112 Magazine - Issue 9 May 2020

112 On The Level Masonic Magazine for St. John Fisherrow No.112

Issue No.9

May 2020

From the Editor Hello Brethren, and welcome to another edition of “On the Level”. We hope you will find this issue No. 9. As this is the last magazine before the summer recess I hope you have found “On the Level” both inspiring as well as educational.

GRAND LODGE AMNESTY 2020

At the recent Grand Lodge of Scotland Communication, it was announced by the Most Worshipful Grand Master, that for this year February 2020 to February 2021, any brother who is out of “Test” can bring themselves back into test by paying the “Test Fees” for this year only. This is a great opportunity for brethren who have been lapsed members for sometime to return to their Mother Lodge’s.

Got something you want to say about your Lodge, or just Freemasonry in general ~ Why not submit an article to “On The Level”and see it printed here? (The Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish any article deemed by himself to be offensive).

Masonic Thoughts

Many things have been written about Freemasonry in countless books and in papers to be delivered to Masonic Research Associations, but how many of us know that there is wealth of beautiful material out there about Freemasonry, such as quotations or poems. Some of the world’s greatest men of letters who were Freemasons themselves, have written some wonderful words.

Rudyard Kipling and Rabbie Burns as just two examples, yet equally some less well-known Masons have embodied the teachings and philosophy of Freemasonry in their writing and I think it’s great to share these too.

The Masonic Fraternity

The Masonic fraternity is a single, indivisible fellowship, which is neither divided or affected by local or by national boundaries; like the sky it bends a single arch over the many countries in which it is at work, and that arch is nowhere broken into separate areas, nor does any country cut it into separate segments.

A country is in the fraternity, but the Fraternity is nowhere shut up inside a country. It has one set of Landmarks, one set of Degrees, one teaching for the whole world. It has a single membership, that a man enters when he is made a Mason. Mason’s differ from one country to another, they use different languages, they have different religions, but such differences have nothing to do with their Freemasonry; it is everywhere self-same, one thing and one thing only, with single membership; it’s only boundaries are the boundaries of the world.

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The Right Worshipful Master Hello Brethren, I sincerely hope that you and all your families have been safe and well during these unimaginable times due to the Coronavirus. I don’t think that anyone ever imagined that it would grind everything in it’s path to a halt.

As a nation we have sat watching the news hour by hour and day by day hoping that we are coming to the end of this dark tunnel, hoping that this virus has not taken thousands of lives like it has done in many other countries and our thoughts, prayers and condolences must go to all the families who have sadly lost loved ones, which can only be described as a very dark period in our history.

We must also pay our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the staff of the NHS, Police, Fire Brigade, and to all the front line services who have put their own sacrifices on hold to provide the necessary provisions to keep us all fed and watered and without a doubt safe and well.

We at 112, like every other Lodge in Scotland have taken guidance from the Most Worshipful Grand Master Mason and the Grand Lodge of Scotland to cancel all meetings until further notice. I’m sure this is something we have all found very strange by not attending any Lodge meetings. Whether it being family holidays or family events, there were so many enjoyable events to look forward to over the next few months which have been sadly and disappointingly cancelled, yet understandably the right course of action.

Brethren, please take care of yourself and your families. I look forward to seeing you all when at last we can return to our lodge and once again share the camaraderie with you all.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, for Brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

SMIB.

Bro. Brian Ritchie Right Worshipful Master

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The Deacons

We must carefully distinguish between the Deacon of the early Scottish Minute Books, and the Deacon of Irish ritual. The former occupied almost, if not altogether, the highest post among his Brethren, and having precedence over the Warden and presiding over the meeting when occasion required. The latter corresponded to the Dean-that is Deacon-of Faculty ; the latter to the lost order of the Ministry, the Deacon in Ecclesiastical parlance. The similarity does not go beyond the name.

In every Symbolic Lodge, there are two officers who are called the Senior and Junior Deacons. In America the former has been appointed by the Master and the latter by the Senior Warden, both have been elected according to the respective Codes of the Jurisdictions, Pennsylvania, for example, has the Deacons appointed, Ohio has them elected; in England both are appointed by the Master. It is to the Deacons that the introduction of visitors should be properly entrusted. Their duties comprehend, also, a general surveillance over the security of the Lodge, and they are the proxies of the officers by whom they are appointed. Hence their jewel, in allusion to the necessity of circumspection and justice is a square and compasses. In the center, the Senior Deacon wears a sun, and the Junior Deacon a moon, which serve to distinguish their respective ranks. In the English system, the jewel of the Deacons is a dove, in allusion to the dove sent forth by Noah. In the Rite of Mizraim the Deacons are called acolytes.

The office of Deacons in Freemasonry appears to have been derived from the usage's of the primitive church. In the Greek church, the Deacons were always the doorkeepers, and in the Apostolica Constitutions the Deacon was ordered to stand at the men's door, and the Subdeacon at the women's, to see that none came in or went out during the oblation. In the earliest rituals of the eighteenth century, there is no mention of' Deacons, and the duties of those officers were discharged partly by the Junior Warden and partly by the Senior and Junior Entered Apprentices, and they were not generally adopted in England until the Union of 1813. Brother W,J. Chetwode Crawley has some comments upon the subject in Caementaria Hibernica (Fasciculus i, pages 9-10). He advises that:

The appointing of Deacons served in latter days, as a distinction between Irish and English work, for the Lodges under the Constitution of the Ancient naturally followed the Irish use. It must be observed that the office of Deacon was confined to supporting Lodges. During the first one hundred and twenty years of its existence, the Grand Lodge of Ireland never elected Grand Deacons.

When their services were required they were selected for the occasion from the Masters then present. Their first appearance as prominent Grand Officers is in the addition of the Irish Constitutions, promulgated in 1850, though thirty-seven years previously the United Grand Lodge of England had adopted the office, in deference to the usage of the Ancient.

Brotherhood

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It is not enough that in the lodge room or among Freemasons the band of brotherhood should hold. It is the mission of the craft to spread the gospel of human kinship that all the world will acknowledge the bonds of amity and accord. Freemasonry is no longer an exclusive and withdrawn body, doing good by stealth or concerned only for its own. Its principles are blazoned for all men to behold; if now we fail to match fair professions with worthy deeds the fraternity will be brought into contempt and will deserve the condemnation of mankind.

Author Unknown

In Due Form

place of darkness, while the pillars of Hercules in the west, on each side of the Straits of Gades now Gibraltar might appropriately be referred to the two pillars that stood at the porch of the Temple. Thus the world itself would be the true Freemason's Lodge, in which he was to live and labor. Again: the solid contents of the earth below, "from the surface to the centre," and the profound expanse above, "from the earth to the highest heavens," would give to this parallelogram definition which says that "the form of the Lodge ought to be a double cube, as an expressive emblem of the powers of light and darkness in the creation."

In Freemasonry, an official act is said to be done, according to the rank of the person who does it, either in ample form, in due form, or simply in form. Thus, when the Grand Lodge is opened by the Grand Master in person, it is said to be opened in ample form; when by the Deputy Grand Master, it is said to be in due form; when by any other qualified officer, it is said to be in form. The legality of the act is the same whether it be done in form or in ample form; and the expression refers only to the dignity of the officer by whom the act is performed.

The form of a Freemason's Lodge is said to be an oblong square, having its greatest length from east to west, and its greatest breadth from north to south. This oblong form of the Lodge, has, as Brother Mackey thought, a symbolic illusion that has not been adverted to by any other writer. If, on a map of the world, we draw lines which shall circumscribe just that portion which was known and inhabited at the time of the building of Solomon's Temple, these lines, running a short distance north and south of the Mediterranean Sea, and extending from Spain to Asia Minor, will form an oblong square, whose greatest length will be from east to west, and whose greatest breadth will be from north to south.

There is a peculiar fitness in this theory, which is really only making the Masonic Lodge a symbol of the world. It must be remembered that, at the era of the Temple, the earth was supposed to have the form of a parallelogram, or oblong square. Such a figure inscribed upon a map of the world, and including only that part of it which was known in the days of Solomon, would present just such a square, embracing the Mediterranean Sea and the countries lying immediately on its northern, southern, and eastern borders. Beyond, far in the north, would be Cimmerian deserts as a

The Level

In Latin libra was a balance, the root of our libration, equilibrium; libella was the diminutive form of the same word, and from it has come our level, an instrument by which a balance is proved, or by which may be detected the horizontal plane. It is closely associated in use with the plumb, by which a line perpendicular to the horizontal is proved.

The level is that on which there are no inequalities, hence in Masonry it is correctly used as a symbol of equality. We meet upon the level because Masonic rights, duties, and privileges are the same for all members without distinction.

CHAPITER

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The uppermost part of a column, pillar, or pilaster, serving as the head or crowning, and placed immediately over the shaft and under the entablature. The pillars which stood in front of the porch of King Solomon's Temple were adorned with chapiters of a peculiar construction, which are largely referred to, and their symbolism explained, in the Fellow Craft's Degree.

Breathes There The Man

Freemasonry is said to be: ‘A beautiful system of morality, veiled allegory, illustrated by symbols’ But What is allegory?

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d, As home his footsteps he hath turn’d, From wandering on a foreign strand!

If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

Allegory is from two Greek words and means, “story within a story” and the Masonic story is told as a fact, but it presents the doctrine of immortality. Allegory, parable, fable, myth, legend, and tradition are all collective terms.

The myth may be founded on fact; the legend and tradition are probably founded on fact but Allegory, parablefable are not. Yet they maybe true “if true” is not taken to mean factual. “In the night of death, hope sees a star and love can hear the rustle of a wing” is beautifully true allegory, but not factual. All allegories my contain some truth without being fact.

O Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child!

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood, Land of my sires! what mortal hand Can e’er untie the filial band, That knits me to thy rugged strand!

Still as I view each well-known scene, Think what is now, and what hath been, Seems as, to me of all bereft, Sole friends thy woods and streams were left; And thus I love them better still, Even in extremity of ill.

By Yarrow’s streams still let me stray, Though none should guide my feeble way; Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break, Although it chill my wither’d cheek; Still lay my head by Teviot Stone, Though there, forgotten and alone, The Bard may draw his parting groan.

The allegory of the Master Mason’s Degree is not true in any factual sense, except within the historical background from the biblical events of building the temple, that the Hirams were Grand Masters, that the workmen on the building were Entered Apprentices, Fellow Crafts and Master Masons; that they met in several apartments in the Temple with different numbers required for various quorums: that the events delineated in the ceremony actually happened, are not factual statements.

Yet the allegory is true in the best sense of the word for the story of Hiram is the story of the dearest hope of mankind. It is a tale told in every religion. It is affirmation, by picture, drama, story, of man’s rugged faith that Job’s immortal question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” must be answered in the affirmative.

It is a Mason’s observation that, truth slain by error, will be born again; it is the crucification and the resurrection of the Carpenter who died between the two thieves. The Masonic allegory is true in the deepest sense of truth.

Sir Walter Scott

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The Square

From early times, the square has represented right and honesty. For Freemasons, the Square represents morality, of the ethical and right conduct that must form the basis for our every action and as the foundation of society. In an early exposure of the Masonic ritual, the question is asked, "How many make a Lodge?"

The response is specific, "God and the Square." Together, God provides instruction to man to develop his moral and spiritual character, while the Square reminds us as Freemasons that we must constantly test our behaviour by the Square of Virtue.

"Acting upon the square" is a familiar metaphor for fair and honest dealings with others. The square has carried that meaning for many generations as evidenced by writings traced to ancient China. In the Great Learning, it is stated that abstaining from doing unto others what one would not have them do to him "is called the principle of acting on the square." We might recognize the positive form of this saying as the Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The Square is prominent throughout the rituals and ceremonies of Freemasonry and is one of the first symbols introduced and explained to the Freemason. During the initiation ceremony, the new Freemason is told the Square should remind him to conduct his life upon the square, indicating moral and ethical behaviour. During the Lecture, the Square is described as part of the Furniture of the Lodge dedicated to the Master, as it is the Masonic emblem of his office. It is also one of the six Jewels of the Lodge, teaching morality. The Square is also identified as one of the Working Tools of the Fellowcraft Mason, where it admonishes the Freemason to square his "actions by the Square of Virtue."

The Square, as used in Freemasonry, is an instrument with two legs that intersect at a right angle. Though there is debate regarding the exact instrument envisioned in the early rituals, there is no doubt that the square was used to measure the accuracy of angles, to ensure that they were indeed right angles. As such, it is natural for the Square to be an emblem of accuracy, integrity, and rightness. As building materials are cut to fit the building in the proper dimensions, we must also build our character, which must be tested by a moral and ethical standard represented by the Square

It is also important to note that we must keep God and the Square together. While the Square is an emblem of the virtuous moral, ethical, and spiritual conduct required of all Freemasons, it is our faith in God that provides the basis for that behaviour. If society is not careful and loses its faith in God, then its foundation for moral and ethical conduct drifts from that decreed by God. When this occurs, men come to think that morality is of human invention and the moral law loses its meaning and power. It leads to a society without standards, which will become unstable and eventually fall.

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The Square is a symbol of the moral law upon which human life must rest if it is to stand.

Without the moral law as our guide, we flounder and fall in this world. If the Freemason does not build his ethical and spiritual character upon the moral law and live in obedience to the laws of God, our lives are incomplete and doomed to failure. David in Psalm 15:1 writes, "Lord, who shall abide in your Tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth‌" It is our obligation as Freemasons to "square our actions by the Square of Virtue" in all our dealings with our fellowman. If we "act by the Square," our moral and ethical character will be above reproach and we will have a stable and content life.

Famous Freemasons

KING GEORGE VI’s LOVE OF FREEMASONRY

Born in 1895, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary (then the Duke and Duchess of York)he seemed destined for a supporting role in the Royal and national life. Like many previous younger sons he look towards a service life and joined te Royal Navy.

At the out-break of the First World War, he, unlike his older brother the Prince of Wales was allowed to go on active service at the Battle of Jutland. He was invalided out of active service due to duodenal ulcer, but once that was operated on he returned to his uniform and transferred to the Naval Air Service which was combined with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force. Although he had qualified as a pilot the King would not allow him to go on raids but continued his service until after the war.

Following his service with the Royal Navy in the First World War, he was initiated in December 1919 into Navy Lodge, No. 2612, his grandfather, King Edward VII, having been founding Master. On that occasion he noted: “I have always wished to become a Freemason, but owing to the war I have had no opportunity before this of joining the Craft.” From that moment he became a most dedicated and active Mason. He was invested under his real name as Albert, Duke of York in 1920 and the following year installed as permanent Master of Navy Lodge.

He joined other lodges and degrees and was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1923.

His father, George V, died in January 1936 and was succeeded by his eldest son Edward, who had been initiated (also in 1919) into the Household Brigade Lodge, No. 2614. But before the year was out Edward had abdicated. Of that momentous occasion of change King George VI later wrote: “On entering the room I bowed to him as King… when [he] and I said goodbye we kissed, parted as Freemasons and he bowed to me as his King.”

The event was widely reported in the press, as were his subsequent Masonic activities. He became Master of Navy Lodge in 1921 and, following a precedent set by his ancestor King George IV, was to be its permanent Master until he ascended the throne. A shy man with a pronounced stammer, it was remarked by those present that his stammer rarely surfaced when he was involved in ritual.

H.R.H. affiliated with Glamis Lodge, of which his father-in-law, the Earl of Strathmore, was a Past Master. He became Grand Master Mason of Scotland for part of 1936, unfortunately protocol required George as the new King to resign his Masonic affiliations, largely against

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his will, when it was suggested, however, that a new position of Past Grand Master be created especially for him, he immediately accepted, declaring: “Today the pinnacle of my masonic life has been reached.”

THE VICTORY STAMPS

Following World War II, King George wrote that: “Freemasonry has been one of the strongest influences on my life” and in collaboration with engraver Reynolds Stone helped create a postage stamp, part of the ‘1946 Victory Issue,’ which is filled with Masonic symbolism.

The blatantly Masonically influenced Royal Mail 3 penny ‘Victory Stamp’ from 1946, designed by King George VI. The 3 penny Victory Stamp was widely praised for the “strength and simplicity of the design.” It depicts the King’s head in the East, his eyes firmly fixed on illustrations of a dove carrying an olive branch (representing peace and guidance), the square and compasses (configured in the second degree) and a trowel and bricks (the sign of a Master spreading the cement that binds mankind in brotherly love).

The graphic on the stamp appear in white, the colour of purity, out of purple, the colour of divinity. The three coupled illustrations are surrounded by a scrolled ribbon made up of five figure threes – sacred numbers in Freemasonry – and was the unusual positioning of the wording meant to represent two great pillars? By its name and intention, the stamp proclaimed victory over evil, yet by its appearance it expressed compassion and hope. George VI once stated: “The world today does require spiritual and moral regeneration. I have no doubt, after many years as a member of our Order, that Freemasonry can play a most important part in this vital need.”

The Victory Stamp captured those words in a graphic representation that also expressed the King’s belief that the building of a new and better world could best be achieved by adhering to the principles of the square and compasses.

MAINTAINING VALUES

King George suffered utter anguish prior to making any speech in public, but felt duty-bound to try. He reinforced those thoughts in 1948 in an address he gave to Grand Lodge: “I believe that a determination to maintain the values which have been the rock upon which the Masonic structure has stood firm against the storms of the past is the only policy which can be pursued in the future. I think that warning needs emphasising today, when men, sometimes swayed by sentimentality or an indiscriminate tolerance, are apt to overlook the lessons of the past. I cannot better impress this upon you than by quoting from the book on which we have all taken our Masonic obligations: ‘Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.’ cont.

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There is no mention of Freemasonry in the Oscar-winning film that tells the true story of how King George VI battled a confidence sapping stammer, writes Masonry Today journalist, Paul Hooley. ‘The King’s Speech’ has been critically acclaimed as one of the finest motion pictures of recent years and has renewed the public’s interest in, and affection for, King George VI, who reigned on the throne of Great Britain through its darkest years from 1936 to 1952.

The Kings Speech Oscar winner, Colin Firth (George VI), acts alongside Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue) in ‘The King’s Speech’. The movie, which chronicles the constitutional crisis created by Edward VIII’s abdication, George’s take-over and his struggle to overcome his severe stammer, focuses on the moving relationship between the King and speech therapist, Lionel Logue, which had such a positive ending: the King and the commoner remaining firm friends for life.

What the film fails to mention, however, is that both men were members of the Craft; and that the King believed Freemasonry was forefront in assisting him to overpower his speech impedi -ment, a disability that rarely surfaced whenever he performed Masonic ritual. Logue (right), who had been the Master of St. George’s Lodge, Western Australia, was also speech therapist to the Royal Masonic School.

Did Yi Ken..........Albert Edward, Prince

Did Yi Ken...........

of Wales (who was the King of Great Britain and Ireland as Edward VII from 1901 until his death in 1910) was the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1874 until 1901.

The most important article of furniture in a Lodge-room is undoubtedly the altar. It is worthwhile, then, to investigate its character and its relation to the altars of other religious institutions.

The Colman company often used images of royalty in their advertising and this advert for 'Colman's Starch', depicting him wearing a stiffened shirt front and collar with Masonic regalia, dates from around the time of his coronation in 1902.

The definition of an altar is very simple. It is a structure elevated above the ground, and appropriated to some service connected with worship, such as the offering of oblations, sacrifices, or prayers.

Altars, among the ancients, were generally made of turf or stone. When permanently erected and not on any sudden emergency, they were generally built in regular courses of Freemasonry, and usually in a cubical form.

Altars were erected long before temples. Thus, Noah is said to have erected one as soon as he came forth from the ark. Herodotus gives the Egyptians the credit of being the first among the heathen nations who invented altars.

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JUSTICE

If we read the story of King Solomon when he had to rule on the true mother to settle the dispute between two women we will note that he exhibited self-control, strength of character and wisdom when he ordered the baby severed in two knowing that the true mother would give up her baby rather than see it harmed.

Justice teaches us to propose to ourselves such ends only as are consistent with our several relations to society. Without the exercise of this virtue universal confusion would ensue.

Freemasons are taught to render to all, without distinction, those dues which they are respectively entitled to claim, and to bend with implicit obedience to the will of their Creator.

They are to be scrupulously attentive to the sacred duties of life, zealous in their attachment to their native country, and exemplary in their allegiance to the government under which they reside. They are enjoined to treat superiors with reverence, equals with kindness, and to extend to inferiors the benefits of admonition, instruction and protection.

He was then able to come to a fair resolution to the problem and return the baby to its rightful mother.

By being fair, King Solomon demonstrated the true meaning of Justice.

Thus my brethren, the mason in possession and practices the Cardinal Virtues is a person who exhibits self-control. strength of character, wisdom and fairness; What a man, What a mason!

The Winding Stairs

In the First Book of Kings (vi, 8) it is said: "The door for the Middle Chamber was in the right side of the house; and they went up with winding stairs into the Middle Chamber, and out of the middle into the third." From this passage the Freemasons of the eighteenth century adopted the symbol of the Winding Stairs, and introduced it into the Fellow Craft's Degree, where it has ever since remained, in the American Rite. In one of the higher Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite the Winding Stairs are called cochleus, which is a corruption of cochlis, a spiral staircase.

Our study of Justice is not about the Rule of Law as we know it today. If we consider consider charity in the broad masonic sense of tolerance and equality in all aspects of race, creed, religion and colour, we will live and demonstrate the true meaning of Brotherly Love.

It is difficult to relate Justice to an answer, so we must let our ideas recur to the original copy.

As we think about this let us remember that in our lodges, Solomon sits in the East.

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The Hebrew word is lulim, from the obsolete root lug, to roll or wind. The whole story of the Winding Stairs in the Second Degree of Freemasonry is a mere myth, without and other foundation than the slight allusion in the Book of Kings which has been just cited, and it derives its only value from the symbolism taught in its legend.

Did Yi Ken.......

No Bounds For Creed

When MWB Benjamin Franklin, PGM died in 1790, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania refused to permit him a Masonic funeral.

Franklin was a Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania and Past Master of Loge des Neuf Soeurs (Nine Sisters Lodge) in Paris, France.

The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realises with the divine illumination of his lodge that as Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognises only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of all spiritual truth. All true Masons know that they only are heathen who, having great ideals, do not live up to them. They know that all religions are but one story told in diverse ways for peoples whose ideals differ but whose great purpose is in harmony with Masonic ideals. North, east, south and west stretch the diversities of human thought, and while the ideals of man apparently differ, when all is said and the crystallisation of form with its false concepts is swept away, one basic truth remains: all existing things are Temple Builders, labouring for a single end. No true Mason can be narrow, for his Lodge is the divine expression of all broadness. There is no place for little minds in a great work.

At the time of his death, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had changed its affiliation from the Grand Lodge of England (the Moderns) to their rival, the Antient Grand Lodge of England. Franklin’s prior affiliations were considered clandestine by the Antients.

The acidulous schism between the two Grand Lodges was healed with the unification in 1813.

On April 19, 1906, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania convened at Franklin’s grave in the cemetery of Philadelphia’s Christ Church and performed a belated memorial service for their most celebrated member.

Strength

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Strength does not come from what you can do.

It comes when you take challenging moments in your stride and determined not to give up. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender that is strength.

Inn of Year’s End

Pilgrim's Progress, we have no clue at all to an understanding of it. Strangely enough, when we settle down to be citizens of this world, the world itself become a riddle and a puzzle. By the same token, the greatest leaders of the race are the men in whom the sense of being pilgrims and sojourners on the earth is the most vivid. It is the strangers in the world, the manifest travellers to a Better Country, who get the most out of life, because they do not try to build houses of granite when they only have time to pitch a tent, or turn in at an inn. In the friendly air if the Inn of the Year's End, where we make merry for tonight, there is much congratulation upon so much of the journey safely done, and much well-wishing for the that way lies ahead. Also, there is no end of complaint at the aches and ills, the upsets and downfalls, of the road. All kinds of faiths and philosophies mingle, and there is no agreement as to the meaning or goal of the journey. Some think life is a great adventure, others hold it to be a nuisance. Many agree with the epitaph of the poet Gay in Westminster Abbey:

Our Ancient Brethren were Pilgrims as well as Builders; and so are we. The idea of life as a journey runs all through the symbolism of Freemasonry, and to forget that truth is to lose half its beauty. Initiation itself is a journey from the west to the east in quest of that which was lost. The reason why a man becomes a Master Mason is that he may travel in foreign countries, work and receive the wages of a Master.

What is symbolism with us was the actual life of Masons in days of old. An Apprentice presented his Masterpiece, and if it was approved, he was made a Master and Fellow.

He could then take his kit of tools and journey wherever his work called him, a Freemason free, that is, as distinguished from a Guild Mason, who was not allowed to work beyond the limits of his city. Thus he journeyed from Lodge to Lodge, from Land to Land, alone, or in company with his fellows, stopping at Inns betimes to rest and refresh himself.

Sometimes, Hope describes in his "Essay On Architecture," a whole Lodge travelled together, a band of Pilgrim Builders. Like our Brethren in the olden times, we too are pilgrims - life a journey, man a traveller - and each of the Seven Ages is neighbours to the rest; and so the poets of all peoples have read the meaning of life, as far back as we can go.

It is a long road we journey together, but there are inns along the way, kept by Father Time, in which we may take lodging for the night to rest and reflect - like the Inn of Year's End, at which we arrive this month, in which there is goodly company, and much talk of the meaning of the journey, and the incidents of the road.

Yes, the winding road is a symbol of the life of man true to fact. Once we are aware of ourselves as pilgrims on a journey, then the people and the scenes about us reveal their meaning and charm. If we forget that life is a

"Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it. " But a Mason, if he has learned the secret of his Craft, knows that life is not a jest, but a great gift, "a little holding lent to do a mighty labor. He agrees with a greater and braver poet, who said: "Away with funeral music - set the pipe to powerful lips - The cup of life's for him that drinks, And not for him that sips. "

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At the end of an old year and the beginning of a new, we can see that it simplifies life to know that we are pilgrims in a pilgrim world.

When a man starts on a journey he does not take everything with him, but only such things as he really needs. It is largely a matter of discrimination and transportation. To know what to take and what to leave is one of the finest of arts. It asks for insight, judgment, and a sense of values. One reason why the race moves so slowly is that it tries to take too

much with it, weighing itself down with useless rubbish which ought to be thrown aside.

Much worthless luggage is carted over the hills and valleys of history, hindering the advance of humanity. It is so in our own lives.

Men stagger along the road with acres of land on their backs, and houses and bags of money.

Others carry old hates, old grudges, old envies and disappointments, which wear down their strength for nothing. At the end of the year it is wise to unpack our bundle and sort out the things we do not need - throwing the useless litter out the window or into the fire. How much does a man really need for his journey?

If the wisdom of the ages is to be believed, the things we actually need are few, but they are very great. "There abideth Faith, Hope, and Love, these three; and the greatest of these is Love. " Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, to which let us add courage, which is the root of every virtue and the only security - what more do we need? In a world where the way is often dim, the road rough and the weather stormy, we have time only to love and do good. Hate is the worst folly. After all, what do we ask of life, here or hereafter, but leave to love, to serve, to commune with our fellows, with ourselves, with the wonderful world in which we live, and from the lap of earth to look up into the face of God? Neither wealth nor fame can add anything worthwhile.

The human procession is endlessly interesting, made up of all kinds of folk - quaint, fantastic, heroic, ignoble, joyous, sorrowful, ridiculous and pathetic - some marching, some straggling through the world. There are Greathearts who patrol the road, and angels who walk with us in disguise - angels we know them to be because they believe in us when we do not believe in ourselves, and thus make us do our best. And there skulkers who shirk every danger and wander to no purpose, like the tramp in a western village who, when asked if he was a traveller, replied: "Yep, headed south this trip; Memphis maybe, if I don't lay off sooner. I suppose I'm what you call a bum

partner; but I ain't as bad as some of 'em. I've been hitting the road for quite a spell, nigh on forty years; but I hold a feller has a right to live the way he wants to as long as lets other folks alone. Anyway, I've had a heap of fun.

Oh yes, I might have settled down and got married, and raised a lot of kids I couldn't took care of, same as a lot of fellers. But I didn't. They say kids come from heaven, so I jest thought I'd leave mine stay there. It keeps me a- hustlin' to look after myself, and handin' out a bit now and then to some poor devil down on his luck. Well, so long, partner. "

There is the shirk, the loafer, idle and adrift, living without aim or obligation - trying to slip through and get by. But there are spiritual loafers and moral tramps almost as bad, though they do not flip trains or ask for a "Hand- out " at the back door. Any man is a loafer who takes more out of life than he puts into it, leaving the world poorer than he found it. He only has lived who, coming to the All Men's Inn called death, has made it easier for others to see the truth and do the right.

When we know we are journeymen Masons, seeking a lodge, we can better interpret the ills that overtake us. One must put up with much on a journey which would be intolerable at home Our misfortunes, our griefs are but incidents of the road. Our duties, too, are near at hand. The Good Samaritan had never met the man whom he befriended on the road to Jericho. He did not know his name. He may have had difficulty in understanding his language. None the less, he took him to the next inn, and paid for his keep. Finding his duty by the roadside, he did it, and went on his way. Such is the chivalry of the road, and if a man walks faithfully he will come to the House of God.

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Since we pass this way but once, we must do all the good we can, in all ways we can, to all the people we can There come thoughts of those who walked with us in other days, and have vanished. cont.

Did Yi Ken........

They were noble and true. Their friendship was sweet, and the old road has been lonely since they went away. Toward the end life is like a street of graves, as one by one those who journey with us fall asleep. But if we walk "the Road of the Loving Heart, " and make friends with the Great Companion. we shall not lose our way, nor be left alone when we come at last, as come we must, like all Brothers and Fellows before us, to where the old road dips down into the Valley of Shadows.

The word ‘Fraternity’ was originally used to designate those associations formed in the Roman Catholic Church for the pursuit of special religious and ecclesiastical purposes such as the nursing of the sick, the support of the poor, the practise of particular devotions, etc. They do not date earlier than the thirteenth century. The name was subsequently applied to secular associations, such as the Freemasons. The word is only a Latin form of the Anglo-Saxon Brotherhood. In the earliest lectures of the eighteenth century we find the word fraternity alluded to in the following Fionnula: How many particular points pertain to a Freemason?

It is strange; the soul too is a pilgrim, and must pass on. Walking for a brief time in this vesture of clay, it betakes itself on an unknown journey. A door opens, and the pilgrim spirit, set free, makes the Great Adventure where no path is. But he who made us Brothers and Pilgrims here will lead us there, and the way He Knoweth. No blind and aimless way our spirit goeth, but to Him who hath set eternity in our hearts. Such thoughts visit us, such faiths and hopes cheer us, gathered in the Inn of Year's End, thinking of the meaning of the way.

Three: Fraternity, Fidelity, and Taciturnity.

What do they represent?

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth among all Right Masons.

How should one contemplate G.A.O.T.U.?

"I go mine, thou goest thine; Many ways we wend, Many ways and many days, Ending in one end.

Many a wrong and its crowning song, Many a road and many an Inn; Far to roam but only one home For all the world to win. "

ORIENTAL CHAIR OF SOLOMON

The seat of the Master in a Symbolic Lodge, and so called because the Master is supposed symbolically to fill the place over the Craft once occupied by King Solomon. For the same reason, the seat of the Grand Master in the Grand Lodge receives the same appellation. In England it is called the throne.

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He is pure intelligence, he is as radiant as a hundred thousand suns risen together, he is the light that illumines all lights, he is the inner light, the limitless space is his throat, the firmament is his feet, the directions are his arms, the worlds are the weapons he bears in his hands, the entire universe is hidden in his heart, the gods are hairs on his body, the cosmic potencies are the energies in his body, time is his gate-keeper, and he has thousands of heads, eyes, ears and arms. He touches all, he tastes all, he hears all, he thinks through all though he is beyond all thinking.

He does everything at all times, he bestows whatever one thinks of or desires, he dwells in all, he is the all, he alone is to be sought by all.

Thus should one contemplate him.

Did Yi Ken......

The Shoe: as a Masonic Symbol, is employed to remind us of the duty of constancy and fidelity in our engagements, that whatever contract we make we must honestly fulfil; what ever work we undertake we must perform to the utmost of our power, not undertaking any work which we do not believe ourselves to be well capable of performing, nor promising its completion within a time which we cannot regard as sufficient for it. It is thus a symbol having reference to conduct in the common affairs of life; but the duties of which it reminds us are nevertheless duties, of obligation of which we must be referred to the highest principles, to those of Justice and Truth. The use of this symbol is derived from an ancient custom of the Jews, of which we read in the Book of Ruth, in the account of the transaction between B*** and his kinsman who was nearer in relationship to Ruth than himself, concerning the redemption of the land that had been Elimelechs, and concerning the marriage, in accordance with the Jewish Law, of Ruth and Moabitess, the widowed daughter of Elimelech. The transaction took place in the gate of their city, in presence of ten men of the elders of the city, and when the kinsman refused to redeem the land and to marry the youthful widow, by saying: ‘ I cannot redeem it, lest I mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it’ he drew off his shoe and gave it B***; and this formality is thus spoken by the narrator: “Now this was the manner in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming, and concerning changing, for to conform all things; a man drew off his shoe, and gave it to a neighbour; and this was his testimony in Israel.

Therefore the kinsman said unto B***, Buy it for thee; So he drew off his shoe. This was done in accordance with a law which we read in the book of Deuteronomy, and in which ancient custom was sanctioned. It was a custom somewhat similar to that long enforced by the law of Scotland in the completion of sales of land, or mortgages on land, of the handling of earth and stone from the one party to another, the transfer of the handful of earth and stone being a token of of the right of property.

So the kinsman who relinquished his right may be understood as saying to B***, I give over to thee all my right in the matter as fully as I now give to thee this shoe; I divested myself of it as I do this shoe. And the elders of the city having witness the transaction, the bargain was now completed and could not be resiled from. The shoe as a symbol, reminds the freemason that his contracts are never resiled from, but faithfully implemented, even if he should find them less profitable than he expected. The principle or rule, however, is only applicable to those contracts made. If a man has been entrapped into a false contract by false representation on the part of another, he may honestly and honourably renounce it as soon as he discovers the imposition which has been practiced upon him. If however, after discovering this, he still proceeds for a time as if he had made no discovery, he must be regarded as having condoned the offence, and is then bound by the contract. It is as if, in full knowledge of the facts, he entered into it anew.

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