THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1918
THE WAGES OF A MASON
BY BRO. J. GEORGE GIBSON, ENGLAND


THERE is no disgrace in working for wages. In these days there are
some who prefer the word "salary" or that of "stipend" as more
"genteel." In reality neither of these words is even a wee bit more
"genteel" than the old, old word "wages." Has the world fallen out
of love with the idea of receiving just that which represents some
work done and no more? If so is there anything more honorable in
the taking of what is not only the due but carries with it also a
profit of a trade nature? These may be days of contracts and of
unequal profits; but that does not, and should not, make us forget
that there is nothing more honorable or ancient than the receipt of
our just wages, which are the cash equivalent of the work we have
done. It may sometimes inconveniently suggest the "work of one's
hands," and therefore to some the menial task. This is, however, no
objection, for he who receives that which represents what he has
done receives that which will make him hold up his head with the
greatest. He who accepts a profit may be equally honest in
intention but yet may have to wonder at times just what his profit
costs his fellow man. It may be significant or not according to the
point of view, but the fact remains that in the new country where
men are face to face with facts, deep underlying facts of life,
there is none of this squeamishness as to the use of the word
"wages." There is after all a great deal of the absurd in this
attempt to gloss over the fact that we labour for wages, as though
it were a something to be ashamed of that we are engaged in manual
toil, instead of being matter for joy and glory that we are able to
contribute to the art and wealth of the world about us.

All this talk of the "honorarium," the "fee," the "remuneration,"
and the like is the coinage of the "shabby genteel" who are ashamed
of all that should give them the right to live and the right to a
place in society. The sooner we get back to the place from which so
many of us have fallen the better for the world and for our own
manhood. There is no one so little of account among the respectable
classes as the idler, who is not even an apprentice "working for
his meat." And it is time that the world which can be taught by
Masonry learned more the value of a regular occupation from the
practice of which all received, not an allowance, but wages.
Justice is not so blind as she is made out to be, and it is a fact
that the rule in life is that we receive exactly the wage for the
work we have done, and no more.

A Mason is not only the temple he builds but he is much more--the
Builder. His life is his masterpiece, and woe to him if he works
not of his best. Where are his wages but in the work itself ? All
labour that is in accordance with the teaching of the tracing board
goes unpaid for. And in life there is no deferred payment either.
It is not kept from him until he can no longer use it in this lodge
below, but the Great Warden settles with each man every day after
each task is performed. "And each man's reward shall be according
as his work shall be." This is the Law of Life: it is also the
Masonic Law. But the condition is Labour. No playing at the forms
of toil will be sufficient. The recital of the ritual, and the
statement that we are prepared to be liberal beyond the dreams of
the reformer will not avail us when we stand before our Master each
evening. If we give liberally of that which we shall never miss,
of that the loss of which costs us nothing, we are no richer at the
end of our Masonic career than we were at the beginning. But if the
gift of our goodwill is also the gift of our real toil, that is if
it has cost us something, then the reward comes to us in the
increased muscularity of our soul, and in the greater power by
which we yield to the claims of need in the future. "He who would
be. greatest must be servant of all." That is to say "he must
serve." It is service that passes a man from the lower work of the
bench to the higher, and it is service that creates within us the
spirit of the true artisan.

It is no reason for shame that we are filled with the desire to
covet earnestly the greater gifts. The Entered Apprentice need not
hang his head at the thought that he would like, even he, to reach
the seat of K. S. in his lodge. But if it be rank alone that draws
him, then he is still in the outer courts of the Masonic Temple. A
Master of his lodge who has never dreamed, and never executed the
masterpiece is one who holds a high office unworthily. He holds
rank without dignity. Office should come in the ordinary course of
the development of a man's Masonic experience. To the best workman
the best work. The king's scepter is a degradation to the throne if
the king be too foolish to reign in equity. And a man's life
capacity should be the surest nomination for office and for labour
in the highest grades. To give the Craft its due it is only right
to say that the weak Worshipful Master is the exception and the
officers who are chosen are usually those who are best fitted for
the duties of their office. But with the rapid augmentation of our
numbers in these days of a favorably received Freemasonry there is
just a danger that with the huge new membership there may creep in
the profane standards, and then the weakening of the Masonic
testimony. This is seen too often in the way in which brethren are
hastened through the degrees to the exaltation in the Sublime
Degree.

We sometimes wonder how many of the workmen know how to handle the
chisel of life, and how many are capable of spending the wages they
receive out of all reason before their work is completed. We have
also met with Worshipful Masters who were not even word perfect in
the ceremonies, and who did not seem to consider it necessary that
they should take much trouble to impress upon the initiate lessons
they had perhaps never understood themselves. More than that we
have often wondered upon what grounds of efficiency some of the
appointments to positions in the higher walks of Freemasonry have
been allocated. Men whose whole lives have been devoted to the
explication of the meaning of true Masonry are ignored excepting in
the paragraph of the Masonic Press, while others whose service to
Masonry, and whose development in the direction of the templar
erection has been to say the least obscure have been pushed to the
front, much to their discomfort. We have seen the social position
outside the lodge qualify for high position within, and the
potentiality of the true workman lost sight of. We are glad to know
that such incidents are rarer than they were, but they should be
impossible. Some kind of account should be kept of the wages due to
the Mason by the Craft he works for. The Great Warden has his
account and the reward will surely come; but it would tend to the
strengthening of the bond of Freemasonry did the brethren know that
their labours were all entered in the human book of remembrance.

And yet, when we come to think of the multitude who have in our own
recollection been labouring at the bench to which they have been
sent from the first, we cannot recall one of the real workmen who
has become dissatisfied with his modicum of human recognition and
left his tools before the great work of his life has been
accomplished. Why is this? The answer is simple. They have received
wages, though men paid them none. They who give receive, they who
labour to give are enriched, they who sacrifice to give are yet
more enriched. The neophyte on whose mind the profane impression is
still evident may turn tired of the long period of toil to which he
is called when he enters the lodge; but the veteran soon gives the
call of profane ambition the goby since his Masonic ambition is to
serve and enrich the world in which he is set apart to the ministry
of service. He may have been robbed by the obtuseness of those who
are in the front ranks of the army of those opportunities of
usefulness which at one time he longed to win; but he has made the
best use of those he won for himself, and looks back with
satisfaction and forward with hope. His reward is in himself, and
none can deprive him of the fruit of a long service. When we see
the world about us moved by our spirit, when we know that as the
result of our sacrifices a higher standard of benevolence is set up
all over the world, and know that the angles that symmetry does not
require are rubbed away, and that the anger that once spoiled many
a good cause is now discredited, the mere pomp of place does not
count with us, for these results are our wages, and we give the
receipt for them with new resolutions that are even more ambitious
than those that now are realized.

HARMONY

From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony 
This universal frame began;
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high, 
Arise, ye more than dead!
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry
In order to their stations leap, 
And Music's power obey.
From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony 
This universal frame began;
From Harmony to Harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.
--John Dryden, 1631-1700.
 