THE BUILDER MARCH 1917

"FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER"

By Bro. E.R. Burkhalter, Iowa

(Brother Dr. Burkhalter was born in New York City, Dec. 21st, 1844;
was graduated with the degree of A. B., from Princeton University
in 1862; studied in the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg,
1864-5; and in the Union Theological Seminary, 1867-70; received
the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Lenox College, 1884, and from
Princeton in 1895; the degree of Doctor of Laws from Coe College,
in 1906, of whose Board of Trustees he has for many years been
President; was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa from 1876 until 1914, and since that time has been
pastor emeritus. He is a member of all the bodies of "York" Rite
Masonry, in whose fellowship he is at once an inspiration and a
benediction.

Every man finds in Freemasonry what he brings to it, and no one
ever brought to its altar a clearer mind or a purer heart than this
honored and beloved Pastor. His initiation was a notable event
never to be forgotten, and the following testimony, recorded at our
request, is as sincere as it is eloquent, and is an honor alike to
its author and to the Order in whose fellowship he has found so
much joy in the evening of his life. Ripe of mind, rich in
character, radiant in faith, his alert and beautiful intellect saw
the far-echoing meanings of Masonic symbolisms, and his genius for
friendship responded devoutly to its appeal of Brotherly Love.

Such a testimony, we believe, will do much to melt such prejudice
as may still exist against a Fraternity so benign in its teachings,
so beneficent in its influence, and especially among men of the
pulpit who too often look upon it with disfavor. Among young men,
too, such words should mean much, coming from a man of consummate
scholarship and exalted character; and to the whole fraternity it
is a tribute as memorable as it is gracious. If these noble words
touch the heart of the Craft, renewing its faith and rekindling its
love, it will be joy enough for ye editor, to whom their author is
both a father and a friend, whose love and fellowship are among the
rarest gifts of the mercy of God. )

The Editor of The Builder has asked me to prepare for its columns
an article along the lines of a contribution to a Masonic
Experience Meeting. In good old days of yore it was the custom of
the brethren in certain church gatherings to relate their
experience for the comfort and edification of those present. As I
have enjoyed a recent and to me at least, and also to my friend,
the Editor of this periodical, a very interesting and marked
Masonic Experience, I have been asked by him to tell it. I may say
in passing, that whenever he makes of me any request, I am eager to
fulfill it, for he is to me a friend more dearly beloved than he
would perhaps dare to believe, though I should tell him most
earnestly, and now especially that he is alas so soon to leave us,
and go across the sea, and occupy and, as I believe, adorn the
pulpit of City Temple, London, the foremost non conformist pulpit
of the British Empire.


But I am glad also to tell my simple story for the benefit of
Masonry, hoping that it may bring gladness and cheer, warmth and
fraternal love, into many a heart that may chance to read it.

I was raised to the Master's Degree in Crescent Lodge, Cedar
Rapids, on the evening of December 14th, 1915. I was at that time
just seventy-one years old, and had been for more than forty-five
years a minister of the Presbyterian Church. For more than forty
years I had been the minister of the same pastoral charge in this
city of Cedar Rapids, and I had just been released from the active
duties and responsibilities of that charge to become Pastor
Emeritus. My relations to all the churches of my home city during
the forty years of my ministry had been of unbroken and increasing
joy and brotherly love, the most perfect unity and catholicity, so
that I was prepared by my release from one particular charge to
enter into relations of identification with all the Brethren.

I mention this simply because I believe it helps greatly to explain
the full dimension of the experience which is now to be told. I may
also, I trust, be permitted to say that another preparation for my
entrance into the Lodge was brought about by a yearning for
companionship caused by a deep bereavement which had recently
fallen to my lot: the departure from earthly life of my beloved
wife, my comrade for fortyseven years. I was lonely, and my whole
soul was a-hungered. I entered the Masonic Lodge and found what I
was longing for, but in a measure far beyond what I had imagined.

The abundant and significant use that is perpetually made in
Masonry of parable and symbolism especially appealed to me and
fascinated me. The Lodge seemed to be full of voices, telling me
profoundly the greatest mysteries of life. As often as I returned
to its convocations, and I came to be habitually there, I saw and
I heard something new--something that had escaped me before. I
simply sat in my place as chaplain, and I saw new meanings, or
deeper ones, in every item of the Ritual, so that I marveled
greatly.

But my chief experience was gathered at taking the first degree.
First impressions are apt to be the most striking and most
enduring. I was most profoundly moved by what was taught me
concerning my poverty, my helplessness, my absolute need, and the
propriety and well-foundedness of my trust in God. But I believe
the great moment came to me when a hand was given me from one who
called me "my brother." That moment marked an epoch in my life. I
had often heard that word, "Brother," before. I had often had it
applied to me; but never under similar circumstances, and I am sure
that many who may read these words will understand me perfectly
when I say that sometimes in life a word expressive of a
relationship will come to present for some reason a meaning it was
never dreamed to have before. The word was there before, the
relationship it expressed was there before; but as we look back
from the new experience it seems to us that neither the word nor
the relationship had ever before been conceived. At that moment an
overwhelming and overflowing sympathy possessed me. I felt rising
within me, as it were, an ocean of fraternal love, which, as it
rose, washed away one by one all lines and marks of subdivision,
until they had all gone and for me forever passed away from sight
and even from existence. As this ocean of brotherly love arose
within me, it submerged one by one all the little lagoons made by
sand or stones, until all was merged into one everlasting unity. At
that solemn moment God and Humanity were seen in one, and to them
I was asked to pledge my troth. I went forth that night from the
lodge room, and discovered that I had had a new experience. I was
not surprised to observe that the world now wore a new smile. The
world of humanity now assumed a new aspect. It was simply the
answer from without to what had been put within me.

But it may well be asked, Was there anything really new in this?
Had I not known all this before? Yes, in a very important sense,
yes. I had learned it all when a child at my mother's knee, where
from a babe I had been taught the sacred writings. I had professed
it from my first Christian discipleship. I had preached it
thousands of times from the same pulpit, from my young manhood. I
had seen it illustrated in many beautiful instances in lives around
me. I may, I trust, be permitted to hope that I had been
illustrating it in some small measure in my own life. But I am only
telling the truth when I say, that from that moment of experience
which I am now recording, I realized what the word "Brother" meant
as I never realized it before. I saw man himself beneath all
integuments, beneath all local, racial, national or other,
distinctions, separated from all class differences and diversities
of social condition. I saw man as man, and in every man, another
child of my Father. Every man seemed to me as only my other self,
as dear to me as myself could ever be.

All this I saw and felt as I had never seen and felt it before, and
when I make this known, can any one be surprised that I feel a
solemn and grateful zeal in telling it as having come to me on the
occasion of my taking my obligation in the first degree of Masonry?

And with this experience there comes to my mind the natural
enquiry, May it not be the purpose of the Author and Builder of the
universe to make use of the order of Freemasonry as a great factor
in promotion of His evident Desire to realize and complete the
Brotherhood of man? What more simple, natural, and efficient method
could be devised, to bring about this consummation so devoutly to
be wished for?

Is not this a question for every Mason solemnly to consider? Is it
not every Mason's prerogative and privilege to lay to heart the
hope that he and his brethren throughout the whole world may
contribute, "each his bit," to the construction of that temple of
Humanity, which, inasmuch as it is the building of God, is the
surest thing to come of all the buildings that are in process ?

And now as I look about the room in this experience meeting, I
think I can observe a pardonable smile on the faces of not a few of
my elder brethren at the enthusiasm of this youthful novice who has
just been presented to them. But perhaps it may be possible that I,
their youngest brother, may be employed to bring back again to my
seniors in Masonry some of that strange ineffable Light which is so
apt to fall back again into the Common day. I have seen that light.
It is a part of that primeval ray which came into being with the
first fiat of Creative will. He who in the beginning caused the
Light to shine out of the Darkness hath shined into every true
Mason's heart. Every true Mason has seen the glory. He who knows
its precious value, will never willingly allow it to fade; but will
diffuse it everywhere, and will thus have more of it within
himself.

And now before I take my seat, being properly called to order as
having consumed all the time becomingly alloted me in an experience
meeting, let me record with extreme thankfulness the pleasure and
profit I am continually receiving from the use of the working tools
of a Master Mason, in their spiritual and symbolic sense. Every day
does each one of these tools come into my hands for needful and
useful employment, but especially do I enjoy the use of three of
them: first, the Gavel to knock away the protruberances of the
rough ashlar, and fit it to become a valuable constituent of that
living Temple in process of erection for the Indwelling of Deity;
secondly, the twenty-four inch Gauge, regulating the systematic use
of the sacred time of which life is made; but principally the
trowel, which one buries in that boundless cement of Love, made of
the very substance of God Himself and to be applied to every piece
of his work, to unite it in one indestructible wholeness with the
labors of all his Brothers.

Who can think of such symbols and metaphors, without being
conscious that he is being taught a method of living by the Great
Master and Teacher of us all? Who can come in perpetual contact
with such an atmosphere as belongs to a real Masonic Lodge, without
feeling prompted to make use of its obligations and opportunities
to the highest possible advantage to his Brethren and himself? The
present writer is glad to testify that he has never in his life
realized the power of the Beatitude, "Blessed are they who hunger
and thirst after Righteousness," as he has realized it in a Masonic
Lodge Room, while he has witnessed, and participated in, the Solemn
Ritual.

The world is crying out at this tragical time for "Brotherhood." No
word in our language strikes the ear and the heart with such sense
of need and of desire. And the world is crying out for "Character"
in each individual man. There is an imperative call for worth, for
value, for merit. The demand-is for the real thing, not for any
cheap imitation thereof.

I am persuaded that Masonry is marvelously fitted to realize
individual character and universal world-wide Brotherhood. I do not
argue for Masonry as against any other Institution. I would decline
to enter into any discussion concerning it. I have only a zeal, and
it is a fervent zeal, to say what I have said, in the way of
positive and constructive testimony. And I send it forth in the
confident hope that it will awaken echoes in other human hearts,
which have known what I now know, and will call up voices which
will not cease again to speak, until they have brought a conscious
blessing to many lives, which love to feel the possession and the
opportunity of our Common humanity.

ARE YOU A MASON?

What ho, adventurous pilgrim, you who knocketh at our door 
And fain would have a footing on our tesselated floor! 
Now stand ye there, bold traveler, and with patience rest a while.
For before your journey's ended you'll go many a weary mile 
The Master of the lodge must know and answer your request, 
And from the East he'll duly send his message to the West. 
So fear not, anxious pilgrim, as you stand waiting there-- 
For wee meet upon the level and we part upon the square.

And, Tyler, bare thy burnished blade; watch well the outer gate!
Beyond our guarded portal shall no cowan penetrate; 
No scoffer and no renegade may hope to look within; 
Our sacred rites and mysteries, there's just one way to win. 
So, Tyler, stand with ready hand; the lodge well tyled must be;
The candidate must there await the Master's due decree. 
But, Tyler, with thy guarding all, be this thy greatest care-- 
That we meet upon the level and we part upon the square.

Oh, Master we call Worshipful, in the station of the sun 
God help thee finish well this day the work thou hast begun! 
Lead thou the craftsmen faithfully. Thy compasses fail not.
Instruct us in the ancient arts the kings of old have taught. 
But, Master, while the brethren in their lessons thou dost guide,
One master word must e'er be heard above all else beside
This, brethren, the commandment from the Master's sovereign chair--
That we meet upon the level and we part upon the square.

Are you a Mason, brother, are you true to every vow? 
Then let's recall them, one by one, and let's renew them now. 
To walk in paths of righteousness, erect and unafraid; 
No brother wrong, and if we're strong, the weaker one to aid;
Rejoicing in our cable and delighting in its length 
And, as God has made us able, exulting in our strength. 
Then, brethren, are we Masons? Yes, we are if everywhere 
We shall meet upon the level and shall part upon the square.

Are you a Mason, brother, a Mason blue and true 
And do you by your brother as you'd have him do by you? 
The world is full of Philistines and dealers in deceit; 
Rogues, small and great, don't hesitate their brother man to cheat;
Are you a Mason, frater, and never such as these? 
Aye, let us both repeat the oath we took upon our knees. 
Are you a Mason, brother? Then together let us swear 
That we'll meet upon the level and we'll part upon the square!

Ha, ye Hittites and Amalekites, who forever rail and mock 
Shall ye triumph over Brotherhood, or shall it stand the shock?
Shall Love and Kindness rule the world or crooked courses lead?
Shall Scorn and ruthless Hate prevail, or Fraternity succeed? 
My brethren, oh, my brethren, how shall we win our fight, 
And how the sons of Darkness shall we vanquish with the Light? 
By this sign we shall conquer--that we only shall be fair 
And shall meet upon the level and shall part upon the square. 
Are you a Mason? What reply, my brother, can you make? 
Sincerely can you answer and no obligation break? 
Yes, can you answer joyously and serenely hold your head 
No rancor for the living and without remorse for dead?
Away with hollow platitudes! Off, every pretense strip! 
And, brethren, let us give again the honest Mason's grip, 
"I am, I am a Mason," with all loyalty declare, 
As we meet upon the level and we part upon the square!
--Harry E. Andrews.

Written for and read to Eastgate Lodge of Los Angeles,
August 3, 1916.

