112 Magazine July 2022 - Issue No. 22 by tomedgar2010

112 On The Level Masonic Magazine for St. John Fisherrow No.112

Issue No. 22

July 2022

From the Editor Hello Brethren, and welcome to another edition of “On the Level”. We hope you will find this issue No.22 inspiring as well as educational and most importantly FUN.

For this magazine to prosper, your involvement as well as interest is necessary. This is for you not only for learning but also to share. We are all students of the “Craft” and should share and learn with each other in Brotherly Love, and Friendship. We are taught to spread the cement of Brotherly Love and affection binding us to each other just the same as cement to stone to create one common mass. So let Brotherly Love and Friendship unite not only the brethren of 112 but our wonderful fraternity as an edifice of knowledge and understanding. Let us learn from each other by sharing our interests to enrich our masonic experience.

May I take this opportunity to thank the Brethren who have contributed to the magazine and look forward to further contributions from the brethren. Back issues of the magazine can be found on via our website, www.stjohn112.co.uk

Got something you want to say about your Lodge, or just Freemasonry in general ~ Why not submit an article to “On The Level”and see it printed here? (The Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish any article deemed by himself to be offensive). Website/facebook: www.stjohn112.co.uk

THANK YOU TO THE BRETHREN OF THE LODGE FOR THEIR VERY GENEROUS DONATIONS OF £612.40 TO THE UKRANIAN FUND Don't expect perfection in a man because he is a Freemason. If you do, you will be disappointed. Masonry makes a man better, but no human agency can make him perfect. If he is a Mason, you have a right to presume he is a good man, but do not condemn Masonry even if a few Masons turn out bad. Even the Great Teacher Himself had a Judas. The aim and purpose of Masonry is to receive none but good men, keep them good and make them better. Judge the institution not by a few failures, but by the average of its successes. That average is high and it consequently gives standing to its members, but it cannot be an infallible guide. Author Unknown.

The Right Worshipful Master Hello Brethren, I hope you are all enjoying the summer breaks. Although most lodges are in recess there are still a few which are open throughout and I have tried to visit as many as I can.

As we are all still well aware the Covid virus is still with us but I hope you and your family have remained safe and well.

Brethren unfortunately due to work commitments I missed the last 2 meetings but would like to take this opportunity to thank Bro. Brian Ritchie IPM for taking the chair again.

I would also like to thank the brethren for the very generous donations of £500.40 to the Ukrainian Appeal while the lodge made the donation of £112:00 making the grand total of £612:40. A big thank you to Bro. Allan Williams PM for collecting the donations.

On a very happy and positive note, our Treasurer Brother Douglas Hoy PM DSM has had a very successful operation in June at the Western General Hospital to remove the tumor in his pancreatic duct and only a few days later allowed to go home and is recovering well at home. It may be some months before Bro. Douglas is fully recovered and we are looking forward to his return. Congratulations are also extended to Bro. Kenny Ross who along with team mates at Musselburgh Bowling Club have reached the Finals of the Seniors Bowls tournament through in Ayr. All at 112 wish Kenny and the team all the very best of luck.

Later on this month we will have the return of our Summer Festival meeting in nearly 3 years which coincides with the Musselburgh Festival and again we are looking to welcoming visitors to 112.

Bro. Tom Edgar RWM 112

~ Our Lodge Our History ~

Bro’s Peter Hill and Jimmy Hill DSM’s

Bro. Archie Lister P.M.

The Candidate

He has been introduce to all the of that universal language by which he is enable to converse with his brethren in every nation under the sun. He may to-day express his wonder and surprise that so much is contained in so small a compass; to-morrow it will be forgotten.

At the present day, when so much has been said and written concerning Freemasonry, to become a member of this great fraternity is a matter of no inconsiderable moment; yet there is a touch of sadness in the thought that, out of the large number continually joining our ranks,so many are satisfied by merely coming into possession of the several portions of our ritual, without an endeavour or even an apparent desire to penetrate further and discover the symbolism and true meaning that lies beneath te surface.

When a theme for contemplation has been opened up before him, the ceremonies of initiation are just ripples on the surface. Beneath lie the hidden mysteries, and to understand them requires deep and serious study. Volumes and volumes have been written upon these hidden things, yet it is a lamentable fact that few care to peruse them, or even give them a thought. It is a duty the candidate owes to himself to investigate the ceremonies through which he has been passed, and not content himself with the meagre explanation as given with the tyled precincts of the lodge. Unless he does this Masonry will lose its charm for him, and a few years hence he will wonder what such and such a brother, more zealous than himself, can find in Masonry to cause him to take a deep interest in it.

We see the Candidate upon the threshold of our mystic temple, of his own free will and accord, seeking admission to a society that has been laboured for centuries promoted the well fair of his fellow-man. There he stands an upright man, free born and in total darkness concerning the trial he is about to undergo.as weak and helpless as a new born, wholly dependent on the Supreme Being whom he expresses his belief. He enters into a new world, a receives a knowledge of all the virtues that expand the heart and dignify the soul. He discovers that the aim of Masonry is to introduce him to new views of life and its duties.

Did Yi Ken......

In due time he takes upon himself new duties and obligations, and by direction his attention to the wonders of nature art he his taught that man is not to devote himself to physical labour. The cultivation of the mind and intellect, with which he has been endowed by his Creator, is impressed upon him, that he may be able to occupy with honour his proper station in society. At length he attains the summit of sublime knowledge; he learns that a man is born to die, and beyond the grave, there is hope of a blessed immortality. He has now passed through our solemn ceremonies and obtained possession of all the secrets of the craft.

The light comic operas and music of “Gilbert & Sullivan” (Gilbert wrote the words, and Sullivan the music) were extremely popular in the late Victorian period, and for much of the early 20th century. But did you know that both these Knights of the Realm were Freemasons ? Sir William S. Gilbert, who died in 1911 at the age of 75, was initiated in St. Machar Lodge No. 54 in Aberdeen in 1871, whilst his musical partner Sir Arthur Sullivan, who became “Master of the Queen’s Music” was an extremely active Freemason in London, and rose to become Grand Organist of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1887.

ON SECRETS

brotherly love and truth and relief. Some representing time counting the ringlets in the hair of the virgin give anyone with the slightest idea of art the notion that Masons are all cubists! We are trianglists or right anglists, maybe, but not cubists! Those illustrations of brotherly love in which one fat man lays a ham-like arm lovingly about the bull-like neck of a misshapen Roman gladiator would scare any child who saw it into such a fear of the fraternity he would probably weep ever time Dad went to lodge... but as far as giving away any Masonic secrets is concerned- piffle!"

(adapted from the Old Tyler Talks)

"Someone should speak to Brother Smith!" said the New Brother, thoughtfully, sitting beside the Past Master. "People do speak to him- I speak to him myself," countered the Past Master.

"No! I mean speak to him seriously." "I speak to him seriously. I asked him tonight how his wife was," answered the Past Master. "Oh, you know what I mean! I mean admonish him."

"You haven't the same reverence for the sacredness of Masonic ideas as I have."

"About what?"

"About his carelessness of Masonic secrets. He leaves his Ritual out where any profane can see them. He takes them home sometimes and his children can get them and..."

"Whoa! Boy, you have things upside down. My reverence for real Masonic secrets is second to none. Your reverence is inclusive; mine only for what is real. You wouldn't go home and tell your wife that a lodge room has a chair in the east, where the Master sits, that there is an Altar in the centre of the lodge, or that candidates take an obligation, would you?"

"I appoint you a committee of one to see that his children are all properly murdered. No child should look at a Masonic slide and live." "Now you are kidding me."

"Certainly not!"

"Boy, you are kidding yourself. The only secret about a Masonic lantern slide thousands of Masons have tried to find, but none ever have. It is not to be revealed by looking at them."

"I would! The cleaners see the lodge room. If they can be permitted to view its sacred outlines, I see no reason why my wife shouldn't. In lodge entertainments where we don't move the Altar and women have entertained us after the lodge was closed, more than once. Any catalogue of Masonic paraphernalia advertises hoodwinks!”

"I don't understand..."

"No secrets of Freemasonry are to be learned from a Masonic Ritual. They are sold to any one who has the price. If there was anything secret about a Ritual, making it would be against Masonic obligations." "But you said there was a secret..."

"Sure, but not a Masonic secret. Generations of Masons have tried to learn who designed them that they might slay him with ceremony and an axe. The harm done leaving Masonic Ritual where the profane may see them will come from the poor opinion the profane gets from the Masonic conception of charity and

"The real secrets of Freemasonry mean something for you and me, which are not for the uninitiated. But they are not in Rituals and pictures, in the size of the room, the height of the ceiling or even the place where a Worshipful Master hangs his hat! Circumspection in speaking of the things of the lodge, as opposed to the spirit of a lodge, is necessary only that no false idea be given the outsider. If it were possible to photograph men receiving the first degree, the profane might laugh, unappreciative of the symbolism they saw. But do you

Did Yi Ken.........Earliest Hints of Three Degrees.

really think the value of Masonic secrets would be decreased by such an exhibition?

"A number of men have written exposes of Masonry. Half true, half manufactured, no one is interested in them. In second-hand bookstores you can pick them up for a few quid. They are in every Masonic library. If what they contained really harmed the fraternity, would the librarians not destroy them?"

The earliest hints of the third degree appear in documents like those that I have been talking about – mainly documents that have been written out as aide-memoires for the men who owned them. But we have to use exposures as well, exposures printed for profit, or spite-, and we get some useful hints of the third degree long before it actually appears in practice. And so, we start with one of the best, a lovely little text, a single sheet of paper known as the Trinity College, Dublin, Manuscript, dated 1711, found among the papers of a famous Irish doctor and scientist, Sir Thomas Molyneux. This document is headed with a kind of Triple Tau, and underneath it the words ‘Under no less a penalty’. This is followed by a set of eleven Q. and A. and we know straight away that something is wrong! We already have three perfect sets of fifteen questions, so eleven questions must be either bad memory or bad copying – something is wrong! The questions are perfectly normal, only not enough of them. Then after the eleven questions we would expect the writer to give a description of the whole or part of the ceremony but, instead of that, he gives a kind of catalogue of the Freemason’s words and signs.

"The secrets of Freemasonry are carried in your heart; they are not what you see with your eyes or touch with your fingers. There is nothing secret about an organ, or the music books the choir uses, or the gavel the Master holds in his hand, nor yet the books in which the Secretary records who has paid his dues. The shape and form and furniture of a lodge are not a secret, nor the time of meetings nor the names of the Members! The Ritual and pictures conceals no secret worth knowing, nor does the Tracing Board to which the lecturer points nor even the Stairs in the second degree. These are all but a means of putting a picture in your mind and it is the meaning of that picture which must be sacredly kept, not the means which put it there." "Then you don't think someone ought to speak to Brother Filmore seriously!"

"No, but there was a brother in this lodge who had to be spoken to seriously, and I did it."

"Oh! Who was that?" asked the New Brother anxiously.

Quote:~

"You!" said the Past Master.

Wisdom of Solomon -

King Solomon represents the highest degree of wisdom. The East, the source of light, symbolizes the wisdom needed for success in life. The East is represented by the pillar that supports the Lodge and by the Worshipful Master.

Some day, when the clouds of prejudice has been dispelled by the searchlight of Truth, the world will honour Masonry for its heroic service of freedom and thought and of faith. No part of its mainstay has been more noble, no principals of its teaching have been more precious than its agelong and unwavering demand for the right and duty of every soul to seek that light by which no man ever injured and that truth which makes hime free.

Bro Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) Famous Freemasons

Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan. At the age of 15, his father gave him a pocket watch. Ford would take the watch apart as well as those of neighbours and family and would gain a reputation as a watch repairman At 16, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm.

In the first several years of their marriage, Ford supported himself and his new wife by running a sawmill. In 1891, he returned with Clara to Detroit, where he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was promoted to chief engineer two years later. Around the same time, Clara gave birth to the couple’s only son, Edsel Bryant Ford. On call 24 hours a day for his job at Edison, Ford spent his irregular hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or automobile. In 1896, he completed what he called the “Quadricycle,” which consisted of a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine.

Ford was initiated into Palestine Lodge No. 357 in Detroit at the age of 31, and was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in 1894. He kept up a Masonic career throughout his lifetime, no easy feat when his many accomplishments and innovations are considered. He was also a member of Zion Lodge No.1. He eventually received the 33rd and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in 1940 - the capstone of many decades of Masonic service, and on that evening stated "Masonry is the best balance wheel the United States has." Determined to improve upon his prototype, Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He received backing from various investors over the next seven years, some of whom formed the Detroit Automobile Company (later the Henry Ford Company) in 1899. His partners, eager to put a passenger car on the market, grew frustrated with Ford’s constant need to improve, and Ford left his namesake company in 1902. (After his departure, it was reorganized as the Cadillac Motor Car Company.) The following year, Ford established the Ford Motor Company. A month after the Ford Motor Company was established, the first Ford car—the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower Model A—was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit. At the time, only a few cars were assembled per day, and groups of two or three workers built them by hand from parts that were ordered from other companies. Ford was dedicated to the production of an efficient and reliable automobile that would be affordable for everyone; the result was the Model T, which made its debut in October 1908.

The “Tin Lizzie,” as the Model T was known, was an immediate success, and Ford soon had more orders than the company could satisfy. As a result, he put into practice techniques of mass production that would revolutionize American industry, including the use of large production plants; standardized, interchangeable parts; and the moving assembly line. Mass production significantly cut down on the time required to produce an automobile, which allowed costs to stay low. In 1914, Ford also increased the daily wage for an eight-hour day for his workers to $5 (up from $2.34 for nine hours), setting a standard for the industry. Even as production went up, demand for the Tin Lizzie remained high, and by 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. In 1919, Ford named his son Edsel as president of Ford Motor Company, but he retained full control of the company’s operations.

After a court battle with his stockholders, led by brothers Horace and John Dodge, Henry Ford bought out all minority stockholders by 1920. In 1927, Ford moved production to a massive industrial complex he had built along the banks of the River Rouge in Dearborn, Michigan. The plant included a glass factory, steel mill, assembly line and all other necessary components of automotive production. That same year, Ford ceased production of the Model T, and introduced the new Model A, which featured better horsepower and brakes, among other improvements. By that time, the company had produced some 15 million Model Ts, and Ford Motor Company was the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Ford opened plants and operations throughout the world.

The Model A proved to be a relative disappointment, and was outsold by both Chevrolet (made by General Motors) and Plymouth (made by Chrysler); it was discontinued in 1931. In 1932, Ford introduced the first V-8 engine, but by 1936 the company had dropped to number three in sales in the automotive industry.

Despite his progressive policies regarding the minimum wage, Ford waged a long battle against unionization of labour, refusing to come to terms with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) even after his competitors did so. In 1937, Ford security staff clashed with UAW organisers in he so -called “Battle of the Overpass,” at the Rouge plant, after which the National Labor Relations Board ordered Ford to stop interfering with union organization. Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with UAW in 1941, but not before Henry Ford considered shutting down the company to avoid it.

He suffered an initial stroke in 1938, after which he turned over the running of his company to his son. Unfortunately, Edsel died in 1943, and his premature death brought Henry Ford out of retirement. He eventually turned the business over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in 1945 and died in 1947 of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 83 in Fair Lane, his Dearborn estate. He is buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.

The Square

in the progress of the Degrees. The whole meaning and task of life is there, for such as have eyes to see.

The Holy Bible lies open upon the Alter of Masonry, and upon the Bible lie the Square and Compasses. They are the three Great Lights of the Lodge, at once its Divine warrant and its chief working tools. They are symbols of Revelation, Righteousness and Redemption, Teaching us that by walking in the light of Truth, and obeying the Law of Right, the Divine in man wins victory over the earthly. How to live is the one important matter, and he will seek far without finding a wiser way than that shown us by the Great Lights of the Lodge. The Square and Compasses are the oldest, the simplest and the most universal symbols of Masonry. All the world over, whether as a sign on a building, or a badge worn by a Brother, even the profane know them to be emblems of our ancient Craft.

Some years ago, when a business firm tried to adopt the Square and Compasses as a Trademark, the Patent Office refused permission, on the ground, as the decision said, that "There can be no doubt that this device, so commonly worn and employed by Masons, universally recognized as existing; whether comprehended by all or not, is not material to this issue." They belong to us, alike by the associations of history and the tongue of common report. Nearly everywhere in our Ritual, as in the public mind, the Square and Compasses are seen together. If not interlocked, they are seldom far apart, and the one suggests the other. And that is as it should be, because the things they symbolize are interwoven. In the old days when the earth was thought to be flat and square, the Square was an emblem of the earth, and later, of the earthly element in man. As the sky is an arc or a circle, the implement which describes a Circle became the symbol of the heavenly, or sky spirit in man. Thus the tools of the builder became the emblems of the thoughts of the thinker; and nothing in Masonry is more impressive than the slow elevation of the compasses above the Square

Let us separate the Square from the Compasses and study it alone, the better to see its further meaning and use. There is no need to say that the Square we have in mind is not a Cube, which has four equal sides and angles, deemed by the Greeks a figure of perfection. Nor is it the square of the carpenter, one leg of which is longer than the other, with inches marked for measuring. It is a small, plain Square, unmarked and with legs of equal length, a simple try-square used for testing the accuracy of angles, and the precision with which stones are cut. Since the try square was used to prove that angles were right, it naturally became an emblem of accuracy, integrity and rightness. As stones are cut it fit into a building, so our acts and thoughts are built together into a structure of Character, badly or firmly, and must be tested by a moral standard of which the simple try square is a symbol.

Let us separate the Square from the Compasses and study it alone, the better to see its further meaning and use. There is no need to say that the Square we have in mind is not a Cube, which has four equal sides and angles, deemed by the Greeks a figure of perfection. Nor is it the square of the carpenter, one leg of which is longer than the other, with inches marked for measuring. It is a small, plain Square, unmarked and with legs of equal length, a simple try-square used for testing the accuracy of angles, and the precision with which stones are cut. Since the try square was used to prove that angles were right, it naturally became an emblem of accuracy, integrity and rightness. As stones are cut it fit into a building, so our acts and thoughts are built together into a structure of Character , badly or firmly, and must be tested by a moral standard of which the simple try square is a symbol.

So, among Speculative Masons, the tiny try square has always been a symbol of morality, of the basic rightness, which must be the test of every act and the foundation of character and society. From the beginning of the revival in 1717 this was made plain in the teaching of Masonry, by the fact that the Holy Bible was placed upon the Altar, along with the Square and Compasses. In one of the earliest catechisms of the Craft, dated 1725, the question is asked: "How many make a Lodge?" The answer is specific and unmistakable: "God and the Square, with five or seven right and perfect Masons." God and the Square, Religion and Morality, must be present in every Lodge as its ruling Lights, or it fails of being a just and truly Constituted Lodge. In all lands, in all rites where Masonry is true to itself, the Square is a symbol of righteousness, and is applied in the light of faith in God.

For, inevitable, a society without standards will be a society without stability, and it will one day go down. Not only nations, but whole civilizations have perished in the past, for lack of righteousness. History speaks plainly in this matter, and we dare not disregard it. Hence the importance attached to the Square of Virtue, and the reason why Masons call it the great symbol of their Craft. It is a symbol of that moral law upon which human life must rest if it is to stand. A man may build a house in any way he likes, but if he expects it to stand and be his home, he must adjust his structure to the laws and forces that rule in the material realm. Just so, unless we live in obedience to the moral laws which God has written in the order of things, our lives will fall and end in a wreck. When a young man forgets the simple Law of the Square, it does not need a prophet to foresee what the result will be. It is a problem in geometry.

Such has been the meaning of the Square as God and the Square, it is necessary to keep the far back as we can go. Long before our era we two together in our day, because the tendency find the Square teaching the same lesson of the times is to separate them. The idea in which it teaches us today. In one of the old vogue today is that morality is enough, and books of China, called :The Great Learning," that faith in God if there be a God may or may which has been dated in the fifth century not be important. Some very able men of the before Christ, we read that a man should not Craft insist that we make the teaching of Mado unto others what he would not have them sonry too religious. Whereas, as all history do unto him; and the writers adds, "This is shows, if faith in God grows dim morality becalled the principle of acting on the Square." comes a mere custom, if not a cobweb, to be There it is, recorded long, long ago. The greatthrown off lightly. It is not rooted in reality, est philosopher has found nothing more and so lacks authority and sanction. Such an profound, and the oldest man in his ripe wisidea, such a spirit so wide-spread in our time, dom has learned nothing more true. Even and finding so many able and plausible advoJesus only altered it from the negative to the cates strikes at the foundation, not only of Mapositive form in his "Golden Rule." So, everysonry, but of all ordered and advancing social where, in our Craft and outside, the Square has life. Once men come to think that morality is taught its simple truth which does not grow a human invention, and not a part of the order old. The Deputy Provincial Grand Master of of the world, and the moral law will lose both North and East Yorkshire recovered a very its meaning and its power. Far wiser was the curious relic, in the form of an old brass old book entitled "All in All and the Same ForSquare found under the foundation of an ever," by John Davies, and dated 1607, though ancient bridge near Limerick in 1830. On it written by a non-Mason, when it read reality was inscribed the date, 1517, and the and nature of God in this manner: "Yet I this following words: form of formless deity drew by the Square and 11 Compasses of our Creed."

Did Yi Ken.........

"Strive to live with love and care Upon the Level, by the Square."

That, in December 1724 there was a nice little lodge meeting at the Queen’s Head Tavern, in Hollis Street, in the Strand, about three hundred yards from the present Freemasons’ Hall. Nice people; the best of London’s musical, architectural and cultural society were members of this lodge. On the particular night in which I am interested, His Grace, the Duke of Richmond was Master of the lodge. I should add that His Grace, the Duke of Richmond was also Grand Master at that time, and you might call him ‘nice people’. It is true that he was the descendant of a royal illegitimate, but nowadays even royal illegitimates are counted as nice people. A couple of months later, seven of the members of this lodge and one brother they had borrowed from another lodge decided that they wanted to found a musical and architectural society. They gave themselves a Latin title a mile long – Philo Musicae et Architecturae Societas Apollini – which is translated, ‘The Apollonian Society for the Lovers of Music and Architecture’ and they drew up a rule book which is beautiful beyond words. Every word of it written by hand. It looks as though the most magnificent printer had printed and decorated it.

How simple and beautiful it is, revealing the oldest wisdom man has learned and the very genius of our Craft. In fact and truth, the Square Rules the Mason as well as the Lodge in which he labors. As soon as he enters a Lodge, the candidate walks the square steps around the Square pavement of a rectangular Lodge. All during the ceremony his attitude keeps him in mind of the same symbol, as if to fashion his life after its form. When he is brought to light, he beholds the Square upon the Altar, and at the same time sees that it is worn by the Master of the Lodge, as the emblem of his office. In the Northeast Corner he is shown the perfect Ashlar, and told that it is the type of a finished Mason, who must be Square-man in thought and conduct, in word and act. With every art of emphasis the Ritual writes this lesson in our hearts, and if we forget this first truth the Lost Word will remain forever lost. For Masonry is not simply a Ritual; it is a way of living.

It offers us a plan. a method, a faith by which we may build our days and years into a character so strong and true that nothing, not even death, can destroy it. Each of us has in his own heart a little try-square called Conscience, by which to test each thought and deed and word, whether it be true or false. By as much as a man honestly applies that test in his own heart, and in his relations with his fellows, by so much will his life be happy, stable, and true. Long ago the question was asked and answered: "Lord, who shall abide in thy Tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." It is the first obligation of a Mason to be on the Square, in all his duties and dealings with his fellow men, and if he fails there he cannot win anywhere.

Did Yi Ken....

After the Grand Master laid the foundation stone of the Statue of Liberty he said these words. “Why call upon the Masonic Fraternity to lay the cornerstone of such a structure as is here to be erected? His answer, which is as true today as it was then; No institution has done more to promote liberty and to free men from the trammels and chains of ignorance and tyranny then Freemasonry, and we as friends, take an honest pride in depositing the cornerstone of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, enlightening the world.

~ Our Lodge Our History ~ Part 10

At the Lodge Committee Meeting held on 4th January 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A discussion took place regarding the price of liquor. It was agrees to reduce the price of whisky to 5d per glass. Who said the bad old days!!!

At the Regular Meeting held on 15th February 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was agreed to recommend Bro. J. A. Forrest as Provincial Grand Master and it was also agreed to make a grant of “20 to Grand Lodge Building Fund. At a Special Meeting of the Lodge held on 3rd May 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bro. Norman presented a Sword to the Lodge, and was thanked for same. The Mark Degree was conferred by our own brethren under the guidance of Bro. John Anderson, R.W.M.M. The appears to be the first time our won Office-Bearers have conferred the Mark Degree- as it was usually carried out by deputations from the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No.1 or Lodge Canongate Kilwinning No.2. At the Regular Meeting held on 17th May 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our own Office Bearers again conferred the Mark Degree - the third Mark Degree within two months. At the Regular Meeting held on 18th October 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bro. Thom, S.W. intimated that he had received from Bro. Wallace James for presentation to the Lodge a copy of a publication re Old Minutes of Lodge Aitchison’s Haven which he handed to the Master. The Secretary was instructed to write and thank Bro. Wallace James for the gift.

At the Regular Meeting held on 20th December 1911 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bro. Matthew L. Young was installed as Right Worshipful Master for the year 1912. Honorary Memberships were conferred on Bro. John Bowers, P.M. Lodge 316 E.C. and P.M. No. 702 S.C.

During the year new Regalia was provided for the principal Office Bearers and the Lodge Bye - Laws were revised. Thirty five candidates received their Mark Degree - three Meetings being held for this purpose. A Reception Meeting was held in the Town Hall on 8th November when deputations from twenty Three Lodges were received and welcomed. The usual Loyal, Patriotic and Masonic Toasts were given and responded to. After an evening spent in social harmony the Lodge was closed in due form with prayer.

Major John Augustus Hope, M.P. Reserve of Officers, Whitehouse, Inveresk, was proposed for membership by Bro. Young, R.W.M. and Bro Anderson P.M.

The Alter

him than any other fact. By some deep necessity of his nature he is a seeker after God, and in moments of sadness or longing, in hours of tragedy or terror, he lays aside his tools and looks out over the far horizon.

A Masonic lodge is a symbol of the world as it was thought to be in the olden time. Our ancient Brethren had a profound insight when they saw that the world is a Temple, over-hung by a starry canopy by night, lighted by the journeying sun by day, wherein man goes forth to his labour on a checker-board of lights and shadows, joys and sorrows, seeking to reproduce on earth the law and order of heaven. The visible world was but a picture or reflection of the invisible and at its centre stood the Altar of sacrifice, obligation, and adoration.

The history of the Altar in the life of man is a story more fascinating than any fiction. Whatever else man may have been - cruel, tyrannous, or vindictive - the record of his long search for God is enough to prove that he is not wholly base, not altogether an animal. Rites horrible, and often bloody, may have been a part of his early ritual, but if the history of past ages had left us nothing but the memory of a race at prayer, it would have left us rich. And so, following the good custom of the men which were of old, we set up an Altar in the Lodge, lifting up hands in prayer, moved thereto by the ancient need and aspiration of our humanity. Like the men who walked in the grey years alone, our need is for the living God to hallow these our days and years, even to the last ineffable homeward sigh which men call death.

While we hold a view of the world very unlike that held by our ancient Brethren - knowing it to be round, not flat and square - yet their insight is still true. The whole idea was that man, if he is to build either a House of Faith or an order of Society that is to endure, must imitate the laws and principles of the world in which he lives. That is also our dream and design; the love of it ennobles our lives; it is our labour and our worship. To fulfil it we, too need wisdom and help from above; and so at the centre of our Lodge stands the same Altar - older than all temples, as old as life itself - a focus of faith and fellowship, at once a symbol and shrine of that unseen element of thought and yearning that all men are aware of and which no one can define.

Upon this earth there is nothing more impressive than the silence of a company of human beings bowed together at an altar. No thoughtful man but at some time has mused over the meaning of this great adoring habit of humanity, and the wonder of it deepens the longer he ponders it. The instinct which thus draws men together in prayer is the strange power which has drawn together the stones of great cathedrals, where the mystery of God is embodied. So far as we know, man is the only being on our planet that pauses to pray, and the wonder of his worship tells us more about

The earliest Altar was a rough, unhewn stone set up, like the stone which Jacob set up at Bethel when his dream of a ladder, on which angels were ascending and descending, turned his lonely bed into a house of God and a gate of heaven. Later, as faith became more refined, and the idea of sacrifice grew in meaning, the Altar was built of hewn stone - cubical in form - cut, carved, and often beautifully wrought, on which men lavished jewels and priceless gifts, deeming nothing too costly to adorn the place of prayer. Later still, when men erected a Temple dedicated and adorned as the House of God among men, there were two altars, one of sacrifice, and one of incense. The altar of sacrifice, where slain beasts were offered, stood in front of the Temple; the altar of incense, on which burned the fragrance of worship, stood within. Behind all was the far withdrawn Holy place into which only the high priest might enter.

As far back as we can go the Altar was the centre of human Society, and an object of peculiar sanctity by virtue of that law of association by which places and things are consecrated. It was a place of refuge for the hunted or the tormented - criminals or slaves - and to drag them away from it by violence was held to be an act of sacrilege, since they were under the protection of God. At the Altar marriage rites were solemnized, and treaties made or vows taken in its presence were more holy and binding than if made elsewhere, because there man invoked God as witness. In all the religions of antiquity, and especially among the peoples who worshipped the Light, it was the usage of both priests and people to pass round the Altar, following the course of the sun - from the East, by way of the South, to the West - singing hymns of praise as a part of their worship. Their ritual was thus an allegorical picture of the truth which underlies all religion - that man must live on earth in harmony with the rhythm and movement of heaven.

in its faith and basic principles, no less than in its spirit and purpose. And yet it is not a Church. Nor does it attempt to do what the Church is trying to do. If it were a Church its Altar would be in the East and its ritual would be altered accordingly. That is to say, Masonry is not a Religion, much less a sect, but a Worship in which all men can unite, because it does not undertake to explain, or dogmatically to settle in detail, those issues by which men are divided. Beyond the Primary, fundamental facts of faith it does not go. With the philosophy of those facts, and the differences and disputes growing out of them, it has not to do. In short, the position of the Altar in the Lodge is a symbol of what Masonry believes the Altar should be in actual life, a centre of union and fellowship, and not a cause of division, as is now so often the case. It does not seek uniformity of opinion, but it does seek fraternity of spirit, leaving each one free to fashion his own philosophy of ultimate truth. As we may read in the Constitutions of 1723:

From facts and hints such as these we begin to see the meaning of the Altar in Masonry, and the reason for its position in the Lodge. In English Lodges, as in the French and Scottish Rites, it stands in front of the Master in the East. In the York Rite, so called, it is placed in the centre of the Lodge - more properly a little to the East of the centre about which all Masonic activities revolve. It is not simply a necessary piece of furniture, a kind of table intended to support the Holy Bible, the Square and Compasses. Alike by its existence and its situation it identifies Masonry as a religious institution, and yet its uses are not exactly the same as the offices of an Altar in a cathedral or a shrine. Here is a fact often overlooked, and we ought to get it clearly in our minds.

The position of the Altar in the Lodge is not accidental, but profoundly significant. For, while Masonry is not a religion, it is religious

"A Mason is obliged, by his Tenure, to obey the moral Law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient Times Masons were charged in every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet 'tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves; that is, to be good Men and true, or Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the Centre of Union, and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remained at a perpetual Distance. "

Surely those are memorable words, a Magna Charta of friendship and fraternity. Masonry goes hand in hand with religion until religion enters the field of sectarian feud, and there it

for the bruisings of life. But no one ever goes to a Masonic Altar alone. No one bows before it at all except when the Lodge is open and in the presence of his Brethren. It is an Altar of Fellowship, as if to teach us that no man can learn the truth for another and no man can learn it alone. Masonry brings men together in mutual respect, sympathy, and goodwill, that we may learn in love the truth that is hidden by apathy and lost by hate.

stops; because Masonry seeks to unite men, not to divide them. Here, then, is the meaning of the Masonic Altar and its position in the Lodge. It is, first of all, an Altar of Faith - - the deep, eternal faith which underlies all creeds and overarches all sects; faith in God, in the moral law, and in the life everlasting. Faith in God is the corner-stone and the key-stone of Freemasonry. It is the first truth and the last, the truth that makes all other truths true, without which life is a riddle and fraternity a futility. For, apart from God the Father, our dream of the Brotherhood of Man is as vain as all the vain things proclaimed of Solomon a fiction having no basis or hope in fact.

For the rest, let us never forget - what has been so often and so sadly forgotten - that the most sacred Altar on earth is the soul of man your soul and mine; and that the Temple and its ritual are not ends in themselves, but beautiful means to the end that every human heart may be a sanctuary of faith, a shrine of love, an altar of purity, pity, and unconquerable hope.

At the same time, the Altar of Masonry is an Altar of Freedom - not freedom from faith, but freedom of faith. Beyond the fact of the reality of God it does not go, allowing every man to think of God according to his experience of life and his vision of truth. It does not define God, much less dogmatically determine how and what men shall think or believe about God. There dispute and division begin. As a matter of fact, Masonry is not speculative at all, but operative, or rather co-operative. While all its teaching implies the Fatherhood of God, yet its ritual does not actually affirm that truth, still less make it a test of fellowship. Behind this silence lies a deep and wise reason. Only by the practice of Brotherhood do men realize the Divine Fatherhood, as a true-hearted poet has written;

Did Yi Ken.........Accepted

The Latin accipere, receive, was from ad, meaning "to," and capere, meaning "take," therefore to take, to receive The passive apprenticeship and initiation, but after the participle of this was acceptus. In Operative Masonry members were admitted through course of time, and when the Craft had begun to decay, gentlemen who had no of doing builders' work but were interested in the Craft for social, or perhaps for antiquarian reasons, were accepted" into membership; to distinguish these gentlemen Masons from the Operatives in the membership they were called the "Accepted." After 1717, when the whole Craft was revolutionized into a Fraternity, all members became non-Operatives, hence our use of the word in such phrases as "Free and Accepted Masons."

"No man could tell me what my soul might be; I sought for God, and He eluded me; I sought my Brother out, and found all three."

Hear one fact more, and the meaning of the Masonic Altar will be plain. Often one enters a great Church, like Westminster Abbey, and finds it empty, or only a few people in the 5 pews here and there, praying or in deep thought. They are sitting quietly, each without reference to others, seeking an opportunity for the soul to be alone, to communicate with mysteries greater than itself, and find healing

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