Part 13 (2/2)

Masonic phrases and allusions--often alh the poee_, so much admired, there is _The Widow of Windsor_, such stories as _With the Main Guard_, _The Winged Hats_, _Hal o' the Draft_, _The City Walls_, _On the Great Wall_, many examples in _Kim_, also in _Traffics and Discoveries_, _Puck of Pook's Hill_, and, by no reat short stories of the world

Part III--Interpretation

WHAT IS MASONRY

/ _I aether substantial concern It has to be seen in a certain way, under certain conditions Some people never see it at all Youti_

_When you enter it you hear a sound--a sound as of soh, and you will learn that it isof human hearts, of the nameless music of men's souls--that is, if you have ears to hear If you have eyes, you will presently see the church itself--a loo sheer from floor to dome The work of no ordinary builder!_

_The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of heroes; the sweet flesh of nable; the faces of little children laugh out from every corner stone; the terrible spans and arches of it are the joined hands of cohts and spaces are inscribed the nus of all the drea and built upon_

_Sooes on in deep darkness; soht; now under the burden of unutterable anguish; now to the tune of great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry of thunder Soht-tis of the comrades at work up in the dome--the comrades that have climbed ahead_

--CR KENNEDY, _The Servant in the House_ /

CHAPTER I

_What is Masonry_

I

What, then, is Masonry, and what is it trying to do in the world?

According to one of the _Old Charges_, Masonry is declared to be an ”ancient and honorable institution: ancient no doubt it is, as having subsisted froed to be, as by natural tendency it conduces to h an ee Monarchs theht it derogatory froe the scepter for the trowel, have patronized our mysteries and joined in our assey is more than justified by sober facts, it does not tell us what Masonry is, much less its mission and ministry to mankind If noe turn to the old, oft-quoted definition, we learn that Masonry is ”a systeory and illustrated by syh, but it is obviously inadequate, thethe ives no hint of a world-encircling fellowshi+p and its far-ra influence Another definition has it that Masonry is ”a science which is engaged in the search after divine truth;”[163] but that is vague, indefinite, and unsatisfactory, lacking any sense of the uniqueness of the Order, and as applicable to one science as to another For surely all science, of whatever kind, is a search after divine truth, and a physical fact, as Agassiz said, is as sacred as athe presence of God

Still another writer defines Masonry as ”Friendshi+p, Love, and Integrity--Friendshi+p which rises superior to the fictitious distinctions of society, the prejudices of religion, and the pecuniary conditions of life; Love which knows no lirity which binds man to the eternal law of duty”[164]

Such is indeed the very essence and spirit of Masonry, but Masonry has no monopoly of that spirit, and its uniqueness consists, rather, in the forracious and benign spirit which is the genius of all the higher life of hu as distinctly featured as a statue by Phidias or a painting by Angelo Definitions, like delays, erous, but perhaps we can do no better than to adopt the words of the Geriven:

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_Masonry is the activity of closely unitedsymbolical forms borrowed principally from the mason's trade and fro morally to ennoble the about a universal league of mankind, which they aspire to exhibit even now on a sin until man had learned to fashi+on for himself a settled habitation, and thus the earliest of all human arts and crafts, and perhaps also the noblest, is that of the builder

Religion took outward shape when s, and surrounded it with a sanctuary of faith and awe, of pity and consolation, and piled a cairn to raves where their dead lay asleep History is no older than architecture How fitting, then, that the idea and art of building should be reat order ofof hu to ennoble and beautify life, it finds in the common task and constant labor of man its sense of hu and built upon,” and its emblems of those truths which make for purity of character and the stability of society Thus Masonry labors, linked with the constructive genius ofas it reainst it can prosper

One of the s in human history is that certain ideal interests have been set apart as especially venerated a all peoples Guilds have arisen to cultivate the interests eion; to conserve the precious, hard-won inheritances of hu their power to bear upon the coh that colory of the Ideal--as the sun shoots its transfiguring rays through a great dull cloud, evoking beauty froh interests and brings to their service a vast, world-wide fraternity of free and devout men, built upon a foundation of spiritual faith and moral idealism, whose mission it is to make men friends, to refine and exalt their lives, to deepen their faith and purify their dreae for truth, beauty, righteousness, and character More than an institution, more than a tradition, more than a society, Masonry is one of the forms of the Divine Life upon earth

No one racious, an order so benign, an influence so prophetic of the present and future upbuilding of the race

There is a common notion that Masonry is a secret society, and this idea is based on the secret rites used in its initiations, and the signs and grips by which its nize each other Thus it has come to pass that the main aims of the Order are assureat secret is that it has no secret_ Its principles are published abroad in its writings; its purposes and laws are known, and the ti come down froht the protection of seclusion, if it still adheres to secret rites, it is not in order to hide the truth, but the better to teach it more impressively, to train men in its pure service, and to prorips serve as a kind of universal language, and still racious cover for the practice of sweet charity--ht without hurting his self-respect If a few are attracted to it by curiosity, all rereat historic fellowshi+p of the seekers and finders of God[167] It is old because it is true; had it been false it would have perished long ago When all men practice its simple precepts, the innocent secrets of Masonry will be laid bare, its mission accomplished, and its labor done