THE BUILDER APRIL 1919
CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN -- No. 27

Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood

THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE MEETINGS AND
STUDY CLUBS

FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE

THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic
information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another
paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE
BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as
supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the
Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.

MAIN OUTLINE:

The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in
turn subdivided, as is shown below:

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.

A. The Work of the Lodge. 
B. The Lodge and the Candidate. 
C. First Steps. 
D. Second Steps. 
E. Third Steps.

Division II. Symbolical Masonry.
A. Clothing. 
B. Working Tools. 
C. Furniture. 
D. Architecture. 
E. Geometry.
F. Signs. 
G. Words. 
H. Grips.

Division III. Philosophical Masonry.
A. Foundations. 
B. Virtues. 
C. Ethics. 
D. Religious Aspect. 
E. The Quest. 
F. Mysticism. 
G. The Secret Doctrine.

Division IV. Legislative Masonry.

A. The Grand Lodge. 
1. Ancient Constitutions. 
2. Codes of Law. 
3. Grand Lodge Practices. 
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges. 
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.

B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization. 
2. Qualifications of Candidates. 
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising. 
4. Visitation. 
5. Change of Membership.

Division V. Historical Masonry.

A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.
B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making. 
C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.
D. National Masonry.
E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study. 
F. Feminine Masonry. 
G. Masonic Alphabets. 
H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft. 
I. Biographical Masonry.
J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.

THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS

Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood,
who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps"
of Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under
this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding each
installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the
chairman of the Committee during the study period which will bring
out every point touched upon in the paper.

Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle
Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing
upon the particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his
monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental papers
in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list
of references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly
never come to the attention of many of our members will thus be
presented.

The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the
Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than
their appearance. If this is done the Committee will have
opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance of
the meetings and the brethren who are members of the National
Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter into the
discussions after they have read over and studied the installment
in THE BUILDER.

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in
the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of
references to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These
references are pertinent to the paper and will either enlarge upon
many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for reading
and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to
different brethren who may compile papers of their own from the
material thus to be found, or in many instances the articles
themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly from the
originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may
not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may
be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS

The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three
"live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month,
either at a special meeting of the lodge called for the purpose, or
at a regular meeting at which no business (except the lodge
routine) should be transacted--all possible time to be given to the
study period.

After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed
of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the
Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in
advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom
references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be
prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive
grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper and the
supplemental papers thereto.

(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the
lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or
inquire into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper
similar to those used in elections should be distributed among the
members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.)

2. Discussion of the above.

3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the
supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and
disposed of in the same manner.
4. Question Box.

MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS

Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let them
understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and
get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think
of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts
and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in
the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can
answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have
will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory
answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when
called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day
or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand
Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the
Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our
disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct
their lodge study meetings with success. However we shall welcome
all inquiries and communications from interested brethren
concerning any phase of the plan that is not entirely clear to
them, and the services of our Study Club Department are at the
command of our members, lodge and study club committees at all
times.



QUESTIONS ON "RECEPTION AND THE SCRIPTURE READING"

From the following questions the Committee should select, some time
prior to the evening of the study meeting, the particular questions
that they may wish to use at their meeting which will bring out the
points in the following paper which they desire to discuss. Even
were but a few minutes devoted to the discussion of each of the
questions given it will be seen that it would be impossible to
discuss all of them in the period of time devoted to the study
meeting. The wide variety of questions here given will afford
individual committees an opportunity to arrange their program to
suit their own fancies and also furnish additional material for a
second study meeting each month if desired by members.

In conducting the study periods the Chairman should endeavor to
hold the discussions closely to the text and not permit the members
to speak too long at one time or to stray onto another subject.
Whenever it becomes evident that the discussion is turning from the
original subject the Chairman should request the speaker to make a
note of the particular point or phase of the matter he wishes to
discuss or inquire into, and bring it up when the Question Box
period is open.

I
What is meant by the phrase "arts, parts and points," etc.,
familiar to every Mason? What teaching do they convey? Is a Mason
expected to be square and upright only in his dealings with members
of the Fraternity? What has always been expected of him in his
relations to the Craft? Is a Fellow Craft under any stronger tie to
the Fraternity than he was as an Apprentice ? Why ?

II
What was the original meaning of virtue ? What is its present-day
definition ? What is your definition of "rectitude" ? Should Masons
be content with merely observing the conventions of society, or
should they strive to be active at all times in things that tend
toward a higher plane of morality?

Of what is the breast a symbol in Masonry? What are we to realize
from the Fellow Craft application of the square ? Has the man who
has two codes of ethics, one of which he practices for effect in
his own community, and the other when away from home and among
strangers, fully learned the truth designed to be conveyed by the
application of the square ? What kind of a moral code does Masonry
demand that its votaries follow ?

III
What custom was observed by the Greeks during their ceremony of
circumambulation ? Why did this custom obtain ? What similar custom
is practiced in Masonic lodges of the present day ? Why ?

What did Amos seek to do in his day? What is the end to which the
Fellow Craft should apply the knowledge gained in his Masonic
studies? What was the state of society during the time of Amos ?
What penalty was inflicted upon Amos because of his teachings? What
was Amos' method of teaching?

IV
What picture does Amos portray to us in the Scripture reading? What
is Brother Haywood's interpretation of the reading? Have you a
better interpretation ?

What was the lesson learned by Job? Can we expect to escape from
punishment for our wrong-doings?

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

Mackey's Encyclopedia:
Points, p. 572; Square, p. 708.

THE BUILDER:

Vol. I The Plumb-Line, p. 289.

Vol. IV Symbolism of the Fellow Craft Degree, p. 263; What a Fellow
Craft Ought to Know, p. 176.
1919

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN No. 27

SECOND STEPS
By Bro. H.L. HAYWOOD. IOWA

PART II RECEPTION AND THE SCRIPTURE: READING


I
IN the earliest of all the Old Charges we find fifteen "points" or
rules set forth for the regulation of the conduct of Fellow Crafts;
these were the "perfect points" of his entrance to the Order as
well as in his transactions with mankind, and it is worthy of note
that this code of ethics was far in advance of the standards of the
fifteenth century. There is no need to analyze these requirements
except to say that they consisted, in essence, of acting on the
square, that is, the candidate was to deal squarely with the Craft,
with his masters, his fellows, and with all men whomsoever. In his
relations with the Craft he was expected above all else to keep an
attentive ear to his instructors, to preserve carefully the secrets
of his Order and his brethren in a faithful breast, and to be
evermore ruled by the principle of virtue in his behaviour. If such
qualifications were demanded of Apprentices in an Operative trade
how much more may they be reasonably required of a Fellow Craft in
a Speculative, or Moral, science!

II
In its original form virtue meant valor; today it means rectitude.
But the rectitude which is virtue is more than a passive not-doing-
evil; it is the courageous doing of right. "Virtue is but heroic
bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all
enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or
menaces." The man of conventional morality, is content not to
steal, drink, gamble, swear, etc., but often it does not enter his
head that there is an active, aggressive work to be done in
clearing up the world. Conventional morality is neuter; virtue is
masculine; and the Craft that seeks to build the Temple of Humanity
needs in its votaries something more than passive morality.

All the most vital organs, the brain excepted, are in the breast.
A man can go without water for days; he can do without food, if
necessary for a month or more; but without breath in his lungs or
blood in his heart he can not live an hour. The breast,
accordingly, is the symbol of the most essential things in
personality, of love, of faithfulness, of purity, and character. If
the square is applied to the breast it is to compel us to realize
that virtue must rule in the very deeps of us, in the springs of
conduct, and the motives of action, as well as on the surface. The
man whose morality is on the outside of his skin is held up by
external restraints and will often fall into evil if they chance to
be removed, as the deacon of a church or the pillar of a community
will sometimes wallow in vice while among strangers. But when
virtue is the law of the hidden motives of the will, the man will
walk as uprightly in the slum of a city as in the precincts of his
home. Should Masonry trust to conventional morality alone it would
build on sands; by demanding virtue of its members it lays its
foundations in bed-rock, and the storm may come, the winds blow,
the rains fall, but its house will not be moved. And the same
virtue that it requires in the lodge room, it expects in all a
Mason's transactions with mankind, else Masonic virtue itself
become a lifeless conventionality.


III
The Greeks, we recall from our discussion of circumambulation,
chanted an ode as the worshipper moved about the altar from left to
right, for their odes were the most sacred literature in their
possession; but the Master of the Masonic lodge reads from the Holy
Bible as the Fellow Craft makes his mystic rounds, and that for the
same reason. He on whose life's journey the Great Light sends its
rays may walk confidently and cheerfully and not as those who
stumble through the dark.

And it is fitting that in this connection the rays come from the
prophecy of Amos for that seer sought to bring order and light into
the work-a-day world of men, one of the chief tasks of the Fellow
Craft, who receives knowledge that he may become a social builder.
Amos wrought his great work during the days of Jereboam II, in
whose reign religion had grown hard and formal, pleasure had rotted
into vice, luxury had become a disease, and the aristocracy
fattened on the poor. Against these conditions Amos set himself,
though he was "no prophet, nor the son of a prophet," and he lashed
the abuses of his people with such effective fury, that the high-
ups had him banished from the kingdom. "The first great social
reformer in history" Amos was no mere denunciator but one who
condemned things as they are by setting before them a picture of
things as they should be.

IV
In the graphic visions recorded in his book, Amos sets before us a
picture of Israel being judged by a plague of locusts; then follows
a fire that "devoured the great deep, and had begun to devour the
tilled land"; these visitations are stayed by the supplication of
the prophet and then Jehovah brings a new kind of judgment to bear
on his people. As we may read in Amos' own words, "Thus the Lord
showed 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 plumbline in the midst of my people
Israel; I will not pass by them any more."

This was no mere dramatic way of saying, The people had been bad;
they must now be good; the lesson is no such banality as that, but
cuts deeper into things. It is really a vision of an entirely new
kind of judgment, for consider: At first Jehovah chastised his
people physically, as one may whip a child; later, he passed from
external things into their hearts and said, In your conscience you
will be judged and in your conscience you will be punished. It was
just the Lord's method of plunging a sharp instrument into the
naked left breast of Israel ! External punishments came and passed
but when the inner standard was set up, it remained whatever came
and went, and the Lord did "not pass by them any more."

Even is this the truth of things, the law of life - that bad men
are not always visited by physical evils and that good men do not
always receive material reward. This was a lesson learned by Job
many centuries ago. But there is a harvest from wrong-doing that is
always sure, as sure as the tides, and it is nothing other than
inward conception. To do a lie blunts the moral perception; to fall
into impurity beclouds the heart; to live in selfishness puts out
the eyes of love, for the wages of sin is death. Like the path of
the eagle the ways of the punishment of transgression may be
viewless, but they are sure, as sure as a plumb-line; the universe
is just and in its laws there is neither variableness nor turning,
and he that is a skilled Fellow Craft in the building tasks of life
will be wise to govern himself accordingly.

THE RED CROSS

The Red Cross is the heart of God, covering all lands except
Germany, the faithless land, the land of crime, and butchery, of
oppression, of inequality; the midnight assassin of defenseless
women and children, the despoiler of virtue; the Godless land that
knows no shame and startles not at its horrid and nameless
butchery. The land of autocracy, reeking with the blood of its
benighted followers, slain for a sinful ambition. They do not
recognize or respect the Red Cross. and is it any wonder?
-Rob Morris Bulletin


Through zeal knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal knowledge is
lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus
place himself that knowledge may grow.

Buddha

