THE BUILDER, DECEMBER 1927

"Understandest Thou What Thou Readest?"

By BRO. C. GORDON LAWRENCE, Canada

THERE are two great text books in Freemasonry. They were commended
to your attention early in your Masonic career. Without some
knowledge of them you can never become proficient in our art, nor
can you share largely in our mysteries. They are the Books of
Nature and of Revelation.

From the Book of Nature we may learn much about the character of
our Supreme Architect. Evidences of a wise and mighty plan present
themselves to the enquiring mind. We learn that the Great Spirit
who was the Builder was the Designer as well. The beauty of the
design bears witness to the spirit of an artist.

From the immensity of space we learn of His infinite greatness.
From the immeasurable power of natural forces; the sun's power to
hold all the innumerable wor]ds in place; the irresistible power of
the tides; the terrible power of the earthquake. From such as t~ese
ye learn how omnipotent is their Author. From the certain
succession of day and night, summer and winter; from the regular
return of the planets in their courses, we learn how orderly is the
mind of the Great Designer. From the glory of the sunset, and the
wonder of the snowflake, and the sigh of the night wind, we know
that in Him wisdom and strength are combined with beauty. "The
sun's look and the sea's voice and the earth's wonderful breath"
all bear the impress of the Divine Artist.

THE MYSTERIES OF NATURE

The Book of Nature is beyond our limited comprehension. Mankind has
proceeded but a little way in an attempt to read it. After all the
centuries we are still like little children just beginning to learn
the art of reading. But our efforts receive constant encouragement.
Before the dawn of history men in Chaldea and Egypt had begun to
study the stars. At last the telescope was invented and turned
toward the sky. "I have seen farther into space than any other
man," said Herschel. "I have seen stars so far away that the light
from them can only reach the earth after a journey of many years.

An undreamed-of section of Nature's Book was opened for us by the
invention of the microscope. Louis Pasteur and others, who were
still at work when we were born, uncovered for us the infinite]y
sma]l. In the days of the Hebrew psalmists it was considered a
grand experience, rare no doubt to the Jew of that day, to "go down
to the sea in ships and see the works of the Lord and His wonders
in the deep." But we live to see even greater wonders in a single
drop of water.

Chemistry, in the modern sense, is an entirely new science. The
discovery of radium by Curie is only the better known of many
equally wonderful that have been made in our lifetime. Elements and
forces entirely new to us must now be taken account of in our
reading of Nature's witness to her Creator, and a restatement of
natural philosophy becomes necessary.

We shall never exhaust the treasures of the Book of Nature. Our
little day ends before we have fairly begun the task. The
multiplicity of interests that have arisen from the division of
labor distracts our attention.

THE VOLUME OF THE SACRED LAW

There is also to be studied the Book of Revelation. "As a Mason,
you are to regard the volume of the Sacred Law as the great Light
in your profession." The Book of Nature shows us God portrayed in
the inanimate part of the universe. In the Book of Revelation we
see Him reflected in the mind of man. But the image is not
constant. It changes according to the ability of mankind to reflect
it. In the words of Robert Browning, it "decomposes but to
recompose again."

In the early ages of history the almighty nature of the Deity was
uppermost in man's mind. He is realized then as a terrible person
who must be satisfied and propitiated with costly sacrifice. In
that stage of revelation the human attitude to the Creator is that
of fear.

There came in the course of time the realization that the infinite
might of the Creator is controlled according to a purpose. He is
not subject to whims nor sudden fancies. He does not act from
caprice nor from spite. His purpose is right and His character is
that of righteousness. With this development in man's idea of God
there came the problem how to explain what appears to be the unfair
treatment afforded to many whose lives are apparently exemplary.
The inscrutable mystery of pain still remains to taunt us. But
notwithstanding difficulties insuperable men came to believe that
God is altogether upright and holy.

At last the ideas of might and holiness are supplemented by a
discovery of His tenderness and mercy. To speak of the dawning
consciousness as a discovery is only to look at the development
from man's side. If you prefer to say that God revealed these
truths about Himself, you imply that the human mind had become
sufficiently qualified to receive them. The Divine Master does not
pass His apprentices to a higher degree until they have made
themselves fit to receive it. The mystery of the Divine tenderness
could not have been communicated to those who had not yet been
initiated into the knowledge of His righteousness. "To him that
hath shall be given," for he alone has the ability to receive.

By God's tenderness is meant His sympathy with and provision for
the weak and the unfortunate; His pity for the wayward and the
oppressed. The Book of Revelation proceeds to record that in the
reign of Caesar Augustus came One who penetrated more deeply into
the mysteries than any before and who assures us that "God is
Love."

The human mind had all through the ages been qualifying itself to
perceive new features of the Divine countenance. The human
character had been coming gradually to such a state that it could
more adequately receive an impression of the Divine. Mankind is
ever trying to place itself in proper position to receive an ever
grander expression of the Most High. To attain to that proper
position is man's part of the great process. Always in the mind of
the Master there is the desire to enlighten the suppliant. Always
in the suppliant there has been something to hinder complete
vision. Who knows how often by a Hand unseen the human race has
been guided along the path of progress? Achievement is no less
human because it has been inspired from on high.

AND THESE TWO AGREE

So we have, my brothers, these two great Books of Nature and of
Revelation. They each proclaim, but in a tremendously grander
style, just what we have tried to express in hymns and psalms and
music and ceremonial, viz., the greatness and the holiness and the
loving-kindness of that Great Spirit in Whom we "live and move and
have our being." Freemasonry requires of us a due attention to them
both. Neither alone is sufflcient for proficiency in our art. It
may be (let us say it reverently) that neither is yet complete.
God, we may be sure, has not yet exhausted His resources. The Great
Designer has plans (is it not likely?) that are not yet outlined on
His Trestle Board. Why should we suppose that He has ceased to
plan, and to create, and to adorn? Why should we suppose that we
have received already all that He has to reveal? Because the first
degree is wonderful may not the next be more wonderful still? This
little taste of life has afforded its achievements, its triumphs,
its satisfactions. Here in the midst of numerous hindrances, with
a desire for the better only faintly experienced, we have never the
less enjoyed at least a glimpse of the Light Supernal. But awaiting
our fitness to appreciate them are all the possibilities that can
originate in the loving mind of an Infinite Parent.

HOW SHALL WE UNDERSTAND?

On a certain cccasion an officer of a royal household was returning
from a pilgrimage to the Temple, and "sitting in his chariot he
read Esaias the Prophet." There approached him one who courteously
enquired, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" His reply was
that which comes to your lips as you attempt these great text books
in Freemasonry, "How can I except someone should guide me?"
The bewilderment which overwhelms us as our eyes are opened to the
Light, our inability to comprehend the Heavenly Wisdom, our fear of
misinterpreting what concerns us so greatly, these compel one to
ask that "someone should guide me."

The Guide, my brothers, is never lacking. Along a path unknown, led
by a Hand unseen, mankind proceeds on its way toward perfection.
For the Architect is Himself the Builder, the Author is Himself the
Interpreter, God is Himself our Guide.
