THE BUILDER MAY 1917

MASONRY -- ITS PATRIOTIC OPPORTUNITY
BY BRO. J. F. KIRK, NORTH CAROLINA

ADDRESS BEFORE THE 29th DISTRICT MEETING AT STATESVILLE, N. C.,
NOV. 17th, 1916

MASONRY, as I conceive it, stands for essential unity. It regards
no man for his worldly wealth or honors, it courts no man for his
position, in the lodge room all are on the same level of equality.
When misfortune overtakes a brother, it stands ready to extend a
helping hand; when death steps in to rob the home of its natural
guardians, the father and the mother, Masonry attempts to play the
role of foster parents by caring for the orphan children. It
attempts to make the lot of all as nearly equal as possible, by
giving to each child the opportunity of education and training, the
orphan as well as the home-trained and the home-nurtured child.

But there is a larger realm in which, it seems to me, Masonry may
serve, and indeed has served in the past. In the history of that
dark period of our nation's history from '61 to '65, there appear
little incidents that shine bright as the light of the sun against
that black background of war. Men who had the misfortune to be
taken prisoners found in Masonry the only effective tie that bound
them to those that fought on the other side. They oftentimes found
friends among those ranked as enemies.

Why, we ask, were these traditional enemies suddenly transformed
into friends? The answer is to be found in the common obligation
taken at our sacred altars, in the spirit of the fraternity and
equality inculcated around the altar fires of Masonry. May we not
cherish the hope that Masonry is yet to exemplify this spirit in a
still larger way, and on a really national scale in these latter
days?

There was a time in our national history when Masonry was looked
upon with suspicion by a considerable body of our citizenship.
After nearly a century of observation, a critical public has
decided that Masonry is not only innocent of all evil designs
against the republic, but public opinion now holds Masonry to be an
institution founded upon correct principles, and the organization
composed of that class that make up our best and most
public-spirited citizens. Masonry has established itself before the
sober judgment of the American people.

There is, therefore, for perhaps the first time in our history
given to Masonry the opportunity to render a great and distinctly
national service. The Masonic lodge-room is perhaps the greatest
neutral meeting ground in America today. No suspicion of political
partisanship attaches to Masonry anywhere, no distinction is
possible as to religious beliefs, except the requirement of faith
in a Supreme Being. The Englishman, the German, the Russian, the
Frenchman, the Greek, the Armenian, the Japanese and the Chinaman,
all meet around the altar of Masonry, on the plane of a simple,
common manhood. Where can you find another organization that is so
widely extended in its geographical sweep; where can you find one
taking in so nearly all classes and conditions?

There is none other in this nation except the Christian church, and
it is divided into a score of more or less hostile camps, on credal
statement, or difference of polity. Here, under ideal conditions,
we should find our neutral ground, but so long as denominational
lines remain as closely drawn as at present, this is no universal
meeting point.

Masonry ought to make of itself the intellectual clearing-house of
America. It has the opportunity to fuse and weld the concomitant
parts of this great mass of one hundred millions of people into a
unity, into a homogeneous nation of dominant general spirit.

It has this opportunity in two main directions; in the direction of
reconciling and bringing together the rich and the poor, and in the
direction of bringing together and introducing the various national
types making up our citizenship. In Masonry there is absolutely no
distinction of rich man and poor man. In Masonry there are and can
be no hyphenates. That is the theoretical position of Masonry; the
practice of individual Masons is very far below the position taken
by the Order. In Masonry, strictly speaking, there are no rich men
and poor men; there are no English, or Germans, or Americans,--in
the lodge room all are simply men, with none of these external and
artificial distinctions.

These are our fundamental conceptions; they are the deepest beliefs
of Masonry; upon these tenets, our whole Masonic edifice is
builded. We believe these principles to be sound, we demand their
acceptance at the altar of the lodge of all who become Masons; we
profess that these principles are susceptible of universal
application. We have gone so far as to introduce them as a working
code for Masons throughout the civilized world. In England, in
France and in Germany there are thousands that are not only Masons
in name, but stand on the identical principles on which our own
lodges stand.

We profess these principles inside the lodge room, we demand of our
members that they practice them in all Masonic relations. Should we
not proclaim them as of universal, and especially national,
significance ? There is abundant need of such service to be
rendered by some agency. From every direction there comes the cry
of party strife, of class struggling against class. We are familiar
enough these latter days with one section of the country decrying
another section, with citizens of one group suspicious of those of
another group, with one division of citizens whose ancestral home
is in one part of Europe arrayed against another division whose
ancestral home happened to be in another part of the same
continent. Let us be one. Let Masonry preach aloud its doctrine of
manhood above every consideration; it matters not where a man is
born, in a hut or in a palace, whether in the north of Europe or in
the south, in the east or in the west, whether in the old world or
in the new; a man is a man for all that. Let it be known from the
housetops that there is one organization that has existed and grown
and flourished for centuries on the assumption that one honest,
sincere man is as good as another, and has had its long perpetuity
on the very ground that all artificial distinctions must be laid
aside at the door of the lodge.

Is not this doctrine as good on the street as in the lodge ? Is it
not an ideal that should be made a national ideal, and is not
Masonry the agency through which this doctrine may become a
national doctrine and a national realization ? There must come
forth some individual, or some institution, that is willing and
able to render us this national service. There is little doubt as
to the ability of Masonry to render a great service along this
line, were it entirely willing to do so. There is, perhaps, no
organization in our midst, as respectable in numbers, that is more
conservative than Masonry. Therein lies our weakness for this
undertaking. We should have to be as positive for unity as other
influences, now at work, are for disunity. We should be as positive
in asserting our ideals in the outer world, as we are in the tiled
recesses of the lodge. In other words, we now have the opportunity
to make our ideals actual realizations on a national scale, if we
but prove ourselves positive enough to be what we profess.

