freemasonry
- Freemasonry is many things -
Courtesy in Society - Concern for the unfortunate
Fairness in Work - Forgiveness for the Penitent
Honesty in Business - Help for the Weak
Kindness in the Home - Love for one another
- above all -
Resistance towards the Wicked - and Reverence for God
Freemasonry - A way of Life
As printed in the Erie Co. Masonic News
A man is walking through the recreation ground of his local park notices a circket match being played between two lodges. "What's the score he asks a spectator watching from the side-lines. The other replies "It's a match between the Masons , it's a secret."
THE POINT WITHIN
by Bro.R. Gould
The point within the circle
the boundry line for man
Stay within it's limits
and do the best you can
The point is the man
the circle his world within
That he may do the best he can
not to yield to a world of sin
Up from the murky depths,
a single stalk of life
seeking the light.
Up from where its roots draw
life from ancient remains;
ever upward.
Breaking out of darkness;
touching the sun.
Take a Look
By Thomas W. Olzak
When was the last time you looked up into the night sky and actually saw the stars? I mean really saw
them. When was the last time you contemplated the fragile crystalline beauty of a snow flake, glistening in the winter sun? If you are like most of us, it has been a long time. We are robbing ourselves of the uplifting effects of the beauty of the Great Architect's
creation.
Modern man moves through life surrounded by natural wonders he fails to comprehend. We make excuses for not taking the time to view the world around us. We are always too busy focusing on how to make the next dollar, or worrying about keeping up with our neighbor. We move through life as if surrounded by a fog through which we see nothing but what is directly in front of our face.
Freemasonry encourages us to clear away this fog through the of study the liberal arts and sciences. We don't need a Liberal Arts degree to begin to appreciate what the Great Architect has given us. We just need to open our hearts and minds.
Close your eyes and listen to the music of masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach. Although it may take genius to put their great works on paper, it only takes an open heart to realize the extant eternal harmonies in their works. They lift our spirits to the highest heavens if we but lose ourselves in them. When we open our hearts to the harmonies of life, we find that peace and kindness come of their own accord.
A strict study of Astronomy provides us with facts and figures about the
vast universe that surrounds us. These facts and figures
do not tell all, however. If we close our eyes and use our imagination,
we can see the planets, the stars, and the galaxies rolling through limitless space;
all governed by the harmonious law of nature.
Think of the immensity of that which the Great Architect has provided for us to contemplate. If we simply attempt to expand our comprehension to surround the heavens, we must begin to realize our humble place in the vast scheme of things.
Our egocentric world view begins to disappear.
We begin to look beyond what is right in front of noses.
Freemasonry speaks of the origin of structure and order; that structure,
order, and beauty arose from a study of nature. Although we seem to have forgotten how to learn from nature, a thoughtful study of the arts and sciences opens paths to wonders new and inspiring. As we begin to appreciate the life and beauty in our world, we also begin to live in harmony with ourselves and with others. We walk the path to the East with our eyes open and with our spirits soaring;
reaching for the spiritual awakening promised by our ritual and by the
Book of Holy Scripture.
Freemasonry is kindness in the home, honesty in business, courtesy in
society, fairness in work, pity and concern for the unfortunate,
resistance toward evil, help for the weak, forgiveness for the penitent, love for one another, and above all reverence and love for God.
Freemasonry is many things, but, most of all:
FREEMASONRY IS A WAY OF LIFE
The picture was breathtaking.When i saw it i recollect the following
lines
Unseen here act dim huge world-energies
And only trickles and currents are our share
Our mind lives far off from the authentic Light
Catching at little fragments of the Truth,
In a small corner of Infinity,
Our lives are inlets of an oceans's force.
by
SR AUROBINDO
savitri,BookTwo
On Beauty
And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."
Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?
The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the
dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her
leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."
In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping
upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing
with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
All these things have you said of beauty.
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you
hear though you shut yourears.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and your are the mirror.
From The prophet
Kahlil Gibran
Do you know the meaning of " cable's length" in the passage "cable's
length from the shore"?
It is a marine unit of length; about 100 fathoms or 600 feet.
Q. How were you first prepared to be made a Steward?
A. My coat and shirt sleeves were rolled up, and a corkscrew placed in
my hands.
Q. What is a corkscrew?
A. An instrument fashioned like a winding staircase which our ancient
Brethren ascended to receive their beer.
Q. Where did they receive it?
A. In a convivial room above the chamber.
Q. How did they receive it?
A. In Bottles and beer mugs.
Q. Why in this peculiar manner?
A. In Beer mugs, well knowing they could replenish, or in
Bottles from the great reliance they placed in the mildness of the
brew in those days.
Q. Name the two brands placed here?
A. That on the left King fisher, and that on the right
'kalyani.
Q. What are their seperate and conjoint significances?
A. The former denotes No.1 and the latter XXX and when taken together
INSTABILITY.
Q. What is beer?
A. A peculiar product of chemistry veiled in mystery and illustrated
by labels.
Q. How is it depicted?
A. By a couple of Hops close to a
barrel of water.
How to use the Compasses is one of the finest of all arts, asking for the highest skill of a Master Mason. If he is properly instructed, he will rest one point on the innermost center of his being and with the other draw a circle beyond which he will not go, until he is ready and able to go farther. Within a wise limit he will live and labor and grow, and when he reaches the outer rim of the circle he will draw another, and attain to a full-orbed life, balanced, beautiful, and finely poised. No wise man dare forget the maxim, "In nothing too much," for there are situations where a word too much, a step too far, means disaster. If he has a quick tongue, a hot temper, a dark mood, he will apply the Compasses, shut his weakness within the circle of his strength, and control it. Strangely enough, even a virtue, if unrestrained and left to itself, may actually become a vice. Praise, if pushed too far, becomes flattery. Love often ends in a soft sentimentalism, flabby and foolish. Faith, if carried to the extreme by the will to believe, ends in over-belief and superstition. It is the Compasses that help us to keep our balance, in obedience to the other Greek Maxim: "Think as a Mortal" - that is remember the limits of human thought. An old mystic said that God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. But such an idea is all a blur. Our minds can neither grasp nor hold it. Even in our thought about God we must draw a circle enclosing so much of His nature as we can grasp and realize, enlarging the circle as our experience and thought and vision expand.
Many a man loses all truth in his impatient effort to reach final truth, and who seeks to impose his dogma upon others, who becomes the bigot, the fanatic, the persecutor.
Cowan: A Masonic term which means intruder or one who accidentally enters where he is not wanted. This is not to be confused with the word eavesdropper or one who deliberately tries to overhear and see what is not meant for his eyes and ears.
Artificer: A skilled worker, craftsman. A person adept at designing and constructing, an inventor.
When is a man a Mason?
Joseph Fort Newton answers this question in the last paragraph of "The Builders", probably the most popular of all Masonic books, in these words:
"When he can look out over the rivers, the hills and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope and courage, which is the root of every virtue.
When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic and as lonely as himself; and seeks to know, to forgive and to love his fellow man.
When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea even in their sins - knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.
When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them and above all, how to keep friends with himself.
When he loves flowers, can hunt birds without a gun and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child.
When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.
When starcrowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead.
When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response.
When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and see majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be.
When he can look into a wayside puddle and sees something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin.
When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept
faith with himself, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song; glad to live, but not afraid to die!
Such a man has found the only secret of Freemasonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world".
The Common Gavel, used by operative Masons to break off the corners of rough stones, is in speculative Freemasonry a symbol of POWER .
The Twenty-four-inch gauge is an instrument used by operative Masons to measure and lay out their work, but in speculative Freemasonry we are taught by its symbolism to divide our time into three equal parts, whereby are found eight hours for refreshment and sleep, eight for our usual vocations and eight for the service of God and humanity. There is an object in view and an end to be attained. It is, therefore, a symbol of PURPOSE.
Power is the ability to act so as to produce change land cause event.
Purpose is the idea or object kept before the mind as an end of effort or action.
The day and generation in which we live pulsates with power, the world is held in place by dynamic oppositions, the universe is vibrant with force and man is a part of the divine energy. (VEDATAHTRI MAHARISHI ALSO SAYS THE SAME)The greatest think in God's created universe is a man. In him, according to the teachings of Freemasonry, is the eternal flame, the indestructible image of the living God. The power of man cannot be defined, cannot be fenced in, because it transcends all
finite standards of measurement.
Power directed by a bad purpose is positive destruction. Alexander the Great was the most powerful man of antiquity. He conquered the world, but could not master himself. Intent on lust and luxury, dissipation and destruction, his purposes were bad, and at the age of forty-two he died in a drunken fit.
Charles the First of England insisted on the divine right of kings. he had his courts decree that the King could do no wrong, filled the Tower of London with political prisoners, tortured and decapitated his enemies, claimed the right of life and death over his subjects, and exercised the unlimited power of an absolute monarch. His purposes were bad, and under Oliver Cromwell his career was canceled, the executioner swung an axe and the head of Charles the first rolled in the dust.
Power directed by a good purpose is constructive, and results in achievement. It keeps the cars on the tracks and the wires in the air, it turns the wheels of man's industry and carries the commerce of continents as upon a mighty shoulder.
Warren Hastings was born in 1732; his mother was a servant girl who died when the baby was two days old; his father deserted him, so he grew up as a charity child. He had a hungry mind and obtained an education as best he could. When eighteen years of age he shipped for India, working his own passage. He had a purpose in his life and there came a power that enabled him to establish the Bengal Asiatic Society, to found colleges out of his own funds and in his own name. Disraeli said English supremacy in India was the direct result of this man's work. Today the memory of Warren Hastings is linked with the greatness of the British Empire.
In his early manhood Abraham Lincoln stood before a slave market in New Orleans. Upon the block was a young woman, stripped to the waist. he heard the auctioneer describe her fine points and estimate her value. He became conscious, not simply of a black form, but of life divinely given. His soul responded to the challenge of a supreme purpose and he said, "If I have a chance to strike this institution I will strike it hard." Through the years there came to him the power to blaze out the path and light up the way for a new baptism of human freedom, finally to seal that purpose with a martyr's blood and ascend to the throne of God with four million broken fetters in his hands.
Now the whole world joins in a myriad-voiced chorus of love and honor to his memory. In every land and under every clime he is exalted and glorified as a mighty champion of human rights.
History preserves in the clear amber of immortality the record of men, who, set on fire by some sublime purpose, dedicate the power of their lives to its prosecution.
The lesson is definite and practical. The twenty-four-inch gauge and the common gavel speak to every Mason the language of constructive purpose land personal power. They mean that a Mason should cherish his ideals, the beauty that forms in the mind, the music that stirs in his heart, the glory that drapes his purest purpose, for out of these things he has the power to build for himself a new world in which to live.
from
THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN
The Masonic Service Association of the United States
VOL. 6 April 1928 NO. 4
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