33^ 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
SERMON 
 
 By 
 UW.*. and Rev. George R. Van De Water, D.D. 
 
 AE)DRESS 
 
 By 
 R.'.W.*. and ReV. Clarence A. Barbour, D.D. 
 
 1908 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Corneii University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030280873 
 
SERMON AND ADDRESS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE 
 
 GRAND LODGE 
 
 OF 
 
 FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 For Distribution Among the Lodges 
 
 SERMON 
 
 Preached in Trinity Church, Wednesday Evening, May 6, 1908, by 
 
 R.-.W.-. AND REV. DR. GEORGE R. VAN DE WATER 
 Past Grand Chaplain" 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 "THE UPRIGHT MAN AND MASON " 
 
 Delivered in the Grand Lodge, Thursday Afternoon, May 7, 1908, by 
 
 R.-.W.-. AND REV. DR. CLARENCE A. BARBOUR 
 Past Grand Chaplain 
 
 ^1- 
 

 L^l '^ 
 
A SEEMON PEEACHED TO THE GEAND LODGE 
 OE MASONS OF THE STATE OF NEW YOEK 
 IN TEINITY CHUECH, NEW YOEK CITY, MAY 
 6, 1908, AT 8 P.M., BY GEOEGE E. VAN DE 
 WATEE. 
 
 TEXT : 
 
 '• I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right : and that thou of 
 very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled. 
 
 " Thy hands have made me and fashioned me : O give me under- 
 standing, that I hiay learn thy commandments." 
 
 — PsAiM cxix., 73 and 75. 
 
 We all regret that the Right Reverend and Right Worshipful Henky 
 CODMAN PoiTEE, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of New York, and Grand Chap- 
 lain Emeritus of the Grand Lodge of Masons in the State of New York, 
 is ill, and unable to be the preacher on this occasion. 
 
 At his suggestion, and .upon the request of our Most Worshipful 
 Grand Master, the Hon. Townsend Scudder, the privilege and respon- 
 sibility of preaching at this time are mine. 
 
 There is eminent fitness, at the time of the Annual Communication 
 of the Grand Lodge of Masons in this imperial jurisdiction, in its mem- 
 bers meeting in this venerable place of worship, important both for its 
 historic associations and its commanding influence for good throughout the 
 whole country. We do well also to remember, with appreciation of the 
 courtesy, that we are here not only at the invitation of the Bishop, but 
 with the consent of the late Rector of Trinity Parish, the Rev. Dr. 
 Morgan Dix, the patriot and learned ecclesiastic, whose venerable body 
 was laid to rest but a few days ago. " Such kindness, shown by one 
 so thoughtful, not himself a Freemason, in placing this church and its 
 conveniences at our service, shows plainly, on the part of the late Dr. 
 Dix, a recognition of the historic value of Freemasonry to the cause of 
 the Kingdom of God, and to the safeguarding of human society." * 
 
 Nor is this worthy parish unaccustomed to association with Free- 
 masonry. 
 
 It was in St. Paul's Chapel of this parish that George Washinqtoi^ 
 regularly worshipped when, as first president of this country, he resided 
 for a time in this city. 
 
 * Quoted from Bishop Potter's letter to Dr. Van de Water of date 
 of May 5, 1908. 
 
4 
 
 A short time after his death a memorial service was held in St. Paul's 
 Ohapel, where the pew in which he worshipped and the canopy above 
 it are still preserved. It was at this service that Gotjveeneub Morris, 
 a prominent Freemason, pronounced the eulogium of which these are 
 the closing words : " In Washington were the courage of a soldier, the 
 intrepidity of a chief, the fortitude of a hero." We recall with pride 
 and gratitude that our first president, and model citizen, was a Master 
 Mason, and always devoted to the principles .which Masonry embodies 
 and teaches. Once he belonged to and worshipped in this parish. 
 
 The first Bishop of New York, Doctor Samuel Peovoost, Rector of 
 this church before he was made Bishop, was a Freemason, and out- 
 spoken in its praise. So also was the first Bishop in this whole country. 
 Dr. Samuel Sbabury, who once said from this very pulpit : " We find 
 nothing in Masonry hurtful, and many things beautiful and helpful in 
 living the life of a Christian." 
 
 Nor is our meeting here as Masons anything novel. Rather is it a 
 revival of an old custom. In former times, as our records show, the 
 Grand Lodge would adjourn its sessions to attend a service either in 
 St. Paul's or Trinity, as the case might be. 
 
 Any one who knows anything of this great metropolis is aware of 
 the great changes in populations in the last half century, chiefly indeed 
 in the last twenty years. 
 
 Naturally, these changes are indicated in the manifold nationalities 
 and multiphased religious beliefs of those who constitute the Lodges of 
 Masonry. Freemasons, especially in large cities, are as cosmopolitan 
 as the populations of such cities. 
 
 Insisting only upon those beliefs that are fundamental to any true 
 religion, it is neither the advocate nor the antagonist of any. Upon its 
 altars rests the Bible of both Old and New Testaments. True Masons 
 are found in ihe Christian Church, in the synagogue, and outside of both. 
 Masonry, while religious in all that it teaches, does not profess to be 
 a religion. Any man who claims that it is a religion misrepresents it. 
 
 On the other hand, any one who does not understand that Masonry is 
 a handmaid to religion, an inspiration to benevolence and a helpmeet 
 to everything that is good, is either ignorant or malicious, or both. 
 
 Masonry quarrels with nobody. Discussion either of religion or pol- 
 itics is forbidden in its Lodges. The Hebrew works amicably with the 
 Christian, worships the same Jehovah, and together they combine to 
 teach all men the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Man. 
 
 There is no organization in the world to-day, of which I am aware, 
 except Freemasonry, where Jew and Gentile meet amicably, with entire 
 unanimity, neither one shamefacedly sacrificing his convictions, and both 
 striving to keep the two commandments, the Royal Law, the Summary 
 of the Code of Sinai, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, " on which 
 two cotnmandments hang all the law, and the prophets." 
 
 There is no society to which I belong, or of which I know, that en- 
 courages so much the exercise of meditation upon the truths, and 
 thoughts, and things that make for religion and righteousness, as that 
 very ancient — no one knows how ancient — and honorable Fraternity re- 
 presented in %hm congregatiQB to-pight by a considerable assembly, 
 
There are some things that are secret about Freemasonry, some few 
 things, but very few in comparison with many things that are not at 
 all secret. Its mysteries are merely those that are necessary to preserve 
 its integrity and inherent worth. Its secrecy is necessary for the main- 
 tenance of the order and the bestowal of its benefits. It is distinctly 
 for the greater good of the greater number of the all sorts and conditions 
 that compose its constituency that these few things should be kept secret 
 and inviolably sacred. 
 
 There are many things and truths, however, that 'are not at all secret, 
 and there is not one thing in Freemasonry, secret or revealed, that is 
 other than true, and beautiful, and good. 
 
 Even at the risk of saying a few things wholly familiar to most of 
 you here to-night, I am. going to say some few things about Masonry 
 which, not at all secret, are not known to those beyond the pale of 
 Masonry, as they ought to be. 
 
 For any man to become a Freemason, he must solemnly certify that 
 he is freeborn, is fully twenty-one years of age and that he believes in 
 One Ever-living God. 
 
 Further on in his progress, others must testify over their signatures 
 that he is a man in his community of respectable character and good 
 repute among his fellows. After a time of reasonable waiting, investigat- 
 ing and leport, the candidate must have the unanimous vote of every 
 one present at the meeting of the Lodge, due notice of such proposed 
 election having been given to ever.y member of the Lodge. 
 
 Once elected, the candidate thus favored discovers that he cannot 
 take a degree in Freemasonry without again, and publicly, declaring his 
 belief in God, and he must listen reverently to prayer offered, to por- 
 tions of scripture that are read, and in the sublime instruction imparted 
 on different occasions, portions of which the candidate must himself 
 subsequently learn, he is given certain definite reasons for his faith in 
 the Resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul. 
 
 I tell you all this that you may realize the significance of my state- 
 ment when I further declare that there are within the jurisdiction of 
 this Grand Lodge of the State of New York, whose representatives from 
 all parts of the State are here to-night, more than one hundred and fifty 
 thousand such thoughtful, reverent. God-fearing and brother-serving men 
 and Masons, who, from what I have told you, you must see, are selected 
 men out of any given community. 
 
 When it happens, and it does sometimes happen, sad to say, that the 
 worldly advantages of Masonry attract the unworthy, and the careless- 
 ness, or something worse, of those within makes them recreant to trust, 
 and these unworthy men by subterfuge or cleverness ingratiate them- 
 selves into a membership which their characters belie, the only honest 
 conclusion to draw is one not in any way derogatory to the Order, but 
 disgraceful to the member. 
 
 Imitation is the sincerest flattery. Hypocrites in the Church prove 
 the worth of the Church. 
 
 No wolf would ever assume sheep's clothing were the sheep as 
 treacherous as the wolf. 
 
Any wilfully bad man, living a double life, congenial in the haunts 
 of the vicious or the vulgar, who can take part, or even sit still and 
 listen to what is said in any formal communication of a Freemason 
 Lodge, must be of the class of Ananias or Judas Iscariot. 
 
 Everything said, done, taught, I was almost . prepared to say and 
 thought there, is good. Wives and mothers may know from me, if they 
 have no other way of knowing, that when their husbands and sons are 
 in a Lodge of Freemasons all is well. 
 
 What they do when they leave, being men, they must answer. What 
 they see there, hear there, do there, is to the last degree elevating, in- 
 teresting, instructive, refined and reverent. 
 
 Masonry is, to the last degree, sublimity. 
 
 It not only teaches such enduring principles as fatherhood of God 
 and the brotherhood of man, but lest these, merely rehearsed as principles, 
 should degenerate into glittering generalities, there is practical demon- 
 stration in actual worship and humanitarian work. 
 
 The fact that highest form of worship is adoration to a Divine pres- 
 ence localized upon an altar in a Christian church does not at all dero- 
 gate from the sublimity of worship of Jehovah elsewhere than in church, 
 or in Sacrament. Honest prayer said anywhere, by anybody, is heard 
 and answered by a merciful God. There is honest prayer and reverent 
 worship in a Mason's Lodge. 
 
 I do not say that there is enough of organized charity among Ma- 
 sons, or that as yet we have learned what just proportion of our large 
 resources should be expended in purely philanthropic enterprise. We 
 have not approached anywhere near this standard of excellence in the 
 Church. But there is cause suflScient for congratulation, if not of 
 pride, among the Masons in. the State of New York, that in addition 
 to what may be done by individual Lodges, and the excellent organized 
 work among the Lodges of our German brethren, we support generously 
 our beautiful spacious Home at Utica for the aged and the orphans, 
 of which there are more than 300 inmates, and present plans contemplate 
 more and better work along these benevolent lines. 
 
 We ought to be careful alike in two directions : first, to avoid preach- 
 ing platitudes and becoming a sort of semi-religious club, trying to do 
 the impossible — namely, take the place of the Church — and, on the other 
 hand, sinking into a mere charitable enterprise, joining which one is 
 inspired only by what he hopes to get rather than what he expects 
 to give. 
 
 " As broad and as active as is the fatherhood of God, so broad and 
 comprehensive must be the true brotherhood of man." 
 
 I sometimes think that we make a mistake in not asserting our priu- 
 ciples, and even at times, rather than continue to be misunderstood so 
 generally, enter the arena of reasonable discussion and amiable con- 
 troversy, for the maintenance of our rights. 
 
 Erroneous- statements, however fortified by authority emanating from 
 the Thames or the Tiber, should not be allowed to pass current in the 
 world unrebuked by those competent to adjudge them false. 
 
 Infallibility, by no possible construction can be made to extend to 
 misstatement of fact. 
 
Without at this time entering upon any elaborate treatment of the 
 themes here proposed, I desire to speak plainly of the plain purpose 
 and undoubted direct influence of Freemasonry in the world to-day, and 
 this, notwithstanding some plain perversions in certain countries of 
 Europe of its distinctive tenet of abjuring and forbidding auy alliance 
 with or against the interests of any Church or State, any religion or 
 politics. 
 
 Masonry is so far from being a purely decorative or ornamental fel- 
 lowship that all of its ceremonies have preserved to the world some 
 of its most precious ideals, its most valued ethical beliefs, its very dearest 
 faith in immortality. 
 
 Masonry, so far from being a sort of mutual insurance company 
 for self-protection, has underneath all of its ceremonial a note of teach- 
 ing of genuine value, as indicating the necessity in this world of the 
 care by the strong for the weak. 
 
 And then, what to my mind is, I confess, the grandest influence 
 upon the world of Masonry, is sufliciently indicated to thoughtful men, 
 when I press to the fore the tremendous significance of this fact, and it 
 is a fact, that Masonry is the only order, society, institution or fellowship 
 in the world to-day which offers a common platform of fellowship for 
 men of different races and religions. We are men before we are church- 
 men. We are all sinners before any of us is a saint. God is the Father 
 of all men. A Master Mason may be a Christian, a Jew or a Moham- 
 medan. And I submit, that from all these fellowships, there is disclosed 
 some potential element, which Almighty God will bless, and which some 
 day will be made manifest in the construction of a new and a larger 
 society, which will not be racial, may not be ecclesiastical, but is cer- 
 tain to be moral and genuinely human. 
 
 " Above all nations is humanity." Above all names of religion is re- 
 ligion. Man may require more, but what doth God require of thee but 
 to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God? 
 
 Two current misconceptions prevail about Freemasonry. The one is 
 entertained without its fold, among men and women who are good, but 
 mistaken. The other prevails, I hope not largely, among Masons them- 
 selves, who are equally mistaken. 
 
 In the honest endeavor to invest this memorable assemblage with a 
 significance that may extend beyond this passing hour, in the hope, may 
 I be allowed to express it, that this message may reach many Masons 
 who cannot be with us here to-night, I have tried to invest this occa- 
 sion with a significance and an impression that will endure beyond the 
 fleeting moments of this oflicial deliverance. 
 
 I have prayed, and do now pray, from this sacred eminence, from 
 which so many sermons have been preached by saints, now among the 
 living, and more that are among those numbered with the redeemed in 
 glory everlasting, that your coming to church at this time might mean 
 more than your merely going to church once. 
 
 Of all men in the world who set the proper example of regular at- 
 tendance upon public worship in the house of God, Masons should be 
 foremost. 
 
8 
 
 So far from Masonry in any way injuring the Church, I regard it 
 throughout the world as the very handmaiden of Religion. It is in its 
 very name and nature religious, and auxiliary to all that is good. 
 
 Masonry refers to building. The temple of personal character is the 
 grandest structure that can be reared. Free has reference to truth, 
 which alone can make men free. Freemasonry is nothing but character 
 building in truth and righteousness. 
 
 Nothing that makes mercy and truth to meet together, and righteous- 
 ness and peace to kiss each other, that makes men better, can ever be 
 alien to religion or the Church. 
 
 Masonry makes good men better men. Unlike the Church, it does' 
 not profess to deal with bad men, endeavoring to make such good. 
 Masonry seeks men who are esteemed as good, and strives to make such 
 men better. This is its mission. 
 
 The Church, on the other hand, is partly a reformatory. Where it is 
 doing its genuine work it is not a body of men already made saints. A 
 church wholly composed of such is nothing but a Pharisaical club. 
 
 The Church is a hospital for sick and diseased souls, a school for 
 ignorant and unlearned disciples, as well as an assembly of some that 
 are called to be saints. 
 
 If the Church were composed of all good men, it would be a con- 
 fession of failure to reach the bad men that it might make them good. 
 
 Masonry, on the other hand, starts out upon its mission with the 
 idea of selection. It aims to pick out of any community the best men 
 that are in it. Whenever it fails in this attempt the failure is its 
 reproach and shame. Bad men, wilfully bad men, known to be bad 
 men, evil livers, cannot without fraudulent intent get in, and if they do, 
 by some mischance, happen to get in, discovered they are dealt with, 
 and, if further revealed as incorrigible, they are put out. 
 
 The Church, therefore, has the most difficult work, and is in need 
 of Divine means of grace for its arduous task, which need is plenteously 
 supplied from heavenly sources of supply. 
 
 For any assistance in this most difificult work the Church ought to 
 be grateful, and right-minded men in the Church are grateful for the 
 valuable work along the lines of righteousness that has been done, and 
 is being done, by Masonry. 
 
 Churchmen of any name, or allegiance, who regard Masonry in any 
 other light than this are mistaken, and do wrong to propagate their 
 error. 
 
 Masons of any degree who think, or say, that Masonry is a substitute 
 in this world for religion, or that a Lodge can answer for anybody all 
 the purpose of a church, are equally mistaken, and do both religion and 
 Masonry grievous harm by the proclamation of any such error. The 
 foot cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee ; neither can the 
 mind say to the soul, I can ignore thee. 
 
 My brothers, we love Masonry and devote much time and energy to 
 it, wholly for what it is. We love Masonry because it helps to fortify 
 our belief in the existence and goodness of God, who is a merciful, 
 heavenly Father to all the children of men ; because it makes more and 
 
more increasingly beautiful the manifold appearances of the natural 
 world ; because its teachings dignify the worth of man and emphasize 
 the value of character ; because by all of its symbols we are reminded 
 of the universality of death, the indissolubility of righteousness and the 
 certainty of immortality ; because its ritual ceremonies iterate, and 
 reiterate, with a force that is compelling, the eternal power of goodness, 
 and makes one's endless destiny to depend solely upon the attainment, 
 to some perceptible degree, of an upright, sincere, straight and genuine 
 manhood. 
 
 Ringing down through the ages has come the prolonged inquiry that 
 carries with it its own answer. 
 
 " And what, O man, doth God require of thee but to live justly, love 
 mercy, and walk humbly with thy God ? " 
 
 A man may lose everything in this life but his integrity, and still 
 be a man of God. 
 
 This integrity is like the peace of God, it passeth all understanding. 
 The world can neither give it, nor take it away. 
 
 I can readily imagine some brother in the pew saying to himself, 
 may be whispering it to others, what has become of the text? Has the 
 preacher forgotten it? 
 
 Not at all, my brother. The best use you can make of a text is to 
 regard it as a hook, upon which you hang your sermon. It does not 
 need constant repetition. It is only the motto of the discourse. 
 
 .My text needs no explanation. It is taken from the Psalms, and 
 from the famous 119th Psalm, which I observe, in " The Altar B'ire," 
 Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson, the present famous English esayist, 
 declares " is the most human of all the sacred documents," and " the 
 psalm, tender, pensive and personal," that he "loves the best." 
 
 Every verse of the hundred and seventy-six speaks of God's laws, 
 commandments and statutes. The psalm is divided into twenty-two 
 portions, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and each por- 
 tion has eight verses, each verse beginning with the same letter of the 
 alphabet. 
 
 Infinite pains must have gone into this patient literary structure. 
 
 Never once swerving from its standard of righteousness, it does not 
 thunder down from Sinai so much as by anticipation it encourages by 
 the gentle pleadings from Calvary of infinite patience and endless love. 
 
 So has this lyric ministered for more than two thousand years to 
 those who, do what they will, find the world at times full of trouble, 
 their tasks in it hard and temptations severe. And to these, and to 
 all, like some voice from heaven speaking, this Divine song encourages 
 the weary and heavy laden to go on step by step, passing this difficulty, 
 getting over some dreaded movement, enduring some severe loss, stand- 
 ing firm before the overwhelming grief, trusting a heavenly Father, feel- 
 ing undei-neath the everlasting arms, confident that the love and mercy 
 of God are eternally availing, sure that if they try, and keep on trying, 
 to be good, and run in the way of God's commandments, some day the 
 heart will be set at liberty and happiness be constant. 
 
 The older I grow, the longer I preach, the more I am convinced that 
 
10 
 
 the secret of contentment in this life is in the acquisition of a disposi- 
 tion to stand where put, talse what comes, have faith in God, try to 
 be good and then be careful for nothing. 
 
 The value of life is not to be measured by number of years, secured 
 success or felt tranquility, but by the way we meet and master experi- 
 ence and the degree in which we profit by It. 
 
 I believe, with all my heart, that we are put in this world for some 
 definite purpose, and that this is not to be circumscribed by the hap- 
 piness we get out of life, but by the happiness we put into life. We 
 are the happiest when most concerned in making others happy. 
 
 Experience is more necessary for most of us than immediate happi- 
 ness. If we are careful never to let a day pass without some good deed 
 to crown it we will get satisfaction without reaching out after it. 
 
 Whatever be your philosophy of life, I am sure of this, that we can 
 never solve the problem of happiness by simply trying to turn out of 
 one's life everything that is uncongenial. 
 
 Life cannot be made into an earthly garden of Eden, and it Impairs 
 one's soul even to try to do this. 
 
 The man that runs away from the poor, that seeks to avoid appeals 
 for charity, that leaves for others the work that belongs to all, that 
 will never go through the wards of a hospital, because, forsooth, it 
 would shock his nerves, and will not attend a funeral, because it makes 
 him sad, is a natural born coward. 
 
 When we realize that experience is what we need, and not neces- 
 sarily happiness or contentment, the entire value and estimate of lite 
 are altered. 
 
 The hours of life when we move upward are the hours when we 
 are climbing, and not very much, if indeed at all, when blinding our 
 eyes to the actualities of life, temporarily we are persuaded that intoxi- 
 cation is merited contentment. 
 
 Life is too stern a thing to be a plaything. Saving one's soul is too 
 important to postpone until death. Getting into the kingdom of heaven 
 involves making ready for the journey before time for the train to start. 
 There is no such thing as happiness hereafter for anybody that makes 
 no sil'ort to be good right here. 
 
 " Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity,'' the unity not of a sluggish stream but of pure, babbling 
 brooks. 
 
 My dear brothers, to-morrow we part and go to many places, many 
 Lodges, many homes. It has been good for us to be here. Our com- 
 munication has been both pleasant and profitable. We have differed, 
 the better finally to agree. It is not likely that ever again we shall 
 all of us be in one assembly on earth. It is possible for us all to be 
 eternally happy, with loved ones already there, in heaven. 
 
 The Saviour has made ready the mansions. Let us make ready to 
 dwell there. 
 
 Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we commit and com- 
 mend you. 
 
THE UPEIGIIT MAN AND MASON. 
 
 [Address delivered by B. ■. W.-. and Rev. Dr. Clarence A. Barbour In Grand Lodge, 
 
 May 7, 1908.] 
 
 It is the request of the Grand Master that I address the Grand 
 Lodge at this time upon such a theme as I may choose. I deeply appre- 
 ciate the honor and the opportunity. The liberty as to the choice of 
 theme which he giyes is a natural expression of the grace and kindness 
 which mark his customary attitude toward us all. 
 
 Without the waste of words in preliminaries, I ask your attention 
 for a few moments to the thought of certain characteristics of the " up- 
 right man and Mason." The phrase means much to us, for we have 
 all stood in the northeast corner of the Lodge. I recognize the impos- 
 sibility of any full treatment of the theme, and my only hope is to give 
 suggestion in a very limited way, for time forbids more. 
 
 1. If he measure up in any considerable degree to the ideals of the 
 Craft, the Mason will be u, man of faith. 
 
 To live a rich, full life, a man must make room somewhere in him 
 for a believing heart. It is the only way to live a life that is a real life. 
 The believing heart is essential to the best living. Leslie Stephen, in 
 his " History of English Thought in the Eighteenth' Century," grounds 
 his great admiration for Edmund Burke, whom he calls the strongest 
 mind that has ever worked on the problem of English politics, upon the 
 fact that he was the first -English statesman to repudiate in practical 
 politics the notion that had prevailed until his time that a man was not 
 very much more than just a mathematical unit, and that his inner life 
 could be reduced to practically a reasoning machine, and that opinion 
 was purely intellectual. And indeed it has been a gain to honesty in 
 every region — in politics, in metaphysics, in religion, in brotherhood, 
 that we no longer think of a man as just made up of reasoning capacity. 
 We all of us, 1 trust, now know that we dome at a great deal of truth 
 in other ways than by the use of mathematical reasoning. The believing 
 heart is indispensable for the discovery of truth. We know that re- 
 garding all that great range of truth that is personal, no man gets at 
 that by his mathematical reasoning alone. He gets at that, if he ever 
 gets at it at all, by quite other faculties. So Tennyson, in his " In 
 Memoriam " : 
 
 " If e'er when faith had fallen asleep 
 I heard a voice, ' Believe no more,' 
 And heard an ever-breaking shore 
 That tumbled in the godless deep, 
 
 " A warmth within the breast would melt 
 The freezing reason's colder part ; 
 And like a man in wrath, the heart 
 Stood up and answered, ' I have felt.' " 
 
13 
 
 This is not shutting out one set of faculties, it Is asserting in behalf 
 of another set equal rights in our discovery and search after truth. 
 
 We look at a picture. Precisely the same physical conditions are 
 there to every man's eye, but one man sees in it infinitely more than 
 another man sees in it, because the eyes of his heart have been opened 
 toward it. There are not a few who reason themselves away from the 
 larger vision of truth. We say sometimes that second thoughts are best, 
 whereas, as a matter of fact, not infrequently the first instincts are 
 the most trustworthy judgments we have. You know little children are 
 often much more accurate judges of character than are some older 
 people. You can often deceive an adult regarding trustworthiness of 
 character more easily than you can deceive a little child. 
 
 There are two directions in which faith may go, which I would 
 to-day especially emphasize. The first is, faith in ourselves. The ideal 
 toward which, as I conceive, every one of us ought to be working is 
 that of such development of our powers of body and mind and soul that 
 we shall have self-respect, and, with that self-respect, a confidence in 
 our ability to meet, in some degree, the demands that the pressure and 
 exigency of life make upon us. 
 
 Hermann, who made so large a name for himself as a magician and 
 expert iu legerdemain, died, as perhaps you remember, in Rochester. 
 He had retired to his car, apparently in good health, and the next 
 morning was found quiet and still in death. After his performance of 
 the evening before, when he had delighted many hundreds of people by 
 the exhibition of his marvelous skill, he was with some friends of mine 
 in a little gathering, and in the intimacy of that gathering he showed 
 them what one of them has since told me. Baring his arm to the elbow, 
 my friend says that Hermann placed upon the palm of his hand a coin, 
 and without any apparent movement of the muscles he caused the coin 
 to travel up the hand and wrist and forearm. It was a wonderful feat, 
 as indicating his mastery over minute muscles which with most or all 
 of us are beyond voluntary control. So far as the demands of his art 
 were concerned, his body was his servant. I need not dwell here upon 
 the perfectly apparent teaching — that so far as in us lies, it is our 
 business to have a body that will serve us well in our life mission. The 
 man whose time is given up to the cultivation of his physical powers 
 will probably amount to very little in the realm of great and lasting 
 achievement, but the man who neglects his body will go through life 
 with heavy handicap, and will greatly increase the probability of irre- 
 parable failure. The great master of literature makes one of his 
 characters to say, in " As You Like It " : 
 
 " Though I look old, yet am I strong and lusty. 
 For in my youth I never did apply 
 Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ; 
 Nor did not with unabashed forehead woo 
 The means of weakness and debility ; 
 Therefore my age is as a lusty winter. 
 Frosty but kindly." 
 
13 
 
 And what is true of the body is true of the mind. It is the well- 
 trained mind, the mind accustomed to face hard problems and conquer 
 them, which works swiftly and smoothly and powerfully. It is said 
 of a certain man in my city, that of all the men there he is as likely 
 to form a correct judgment upon any subject as is any man in the city ; 
 for if he is not fully informed upon a matter, he goes to those who 
 are, and questions them ; and so judicial and almost unerring is the 
 movement of the woi'king of the machinery of his fully equipped and 
 thoroughly trained mental powers, that men have come to look upon 
 his conclusions as almost infallible. 
 
 But beyond all that, the training of the body and mind until we 
 come to have some reliance in their powers, is that faith in ourselves 
 which comes with the conviction in which no one can deceive us and in 
 which we cannot deceive ourselves — the conviction of our own integrity. 
 When a man knows that deep down in the secret places of his being 
 his purpose is pure and his motives are high, he can walk among his 
 fellow-men gently and unobtrusively, but with face and conscience un- 
 afraid. Not lightly was it said of one : 
 
 "His strength was as the strength of ten. 
 Because his heart was pure." 
 
 But beyond the importance of faith in ourselves, which, by itself and 
 with no admixture of a higher faith, might become a source of weakness 
 rather than of strength, is the higher faith in Plim to whom we as 
 Masons give loving allegiance — faith in (rod. My brothers, if any one 
 of us is a stronger man than another, if he has more power, more benef- 
 icent power over other men than have others, if he is one of those 
 men who have come in time to stand out above other men with some- 
 thing of the eternal power of the hills, so that other men rest their 
 life on him, depend upon it, it is because deep down in that man's life 
 the eyes of his heart have been enlightened to see. It is because he has 
 some measure of faith in himself, but more than that, he has a deep 
 and abiding faith in God. I love to think that the heart of a believer 
 was in a man like Abraham Lincoln. He walked through those dark 
 and terrible days of war like a shepherd before his flock. He stood 
 in the midst of those surging seas like a great rock, on whose base the 
 waves vainly broke. Holding the love and confidence of men, " four- 
 square he stood to every wind that blew." And why? Because his heart 
 rested on God. At one time Governor Yates of Illinois wrote a most 
 despairing letter to the great man whose patient heart still believed, and 
 Lincoln sent back to the Governor, who was his personal friend, just 
 this message: "Dick, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." 
 
 Have we ever thought what a change it would make if we believed 
 God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength? I know we 
 accept the overwhelming evidence that He is, but I mean, if we believed 
 with a belief that has to do with every-day living, so that the thought 
 of God would be to our life as is the atmosphere, always and ever pres- 
 ent, so that these lives of ours, in no slavish fear, but in love and in 
 reverence, would be consciously lived in His sight and by His power? 
 
14 
 
 How everything would find its right place ; how easy it would become 
 to do right, how difficult to do wrong ! It is the office of faith, the 
 office of the believing heart, to overcome the practical and menacing god- 
 lessness of the lives of men. 
 
 Dr. Albertson, of Rochester, a Grand Chaplain of this body, a year 
 ago read in my hearing- a poem by Professor William Carruth, " Each 
 in His Own Tongue " : 
 
 A fire-mist and a planet, 
 
 A crystal and a cell, 
 A jelly-fish and a saurian. 
 
 And caves where the cave-men dwell ; 
 Then a sense of law and beauty. 
 
 And a face turned from the clod — 
 Some call it Evolution, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 A haze on the far horizon, 
 
 The infinite, tender sky. 
 The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields, 
 
 And the wild geese sailing high ; 
 And all over upland and lowland 
 
 The charm of the golden-rod — 
 Some of us call it Autumn, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 
 Like tides on a crescent sea-beach. 
 
 When the moon is new and thin, 
 Into our hearts high yearnings 
 
 Come welling and surging in ; 
 Come from the mystic ocean. 
 
 Whose rim no foot has trod — 
 Some of us call it Longing, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 
 A picket frozen on duty, 
 
 A mother starved for her brood, 
 Socrates drinking the hemlock, 
 
 And Jesus on the rood ; 
 And millions who, humble and nameless, 
 
 The straight, hard pathway plod — 
 Some call it Consecration, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 
 JJr. Albertson has himself added lines which deserve to stand with 
 the original verses. These are the lines : — 
 
 A " still, small voice " in childhood, 
 
 A beckoning hand in youth. 
 An impulse prompting justice, 
 
 A heart inclined to truth ; 
 A firm resolve to follow 
 
 The path where saints have trod — 
 Some of us call it Conscience, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 
 A will to face the darkness 
 
 Of life's last setting sun, 
 An uncomplaining spirit. 
 
 When the race of life is run ; 
 Or we lay our best-loved treasure 
 
 Beneath the mounded sod — 
 Some of us call it Courage, 
 
 And others call it God. 
 
15 
 
 My brothers, there have come many times to us already, there doubt- 
 less will come many more, when we need a thought like that of the 
 afternoon, for life is not all sunshine and outward success. It is the 
 man of faith — faith in himself, faith in his God — who has that which 
 will carry him through to the end, when others go down in confessed 
 defeat and wreck. That picture is very dear to me which a great writer 
 has drawn of the old age of John Milton, sitting in his gray coat at 
 the door of his house in Bunhill Fields. This is the description : " The 
 whole spectacle of ancient civilization — its cities, its camps, its land- 
 scapes, was before him. There he sat in his gray coat, like a statue 
 cut in granite. He recanted nothing, repented of nothing ; England had 
 made a sordid failure, but he had not failed. His soul's fellowship was 
 with the great republicans of Greece and Rome, and with the Psalmist, 
 and Isaiah, and Oliver Cromwell." He was a man of faith, and a man 
 of faith is beyond the power of defeat. 
 
 2. And if he comes within hailing distance of the ideals of the Craft, 
 the Mason will be a man of courtesy. 
 
 It is surely no mistake to place courtesy among the prominent char- 
 acteristics of a life which exemplifies brotherhood, and yet the thought 
 is not so familiar as it ought to be. It is safe to say that however 
 far beyond the charge of Impeachment on other grounds he may be, if 
 the Mason is not a gentleman he is a poor representative of the Fra- 
 ternity. And the word " gentlemen " is used in its best sense, lou 
 know how, in " In Memoriam," that matchless tribute which Tennyson 
 laid upon the casket of Arthur Hallam, his 4ear friend, we find these 
 words : 
 
 " For who can always act? But he 
 To whom a thousand memories call. 
 Not being less but more than all 
 The gentleness he seem'd to be. 
 
 " Best seem'd the thing he was, and join'd 
 Each oflRce of the social hour 
 To noble manners, as the flower 
 And native growth of noble mind. 
 
 " Nor ever narrowness or spite. 
 Or villain fancy fleeting by, 
 Drew in the expression of an eye, 
 Where God and Nature met in light. 
 
 " And thus he bore without abuse 
 
 The grand old name of gentleman, 
 Defamed by every charlatan. 
 And soil'd with all ignoble use." 
 
 There is but one way to reach the knighthood of a real courtesy. It 
 is not through cultivation of external forms alone ; the true process works 
 outward from within. Or, as Sir Philip Sidney expressed it, "High 
 thoughts in a heart of courtesy." Believe me, it is not a surface qual- 
 ity at all ; it starts with the idea of honoring humanity as the children 
 of God. Honor to humanity is Fraternity, and it is this sense of honor 
 
 o 
 
16 
 
 to others which causes us to extend courtesy to the thoughts, the prin- 
 ciples, the conduct of other men. Courtesy is at the opposite extreme 
 from condescension. Condescension looks down, courtesy looks up. 
 
 " How sweet and gracious even in common speech 
 Is that fine sense which men call courtesy, 
 Wholesome as air and genial as the light, 
 Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers, 
 It transmutes aliens into trusting friends. 
 And gives its owner passport round the globe.'' 
 
 We have talked about the principle of self-respect, without which 
 no man finds his place or plays his part of life as he ought. To lose 
 it by one's own fault is moral suicide ; to be robbed of it by others 
 is the utmost wrong. Now courtesy is sympathy with the self-respect 
 of other people. It is the touch of help that each of us may render 
 to others, and may receive from others, in recognition of the profound 
 importance of self-respect. To recur to Him to whom the thoughts 
 naturally turn on such a theme as this — the great Teacher of Naza- 
 reth, who to the large majority of us is vastly more than Teacher ; if 
 courtesy is indeed sympathy with the self-respect of others, if its true 
 work and virtue lie in helping men to know and bear in mind the great- 
 ness of their manhood, then surely it comes very near being a central 
 characteristic of His life. Men wondered and were offended at His 
 gentleness toward those who seemed to have lost all self-respect — ^toward 
 publicans, toward harlots. Before the leper knew that he was cleansed 
 he must have felt, with a surprise and thrill of joy, the touch of an 
 unshrinking hand. So all with whom He came into contact felt that 
 He who was so pure and strong and high had for them no word or 
 look that was not gracious and encouraging. 
 
 My brothers, we have not complete insight into other men's hearts, 
 that we should judge them harshly, and it might help most of us to 
 grow in patience and courtesy if now and then we were quietly to re- 
 call the forbearance we ourselves have needed and received, the for- 
 bearance of our fellow-men, of parents, teachers, friends ; of those who 
 bore with us when we were wilful and stubborn and conceited ; of those 
 whose hope for us made us ashamed of our poor attainment. How 
 much forbearance has been shown to us that we were not even con- 
 scious of needing ! How we have wounded or annoyed or wearied those 
 who were so skillful, so considerate, so courteous that we never sus- 
 pected either our clumsiness or their pain ! And most of all, how has 
 the great Father of us all borne our pride and stubbornness, our mean- 
 ness and ingratitude, our hardness and neglect, our broken promises, 
 our waste of His gifts ; and yet, year after year, how He has shown 
 towards us the wondrous kindness of His love ! 
 
 I know of few more significant definitions of the courtesy which 
 makes a gentleman than this from John Henry (Cardinal) Newman: 
 
 " It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who 
 never inflicts pain. . . . He has his eyes on all his company ; he is 
 tender toward the bashful, gentle toward the distant and merciful to- 
 
ir 
 
 ward the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards 
 against unreasonable allusions or topics which may irritate; he is sel- 
 dom pi'ominent in conversation, and never wearisome.. He makes light 
 of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is 
 conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never 
 defends himself by a mere retort ; he has no care for slander or gos- 
 sip ; is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, 
 and interprets everything for the best. He is never mean or little in 
 his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities 
 or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not 
 say out." 
 
 Let me close this part of our thought by a characterization from 
 Dean Paget, of Oxford, of a man whom I know only by name — Edward 
 Stanhope. What kind of a man he was we may judge. " Few here," 
 says Dean Paget, " can have forgotten how men spoke of him when, 
 not very many days ago, he died. Men felt in him the strength of a 
 single-hearted purpose to do right. He had high ability, he used it well, 
 he strove to live as in God's sight. But, from all that I have heard, 
 I think that, as the life of Edward Stanhope is recalled, beside the notes 
 of greatness which it shares with other lives of like devotion and con- 
 sistency, one note will rise into peculiar distinctness — the note of an 
 unfailing, perfect courtesy ; the courtesy of one who, recollecting always 
 what was due to. others, never seemed too hurried or too tired to pay 
 the debt, but with unselfish and watchful kindness tried to keep steadily 
 in His steps who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." 
 
 3. And if he approach the true ideals of Masonry, the Mason will be 
 a man of good cheer. 
 
 We have gotten beyond the mediaeval naiTowness of conception, or 
 we ought to have gotten there, the thought of men who shut themselves 
 within stone walls and limited themselves to narrow cells, who scourged 
 the shrinking flesh and starved the famished body until the bones almost 
 started through to the sight. It was in obedience to the monastic ideal. 
 In giving exclusive prominence to the truth that we must work out our 
 own salvation, it overlooked the other truth that this is best done by 
 losing thought and sight of self in the service of others. There should 
 be in the Craft the spirit of brotherly love and brotherly service toward 
 everyone who upon the five points of fellowship has received the mystic 
 word, but Masonry fails in its mission if its spirit be not that of min- 
 istry, of blessing, of good cheer toward those also who are outside* its 
 borders. There is much of insight in the simple prayer taught in some 
 of the religions communities of France, " God grant that I may this 
 day be useful to someone." 
 
 One who looks with observing though somewhat gloomy eye upon 
 the world of to-day has told us that in his judgment "the lives of the 
 vast mass of men are useless, frivolous, egotistical ; that the lives of 
 very many are wasted and self-ruined by their own vilest passions ; that 
 the lives of some are like a mere poison and pestilence to those around ; 
 that it is the lives of few only which are noble and generous, brave and 
 unselfish, merciful and just, pure and true. I am inclined to deny the 
 
18 
 
 exact truth of what he says; I do not think that facts will bear him 
 out to the limit of his assertion. But there is enough of truth in what 
 he says to make us very thoughtful, and to lead us to highly resolve 
 that so far as lies within our power the lives of members of our beloved 
 Fraternity shall be noble and generous, brave and unselfish, merciful 
 and just, pure and true. May we be delivered from apprenticing our 
 whole faculties to ourselves, to live and die on principles purely mer- 
 cantile, to make it our chief endeavor to reap the greatest crop from 
 the present and drop the scantiest seeds for the future, to make the 
 largest use of men, rendering back the smallest service in return. My 
 brothers, we may, the humblest of us, be useful, be centers of good cheer. 
 Perhaps very few eyes will be wet for us, and they not for long, while 
 others with less opportunities than ourselves have gone down to the 
 grave amid the benedictions of the poor. Shall we not strive to rise, 
 and to lift others out of self-complacency into service, out of brooding 
 upon our own deserts, and bitterness because they may not be as fully 
 recognized as we think they ought, into such a life as is described by 
 the words concerning Jesus of Nazareth, "He went about doing good"? 
 Depend upon it, only such a life finds the genuine meaning of life, only 
 such a life finds the joy of living, only such a life is worthy of the 
 ideals that are held before us. 
 
 At a dinner of the New Tork University Law School Alumni Asso- 
 ciation, there was read by Justice Walter Lloyd Smith the last will 
 and testament of Charles Lounsbury, who died in the Cook County 
 Asylum at Dunning, Illinois. He had lost, in part at least, the full 
 use of the gift of reason, but he must have been a man of beautiful 
 soul, gentle, loving, helpful, else he never could have written and be- 
 queathed to us such words as these. Let me ask your careful atten- 
 tion to their beauty and their suggestiveness. 
 
 " I, Charles Lounsbury, being of sound mind and disposing memory, 
 do hereby make and publish this my last will and testament. 
 
 " I give to good fathers and mothers, in trust for their children, all 
 good little words of praise and encouragement and all quaint pet names 
 and endearments, and I charge said parents to use them justly and 
 generously, as the needs of their children may require. 
 
 " I leave to children inclusively, but only for the term of their child- 
 hood, all and every, the flowers of the fields and the blossoms of the 
 vvo»ds, with the right to play among them freely, according to the 
 custom of children, warning them at the same time against thistles and 
 thorns. And I devise to children the banks of the brooks and the golden 
 sands beneath the waters thereof, and the odors of the willows that dip 
 therein, and the white clouds that float high over the giant trees. And 
 I leave the children the long, long days, to be merry in a thousand ways, 
 and the night, and the morn, and the train of the milky way, to wonder 
 at, but subject, nevertheless, to the rights hereinafter given to lovers. 
 
 " I devise to boys jointly all the useful idle fields and commons where 
 ball may be played, all pleasant waters where one may swim, all snow- 
 clad hills where one may coast, and all streams and ponds where one 
 
19 
 
 may fish, or where, when grim winter comes, one may skate, to have 
 and to hold the same for the period of their boyhood. And all meadows 
 with the clover blossoms and butterflies thereof, the woods and their 
 appurtenances, the squirrels, and birds, and echoes, and strange noises, 
 and all distant places which may be visited, together with the adven- 
 tures there found. And I give to said boys each his own place at the 
 fireside at night, with all pictures that may be seen in the burning 
 wood, to enjoy without let or hindrance and without any incumbrance 
 of care. 
 
 " To lovers I devise their imaginary world with whatever they may 
 need, as the stars of the sky, the red roses by the wall, the bloom of 
 the hawthorn, the sweet strains of music and aught else by which they 
 may desire to figure to each other the lastingness and beauty of their 
 love. 
 
 " To young men jointly I devise and bequeath all boisterous inspir- 
 ing sports of rivalry, and I give to them disdain of weakness and 
 undaunted confidence in their own strength. I give them the power to 
 make lasting friendships and of possessing companions, and to them 
 exclusively I give all merry songs and brave choruses to sing with lusty 
 voices. 
 
 " And to those who are no longer children, or youths, or lovers, I 
 leave memory, and I bequeath to them the volumes of the poems of 
 Burns and Shakespeare and of other poets, if there be others, to the 
 end that they may live over the old days again, freely and fully, without 
 tithe or diminution. 
 
 " To our loved ones with snowy crowns I bequeath' the happiness 
 of old age and the love and gratitude of their children until they fall 
 asleep." 
 
 It would almost be worth while to the insane to have such a spirit 
 toward all those who are children of our Father who is in heaven, but, 
 thank God! a man may be in his right mind and yet have the outlook 
 of good-will to all mankind, and be a radiant center of good cheer. 
 
 Faith, courtesy and good cheer — are they not qualities that should 
 characterize the upright man and Mason? And when the day comes 
 that they do characterize that mighty body embraced within the mem- 
 ■ bership of this great Fraternity we shall be close to the day when 
 heaven is not some far-away vision, but is here among men, on this 
 earth. Toward that day may we ceaselessly strive. 
 
HS397 .V2T" """""'•" ^"""^ 
 
 PAMPHLET BINDER | 
 
 Manufactured by i 
 
 GAYLORD BROS. Inc. j 
 
 Syracuse, N.Y. , 
 
 Stockton, Calif. j 
 
 o..„.anx3 1924 030 280 873