2-27 From Left to Right
THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN
The Masonic Service Association of the United States February
1927 NO. 2
For some of us nothing in Masonry is more impressive than its very first
rite, after an initiate has told in whom he puts his trust. It may be
easily overlooked, but not to see it is to miss a part of that beauty we
were sent to seek.
Surely he is a strange man who can witness it without deep feeling. The
initiate is told that he can neither foresee nor prevent danger, but
that he is in the hands of a true and trusty friend in whose fidelity he
can with safety confide. It is literally true of the candidate, as it is
of all of us.
As a mere ceremony it may mean nothing; as a symbol it means everything,
if we regard initiation as we should, as a picture of man pursuing the
journey of life, groping his dim and devious way out of the unreal into
the real, out of darkness into light, out of the shadows of mortality
into the way of life everlasting.
So groping, yet gently guided and guarded, man sets out on a mystic
journey on an unseen road, traveling from the West to the East, and then
from the East to the West by way of the South, seeking a City that hath
foundations, where truth is known in fullness and life reveals both its
meaning and its mystery. How profoundly true it is of the way we all
must walk.
From the hour we are born till we are laid in the grave we grope our way
in the dark, and none could find or, keep the path without a guide. From
how many ills, how many perils, how many pitfalls we are guarded in the
midst of the years! With all our boasted wisdom and foresight, even when
we fancy we are secure we may be in the presence of dire danger, if not
of death itself.
Truly it does not lie in man to direct his path, and without a true and
trusted Friend in whom we can confide, not one of us would find his way
home. So Masonry teaches us, simply but unmistakably, at the first step
as at the last, that we live and walk by Faith, not by sight; and to
know that fact is the beginning of wisdom. Since this is so, since no
man can find his way alone, in life as in the Lodge we must in humility
trust our Guide, learn His ways, follow Him and fear no danger. Happy is
the man who has learned that secret.
No wonder this simple rite is one of the oldest and most universal known
among men. In all lands, in all ages, as far back as we have record, one
may trace it, going back to the days when man thought the sun was God,
or at least His visible outshining, whose daily journey through the sky,
from the East to the West by way of the South, he followed in his faith
and worship, seeking to win the favor of the Eternal by imitating his
actions and reproducing His ways upon earth.
In Egypt, in India, in Greece, it was so. In the East, among the Magi,
the priest walked three times around the altar, keeping it to his right,
chanting hymns, as in the Lodge we recite words from the Book of Holy
Law. Some think the Druids had the same rite, which is why the stones at
Stonehenge are arranged in circular form about a huge altar; and no
doubt it is true.
What did man mean by the old and eloquent rite? All the early thought of
man was mixed up with magic, and he is not yet free from it. One finds
traces of it even in our own day. By magic is meant the idea that by
imitating the ways of God we can actually control Him and make Him do
what we want done. It is a false idea, but it still clings to much of
our religion, as when men imagine that by saying so many prayers that
they have gained so much merit.
Masonry is not magic; it is moral science. In the Lodge we are taught
that we must learn the way and will of God, not in order to use Him for
our ends, but the better, to be used by Him for His ends. The difference
may seem slight at first, but it is really the difference between a true
and a false faith-between religion and superstition. Much of the
religion of today is sheer superstition, in which magic takes the place
of morals. In Masonry morality has first place, and no religion is valid
without it.
As might be expected, a rite so old, so universal, so profoundly simple,
has had many meanings read into it. The more the better; as a great
teacher said of the Bible, the more meanings we find in it the richer we
are. Some find in this old and simple rite a parable of the history of
Masonry itself, which had its origin in the East and journeyed to the
West, bringing the oldest wisdom of the world to bless and guide the
newest lands.
Others see in it a symbol of the story of humanity, in its slow,
fumbling march up out of savagery into the light of civilization; and it
does lend itself to such a meaning. Often the race has seemed to be
marching round and round, moving but making no progress; but that is
only seeming. It does advance, in spite of the difficulties and
obstructions in its path.
Still others think that it is a parable of the life of each individual,
showing our advance from youth with its rising sun in the East, which
reaches its zenith in the meridian splendor of the South, and declines
with the falling daylight to old age in the West. It is thus an allegory
of the life of man upon the earth, its progress and its pathos, and it
is true to fact.
All of these meanings are true and beautiful; but there is another and
deeper meaning taught us more clearly in the old English rituals than in
our own. It offers us an answer to the persistent questions: What am I?
Whence came I? Whither go I? It tells us that the West is the symbol of
this world; the East of the world above and beyond. Hence the colloquy
in the First Degree:
"As a Mason, whence do you come?" "From the West."
"Whither do you journey?" "To the East."
"What is your inducement?" "In quest of light."
That is, man supposes that his life -originated in this world, and he
answers accordingly. But that is because he is not properly instructed:
he has not yet learned the great secret that the soul, our life-star,
had elsewhere its setting and comes from beyond this world of sense and
time. It is only sent into this dim world of sense and shadow for
discipline and development---sent to find itself. So, in the Third
Degree, the answers are different, for by that time the initiate has
been taught a higher truth:
"Whence do you come?" "From the East."
"Whither are you wending?" "To the West."
"What is your inducement?" "To find that which is lost."
"Where do you hope to find it?" "In the center."
Ah, here is real insight and understanding, to know which is to have a key to much that we do and endure in our life on earth; much which otherwise remains a riddle. Our life here in time and flesh is a becoming, an awakening, an enfoldment, a chance to find ourselves. It is, as Keats said, a vale of soul-making, and the hard things that hit and hurt us must be needed for our making, else they would not be.
Nor do we walk with aimless feet, journeying nowhere, as the smart
philosophers of our day tell us. It is not a futile quest in which we
are engaged. And Masonry assures us that we are both guided and guarded
by a Friend who knows the way and may be trusted to the end. Its promise
is that the veils will be removed from our eyes and the truth made known
to us, when we are ready and worthy to receive it. But not until then.
It is a goodly teaching, tried by long ages and found to be wise and
true. Alas, it is easily lost sight of and forgotten, and we need to
learn it again and again. Here, too, Masonry is a wise teacher; it
repeats, line upon line, precept upon precept. In every degree it shows
us the march of the soul around the Altar, and then beyond it up the
winding, spiral stair, and still beyond into the light and joy of the
Eternal Life.
Save by the Old Road none attain the new,
From the Ancient Hills alone we catch the view
THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN
The Masonic Service Association of the United States
February 1927 NO. 2