THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1916

TOLERATION
BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, P.G.M. MISSOURI

The superficial thinker ascribes all intolerance in the world to
religious creeds, and, ignorantly, thinks that the great day of
universal toleration will be ushered in, when all creeds are torn
down and destroyed. He fails to recognize the fact that it is not
so much a question of creeds, but that intolerance is the natural
product of a dwarfed and misshapen intellectuality, the adopted
child of a sterile spirituality; that toleration is the offspring
of a broad and comprehensive intellectual development and the
legitimate heir of a virile, active and sympathetic spirituality.

Man is the only animal which has evolved the power of speech;
speech implies words, or the sign of an idea; words are the
precursors of thought. To think is to reason and to form a
judgment; reason and judgment are the basis of a belief. Man is a
believing being, because he thinks. Even a disbelief, however
paradoxical it may seem, is, when reduced to its ultimate analysis,
a belief.

A creed is but a systematized belief, whether such belief or
beliefs refer to the physical, intellectual, or moral nature. It is
impossible to conceive of a man, with his intellectual nature,
without a belief, and it is equally impossible to conceive of a man
with his spiritual nature, without a creed. If such a sentient
being exists, he is either suffering from an intellectual, or a
spiritual vacuity, or both. A man without an intellectual belief
would be an intellectual monstrosity, and a man without a religious
creed would be a spiritual idiot. It might be well to note the man,
or any organization of men, who talk loud and long about dogmas and
creeds, who rail at churches for their supposed intolerance,
because, if you scratch such a man or such an organization, you
will find under the epidermis a most intolerable bigot or bigots,
and so full of creeds to bursting. An intellectual belief and a
religious creed are a part of man; the two are so intimately
interwoven in his two-fold nature that to divorce them would
destroy the personality of the man. An intellectual or scientific
belief is made up of the same material as a religious creed. If the
science of Geology and Palaeontology can borrow millions of years,
if the physical sciences demand an ion, if the science of evolution
postulates a primordial cell, why should it be thought incredible
or unscientific for our spiritual nature to postulate a God? No, it
is neither incredible nor unscientific for the pilot-man to use his
religious creed as the chart, his intellectual belief as the
compass, that will enable him to guide his ship by treacherous
shoals, through the narrows, through the darkness and storm, into
the sunlit harbor of a well rounded and successful life.

A belief in God and immortality is a great and universal fact; a
fact that science and philosophy must recognize. The underlying
truth and force of all religions, is man's belief in a God and a
hope of eternal life. Religion did not give birth to this faith and
hope, but this creed of a belief in God and a hope of eternal life
gave birth to religion. That man is a religious being, is a
universal phenomenon. This religious sentiment is "Like the finger
of God writing upon the soul, age by age a new and ever renewing
destiny." It is ever reaching out and endeavoring to comprehend a
Supreme Intelligence, an Infinite Creator, a just, holy and
benevolent Father. This effort of our spiritual nature is not
derived from any of our physical senses; for no physical sensation
can be transformed into hope, love, or faith. Man knows that his
spiritual nature and the phenomena of his spiritual nature can not
be described in the terms of the physical universe. A thought can
not be measured by a rule. Spiritual pain or joy can not be weighed
in a balance. Hope and love can not be solved by the binomial
theorem, nor can our soul's desire be revealed by mystical numbers.

This belief in God and hope in eternal life has its root deep in
the heart of humanity. The wise sage and the untutored savage have
alike pondered the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?"
The cradle asks the question, "Whence came I," and the coffin asks,
"Whither go I?" Man is conscious of his duality, although he may be
unacquainted with the simplest philosophical or metaphysical
speculation. Primitive and childlike man, in the early history of
the race, grasped in his feeble way that there is a God and that he
was immortal. Even the barbarian may cry:--

"Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire 
This longing after immortality ? 
Or whence this secret dread 
And inward horror of falling into naught? 
Why shrinks the soul back on herself 
And startles at destruction? 
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us, 
'Tis Heaven itself that points an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man."

Man, therefore, as he stands in the presence of his intellectual
and spiritual nature, worships, and builds for himself a creed.
Whether the creed that he erects is tolerant or intolerant depends,
absolutely, on his conception of Deity. It might be said, as a
man's God is, so is he. The early Hebraic creed considered God as
a God of terror, of vengeance, and of wrath; that he was a tribal,
racial, or national God only. About such a belief was built a self
centered, intolerant creed. Intolerant because it was selfish, for
selfishness is the mother of intolerance. But the belief as taught,
especially, by the Prophet Isaiah, and which today shines with such
an effulgent splendor in the life and teachings of Christ, is far
different. It teaches that God is a God of love, a God of
forgiveness; that the Kingdom of God is not an empty ceremonial or
outward display, but it is in the hearts of men; that its fruits
are justice, mercy and service; a kingdom not established by the
sword and by race prejudice, but a kingdom of the Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood man. Such a creed is free of selfishness; it is
altogether altruistic. It is tolerant, because it bears within the
Gospel of Love.

"Teach me to feel each other's woes, 
Each other's burdens bear."

The Gospel of Love is the world's panacea for intolerance.
Freemasonry has such a creed. It is even dogmatic and unchangeable.
It is, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty." This does not mean
a belief in some notion of a God, some abstract formula, some
metaphysical or geometrical demonstration, but it means the God as
revealed in the sacred volume on our Altar, as taught in that
"Inestimable gift of God to an."

Freemasonry in this short creed has no quarrel, or is it intolerant
to Jew, Gentile, Mohammedan or Hindu for their faith and trust as
revealed in their Sacred Books. Freemasonry has no quarrel with the
an who has no conception of Deity and who has no sacred Book from
which to draw his inspiration and hope; but Freemasonry believes in
God, the Father, and he who can not accept this simple creed must
remain outside of our portals.

This simple dogmatic creed is the very fundamental principle of
Freemasonry. It is the cleavage between belief and unbelief; upon
it we build our beautiful system of morals; upon it we base our
belief in the brotherhood of man. Freemasonry without its belief in
God, the Father, and its imperative corollary, the Brotherhood of
man, would be a sham and a sacrilegious pretense. Upon this creed
Freemasonry must stand. If we can not accept it, then let us take
down our Charters, close the sacred Volume on our Altar, lock the
doors of our halls and temples, and retire from the world's moral
activities as a soulless and spiritless Fraternity.

Freemasonry is not a church. It does not design to establish a
universal church, as some would foolishly believe, neither does it
purpose to disestablish any church; it makes no war on
church-creeds, but is tolerant toward every religious faith and
belief; it respects and honors every genuine believer, whatever his
individual or his church creed may be. No man who believes in the
Fatherhood of God can be other than tolerant.

"There is a wideness in God's mercy 
Like the wideness of the sea; 
There's a kindness in his justice 
Which is more than liberty. 
For the love of God is broader 
Than the measure of man's mind 
And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind."

The most tolerant teacher that ever lived, was presaged by the
Prophet when he said: "And his name shall be called Wonderful, the
Prince of Peace." Why ? Because "He united love to God, with love
to man; courage to caution, perfect freedom from form, and
reverence for the substance in all forms, hatred for sin and love
for the sinner." He turned duty into happiness, wrote the laws into
the heart, helped us to walk in the spirit of love; for love begets
toleration, and by it lifts the world to the highest plane of peace
and good will. Listen to the great moral code that he gave to man
:--

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto
them."

Hear his dogmatic creed which amounts to a positive command:--

"Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all
thy soul, with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself."
"This commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."

The following are the graces that flow from obedience to this
creed:--

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friend."
"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith."
"Neither do I condemn you, go, sin no more."
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Are these intolerant words ? They are old and may even sound trite,
but they are the very soul of toleration, welling up from a deep,
profound spirituality, and are ringing clearer, stronger, deeper
and fuller as years roll into thousands of centuries.

This self same spirit of toleration should be the crowning glory of
Freemasonry. To the critics of Freemasonry, the religious zealot,
on the one hand, who denounces Freemasonry as Godless, and, on the
other hand, to the dwarfed intellectual and spiritual concept that
declares Freemasonry is intolerant because it demands a belief in
"The one living and true God," we can but quote the words of the
peace-loving Whittier:

"Who fathoms the eternal thought ? 
Who talks of schemes and plans ? 
The Lord is God. He needeth not 
The poor device of man 
I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground 
Ye tread with boldness shod, 
I dare not fix with mete and bound 
The love and power of God."

Toleration should be written deep in the soul of every member of
our Fraternity. For Freemasonry is out of necessity an aid to every
agency that has for its end the amelioration of the human family.
While it is not a church, it draws its inspiration from the same
source and walks hand in hand with the church in the broad field of
humanity's need. It can not from its very inception antagonize
religion, because it stands today as the proud champion of religion
and religious liberty; the foe of irreligion and irreligious
liberty; for freedom, but not license; for tolerance, but not
anarchy; for civil liberty, but not tyranny; for purity, but not
shame; for patriotism, but not treason; for sobriety, but not
intemperance; for hope, but not despair; for love, but not hate.
Freemasonry knows no nationality, but its kingdom is in the hearts
of men. Its power lies not in the sword on the field of battle, but
in the silent, yet potent, force of the individuality of its
members. It has a foundation, tolerant, solid, eternal. Upon it we
erect our moral temple and adorn it with the foliage and flowers of
a life whose feet are swift to run on missions of love, whose knees
are ever humble in the recognition of Divine favors, whose heart is
expanding in charity, whose hand will raise the fallen, and whose
lips will bring joy and gladness. It is altruistic, not egotistic.
The spirit of Freemasonry is preeminently progressive, and while it
not only inculcates moral truths, it also demands advancement along
the line of scholastic development. It is the promoter and
encourager of every art and science that has for its end the
uplifting of man. It would appeal to the aesthetic, to the
philosophic, and would surround the mind and heart with everything
that can beautify and adorn man.

The spirit of Freemasonry is that which tuned the harp for the
immortal strains of a Handel; a Haydn, and a Mendelssohn; that
touched the deep and majestic tone of a Milton, the spiritual
sweetness of a David, the genius of an Addison, a Whittier, a
Longfellow, and a Tennyson; that sounded the depths of unlimited
space and brought forth the music of countless worlds to the
enchanted ear of a Kepler and a Newton; that descended into the
earth and unfolded its pages, penned in the rocks of centuries, to
a Gray and Agassiz; that touched the brush of a Raphael and the
chisel of an Angelo and made canvas, fresco and rocks speak in
living realities. That spirit that came like a gentle wind and
dispersed the metaphysical fog of ancient philosophy, dethroned its
selfishness and placed it upon the only sure foundation, that "I am
my brother's keeper."

From such a creed will bloom into eternal freshness and renewing
youth, that all prevading sweetness, that calm reliance, that
loving toleration as expressed by Whittier:

"No offering of my own I have, 
Nor works my faith to prove; 
I can but give the gifts He gave, 
And plead his love for love. 
And so beside the silent sea 
I wait the muffled oar, 
No harm from Him can come to me, 
On ocean or on shore. 
I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond his love and care."


