CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
J'? » ; 
 
 ,MISCE;iJij|l|!|j '<!/• TftE IpW^ M^ LIBR^y. CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA 
 
 of Masonry 
 
 mi) JOSEPH FORT NEWTON 
 
 PRINTEP FOR THE-flBRARY: 
 1913m,;V '! '■ 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tinis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030277036 
 
REV. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 Rev. Brother Joseph Fort Newton, D. Litt. 
 
 Gland Chaplain. Grand Lodge of Iowa, A. F. and A. M., and 
 CKaplain of Mt. Heimon Lodge, No. 263. of Cedai Rapids 
 
 An address delivered before the 
 
 Grand Lodge of Iowa, A. F. and A. M., at the 
 
 Seventieth Annual Communication 
 
 held at Council Bluffs 
 
 June tenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA 
 
 PfUNTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION 
 
 1913 
 
rr "^ 
 
 / 
 
 
THE MINISTRY OF MASONRY 
 
 Past Grand Master Block, Members of the Grand Lodge of 
 Iowa, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 
 
 OMETHING in this scene, something in the 
 words of my dear friend, appeals to me very 
 deeply. So gracious a greeting evokes feelings 
 beyond my words, and I understand what Lord 
 
 Tennyson must have felt when, looking out upon the sea and 
 
 listening to its voices, he crie^: 
 
 "I would that some tongue could utter 
 The thoughts that arise in me." 
 
 Once upon a time, as my friend has said, I tried to talk to 
 you as best I could on The Mission of Masonry, its faith, its 
 philosophy, its demand for freedom, and its plea for universal 
 friendship. 
 
 But the more I brood over the mystery of this order, its his- 
 tory, its genius, its possibilities of ministry to the higher hu- 
 man life, the more the wonder grows, liie higher the horizon, 
 and the longer the vistas that unfold. Let me beseech you, 
 then, to lend me your hearts whUe I tell you a little riiore of 
 the meaning of Masonry as it has grown up in my heart. 
 Studying Masonry is like looking at a sunrise ; each man who 
 looks is filled with the beauty and glory of it, bilt the splendor 
 is not diminished. Over all alike its ineffable wonder falls, 
 subduing the mind, softening the heart, and exalting the life. 
 
 I. 
 
 The better to make vivid what lies in my heart, let me re- 
 call a scene from one of the great books of the world. War and 
 Peace, by Count Tolstoi — a name that should be spoken wiUi 
 reverence wherever men assemble in the name good-will. He 
 was, if we except Lincoln, the tallest soul, the most pic- 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 turesque and appealing figure who walked under our human 
 sky in the last century. This book, the greatest of its kind 
 known to literature, makes one think of a giant playing with 
 mountains, tossing them to and fro as though they were toys; 
 so powerful is it, so vast in its sweep, so vivid in its panorama. 
 Its heroine is a whole nation — ^the beautiful, strange, tor- 
 mented land of Russia. We see its lights and shadows, its 
 wide expanse, and its quiet hamlets; its people at work and 
 play, in peace and war — now hovering like a shadow on the 
 heels of their enemies, now fleeing in terror in the glare of 
 their burning cities. What a picture of the tumult of a 
 nation, and the vicissitudes of life, in the light the Napoleonic 
 invasion ! 
 
 One of the arresting figures of the story is Count Pierre 
 Bezuhov — in whom Tolstoi has shown us one side of his own 
 soul, as in Prince Andre he has unveiled the other. Pierre 
 is the richest man in Russia, owning vast estates, including 
 both the land and the serfs on the land. Like so many young 
 noblemen of his day, he has lived a wild, sensual, dissolute 
 life, careless alike of the rights and wrongs of his fellows. 
 He was married to a beautiful, bewitching, sensual woman, 
 whose paramour he has just killed in a duel. On his way to 
 St. Petersburg he falls in with an old man, simply dressed, 
 but with the light of a great peace in his face. The stranger 
 addresses the Count and tells him that he has heard of his 
 misfortune, referring to the duel resulting in the death at his 
 hands of the lover of his wife. He is aware, too, as he goes on 
 to say, of the wild, sin-bespattered life the Count has lived, of 
 his way of thinking, of his pride, indolence, and ignorance. 
 The Count listened to these severe words, he hardly knew why 
 — ^perhaps because he heard in them an undertone of sym- 
 pathy, the accent of a great pity, and what he heard in the 
 voice he saw in the kindly face. 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 On the hand of the old man the Count noticed a ring, and 
 in it the emblem of the order here assembled. He asked the 
 stranger if he waa not a Mason. Whereupon the old man, 
 looking searchingly into the eyes of the Count, said that he 
 belonged to that order, in whose name he extended to him the 
 hand of a brother man, in the name of God the Father. At 
 the mention of the name of God a smile curled on the lips of 
 the Count, who said : 
 
 "I ought to tell you that I don't believe in God." The old 
 Freemason smiled as a rich man, holding millions in his hand, 
 might smile at a poor wretch. 
 
 "Yes, you do not know Him, sir," said the stranger. "You 
 do not know Him, that is why you are unhappy. But He is 
 here. He is within me, He is in thee, and even in these sooflfing 
 words you have just uttered. If He is not, we should not be 
 speaking of Him, sir. Whom dost thou deny? How came 
 there within thee the conception that there is such an incom- 
 prehensible Being?" 
 
 Something in the venerable stranger, who spoke earnestly, 
 as one who stood in the light of a vision, touched the Count 
 deeply, and stirred in him a longing to see what the old man 
 saw, and to know what he knew. Abject, hopeless, haunted 
 by an ill-spent Ufe, with the blood of a fellow-man on his hand 
 — ^his eyes betrayed his longing to know God. Though he did 
 not speak, the kindly eyes of the stranger read his face and 
 answered his unasked question : 
 
 "He exists, but to know Him is hard. It is not attained by 
 reason, but by life. The highest truth is like the purest dew. 
 Can I hold in an impure vessel that pure dew and judge of its 
 purity ? Only by inner purification can we know Him." 
 
 Finally, the old man asked tbe young nobleman if he would 
 not like to look into the mysteries of Masonry. Not so much 
 what the stranger had said as what ha was — ^his gentle, au- 
 
6 The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 stere, benign spirit, that had in it something of the Father- 
 hood of God — ^made the Count say, "Yes." The stranger 
 asked him to report at a certain room in St. Petersburg, where 
 he would be introduced to those high in authority among Free- 
 masons. Meanwhile, what the gently stem old man had said 
 sank into the soul of the hitherto heedless young nobleman; 
 and when he reported at thp lodge room and was asked, as 
 every man is asked, the one indispensable question : "Do you 
 believe in God?" — something deeper than his doubts, some- 
 thing higher than his scepticism spoke within him, and he 
 answered, "Yes." 
 
 There follows a detailed description of his initiation, which 
 those who are not Masons may be curious to read. Unfortu- 
 nately, it tells them nothing of what takes place in a lodge 
 room on such occasions ; but it will show them the spirit that 
 lives and glows on the altar of Masonry. No one but a Mason 
 could have written it; and while the chain of evidence is not 
 quite complete, I am safe in saying that, as with Count Pierre 
 in the story, so with Count Tolstoi himself, it was Masonry 
 which first lifted him out of the pit of atheism and sensualism, 
 set his feet upon the Kock of Ages, and started him toward the 
 city of God. Does this not suggest to us the deeper meaning 
 of Masonry, its higher ministry, and the service it may ren- 
 der to the inner life of man ? 
 
 11. 
 
 What is Masonry ? What is it trying to teach ? What does 
 it seek to do ? Above all, what can it do for the man who re- 
 ceives it into his heart, loves it, and lives in the light of it ? 
 What profound ministry may it render to the young man who 
 enters its temple in the morning of life, when the dew is on 
 his days and the birds are singing in his heart ? Let me try 
 to answer these questions this summer afternoon in the spirit 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 of Count Tolstoi, who must hereafter be numbered with liiose 
 prophets and bards — ^with poets like Goethe and Bums, mu- 
 sicians like Mozart, patriots like Mazziai and Washington — 
 who loved this historic order. Such names shine like stars in 
 the crown of humanity, and none with truer lustre than that 
 of Tolstoi who was a teacher of purity, pity, and peace among 
 men. 
 
 Time out of mind Masonry has been defined as a system of 
 morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols. That 
 is so far true — far enough, indeed, to describe a world-en- 
 cirding fellowship and its far-ramifying influence. But it 
 is not of the extent of Masonry that I wish to speak this after- 
 noon, but, rather, of its depth — ^its service to the lonely inner 
 life of man where the issues of character and destiny are de- 
 termined, for good or ill. No more worthy purpose can in- 
 spire any order than the earnest, active endeavor to bring men 
 — first the individual man, and then, so far as possible, those 
 united with him — ^to a deeper, richer fellowship vnth spiritual 
 reality. Since this is the purpose of Masonry, let us inquire 
 as to what it is, whence it came, and how it seeks to reach the 
 souls of men where the real battles of life are fought, now 
 with shouts of victory, now with sobs of defeat 
 
 It is true that Masonry is not a religion, still less a cult, but 
 is has religiously preserved some things of highest importance 
 to religion — among them the right of each individual soul to 
 its own religious faith. Holding aloof from separate sects 
 and creeds, it has taught all of them to respect and tolerate 
 each other; asserting a principal broadeo* than any of them 
 — ^the sanctity of the soul and the duty of every man to revere, 
 or at least to regard with charity, what is sacred to his fellows. 
 Our order is like the crypts underneath the old cathedrals — a 
 place where men of every creed, who long for something 
 deeper and truer, older and newer than they have hitherto 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 known, meet and unite. Having put away childish things, 
 ihej find themselves made one by a profound and child-like 
 faith, each bringing down into that quiet crypt his own pearl 
 of great price-^ 
 
 "The Hindu his innate disbelief in this world, and his un- 
 hesitating belief in another world; the Buddhist his percep- 
 tion of an eternal law, his submission to it, his gentleness, his 
 pity; the Mohammedan, if nothing else, his sobriety; the 
 Jew his clinging, through good and evil days, to the one God, 
 who loveth righteousness and whose name is 'I AM;' the 
 Christian, that which is better than all, if those who doubt it 
 would only try it — our love of Gk)d, call Him what you will, 
 manifested in our love of man, our love of the living, our love 
 of the dead, our living and undying love. Who knows but 
 that the crypt of the past may yet become the church of the 
 future?" 
 
 There have been great secret orders, like that represented 
 here today, since recorded history began; and no man may 
 ever hope to estimate their service to our race. In every age, 
 in every civilized land — ^from the priests of Isis on ywider 
 side of the Pyramids, to the orders of Eleusis and Mithras in 
 Greece and Home — ^we trace their silent, far-reaching influ- 
 ence and power. The Mysteries, said Plato, were established 
 by men of great genius who, in the early ages, strove to teach 
 purity, to ameliorate the cruelty of the race, to refine its 
 manners and morals, and to restrain society by stronger bonds 
 than those which human laws impose. Cicero bears a like 
 witness to the high aim of the same mystic orders in his day. 
 Thus in ages of darkness, of complexity, of conflicting peoples, 
 tongues, and faiths, these great orders toiled in behalf of 
 friendship, bringing men together under the banner of faith, 
 and training them for a nobler moral life. 
 
I'he Ministry of Masonry 
 
 No mystery any longer attaches to what those orders taught, 
 but only as to what particular rites, dramas, and symbols were 
 used by them in their ceremonies. They taught faith in a God 
 above, in the moral law within, heroic purity of soul, austere 
 discipline of character, justice, piety, and the hope of a life 
 beyond death. Tender and tolerant of all faiths, they formed 
 an all-embracing moral and spiritual fellowship which rose 
 above barriers of nation, race, and creed, satisfying the crav- 
 ing of men for unity, while evoking in them a sense of that 
 eternal mysticism out of which#ll religions were bom. Their 
 ceremonies, so far as we know them, were stately and moving 
 dramas of the moral life and the fate of the soul. Mystery 
 and secrecy added impressiveness, and fable and enigma dis- 
 guised in imposing spectacle the simple, familiar, everlasting 
 laws of justice, piety, and a hope of immortality. As Cicero 
 said, the initiates of the Mysteries not only received lessons 
 which made life tolerable, but drew from their rites happy 
 hopes for the hour of death. 
 
 Masonry stands in this tradition; and if we may not say 
 that it is historically related to those great ancient orders, it 
 is their spiritual descendant, and renders the same ministry 
 to our age which the Mysteries rendered to the olden world. 
 It is, indeed, no other than those same historic orders in dis- 
 guise ; the same stream of sweetness and light flowing in our 
 day — like the fabled river Alpheus which, gathering the 
 waters of a himdred rills along the hillsides of Arcadia, sank, 
 lost to lights in a chasm in the earth, only to reappear in the 
 fountain of Arethusa. Apart from its rites, there is no mys- 
 tery in Masonry, save the mystery of all great and simple 
 things. So far from being hidden and occult, its glory lies 
 in its openness, its emphasis upon the realities which are to 
 our human world what air and sunlight are to nature. Its 
 secret is of so great and simple a kiud that it is easily over- 
 looked ; its mystery too obvious to be found out. 
 
10 The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 Our age resembles in many ways the age which saw the in- 
 troduction into the world of the teachings of Jesus. To one 
 who regards mankind with tenderness, a time like this is full 
 of hope, but full of many perils also. Men are confused, 
 troubled, and strangely alone. Anything is possible. Forms 
 of faith are changing, and many are bewildered — as witness 
 the number of those running to and fro, following every wand- 
 ering light, and falling, often, into the bogs of fanaticism. 
 Oh, the pathos of it ! A. strange indifference has settled over 
 the world, but underneath it there is a profound, unsatisfied 
 hunger. There is a mood today which soon will utter a cry, 
 and it will be a cry for more vivid sense of God : that is our 
 hope. Yet that cry may fling many a soul upon the bosom of 
 doubt and despair : that is our fear. Amidst this peril, Ma- 
 sonry brings men together at the altar of prayer, keeps alive 
 faith in the truths that make us men, seeking, by every re- 
 source of art, to make tangible the power of love, the worth of 
 beauty, and the reality of the ideal. Who can measure such a 
 ministry, who can describe it ! 
 
 III. 
 
 Let me strive to make it all more vivid by recalling a par- 
 able translated by Max MuUer from the lore of the East. The 
 gods, having stolen from man his divinity, met in council to 
 discuss where they should hide it. One suggested that it be 
 carried to the other side of the earth and buried ; but it was 
 pointed out that man is a great wanderer, and that he might 
 find the lost treasure on the other side of the earth. Another 
 proposed that it be dropped into the depths of the sea ; but the 
 same fear was expressed — ^that man, in his insatiable curi- 
 osity, might dive deep enough to find it even there. Finally, 
 after a space of silence, the oldest and wisest of the gods said : 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 11 
 
 "Hide it in man himself, as that is the last place he wiU ever 
 think to look for it." And it was so agreed, all seeing at once 
 its subtle and wise strategy. 
 
 Man wandered over the earth for ages, searching in all 
 places, high and low, far and near, before he thought to look 
 within himself for the divinity he sought. At last, slowly, 
 dimly, he began to realize that what he thought was far off, 
 hidden in "the pathos of distance," is nearer than the breath 
 he breathes, even in his own heart. Here lies the deepest 
 ministry of Masonry — ^that it makes a young man aware of 
 the divinity that is within him, wherefrom his whole life 
 takes beauty and meaning, and inspires him to follow and 
 obey it. No hour in life is more solemn and revealing than 
 that in which a man learns that what he seeks he has already 
 fotmd, else he would not be seeking it. Once a man learns 
 that deep secret, life is new, and the old world is a valley all 
 dewy to the dawn, aglow with beauty and athrill with 
 melody. 
 
 There never was a truer saying than that of Thomas Car- 
 lyle when he said that the religion of a man is the chief fact 
 concerning him. By religion he meant, as he went on to ex- 
 plain, not the creed to which a man will subscribe or otheiv 
 wise give his assent; not that necessarily; often not that at all 
 — since we see men of all degrees of worth and worthlessness 
 signing all kinds of creeds. No, the religion of a man is that 
 which he practically believes, lays to heart, acts upon, and 
 knows concerning this mysterious universe and his duty and 
 destiny in it. That is in all cases the primary thing in him, 
 and creatively determines all the rest ; that is his religion. It 
 is, then, of vital importance what faith, what vision, what con- 
 ception of life a man lays to heart, and acts upon. It is as a 
 man thinks in his heart whether life be worth while or not, 
 and whether the world be luminous or dark. 
 
12 The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 Let me show you that this is so. Optimists and pessimists 
 live in the same world, walk imder the same sky, and observe 
 the same facts. Sceptics and believers look up at the same 
 great stars — the stars that shone in Eden and will flash again 
 in Paradise. Thomas Hardy and George Meredith were 
 contemporaries and friends — one looking out over a dismal, 
 shadow-haunted Egdon heath, under a sky as grey as a tired 
 face ; the other a citizen of a world all dipped in hues of sun- 
 rise and sunset, with a lark-song over it ! Clearly, the differ- 
 ence in all these cases is a difference not of fact, but of faith ; 
 of insight, outlook, and point of view — a difference of inner 
 attitude and habit of thought with regard to the worth of life 
 and the meaning of the world. By the same token, any influ- 
 ence which reaches and alters that inner habit and bias of 
 mind, and changes it from doubt to faith, from fear to cour^ 
 age, from despair to sunburst hope has wrought the most vital 
 and benign ministry which a mortal may enjoy in the midst 
 of the years. 
 
 Every man, as each of you can testify, has a train of 
 thought on which he rides when he is alone. The dignity and 
 nobility of his life, as well as its happiness, depend upon the 
 direction in which that train is going, the baggage it carries, 
 and the scenery tlirough which it travels. If, then. Masonry 
 can put that inner train of thought on the right track, freight 
 it with precious baggage, and start it on the way to the city 
 of God, what other or higher service can it render to a man ? 
 That is just what it does for any man who will give himself to 
 it, bringing to him from afar the old wisdom-religion — ^that 
 simple, pure, and lofty truth wrought out through ages of 
 experience, tested by time, and found to be valid for the life of 
 man. Whoso lays that lucid and profound wisdom to heart, 
 and acts upon it, vrill have little to regret, and nothing to fear, 
 when the evening shadows fall. 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 13 
 
 High, fine, ineffably rich, and beautiful is the faith and 
 vision which Masonry gives to those who foregather at its 
 altar. By such teaching, if they have the heart to heed it, 
 men become wise, knowing that all evil ways have been often 
 tried and found wanting. By it they learn how to be both 
 brave and gentle, faithful and firm; how to renounce super- 
 stition and yet retain faith ; how to keep a fine poise of reason 
 between the falsehood of extremes ; how to accept the joys of 
 life with glee, and endure its ills with patient valor; how to 
 look upon the folly of man and not forget his nobility — in 
 short, how to live cleanly, kindly, calmly, opened-eyed, and 
 unafraid in a sane world, sweet of heart and full of hope. It 
 may not be a substitute for religion, but he who makes it a 
 law of his life, loves it, and obeys it, wiU be most ready to re- 
 ceive the great passwords of religious faith. Happy the young 
 man who in the morning of his years takes this simple and 
 high wisdom as his guide, philosopher, and friend ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Such is the ministry of Masonry to the individual — ^lifting 
 him out of the mire and setting his feet in the long, white 
 path marked out by the foot-steps of ages; and through the 
 individual it serves society and the state. If by some art one 
 could trace those sweet, invisible influences which move to 
 and fro like shuttles in a loom, weaving the net-work of laws, 
 reverences, sanctities which makes the warp and woof of so- 
 ciety — giving to statutes their dignity and power, to the gos- 
 pel its opportunity, to the home its canopy of peace and 
 beauty, to the young an enshrinement of inspiration, and the 
 old a mantle of protection; if one had the pen of an angel 
 then might one tell the story of what Masonry has done for 
 Iowa. No wonder George Eliot said that eloquence is but a 
 ripple on the bosom of the unspoken and the unspeakable ! 
 
14 The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 What is it that so tragically delays the march of man to- 
 ward that better social order whereof our prophets dream? 
 Our age and land are f uU of schemes of every kind for the re- 
 form and betterment of mankind. Why do they not suc- 
 ceed? Some fail, perhaps, because they are imprudent and 
 ill-considered, in that they expect too much of human nature 
 and do not take into account the stubborn facts of life. But 
 why does not the wisest and noblest plan do half what its de- 
 visors hope and pray and labor to bring about? Because 
 there are not enough men fine enough of soul, large enough of 
 sympathy, noble enough of nature to make the dream come 
 true. So that when Masonry, instead of identifying itself 
 with particular schemes of reform, devotes all its benign 
 energy to refining and ennobling the souls of men, she is doing 
 fundamental work in behalf of all high enterprises. By as 
 much as she succeeds, every noble cause succeeds ; if she fails, 
 everything fails ! 
 
 ReeaU what was passing before the eyes of men in this land 
 fifty years ago today. What gloom, what uncertainty, what 
 anxiety — Gettysburg less than a month away ! The very life 
 of the republic hung in the balance! Think of those first 
 three days of July, 1863, when fifty-four thousand young 
 men, the flower of our future, lay dead and wounded — spiled 
 in heaps of blue and grey, quivering with pain, their white 
 faces turned to the sky! Nor was that all. Far away in 
 northern towns and southern hamlets, sad-faced women heard, 
 now with shrieks, now with dumb, unutterable woe, the long 
 roll-call of the dead! What man who has a heart, or who 
 cares for the future of his race, does not pray that such scenes 
 may never again be witnessed on this earth ! What can pre- 
 vent a repetition of the horrors of war? Nothing but the 
 growth in the hearts of men of the spirit of justice, freedom, 
 and friendship which Masonry seeks, quietly, to evoke and 
 
The Ministry of Masonry 15 
 
 inspire ! If our fathers had known each other in the sixties 
 as we know each other today, there would have been no civil 
 war ! So it will be the world over, when man comes to know 
 hia fellow-men as he learns to know them and love them at the 
 altar of this order. Then shall be fulfilled the song of those 
 who sang of "peace on earth among men of good-will!" 
 
 Again, no one need be told that we are on the eve, if not in 
 the midst, of a stupendous and bewildering revolution of 
 social and industrial life. It shakes England today. It 
 makes France tremble tomorrow. It will alarm Germany 
 next week. The questions in dispute can never be settled in 
 an air of hostility. If they are settled at all, and settled 
 right, it must be in an atmosphere of mutual recognition and 
 respect such as that which Masonry strives to create and make 
 prevail. Whether it be a conflict of nations, or a clash of 
 class with class, appeal must be made to intelligence and the 
 moral sense, as befits the dignity of man. Amidst bitterness 
 and strife Masonry brings men of capital and labor, men of 
 every rank and walk of life together as men, and nothing else, 
 at an altar where they can talk and not fight, discuss and not 
 dispute, and each may learn the point of view of his fellows. 
 Other hope there is none save in this spirit of friendship and 
 fairness, of democracy and the fellowship of man with man. 
 
 Even so it is in religion — ^that kingdom of faith and hope 
 and prayer so long defamed by bigotry, and distracted by sec- 
 tarian feud. How many fine minds have been estranged from 
 the altar of faith because they were required to believe what 
 it was impossible for them to believe — and, rather than sacri- 
 fice their integrity, they turned away from the last place from 
 which a man should ever turn away. No part of the ministry 
 of Masonry is more beautiful and wise than its appeal, not for 
 tolerance, but for fraternity ; not for uniformity, but for unity 
 of spirit amidst varieties of outlook and opinion. Grod be 
 thanked for one altar where no one is asked to surrender his 
 
16 The Ministry of Masonry 
 
 liberty of thought and become an indistinguishable atom in a 
 mass of sectarian agglomeration. What a witness to the 
 worth of an order that it brings together men of all faiths in 
 behalf of those truths which are greater than all sects, deeper 
 than all dogmas — ^the glory and the hope of man ! 
 
 When is a man a Mason ? When he can look out 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. 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 the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old 
 forgotten joy when he hears the laugh 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 
 higher things, and to see majestic meanings in life, whatever 
 the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a way- 
 side puddle and see something besides mud, and into the face 
 of the most forlorn mortal and see something beyond sin. 
 When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When 
 he has kept faith wi<li himself, with his fellow man, 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 ! In such a man, whether 
 he be rich or poor, scholarly or unlearned, famous or obscure, 
 Masonry has wrought her sweet ministry ! 
 
Cornell University Library 
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