Address by George W. Truett, Freemason
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Texas, 1940

        In this 1940 address, George W. Truett, a Mason and one of
the foremost leaders of the Southern Baptists, speaks of the
Masonic Fraternity as "one of the most helpfully mediating and
conserving organizations among men."

Pat M. Neff, President of 
Baylor University and Truett's Masonic Brother, introduced Truett
to the assembled Brethren of the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1940
saying:

        "Some 60 years ago when Baylor moved its habitat from
Washington County to Waco, General Speight moved off of this ground
and deeded it to Baylor University. Here within 30 feet of the
Baylor Campus there is a very active Masonic Lodge, named in honor
of General Speight for his valiant services to Waco and to Masonry,
and to Texas, in the early days. Baylor University is named for a
Mason. Two Masons, a lawyer and a preacher, drafted the charter for
Baylor University. These two Masonic friends prese at charter to a
committee of the Republic of Texas, a majority of whom were Masons,
and then Anson Jones, a Mason, the last president of the Texas
Republic, signed the charter that gave to Baylor University its
corporate life.

        "The first teacher of Baylor University, Doctor Gillette,
was a Mason. Baylor started with one teacher and fourteen students,
and started itself right, having as its first teacher a Mason. The
first President of Baylor University was a Mason, and with the
probable exception of 8 years, the Masonic history of which is not
clear, for at least 85 or 90 years of the nearly 100 years of the
existence of Baylor University, a Master Mason has been at the head
and presided over the destinies of this institu Applause)

        "Thus down the trail of the friendly years, Baylor and
Masonry have walked hand in hand, and fought for the glory of our
civilization.

        "And now tonight, it is a happy and beautiful thought that
after 100 years of friendly comradeship, in contact with the
Masonic Lodge[s] of Texas, there gathers here in the hall of Baylor
University the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas, and the
occasion is made more significant and more beautiful in the thought
that the one who is to bring the message of the evening is a
Masonic Brother and a graduate of Baylor University, and the
occasion is made even more significant because 50 years ago he wa
is campus as a student, and there came to his very being all of
those lofty ideals for which the organization stands. And this high
hour of Masonry is also made more beautiful and significant because
the speaker exemplifies in his superb life the exalted efforts of
our Masonic organizations. He is Baylor University's most gifted
son; he is the first citizen of the State of Texas; he is the best
known and most loved religious leader today in t he world
(applause), this fine exemplar of all the virtues and bea uties of
Masonry.

        "I now present to you George W. Truett. (Much applause, as
the Brethren rise in honor of the distinguished speaker.) BROTHER
GEORGE W. TRUETT: "Most Worshipful Grand Master, President Neff,
and you, my Brother Masons:

        "In my first expression from this platform this evening, I
would say that I am touched more deeply than I can say by the
courtesy of the invitation to me to be here with you this evening,
and speak out of my heart some words to you, and I am responding to
that invitation with a poignant sense of my inability to speak in a
manner worthy of so significant an occasion as is the one here
assembled this evening. If the appreciation of the far-reaching and
gracious serviceableness of the Masonic Fraternit y qualification
for me to speak to you, then I have that one qualification.

        "From my earliest recollection, sitting about my father's
knee, who was a Mason, and hearing him and fellow Masons talk, I
imbibed the impression in early childhood that the Masonic
Fraternity is one of the most helpfully mediating and conserving
organizations among men, and I have never wavered from that
childhood impression, but it has stood steadfastly with me through
the busy and vast hurrying years.

        "A man has a strong heart if he is not touched with a
strange sense of awe when he goes into a Masonic Lodge and observes
its furniture, notably the Bible right in the center of that Lodge,
and the square and the compass. When one calls to mind this
furniture in the local Masonic Lodge, he is reminded at once that
an institution of strategic and commanding importance is in his
community and when one calls to mind the vast array of great men
linked with this institution, his appreciation must be grea nified.

        "President Neff has called to our attention some of the
most honored names ever bound up with the life of this commonwealth
who were Masons, and men of world significance have been bound up
with this institution and glorified it by their precepts and by
their lives. To name only two, there was John Milton, who ranked
with Homer and Virgil in his wonderful writings, and he turned
aside, you will remember, from his important writings to hurl his
Philippics in England when men were seeking to destroy l John
Milton, a Mason.

        "And to name only one name in this country, high over all,
as long as men's hearts are capable of beating with admiration and
with strange fervor of feeling for patriotism, their hearts will
burn at the mention of this name, first in war, first in peace and
first in the hearts of his countrymen, the immortal George
Washington. (Applause.)

        "All of us must feel a keen indebtedness to the Grand
Master of Texas in giving emphasis on his visitations in his
official career to the teachings that Masonry in its precepts and
principles is to be magnified every day. We are profoundly grateful
to him that he has let us remember with accentuated emphasis that
the big business of life for man is to live like he ought to live,
and he is to take no furloughs from this big business, but day by
day and wherever he goes he is to be true to the ideals ndards that
have given this institution a great place in the earth and far
famed distinction.

        "And when one remembers that over 100,000 Texas citizens
are bound up with this institution, renewed heart and hope are
given me for the welfare of our country, for these 100,000 and more
men can rally this state to the highest standards and turn the
batter back from the gates for every wrong horde of evil influences
that would at any time seek to override and overrun and destroy our
commonwealth. We are agreed, I must believe, that it behooves a
community to keep before it all of the while the righ ards and
ideals for the inspiration of conduct and the strengthening of
character. . . .

        "I am happy to believe my Brother Masons, that you are
happy to magnify these great virtues, justice, love and
brotherhood, in every Masonic Lodge throughout the vast domain of
our beloved state.

        "We are of one mind, I must believe, that we are to keep
before us all of the time the test of life, the test of earthly
life, which test is the test of the right kind of service. That is
the test of life, and that is the true aristocracy of life, the
aristocracy of the right kind of service. That is our Grand
Master's test of life. 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' A tree
is known by its fruits. One ideal life which this world has seen is
portrayed for us in the simple words, 'He went about doi .' What
the world wants and prays for is the coming of men who will go up
and down the land continually doing good.

        "The wrongs of the world cannot be righted except by the
right kind of service. Its injustices cannot be corrected, its
grievances cannot be redressed, except by the right kind services.
It is by service, my brother men, that men must vindicate their
faith in each and every realm, in the social realm, in the realms
of business and professional life, in the realms of political and
governmental life, in the realms of educational, and moral, and
religious life. It is by service that men must vindicate aith, for
faith, you will agree, is more than a dogma. Faith is a passion;
faith lives, faith achieves, faith arrives, faith is valuable in
proportion as it arrives in services.

        "Great believers are always great doers. Witness Moses of
the Old Testament, and Paul of the New Testament. Witness George
Washington, and Robert E. Lee, and Sam Houston, and a vast galaxy
of names we could all pass in review before us, each illustrating
the great truth that a great believer is always a great doer. . . .

        "If ever there was a time when men, all men, every man,
should live at his highest and best in countenance with the law of
God, and for the highest will of his brother man, that time is now.
It is a crime any time for a man to be a small man, small in
spirit, small in body, in spirit, selfish in spirit, but it is
ten-fold a crime, one hundred-fold a crime, for a man in such
destiny-determining days as these that confront us to be an
unworthy man. . . .

        "There are three institutions that ought to have every
man's best, and those institutions are the home, civil government
and religion. These ought to have every man's best, and these are
definitely appointed.

        "There is, first of all, the home. It is God's first
institution for human society. It is the ultimate basis for human
society. It is the citadel both for church and state. All will go
well if we have the right sort of homes, and every man should be at
his best in his own home. Nothing can atone for malfeasance if a
man doesn't live at his best in his own home and with his own
family.

        "And then there is the second institution definitely
appointed, namely civil government, or state. The powers that be
are ordained of government. Every man should be the best citizen
possible. Every man should give attention, rapt, and considerate,
and thoughtful, and patriotic attention to his own country, to his
own faith, to his own nation. Every man should be a true patriot,
and voice it in every worthy way, wherever he goes. Every man
should be that. Yes, every man should be that, and a renaiss
general patriotism may well be magnified now in these epochal days
that are on the world, that make us wonder every night when we rest
our heads upon our couches what we will read in the morning in the
morning paper.

        "There was a saying that went abroad a while back by a man,
and he challenged us no little by a pungent saying. His saying was
'America is afflicted with the bad citizenship of good men.' That
seems utterly impossible, doesn't it? No, it isn't. 'America,' he
said, 'is afflicted with the bad citizenship of good men,' and he
went on to explain that many men are very kindly in their homes,
deferential husbands and considerate fathers. . . . [They] seek
after right standards and the highest welfare of t mes, and they
are kindly in their relations to their neighbors, community-minded
and public-spirited, and charitable in their behavior, and yet give
no heed, no thought, to the body politic, to the country, to their
land, and, my Brethren, his statement holds good. This country is
afflicted to an alarming degree with the bad citizenship of good
men. . . .

        "And then there is the other organized matter, or the
Christian religion. Old Carlisle was right when he said, 'Religion
is the determining factor of any and every civilization, and every
man should see to it that he bows reverently and trustfully toward
Him who is Lord over all, and blessed for ever more, offers his
life primarily and transcendently in harmony with that righteous
and perfect will of our divine Master and Savior.'

        "Every man's life should be thus ordered before God. Every
man's life should be thus ordered before God now. In an hour like
this, it should be a dedication, a rededication hour for every man
of us.

        "Perocles, that great orator at Athens long ago, used to
take the young men out with him to the graves of their beloved and
mighty dead, and he would recite their mighty deeds, their valorous
behavior, and there by those graves pledge them anew to the highest
things in the lives yet before them to be lived.

        "An occasion like this is an occasion suitable for a
rededication, a redevotement, a recommitment of us all to say today
we will live at our best, at our highest and best, for the glory of
God and for the highest welfare of humanity. . . ." (Much applause,
as all the Brethren assembled rose in token of their great
appreciation of the wonderful address to which they had just
listened.)
