Section 2

10 Tie MmMrp of Mmsanrff

Our age rosembles in many ymys the age whieh saw die in-
troduetion into the world of the teadiings of Jeans. To one
who regards mankind with tendemessy a time like this is full
of hope, but f nil of many perils also. Men are confused,
trouUed, and strangely alone. Anything is possible. Forms
of fai^ are dbuoging, and many are bewildered — as witness
the number of those running to and fro, following eirery wand-
ering lights and falling, often, into the bogs of f anatioiflm.
Oh, the pathos of it ! A strange indifference has settled over
tibe world, but imdemeath it there is a profound, unsatisfied
hunger. There is a mood today whidi soon will utter a ery,
and it will be a cry for more vivid sense of God: that is our
hopa Yet Ihat cry may fling many a soul upon the bosom of
doubt and despair: that is our fear. Amidst this peril, Ma*
soiijy brings men together at the altar of prayer, keeps alive
faith in the truths that make us men, seeking, by every re*
source of art, to make tangible the power of love^ the worth of
beauty, and the reality of the ideal Who can measure sudi a
ministry, who can deseribe it!

IIL

Let me strive to make it all more vivid by recalling a par*
able translated by Max Muller from the lore of the East The
gods, having stolen from man his divinity, met in council to
discuss where they should hide it One suggested that it be
carried to the other side of the earth and buried; but it was
pointed out that man is a great wanderer, and that he mig^
find the lost treasure on the other side of the earth. Another
proposed that it be dropped into the depths of the sea ; but the
same fear was expressed — ^tibat man, in his insatiable ouri*
osity, might dive deep enough to find it e?en there. Finally,
after % iqpace of silence, the oldest and wisest of the gods said :

» .
I- .

The Mimistry 0/ Masonry 11

^'Hide it in man himorif , as tiiftfc is the last place lie will eirer
tiiink to lookjor it'' And it was so agreed, all seeing at onoe
its subtle and vise strategy.

Man wandered over the earth for ages, searching in all
places, high and low, far and near, before he thought to look
within himself for the diyinitj he sought At last, slowly,
dimly, he began to realize that what he thou^t was far off,
hidden in ^'the pathoe of distance," is nearer than the breath
he breathes, even, in his own heart Here lies the deepest
ministry (d Masoniy — ^that it makes a young man aware of
the divinity that is within him, wherefrom his whole life
takes beauty and meaning, and inspires him to follow and
obey it "No hour in life is more solemn and revealing than
that in which a man learns that what he eeeks he has already
found, else he would not be seeking it Once a man learns
that deep secret, life is new, and the old world is a valley all
dewy to the dawn, aglow with beauty and athrill with
melody.

There never was a truer saying than that of Thomas Oar-
lyle when he said that the religion of a man is the chief fact
concerning him. By religion he meant, as he went on to ex-
plain, not the creed to which a man will subscribe or other-
wise give his assent ; not that necessarily ; often not that at all
— since we see men of all degrees of worth and worthlesaness
signing all kinds of creeds. No, the religion of a man is that
which he practically believes, lays to heart, acts upon, and
knows concerning this mysterious universe and his duty and
destiny in it That is in all casee the primaiy thing in him,
and creatively determines all the rest ; that is his religion. It
is, then, of vital importance what faith, what vision, what con-
ception of life a man lays to heart, and acts upon. It ia as a
man thinks ui his heart whether life be worth while or not^
and vHliether the world be luminous or dark.

12 The Ministry of Masonry

Let xne show you that this is so. Optimists and pessimists
live in the same world, walk under the same sky, and observe
the same facta Sceptics and believers look up at the same
great stars — ^the stars that shone in Eden and will flash again
in Paradise. Thomaa Hardy and Gborge Meredith were
contemporaries and friends — one looking out over a dismal,
shadow-haunted Egdon heath, under a sky as grey as a tired
face ; the other a citizen of a world aU dipped in hues of eun-
rise and sunset, with a lark-song over it ! Clearly, the differ-
ence in all these cases is a difference not of fact> but of faith;
of insist, outlook, and point of view — ^a difference of inner
attitude and habit of thought with regard to the worth of Uf e
and the meaning of the world. By the same token, any influ-
ence which reaches and alters that inner habit and bias of
mind, and changes it from doubt to faith, from fear to cour^
age, from despair to sunburst hope has wrought the most vital
and benign ministry which a mortal may enjoy in the midst
of the years.

Every man, as each of you can testify, has a train of
thought on which he rides when he is alone. The dignity and
nobility of his life, as well as its happiness, depend upon the
direction in which that train is going, the ba^age it carries,
and the scenery through which it travels. If, then. Masonry
can put that inner train of thought on the right track, f rei^t
it with precious baggage, and start it on the way to the city
of God, what other or higher service can it render to a mant
That is just what it does for any man who will give himself to
it, bringing to him from afar the old wisdom-religion — that
simple, pure, and lofty truth wrought out through ages of
experience, tested by time, and found to be valid for the life of
man. Whoso lays tiiat lucid and prof oimd wisdom to hearty
and acts upon it^ will have little to regre^ and nothing to fear,
when tiie evening shadows fall.

The Ministry of Masonry 18

High, fine, ineffably rich, and beautiful is the faith and
vision which Masonry gives to thoae who foregather at its
altar. By such teaching, if they have the heart to heed it,
men become wise, knowing that all evil ways have been often
tried and found wanting. By it they learn how to be both
brave and gentle, faithful and firm ; how to renounce super-
stition and yet retain faith ; how to keep a fine poise of reason
between the falsehood of extremes; how to accept the joys of
life with glee, and endure its ills with patient valor; how to
look upon the folly of man and not forget his nobility — ^in
short, how to live cleanly, kindly, calmly, opened-eyed, and
tmaf raid in a sane world, sweet of heart and full of hope. It
may not be a substitute for religion, but he who makes it a
law of his lif e^ loves it, and obeys it, will be most ready to re-
ceive the great passwords of religious f aitL Happy the young
man who in the morning of his years takes this simple and
high wisdom as his guide, philosopher, and friend I

IV.

Such is the ministry of Masonry to the individual — ^lifting
him out of the mire and setting his feet in the long, white
path marked out by the foot-steps of ages; and through the
individual it serves society and the state. If by some art one
could trace those sweet, invieible influences which move to
and fro like shuttles in a loom, weaving the net-work of laws^
reverences, sanctities which makes the warp and woof of so-
ciety — giving to statutes their dignity and power, to the gos-
pel its opportunity, to the home its canopy of peace and
beauty, to the young an enshrinement of inspiration, and the
old a mantle of protection; if one had the pen of an angel
then might one tell the story of what Masonry has done for
Iowa. No wonder George Eliot said that eloquence is but a
ripple on the bosom of the unspoken and the unspeakable I

14 The Miniatry of Masonry

What b it that so tragically delays the march of man tx>-
ward that better soeiid order whereof our prophets dream!
Our age and land are full of sdiemes of erery kind for the re-
form and betterment of mankind. Why do they not suc-
ceed! Some fail, perhaps, because they are imprudent and
ill-considered, in that they expect too much of human nature
and do not take into account the stubborn facts of life. But
why does not the wisest and noblest plan do half what its de-
visors hope and pray and labor to bring about! Because
there are not enough men fine enough of soul, large enough of
sympathy, noble enough of nature to make the dream come
true. So that when Masonry, instead of identifying itself
with particular sch^nes of reform, devotes all its benign
energy to refining and ennobling the souls of men, she is doing
fundamental work in behalf of all high enterprises. By as
much as she succeeds, every noble cause succeeds; if she fails,
everything fails !

Beeall what was passing before the eyes of men in this land
fifty years ago today. What gloom, what uncertainty, what
anxiety — Gettysburg less than a month away ! The very life
of the republic hung in the balance! Think of ^ose first
three days of July, 1863, when fifty-four thousand young
men, the flower of our future, lay dead and wounded — spiled
in heaps of blue and grey, quivering with pain, their white
faces turned to the sky! Nor was that alL Far away in
northern towns and southern hamlets, sad-faced women heard,
now with shrieks, now with dumb, unutterable woe, the long
roll-call of the dead! What man who has a heart, or who
cares for the future of his race, does not pray that such scenes
may never again be witnessed on this earth! What can pre-
vent a repetition of the horrors of war! I^othing but the
growth in the hearts of men of the spirit of justice, freedom,
and friendship which Masonry seeks, quietly, to evoke and

The MinUtry of Miuomry 15

inspire! If our fathers had known each other in the eizties
us we know each other today, there would have beai no civil
war 1 So it wiU be the world over, when nuua oomea to know
his fellow-men as he learns to know them and love them at the
altar of this order. Then shall be fulfilled the aong of those
who sang of ''peace on eardi among men of goodrwiUr

Again, no one need be told that we are on the eve^ if not in
the midsty of a stupendous and bewildering revolution of
social and industrial Ufa It shakes England today. It
makes France tremble tomorrow. It will alarm Germany
next week. The questions in dispute can never be settled in
an air of hostility. If they are settled at all, and settled
ri^ty it must be in an atmosphere of mutual recognition and
respect such as that whidi Masonry strives to create and make
prevail. Whether it be a conflict of nations, or a dash of
class with dass^ appeal must be made to inteUigenoe and the
moral sense, as befits the dignity of man. Amidst bitterness
and strife Mas^mry brings men of capital and labor, men of
every rank and walk of life together as men, and nothing else,
at an altar where they can talk and not fight, discuss and not
dispute, and each may learn the point of view of his fellowa.
Other hope there is none save in this spirit of friendship and
fairness, of democracy and the fellowship of man with man.

Even so it is in religion — that kingdom of faith and hope
and prayer so long defamed by bigotry, and distracted by seo-
tarian feud. How many fine minds have been estranged from
the altar of faith because they were required to believe what
it was impossible for them to believe — ^and, rather than sacri-
fice their integrity, they turned away from the last place from
which a man should ever turn away. No part of the ministry
of Masonry is more beautiful and wise than its appeal, not for
tolerance, but for fraternity ; not for uniformity, but for unity
of spirit amidst varieties of outlook and opinion. Qod be
thanked for one altar where no one is asked to surrender his