THE BUILDER MARCH 1918

FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN---No. 16
DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY
Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg

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 paper by Brother Clegg.

MAIN OUTLINE

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

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry
A. The Work of a 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.

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 Clegg, 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 number of "Helpful Hints" and 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 Clegg 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 Clegg'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 Clegg's paper.

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

1. Reading of the first section of Brother Clegg'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 Clegg'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.

HELPFUL HINTS TO STUDY CLUB LEADERS

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 five 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 ten or twelve hours. 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 the 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 opened.

QUESTIONS ON "CIRCUMAMBULATION"

1. What does "circumambulation" mean ? What illustrations does
Brother Clegg give of it? Can you name other very ancient rites
still in use ? Why do they appeal to men ? Do you see in any of the
ceremonies of this kind mentioned by Brother Clegg anything which
parallels the Masonic ceremony of circumambulation ? If so, what is
it, and to what may it be likened ?

2. What is sought in this ceremony ? How did primitive man hope to
control the forces of nature ? Have we learned any better way than
by acting in harmony with them? How do we control the forces of
steam, of electricity, of water, of power, etc. ? Why did primitive
man expect to secure favors from the gods by sacrificing to them?

3. How did this idea of sacrifice tend to develop a ritual ? From
what probable source did the rite of circumambulation as we know
it, develop ? Why do the sun and stars still appear as symbols in
religious systems? Can you give other examples of the tendency of
mankind to imitate the heavenly bodies ?

4. Who was anciently considered to be the god of the Sea / of War?
of the Sun? the goddess of the chase? Can you name other Greek and
Roman gods and goddesses? Imitation of the heavenly bodies
eventually came to be told as the story of the actual experience of
the gods and goddesses; how did this finally lead to dramatization
of these stories ? Can you give other illustrations of common myths
in which this tendency is shown to be the foundation of various
superstitions ?

5. Why does the candidate meet obstructions? What are the
obstructions that you meet from day to day ? Does your experience
in Masonry help you to overcome them? What obstructions has Masonry
met in the past ? What obstructions does it meet now? Co-operation
means to "work together, or in harmony"; how can we co-operate to
enable Masonry to do its work in the world ? Are you a
"co-operator" in the Lodge, or a "knocker" ? Which does the Lodge
the most good ? Which does you the most good?

6. Why does the Lodge ask you if it is of your "own free will and
accord" so often? Why does not Masonry force itself upon you? Do
religion, or culture, or knowledge force themselves upon you? What
does it mean to have a "free will"? How can an enslaved will be
freed? How can a weak will be strengthened? Is not this the idea of
"co-operation with the forces of nature" taught by the rites we are
now studying ? How does Masonry free our wills from the slavery of
passion ignorance, prejudice and vice?

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

The articles by Brother Clegg and Brother Haywood in this issue of
the Correspondence Circle Bulletin comprise practically everything
we are able to discover on the subject of "Circumambulation", with
the exception of the following references:

THE BUILDER:
Vol. III--"What An Entered Apprentice Ought To Know," by Bro. Hal
Riviere, April C. C B., p. 6.

Mackey's Encyclopedia:
Circumambulation, Rite of, p. 162.



PART IV--CIRCUMAMBULATION

CIRCUMAMBULATION means nothing more as a word than to walk around.
The sailor trudging around the windlass, the faithful quadruped
plodding around the horsepower machine, the children in their
various games holding hands in circles and tripping around
joyously, are all walking around but this is not all there is to
circumambulation.

True, the children may be performing a mere play, as in the dance
of the Maypole, a veritable fragment of an ancient festival, the
ceremonial ushering in the month of flowers, the ceremony then
taking on a religious aspect and exhibiting a thankfulness at the
departure of darkness and winter and at the arrival of spring with
its opening buds and beautiful blossoms.

Among the Romans there was a festival or holiday devoted to the god
Terminalia. He was especially connected with the boundary marks and
limits of property or landmarks. On the day assigned to his praise
there were visits to the various landmarks and young and old
improved their acquaintance with the very important means whereby
property owners are enabled to preserve their respective land
rights and titles.

Up to recent times the custom has prevailed. Shorn of its early
showy tribute to the pagan god, something curious and quaint still
survived. Not long ago in England, for example, it was the custom
on one day in the year for children to be conducted around the
several landmarks of the parishes and towns. These were explained
and pointed out as impressively as was possible. In fact, it was
the custom for the schoolmasters to soundly flog a boy at every
landmark ! With this training of the memories of many boys the
boundaries were long and accurately remembered!

When the customs and ceremonies here mentioned were fresh in the
minds of men, our own allusions to the landmarks in Masonry had a
significance to which we modern members of the Craft are almost
strangers. Something yet remains to us of course in the march
around at the dedication and consecration of a new Lodge, a very
appropriate ceremony indeed to all the observing and especially so
to the student of symbolism, indeed much more than a mere
suggestion of the scope of the Lodge in the sweeping circle of its
action for the future.

The blessing of the boundaries is a familiar ceremonial in the
Roman Catholic church. The officiating priest passes around to all
the landmarks of the site for the new church, stopping at each, and
with solemn phrase offers up a fervent plea at every station.

Shakespeare has the witches in Act 4, Scene 1, of "Macbeth,"
dancing around the caldron in which simmer and boil the horrible
ingredients of magical evil. Later they caused several spirits to
rise from the earth and advise the misled Thane of Cawder. Compare
with this the account of the witch of Endor in your Bible, the
first book of Samuel, chapter 28, and the advice of Samuel tendered
to Saul in similarly supernatural man

II

Granted, then, the frequent use of circumambulation in ancient and
modern times, among the wise and the ignorant, to what may it be
attributed? Be it the cultured mystic with his circles and ovals
plain or serpentlike, embellished or simple, or the wild riot of
the savage around his totem pole or around the tortured victim at
the stake, there is still the supernatural objective being sought.
There is thus a seeking after more than ordinary means. To what
then will man appeal and how will he act? Obviously he will seek
the aid of the Great Architect of the Universe and in motion of
body will conform as fully and thoroughly as is possible to emotion
of mind, suiting the action of the word.

Now the courses of nature are marked out daily and yearly by
repetition. Flowing rivers and recurring rains, the light and
warmth of the sun, the glory of the stars, the ever restless sea,
and the changing winds are seldom quite the same in viewpoint yet
always similarly to be seen. Various aspects are favorable, others
affrighting. The waters of the sea engulf the struggling swimmer
from the shipwreck, the rain may flood or parch the husbandman in
farming, the lightning strikes down the unwary wayfarer, the sun
sends its beneficent rays upon the fertile earth and the fields
ripen into lusty harvest, and in all these agencies the early mind
as well as the latest of scientific thinkers see powers to be
controlled.

To us as Freemasons, there is the glory of God in all things great
and small; to the savage mind all things were governed by gods
great and small. He saw only the same way of controlling these
powers as the one by which he was himself influenced. Food appealed
to him, therefore a sacrifice of flesh or fruit became the medium
of securing supernatural favor.

III

In the sacrificial offering itself there soon came about a rigidly
prescribed method, this set rule of operations was the ritualistic
ceremony, such as it was, crude and doubtless grotesque.

To keep the ceremony intact of form, uniform of action and
language, we had in the primitive tribes a special class of
officials, the Levites of Israel, the medicine men of the
aborigines of the United States, the priesthood of many cults and
faiths and peoples recent and remote. These were the chosen few,
ministering factors for the faithful.

Of such were the priests of the Mithras, that great cult of the
early era of Christendom, that faith to which so clear a thinker as
Renan assigned so promising a place as a competitor of
Christianity, unsuccessful as it was in the finishing of the race.

To Freemasons the Mithraic ritual pertains so much to the same
symbolism we use that the similarity becomes very interesting. In
fact the comparison is far more than a coincidence. Probably we
inherit through hundreds of years, while philosophy moral and
natural has been taught by this simple address to surrounding
forces and objects, a rich legacy from the old religion of Mithras
with its references to the East and to the sun and other celestial
bodies.

The signs of the Zodiac, the names of the stars, the allusions to
Phoebus driving the glowing chariot of the sun, and all the other
reminders left to us by the mythology, the study of the myths, of
the pioneer peoples of the earth, show how close and dependent was
the confidence of the rude unschooled mind upon the facts that were
linked with his observation of the heavenly bodies. He besought the
supernatural by sacrifice and by invitation, worship of such
movements as seemed most typical of the superior force and forces.
His dances around the sacrificial altar were typical of the
apparent motion of sun and moon and stars. Nay, today, the wild men
of the West dress themselves in skins and imitate the animal's walk
and stealth and spring before they go forth to the hunt. Girls in
garlands of flowers in May's month of spring beauty are themselves
showing how easily this universal trait of humanity grows and
flourishes into prominence at the slightest provocation.

Down to our own times comes the suggestive saying, "the stars in
their courses fought against Sizera." Truly, the courses and paths
of nature's movements have in all seasons of the world's story
impressed serious lessons on the mind of man. Of such was born the
art of astrology, the forerunner of scientific astronomy.

IV

To imitate the action of nature leads readily to a representation
of the doing of the fabled personages to whom the elements are
dedicated. The ocean is as truly Neptune's as is war belonging to
Mars, the arts of Apollo, the chase to Diana, and the Sun to Zeus
or Jove. Their loves and labors, their jealousies and bickerings,
as portrayed by the earliest authors like Homer and continued by
innumerable writers and singers and storytellers through the ages
were then as now recited dramatically, first as a tale and then in
a play form befitting the stage.

Of such were the pioneer initiations, the ancient mysteries, and
the moralities of medieval days, all growing as the branches from
the ceremonies built upon the rite of circumambulation and its
causes and controls.

V

In going around the celestial courses there are obstructions at the
stages or stations corresponding to the principal divisions of the
compass, that sure guide to all travelers on this earthly sphere.
We are indeed free to go but we are not free from the consequences
of our going. Inspection we must pass and from all angles, not
evading scrutiny because of personal position nor missing complete
examination by reason of but part being seen instead of the whole.

VI

What then is the teaching of this portion of our rite to which your
attention has been invited? There are several answers. We need not
dogmatize nor travel afar for light. Only the obvious lesson need
be learned.

Nature and we are in touch. The more intimate we move in harmony
with nature's forces the better for our health of mind and body.
Reflect upon this union of ourselves and our surroundings. Think of
the condition of him who is out of "gear" with things, out of
"touch" with affairs, and thereby out of the "running."

Environment does indeed count for very much in our daily lives. Get
in tune. Keep the feet moving naturally within that circle beyond
which no real Mason should step and where so circumscribed he can
not materially err.

CIRCUMAMBULATION IN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES

It was the ancient custom to use Circumambulation during the
performance of religious ceremonies. In Greece, while the sacrifice
was in the act of consuming, the priests and people walked in
procession round the altar thrice, singing the sacred hymn, which
was divided into three parts, the Strophe, the Antistrophe, and the
Epode. While the first part was chanted, they circumambulated in a
direction from east to west, emblematical of the apparent motion of
the heavenly bodies; at the commencement of the second part, they
changed their course, and proceeded from west to east, pointing out
their real motion; and, during the performance of the Epode, they
remained stationary round the altar--a symbol of the stability of
the earth, waiting for some propitious omen which might announce
the divine acceptance of the sacrifice.

In Britain, the devotional exercises of the insular sanctuary were
conducted on a similar principle. Ceremonial processions moved
round it, regulated by the mystical numbers, and observing the
course of the Sun; sometimes moving slowly and with solemn gravity,
chanting the sacred hymn to Hu; at others, the devotees advanced
with great rapidity, using impassioned gestures, and saluting each
other with secret signs. This was termed "the mystical dance of the
Druids." The circular movement was intended to symbolize the motion
of the earth, and to give an idea of God's immensity which fills
the universe.
--"Signs and Symbols," Oliver.



THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION
BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

By permission of Brother H.L. Haywood, Editor of the Library
department of THE BUILDER we print the following extract on the
"Rite of Circumambulation" taken from the manuscript of his
forthcoming book on the "Interpretation of The Three Degrees of
Blue Lodge Masonry." Study meeting leaders should use this as a
supplemental paper at the meeting devoted to the
study on "Circumambulation."
EDITOR.

PRIMITIVE people, as we have been more than once reminded, firmly
believed that they could wield influence over a god by imitating
his actions. They believed the sun to be a god, or the visible
embodiment of a god, who made a daily tour of the heavens beginning
in the East, and progressing toward the west by way of the south;
it was most natural, therefore, that they should evolve a ceremony
in imitation of this. Accordingly, in India, in Egypt, in Greece,
and in Rome we early find the practice of Circumambulation.

In Greece the priest, or the priest leading the worshippers, would
walk three times around the altar, always keeping it to the right,
sprinkling it the while with meal and holy water. The Romans
employed a similar ceremony and called it "dextiovorsum," meaning
"from the right to the left." Being so often used in connection
with the rites whereby a person or an object was "purified"
Circumambulation became, after a time, the Roman equivalent of
Purification. Also "among the Hindoos," says Mackey, "the same rite
of Circumambulation has always been practiced," in illustration of
which he cites the early morning ceremonies of a Brahmin priest who
first adores the sun then walks towards the West by way of the
South saying, "I follow the course of the sun." Mackey likewise
refers to the Druids as having performed the same rite, and to the
fact that even in recent years it was a living custom in the
remoter portions of Ireland. Some have seen in the circular row of
stones at Stonehenge, a huge altar built for the purposes of
Circumambulation, and others have seen in the various processions
of the early Christian Church a revival of the same custom. It will
be interesting, further, to note that the Greeks accompanied the
journey with a sacred chant, divided into three parts, the strophe,
the antistrophe, and the epode, on which Mackey makes a significant
comment: "The analogy between the enchanting of an ode by the
ancients and the recitation of a passage of Scripture in the
Masonic Circumambulation, will be at once apparent."

What is the meaning of Circumambulation for us as Masons, and in
our daily lives? In answer to this we may offer a few typical
interpretations including one of our own.

Circumambulation is sometimes understood, among older Masonic
writers, especially, as a symbol of the progress of Masonry itself,
which, according to the old Legends, was supposed to have
originated in the East, in Egypt more particularly. This is hinted
at in one of the Old Charges in which we find the following scrap
of dialogue: "When did it (Masonry) begin? It did begin with the
first men of the East."

Other writers, Pike among them, see in this symbolism a figure of
the progress of the civilization of humanity. Whether that
civilization began in Egypt as some argue, or in Babylonia as
others contend, it did begin in the Orient and travelled thence,
along the Mediterranean, to the Occident, for, "all knowledge, all
religion, and all arts and sciences have travelled according to the
course of the sun from east to west."

Again, some students see in Circumambulation a drama of the
development of the individual life, which begins in the young vigor
of the Rising Sun, reaches its climax in the meridian splendor of
the south, and declines to the old age of the west.

Pierson sees in it an analogy of the individual's Masonic progress:
"The Masonic symbolism is, that the Circumambulation and the
obstructions at the various points refer to the labors and
difficulties of the student in his progress from intellectual
darkness or ignorance to intellectual light or truth."

Yet again, others see in it an allegory of the pilgrimage of the
soul through the shadows of this earth life. We are born in
darkness, and walk all our days in search of that which is Lost,
the lost harmony among the strings. Believing that somewhere there
exists the Absolute Life we make a continual search and transform
our days into a long Pilgrim's Progress.

These various interpretations, you will have observed, have their
point of departure, one and all, in that the Circumambulation is a
journey; with this we can not quarrel, but may we not also be
permitted to fashion an explanation which takes the fact that the
Candidate walks in harmony with the sun as its point of departure?

To my mind this is its point of greatest significance, even as it
was evidently the original idea embodied. Let the sun represent the
powers and laws of Nature; let Circumambulation be understood as an
attempt to work in harmony with those powers and laws, and we see
at once that the rite gives us the secret of human accomplishment.
To fight Nature is suicide; to work in co-operation with her is
power. To keep step with her cycles, to move in sympathy with her
vibration, that gives us fullness of life. The sailor clasps hands
with her winds, the farmer adjusts himself to her chemic processes,
the artist vibrates with the pulses of her beauty, the poet rides
upon her rhythms, the saint harmonizes himself with her laws as
they rise in the soul. It is thus and thus only that we mount the
stairs to Eternal Life.

IS FREEMASONRY RELIGION?
BY BRO JOSEPH BARNETT, CALIFORNIA

WHAT is Religion? Our familiarity with churches and their claims of
religious authority might lead us to identify Religion with some
complex set of doctrines such as distinguish religious sects. In
fact, such sects emphatically and persistently teach this. In
speaking of different religions, Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan,
Buddhist and others, we evidently recognize that there is some
fundamental similarity, if not a common basis, among religious
sects.

The word Religion, in the form religio, is as old as the language
of ancient Rome. It is derived from one out of two possible Latin
root words--lego, I collect; or ligo, I fasten. In each case, the
central idea is that of Union. The prefix, re, is intensive. The
whole word Religion means a complete and mutual union.

From the special application of the word, it must mean an
exceptionally important union, the great union. Through all its
history, it has plainly been intended to express the idea of union
between man and God, the highest and noblest claim for humanity
that man has ever conceived. Out of this has grown a secondary
meaning, union between man and man. These two factors have always
been given by spiritual teachers as the essentials of Religion.

It is interesting to note that these two factors have three
co-ordinate relations: you, united with God; your neighbor, united
with God; you and your neighbor united together. This is the
emblematic Triangle, used as a symbol for Religion and the
philosophy connected therewith.

The basic principles of Religion, both natural and revealed, may be
summed up, in the order in which they appealed to mankind, as: 1.
Belief in the Supreme Being, Creator and Ruler of the Universe; 2.
The claim of direct human relationship with God, as children of the
Supreme Father; 3. Recognition of the spiritual element involved in
this relationship, leading to belief in the Immortality of the
Soul; 4. The tenet that, as each has within him a spark of the
Divine fire, so each is especially worthy of consideration, the one
by the other, developing into Human Brotherhood.

Sectaries, while giving their chief attention to other things, may
allow these principles; Freemasonry is based on them, and
painstakingly avoids anything sectarian in its teachings, but does
not discourage the individual from favoring special doctrines. It
modestly, but effectually, gives special attention to the principle
of Brotherly Love, the humblest and most neglected of the great
principles of Religion, and the very principle that all great
teachers have specially emphasized. The whole ritual, from the
first procedure in the center of the Lodge, to the climax of the
drama and its immortal lesson, teaches the principles of Religion,
and is intended to do so.

In Religion, hierarchies have claimed exclusive authority and that
through them only can Divine relationship be established;
Freemasonry teaches that Divine relationship is inherent in every
human soul, that all progress is associated with such relationship,
and that every man has the natural right to progress. Hierarchies
have trained priests to govern churches, and through them to govern
States; Freemasonry trains men to govern themselves, to subdue
natural selfishness and vainglory, and to regard all men as
brothers, equal in all human and Divine rights with themselves.
Hierarchies assert and magnify doctrines and dogmas peculiar to
themselves, and call the complexity a religion; Freemasonry teaches
and practices and conserves the principles of Religion itself.

Is Freemasonry Religion ? The question is already answered; not
that it is a religion, but that Freemasonry is Religion. And it is
because Freemasonry is based on principles that are common to all
religious sects, principles that through all the ages have been the
foundation of the highest hopes of men, and that have an abiding
place in the hearts of all men, that our Institution appeals to all
and is assured of permanency.

A GREETING TO THE MASTERS

Gauge and gavel and chisel,
Compass and square and plumb, 
These have each wrought on ye, Masters, 
These by the strict rule of thumb 
All have had part in your making, 
All have brought out the man, 
These are your tools for your training, 
May your powder not flash in the pan.

With the gauge measure up to the standard, 
With the square prove each thing that ye do, 
And compass and gavel and chisel, 
With the plumb will keep ye all true. 
To ye, Masters, much has been given, 
From ye, Masters, much, much is due, 
For ye may not sit on the side lines, 
Lest your lives at the ending ye rue.

Where combat and action are thickest, 
Where loudest are sounds of the strife, 
There, Masters, your place is appointed, 
Desert not while yet there is life. 
Be the vows ye have taken your guerdon, 
For light and for progress hold fast, 
Let truth sit enshrined in your being, 
And reward shall be yours at the last.

Threefold is the price of your freedom, 
Threefold be the victory won: 
Be ye men, not babes, O Masters, 
Would ye gain the praise "Well done." 
Gavel and chisel and gauge, 
Compass and plumb and square-- 
What do ye say of them, Masters, 
Have ye let them do their share ?
--Bro. James Alexander Robertson, Manila, P. I.

