Freemasonry's Influence in Europe

Zenit.org ^ | January 30, 2005 | Zenit

[Askel5]

Why Men Love Freemasonry

From the Old Tiler's Talk - by Carl H. Claudy, The Temple Publishers

The New Brother sat near the Old Tiler in the anteroom, crossed his legs and took out his cigar case.

"Have a smoke and unpuzzle me."

The Old Tiler accepted the proffered cigar with a smile.

"I am often puzzled, too," he sympathized. "Tell me."

"I am quite crazy about Masonry. I love it. So do a lot of other men. And I don't know why. I can't find anyone who will tell me why. Old Tiler, why do men love Masonry?"

The Old Tiler got up and crossed the room to a bookcase, extracted a volume and returned.

"I read that question in this little book, 'The Magic of Freemasonry,' by Arthur E. Powell. Let me read to you —"

The Old Tiler fluttered the pages. Finding his place he sat and began:

"’Why do men love Masonry? What lure leads them to it? What spell holds them through the long years? What strand is it that tugs at our hearts, taut when so many threads are broken by the rough ways of the world? And what is it in the wild that calls to the little wild things? What sacred secret things do the mountains whisper to the hillman, so silently yet so surely that they can be heard above the din and clatter of the world? What mystery does the sea tell the sailor; the desert to the Arab; the arctic ice to the explorer; the stars to the astronomer? When we have answered these questions mayhap we may divine the magic of Masonry. Who knows what it is, or how or why, unless it be the long cable tow of God, running from heart to heart.' "

The Old Tiler closed the book and waited.

"The cable tow of God," repeated the New Mason. "That's a beautiful phrase."

"It's more than a phrase, I think," the Old Tiler answered. "As I see it, the heart of Freemasonry by which all manner of men are attracted and held, is just that — the longing for communion with the Most High."

"Oh, you must be mistaken. Men who want God go to church."

"Do you go to church?"

"Er, oh, well, sometimes."

"Yet you never miss coming to lodge."

"No, I don't, but —"

"Never mind the 'but.'" The Old Tiler smiled: "A lot of men come to the lodge who do not find heart's case in the church. The lodge is not a substitute for church. Masonry is not a religion, although it has religion. If the church fails, occasionally, it is because all human institutions must fail at times. No minister or church can satisfy all men. Some men find communion with the Most High in Masonry a greater satisfaction than in a church. I think that is the real reason some men love Freemasonry so much."

"You give me credit with being a lot more religious than I do," retorted the New Mason.

"Men are incurably religious," asserted the Old Tiler. "Many don't know it and refuse to call it by that name, like you, for instance! In a church, men are told various things about God. In a lodge they are allowed to tell themselves what they will. In a church you are taught a creed, a dogma. In a lodge there is neither. In a church you are quiet and respectful and whisper if you speak at all. It is kept high, unspotted from the world. A lodge is more intimate, personal. You can be jolly in a lodge, except during a degree. Here are just other men, brothers. They think as we do; they believe in the one God, as we do. They repeat the same words, think the same Masonic thoughts, do the same Masonic acts, as we do. We feel at home with them in consequence.

"Through years of simple, profound degrees, we weave the Mystic Tie. We cannot say of what it is composed. We cannot put a name to it. St. Augustine, asked of God, answered, 'I know until you ask me — when you ask me, I do not know.' In your heart you know, and I know, what the Mystic Tie is — what Freemasonry is. But you cannot say it, nor can I. It is too deep for words. It is the reason we use symbols, for words cannot express it.

"Deep in us is something which understands what brains cannot think; something which knows what our minds cannot comprehend. Masonry speaks to that something in its own language. If we must put it into words, God is the only syllable which seems to fit. But when we say God we mean no special deity, but all that is beautiful in life, in friendship, in charity, in brotherhood.

"So, my brother, there is no reason for you to be puzzled; no man can answer your puzzle. Freemasonry is loved by men because it strikes deep into the human heart, and supplies the answer to the question, the food for the hunger, which the tongue cannot express...

"Unless it is the tongue of a wise, wise Old Tiler," finished the New Brother thoughtfully. "And thank you. I am not puzzled now."

[Trinity_Tx]

"I think we must leave moral judgments of others to their Maker who alone understands the relative formation (or deformation) of their conscience."

I agree! But I find your saying that quite contradictory with your moral judgements of Masons, and your calling the leaders of your church "cunning vipers", among all the other moral judgements you've made.

And it really conflicts with your very next paragraph:

"Folks advocating "free thought" and "freedom of conscience" are not particularly suited to this sort of endeavor and quite naturally recoil from anything like actual moral judgment."

So, we have confirmation of why you don't recoil from making moral judgements. It's because you feel yourself to be "suited for the endeavor".

Off to bed. Good Night.

[Askel5]

.... There are many other instances in history of men with a firm understanding of and adherence to ethics. One in particular involves Socrates, the Greek Philosopher, who, when advised by Crito to escape from prison to avoid his sentence of death, asked several Questions.

He asked - "are we to say that we are never intentionally to do wrong ……. or is doing wrong always evil and dishonorable ……..?". Crito answered "Yes. He then asked - "Ought a man to do what he admits to be right …..?". Crito agains answered "Yes". He finally asked - "Do you imagine that a state can subsist ………in which the decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and overthrown by individuals?". The answer Socrates received to this was "No".

Thus Socrates accepted his death sentence, even though believing it to be unjust, rather than violate the law himself. He had made an agreement with the State that he would duly obey its laws, and had not sought to change them. Socrates thus valued his oath and obligations as sacred and, not having sought to change the laws of his State, obeyed them.

Can Freemasons do less involving laws that do not endanger their lives, but merely how they mangage them? Can they not be expected to obey their oaths and obligations and abide by the laws of the Craft, especially if they have taken no action to change them?

Honor, along with duty, form the bedrock of human character. Today, many who see an injustice or are dissatisfied with a status do nothing. Others betray the right. Toleration of misconduct makes the person who tolerates equally guilty of malfeasance. Ethics rules, unlike most laws, are observed only by ethical people, who don't need them. Honor codes are meaningless to individuals without a sense of honor.

Freemasons who breach the Constitution and Ordinances of their Grand Lodge, or the By-laws of their Lodges, not only violate their obligations, but are individuals without a sense of honor. Those who have knowledge of those breaches and do nothing are likewise guilty of malfeasance. An observation of such inherently immoral action is set forth in the Volume of the Sacred Law, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?".

Freemasonry's only dogma consists of moral principles requiring only common sense to understand them. T.R. Fehrenback, an editorial writer, observed that ethics is - Do right if you can; above all do no harm; and if questionable, do not do it, whatever the law allows. Freemasonry sets a higher standard to always do right. Its ritual includes references to: purity of life and conduct; being good and true; practicing the domestic and public virtues; squaring our actions by the Square of virtue; and displaying discretion, virtue and dignity. But even the most explicit laws or lists of do's and don'ts or standards of conduct are futile if those they apply to lack the basic character to abide by them.

It is not difficult to know right from wrong. Common sense is inherent in most people. Epictetus, when asked what common sense was, said - "As that may be called a common ear which distinguishes only sounds, while that which distinguishes musical notes is not common but produced by training; so there are certain things which men not entirely perverted see by the natural principles common to all, Such a Constitution of the mind is called common sense".

Thus, Freemasons can not only understand the principles of Masonic ethics, but work them out in life. Determining what is right and exercising common sense should be the constant rule and guide for each Freemason. Since Freemasons are urged to live Masonic principles and thus, by precept and example, encourage others to emulate their actions, they must abide by their obligations and not palliate the offenses of their brethern. They must realize that the teachings of the Craft are designed to improve society as well as each member, just as Aristotle knew that though it is worthwhile to obtain the end merely for one man, it is fine and more Godlike to attain it for a nation.

. The membership selective process in our Craft must be always by the requirement set forth in the first Degree charge - by not recommending any one to a participation in our privileges without having strong reasons to believe that he would ultimately reflect honor on our ancient Institution.

In this day and age of pleasure derived solely from material gain, Freemasons should also take pleasure in seeing themselves daily grow better. They must do as the Emperor Marcus Aurelius suggested - no longer talk about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

From "Masonic Ethics" by Jack R. Levitt

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I think this is largely due to Calvinism's concept of elect and non-elect and the protestant notion that anyone failing to accept the Christ (on their terms, anyway) is somehow condemned.

Harrumph. Even on a masonry thread, the Calvinists get a pie in the face.

"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." -- Romans 11:5

None of us knows the names of the elect. Like the thief on the cross, some will be given His grace as they draw their last breath.

But in real time, men know each other by the fruit of their actions.

...weak, troubled and in the service of evil where he condones and funds the farming of Potential People for human parts of use to the "living".

Amen. It is difficult to see otherwise.

"The unborn baby, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a baby in the womb before it has come to light." -- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Last Four Books of Moses.

[Askel5]

=== The Rockefellers now run the Catholic church?

Not yet!!

You are unfamiliar with John D. Rockefeller's presuming to dictate to the Pope how he should rule on the subject of contraception?

In 1965, Rev. Hesburgh (President of Notre Dame and host of several of the Interlock's consciousness-raising confabs of prominent Catholics on the subject of contraception and other WASP initiative -- see the "Earth Resources & Population Task Force Report" of 1970 for more) arranged for a private audience between Rockefeller and Pius VI.

It's truly astounding -- particularly in light of the betrayal by the Pope's own commission on the subject -- that Pius toed the line and kept God a part of human procreation.

(Where practicing Catholics are concerned, anyway. As I've been informed by many "Christians" on the site, birth control -- if not also abortion -- is a godgiven technology by which the Creator presumed we'd begin to more perfectly plan "God's blessings" that are the fruit of holy matrimony.)

[Trinity_Tx]

Before I go, this from you caught my eye...

"speculative masonry had lost its taste for the more mystical aspects of the craft and become a more pedestrian organization along the lines of Rotary."

Indeed. And if you'll just accept that much to be true, you'll see how these Masons today, at least, deserve an apology.

[nopardons]

Back on the abortion hobbyhorse,I see.

Okay,the Masons rule the world,the Rockefellers run the Vatican,the Pope is just a puppet,and it's all Bush's fault!LOL

Is there ANY conspiracy theory you don't give credence to?

[Askel5]

Good morning, Tex ... sorry, it was not a bad dream ... if you'll pardon one last reply ...

But I find your saying that quite contradictory with your moral judgements of Masons, and your calling the leaders of your church "cunning vipers", among all the other moral judgements you've made.

Am I likewise barred from calling the Bolsheviks "cunning vipers"? Is there no criticizing communism lest all who are swept up in the fervor of revolution are deemed "condemned" by me?

Why can't you leave it on an intellectual plane? Some men are cunning and evil. Their acts and professions of faith give them away. Are they condemned? That's up to their maker.

There are no two ways around the fact that the radicals of Vatican II were bent on destroying the Church. Had they up and started their own Church -- like China or Luther or Henry the VIII -- it would be one thing. But they did not have the integrity to leave but instead sought -- by hook and by crook and by patently violent and disruptive means -- to re-form the Church to their own GODLESS vision. That was evil of them ... pure and simple.

It's the math of Masonry to which I'm objecting. Criticizing an organization whose primary symbol is the enduring stone and who decry the loss of ethics or morality even as they maintain their oath to "free thought" and "freedom of conscience" is absurd on its face. Likewise, it's hard to fathom the mission that is "equality of all men" from an organization that chooses its brothers from the family of man, admits only freeborn men of a "good report" and scrupulously orders same into a hierarchy of secrets which most Masons never will be told.

It just doesn't make any sense on its face and -- as the original article pointed out -- is absolutely incompatible with Christianity for that and other reasons.

And it really conflicts with your very next paragraph:

"Folks advocating "free thought" and "freedom of conscience" are not particularly suited to this sort of endeavor and quite naturally recoil from anything like actual moral judgment."

Having devolved into "speculative" freemasonry, specifically eschewed anything like formal "dogma" (as opposed to the strict rules governing individual lodges and the degree system), from where exactly does the enduring "morality" of Masonry stem and how is it supposed to remain static?

What truths Pike proferred, even, are free to be rejected. That's not exactly the hallmark of an organization founded in objective or enduring truth or anything like universal morality. Rather, the morality (as expressed by Ben Franklin among others) seems to be of the extortionist Golden Rule sort espoused by atheists: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Believe it or not, it's actually a far cry from Christ's "love as I have loved you." It's the inverse actually, do you see that much?

So, we have confirmation of why you don't recoil from making moral judgements. It's because you feel yourself to be "suited for the endeavor".

I've had the benefit of Catholicism. Of course I'm suited to making moral judgments ... particularly on myself. I have a formed conscience, not a "free" conscience.

Seriously, when you think about the fact that conscience (or "common sense" as some like to call it) is the law of God inscribed in our hearts, it's the height of pride to "free" that conscience based on the art of stone-cutting or other esoteric guild secrets rooted in a study of harnessing Matter and directing light for the greater glory of temporal kings.

Off to bed. Good Night.

Sleep tight. I realize we don't agree on much and you find me an insufferable moralizer but I've enjoyed very much our exchange and thank you for the thought-provoking replies.

[Askel5]

Harrumph. Even on a masonry thread, the Calvinists get a pie in the face.

Oh dear ... sorry about that. But with all the talk of how our founding fathers all were Masons, surely you saw it coming. A list of the Calvinists a part of our founding and continuing heritage at the leadership level would likewise be impressive, I'm sure. =)

But in real time, men know each other by the fruit of their actions.

Agreed. And that's really the only point of my diatribe against the audacious and hateful acts of those most intent on turning Vatican II into a free-for-all revamping of the Church by twisting her words, reforming her Mass and rethinking her teachings.

"The unborn baby, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a baby in the womb before it has come to light."

-- John Calvin

Worth repeating. Thanks very much for that. Best regards, Dr. Eckleburg.

[Askel5]

To: Trinity_Tx

Don't confuse by repeating her own words to her...she has NO idea 
at all what she has written.

477 posted on 02/07/2005 12:29:37 AM PST by nopardons


To: Trinity_Tx

Don't confuse her by repeating her own words to her...she has NO 
idea at all what she has written.

478 posted on 02/07/2005 12:30:11 AM PST by nopardons 

Oh man ... that was a classic!!! (We'll blame the machine, of course.)

This is a serious question.......... Why are you afraid of the Masons?

You think I'm "afraid" of the Masons after a thread like this? C'mon, nopardons, I thought you said this was "a serious question."

G'night, nopardons.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Same good thoughts and the comfort of His promise to you, Askel5.

[Askel5]

=== Back on the abortion hobbyhorse,I see.


Only because we -- the most "moral" nation on earth -- still slaughter roughly 1500 per day with surgical abortions and are racing to become the world's premiere farmer of human flesh.

Maybe if you delve as deeply into Christianity as you have Masonry, you'll see how I'm unable to "free" my conscience on this methodical, purposed destruction of human life and deforming of human souls.

It's no conspiracy, nopardons. You need look no father than the Congressional Record or Kissinger's NSSM-200 to understand that abortion is a GOP policy to which this nation was purposefully "educated" along with birth control, artificial conception and the "right" to predetermine the sex of "God's blessings."

[Askel5]

=== And if you'll just accept that much to be true, you'll see how these Masons today, at least, deserve an apology.


How so? I think I understand where you're coming from but I'm not sure and don't wish to exacerbate anything by assuming I know why the Rotary-League Masons are deserving of an apology.

[Atlantic Friend]

"Catholics are NOT Freemasons. It's comprised of Jews and Protestants."

Er, sorry but no, lots of Freemasons I know are Catholics...

[Atlantic Friend]

"hehe. I always love that statement. If they are so "secret", why do they label their buildings and drive their cars marked with special license plates and bumber sticker?"

Indeed ! But there are some places where Freemasons do not publicize their belonging to a Lodge.

[Atlantic Friend]

"It seems that the Masons in the US are very different from the Masons on the main continent of Europe, the so-called Oriental Lodge which broke with the Anglo Lodges a long time ago."

As I understand it, there are different "families" in European Freemasonry. Some of them always kept their link to the English Lodge - and thus to God, as a firm belief in God is a requirement to be granted recognition by the English Lodge.

[uglybiker]

So, what is the point of these arguments?

I'm not sure, but I hope she keeps it up. We're getting alot of free advertizing!

[uglybiker]

An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest." It's a cult. Granted, the connotation is usually religious in nature and (the engravings I quoted from DC's House of the Temple notwithstanding), "cult" yet describes any society steeped in rituals and rites, venerations and common pursuits.

That broad definition could apply to any church. Including yours.

[malakhi]

Thanks, that's what I assumed the mainstream Catholic view was.

[malakhi]

then the Junior League is most assuredly a cult too. So are the Moose and the Elk and the boy scouts and the Rotarians and so on and so on and so on.

Don't even get me started on the Kiwanis. (shudder)