
 THE NEXT TIME WITH GUNS


Last February, in Moscow, a nationalistic organization called
Pamyat invaded a meeting shouting "JEWS, FREEMASONS OUTNEXT TIME
WE'LL COME WITH GUNS."  To those who believe Masonry is antiquated,
obsolete or irrelevant to today's world, take this message back!


         JOSIAH BAKER, 33
           724 First Tennessee Building
          Chattanooga Tennessee 37402



  WE RECOGNIZE and honor Albert Pike as the refining influence
which brought to us the beauty and the philosophical depth of
Scottish Rite as we know it today.  A frontiersman, soldier,
orator, journalist, poet, advocate and jurist he was above all else
a premier Mason.  He infused into Masonry new dimen sions of
meaning and understand ing and into the Scottish Rite the charge
and the responsibility of being the militant advocate for Masonry
in the world.

  It is always beneficial, therefore, to look at Masonry today
through his remarkable eyes.  As in the nature of other classics,
his writings are timeless and have a particular application to
today's events.

 In 1857 Albert Pike received the Thirty-third Degree in New Or-
leans.  The following year he was invited to deliver a lecture
before the Grand Lodge of Louisiana.  His theme was "The Evil
Consequences of Schisms and Disputes for Power in Masonry and of
Jealousy and Dissensions Between Masonic Rites."  This work has
been char acterized as one of the greatest single Masonic lectures
ever deliv ered and as one in which may be found the basis of all
Pike's Masonic thought and teaching.  The serious Masonic student
should study it in its entirety.  An excerpt from it will serve our
purpose.  In New Orleans, Pike said:

We think that the highest interests of Society, and of the com-
munity in which we live,and, perhaps, interests wider and more
general still, those of the Nation, and of all humanity at
large,are affected and injured in that which does harm to
Masonry....that every Mason who encourages or by apathy permits
dissensions within the walls that veil our mysteries from the
world's eyes is an enemy, not of Masonry only, but of the world's
advancement and prosperity.

  Today, in 1990, as Eastern Europe comes out from under the yoke
of oppression and the Soviet Union begins to recognize rights that
we too often take for granted, we see new opportunities for the
universality of Masonic principles and precepts.  We should recog-
nize, as did Pike, that the influence of Masonry can be world-
wide, that these are universal precepts which we espouse and
advance, and that our efforts here have global application.

  With freedom comes choices. Forces seek and will seek to per-
suade or entice or dominate the newly freed peoples of Eastern
Europe.  We should all be inspired and stimulated to action by a
recognition that Freemasonry can, and should, regain an open and
positive place in world affairs. But as in the past this will not
come easily and without resist ance.  There have always been, and
will always be, those who because of their own agenda will want, or
need, to stifle free expression and control freedom of thought.
This is Masonry's challenge and Masonry's unique op portunity.

    For instance, last February, in Moscow, members of a
nationalis tic organization called Pamyat invaded a meeting with
shouts of "JEWS, FREEMASONS OUTNEXT TIME WE'LL COME WITH GUNS." To
those who believe Masonry is antiquated, obsolete or irrelevant to
today's life and times, take this message back.

  Masonry is still a target of those who seek to imprison the minds
and attitudes of others.  Let us respond actively and
energetically. Let us recognize with Pike that the interests of the
nationand more, the interests of all humanity at largeare
affected by what hap pens to Masonry.  Let us recognize that the
global struggle for domi nation over the human mind is as real
today as it has ever been, and that the strength of Masonry is its
role as a counterforce against the evils that Pike identified.

  The place to begin is with a re newed recognition of the unity
of all Masonic endeavors; a dedica tion to the building of the
foun dation in the Symbolic Lodge; and a renewed recruitment of
dedicat ed Brethren into the ranks of the Scottish Rite as the
militant arm of Freemasonry where philosophi cal reflection is
enhanced with energetic action.  It is time, and past time, to
reinforce Masonry, the historic bulwark of freedom against
intolerance and fanaticism.


Brother Josiah Baker, 33 is a member of Hill City Lodge, No.  603,
Chattanooga, Tennessee; served as SGIG's Rep resentative,
Chattanooga Scottish Rite Bodies; Attorney and Past President,
Chat tanooga Bar Association; Temple Attorney for the Alhambra
Shrine Temple; U.S. Navy, active duty 1953-57.

Light for the Future When I was a young boy in the old Fort
  Pickering neighborhood, the street lamps were illuminated by gas.
  At dusk, a lamplighter carried a lighted taper down the street.
  I watched him as he climbed the lamp post, lit the lamp, climbed
  down and walked to the next lamp.  He would repeat this down the
  street until all the lamps were lit. As darkness fell, the
  lamplighter faded to shadow and then disappeared in the black
  of night.  But I could see where he had been. My Brothers, we
  must keep lighting our own lamps with the ideals of Freemasonry.
  Then when we, like the lamplighter, are no longer here, others
  can tell where we have been. Wiley O. May, 33


