origin of Masonry we must go back to the Old Testament, where the chapter of Genesis is replete with many origins. It must be understood that in the beginning of the human race, there were many highly evolved souls placed on earth by the Great Creative Principle, in key positions, to help start and advance the race.
A Masonic constitution, dated 1701, indicates that the sciences, arts and crafts, from which most Masonic symbolism springs, began before the deluge, Noah's great flood. As highly evolved souls, the four children of Lamech founded the various sciences. One of the sons, named Tubal Cain, developed the craft of working with brass and iron. The patriarch Adam had predicted to his children and grandchildren that there would be a flood covering the earth. Accordingly then, these men, anxious to preserve their progress, carved some of their secrets and the wisdom of their crafts on pillars of stone and brick, that they might be found after the flood waters receded. Adam ' s son, Seth, and the patriarch Enoch--the man who walked with God--an initiate of the inner mysteries, also shared in these works. Much later, these pillars were found and the inscriptions revealed to mankind by Hermes Trismegistus, the great Egyptian philosopher and seer.
We are indebted to King Henry the 8th, of England (who reigned 1509 to 1547) for a definitive, voluminous manuscript on Masonry. He appointed John Laylande to seek out, examine and preserve any books or writings he could find on Masonry that he thought important. One lengthy MS he found, written in question and answer form, was attributed to King Henry the 6th (who reigned 1422 to 1461) and related how Masonry came to England. This record revealed an inexorable continuity of evolving achievement under omniscient direction to help fulfill the Divine Plan for Man.
The MS contained the story of a man in ancient Greece, named Peter Gower, who traveled through Egypt, Syria, and other places where the Phoenicians had spread Masonry. The largest and most important city in Phoenicia was Tyre. In Greece, Peter Gower, thought to have been Pythagoras, established the Groton Lodge, where many Masons were made. Everyone knows who Pythagoras was. One writer claimed that Pythagoras was the reincarnation of the King Solomon: another that the great Hermes was the reincarnation of the patriarch Enoch. Thus the strong link between Greek philosophy and the ancient wisdom of Freemasonry is obvious. And so we see that according to this MS, Freemasonry had its origin in the region we now call the Middle East or the Near East.
Among the symbols of Freemasonry are the seven liberal arts and sciences; Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. Some of these we call today the " humanities," that are taught in the institutions of higher learning. Thus the seeds of these sciences were planted thousands of years ago.
In the classic, time-honored MSS, we find that most celebrated among the ancient fraternities was the Order of the Dionysiac Architects, the initiates of Bacchus, the Dionysos Cult that was dedicated to building and the art of decorating. They were the custodians of the secret wisdom and the sacred knowledge of architectonics, entrusted with the science of design and the erection of public buildings and monuments. They were the master craftsmen of the earth, whose organization was similar to that of the Masonic Lodges of today. And so, it is to this splendid Order of Dionysian Architects and their principles that the Masonic Order owes much of its symbolism and ritual, especially that relating to the science of architecture.
A man named Aeschylos, famous Greek poet, was suspected of having revealed one of the secrets and had to flee for his life. He appeared in what we now call the Middle East about the year 1000 B.C.E. After a few years he was found to be collaborating with and lending his skills to King Solomon.
As you know, King Solomon accepted the offer of Hiram, King of Tyre, whose master craftsmen were hired to build the temples and the royal palaces in Jerusalem, under the supervision of Chiram Abi or Abiff, one of their most celebrated officers. Manly Hall places a C before the name of the master architect, and reserves the name of Hiram to the King of Tyre. During this lush period in history, the Dionysiac Architects prospered and spread through Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, through Europe and thence to England, where they found the highly developed organization of the Druids, who were already practicing many of their principles.
The great Roman architect, Vitruuius, wrote about the principle of symmetry, applied to architecture, derived from the proportions established by nature between the parts and members of the human body. He said, "The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be observed and studied by the architect. Proper proportion between the various parts must be maintained. " Thus the sculptors and architects of many ancient buildings attained great fame. Buildings were harmonious with the structure of the universe, stellar constellations, etc. All important Greek edifices were constructed with most careful deliberation, some open to the sun and the sky--some Doric, some Corinthian, some Ionic, in their style of architecture. Many medieval temples and cathedrals bear the marks of this great Order of Dionysiac Craftsmen. Early Christian churches-even the Cathedral of Notre Dame-have many of their symbols hidden in the design, that have been identified as Masonic and Rosicrucian.
The famed Leonardo da Vinci had created a life-size statue of horses. Before he undertook the assignment, however, he spent three months visiting the stables of a particular pair of horses, observed and studied them in various positions and under diverse situations until he finally mastered the symmetry and proportions of their bodies. Only then did he undertake the actual work on the project.
The idea of symmetry and its correlation to the very structure of the human body emphasizes the spine and its two guardian passageways, one on each side, called by the wise men in India, Ida and Pingala--veins through which flow the fluids and powerful rhythms of life itself. When this spirit fire, a gaseous element called in Sanscript, the Kundelini Substance, is lifted up from the base of the spine, it flows through these two channels, in the form of a figure 8, crossing at the medulla oblongata at the back of the neck. This according to the great nineteenth and twentieth century seer, Max Heindel, founder of the Rosicrucian Fellowship at Oceanside, Cal., in his classic volume, "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-conception." It rises up along the 33 segments of the spine (the 33 degrees of Masonry) to the top of the head and opens up the third eye--the seat of the soul. This is the eternal eye, the universal eye, the pineal gland. When a person reaches this lofty state in the evolution of his consciousness, it is said that the "serpent power," so called in India because the serpent is the symbol of wisdom, has awakened from its slumber, and the person becomes illumined, having attained " cosmic consciousness " or supreme wisdom. The great souls mentioned here who have accomplished wonderful works, have all attained the lofty state of "cosmic consciousness." Like the three great lights in Masonry, once a man attains to a full understanding of these profound symbols, he has made an enormous lunge forward in the direction of spiritual illumination. The unfoldment of the soul through a deeper understanding opens the door of the consciousness to spiritual illumination.
The great dream or vision of the Dionysian Architects was the unfinished temple of civilization--a vast invisible structure on which these initiated builders have labored ever since their inception--in continuous construction and repair as civilization evolved and conditions changed, to maintain the structure up to date.
The Temple of Solomon Its Mystical Significance
Masonry has its own abstract conception--a magnificent utopianism, a sort of castle in the air representing the soul of man--a castle not built by the hands of man, while the abode of the Mystical Divine rests deep in the garden of the human heart. This fabulous, incredible vision, then, is the true Temple of Solomon! On the physical plane--the realm of matter--the human body is the Temple of Solomon.
The Trinity in Masonic symbolism acknowledges that man is a psychosomatic unison of Body, Mind and Soul (or Spirit).
Now let us see what is involved in the astonishing, unparalleled story of the Temple of Solomon and what is meant by that expression. Its history and its romance are delineated here.
The Actual Physical Temples
On the physical plane there were three successive temples in Jerusalem:
1. The original Temple of Solomon, built by the illustrious king himself, a bit less than 1000 B.C.E., and destroyed by the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., who took the Hebrews in captivity to Babylon, was the most beautiful, most celebrated testimonial to faith that had ever been built. This structure was, without a doubt, the most magnificent, the most spectacular edifice ever built by the hand of man up to that time.
King Solomon, as the son of King David, following his father's overtures, built the Temple with the aid of Hiram, King of Tyre, the Phoenician city on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, and his master builder, Chiram Abi or Abiff. An account of the legend is unfolded in the ritual of the Masonic third degree.
Varying estimates of size have been projected, but the authorities are all agreed that the temple was a magnificent structure of surpassing splendor. The actual temple was one of the units in a complex of structures and temple courts that were connected with underground passages. Twenty years were occupied with the construction of the entire series of buildings--thirteen for the other buildings and seven for the temple, on the plateau of Mt. Moriah, 2440 feet above sea level. Cypress and cedars were brought from Phoenicia, white marble from Italy, stone from nearby quarries. Various parts were trued up before being brought to the spot where they were needed. Gold and precious stones were imported, and great material wealth was invested in the decorations and embellishments of the Temple. All the parts were skillfully assembled without the "Hammer of Contention. " Not a single nail was used and not a single hammer blow was heard. No noise of pollution or strife of rivalry was evident.
When the temple was completed, King David's possessions were moved in. The Ark of the Covenant between God and man was placed in the Holy of Holies in the Sanctum Sanctorum, a cube-shaped room of 20 cubits, and two tablets of sapphire (not stone) bearing inscriptions of the Divine Law--the Ten Commandments--given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Ark of the Covenant of the esoteric idea that the indwelling self, the higher self, is ruler of the Cosmic Order and certainly over each individual's small personal self, bore witness to Divine Law. Also gracing the splendor of the perfect cube-shaped room was the Mercy-Seat, on which rested the Shekina Glory--the radiant Presence of the Godhead.
Now the new home of Jehova (Yayeh), or His spirit on the earthly plane, was formally dedicated. A splendid system of worship and prayer was developed, and the smooth, peaceful reign of wise King Solomon was achieved.
In its incomparable majesty, the physical expression of the Divine Idea--the House of Everlasting Light--was made of stone, marble, brick and mortar, gracefully reposing on the brow of Mt. Moriah. This Temple lasted about 400 years.
2. The Temple of Zerubabel, built and dedicated in 516 B.C., according to the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, who returned to Jerusalem when the Hebrews were released from Babylon by the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, after more than 50 years in captivity. Temple #2 was not as elaborate as the original but it served all the necessary purposes. In addition to his vision, Ezekiel remembered some of the details, having seen the original Temple of Solomon. He was a very young man when he left Jerusalem. This temple lasted about 500 years. Just in passing, it was during this period of captivity that the Babylonian Talmud was written, by the elders and wise men among the captives.
3. The Temple of Herod--This was the #2 temple sadly in need of repair and restoration--remodeled and rebuilt by Herod, King of Judea, and dedicated in 16 B.C., although some of the temple courts were not finished till 64 A.D. This temple was completely demolished and desecrated by the Romans under Titus in 70 A.D., who sent his armies to Palestine to punish those proud Jewish people who would not bow to the emperor of Rome. The only remnant is the Great Wall in East Jerusalem that still stands and that is sacred to the Jewish people. The Temple of Herod was more elaborate and more pretentious than either of its predecessors. Yet little is known about the original structure of any of these temples. There are no drawings or blueprints of details anywhere concerning these most important edifices. The description of the vision, however, appears in the Book of Ezekiel in chapters 40 and 42.
However, what little is known about these temples is more than is known about the larger and more publicized Temples of Thebes and Karnak in ancient Egypt. And, just as there were three grand masters (King Solomon, Hiram, King of Tyre, and Chiram Abiff, Grand Master Architect), so were there three temples in Jerusalem.
Life in Jerusalem was centered around the temple--the Divine Inheritance, the priceless treasure of Juhad--the center of their faith and worship, like the hub of a wheel. This gave power and luster to the Hebrew faith. To quote Manly P. Hall, "The Jewish people had a superlative understanding of God, the Great I am that I am., and a sensitive consciousness of the ethical demands and commandments of God. " To this idea can be added the thought that by reason of this superior understanding, the Jewish people held aloft the Torch of Mono-Theism--their great power--which was perhaps their most valuable contribution to our western civilization. Therefore, the temple was the "House of Prayer for all People:" Jerusalem was a city of wealth and luxury and the center of active life of the entire area. Its fame and fortune and the wisdom of its ruler, King Solomon, had spread throughout the then known world.
Now what did these temples mean? As we now know, they were built by the master craftsmen furnished by Hiram, King of Tyre, who fabricated several palaces as well as illustrious temple, and smaller temples in other cities. These architects and craftsmen were headed by the accomplished and ingenious master builder, Chiram Abi, or Abiff, who lovingly embraced King Solomon's lofty, unprecedented aspirations, and considered them an enormous challenge to his own standards of excellence.
Perhaps a first in the history of architecture, the Great Temple was built, on Mt. Moriah, stone by stone in holy silence. Not a single mallet or hammerblow was heard; not a single tool of iron was used. All the measuring, carving, shaping, polishing and fitting were done in the quarries and places of origin of the various materials used--stone, marble, the Cedars of Lebanon, etc. No stone or brick was visible inside the temple, the walls being covered with polished panelboards from the Cedars of Lebanon. No one knows how these twenty-ton stones were raised and fitted into place with artistic precision. The pyramids of Egypt present a similar enigma. But the grand purpose of the Divine Creative Principle was to be fulfilled, and many things that happened are not understood by mortal man. This phenomenon exists today as it always has.
According to the Legend of King Solomon and the Shedo and Ashmedai, King of the Shedds, Solon had obtained a precious stone, a magic jewel called the "Shamir," endowed with divine power when held in proper hands, which he, alone, and his High Priest, Aaron, could use. when the shamir was held up to the stone, the rough edges would soften so that they could be hewn and cut to precision and fitted to the desired pattern. In this way King Solomon was able to fulfil his divine mission to build the temple without the sound of hammers. It is also possible that the huge stones referred to in the previous paragraph were lifted with the aid of the magic power of the Shamir.
Now a few thoughts on the esoteric interpretation of portions of the physical structure: The rectangular mosaic--this checkerboard on the floor--was the tracing board of the Dionysiac Architects and was adopted by the Masonic Order to represent the floor of the temple in the House of Initiation. The black and white squares of the tessellated board represent the natural law of opposites--light and darkness, good and evil, freedom and bondage, hot and cold, etc.
The design in the center is the blazing sun of the Supreme Being--the Shekina Glory, if you will. It is the One Great Truth--the only Presence and the only Power, the only Light, the one supreme Universal Wisdom--functioning through the soul in the Human Kingdom. It has its seat in the third eye, the universal eye, the eternal eye, the spiritual eye, or the pineal gland. This ball of fire--the eye of heaven--beams its radiant light to the entire universe, that cannot live without it. Simultaneously it symbolizes the maintaining of eternal vigilance over all creation to prove that God never sleeps.
The multiple points surrounding the sun symbolize the multiplicity of direction and the magnificent diversity that exists within the glorious unity that pervades all that is. It is the Shibboleth of the Science of Unity and Diversity. It is the Kabalistic Yod--the Ain Soph of the Kabalah--the single dot representing the Divine, which is the beginning of all symbolism.
The two protective pillars at the entrance of the temple, Jachin and Boaz, represent equilibrium or balance. They are the unlimited power and splendor of the perfection of Deity and its consummate achievements. Individually each has its own symbolism . Jachin (Yakayin) represents the positive aspects of that balance--strength, generation, wisdom, the male principle. Boaz (Bahaz) represents the negative or passive aspect--establishment, capacity for production, understanding, the female principle. The ball on top of the pillars represents the universe.
The Spiritual Essence
The Mystical Significance of the Three Temples
The mystical significance of these temples is fascinating, embracing three major ideas in the symbolism of Freemasonry.
l. The Grand House of The Universe, in the midst of which sits the Sun (Sol) upon his throne of yellow gold--the color of spirit--surrounded by the twelve lights or signs of the zodiac (the twelve craftsmen) worshiping their shining Lord in profound admiration. And there are Three Great Lights--Solar, Lunar, Stellar illuminating the Cosmic Temple. The three great lights radiate their powerful beams of light from the East, West, and South, while the North remains dark. Again in the words of Manly Hall, "Accompanied by his retinue of cosmic bodies--planets, stars, asteroids--this Divine King Solomon rules, and promenades triumphantly down the corridors of Time and Space. " This three-syllable name, Sol-om-on (again the triad), represents The Divine White Light, the Divine Sound Current, and their interaction, the combination of which comprises the substance of the universe and keeps it spinning. Sol-om-on is one of the Masonic expressions for solar energy.
In this scene, King Solomon signifies the invisible, yet all powerful spiritual refulgency behind the sun, while Chiram, the widow ' s son, represents the universal activity--the actual rays of the physical light of the sun the central spiritual sun, beaming its brilliant light onto the physical, material universe. Hiram, King of Tyre, represents the cosmic resources that flow from the realm of causation to the sphere of effect, thus establishing the natural law of Cause and Consequence that governs the universe. This law extends also to the working out of the individual karmic destiny of every human being.
2. The second temple represents the human body--the little house made in the image of the Great Universal House. This then becomes the microcosm of the Grand House of the Universe--the Great Universal Macrocosm. The Apostle, Paul, said, "Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit dwelleth in you?" In the esoteric teachings it is said that "The Human Body is the Temple of the Living God, in whom we live and move and have our being. The Human Soul, a spark of the Divine Essence, uses the body for locomotion, for learning its lessons and for gaining experience. The blood stream is the river of life that courses through the veins and arteries of that magnificent Temple, bearing nourishment and oxygen to every cell in the body, and carrying off its waste."
The Masters of Wisdom tell us that it is a blessing to be born in the human body--in the family of Man--which contains the spiritual centers, not given to any other form of life. These are the seven endocrine glands and the seven chakras (Sanskrit) which make the physical body the Real Temple, not built by the hand of Man. Man, then is the Summit of God's Creation--the only living being endowed with the power of thought and the freedom of choice to guide that thinking in whatever direction he wishes. Only in the body can man make progress in the direction of Soul Unfoldment and Spiritual Illumination. Only through the man body can man rise to a higher level and find his expression on all four major planes of consciousness--the physical, mental, moral and emotional, and the spiritual--where he can develop great spiritual powers and attain to the knowledge of God.
Here it is interesting to note that Freemasonry within the temple of stone or brink and mortar is fallow, inert, and therefore speculative, but Freemasonry in the Temple of Human Body becomes consciously aware of Life and Living, assumes form and function, and is, therefore, operative.
3. The third symbolic Temple is the Soular House, which must be comprehended with deep imagination, as an invisible structure--an intangible, mysterious edifice--whose secrets are hidden behind the Wedding Garment described by St. Paul, the Robes of Glory of the High Priests of Israel, the golden yellow robes worn by the Buddhist Monks and the holy men of India, and the robes of blue and gold referred to by Albert Pike, the great authority on Masonic literature, symbolism and history. The Soul-ar House embraces Divine Plans that deal with creating and sustaining the great universal mysteries until such time when Man will be sufficiently evolved in consciousness to understand them. In this age of Kali-Yuga, for instance, in the great majority of humans, Soul and Mind live in the body, side by side, but do not know each other. The process of "rising above body consciousness" up into the realm of Soul removes the barrier that separates them and affects the "Happy Spiritual Marriage."
This Temple of the Human Soul, built by the three illustrious Master Masons, objectifies Wisdom, Love and Service. When properly built, the Spirit of God dwells therein. As a miniature representation of the Universal Temple, this too is a microcosm of the Grand Universal Macrocosm--the Great Oversoul, as R.W. Emerson calls it. The idea or image of Sol-om-on--the Spirit of Universal Illumination--functioning on all four major planes of consciousness, the physical, mental, moral and emotional and the spiritual, is personified by a king of an earthly nation. Solomon is sitting on the throne of an earthly kingdom, a unified Twelve Tribes of Israel in Jerusalem .
Just Who Was Solomon?
It is fitting here for the reader to ask, "Who was this fabulous individual, named Solomon? " It is impossible to discuss the temples without Solomon. They are inseparable. Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, ruled over Israel and gave that nation 40 years of blessed peace, achieved through various means of diplomacy and wisdom (Solomon ruled from 974 to 934 B.C.E.). The name Solomon means "Peaceful": Shalom in Hebrew, Salam in Islam, etc. The prophet, Nathan, had named him at birth, Jedidiah, or beloved of Yaveh. The name was changed by his parents to fulfill King David' scraving for peace. As a hyphenated word, Sol-om-on stands for light, glory, and truth, collectively and respectively . The Temple of Sol-omon, then, was the House of Everlasting Light--The Grand Temple not built by the hands of man.
According to the Ancient Rabbins, Solomon was an initiate of the Mystery Schools, and the Temple he built was a " House of Initiation, " containing many and diverse symbols gathered from places distant and near. Many of the details of the Temple, including the draperies, chambers, etc., indicated the influence of Egypt, Asia Minor, Babylon, and even the Lost Continent of Atlantis. As Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem, King Solomon brought many new people into the fold of Freemasonry. From time to time some of these brethren migrated to various parts of the world and introduced Masonry in their new abode. They entered other countries as ambassadors from King Solomon, the Lion of Judah.
According to the Talmud, Solomon understood the mysteries of the Qabbalah, was an alchemist and a scientist, humbly gathering wisdom and secrets from the many people who came from far and near to take initiation. Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom wrote that the Universal Spirit (Chiram) built the Great Temple with the gold and silver that Solomon, as an alchemist, obtained from the invisible Universe--metals that most people thought were mined in the vicinity. It is also recorded that much gold and precious stones were brought to him by visiting kings and princes, and that Phoenician ships brought gold and other valuable cargo from Ophir and Tarshish and diverse lands far and near.
When the writer of this manuscript was in Israel some years ago, he visited a place in the Negev Desert, called " Solomon' s Mines. " The historian, Josephus, states that Solomon was also an accomplished magician. Altogether, upon this individual was bestowed a fuller measure of wisdom and understanding than upon any other human being who ever lived. Comparable with his spiritual wealth, he was custodian of fabulous material wealth. The following profound statement is attributed to Solomon: "I have had all kinds of experiences and have found all to be vanity. Therefore, with all thy getting, get thee WISDOM. "
And now that so much has been said about King Solomon, it is appropriate here to set the record straight concerning his supposed thousand wives. Obviously that is a grave error--an erroneous fallacy. In those days it was not against the law for a man to have more than one wife, and some of those who could afford the luxury probably did. Solomon might have had several wives, not because he was sensually lustful, but because he used wisdom and diplomacy in his relations with neighboring countries and their rulers, with some of whom he made political alliances. Thus it was political expediency that produced this situation. Since these rulers held this wise man in high esteem, some of them offered him their daughters in marriage to cement the alliance. Solomon built a special house for the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt.
It was customary at this time in history for the members of the elite in society to develop as many personal virtues as possible, each virtue being likened to a wife. Since Solomon had a thousand virtues, he therefore had a thousand wives. Those who did not understand picked up the negative interpretation and spread the rumor that Solomon had a thousand wives.
A Few Closing Thoughts
Manly P. Hall states that the student of Freemasonry who becomes too much embroiled in the ritual, allegories and degrees has great difficulty in comprehending these spiritual truths. They may be too abstruse for him.
Another thought on origin. It is said that Masonry actually came to the ancient world--to the East as we call it-from the Lost Continent of Atlantis where it flourished under the designation of "Sun and Fire Worship." The ancient mystery schools merely adopted some of their symbols and practices and merged them with their own. So you see that beneath the literal interpretation of these symbols, lie many a royal secret and cosmic design. Albert Pike, in his Morals and Dogma, tells us that every Lodge of Freemasonry, while in session, represents a miniature universe embracing all the nations--ancient and modern--which practice the mysteries.
Pike also says that since conditions are so much different today, the true esoteric key to the Masonic secrets has been lost. The "word" was lost when the Master Architect, Chiram, was killed and took with him the key word of initiation, which, when spoken and understood lifts the consciousness of man to great spiritual heights. Manly Hall says that the Dionysiac Architects were so diligent in protecting their secrets, that the key was lost in their very effort to protect it. It is also said that the Science of Human Generation is the lost key of Masonry. There are other interpretations, of course. However, the magnificent Godhead has many ways His mysteries and wonders to perform. You have just unraveled some of these latencies in this manuscript.
The priceless heritage of Freemasonry is more appreciated when its history is known. Although the physical structures--The Temples of Thebes and Karnak in Egypt, the Parthenon in Greece and the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem--all lie in ruins of brick and broken stone, the spirit of the ancient mysteries, preserved in the symbols of Masonry, marches triumphantly on through the ages, dispensing the Light of Divine Wisdom to anyone who will honestly and sincerely listen. Mere perfunctory effort in this teaching is not effective. Yet the Lodges of the Order must be selective in whom they choose for membership. The destruction of the Temple teaches us that a house of stone or brick cannot save or redeem mankind, but that the powerful ideas and profound perceptions embraced in Masonry's symbolism provide the means for emancipation from mental and emotional bondage. Their virtues must be urgently rooted in the human heart.
And now, putting all these ideas together, we find that Freemasonry is an immense body of consciousness, striving to be in tune with the universe and working out its grand objective to build character into the brethren and to make each Master Mason a torch-bearer of light to illumine the world by living up to the highest principles of which he is capable--the ultimate length of his cable-tow, if you will--thus being an exemplar in the art of living. Masonry teaches the brethren to be more rather than to gel more in the perpetual struggle for supremacy in the mechanistic, competitive, acquisitive society that man has established. It teaches the brethren to be unusually careful how they live, for they and their way of life may be the only bible that some people will read.
In this way each person will be able, as a child of God, to transcend "body consciousness" and rise to a higher level of thought, feeling and action--the realm of spirit, where only love prevails. Here he will dwell with other high souls in the Temple of the Most High and thus make his sacred contribution toward fulfilling the Divine Plan for man. Like unto Solomon, this wisdom and understanding are bestowed on us--on each individual according to his just deserve--especially those who have been privileged to be inducted into the Order of Free and Accepted Masons. These commitments become a sacred obligation for every Mason, as well as a magnificent opportunity.
It is also obvious by now that the three Temples of Jerusalem, in symbolism, represent the majestic, incomparable phenomenon, the human body--the temple of the living God. More specifically, they represent the spinal column and the two veins, called in Sanskrit, Ida and Pingala, and the Kundelini Power, raising man to lofty spiritual heights. Like the Three Great Lights in Masonry--the Bible, the Square, and the Compass-when properly understood, will raise the student to a high level of consciousness.
The conclusion is to convey the realization that you and I, in the physical body, are symbolically the "Temple of Solomon, " and that the information we learned here provides us a splendid opportunity to follow through and do justice to the sacred responsibility we have assumed. Our path of progress will be ever more illumined by the three Great Lights in Masonry.
On this higher level of consciousness, all the mysteries and secrets of the universe will be revealed to the student, and he will no longer need a key or any outside assistance in the living of life or in solving his problems. His counsel and guidance will come to him from the powerful inner voice--the real Sanctum Sanctorum within--where is hidden God's covenant with man.
----o----
A Fresh Look At William Morgan
And The Anti-masonic Party
by Robert C. Barrlard, MPS
The name of William Morgan is known to historians primarily because his disappearance led to the formation of the briefly-active Antimasonic Party. Many Masons have also heard of Morgan, but probably are not familiar with specific incidents; and what they heard of him will vary widely depending on whether their information came from sources friendly or inimical to Masonry. Since the Morgan mystery is an interesting facet in our nation's history and in the past of our fraternity, it is worth unraveling the tangled web of statement and conjecture for a clearer picture.
William Morgan was born on August 7, 1774, probably in Culpeper County, Virginia. As a youngster, he served an apprenticeship as a stone-mason in Madison County, Virginia. In maturity, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky to practice his trade, and then to Richmond Virginia. In January 1815, at the age of 41, he claimed (falsely) to have gone to New Orleans with Andrew Jackson and fought the British at the famous battle. Some writers think he made up this story to gain fame for himself.
Although much has been written about Morgan, reliable facts are scarce. Information claimed as true by one source is denied by others in the long-extended controversy over the circumstances of his disappearance.
It is agreed that in 1819, when he was 45, he married Lucinda Pendleton. They seem to have moved immediately to York in Upper Canada, where he became a brewer for about two years. They moved to Rochester, New York in 1823 and by 1826 were living in Batavia, New York, where Morgan once more practiced the trade of brick-and stone-mason.
Accounts vary enormously as to Morgan's respectability and prosperity during these years. Friendly writers assert that he was a respectable though not distinguished member of the community. The hostile view most strongly presented is that he was a drunken knave, neither able or interested in making a decent living by hard work; and moving from place to place to escape his creditors and to avoid being arrested for debt or worse. Finding the truth is more difficult because both sides are certain that their view is the right one.
No source has claimed that they have facts that Morgan was ever regularly initiated into Freemasonry. The best that his friends could say is that he had joined the fraternity at some point during his early manhood. An equally probable supposition is that he claimed to be a Mason and began to visit lodges as a member.
By the time he arrived in Batavia, Morgan seems to have been accepted by some Masons as a brother. This allowed him to receive the Royal Arch Degree in LeRoy, New York on May 3 1, 1825 . However, the lodge in Batavia became suspicious. When Morgan could not prove any Masonic connection other than his newly-acquired Royal Arch membership, they denied him admission.
Morgan then signed a petition being circulated among Masons to start a Royal Arch Chapter in Batavia. Since the Masons doubted now that he was a regularly initiated brother, they began a new petition, omitting Morgan's name. This seemingly angered him to the extent that he vowed revenge against all masons. He announced that he was writing a book to be published by David C. Miller, editor of the local Republican Advocale newspaper, which would fully expose the secret ritual of the Masonic Order. Editor and publisher Miller had taken the Entered Apprentice Degree of Masonry in Albany, New York, but for some reason never advanced further.
This Masonic expose was titled Illustrations of Freemasonry by One of the Fraternity Who Had Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject, Thus Morgan, who was born in 1774, claimed to have joined the Masons when he was 22 years old. It is singular that he never cited a certain lodge where he was initiated. Had he been able to do so, he surely would have been freely accepted by his brothers.
Writing his book seemingly interfered with making a living. He became deeply in debt and was jailed several times for not paying his bills or for petty larceny.
Morgan copyrighted his book on August 14, 1826. The first edition was to appear in October, and did so. But Morgan had disappeared from view permanently before this date. He was arrested on a charge of petty theft on September 11 and taken by the sheriff to Canandaigua for trial.
At this point accounts vary most dramatically. The opponents of Masonry maintain that he was forcibly drowned in the Niagara River (see illustration). Friends of Masonry said he was paid $500 to leave Batavia, was taken to Canada, released, and never come back.
Excitement and outrage grew when on October 7, 1827, a badly decayed body was found on the beach 40 miles from Fort Niagara. Enemies of Masonry claimed that the body was final proof of Masonic murder of Morgan and vowed to destroy the fraternity. However, a Mrs. Monroe claimed that the body was her husband, Timothy, who had been drowned several weeks previously. This was proven to be correct.
The supposed murder of Morgan grew to national proportions. Thurlow Weed, a journalist and political leader, remarked that the body was " a good enough Morgan until after the election. "
Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, who after the Civil War was to be the dominant figure in the House of Representatives favoring harsh treatment for the South, was at this time perhaps the strongest in his condemnation of Masonry. He said that the Masonic Grand Lodge "reeked with blood" and that Masons themselves were "a feeble band of lowly reptiles who shunned the light and retired to midnight dens to perpetuate their blasphemies. "
On the side of the Masons, Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, a high officer in the Masonic organization, offered a reward of $1000 for the discovery of Morgan alive and $2000 for the discovery and conviction of his murderers if he were dead. Committees were organized by each faction to provide evidence in the matter, but nothing new was discovered.
The book itself, illustrations of Freemasonry, became an immediate best-seller. It was read by thousands of people who ordinarily would have had no interest in Masonry. It was not only a hit in the United States; it was pirated and translated into several European languages and sold widely on that continent.
Almost at once, the affair assumed a political aspect. It furnished the occasion for wide organization of objections to all kinds of secret societies. An Antimasonic political party sprang into existence on the state and national levels. Eventually the fate of William Morgan became only a small factor in the greater effort to destroy the Masons. In 1831 a national Antimasonic convention was held in Baltimore and William Wirt, Attorney General of the United States, was nominated for president, presumably with the idea that the Attorney General could best take legal action to wipe out all aspects of Masonry.
A humorous side to the Wirt nomination may be seen in that he was a Mason himself, having joined the order in his youth. He was seemingly not at all concerned about Morgan or the Masonic question. He merely took the nomination hoping that he could gain popularity and perhaps receive the Whig nomination, present a united front, and win the Presidency from incumbent Andrew Jackson. This was a vain hope, for the Whigs stuck with Henry Clay. President Jackson, a strong Mason, easily beat them both.
At the nominating convention, Wirt actually defended Masonry by saying that he was a Mason and that he had no suspicion that there was anything criminal in the Craft. He believed that most Masons were good, patriotic citizens, and that Masonry had nothing to do with politics. Having made this statement, Wirt accepted the Antimasonic nomination for President of the United States! Certainly, the Antimasonic Party was doomed from the first.
So much for the Antimasonic Party. It appeared overnight, exploded like a geyser, and disappeared just as quickly. But the impact of the Morgan affair was profound, if short-lived. Between 1828 and 1835, families, churches, and communities were split on only a slightly smaller scale than at the time of the Civil War. Thousands of Masons in every state dropped their membership, but the loss was greatest in New York and New England. Lodges and Grand Lodges temporarily disappeared. In five years, New York went from 500 lodges to 49. But recovery was also swift. By 1860, New York had 10,000 more Masons than they had before the Morgan incident. Freemasonry not only survived; it prospered.
Although Masons today may feel that our fraternity struggles for survival, we are fortunate that we are united in brotherly love and largely respected by our communities. We do not face thousands of hostile people bent on destruction of the Craft, thank the Great Architect! One Morgan affair was enough for all time. Bibliography
"Anti-Masonic Party, The. "American Heritage, June, 1966. Baigel, Matthew. Thomas Hart Benton. New York: Abrams, 1974. Butterfield Roger. The American Past. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957. Case, James Royal. The Case Collection of Biographies of Masonic Notables. Fulton MO: Missouri Lodge of Research and Ovid H. Bell Press, Inc. 1984. "Clinton, DeWitt. " Dictionary of American Biography. Denslow, William R. "Wllliam Morgan." 10,000 Famous Freemasons, III, 230-31. Ibid. "William Wirt." IV, 339. "How to Get Elected." American Heritage August, 1964, 65. "Morgan, William. " Dictionary of American Biography. Remini, Robert V. Life of Andrew Jackson. New York: Harper,
1986. Schlesinger, Arthur. Age of Jackson. Boston: Scribners,
1945. Todd, Lewis Paul and Merle Curti. Rise of Our Free Nation. "Wirt, William." Dictionary of American Biography "Wirt, William." New Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1950. Editor's Note: In addition to the sources listed above, the reader desiring more detailed information should consult the two sources listed below: McCarthy Charles. "The Antimasonic Party: A study of Political Antimasonry in the United States, 182740. "
Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Vaughn, William Preston. The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983.
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The Sabbath and the Lord's Day
BY Robert Bruce Clapp, MPS
Too often in Masonic practice the word Sabbath is used inaccurately and improperly, causing embarrassment to Jewish and Christian brethren alike. Many times the name of the weekly Jewish holy day is misapplied to the weekly Christian holy day. The purpose of this article is to affirm and clarify that the two are not the same. Each in itself is an important day. Each is a key to the proper observance of religious faith by Jews and by Christians.
Let us look to the origins of each day, the purpose of each day, and the celebration of each by our Jewish and our Christian brethren.
I. The Sabbath
Historically, the first of the two is the Sabbath.
The name comes from the Hebrew noun (shabbath), which appears to root out of the verb (shabath), meaning to rest. The Greek of both the Septuagint and the New Testament simply transliterates the noun as (shabbath).
The Sabbath is the Jewish holy day each week. It is always the seventh day of the week, never the first. Following ancient Jewish custom of reckoning time, the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday evening and continues to sundown on Saturday. This stands in sharp contrast to the Christian practice of reckoning time from midnight to midnight.
The origin of the celebration of the Sabbath and many of the rules governing its observance are found in the Torah (Law, Way of Life), the first five (Pentateuch) Books of the Hebrew Bible.
The first chapter of the "Book of Genesis" (Origins, Beginnings) provides an account of God's original acts of creation; an explanation of what the Lord did during the first six days of recorded time.
In the second chapter we read: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work, which He had done on creation." (Genesis 2 :13)(R.S.V.)
This became the origin of one of the basic laws for life, The Ten Commandments (Decalogue), given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.
In "The Book of the Exodus" we read: "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day and hallowed it. " (Exodus 20:8-ll)(R.S.V.)
The words in Deuteronomy 5 :12-14 are very similar, but add: "You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day." (v.15)(R.S.V.)
Thus the Lord through Moses gave the children of Israel this basic commandment to observe the Sabbath each week. Depending on our religious tradition today, it counted as either the Fourth Commandment or the Third Commandment in the list of Ten.
The origin and intent are clear; if God rested on the seventh day, so should people. The Sabbath is God's gift to His children, meant to be a time of rest from our labors for one day each week, the seventh day, beginning at sundown each Friday. Thus it is observed by our Jewish brethren from the time of Moses to this day.
Let us now look at the weekly Christian holy day.
II. The Lord's Day
The Lord's Day, the weekly Christian holy day stands in sharp contrast to the Sabbath in its origins, its purpose, and its celebration. Historically, it centers around the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Our principle source of information about Jesus is the four canonical Gospels (Good news), Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All four were most probably written in Greek, even though Jesus and His earliest followers spoke Aramaic in their daily lives and read the Sacred Scriptures in Hebrew.
The four Gospels remind us that Jesus and His Disciples were all devout Jews, and as such, observed the Sabbath each week. While Jesus was occasionally criticized for allowing certain practices on this day, He apparently always observed the Sabbath. Clearly it was for Him a holy day and a day of rest each week.
Why, then, did His later followers change the practice? Why did they no longer keep the Sabbath? Why was their holy day moved to Sunday, from the seventh day to the first day of the week? Why was the observance changed from a day of rest to an occasion for joyful celebration?
The four Gospels agree that Jesus was crucified by the Romans on Friday of Holy Week, the day Christians now call "Good Friday." His execution was most carefully timed by them to occur before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. Jesus was killed on the Cross of Calvary. He expired on Friday afternoon. His broken body was claimed by a secret follower (Joseph of Aramethia, a respected member of the Sanhedrin), hastily washed and buried in the man's own personal rock-hewn tomb. Then the Sabbath began.
Following the Sabbath, early on the first day of the week, a small band of women went to the tomb to complete the burial procedures. They found the tomb empty and the Body gone.
The Christian religion teaches that on that day long ago, God raised Jesus from the dead, to be the living, ruling, victorious Lord and Savior. Starting that day the Risen Christ was seen by many people as He continued to teach and give them encouragement.
The Day of Resurrection is called Easter, celebrated early each Spring and is the most holy day of the Christian religion. It is always on a Sunday. The other Sundays of the year are meant to be "little Easters," celebrated weekly by Christians as a witness to eternal life, God's forgiveness, God's redeeming grace so freely given in Christ.
Easter never occurs on the Sabbath. It is always on the first day of the week. Easter itself, and the weekly "little Easters," far from being a time of rest is a day of celebration, the affirmation that Jesus was dead and is alive again; an invitation from people to be "born again" into a new life of hope; baptized in the waters of forgiveness and in the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Worship services in church on the Lord's Day are a joyful celebration. They include the singing of hymns and anthems, the offering of prayers, the recommitment of life and material gifts, the welcoming of new members into the Body of Christ (the Church), and the sharing in the blessed Sacraments of the Faith.
Church historians tell us that the earliest followers of the Risen Lord celebrated both holy days each week, the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. Gradually they no longer felt the need to keep both and ceased to observe the Sabbath. For almost two thousand years, Christians have celebrated the Lord's Day each week.
III. Historical Revenue
I hope this brief historical review will help clarify some of the basic differences between these two important holy days, between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. The Spanish language itself recognizes the difference: the seventh day of the week, Saturday is called Sabado, the first day of the week, Sunday, is Domingo. Here they are again; the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
In religious practice today the first, the Sabbath is observed by our Jewish brethren. The other, the Lord's Day is observed by our Christian brethren. Christians do not observe the Sabbath. Jews do not observe the Lord's Day.
What does this mean for Masonic practices? Masons should always be most clear in their thinking about the two different religious holy days. We should not offend our Christian brethren by references to the observance of the Sabbath. Nor should we offend our Jewish brethren with reference to the Lord's Day or by calling it the Sabbath. To avoid confusion let us simply use the names of the three specific days of the week: Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
For example, a recent "communication " read in my lodge included the words: "No Masonic activities shall be scheduled on the Sabbath until after 2:30 P.M.
Literally such a statement is absurd. No devout Jew would think of scheduling any Masonic observances on the Sabbath; whether before or after 2:30 p.m. It simply is not done; for to do so would violate the Sabbath.
Christians, however, frequently schedule Masonic activities Friday evenings and on Saturdays. They are perfectly free to do so. But, they would be offended if such activities were to be scheduled on the Lord's Day at a time when worship services are held.
Listening to the 'communication," I assumed that its authors were not actually referring to the Sabbath, but to the Lord's Day. How much more accurate, less offensive, and simpler it would have beer if they had simply written: "No Masonic activities shall be scheduled on Sundays until after 2:30 p.m."
Frequently honesty, truth, and simplicity go hand in hand. There is no logical reason why these cannot apply to Masonic practices.
The Rev. Robert Bruce Clapp is Pastor Emeritus (1950-1990) of the Boulevard Presbyterian Church of Euclid Ohio. He is a graduate of Adelbert College of Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, where he was a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta. He is also a graduate of McCormick (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary in Chicago Illinois. His entire ministry was spent with organizing and serving one congregation.
W.B. Clapp is also an active Mason. He is a Past Master of Meridian Lodge 610, under the Grand Lodge of Ohio Mount Olive Chapter 189 of Royal Arch Masons of Ohio; Windermere Council 113 of Royal and Select Masons of Ohio; Eagle Commandery No. 29 Knights Templar; The Valley of Cleveland of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Al Koran Temple A.A.O.N.M.S. and Shannon Council No. 128 Knight Masons of Ireland.
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(And What We Can Do About It?)
by Pete Martinez, MPS
I am going to give my opinion of what is wrong with today's Masonry and what caused it to be this way. I am going to offer some solutions and state how I think it will all work out. You will probably not like some, or all, of what I am going to say. As with all Masonic writers, the opinions are my own and are not to be taken as a pronouncement from, or endorsement by, any organized Masonic body. I have arrived at these conclusions and opinions by study, by reading Masonic articles and books, by twenty-two years of personal experience, and by listening to many well-known and knowledgeable Masonic leaders, scholars and speakers and discussing problems with them.
Let me start with the topic of religion. Many Masons I know seem to think the fraternity is a Christian organization. If it were, we would be preaching, baptizing, saving souls, and doing all the other activities associated with our Christian churches. We would not say that Freemasonry is the handmaiden of the church because we would be a church. We would have a doctrine, our ritual probably would be different and we would have a plan of salvation. Then our critics would have less to talk about in some areas and more in others. In fact, they probably would be devoting their lives to other organizations and be leaving us alone.
The most obvious Christian thing done in our lodges is the way some Masons close prayers in the lodge. Using a Christian ending is not proper, but they use it anyway because they think they must, or they just do not realize it is improper. The prayers in any jurisdiction's manual of the lodge or monitor do not close in this way. In my mother lodge a prayer closed in this manner could offend our Jewish brethren. Of the fifty-five charter members of the lodge, about one-third were Jews, and we still have a few.
One of the beauties of Freemasonry is that men of many faiths, so long as they believe in a Supreme Being and a life hereafter, meet together in brotherhood. The Jew, the Christian, the Muslim, and others can all sit down together in harmony without getting into arguments about religion. We are a fraternity for all men of good will.
Next, let us think about membership. Today there is much concern about declining membership. In 1961 the membership of our Grand Lodge [Texas] peaked at just over 248,000. Since then we have lost around 62,000 members, a drop of 25% in membership in thirty years. Compare this with the membership just twenty-five years before the peak and put two and two together; you begin to see the problem. In 1936 the membership dropped below 100,000. This was at the end of the Great Depression when it was difficult for many to feed their families, let alone pay lodge dues.
Coming out of the Depression, our membership started a slow increase until the beginning of World War II. With the advent of World War II, many young men, as well as the population in general, became interested in belonging to some type of organization. Churches, synagogues, social clubs, and service clubs, as well as fraternal organizations, experienced rapid growth. Beginning in 1943 and continuing through 1958, the Grand Lodge of Texas experienced a tremendous growth, from about 112,000 to around 240,000 members.
The oldest lodge in our district was so busy initiating, passing, and raising candidates during the mid-40's, so I am told, that they would open the lodge on Monday morning and not close it until Saturday night. They were conferring degrees in the lodge-room, teaching candidates in any available space, cooking and feeding in the kitchen and dining room, and sleeping on cots in the basement. Investigations had to suffer. Most of the candidates were from the army base just northeast of town. How could these young men from all over the United States be properly investigated? Every lodge within a few miles of the base must have been experiencing the same activity. It stands to reason they were so involved with all this activity they didn't have time to conduct proper investigations or do anything but teach the ritual: to train parrots!
The majority of those new Masons were, probably, in their twenties. Now, fifty years later, they are in their seventies and we are burying them one by one. In today's world there is more competition for a young man's time. Young men are not attracted to a fraternity as they once were, and we are becoming an old men's club with the average age of our members in the sixties. This is of great concern to many of our Masonic leaders. We have lost two generations of our young men to the Korean and Vietnamese Wars and the drug culture. Many ways are proposed for increasing our membership, or at least of slowing the losses. From public relations to the verge of breaking a long-time rule and recruiting, we are trying to stem the time of declining membership. Each year we lose more and more to non-payment of dues. Some of this is caused by financial problems, but much is caused by lack of interest. Stated meetings are, in many cases, nothing more than a boring conversation between the master and secretary, with the secretary doing most of the talking. Not everyone likes to memorize ritual and "play act" the same old ceremonies, beautiful as they are, night after night. We are concentrating on numbers (quantity) more than on quality. Our investigating committees are not doing a good job of screening candidates. As long as the petitioner does not beat his wife and children, is not falling down drunk, or has not robbed a liquor store lately, he is considered a good candidate for the "good ol' boys club" with ritual.
What were lodges doing before the Great Depression to be a vital part of the community? Whatever it was, it was suspended with all the activity during the growth of the mid-40s, and eventually forgotten. We have lost the prestige and influence Masonry once had. The most influential men in the community in the pre1940 days were Masons . In most communities this is no longer true. Few lawyers, fewer judges, fewer clergy, doctors, educators, or other professional men are members of the Craft. The vast majority of our members are working men. I have nothing against working men; I consider myself fortunate to be one. But for the most part, the lodge has been taken over by working men; those community leaders with prestige and influence are no longer the Masons who run the lodges. In fact, the majority of these men are not even interested in becoming members.
Add to that the fact that we teach the ritual, but never sit down and discuss where it came from and what it means. Most seem to think the ritual came down from the mountain in its present form, carved in stone, and that it cannot be altered. We exalt the ritualist to the point that he is the only one who has a chance of attaining leadership in the fraternity, and in many cases he has no other qualifications.
Try to educate these members in anything but ritual and you are met with apathy or hostility because this is the only thing they know or care about. They seem to think we have been doing it this way since "time immemorial," and they do not want the boat rocked. So we follow blindly along, parroting the words, calling it Masonry, and wondering why Freemasonry has lost its prestige, influence, and dignity.
A Mason shows up for a Grand Lodge Workshop wearing dirty blue jeans, a dirty blue shirt with the tail hanging out, a filthy hat on his head, and a big plug of tobacco in his jaw. I have attended lodges where one of the three principal officers sat in his chair with his gavel in one hand and styrofoam cup in the other to spit his tobacco in. What kind of example is this for the world to see, much less a newly initiated Entered Apprentice? And yet it happens today.
Attend a lodge where the officers dress in a suit and you will see them perform better and with more dignity than those who do not. Why? Because they have pride in their lodge and Freemasonry. Somehow our ritual has been changed, because old exposures show that it was once said " It is the internal as well as the external" that counts.
I visited a lodge on their stated meeting recently, where of the twenty-odd Masons present, I was the only one wearing a coat and tie. The decorum was terrible. Most members never rose to address the Master. Most simply blurted out their comments from their seated position, unasked. What happened to the idea that a Mason should be a gentleman?
Let's go back to the subject of leadership. Many Masonic lodges have been suffering from a lack of qualified leadership. Brothers have occupied the Oriental chair simply because they possess a good memory and can recite the ritual with some degree of proficiency. It seems to make no difference that they have no grasp of parliamentary procedure as it should be practiced in a Masonic lodge, no skill with words for public speaking, no creative ability to do something unusual, no leadership ability and no common sense. They have been "Faithful and punctual" to their trust and have demonstrated their loyalty to the lodge by perfect attendance and working in the degrees at every opportunity. Add to that the fact that they do not make waves, and they are looked upon as just right for elevation to the East. And there we have it: another dull and boring year at the lodge.
About three years ago the Grand Lodge Committee on Masonic Education and Service introduced a program called L.I.F.E., an acronym for Lodge Instruction for Effectiveness. It is a course of instruction for potential lodge officers that covers many of the aspects of running a lodge. Subjects ranging from the most private affairs (what to do in the event of a Masonic trial) to public relations are dealt with in a work book. The Grand Lodge requires that each prospective master or warden complete it before he is installed.
Each lodge is required to assign one of its past masters as L.I.F.E. Counselor. He works with every member who wants to take the course, especially with the potential officers, who are required to complete it. Upon completing the course, the brother is certified to the Grand Lodge and receives a certificate of satisfactory completion. As a result of this program, more qualified brethren are ascending to the Master's Chair.
This still does not solve the problem of selecting the right brother to lead the lodge. There is a quotation in The Wizard of Oz in which the scarecrow asks the wizard to give him some brains. The wizard replies, "I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma! We are giving diplomas, but we cannot give brains.
We must select the brother with the brains, the innate intelligence if you will, to lead the lodge. There are not too many of them around, and the few that have been attracted to the fraternity do not find much of interest to give them the desire to be a leader. They are looking for something on a higher intellectual level to occupy their time. Learning and reciting ritual, without digging into the meanings and philosophy behind it is not enough for them.
Discussion around the lodge is centered around getting the words in the right order, not in the philosophy or the meaning. The real beauty in the ritual is not in how well it is performed or taught, but in what it teaches the individual, be he candidate, performer, or observer. How the individual Mason interprets and understands the symbolism is what makes it beautiful to him. When he develops his own understanding and practices it to make himself a better man, then he will be well on his way to being a true Master of Speculative Masonry.
A Mason with this understanding and background is the desired candidate for training in such a program as L.I.F.E. If he is also interested and active in the lodge, he will be the Truly Qualified Master. This is the man we must seek to lead our lodges. When we find him, we should keep him for as long as he is willing to serve, and give him all the support that he needs. We will never raise the quality of our lodges if we continue to replace the truly qualified officers on a yearly basis with someone who does not meet the standard.
We treat the office as if it were an honor to be passed around, not as a responsibility that needs the best man for the job . We certainly have seen this wisdom in the office of secretary. We get a good one who is willing to do the job and keep him as long as he will serve. The same is usually true of the treasurer. If we treated the office of master this way, it would hold a lot more honor than it does now for the one selected. You cannot run a successful business if you change the chief executive officer on an annual basis. Why should we think we can run a successful lodge, or Grand Lodge for that matter, in this way?
It is time we rethink our method of selecting leadership. We have many problems facing our fraternity in the world today; and until we establish stronger, more knowledgeable, better trained leaders, we will not improve fast enough to keep up. Successful organizations are run by strong leaders. Is it not time we became a successful organization?
We are no longer the Freemasons that our great-grandfathers were. Their fraternity had the prestige and respect of the community in which it was located. It was respected because of the community leaders who were members of the craft. We are trying in many ways to retrieve that prestige and respect, but . . .
Until we clean up our act by not only looking for the negative, but looking for the positive qualifications of our candidates;
Until we find what our lodges were doing before the Great Depression;
Until we present entertaining as well as educational programs to our lodges so that members who do not care to learn and recite ritual will be eager to attend;
Until we stop replacing the master of the lodge and the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge every year, as though we were looking for the right one, and keep a good one for as long as he will serve;
Until we restore pride in our lodges by returning dignity to our appearance, meetings, and ritual;
Until we stop all the piques and quarrels and petty jealousies among the brethren in our lodges;
Until we really teach the meaning of the words of our ritual and how to put the meaning into practice;
Until we make membership not only desirable, but harder to attain, including higher degree fees and dues;
Until we stop worrying about those who are reluctant to pay their dues and whose only support of the lodge is financial;
Until we stop worrying about making more members and devote our time and energy to making Masons;
We will continue the decline in membership, prestige, and influence until the day when a few brothers, who really understand "What Masonry is all about," return the Craft to its rightful place in our society!
There is nothing wrong with Freemasonry; what is wrong is the way we Freemasons conduct ourselves and practice our Craft. We are what is wrong with the Craft.
I may sound as if I am an opponent of Freemasonry, but I love the fraternity. I would like to see it restored to its rightful place in our society. All it will take is for Masons to become not only educated in the tenets, principles, and honest history of the Craft, but for them to take pride in our fraternity and practice what they preach.
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of the Three Degrees
by Sion M. Honea, MPS
The scripture readings of the three degrees are one of the most neglected areas of Masonic study. Except for the very rare chaplain who has memorized them, few remember what they say or where they are. Much less do we understand what they are about. How many senior deacons have fumbled through the Bible helplessly trying to find one or other of them when someone has carelessly let the marker slip from its place? And yet these passages occupy places of unusual prominence in the degrees. an indication that they are intended to be of special importance.
The recitation of each passage halts the progress of the degree cold. All action stops while the chaplain solemnly intones the words. The other participants remain as though frozen in a timeless moment. Then the passage concludes and the degree continues. Why is such emphasis placed upon these words that are spoken only once in our ritual, unlike so many others, and are not even alluded to in any subsequent explanation?
I here intend to probe into these scriptures and present a "Masonic exegesis" (as I like to call it) of them. I will base my exegesis on factual information, at least as factual as the secondary literature of modern scholarly authorities can ever be. However, the exegesis is my own interpretation of the passages in question.
I warn my students to beware concluding that they understand a text simply because they can read the words and recognize their meanings. This warning is especially appropriate in the case of our Masonic passages, and of none more so than of Psalm 133.
After the psalm's reference to brothers dwelling together in unity, the specifically Masonic content appears to wane, and the remainder becomes so much pretty, but inexplicable, imagery. What is the anointing of Aaron all about, and why is it like brotherly unity? What has the dew of Hermon to do with anything, and what is Hermon? What is the dew of Hermon doing falling on Zion, and why Zion?
Why does the psalm end with a reference to immortality, and why is it connected with Zion?
After the death of Solomon, the kingdom split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Israel was destroyed in 722/21 B.C. by Assyria, and many of its people were deported. Judah remained as a much weakened political entity until it too was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B. C. Most of its people were then carried off to Babylon in the famous Babylonian exile. Upon the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus of Persia in 539 B. C . . the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem in 538. This is the so-called post-exilic period. Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple in 520-15 B. C. and then disappeared from history.
Among the ancient Hebrews it appears that only two types of persons were anointed: kings and priests. (1) In post-exilic times, the anointing of priests was discontinued,(2) and there were no kings because the royal line of David had vanished after Zerubbabel.
The anointment of the king or priest with oil was more than merely symbolic. The oil represented the spirit of God (Hb. ru'ach) (3) descending on a person and "enthusing" or inspiring him.(4) This inspiration is the event that takes place when we read of the prophets' receiving the spirit, or as Saul receives it subsequent to anointment by Samuel (I Samuel 10:1-6). Priests also were anointed, although the sources are not clear as to whether the rite was limited to high priests only. It appears that the practice was not extended to priests of any type until the monarchy had disappeared and the leadership of the people had fallen to the high priest. (5)Psalm 133 startlingly equates brotherly unity to inspiration with the spirit of God.
Psalm 133 is a post-exilic wisdom psalm. The first two verses of the psalm present to us the idea that brotherly unity is the spirit of God coming effusively upon the anointed one. Conversely, we may conclude that the spirit is productive of loving goodwill and brotherly harmony. Then follows a reference to Hermon and Zion, with the dew from the one falling upon the other.
Mount Hermon is one of, if not the most, notable mountains in northern Israel, as well as the highest mountain in the region of Palestine. It rises to the north and east of Dan, traditionally the extreme northern limit of Israel. It was the traditional northern extremity of Joshua's conquests (Jo. 11:3). Zion was, of course, in biblical times, that hill upon which the temple stood in Jerusalem. In poetical imagery we have a linking together of the two most prominent peaks of the northern and southern kingdoms, when both had long since disappeared. The phrase poetically reunifies the severed kingdom and alludes to a golden age of harmony. This reunification did not happen in history, but a golden age is predicted in messianic literature. This messianic allusion is strengthened in the conclusion of the psalm, which states that it was on Zion that God decreed the blessing of everlasting life (chayyimmha'olam)...
The idea of everlasting life, immortality developed relatively late in Jewish religion during post-exilic times, and even late in them.(7) Perhaps the earliest definite reference to immortality may be found in Daniel, an apocalyptic book written in the mid-second century B. C. (8) "And many of those who sleep m the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life (chayye' olam) . . . (Daniel 12:2) (9)
The ideas of resurrection and everlasting life came to be associated with the coming of the messiah and the golden age that he would introduce. At that time the dead would rise, be judged, and receive their reward, immortality in the messiah's kingdom. (10) Furthermore, the messiah was to appear first on Zion at Jerusalem and there establish his reign.
In Psalm 133 we find a transformation of the pious theme of brotherly love into an apocalyptic theme of the messianic kingdom at the end of time. At that time God will pour out his spirit (ru'ach) on Jerusalem and on the house of David (Zech. 12 :1 ). The result will be the establishment of God's Kingdom under the messiah's rule.
For the Masonic context what does this mean? I argue that the three scripture passages of the degrees go together in order to be fully intelligible, but certainly some sense for us is immediate. This passage teaches the newly entered apprentice that his foremost goal should be to establish brotherly amity in the lodge. To do this he must learn to control his desires and passions. It is only through control of the individual's excessive demands that true brotherhood can arise and a new and better world be created.
Psalm 133 presents to us the goal of universal brotherhood, which we are to strive after in the lodge, but there is a greater plan also. The brotherhood we achieve in the lodge is but a small step toward establishing God's kingdom on earth, a time when people will live together without the dissension and strife that still wrack our world as much today as centuries, even millennia ago.
The selection for the second degree (Amos 7:7-8) is far less direct than that for the first. I can remember my own first impression being to notice the plumb line in the passage and suppose that was the reason for its selection. Otherwise, I presumed that it was just a vague promise by God that he would never overlook his people, that he would ever protect them. "I will never again pass them by" seemed vaguely reminiscent of the promise after the flood. I was wrong.
Amos is the earliest prophet of the Old Testament whose writings we possess. He preached to the northern kingdom, Israel (ca. 750 B.C.) during the generation before its destruction by Assyria. His message was, briefly put, that unless the people learned to obey God and created a just society, they would be destroyed. They did not and they were.
Our passage from Amos is the third of four dire visions of Amos in which God warns of Israel's impending destruction. In the first (7:1-3), God fashions a plague of locusts to devour the land. Amos pleads for Israel on the grounds of its weakness and God relents. In the second (7:4-6), God prepares destruction by fire. Amos makes the same plea and again God relents.
In the third vision God effectively cuts off Amos' pleas before they can be made. The traditional explanation of this passage is that God has set a plumb line in the midst of his people by which to judge them. The plumb thus represents an inescapable standard of behavior that Israel cannot evade. (11) Israel has received many warnings, but now God in effect says, "Here is the choice to be made, what will you do? I will not overlook your failure again.
The fourth of the visions (8:1-3) alludes to the inevitable result of failure. Using the image of the last fruits of summer, proverbially small and stunted, the prophet points to the immediacy of the end. There is probably also a pun in the Hebrew on "summer fruit" that strengthens the idea of the approaching end. (12)
It is this unspoken, ominously unspoken, element of the other three visions that makes our passage so particularly powerful. We receive only one of the four, in isolation, but we are supposed to know and understand the implications of others. Ours is like an unresolved harmony in a musical cadence, pointing to a resolution that we by our actions must avert. The last vision goes beyond the simple statement of urgent need to give us a glimpse of the resulting catastrophe.
It is a glimpse of the future, all the more emphatic and chilling, for remaining implicit only.
Taken in the light of Psalm 133, I would interpret Amos 7, Masonically, as emphasizing dramatically the immediacy of the need of our commitment to action, to work toward unity and brotherhood. Israel failed to live in the spirit of God; the result was social discord that ended in destruction. Amos 7 impresses upon us that our task is no light concern, that it is really a life and death matter, whether we see it as such or not, and this task demands our immediate decision and dedication. If we do not recognize the need and act accordingly, the results of our own failure will destroy us.
The third passage, Ecclesiastes 12-17, sums up the argument of the first two. There are many explanations of the elaborate symbolism of verses two through 6, and there is no need to recapitulate those here, for the main ideas appear in verses one and seven.
The first verse enjoins us to remember God in our youth, while we still retain vitality. This is a poignant reminder of the immediacy of the need for action. By holding mortality before our eyes the passage reinforces the urgency of the message in a way different from Amos. In Amos, destruction and ruin stand as the inevitable result of failure to act upon the message. Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a limitation on our ability to act: mortality itself. "Act now!" the verse says, "before it is too late, before you are unable to act. Otherwise there will come a day when you will realize your folly and will be unable to rectify it. " Amos speaks of historical consequences, Ecclesiastes of personal ones. We are thus presented with both these aspects of human life.
Mortality is the theme of the passage, and it is one obviously appropriate to the third degree. The seventh verse calls our attention to what is truly important. Our bodies return to the earth; our spirit (ru'ach) to God who gave it. The appearance of "spirit" here raises a problem of interpretation that I must discuss briefly.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is relatively late, written most likely in the third century B. C. (14) The modern English reader would probably take the reference to spirit to be an allusion to immortality, but this is not so. The presumed date of composition makes the concept of an immortal soul improbable for a Jewish text but not impossible. The author however, makes himself clear on the issue:
"For the fate of the sons of men and fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so does the other. They all have the same breath (ru' ach), and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit (ru'ach) of man goes upward and the spirit (ru'ach) of the beast goes down to the earth? " (3:19-21).
The author refers, apparently, to a concept in an afterlife, but rejects it as at best speculative, nothing to build a way of life on. Why then does he emphasize "spirit" in our passage?
We today tend vaguely to equate soul and spirit. This would be an error in approaching an ancient text. The subject is a complex one, (15) but it can generally be stated that "spirit" is that external life-force which gives life to an individual being, while "soul" is the internal and individual non-physical essence of that being, often conceived as being vitalized by spirit. (16)
In this particular instance ru'ach might well be translated as "breath of life," which comes from God. the writer of Ecclesiastes is trying to emphasize, in accordance with the basic attitude, that it is God who is important, that he defines and must define human life, even in the face of all seemingly contrary evidence. This is a position with which the Mason must agree.
On the other hand it is justifiable to set aside this more historical view and, in light of its specific Masonic usage, to develop our Masonic exegesis accordingly. In this way the significance of verse seven remains a reference to the individual immortal soul. I would wish to emphasize, though, that the more historical understanding is itself also entirely consistent with Masonic principles.
I would like to call attention to a limitation of this essay. I have treated the passages without regard to their historical dimension in the Craft, i.e., when they were introduced, how, in what sequence, etc. As a result, my interpretation cannot be said to have "historical" validity for any period of the Craft's history other than the present, unless it can be shown that the passages were used at that period.
In summary, I maintain that the three scripture passages should be taken together as an outline for a Masonic mission in which each individual Mason functions to carry forward a greater, all embracing program of action. This program is "messianic" in nature and has as its object the preparation for and establishment of, in effect, the kingdom of God on earth. The means to this end is the promulgation of true brotherly love. The program is not merely vital, but is the most vital of concerns, for it involves the recognition and realization of our true spiritual natures. As such it requires our immediate attention and action.
Notes
1. D.S. Russell, Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), 30405. I do not here include the rite with oil of Lev. 14:7 as of the same type, for it is for the purpose of purification rather than inspiration. It seems quite possible that the two types may have a common origin, but origin alone does not speak to the issue of how each functioned at a later date.
2. Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel trans. John McHugh (New York: McGraw Hill, 1961), 104; "Anoint, " Harper's Bible Dictionary, 1985 ed.
3. Because of typographical limitations, I transliterate the Hebrew letters het and he as ch and h, respectively
4. S. Mowinckel, He that Cometh, trans. G. W. Anderson (New York: Abingdon, 1954), 63, 7879; de Vaux, 104.
5. deVaugh, 105. Some argue that the anointment of the high priest was strictly a consecration and so of a different kind from the king's receipt of the ru'ach; "Anoint," Encyclopedia Judaica, 1971 ed.
6. The Interpreter's Bible, 1955 ed.
7. Walter Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, trans. J. A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster 1961), II, 496 ff. Russell, 333 ff.
8. Louis Hartman and Alexander Di Lella, The Book of Daniel (Garden City: Doubleday, 1977), 16.
9. This is essentially the same Hebrew phrase as in Psalm 133.
10. I regret that this is an oversimplification of messianic beliefs, which were extremely varied. I can do no better than refer the reader to R. D. Russell's book cited above for fuller treatment.
11. This traditional explanation is almost certainly wrong, but this is of no significance here. We are concerned not with the "original" meaning of the passage, but with how earlier Freemasons would have understood it. Interesting reinterpretations of the passage can be found in John Hayes, Amos: the Eighth: Century Prophet (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), 204-07; and James Mayes, Amos (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 131-33. It appears that we must wistfully bid adieu to our cherished plumb line for it has now been shown that the Hebrew word "'anak" cannot bear that translation.
12. Hayes, 207-08.
13. I have seen various interpretations of the symbolism in Masonic literature, although I cannot recall specific citations. A statement of interpretations may most conveniently be found in the discussion of the passage in The Interpreter's Bible.
14. S. Brevard Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 582
15. Excellent studies of spirit (Gk. "pneuma" ) and soul (Gk. "psyche") in both Greek and Hebrew cultures appear under their respective headings in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 1967 ea., and Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1964 ed.
16. This is a greatly oversimplified statement of the concepts, and I can hear classical and biblical scholars howling in protest. I must simply refer the reader to those treatments already cited for fuller accounts.
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The Masons in Texas' Bloodiest Feud
by Joseph E. Bennett, MPS
Texans certainly did not invent feuding, but they elevated it to a fine art form in the last half of the nineteenth century. Perhaps the Civil War had something to do with it, followed as it was with political upheaval and grinding depression on the heels of four years of bitter conflict. The corrupt Reconstruction government in Texas, installed by Washington and enforced by the U.S. Army, was obviously a factor. Other provocations, however, are generally obscured by the passage of time. Invariably, the right or wrong of the matter is subject to the interpretation of the faction telling the story.
The most famous of the Texas feuds the longest and bloodiest was the Sutton-Taylor trouble in DeWitt County. It began before the Civil War between two members of the same Masonic Lodge in Yorktown, Texas. Among the dubious distinctions resulting from the long conflict was the emergence of John Wesley Hardin as the premier gunfighter in all of Texas. The original contestants were Creed Taylor and Joseph Tumlinson, both heroes of the struggle for independence from Mexico, and both renowned Indian Fighters with the Texas Rangers. They were present as members of John J. Tumlinson's company at the battle of San Jacinto when Texas overwhelmed Santa Anna under the flag of General Sam Houston.
Joe Tumlinson was married to Creed Taylor's sister, Johanna. Conversely, Creed's brother, William Riley Taylor, was married to Tumlinson's sister, Elizabeth. For years, they lived on neighboring homesteads and were close friends. Harmony evaporated, according to Creed, when "elements feeling themselves above the law" formed a vigilante committee, and commenced meting out their particular version of Iynch-law justice. The Taylors have always considered the vigilante leaders to be Joe Tumlinson, Captain Jim Cox, John Littleton, and William E. Sutton. However, Sutton was only a young boy when the trouble began in the 1850's.
Three members of the quartet named were killed during the feud, with Joe Tumlinson alone dying of natural causes.
Creed Taylor was raised in Coleto Lodge No. 124, in Yorktown, DeWitt County, on December 19, 1853 . DeWitt County is situated about half way between San Antonio and the Gulf coast. Joe Tumlinson was raised in Victoria Lodge No. 40, in Victoria, Texas, on May 14, 1849, but affiliated with Coleto Lodge in 1852. After serving as both junior and senior warden, he was elected Worshipful Master in 1869. Both men were active in the Lodge during the 1850's, but Creed was suspended for non-payment of dues in 1861, and never reinstated. Coleto Lodge demised in 1871 .
Regardless of the fact that both men were Lodge brothers, they became involved in a bloody feud that eventually engulfed most of the population of DeWitt County. The feuding became such a concern to the Masons of the area that a peace talk was proposed. The Masonic hall in Helena, over the line in Karnes County, was selected as a neutral site. The role of arbiter was thrust upon Alemita Lodge No. 200 in Helena, with both the Taylor and Tumlinson factions heavily represented at the meeting. A truce was adopted which endured until the end of the Civil War.
Creed Taylor always had a preference for life on the fringe of civilization. That desire for solitude prompted him to follow his sons, Hays and Phillip (nicknamed Doboy), to Mason County, where he established a second homestead on the extreme outer limit of the Texas frontier. Creed retained his original homestead in Karnes County on Ecleto Creek. In November, 1867, Hays and Doboy were in the town of Mason when the stage was set for a renewal of the old feud. The boys had been in town racing horses with local sportsmen, and were celebrating a victorious day at a general store on the square, owned by J. E. Ranck. Some drunken soldiers from nearby Fort Mason started an argument with Hays which soon developed into a gunfight. When the smoke cleared, two soldiers were dead, along with a Major Thompson, who had the misfortune to intervene. Even though the Taylor brothers had not provoked the argument, they became fugitives. When the Mason County area became unhealthy for the Taylor family, they returned to the family homestead on Ecleto Creek. The boys were hunted criminals now, forced to sleep outdoors in order that they might not be surprised and captured. On Christmas Eve, 1868, an event occurred that brought the name of William Sutton prominently to the fore in the escalating feud between the Taylor-Tumlinson factions. The Tumlinson people by now had aligned with the "law enforcement" element.
William Riley Taylor, Creed's brother, had a son, William, called "Buck" by all who knew him. In 1868, Bill Sutton was a young, part-time lawman living in Clinton, the DeWitt County seat. Clinton was directly across the Guadalupe River from the town of Cuero. On the evening in question, Sutton shot and killed Buck Taylor in Clinton. In the confusion of the ambush, an innocent bystander was killed when he got in the line of fire . Sutton and Tumlinson were close friends and fellow members of the State Militia, charged with the task of bringing in Hays and Doboy Taylor for the Mason County shootings. Tumlinson was, and continued to be, the acknowledged leader of the faction fighting the Taylor clan, but it became known from that time forward as the Sutton Taylor feud.
During the spring of 1869, two unsavory characters, C. S. Bell and Jack Helm, arrived from Austin to head the State Militia in DeWitt and neighboring counties. A blood bath followed their arrival, claiming at least 21 lives within a few weeks. Hays Taylor was one of the casualties. He was killed in a bloody attempt to rescue his father. Creed Taylor had been taken prisoner by the militia and was being held at the family home on Ecleto Creek. In the same melee, Doboy was wounded, but managed to escape to the town of Kerrville, in Kerr County. He died there in a gunfight in 1871, following an argument over a matter unrelated to the feud. The Taylor clan found itself without field leadership temporarily. New leaders emerged in 1872 .
The year of 1872 brought a turning point in the Sutton-Taylor troubles. That summer Bill Sutton and four cohorts fatally wounded Creed's brother, Pitkin, during a raid on his home near Cuero. When Pitkin died six months later, his sons, Bill and Jim, became leaders of the Taylor clan, vowing vengeance on their father's killers. On April 1, 1873, they made good their threat by walking into a Cuero saloon and gunning down Bill Sutton. He survived, by some miracle. After a two-month convalescence, Sutton moved to the Gulf coast town of Victoria, and a more peaceful neighborhood. The old State Militia had been replaced in 1870 by the State Police, a much-despised unit created by Reconstruction Governor Edmund J. Davis. In April, 1873, their first free post-war election was held in November. Even though the State Police were just a memory, Jack Helm remained as Sheriff of DeWitt County.
During May, 1873, John Wesley Hardin had entered the Sutton-Taylor arena as an active participant. He was related to the Taylors by marriage, inasmuch as his cousin, Jeff Hardin, was married to Creed's daughter. Wes was born on May 26, 1853, in Bonham Texas. He was the son of James G. Hardin, a God-fearing circuit preacher who named him after the famed Methodist minister, John Wesley. Further similarity to the renowned clergyman ended with the name. Young Hardin was not yet sixteen when he killed his first victim, a Negro bully he met on a road near his home. This was the beginning of a long list of shooting victims attributed to Wes. By the time he was twenty-four, the score was reputed to be between 35 and 40. Hardin's shooting prowess spread throughout Texas, and made him the most-feared gunfighter in the west.
Hardin was not a Freemason, but his father, James, and his older brother, Joe. G., were members of Comanche Lodge No. 316, which demised in 1876. Joe G. Hardin, an attorney, was Iynched in the town of Comanche on June 5, 1874. He was executed because of his family relationship to the infamous killer when a frustrated mob vented their wrath over the shooting of one Charley Webb on the streets of the town. Wes killed Webb on the occasion of his 21st birthday, May 26, 1874. We are, however, a little ahead of our story.
By the first of May, 1873, Jack Helm had decided to vacate the office of Sheriff of DeWitt County. He had relocated to a blacksmith shop at Albuquerque, in Wilson County, where he was reported to be working on an invention. That's where Wes Hardin and Jim Taylor (Pitkin's son) caught up with him.
Helm did his best to defend himself with a knife when confronted by Wes and Jim, to no avail. Hardin was carrying a shotgun, thus the struggle was brief. All the old Taylor scores with Jack Helm were settled with a blast of buckshot. Shortly thereafter, Captain Jim Cox, Jake Christman, and Joe Tumlinson, were returning to Yorktown, not far from Cuero. Wily old Joe smelled danger and took an alternate road. Cox and Christman continued into an ambush and died instantly in a hail of gunfire. Popular opinion credited Hardin with participation in the murders.
Wes stayed around DeWitt County for a year before drifting north into Comanche County where his father and brother, Joe G., lived. Jim Taylor accompanied Wes to Comanche. They surrounded themselves with a gang and began to rustle great numbers of cattle in both Comanche and neighboring Brown County, according to local historians. They became familiar sights in the towns of Comanche and Brownwood, spending money freely and terrorizing the citizens with their rowdiness . Sheriff J . H . Gideon of Brown County assigned a young local, C.W. "Charley" Webb, to keep Hardin and his associates under surveillance. Wes had run Webb off the Williams Ranch in April, 1874, where he and his gang had hung a hapless Mexican, calling him a meddler and warning the deputy to stay out of Comanche County .
On May 26, 1874, Webb decided to visit his sweetheart in the town of Comanche. Unfortunately, he ran across John Wesley Hardin. When the smoke cleared, Webb was dead, with a bullet in his heart. Charley was buried in the old Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood under an enormous live oak tree. On his fading grave marker, a Masonic emblem is still prominent. The annual return of Brownwood Lodge No . 279 to the Grand Lodge of Texas for the year 1874, listed Webb as an Entered Apprentice, and noted his death. Hardin was indicted for murder over the shooting and was eventually tried, following his capture at Pensacola, Florida, on August 23, 1877.
Wes Hardin entered the Texas Penitentiary at Huntsville on October 5, 1877, to begin serving a 25year sentence for second degree murder. There was insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction of murder in the first degree, thus his life was spared. During his long confinement, Wes undertook the study of law, and became superintendent of the prison Sunday school. It was his ambition to pass the bar examination upon his release and qualify for the practice of law. Wes was pardoned by Governor J.S. Hoggon March 16,1894, after serving 16 years of his sentence. His wife passed away a few months before his release, denying Wes the happy reunion he had longed for so many years. He left prison with high hopes for the future, and appeared to be completely rehabilitated.
For a time, Hardin tried to be a worthwhile citizen. He practiced law briefly in Gonzales County, and completed an autobiography started in prison. By 1895, he was living in El Paso, where he rented an office and opened a law practice. Before long, however, he resumed the bad habits of his wild days, drinking and gambling. He took up with a prostitute, Helen Beulah Morose, the wife of a petty rustler and thief. She sought Hardin's legal assistance on behalf of her husband, Martin Morose, hiding in the Mexican city of Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso. The winsome Helen soon forgot her husband, and became Hardin's paramour and drinking partner.
Morose was enticed across the Rio Grande to El Paso by stories of his wife's indiscretions with Wes Hardin. He was riddled by gunfire as he stepped off the bridge on the American side. Rumor tied Wes to the scheme. Morose was known to be carrying $4,000.00 on his person, but it was missing when the body was recovered. Hardin's sudden prosperity did not escape the notice of the sporting crowd in El Paso. The money was never recovered, nor was Wes tried for complicity in the matter.
The saga of John Wesley Hardin ended on August 19, 1895, when John Selman, a local constable, stepped into the Acme Saloon in El Paso and shot him in the back of the head. The fabled gunman was rolling dice on the bar and was never aware of the presence of his killer. Selman was known to have a grievance against Hardin, but he was acquitted of any wrongdoing in the shooting. The court disregarded Selman's personal record as a notorious outlaw with a long record of criminal activity. Hardin was 42 years of age when he died, a mere caricature of the legendary gunman of his Sutton-Taylor days.
Back in DeWitt County in 1874, the feud raged on. In March of that year Jim and Bill Taylor (Pitkin's sons), caught up with Bill Sutton as he boarded the steamer "Clinton" at the Texas gulf of Indianola. While Sutton and a companion, Gabriel Slaughter, stood at the rail prior to departure, the Taylor brothers shot both men from the dock. Only Tumlinson of the four blamed by the Taylors for starting the feud still lived. Worshipful Brother Joe was to die in November, 1874 of natural causes. after embracing the church and renouncing his past sins. Sadly, even his passing did not terminate the feud.
Jim Taylor fled to Comanche County with Wes Hardin, as previously stated. Bill Taylor was arrested in April, 1874, at Cuero by the town marshal, Reuben Brown. Marshal Brown was sympathetic to the Sutton cause, and prudently concluded that he should take Bill to another jail or risk his rescue by the Taylor clan. Bill was taken to Galveston for safekeeping. When a mob from Brownwood traveled to Comanche and Iynched two members of Wes Hardin's gang, including Wes' brother, Joe G., Jim Taylor was not among the victims. The Dixon brothers died without a murmur at the hands of the Iynch mob. The hangmen ignored Joe G. Hardin's protest that he was not involved in his brother's activities, reasoning that he was a lawyer and would probably defend Wes in court. That was justification for the hanging, in their minds.
Back in DeWitt County, a great outcry from the citizens prompted the governor of Texas to order a company of Rangers into the area, under the command of the famous Captain L.H. McNelly, a member of McClellan Lodge No. 159, in Burton, Texas. Law enforcement in the county was non-existent, and large roving bands of both Sutton and Taylor followers recognized no authority except the law of the gun and their own leaders. Being hopelessly outnumbered by the feudists, the Rangers could do little to improve conditions. Bill Taylor's impending trial for the Sutton shooting, scheduled to begin in August, 1874, was deferred. Taylor was returned to Galveston from Indianola, and would be there a year before the trial was rescheduled. Meanwhile, Bill languished in jail.
Nature took a hand with events on September 15, 1875, as Bill Taylor sat in his Indianola cell awaiting the beginning of the long-delayed trial. The Gulf coast was struck by one of the most savage storms in memory. The port of Indianola was inundated by hurricane-force winds and severe flooding by incoming tides. As the storm increased in intensity, the citizens of the town took refuge in their new courthouse. It was a concrete structure, situated on the highest ground in the area, and offered the only protection. The prisoners were released from the jail in order that they, too, could flee to safety. Among them was Bill Taylor. With total disregard for his own safety, Bill labored for many hours heroically rescuing victims from the raging waters. When the storm abated, he had vanished on a horse commandeered from a local Negro.
On November 17,1875, Marshal Reuben Brown of Cuero was playing cards in the Exchange Saloon. Five silent figures stepped through the door and opened fire, killing Brown instantly. Rube Brown had paid the price for his role in arresting and jailing Bill Taylor. About a month after the Brown killing Bill appeared at Clinton, the county seat. Taylor historians say he came in to give himself up for trial. The Sutton faction claimed that his intention was to burn the courthouse and destroy all the accumulated testimony against the Taylor clan. Bill's sudden appearance alarmed the citizens of Clinton.
Sheriff Weisegar called for additional support from Deputy Dick Hudson across the river in Cuero. Hudson responded promptly, with plenty of help. Taylor and two companions had left their horses in care of a livery stable in Clinton. When the lawmen began to gather, Bill and his men decided to flee, and attempted to reclaim their mounts. The horses had been intentionally locked away, and escape was impossible. Forced into a battle against overwhelming odds, Bill Taylor and his two companions died in a withering hail of lead from Hudson and his posse.
Prominent among the lawmen in Hudson's posse, was young Willie Cox, son of Captain Cox slain earlier by the Taylor forces. Following the episode, Hudson and his posse were tried for murder, but exonerated on the grounds that they were responding to a lawful order. Once more the Taylor family was without young leadership.
Bill's brother, Jim, who was involved with him in the Sutton shooting at Indianola, was still a fugitive. He was eventually captured in Coleman, Texas, and tried for his criminal activities. He was acquitted and never returned to DeWitt County .
The feud smoldered for years, but without the large bands of supporters who roamed DeWitt County in the early days. Still, the killings continued sporadically until the turn of the century. Willie Cox was implicated in the murder of a Dr. Brassell, along with two companions. Cox and his henchmen were tried and convicted of murder in April, 1878. The paperwork in the case mysteriously disappeared, and the entire matter had to be reopened. The final judgement was that the indictment was flawed and the defendants were admitted to bail. Cox fled to New Mexico. Years later, he became prominent as W. W. Cox, a wealthy rancher in the Tularosa area, north of Las Cruces a veritable pillar of the community. Litigation in the Brassell murder case ended in 1899, with the last defendant, Dave Augustine, escaping punishment in the matter. The long Sutton-Taylor feud was ended at last.
Creed Taylor outlived most of the feudists. He survived to the age of 86, passing away in Kimble County in 1906, with little but bitter memories to provide comfort. Today, the historic port of Indianola is just a memory. It never recovered from the storm of 1875, but hung on until the second and even more destructive tempest finished off the town in 1886. When the railroad came to Cuero instead of Clinton, it struck a death blow to the county seat. The same storms that pummeled the Gulf coast raked Clinton, too. Today, nothing remains of Clinton except the cemetery, half covered by the silt of those storms of yesteryear. Prominent among the discernible grave markers are several Masonic emblems engraved upon the erroding surfaces.
Today, the town of Cuero itself appears to be in the backwater of the economy. Little business activity is evident on the quiet streets, and signs of the oil boom of the 1970's have vanished. The Chamber of Commerce brochures proclaim Cuero to be "the turkey capital of the world," and signs at the city limits chronicle the same message. Nowhere in the litany of the promotional material does one find a solitary mention of their most famous historic event, the Sutton-Taylor feud. A strange coolness greets most inquiries about the altercation. Most people disclaim any knowledge of it, or sometimes, one is referred to a person labeled as the "local expert," without much success for the effort. Even the locations of the several Taylor family cemeteries are difficult to ascertain, and more difficult to visit .
The strange frigidity concerning past feuds is not confined to DeWitt County. In the town of Mason, which had a bloody feud of its own in 1875, one finds a similar passive resistance to inquiry. Even the Lodge in Mason declines to discuss any of the members who took part in their "Hoodoo War" and there were several.
Scores of Texas citizens died as a result of the Sutton-Taylor troubles. Both sides fervently believed their cause to be right, and many died defending that point of view, with nothing much gained. The bonds of Masonic fellowship between Creed Taylor and Joseph Tumlinson proved insufficient to quench the fires of hatred. Both were old comrades-in-arms during the fight for independence and distinguished Texas Rangers. Descendants of both men served valiantly in the Ranger service until it was integrated into the Department of Public Safety in 1935. Nor were the ties of marriage between the families strong enough to stay the deadly feud that filled so many graves in DeWitt County. It was a bloody and deplorable era, in which primarily young men paid the supreme cost.
The feuds of Texas have fascinated researchers for years, and much information has been unearthed concerning that unique facet of the state's history . Today, when one stands in one of those old neglected DeWitt County cemeteries, and listens to the wind moan through the branches of the twisted live oaks, it seems as if the sound of many long-dead voices are faintly audible. Somehow, the faded Masonic emblems on the markers seem strangely out of place.
References and Source Material
John Wesley Hardin, The Life of John Wesley Hardin, As Written By Himself, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1961.
T.R. Havens, Something About Brown, A History of Brown County, Banner Printing Company, Brownwood, Texas, 1958.
D.E. Kilgore, A Ranger Legacy, Madrona Press, Inc., Austin, Texas, 1973.
Leon Clare Metz, The Shooters, Mangan Books, El Paso, Texas, 1976; John Selman, Gunfighter, Hastings House, New York, 1966, U. of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
Pete Normand, The Texas Masons, the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in the History of Texas, Brazos Valley Masonic Library and Museum, College Station, Texas, 1986.
Charles L . Sonnichsen, I'll Die Before I'll Run, The Story of the Feuds of Texas, Devin-Adair Co., New York, 1951, 1952.
A.J. Sowell, Texas Indian Fighters, State House Press, Austin, Texas, 1986.
Ruth Griffin Spence, The Nice and Nasty In Brown County, Banner Printing Company, Brownwood Texas, 1988.
Transactions Of The Texas Lodge Of Research, A.F.& A.M., June 18, 1977 March 18, 1978, Volume III, Waco, Texas.
Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas Rangers, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935.
Archives of the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F &A.M., Waco, Texas.
Field trips to DeWitt, Mason, Kimble, Karnes, and Brown Counties.
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by Allen E. Roberts, FPS
Reprinted in the Empire State Mason is the inaugural address of Sheldon K. Blank, MPS, Grand Master of Masons in New York. It was good to read that he's going to build on a previous leadership program that will be a "Masonic program prepared by Masons, for Masons and presented by Masons. " Happily he goes on to say: "Leadership and management are the stones and mortar of leadership and management to build a thriving, vibrant and relevant organization for the year 2000. To accomplish this we must seek out the very best men with the very best skills in leadership and management. Then we must place them in places of authority at the local Lodge level, the District level and in Grand Lodge. Such antiquated practices as 'rotation', 'who's turn?' it is, or the 'Good old Boys' in the back room 'making the selections' , must be put aside forever. " How refreshing are these, and other such statements!
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C. Victor Ramey, MPS, GHP in Kentucky, reports in the Royal Arch Mason that he has read many articles on leadership in several publications, including The Philalethes. He has concluded: "We live in a society in which passive learning is promoted and perhaps even expected. That is, someone else stimulates our senses, entertains us, or does our work. Passive learning has become a part of American Society and therefore a common part of our lives. Unfortunately, the attitude of passive learning has transferred into the Lodge, into the church, and into other groups within our society." He fears passivity has invaded the leadership of many groups. His conclusions are all true.
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Ralph Head, MPS, Editor of California FreeMason, wrote "They Could Have Told Me" as an editorial. Among the things he said he could have been told: Freemasonry is not a secret society; friends could (and can) be informed of the purposes of Freemasonry; many founders of America were Freemasons; something of the history of the Craft; about those "freedom-loving people throughout the world" who were Freemasons, and that because of this Freemasonry "was banned by the Communists, the Fascists and the Nazis"; "to gain the most from my Masonic experience I must be an active Mason. "He regrets he wasn't given a job to do right from the start, no matter how menial. He suggests it may be wise to educate new members "about Masonry' glorious past and its exciting future right at the beginning. " But he's happy that he "learned the hard way through search, inquiry, and exploration." (So am I. It kinda sticks with you that way.)
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The message of Francis G. Paul, SGC, in The Northern Light is loaded with wisdom. "One of the most harmful characteristics in any organization is short-term thinking"; his first sentence speaks volumes. He asks several pertinent questions: Do we really want Freemasonry to be capable of projecting a national image? Do we really want our fraternity to be capable of serving the needs of younger men in the years ahead? Are we serious about meeting the challenges of our older members? Would we better serve the fraternity and its members if we took more seriously the qualifications for Masonic leadership? Can we come to the realization that our buildings are not Freemasonry? He comments on each question. Perhaps we should write out our own observations. As we do, consider what Paul said: " Unless we deal with such questions [and others] boldly, they will come back and continue to haunt us. Worse yet if we leave them unanswered, our entire fraternity will be undermined. "
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A reader objects (and perhaps rightly) to me classifying the Jesuits as "the most intelligent group in the Roman church. " He believes that statement is "brutally uncivil" because it can make other groups feel inferior. I really don't know enough about the Roman Catholic church to make such a broad statement. Reckon I'm prejudiced because the Jesuits appear to look favorably on Freemasonry. The same reader observes: "It amuses me to hear calls for Christian brotherhood when the concept of patriarchy, which is the very basis for our civilization and religious concepts, is under violent and pervasive attack. Our nation flourished as a 'melting pot, ' but now the demand is made in the Congress that we function as a 'stew.' Masonic groups haggle about jurisdiction, when projections indicate that by 2010 A.D. Freemasonry in this country will be virtually extinct due to the failure of our leadership to lead. "
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The Pennsylvania Freemason reports the Pittsburgh Police Chief, Mayer A. DeRoy, was made a Mason-At Sight. He received all three degrees in one day. The Master Mason's degree was conferred by a team of policemen in uniform. They are members of the Pittsburgh Pin Club--composed of policemen that are Freemasons.
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From various sources we learn the 275th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of England was a great success. Ninety-one Grand Lodges were represented and almost 15,000 were in attendance. The Grand Master, His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent, presided. A letter was read from Queen Elizabeth congratulating the Craft on the memorable occasion.
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OOOOPS! ! Did I goof? (If so, it's nothing unusual.) EMESSAY Notes took an item from the "Philatelic Freemason" which claimed one Lester E. Wire of Salt Lake City, Utah, was the inventor of the traffic light. The "Philatelic" said it got its information from the US Postal Service which issued a stamp in 1965 that "showed Bro. Wire's invention on the Traffic Safety commemorative." My report came from EMESSAY Notes. From other sources I'm told the inventor was Garrett A. Morgan of Cleveland, Ohio. The World Book Encyclopedia credits Morgan. What say you?
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Breathes there anyone who hasn't heard of the destruction created by Hurricane Andrew? Help has poured into Florida and Louisiana from all over the country. The Red Cross and Salvation Army have massed volunteers to help the victims. The Federal Government has contributed all types of assistance. The Masonic Service Association has been asked to do what it does best--help the distressed. On behalf of the affected Grand Lodges it is asking for contributions. The Philalethes Society has sent along its grant. You, your Lodge and Grand Lodge may send yours to: The Masonic Service Association, 8120 Fenton St., Silver Springs, MD 20910 (mark it for "disaster relief"). As always, every penny contributed will go for its intended purpose; the MSA deducts nothing for "overhead, administration" or anything else.