

                                  CEMENT

" The trowel is an instrument used by Operative Masons to spread the
cement which unites a building into one common mass or whole."

So says our ritual.  From months of use spreading and smoothing the
cement, the trowel becomes worn and is replaced.  After many years of
labor, the Master workman wearies and lays down his tools either in
retirement or to answer the last roll call.  However, though both the
trowel and the workman have served their purpose and been discarded, the
great cathedral erected to the Supreme Architect of the Universe, the
warehouse dedicated to business, the modest cottage sheltering the
workman and his family, or even the house of confinement established for
the safety of the citizenry continue on down through the years as a
"solid Mass" of architecture due to the strong and stable bond of cement
with which the building material was united.

The cement to which our ritual refers is a mortar consisting of a
combination of several materials.

One of these is a fine, gray powder which from long usage is known by the
trade name cement.  This cement is in reality rock of a certain type,
heated to an extreme temperature or actually burned in a fire until it
loses all its impurities and crumbles into the fine powder we know as
cement.

The second ingredient is sand.  Sand is also rock that has been dislodged
by glaciers or other forces, perhaps as far in the past as the ice age,
tumbled down mountain streams, through falls and rapids and on into
rivers which sweep it to the bays and gulfs and so down to the sea,
tumbling it and washing it until it is ground into the fine particles we
know as sand.

One other material is added to bind together the cement and sand.  This
third material is water, pure unadulterated water, which has long been
the symbol of life, for without it nothing living can exist.

These articles are mixed in the proper proportions forming the mortar
used by the Operative Mason and referred to in our ritual as cement.  The
ingredients must be pure, the cement fresh and dry, and the sand clean
and sharp and the water free from impurities if the structure in which it
is used is to stand through the years as a monument to the workmanship of
the builder.

"But it is used symbolically for the far more noble and glorious
"purpose" of spreading the cement of Brotherly Love and Affection."

Here the educated Brother associates the mortar used in a building with
those truly Masonic virtues, Brotherly Love and Affection.  It seems
quite certain that our Brother realizes that these Masonic attributes
must not merely be word pictures, pleasing to our senses, but that if our
Masonic structure is to endure, the Brotherly Love and Affection which
cements it together must be as solid, sturdy and durable as rock.  As the
rock of which the Operative Mason's cement mortar is composed, it must be
devoid of all impurities as if tested by fire, clean as by the continuous
washing by the waters of life, and joined into one binding and abiding
cement by the life we so willing share with our Brother.

The trowel may be worn and discarded, the Master Mason may have joined
the Celestial Lodge above, but the cement they together have spread lives
on forever and is the cement to which the ritualist refers when he says:

"(the cement) which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends
and brothers--a Temple of living stones, among whom no contention should
ever exist, save that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who can
best work and best agree."

========Author Unknown=============


According to these standards some members never will become true Masons.

WHEN IS A MAN A MASON?

The first stanza of the following poem by Rev. Joseph Fort Newton is
incised into the marble of the Iowa Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa.

"When he can look over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a
profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and
yet have faith, hope and courage which is the root of every virtue.

When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as
divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to
forgive, and to love his fellow man.

When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in
their sins, knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.

When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all
how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt birds
without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he
hears the laughter of a little child.

When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.
When Star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters
subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead. When no
voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid
without response.

When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of
divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of
that faith may be.

When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and
into the face of the most forlorn and see something beyond sin.

When he knows how to pray, how to love, and how to hope.

When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellow man, and with his
GOD; in his hand, a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song -- glad
to live, but not afraid to die!

Such a man has found the only real Secret of Masonry, and the one which
it is trying to give to the world."





> I like the thread suggested by Br. Pete Martinez:  How do we get our
> present members to become active once again, or more active, in the
> affairs of the Lodge?

A couple of years ago in Hiram No. 7, the newly elected WM made a vow
that all stated meetings would be no longer than 59 minutes.  It
required more work from the officers and committies to complete their
work before the stated meeting, but attendance rose 30 % all year long
and the turnout for degree work doubled.

Just my 2 cents worth.....

Grady Lee Honeycutt USA



