THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

BY BRO.  H. L. HAYWOOD

PART XVII - BROTHERLY AID

THE BUILDER JANUARY 1923

IT IS ONE of the principal uses of history that it enables us better to understand the present.  We are ourselves so intimately related to our world as it now is, and this world is so complicated, that often it is quite impossible for us to form a true conception of it.  But after a few decades have passed, and our own period detaches itself and becomes a unity, so that it can be viewed as a whole and as a thing by itself, it becomes greatly simplified; multitudes of bewildering details drop away, and it stands forth in its essentials, so that the historian can grasp it in its true proportions and relations.  In this wise it often happens that in a certain true sense no age is understood until it has taken its place in history.  This fact itself in turn can be brought about to enable one to view his own period as if it were a thing past, for it often happens that we discover some earlier period to be so like our own that to learn to understand that past period is to enable one's self to understand one's own.  All this, which seems so remote from the theme of this paper, is written to explain why I shall begin the study of Brotherly Aid by a rapid sketch of a condition that developed itself among the Roman people many centuries ago.  That condition, I believe, was the same in essentials as the condition in which we now live, so that by viewing it as a whole we can the better understand the social world in which we find ourselves.

In the early days of the Republic Roman life was a very stable thing, and Roman customs were almost stationary.  A man grew up in the house in which he was born; when he married he brought his wife to live with him under the paternal roof; and when he died he left his own sons abiding in the same place.  Neighbouring families were similarly stable, and all these groups, owing to this perpetual neighbourliness and to intermarriage, became so inwoven with each other that in a community there would be not one stranger.  A man's life took root in such a community like a tree and grew there permanently.  The individual was not left to his own private resources: he was surrounded by others who were ever at hand to aid him in misfortune, nurse him in illness, and mourn him in death.  He was strong with the strength of his family and of his neighbourhood, and this no doubt accounts for the sturdy manhood and womanhood of the early Romans.

What are the principal uses of history? Why is it difficult for us to understand our own time? How does history help to learn the present by means of the past? Describe conditions under which the early Romans lived.  In what way did this make for a healthy manhood? How did these conditions protect a man from physical and moral bankruptcy? How does the history of Freemasonry help you to understand Freemasonry as it now is? Did you live in childhood under conditions similar to those described?

But there came a time when the long enduring stability of Roman life was broken up.  By gradual degrees the Romans conquered adjoining territory.  A great military system was organized. Whole nations were brought into the Roman system.  Alien peoples flocked into Italy, and new religions established their headquarters in Rome.  The Republic gave way to the Empire, and the Senate succumbed to the Emperor.  Great cities arose; travel was made possible; and a feverish restlessness took the place of the old stability.  The old calm neighbourhood life was destroyed and in its place there grew up a fermenting life in town and city.  A man no longer lived and died in the place of his birth, but moved about from community to community, so that men became human tumbleweeds evermore shifting about from place to place as the windy currents of chance might carry them.  It came to pass that a man lived a stranger in his own neighbourhood, so that he scarce knew the other persons living under the same roof.  He was thrown back on his own unaided individual resources in misfortune and in death.  In the unequal struggle he often became morally bankrupt and the constant strain undermined his health.  It was for such causes that Rome ultimately fell.

In this situation men set out about the creating of a bond that would take the place of the lost neighbourhood ties.  They organized themselves into Collegia.  These groups were formed of men engaged in the same trade and they usually, in the early days of their history, were principally devoted to securing for a man a becoming burial service, the lack of which so filled a Roman with dread.  But in the course of time these organizations - we could justly call them lodges - assumed more and more functions until at last a man found in them charities, social life, business aid, religious influences, friendship, and such other features of general protection as caused him to call his own group "My Mother Collegium." To live a stranger in a city was not longer a thing to dread to a man who could find in such a fellowship the same friendship and support that his forefather had secured in the old-time neighbourhood.

What broke up the stability of ancient Roman life? Did the Romans come to have cities, factories, tenements, etc? What was Rome's "immigration problem"? Was it like ours? What cause led to the breakdown of Roman character? What were Collegia? How were they organized and what purposes did they serve?


It would be easy to compare with the rise and development of the Collegia the rise and development of the Church in the Middle Ages, for the latter came into existence to serve similar purposes; but there is no need of this, because the idea has already been made sufficiently clear.  So is it also clear, I trust, that we men of today are living under just such conditions as brought the Collegia into existence, which is the one point of this historical excursion.  The great majority of us are living in towns and cities; and almost all of us are subject to the unsettling conditions that shuttle us about from place to place, and from condition to condition, so that life has lost its firmness and security. We live in streets where our next door neighbour is a stranger to us; or in an apartment house or tenement where with dwellers on the same floor we have no ties at all.  Our industrial system is such that vast numbers of us are ever moving about from one job to another, which fact is true also even of the farmers, the majority of whom are tenants, and therefore migratory.  In the midst of such conditions the individual is often thrown wholly upon his own resources which is such an unnatural thing that many break under it.  The restlessness and the ache of modern life are undoubtedly due in large measure to these facts.

But it is here that the lodge comes in, for the lodge, from this present point of view, is nothing other than a substitute for the old-fashioned small community life wherein neighbour was so tied to neighbour that there was no need of associated charities, social centers, or employment bureaus.  In a lodge a man need no longer be a stranger: he finds there other men who, like himself, are eager to establish friendships, engage in social intercourse, and pool the resources of all in behalf of the needs of each.  The fraternal tie redeems a man from loneliness and from his old pitiable sense of helplessness, and atones for a hundred other ills of city conditions.  In his fraternal circle is the warmth and security which a man needs if he is not to succumb to the pressure of modern life.  Little wonder is it that men so often think secretly of their lodge as "my mother" and cherish for it until death a deep regard that no profane can ever comprehend!

What purposes were served by the Church in the Middle Ages? Have you experienced the loneliness of city life? Does moving about make for happiness? Why are so many families migratory? What are the effects on health, happiness, morality? What function is performed by the lodge in modern life? Have you found the lodge to be a circle of friendship? If not, why not?


In the ample framework of these facts one can see at a glance what Brotherly Aid really is.  It is the substitution of the friend for the stranger.  It is a spirit which throws round a man the comforts and securities of love.  When "a worthy brother in distress" is helped it is not as a pauper, as in the necessarily cold fashion of public charity, but the kindly help which one neighbour is always so glad to lend to another.  Masonic charity is strong, kindly, beautiful and tender, and not charity at all in the narrow grudging sense of the word. Nay, it does not wait until a brother is in distress but throws about him in his strength and prosperity the affectionate arm of friendship without which life is cold and harsh.  Friendship, fraternity, fellowship - this is the soul of Freemasonry of which charity is but one gesture with a thousand meanings.

What is meant ty, "Brotherly Aid"? How does Your lodge assist a "worthy brother in distress? Could you improve on the Masonic methods of charity? What is the difference between Masonic charity and public charity? What is the Bible's teaching concerning "charity"? (See I Cor. xiii.) 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

THE BUILDER:

Vol. I (1915) - Masonry at Work, p. 64; Problems in Masonic Charity, p. 88

Vol II (1916) - History and Charity, p. 31; Washington, the Man and Mason, p. 43; Charity Never Faileth, p. 154; Masonic Homes -I, p. 75; Masonic Homes - II, p. 116; Masonic Social Service, p. 99; The Iowa Plan, p. 126; Masonic Social Service - A Hospital for Crippled Children, p. 263; Every Lodge a School, p. 308; "Unto the Least of These," p. 319; The Fame of the Craft, p. 384
 
Vol. III (1917) - What an Entered Apprentice Ought to Know, April C.C.B., p. 7; The Masonic Relief Association, p. 270; Physical Qualifications of a Candidate, p. 310; Fraternal Forum, p. 195; Golden Rule Lodge, p. 220.

Vol IV (1918) - Louisiana Relief Lodge No. 1, p. 243; Relief Work in World War, p. 201; Stop, Look, Listen, p. 305; Masonic War Work in England, p. 315; "What is Masonry Doing in This War as a Fraternity?" p. 89; Has Masonry a Duty in the War? p. 330.

Vol V (1919) - Masonic Relief Association of the United States and Canada, p. 217.

Vol VI (1920) - Active Charity, p. 97; The Vital Parts of the
Breast, April C.C.B, p. 3.

Vol VII (1921) - Masonic Charities in the British Isles, p. 88; Practical Brotherhood, p. 102; Everlasting Necessity for Brotherhood, p. 317; Fraternal Side of Old Guilds, p. 174. 

Mackey's Encyclopedia-(Revised Edition);

Charity, p. 143; Collegia Artificum, p. 158; Freemason, p. 282; Freemasonry, p. 283; Lodge, pp. 449-451; Middle Ages, p. 483; Roman Colleges of Artificers, pp. 630 - 634; Stonemasons of the Middle Ages, pp. 718-722; Travelling Masons, pp. 792-795.

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