AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PLUMB LINE

BY BROTHER CHANNING GORDON LAWRENCE, NEW BRUNSWICK

THE BUILDER, JANUARY 1923

Here is a reading of the lesson of the plumb line that shows spiritual
insight. Brother Lawrence is Grand Chaplain of New Brunswick; Worshipful
Master of The Corinthians, No. 13; member of Royal Arch Chapter and of
A. and A. S. R., etc.


Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a
plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb
line.  Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my
people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more. -Amos VII, 7-8.


AMOS was one of the Prophets of Israel. We are accustomed to think of a
prophet as one who predicts the course of events.  Among the Hebrews
the Prophet did occasionally predict, or foretell, the consequences that
might be expected to follow upon evil living; or he foretold at times the help
comfort that God would provide for His faithful people; but the
characteristic function of the Prophet was not to foretell, but to tell forth. 
He told forth truths about God.  The teaching of the prophet Amos has
been preserved nearly three thousand years while myriads of other books
have perished because it contains lessons that are of real worth and that
are always of appropriate application.

Nearly all successful teachers have taught by means of illustration.  They
have used signs and symbols that were selected to impress upon the mind
wise and serious truths.  Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and teaching have
profoundly influenced the whole trend of civilization, illustrated his lessons
by means of parables.  The parable was a short story drawn from everyday
life.  To many of the hearers it was no doubt a well-told story and nothing
more.  But in every parable a principle of morality or a spiritual truth was
exemplified. The story partly concealed the truth from unworthy or
unfriendly hearers; and it partly revealed it to those who had ears to hear
or, in other words, to those who desired light on heavenly things.

The parable, as a means of illustration, was a development of later Hebrew
thought.  In the days of the Prophets teaching was frequently illustrated by
means of the Vision.

The vision differed from a parable in that it represented the lesson taught
as having been revealed directly to the prophet by God Himself.  Thus
when the prophet was convinced of the truth of a sufficiently important
lesson and was certain of its divine character, he introduced it with such
words as, "I saw the Lord standing beside a wall," or "I heard the Lord
saying unto me," and so forth.  We cannot suppose that wherever in the
ancient writings the Prophets use such language they have been permitted
with natural eyes to look upon God, or that with mortal ears they heard in
audible tones the voice of God: they used these expressions "I saw," and
"I heard," to make their teaching impressive.

But in this the prophets were in no sense guilty of deception or of
misrepresentation.  They told the truth just as you do when you often
unconsciously follow their example.  One day a peculiarly profound thought
occurs to you, so unlike your usual trend of thought that it seems to have
come to you from without; and you say, "I have had an inspiration." But
what does that mean? Inspiration is literally a "breathing in." There has been
breathed into your mind an idea, a thought, a suggestion from the great
Spirit of Wisdom.  You heard no audible voice but yet, it may be, God
spoke to you as truly as He spoke to Amos or Hosea or Isaiah; as He
speaks every day to men who keep their minds in harmony with God.  The
wireless telegraph was perfected in our time but the principle of its
operation has been in use between earth and heaven since the Creation. 
Messages have always been coming from God to men and we call it
inspiration.  And messages go back from man to God and we call it prayer.

THE WALL

So the vision of Amos contains a lesson of profound importance which the
prophet wished to communicate in a striking and impressive way.  First we
shall consider The Wall.

You see its successive layers, each stone hewn, and shaped and placed
by the hands of a builder, each separate stone and each layer of stones all
cemented together with mortar applied with a trowel.  Its angles are right
angles, its layers are horizontal, its sides perpendicular.  And how did it
come to be so? These are evidences of a Mind wise enough to design and
to measure and lay out work.  And beside the Wisdom that designed, there
has been Strength sufficient to divest those blocks of their superfluous
parts and lift them to their proper position.  And deeper still we perceive the
Beauty of manly courage and godlike faith that dared to attempt such an
enterprise and trusted in the laws of Nature that the effort would not be in
Vain.

In our speculative capacity let us think of that wall as representing the result
of human endeavour, something that man designs and attempts and
finishes, something that he builds, in imitation of the Creator whose image
he bears.  While we might with profit consider our great Fraternity, built up
by our predecessors in the Craft so that now it is known and respected the
world over, yet I prefer that we should at this time consider that wall as
representing human character, mine or yours.

For character is the result of human effort continued from day to day.  That
which you most desire in the depths of your inmost heart is the plan by
which you govern your building.  Set your affection on things which are
base and dark and unworthy and your character becomes a wall of
unlovely type.  Set your affection on things above, on the unseen values of
eternity, on truth and light and justice, and the built-up wall of your
character will proceed along lines that please the eye of the Master.  The
stones which enter into that wall are acts and words and thoughts.  As a
wise and skilful builder rejects some of the stones that are brought to him
as unfit to have a place in his building, so you ought often to reject many
a thought that is suggested, to refrain from repeating much that is told you
and to abstain from many deeds which by the thoughtless and profane, are
performed to our knowledge every day.

A wall of masonry is not just a chance accumulation of stones and mortar.
It is a studied and carefully planned arrangement executed with attention
to every detail.  And just so, good character in man is not a wild and
natural growth but is only developed under careful discipline, The standard
of righteousness is as unvarying as the Plumb, Virtue is as exact as the
angle of the Square, and our determination to be and true must be as
continuous and unbroken as the level line which stretches far beyond the
bounds space into the realms of eternity.  Let no one suppose that it does
not matter what he thinks, or how speaks, or what he does, for thoughts,
words, and deeds are the building material of his character.

THE OVERSEER

So much for the wall.  We note next that it was being inspected.  "Behold
the Lord standing beside a wall." Amos reminds us that He who made the
worlds is interested in the work of His creatures.  He comes having
authority to examine and inspect the work which we present.  Those of you
who did military service in the memorable days of the Great War, remember
how novel a thing to us the inspections of the army were.  We were
inspected in every conceivable way, our bearing and deportment, our
dress, our sleeping apartments, our bodies, our food, and our
correspondence.  There seemed to be nothing that the army did not in
some way look into.  And he was a dull soldier who did not at least dimly
guess that somewhere, not far away, is One who similarly looks into and
sees the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Lord stands beside every wall and though our thoughts, words and
actions may be hidden from the eyes of man yet that All-seeing Eye whom
the sun, moon and stars obey, pervades the inmost recesses of the human
heart.  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He who allows
himself to think lightly of God, who neglects to pay to T.G.A.O.T. the
reverence and the adoration due to His Holy Name, is lacking in that
wisdom which is needed to plan direct any truly great work.  Look up, my
brothers, into the starry sky, the canopy of heaven, and behold the myriads
of planets all in motion and yet moving as they have for untold ages
without collision or confusion.  Study the order and the beauty apparent
there.  Think of the wisdom which carefully planned all their nice exactness. 
Think you that such a Master will be satisfied with careless, sloth or
indifferent service?

His work as revealed in Nature alone necessitated an awful knowledge of
the intricate relations of curved lines intersecting, of the laws of moving
bodies, of the principles of ornamentation and of many a science and art
that we may not even imagine.  But our simple building is a matter of the
relation of only two straight lines, one perpendicular and one horizontal: Yet
it is a building that He will look into.  Take heed that we build aright!

THE PLUMB LINE

There remains for our consideration the instrument by which the test was
made.  "Behold, the stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb
line in his hand."

From any given point an incalculable number straight lines may be drawn
in any number of planes. They may extend east or west or north or south,
or up or down, or they may lean in a thousand variations of each of these
several directions: an immeasurable number of lines from that one point
and every one of them is straight. But only one out of the thousands can
be plumb! A great many are nearly plumb, but one, and only one, is strictly
so.  According to that one upright straight line will our work be tried.

When a wall gets out of the plumb it leans either out or in. And when it
leans seams begin to show on the opposite side.  And the seam is the
visible sign to all who pass by that the wall is not so well built as it might
have been.  It may be still a very useful wall affording support, or shelter,
or defense, but because it is not plumb it is not so good as it might have
been.  For a wall ought to stand according to the plumb.  And the wall that
leans ever so little is a reproach to the builder who ought to have kept it
plumb.

In the wall of our character we are inclined to lean out or in.  Inward in the
way of selfishness, personal interest, love of gain and pride.  Think too
much of self and your wall begins to lean and the seams open on the outer
side.  And the tendency to please the world, rather than to please God, will
draw your character away from the plumb in the other direction.  One does
not like to displease his neighbour and to avoid doing so he leans away
from uprightness.  Or he finds it trying and unpleasant to tell the truth when
a little concession to popular fancy will bring popularity; a little flattery or
praise.  But lean ever so little and the seams come and grow. And men say
that "So-and-so would be upright but for this or that; he is of perfect
character only for this one flaw," - and so forth. And alas, you have not built
Plumb.

A hard, hard thing it is to keep to that unerring line. We cast our eye down
its length to see how often our work has varied from the plumb, and with
much humility and many tears we look up to the Great Master and we trust
that He, in His wisdom, knows that we desire to please Him.  We can say
truly that above all other lines we desire and prefer the plumb.

May God forgive me if I am wrong in this, but I believe that although our
work shows many flaws, our walls far from perfect and the seams show on
every side, yet the Great Master will know that we have tried to build aright. 
And may it not be that in another world with choicer stone to quarry and
finer tools to work with and brighter Light to lead us, may not the
Apprentice of this life be advanced to a higher degree of service?

There have been times in the history of philosophy as in the history of
religion, when men have gone to an extreme in emphasizing the
seriousness of life.  But few, if any, are guilty of that fault today.  We are
rather in the way of becoming a materialistic and superficial people. Our
grandfathers read through tremendous volumes of Shakespeare and
Thackeray and Macaulay with interest and profit.  We tire ourselves with the
short stories of the magazine. They patronized and enjoyed the three-hour
plays and operas of real worth. We troop in thousands afternoon and
evening to the pictures and are content.  We hustle frantically and
nervously through the day in machines of the highest gear, along roads
that are built for speed, leaving ourselves so little leisure for study or
reflection that there is danger of "the attentive ear" and "the instructive
tongue" becoming only figurative expressions and memories of the past.
But as builders who serve a heavenly Master, we must not allow ourselves
to be seduced by the ease-loving spirit of the age. There rests upon every
Freemason a great responsibility.  We, in our generation, guard certain
great traditions of the past: we hold in trust sacred mysteries that we must
pass on unchanged to those who are yet to come.  And to keep ourselves
worthy of this honourable duty we must adhere to the plumb in our several
stations before God and man.

Above all things in our truly Masonic work we must avoid haste and
carelessness, and in all our ceremonies and operations prepare ourselves
thoroughly, proceed regularly, and continue persistently while the Light
lasts, carrying out each detail with precision and giving to each the dignity
and honour due to it as part of the plan of a Great Architect.

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