THE BUILDER JUNE 1918

WHAT A FELLOW CRAFT OUGHT TO KNOW 
BY BRO. HAL RIVIERE, GEORGIA

AS we look about this world in which we live and consider the
various forms of life with which we are familiar, we find a
sameness in the general plan that would be monotonous if it were
not so beautiful in the infinite variety of the details. The life
of a world, the life of a race, of a nation, a man, an animal, a
flower, an insect--each of these goes through the same relative
processes, a progress from beginning to end and as they pass beyond
it seems likely that those processes are repeated. First there is
the period of preparation, then the birth, the growth, the fruiting
time, the decline and finally the dissolution.

For countless ages a fragment clings to its sun--a world in
preparation; eventually it is thrown whirling into space to begin
a separate existence--the birth of a world; the gases solidify,
land and water appear--the period of development; vegetable and
animal life are brought forth, the period of fruitfulness; then
come the decline and dissolution.

A tiny seed lies in the ground; it bursts and the sprout makes its
way to the top of the soil and a plant is born; it grows and
flowering, sheds a sweetness abroad and perhaps gives useful fruit;
but its work done, it too, fades and dies. Whence came the plant
and whither has it gone ? It knows not, nor cares.

From a tiny egg in the waxen cell within the hive a larva is
hatched, passes through the various stages of development until
eventually the bee comes forth to perform its amazing, complicated
series of duties; finally, with flayed wings worn out in gathering
the nectar from a myriad of blossoms, it crawls away to die alone.
Whence came the bee and whither has it gone? It knows not, nor
cares.

After a suitable period of preparation a babe is born, grows to
manhood, does his work whether of good or ill, declines and dies.
Whence came the man and whither has he gone? Man knows not, but
cares and the question that he has ever asked himself from the time
when the first gleams of intelligence were developed in him is,
"whence come you ?" and later, "whither are you traveling?" Perhaps
the first question a child will ask upon seeing a new born infant
is, "where did he come from?" Later, as he comes to realize the
meaning of death he will ask, "where do the dead go?" For there is
in mankind a feeling that death does not end it all and he has ever
refused to concede to death the victory, feeling rather that human
life is a preparation for a greater life to come beyond the grave.

Two stages of human life have ever been awe inspiring, Infancy and
Old Age; the infant, a candidate for the mysteries of this world,
and the old man, a candidate for the mysteries beyond the grave.
Whence comes the infant, from the everywhere, or nowhere? Who can
stand beside the cradle of a babe only a few days old and see it
smile in its sleep, without feeling that it has had an experience?
It has no consciousness of the present world; then whence its
smile? Can there be still memories of the everywhere it has left
before the experience of this world crowd them out? What
possibilities lie before it during the few years it is to spend in
this life! Who knows the consequences that may hang upon the use it
makes of the opportunities of human existence! And so it is that
Old Age also, facing the end of human existence, facing a journey
into undiscovered countries, fills the contemplative mind with
serious thoughts. If there be sleeping and dreaming in that
undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, will
the dreams that shall come to him newly born to the heavenly life,
cause sweet smiles to play across his radiant face and bear witness
to the beauty and happiness of a useful mortal life ?

It is only by realizing that human life is a preparation for a
greater life beyond, that he has lived before and shall live again
after death ends mortal existence, it is only by so realizing that
one can understand the significance of Freemasonry because it is an
epitome of human life and each degree teaches the duties of certain
stages of life using the customs of the Ancient Operative Masons as
a foundation and teaching great moral and intellectual lessons by
means of allegories and symbols.

When we speak of our Ancient Operative brethren we allude to those
men who composed the lodges of stone masons who built the
cathedrals, abbeys, temples and national and civic edifices prior
to the seventeenth century. But those men were not merely stone
masons; their leaders were architects and master builders and
possessed that secret knowledge of the building arts which they
guarded among themselves and taught only to those proven worthy.

Operative Masons have plied their art in the building of many
famous structures from the dawn of civilization in Egypt and we
have records of many distinguished Master builders; The first
architect to erect a building of stone was Imhotep the Wise, who
completed his initial work about the year 3000 B.C. A few years
later, in 2900 B.C., the architects of King Khufu built the Great
Pyramid of Gizeh, an undertaking which demonstrates upon the part
of those men, a knowledge of arithmetic, geometry and astronomy
marvelous to contemplate.

Egypt became the fountain head of knowledge and as the secrets of
the builders' arts were jealously guarded by those learned in
architecture and the correlated arts and sciences, men of other
nations journeyed thither to be initiated into the mysteries. Those
found worthy were so initiated, spread abroad to ply their trade
and became the teachers and builders of other nations. Babylonia,
Assyria, Phoenicia, Crete and later Greece and Rome, felt the
influence of Egyptian civilization.

Next to the Pyramids, the most famous structure of ancient times
was the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. This was built by men of
Phoenicia headed by Hiram the Architect whom Hiram, King of Tyre,
sent to supervise the work for his friend and ally, Solomon, King
of Israel.

It is comparatively easy to trace the progress of the Art of
Architecture from that day until modern times. In company with that
progress went oathbound secret societies guarding the knowledge of
the builders' arts and today we find Speculative Masonry as the
direct descendant of those old secret societies of builders. The
knowledge of Architecture once so closely guarded in oath-bound
fraternities has become the common property of all who care to
learn it. Lodges of Operative Masons have ceased to exist but
Speculative Masonry has attached a symbolic meaning to the various
working tools and to many words, terms and expressions used by the
Ancient brethren.

As the lessons of Speculative Masonry are taught so largely in
terms of the practices of the Ancient Operative Masons a few words
as to their customs will make it easier to draw a parallel between
those practices and the ceremonies of this degree.

In ancient times, when a person desired to become a Mason he made
application to some Master who, if he was pleased with the
applicant's appearance, took him on trial. The trial satisfactory,
he was formally Entered as an Apprentice, that being his Masonic
birth. Entered Apprentices were required to serve for seven years,
that being a period of growth or development and during that time
they learned the fundamental principles of the Craft; obedience,
sobriety, truthfulness, industry and consideration for and charity
toward the brethren; they learned to adjust themselves to their
surroundings and to work in harmony with those about them,
meanwhile catching a vision of the seriousness of life and the
beauty and dignity of their calling. Each was expected to become
fixed in the habits of right living, skillful in the handling of
his tools, familiar with the labors of a stone mason and ambitious
to advance. The time of apprenticeship drawing to a close he worked
upon and perfected a masterpiece as an evidence of his skill, which
he carried before the Annual Assembly where he was required to
stand an examination to demonstrate to his superiors his ability
and his worth; upon the result of the examination depended his
advancement.

In our time, my brother, Free and Accepted Masons carry out many of
the ancient customs. You were initiated as an Entered Apprentice,
served a suitable time as such, passed a satisfactory examination
before the lodge, were elected to advance and have been passed to
the degree of Fellow Craft. But I wonder if during the days of your
apprenticeship, you became proficient in the use of the working
tools of an Entered Apprentice. You remember that they are the
twenty four inch gauge, or rule, and the gavel, or mallet.

Our Ancient Operative brethren used the gauge to measure or lay out
their work. You, my brother, should use your mind or reason to
measure your work as you labor in the building of a beautiful
character. During your apprenticeship have you used your reason to
measure yourself, your conduct, your usefulness, your capacity for
service? Do you measure up to the high standard of upright moral
and Masonic manhood? We are not enough in the habit of so measuring
ourselves but it is only by so doing that we can keep our
characters straight.

But it is not enough for one to measure himself; a man may measure
and measure yet accomplish nothing.

Shakespeare says "Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
looking before and after, gave us not that capability and Godlike
reason to fust in us unused." That is the great point--to use our
faculties. As our Ancient Operative brethren used the gavel to
knock off the corners of rough stones, so we are to use our will
power to divest ourselves of the vices and imperfections of our
characters. Have you so used your will power? Is there any fault,
any imperfection, any vice that you have resolved to forsake since
you became a laborer among us? Remember,

"You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content 
In that poor word environment,
But spirit scorns it and is free.

"It masters time, it conquers space,
It cowes that boastful trickster, chance, 
And bids the tyrant circumstance
Uncrown and fill a servant's place.

"The human will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless soul, 
Can hew a way to any goal
Though walls of granite intervene.

"Be not impatient at delay
But wait as one who understands, 
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey."

My brother, it is a deplorable fact that this beautiful Fellow
Craft degree is neither understood nor appreciated by the vast
majority of Masons. Its purpose is not discerned and there seems to
be no connection between it and the other two degrees of the Blue
Lodge. In reality, the three degrees of Freemasonry form a
beautiful system and the Fellow Craft is the only logical
connecting link between the other two; but it is only when a view
of the whole is taken that one comes to see the necessary place in
the scheme that each degree occupies. We must bear in mind that
Masonic Light is the object of a Mason's search and that Masonic
Light is a symbol for Truth; we must know that in trying to answer
the question of his origin and destiny man has come to realize that
there are certain laws that govern him. These he has specified as
Divine Truth and it is to know and to bring himself into conscious
harmony with them that he labors.

One of our beautiful charges opens with these words: "The ways of
Virtue are beautiful; Knowledge is attained by degrees; Wisdom
dwells with contemplation; there must we seek her." In those words
we have expressed the degree plan of Freemasonry. Man has found
that in striving to attain Divine Truth a foundation of good habits
is necessary--a training in the ways of virtue; these good habits
are used in the acquisition of knowledge or the development of the
intellect; a combination of good habits and high intellectual
development produces a lofty train of thought whence result keen
judgment, foresight, prudence- all those qualities which go to make
a wise man.

"Wisdom," said Solomon, "is the principal thing; therefore get
wisdom." Wisdom might be defined as Virtue plus Knowledge
multiplied by Contemplation. Its attainment is a slow process, a
matter of growth. Wisdom is the border-land from whose heights a
man beholds Truth while Truth is the land of Canaan which a Moses
may behold yet never fully attain.

The foundation of Wisdom is Character. It is in the building of
character that every Fellow Craft is employed and this degree deals
particularly with the training of the body in right habits and the
cultivation of the mind. The legend of this degree presents the
matter in beautiful, logical form and should leave no doubt in the
mind of the candidate that the ways of virtue are beautiful and
that knowledge is attained by degrees.

Let us ever remember that it is not the purpose of Freemasonry to
enter into scientific dissertations upon Hearing, Seeing, Feeling,
Smelling and Tasting; by entering such a maze the lessons of the
degree are lost. Only architects and delvers into antiquity care to
enter minutely into the history of the various Orders of
Architecture or to learn with mathematical exactitude the
proportion of the several columns. Nor is it the purpose of the
Order to define Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry,
Music and Astronomy. Such learned disquisitions upon the Senses,
Orders of Architecture and the Liberal Arts and Sciences are a
relic of the bygone days of Operative Masonry when the lodge was
workshop, home and school--in fact, the whole life of the brethren;
such practices were then advisable and necessary but in our time
the object in view is to learn practical lessons from a symbolical
presentation of those subjects.

The proper development and use of the five human senses enables us
to support and protect ourselves, to enjoy the blessings and
comforts of life that surround us and to contribute to the
happiness of others. Their improper use may lead to animalism on
the one hand or asceticism on the other; in either case it will
tend to limit the capabilities. Overindulgence and excesses tend to
blunt and asceticism to dwarf the bodily powers while the reward
for moderation and simplicity in the employment of the senses is
certain and sure.


From the Orders of Architecture we should learn that an absolute
mastery of the details pertaining to his particular line of work is
necessary for a man's success; and as these orders are used to
beautify and adorn as well as to be of service, we should not be
satisfied with building merely an upright character but should
cultivate those graces that are so pleasing when naturally and
sincerely displayed. As the Ionic column, emblematic of Wisdom,
bears a mean proportion between the ornamental and solid orders, so
our characters should preserve the mean between a sordid,
mechanical existence and artistic temperamentalism.

The acquisition of knowledge and the training of the mind into
habits of logical thought is no less a part of character building
than the training of the body. The study of the Seven Liberal Arts
and Sciences is typical of that intellectual development that is
necessary before wisdom can be attained and the blending of the
beautiful and pleasing arts with the useful sciences teaches us
that something more than utility is required in the well rounded
character. One may reason logically in ungrammatical language but
if his speech be polished by the use of correct grammatical
constructions and adorned by the use of rhetorical figures, his
reasoning and personality are given an added force. While the
training of the mind to a high degree in the mathematical sciences
is desirable it is not sufficient in a well developed character for
one so trained may become coldly precise unless a love for the
beautiful enters in to temper his exactitude. If in studying
astronomy, a man becomes so engrossed with the lines, angles,
circles and distances of the heavenly bodies that he perceives none
of the beauty of the handiwork of the Great Architect nor hears the
"music of the stars," he is one of those who having eyes to see,
see not and having ears to hear, hear not.

One of the purposes of this degree is to teach perfection in
practice and accuracy in information. Science is systematic
thought; it is organized knowledge, while art is skill in the
employment of the principles of a science. One should cultivate a
due regard for all phases of intellectual activity, remembering
that perfection in any art or calling will come in the degree that
knowledge of it is systematic and orderly. A Fellow Craft should
not be content to perform his duty in a mechanical way but should
learn the underlying scientific principles upon which it is based,
thus becoming an artist instead of a laborer; his daily toil a joy
instead of a task and his life a blessing and inspiration to those
who come in contact with him.

Realizing that man is a builder engaged in the erection of a temple
of character fit for the indwelling of the living God, Freemasonry
uses the Temple of Solomon as a type to visualize the processes of
building and to illustrate the end in view. Now that you have been
passed to the degree of Fellow Craft, the account of the building
of this Temple as recorded in the Bible will be of peculiar
interest to you. Many traditions in regard to the Temple have been
handed down to us, one of the most beautiful being the legend of
the Fellow Craft degree. This legend is founded upon a verse in the
sixth chapter of I Kings, which is in these words: "The door for
the Middle Chamber was in the right side of the house and they went
up by winding stairs into the Middle Chamber and out of the Middle
into the Third." We must not confuse history and tradition. Eighty
thousand men would find it impossible to ascend to the second story
of a building in one afternoon and receive their wages nor would
the room contain the wages due them. This incident is of value to
us as Masons only insofar as we see the lessons designed to be
taught and make practical use of them in the development of our
characters.

After faithfully performing his duty the ancient Fellow Craft was
invested with certain words, signs and tokens that secured his
admission into the Middle Chamber where he received the wages due
him. A shirker or an impostor might ascend the stairs but only he
who was duly prepared by being in possession of these words, signs
and tokens could gain admission.

So in life. Every man is invested with certain words, signs and
tokens that determine the circle to which he shall be admitted.
Every honest effort put forth and every faithful performance of
duty bring their reward. A man may enter any circle or attain any
desired height if he shall work until his labor brings as a reward
the words, signs and tokens necessary to gain an entrance into the
coveted place. The passwords must be unequivocal and no impostor by
dissimulation can escape the vigilance that eternally rewards a man
according to his deserts. There must be evidence in plenty that the
preparation is not superficial nor assumed as a cloak to gain
unworthy ends. It is not until a sign or token is given that the
required qualities have become established as part and parcel of
his very being that a man is accepted with confidence into the
innermost circle of his desire. He cannot hope to enter the circle
of those who have labored and earned the wages due who displays no
token that by earnest effort he has earned his reward. Man must
give equal value for what he receives. He must pay the price.

So also, the laborer is worthy of his hire. Solomon gave the
workers upon the Temple a wage of Corn, Wine and Oil. These, being
emblematic of nourishment, refreshment and joy, indicate that the
honest, earnest effort receives not only a material wage but that
there should be a wage of satisfaction and joy in the performance
of duty without which a man labors in vain and spends his strength
for naught. He who finds no joy in his work has not received the
full wages of a Fellow Craft.

There are three things that a Fellow Craft should value highly and
treasure as precious jewels; an attentive ear, an instructive
tongue and a faithful breast. The attentive ear symbolizes that
earnest desire for knowledge, that openness of mind, that
willingness to learn that keeps a man young in spite of his years.
No quality is more valuable than that of finding the instructive
tongue in all the experiences of life, hearing its message and
treasuring that message within the repository of a faithful breast.
He who earnestly seeks knowledge will value every source of
information and if the instructive tongue be sharp and wound the
pride or tear the heart yet will he receive its message humbly,
gladly. "Man, know thyself," is a goal gained sooner through
experience in the ways of adversity than by resting on flowery beds
of ease or through the lying tongue of flattery.

And now, my brother, that you have attained the Middle Chamber and
stand in the strength of manhood to receive the reward of a
faithful workman, remember that it is not by your own strength
alone that you have attained this position but by the assistance
and guidance of the Great Architect of the Universe. "Not by might,
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." All the labor you
have expended and all the efforts you have put forth in the
development of your character have been to the end that you might
attain the Wisdom to know the will of God concerning you and to
make of yourself a temple fit for the indwelling of the Most High.

The true Mason is essentially a religious man, fearing God and
keeping his laws and reverence for his name should be a
distinguishing characteristic of all who have gone this way. Let no
profanity or irreverance for his Holy Name bring discredit upon
your profession as a Mason.

A HINT AS TO PENALTIES
BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

Shakespeare borrowed many of his plots from other authors and from
old books, but the materials wherewith he filled in the frame-work
was taken, almost all of it, from observation and experience. The
dramatist was a man with wide-opened eyes who was quick to catch up
contemporaneous ideas, facts and customs in order to establish a
basis of contact with his hearers and readers. It is this that
gives some value to the reference made in The Tempest to a method
of execution that is not without a mite of interest to students of
the origins of our ritual. The Tempest was written, according to a
consensus of expert opinion, somewhere near 1611. At this time, as
the reader will know, the ritual had not yet been cast into its
present form; the inference may be made that the method of
execution referred to by Shakespeare was well known in the
beginnings of the seventeenth century, and that the men who wrote
the penalties may have borrowed a hint from it. This is a
reasonable conjecture not to be lightly thrown aside when research
is being made for light on such a foggy problem as the origin of
the penalties.

The reference above mentioned occurs in the famous description of
the ship-wreck in the first scene of the first act of The Tempest.
The boatswain, who has been laboring breathlessly to make his ship
storm-safe and to keep his men toiling toward safety, has been
interrupted by the nobles who have come up on deck. He upbraids
them for their interference, whereupon Antonio, the Duke of Milan,
exclaims:

"We're merely cheated out of our lives by drunkards. This
wide-chopped (wide-mouthed) rascal-- wouldst thou might lie
drowning the washing of ten tides !"

On this Professor Hudson makes the following comment: "Pirates were
hanged on the shore at low water-mark, and left till three tides
had overwashed them. 'Ten' is substituted for 'three,' either for
the sake of alliteration or to intensify the guilt of 'the
widechopped rascal.' "
