A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF FREEMASONRY: PAUL CARUS.

Concluded from June Issue.  (From the Open Court, (Chicago)

THE AMERICAN FREEMASON, JULY 1914

THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS.

THE Lodge work is not organized in the same way in all associations calling themselves Freemasons.  The Lodges in Latin countries, for instance, carry on the exercise of their Masonic convictions in part according to a program which differs in many particulars from the Germanic practice.  Thus there are some among them who have removed the symbol of the "master architect of the universe" from their system of work.  They have come to this point because they feared that this image might be erroneously considered as a dogmatic God-conception in the sense of one or another ecclesiastical dogma.  This should not be taken as an evidence of any tendency towards negative, irreligious or anti-Christian views, or towards irreverence or atheism.

The recognized German Masonic Lodges do not accept "atheists" on principle.  Men who ascribe no reality to the ideas of good and moral, and to whom accordingly the application in the Lodge of the symbolism of a master architect of the universe would be false and foolish, do not belong in a community built upon the religion of righteousness and the observance of ethics.  One does not expect any advancement of a creative idealism from those who expressly deny the character of a higher super-individual spiritual life to human longing for beauty and moral consciousness, and who object to the assumption that every one in his own person assumes the task of building up, and our whole existence receives a creative sense through such a higher, more universal and more permanent life and that the God-conception is the symbol of the human ideal of truth, justice and right.  A man who maintains that human life is void of purpose will, according to the conception of the recognized German Lodge, prove unfit to be a representative of that true and efficient fraternity.

But there are some differences in the systems of the recognized German Lodges.  Two Grand Lodges admit only professing Christians as regular members, because in their work of humanization and fraternization they utilize symbols of traditional Chritstianity and are particularly concerned with  the evaluation of essentially Christian traditions.

There is no universal organization and international activity of Masonic Lodges. The Grand Lodges of different countries are not bound by any sort of common general council.  There is merely an international Masonic business headquarters at Neuchatel in Switzeeland (Beaux-Arts 26), which issues reports of the various Masonic organizations and serves similar purposes of mutual information.

TOLERANCE

The conviction that the will and the capability for independent discovery and for a realization of the true, the good and the beautiful are present in an ever increasing measure in the natural dispositions of men, causes Freemasons to regard as dangerous and immoral the intolerant depreciation and suppression of any effort to search for the truth.  Therefore Freemasons stand for freedom of mind and conscience and the toleration of all theories whose representatives do not oppose the cultivation of humanity and the brotherhood of man and do not attempt to suppress others arrogantly and domineeringly in their freedom of thought.

German Freemasonry keeps perfectly neutral with regard to religious convictions and in fact its members belong to very different religious and ecclesiastical denominations.  Only those religious beliefs which do violence to the faith of other people or suppress the culture of humanity and the brotherhood of man find a natural enemy in Freemasonry.

In the Lodges themselves every intolerance is checked by the fact that no contention for or against ecclesiastical or political partisan views is allowed.  Only by way of a tolerant brotherly search for the truth do they discuss the social constructive work of state and church in the Masonic search for wisdom.

THE VALUE OF FREEMASONRY

When the peculiar Masonic work of fraternization in its performance does justice in every respect to its leading ideas, it signifies for the common life of humanity an important element of true progressive evolution.  

The spirit of genuine Masonic work acts as a leaven in national and international life and can be dispensed with to-day even less than formerly.  Its extension is highly necessary.  Otherwise because of a great lack in genuine moral consciousncss of solidarity the most significant virtues of national life in internal and external struggles will sooner or later disappear.  The particular Masonic method of humanization, taking possession as it does of the inner life, can not be dispensed with in the education of a people where it is important to make accessible the sources of a remedial ethical truth and moral authority in the spiritual world of today, which demands independence of thought.

THE OPPONENTS OF MASONRY.

In striking contrast to the Masonic conceptions and aspirations stand those who regard the humanitarian ideal as a gross error, maintaining that human nature does not possess any moral aptitude, that man can be saved only by an undiscriminating submission under a definite doctrinal system of sin and destruction.  With this hostile opinion is often united the conviction that those of another faith - infidels and heretics who do not recognize a definite doctrinal system - are morally of little value, that the spread of their teaching ought not to be permitted and that believers should be separated from them as rigorously as possible and that the contrast be sharply emphasized.  Advocates of these views, representatives of intolerance and exclusion who work in opposition to freedom of spirit, to humanitarian fraternization and the independent development of national morality, have fought against Freemasonry from the beginning with the sharpest weapons, and have purposely brought it into the repute of the most destructive devil worship in the minds of many of their followers, a tendency which has produced the most ridiculous fictions.

Masonry meets with a different sort of opposition from those who look for salvation solely in political and other similar partisan aspirations, who worship success, who live in the delusion that they are the true politicians and have no vision for the great and decisive necessities of a thought culture and development of a community soul.  To these the Masonic association has nothing to offer, because in its ranks it permits no politics of power and party, but much rather in every estimation of other forces of civilization places its hopes for progress most decisively in a truthful moral consciousness of solidarity, without which, in its opinion, intelligence and technical skill of individuals and communities can not construct any prosperous future.  The Masonic order is thus particularly ridiculed by people whose only god is success, who do not with Masonry see in the moral ideals of humanity the great decisive realities and truths of life, but with materialism look upon them as the fancies of individuals which at best have proved of general utility.

Others again condemn the Masons for exclusiveness and an air of mystery, without inquiring at all into the nature and justification of the so-called Masonic secrets.

On the whole the critics of Freemasonry are composed for the most part of wiseacres who criticize and talk about this peculiar community but have never succceded in studying their efforts conscientiously.  Finally many imagine that they have grasped the spiritual content of the whole Masonic system if they happen to know a few Lodge members who may perhaps be themselves far from the inner meaning of the whole affair.

How few to-day really know and understand genuine Masonry and its cult of a creative love for humanity and for one's brother.  This Masonic endeavor is pretty remote from the views and interests which the life of to-day imparts to every-day men.  Moreover for a long time it has been in the public mind the object of a partly unintelligible, partly malicious, but at any rate entirely misleading hostile description and account, whereas the Freemasons express themselves only in a very limited measure about their affairs and rarely get word into the press, which does not like to enter into matters which are not purely practical.  Nevertheless we confess that in recent times Masonry has met with an increased interest in its struggles and aspirations.

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