astronauts, salesmen. In Freemasonry, all are equal. To illustrate, I offer the following examples: in traveling military lodges, it was not uncommon to have a corporal or sergeant as master of the lodge, with the colonel who commanded the regiment serving as one of his appointed officers. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Roman Catholics were forbidden from running for a seat in Parliament or holding a position in government, Freemasonry again acted as the "great equalizer," throwing open its doors to men of that faith. Some notable Freemasons include: Presidents: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford; Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, John Paul Jones, John Marshall; Musicians: Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Franz Joseph Haydn, John Philip Sousa, Wolfgang Mozart, Roy Clark, Mel Tillis; Authors: Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Wolfgang Goethe, Robert Burns; Entrepreneurs: John Jacob Astor, Walter Chrysler, Henry Ford, King Gillette, J.C. Penney; Astronauts: Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, James Irwin; Actors and Directors: Gene Autry, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Cantor, W. C. Fields, Glenn Ford, Clark Gable. VII. WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO BE MADE A FREEMASON? The petitioner must be a man of integrity and good moral character. In some states the requirement age is 21, while other states accept a petitioner who is 18 years of age. He must profess a belief in a Creator; be it God, Jehovah, Allah, or any name that the petitioner applies to Deity. We, as Freemasons, refer to the Creator as the Grand Architect of the Universe. Lastly, the petitioner must ASK to become a Freemason. No brother will ever ask a man if he wishes to join the Fraternity. Rather, the candidate
must initiate the procedure, because membership in the fraternity must be done of his own volition, of his own free will and accord. VIII. DEFINITION OF A FREEMASON Perhaps no more beautiful definition of what constitutes a Freemason can be offered than that given by author and scholar Joseph Fort Newton, D.D., in his work 'Me Builders": "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 star-crowned 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 see 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 article on pages 16 and 17 was submitted by Sir Knight Charles A. Garnes; H.P.D.C., P.G.C. of Pennsylvania, and the Chairman of the Committee on Public Relations. He is a member of Duquesne Commandery No. 72, Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. Write: Charles A. Garnes, 1700 Jamestown Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15235-4944 or e-mail: charles.garnes@verizon.net
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