Booklet No.

3
Fellow Craft Degree - Passing
To be used by the lodges in advancing the
Lodge System of Masonic Education

Prepared for the

Grand Lodge of Mississippi F & AM
By the
Committee on Masonic Education
For the use of the Subordinate Lodges
and their Members
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 FOREWORD

This is the third of four booklets to be used by the Lodge Committee for Candidate
instruction in The Lodge System of Masonic Education. The Educational Committee of
the Grand Lodge of Mississippi has at last crystallized its findings in a method that is
without doubt the best that has yet been devised.

This is the Lodge System of Masonic Education. It is simple, it is practicable, it is

employed under the immediate authority and direction of the local Lodge, it works at the
point where Education is most needed and best appreciated; namely, with the Candidate
himself, and the results, if the method is used consistently, automatically guarantee
themselves. We recommend it unreservedly to every local Lodge.

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MEANING OF THE TERM “FELLOW CRAFT”

Subject No. 1 — Meeting No. 3

My Brother:

“Fellow Craft” is one of a large number of terms which have a technical meaning
peculiar to Freemasonry and are seldom or never found elsewhere. In the dictionary sense
it is not difficult to define.

A “Craft” was an organization of the skilled workmen in some trade or calling as for
example, masons, carpets, painters, sculptors, barbers, etc. A “Fellow” meant one who
held full membership in such a Craft, or who was an associate in the work, thus obligated
to the same duties and allowed the same privileges. Since the skilled Crafts are no longer
organized as they once were, the term is no longer in use with its original sense.

It is more difficult to give it the larger meaning as it is found in Freemasonry, but we may
be assisted to that end by noting that with us it possesses two quite separate and distinct
meanings, one of which we may call the Operative meaning, the other the Speculative.
We can consider first the Operative, meaning:

1. In the Operative period Freemasons were skilled workmen engaged in some branch of
the building trade, or art of architecture; as such, like all other skilled workmen, they had
an organized Craft of their own. The general form in which this Craft was organized was
called a “Guild.” A Lodge was a local, and usually temporary, organization within the
Guild. This Guild had officers, laws, rules, regulations, and customs of its own,
rigorously binding on all members equally.

It divided its membership into two grades; the lower was composed of Apprentices. As
you have already learned, the Operative Freemasons recruited their membership from
qualified lads of twelve to fifteen years of age.

When such a boy proved acceptable to the members, he was required to swear to be
teachable and obedient, upon which he was bound over to some Master Mason; after a
time, if he proved worthy, his name was formally entered in the books of the Lodge,
thereby giving him his title of Entered Apprentice. For about seven years this boy lived
with his master, gave his master implicit obedience in all things, and toiled much but
received no pay except his board, lodging, and clothing. In the Lodge life he held a place
equally subordinate because he could not attend a Lodge of Master Masons, had no voice

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or vote, and could not hold office. All of this means that during his long apprenticeship
he was really a bond servant with many duties, few rights, and very little freedom.

At the end of his apprenticeship he was once more examined in Lodge; if his record was
good, if he could prove his proficiency under test, and the members voted in his favor, he
was released from his bonds and made a full member of the Craft, with the same duties,
rights and privileges as all others. In the sense that he had thus become a full member he
was called a “Fellow of the Craft;” in the sense that he had mastered the art, and no
longer needed a teacher, he was called a “Master Mason.” So far as his grade was
concerned these two terms meant the same thing.

Such was the Operative meaning of Fellow Craft; now that the Craft is no longer
operative the term possesses a very different meaning usually, yet at the same time it is
still used in its original sense in certain parts of the Ritual, and of course it is frequently
met with in the histories of the Fraternity.

2. We come next to the meaning of the term in Speculative Masonry. As you have
already learned, Operative Freemasonry began to decline at about the time of the
Reformation when Lodges became few in number and small in membership. After a time
a few of these in England began to admit into membership men with no intention of
practicing the trade of Operative Masonry but who were attracted by the Craft’s antiquity
and for social reasons. These were called Speculative Masons. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century these Speculative Masons had so increased in number that at last they
gained entire control, and during the first quarter of that century they completely
transformed the Craft into the Speculative Fraternity as we now have it.

Although they adhered as closely as possible to the old customs, they were compelled to
make some radical changes in order to fit the Society for its new purposes. One of the
most important of these was to abandon the old- rule of dividing the members into two
grades, or Degrees, and to adopt a new rule of dividing it into three grades, or Degrees. It
was necessary to find a name for the new Degree and the expedient was hit upon the
naming of the Second the Fellow Craft Degree, the Third the Master Mason Degree; why
this somewhat confusing device was adopted we do not know, but adopted it was and it
continues until this day.

As a result, the term Fellow Craft is now used in general as the name of the Second
Degree; more particularly it may serve as the name of that Degree; or of the ritualistic
ceremonies and other contents of that Degree, or of a member of it, or of a Lodge when

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opened on it. You are yourself a Fellow Craft; this means that you have passed through
its ceremonies, assumed its Obligations, are registered as such in the books of the Lodge,
and can sit in either a Lodge of Entered Apprentices or of Fellow Crafts but not of Master
Masons. Your function as a member of this Degree is to do and to be all that it requires of
you.

In order to make that function clearer let us pause for a moment to consider one fact
about Freemasonry as a whole. That fact is this: Freemasonry is altogether too large to be
exemplified in the Ritual or to be presented through Initiation in only one evening, and
there would be too much of it for a man to learn in only one evening (or even in one day!)
if it could be thus presented. The teachings of Masonry constitute a pattern for living; in
fact, they have been aptly described as “a life to be lived.” How absurd, then, is the
notion that one could absorb their entire significance by participating in the ceremonies
of three evenings! It is not an overstatement to say that a lifetime is necessary, even as it
is in an academic pursuit of art, religion or the sciences. The three Degrees follow one
another and the members of each stand on a different level of rights and duties; but this
does not mean that the portion of Masonry presented in the First, or in the Second
Degree, so far as its nature and teachings are concerned, is one with less importance, or
less binding, than the portion presented in the Third Degree. All that is taught in the First
or Second Degree belongs as necessarily and vitally to Freemasonry as what is taught in
the Third; there is a necessary subordination in the grades of membership but there is no
subordination among the portions of Masonry as presented to each grade; one portion
stands on the same level as the others.

Do not therefore permit yourself to be tempted, my Brother, to look upon the Fellow
Craft Degree as a mere stage, or stepping stone, to the Third. Freemasonry as a whole
gave one portion of itself to you in the First, it has given another portion, hi the second; in
the Third that same Masonry will give you another portion, but it is always one and the
same thing. There is but one Masonry throughout, therefore let me urge you to give it the
same studious attention while you are a Fellow Craft that you doubtless expect to give it
when you are a Master Mason.

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INTERPRETATION OF THE RITUAL OF THE SECOND DEGREE

Subject No. 2 — Meeting No. 3

My Brother:

You are now a Fellow Craft Mason. What that title means has already been explained to
you. My purpose now is to try to explain something of the meaning of the Degree of
which it is the name; I say “something of the meaning” advisedly, for it would require
many whole evenings to explain it in full.

Because the Fellow Craft Degree chances to lie between the Entered Apprentice and the
Master Mason Degree you must not permit yourself to fall into the error of considering it
a half-way station, a mere transition from one to the other. It has in itself the same
completeness, the same importance, as each of the other two, with a definite purpose of
its own; and unless you understand its teachings thoroughly your Initiation will fail of its
purpose.

There are two great ideas embodied in it. They are not the only ideas in it, but if you
understand them they will lead you into an understanding of the others.

One of these is the idea of adulthood.

Where the Entered Apprentice represents youth standing at the portals of Life, his eyes
on the rising sun, and where the Master Mason stands as the man of years, already on the
farther slope of the hill with the setting sun in his eyes, the Fellow Craft is a man in the
prime of life — experienced, strong, resourceful, able to bear the heat and burden of the
day.

It is only in its very narrowest sense that adulthood can be described in terms of years.
When he comes to experience it a man discovers that the mere fact that he is forty or fifty
years of age has little to do with it. Adulthood is a condition, a state of life, a station
charged with a set of duties.

It is the man in his middle years who carries the responsibilities. It is he upon whom a
family depends for support; he is the Atlas on whose shoulders rest the burdens of
business; by his skill and experience the arts are sustained, to his keeping are entrusted
the destinies of the State. It is said that in the building of his Temple, King Solomon
employed eighty thousand Fellow Crafts, or “hewers in the mountains and quarries,” the
description is a suggestive one, for it is by these men and women who live in the Fellow
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Craft period of life that the hewing is done, in the mountains, or in the quarries, or
anywhere else.

And it is not their responsibility for toil alone that tests the mettle in their nature; they
live in a period of disillusionment. Youth is enthusiastic, carefree, filled with high hopes;
the upward sloping path before it is bathed in the morning light. Old age is mellowed, the
battle lies behind it; it does not struggle or cry aloud, and walks where the landscape lies
in the mystical light of the dying sun. Young men see visions; old men dream dreams.

The Fellow Craft walks in the full, uncolored light of the noon time. Everything stands
starkly before him, in its most uncompromising reality; if he was buoyed by boyish
illusions as to the ease of life and the sufficiency of his strength a little while ago, these
illusions have now evaporated in the heat of the day; and if after a few more years he will
have learned mellow peace and resignation, that time has not yet come. It is for him to
bend his back and bear the load.

What does the Second Degree have to say to the Fellow Craft, whether in Masonry or in
the world at large? The answer to that brings us to our second idea.

That idea is this — that the Fellow Craft may so equip himself that he will prove
adequate to the tasks which will be laid upon him.

What is that equipment? The Degree gives us at least three answers. Let us ponder each
of them a moment.

The first answer is that the Fellow Craft must gain direct experience. You will recall what
was said about the Five Senses. Needless to say, that portion of the Middle Chamber
Lecture was not intended to be an exposition on either physiology or psychology; it is
symbolism, and represents what a man learns through hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling
and tasting — in short, immediate experience. A man garners such experience only with
the passage of time; each day he must come into contact with facts; what he learns one
day must be added to the next, and so on from year to year, until at last, through the very
contacts of his senses with the objects which make up the world, he has come to
understand that world, how to deal with it, how to master it at the point where he stands.

The second answer is education. After all, an individual’s possible experience is

extremely limited, circumscribed by the length of his Cable Tow. Could we learn of life
only that with which we are brought into contact by our own senses, then would we be
indeed poorly equipped to deal with its complexities and responsibilities! No! To our

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own store of hard won experience of others, supplementing our experience by the
information of countless men brought to us through many channels; our own knowledge
must be made complete by the knowledge taught us by the race and its teachers.

We have a perfect picture of this inside Freemasonry. Consider the Apprentice in the
days when Masons were builders of great and costly structures. He was a mere boy, ten to
fifteen years of age, scarcely knowing one tool from another, entirely ignorant of the
secrets and arts of the builder; and yet, after seven years or so he was able to produce his
Master’s Piece and to take his place at any task to which the Worshipful Master might
appoint him. How was his miracle accomplished? Not by his own unaided efforts, but by
teaching, by the Master Masons about him guiding his clumsy hands and passing on to
him in many lessons what they had been years in acquiring.

Such is education. It is symbolized in the Second Degree by the Liberal Arts and
Sciences. Perhaps you were somewhat nonplussed to hear what was said about grammar,
rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, and wondered what such
school-room topics had to do with Masonry. You understand now! The explanation of
these subjects was not meant to be an academic lecture out of a college course; like so
much else in the Degree it was symbolism, and the symbolism signified all that is meant
by education — our training by others in skill and knowledge to do or to understand
certain kinds of task.

A Fellow Craft of life then must be equipped with experience and knowledge. Is there
anything more! Yes, there is a third answer, and it is of more importance than either of
the other two. That third answer is wisdom.

Experience gives us awareness of the world at that point where we are in immediate
contact with it; knowledge gives us competency for special tasks in the arts, trades,
professions, callings and vocations. But a man’s life is not confined to his own immediate
experience; nor is he day and night engaged in the same task; life is more complex, is
richer than that! It comes to us compounded of all manner of things, a great variety of
experiences, a consistent succession of situations, a never-ending list of new problems,
and it is full of people with all of their reactions, emotions, varied characters, and
behaviors. The world is infinitely greater than what each of us now sees, hears or feels; it
is far more complex than our accustomed daily tasks.

Therefore, if we are to be happy in our life in such a world, we must have the ability to
understand and to cope with this complex whole; we must be able to meet situations that

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have never arisen before. Imagine a symphony being rendered by an orchestra. Each
player must be able to see, to touch, and to hear, or he cannot even hold an instrument in
his hands; he must have knowledge of his own musical score and of the capacities of his
instrument; but the conductor must have all this, plus an understanding of all instruments
and of the composition as a whole. His skill and knowledge must embrace not only each
instrument in turn, with each player’s score, but all of them together, and at once.

This conductor is not a misleading picture of wisdom. A man may see, hear, touch, and
handle things so much that he wins a rich experience, and yet not have knowledge; and a
man may have such knowledge, may have mastered some task, or art, or trade, and yet be
unhappy and a failure as a human being because he cannot adjust himself to the complex
system of realities, experiences and facts which make up life as a whole. He may lack
wisdom and competency to deal with each situation that arises, it matters not what it may
be.

The Middle Chamber, which is so conspicuous an element in the Second Degree,

doubtless has many other meanings, but it most certainly has this that it is a symbol of the
wisdom of which I have just been speaking. Through the experience of the Five Senses,
up through the knowledge gained of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, the candidate is called
upon to advance, as on a Winding Stair, to that balanced wisdom of life hi which the
senses, emotions, intellect, character, work, deeds, habits and soul of a man are knit
together in unity — balanced, poised, adequate.

If the Fellow Craft will thus equip himself — whether you think of him as inside
Masonry or without — he need not shrink from his toil nor will he faint beneath the heat
and burden of the day, because his competency as a human being will be equal to the
demands made upon him.

This interpretation of the Fellow Craft Degree, as I stated in the beginning, touches but
the hem of its manifold meanings; but it has been my purpose only to give you certain
suggestions; and I hope that with them now in your possession you may be inspired to
search out all the other meanings for yourself.

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SYMBOLS AND ALLEGORIES OF THE SECOND DEGREE

Subject No. 3 — Meeting No. 3

My Brother:

In the Second Degree you discovered that a number of emblems and symbols of the First
Degree reappear in it; you will also discover in the future that a number of its own
emblems and symbols will reappear in the Third Degree. For this reason I shall, in my
brief talk, confine myself to those symbols and allegories that belong peculiarly to the
Second Degree.

Among the allegories peculiar to it, the most striking and important one is that rite in
which you acted the part of a man approaching King Solomon’s Temple; you came into
its outer precincts, climbed a Winding Stair, passed between the Two Pillars, and at last
entered its Inner Chamber; standing in it you acted the part of a Fellow Craft workman
who received his wages of Corn, Wine, and Oil; and during certain stages of this
allegorical journey you listened to various parts of a discourse which Masonry calls the
Middle Chamber Lecture.

This entire acted allegory is a symbolic picture of the true and inner meaning of
Initiation. The Temple is the life into which a man is initiated. That which lay outside the
walls of the Temple, from which you as a candidate were supposed to come, represents
what in Masonry is called the profane world - not profane in the usual sense of the word
as being blasphemous, but profane in the technical sense; the word literally means “shut
away from the Altar,” and it thereby signifies all who are not initiated; when you are
instructed not to reveal the secrets to a profane, it means not to reveal them to an
uninitiated person; that is, to one who is not a Mason. The stairs you climbed represented
the steps by which the life of Initiation is approached: qualification, petition, election, and
the Three Degrees. The Two Pillars represent birth; when you passed between them it
signified that you were no longer a profane but had now entered the circle of initiates.
The Middle Chamber represents Initiation completed; once arrived there the candidate
receives the rewards for the ordeals and arduous labors he has endured on the way; he has
arrived at his goal.

This, as I said, is an allegorical picture of Masonic Initiation, but our interpretation

cannot stop here; for the whole process of Masonic Initiation is itself a symbolic allegory
of something else, so that in this central portion of the Degree we have an allegory within
an allegory. We must ask then what is symbolized by Masonic Initiation itself.
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The answer is that it symbolizes, and in so doing interprets, the experience of every man
who seeks the good life; and by interpreting it teaches us how the good life is found. This
will be best explained by one or two examples.

As one of these examples, consider that form of the good life which we are seeking when
we seek education or enlightenment. Ignorance is one of the greatest of evils;
enlightenment is one of the greatest of goods. How does a man pass from one to another?
In the beginning a man is a profane, stands in the outside darkness, is in that ignorance
from which he would escape into the Inner Chamber of Knowledge. How is he qualified?
By having the necessary desire to learn and by possessing the required faculties and
abilities. How does he find his way? By trusting to his guides, that is, his teachers, and
these may be teachers in the professional sense, or they may be others who have
themselves learned that which the seeker needs to know, or the guides may be books.
What kind of path does the seeker follow? It is a winding path, that is, he must feel his
way along from stage to stage, for he has never walked it before; it is an ascending path,
that is, laborious, arduous, difficult, for there is no royal road to learning. What is the
door through which he can enter? It is a door composed of the Two Pillars, which means
birth; this signifies that knowledge must be worn inside our own natures, through what
happens there; others may assist but their assistance is limited; each man must learn by
his own efforts, and knowledge is never permanently won until it is made a part of
ourselves.

What are the rewards? The rewards are found in knowledge itself, which not alone is
useful because of what it enables us to do but is a thing to be enjoyed for its own sake,
like food or sleep or music; it is its own Corn, Wine, and Oil. The value of enlightenment
is represented by the Temple; this means that it is holy and sacred. Why holy? Because it
is set apart from the world of ignorance. Why sacred? Because it has been won at the cost
of great sacrifice, sacrifice by ourselves and by all our forefathers who at great cost won
it for us.

It is by the same methods that a man wins all the other great goods of life: religion, which
is the knowledge of God; Brotherhood, which is a life of fellowship grounded in good
will; art, which gives us ways and means of enjoying the beautiful; citizenship, by which
we are enabled to enjoy the goods of communal life; science, by which we learn the
nature of the world we live in; and literature, by which we enter into communion with life
of all mankind. A good life is one in which all such good things are enjoyed.

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All this, you may say, is commonplace. It is commonplace only in the sense that it
conforms to the experience of all wise men everywhere and always. It is not common in
the sense that all men understand it or follow it. For it is certain too many men do not
understand it, or if they do, have not the will to follow it, or else do not sincerely believe
in it in their hearts.

Such men, when they are young, are so impatient, or else are so indolent or so self-
conceited, that they refuse to submit themselves to a long and painful apprenticeship, but
rush out into adult life with all its tasks and responsibilities, without training and without
knowledge, trusting, as we say, to their luck.

This belief that the goods of life come, or even can come, by luck, or that they happen by
chance or fall by accident to the fortunate, is their chief and most fatal blunder. The
satisfying goods of life, whether they be spiritual, moral, intellectual or physical, have a
nature which renders it impossible for them ever to be won by luck, like a lottery prize, or
for them to drop into a man’s lap by some happy accident. They cannot come at all
except by our toiling to make them come, and even then they cannot come except at the
cost of changes and transformations in our own natures, which are often painful and
costly to make.

Such is the meaning of our allegorical entrance into King Solomon’s Temple in the
Second Degree. You can see at once that all the other symbols and allegories in the
Degrees are to be interpreted in the light of that meaning; you can also see that in the
light of that meaning the Degree itself as a whole becomes a living power, by which to
shape and build our lives, not only in the Lodge-room itself but in the world of human
experience of which the Lodge-room is a symbol.

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THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

Subject No. 4 — Meeting No. 3

My Brother:

You have now had conferred upon you the First and Second Degrees of Ancient Craft
Masonry. And while you have yet to reach the climax of your journey in the Sublime
Degree of Master Mason, already you have discovered that Freemasonry has a certain
teaching of its own, and that to expound that teaching is one of the principal functions of
the Ritual. We believe that if at this stage you are given some light upon this, you will be
assisted to appreciate the Third Degree all the more; therefore this Committee has
appointed me at this time to make certain suggestions to you on the subject of the
teachings of Masonry.

Already you have discovered that Masonry’s method of teaching is unlike that of the
schools. Instead of employing teachers and textbooks and lessons in didactic form -
instead, that is, of expounding and enforcing its teachings in plain words - it uses the
method of Ritual, symbol, emblem and allegory. This is not as easy to follow as the
schoolroom method, but over that or any similar method it has this one great advantage: it
makes a Mason study and learn for himself, forces him to search out the truth, compels
him to take the initiative, as a grown man should, so that the very act of learning is itself
of great educational value. The purpose of secrecy is not to keep a candidate in the dark,
but to stimulate him to seek the light; the symbols and emblems do not conceal the
teachings, they reveal it, but they reveal it in such a manner that a man must find it for
himself; and it is only when a man finds the truth for himself that it can be or remain a
living and permanent possession.

Therefore, in giving you a few interpretations of Masonic teachings I can only suggest to
you what you find by your own efforts, how you will find it, and where you will find it.
Necessarily there cannot be any exhaustive exposition of Masonic truth, because in its
nature it is something each man must discover for himself.

Among Freemasonry’s Tenets, or great teachings, are Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.
By Brotherly Love is meant that the relationship of blood brothers is a type of the
relations of Masons with one another. By Relief is meant the principle of benevolence
and charity. By Truth is meant, not only that which satisfies the mind, but also sincerity
of conscience and soundness of character - truthfulness in act as well as in thought and
speech.
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Freemasonry is a Fraternity devoted to Brotherhood, exists to furnish opportunities to its
members to enjoy it, for its own sake and not as a means to something beyond it; but this
Brotherhood must be understood in a special sense. Freemasonry’s position is that
Brotherhood rests on a religious basis; we are all Brothers, or should be, because God is
the Father of us all; therefore religion is one of the foundations of Masonry.

Masonry is dedicated to God, the Sovereign Grand Architect of the Universe. It keeps an
Altar at the center of every Lodge room. The Holy Bible lies open upon it. It begins and
ends its undertaking with prayer. When it obligates a candidate he must be upon his
knees. Its petitioners must believe in Immortality. All this is genuine religion, not a for-
mal religiousness; it is sincerely held and scrupulously upheld, and without this basis of
faith the Craft would wither and die like a tree with roots destroyed.

But this religion of Masonry, like all else in its teaching, is not set forth in written creeds,
or in any other form of words; the Mason must come upon it for himself, and put it in
such form as will satisfy his own mind, leaving others to do likewise. This is Masonic
tolerance, which is one of the prime principles of the Craft, and one protected by the An-
cient Landmark that forbids all sectarian discussion in our assemblies.

Along with religion Masonry teaches the necessity of morality, requiring of its members
that they be good men and true, righteous when tried by the Square, upright when tried by
the Plumb, their passions kept in due bounds by the Compasses, just in their dealings
with their fellows, patient with the erring, charitable, truthful, honorable. Nor are these
the words of a high sounding, but empty aspiration; a candidate must possess such a
character to be qualified for admittance, and a Mason must persevere in it to retain his
membership.

Of the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity our Craft says, as did the Apostle,
that

“the greatest of these is Charity.” Through the agency of the Lodge and of the Grand
Lodge each of us is to give support to the charities maintained by the Jurisdiction,
District or Lodge; but at the same time, and over and above this, each of us must stand
ready at any and all times privately to extend a helping hand in relief of an unfortunate
Brother, or of his dependents. Masonry, however, unlike some of the sects and cults,
does not advocate a charity carried to the limits of fanaticism; there is such as thing as
a Cable Tow, the extent of ability and opportunity, and we are not asked to give relief

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beyond the point where it would work damage to ourselves or hardships to our
families.

Another of Masonry’s great teachings is Equality, symbolized by the Level. This does
not represent that impossible doctrine which would erase all distinctions, and holds
that in all respects all men are the same, for it is evident that in many respects men are
very unequal, as in physique, in talent, in gifts, in abilities, and in character; it is,
rather, the principle that we owe goodwill, charity, tolerance, and truthfulness equally
to each and all, and that within our Fraternity all men travel the same road of
Initiation, take the same Obligations, pay the same dues, and have the same duties,
rights and privileges.

A like importance is attached to the need for enlightenment. The motto of Masonry is
“Let there be Light,” almost the whole of the Second Degree is a drama of education;
the Work of Masonry is called the Royal Art, and it is expected that our candidates
beginning as Apprentices shall study to learn its practice, consulting with well-
informed Brethren and making use of the Working Tools. Truth is one of the Tenets.
There is Masonry of the mind as well as of the heart and of the hands. To reverence
the wise, to respect teachers, to value and uphold schools, and to encourage the
Liberal Arts and Sciences is one of our most ancient traditions.

Outside the Lodge room the Mason is to be a good citizen, loyal to his government,
taking no part in broils and rebellions, conducting himself as a moral and wise man,
remembering in all things that he has in his keeping the good name of his Fraternity.

These teachings arise out of, and at the same time are bound together into, an
organized unity by the nature and needs of that Brotherhood for the sake of which the
whole system of the Craft exists, to endure through all vicissitudes, and to satisfy our
natures. Brotherhood must have a spiritual basis, hence the all-importance of our
foundation or religion. Brotherhood requires that men must be held together by
unbreakable ties, hence the necessity of morality, which is a name for the forces that
bind us in the relations of amity and accord. Differences of beliefs and opinions must
not be permitted to rupture those bonds, hence the need for enlightenment. They may
not come together or remain together except they have the same rights and privileges,
hence the necessity of equality. They cannot work together except they all understand
the work to be done, hence the need for enlightenment. They will not be drawn
together except they are filled with that spirit of goodwill which necessarily expresses
itself in charity and relief. And a Brotherhood itself cannot exist except in a society
which admits of it, hence the need for Masons to be good citizens. Through all the
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teachings of Masonry run these principles which lead back, each and every one, to its
conception and practice of Brotherhood; from that conception all things emerge in the
beginning; to it all things come in the end. Gain a clear understanding of that and you
will have that Royal Secret by which all else is made plain.

In conclusion, my Brother, The Masonic Belief is that there is but one God, the Father
of all men.

The Holy Bible is the Great Light in Masonry, and the Rule and Guide for faith and
practice.

Man is immortal.

Character determines destiny.

Love of man is, next to love of God, man’s first duty.

Prayer, communion of man with God, is helpful.

Recognizing the impossibility of confining the teaching of Masonry to any fixed

forms of expression, yet acknowledging the value of authoritative statements of
fundamental principles, the following is proclaimed as

THE MASONIC TEACHING

Masonry teaches man to practice charity and benevolence, to protect chastity, to

respect the ties of blood and friendship, to adopt the principles and revere the
ordinances of religion, to assist the feeble, guide the blind, raise up the downtrodden,
shelter the orphan, guard the Altar, support the Government, inculcate morality,
promote learning, love man, fear God, implore His mercy and hope for happiness.

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THE LITERATURE OF MASONRY

Subject No. 5 — Meeting No. 3

My Brother:

It has been said upon good authority that more books have been written about
Freemasonry than upon any other single subject. Many more books, of course, have been
devoted to the broad fields of human thought, such as religion, science, and so on, but
such topics could not be described as a single subject. The point in itself, however, is
unimportant; the fact to be remembered is that we possess an extraordinary rich literature
about the Fraternity in all its branches and aspects, and any Brother who wishes to enjoy
his Masonry to the fullest, will necessarily make use of it. It is to give you some guidance
in doing this that the Committee has delegated me to speak about our literature and the
means of obtaining it.

Our literature divides itself naturally into a series of divisions. I shall comment briefly
upon each of them.

1. History. Our written records cover some six centuries of time, but at the time one of the
oldest documents was written, which was about 1390 A.D., the Craft already was old;
furthermore it had in its own beginnings inherited much from other secret fraternities that
had gone before; therefore our historians must go much farther back than 1390. At the
same time they must range far afield, to cover allied subjects, and they also must often
deal with other fraternities, with which Freemasonry is, or has been, historically con-
nected. Add to this the fact that the Fraternity as a whole has divided itself into a number
of rites, and the additional fact that each country has a history of its own, and something
of the scope of the subject begins to be revealed. Speaking in the large, Masonic History
breaks into the following subdivisions: general, history country by country, history Grand
Lodge by Grand Lodge, and Lodge history. In the same general field would fall
biographies, histories of buildings, and histories of single subjects such as the Ancient
Manuscripts, etc.

2. Ritual and Symbolism. A writer on this subject might try to trace to its origin some
element in the Ritual or compare it with something similar elsewhere; or he might try to
explain a symbol or ceremony; or show how it is related to the other portions of the
system; or interpret its meaning. A great mass of material exists on the Ritual in many
languages and various forms, from every conceivable point of view and according to the
beliefs of all the schools of Masonic thought.

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3. Philosophy. This deals with the teachings of Masonry, what Masonry stands for, what
its ideals are, what it is trying to do, how it is related to other social institutions and what
its mission is in the world. The term “Masonic philosophy” may be justly defined in
either of two ways; it may mean an effort to study Masonry itself by philosophical
methods, as philosophers study other subjects; or it may mean Masonry’s own
philosophy of life. Understood either way, we have a magnificent literature devoted to it.

4. Jurisprudence. Masonic Law exists in two main branches, Unwritten Law and
Written Law. By Unwritten Law is not meant that it is never written down, but rather that
its authority does not lie in the form in which it may be written — if written at all. Under
this head fall the Ancient Landmarks, Old Charges, and Ancient Constitutions, traditions,
customs and usages. By the Written Law are meant the Holy Bible, Grand Lodge
Constitutions, Codes, Statutes, Rules, Definitions, Regulations, adopted Edicts and Lodge
By-Laws.

5. Reference. By this is meant such books as dictionaries, encyclopedias, Grand

Lodge Proceedings, hand-books and similar books. Their value is not for constructive
reading but to be kept at hand for quick reference.

6. General Literature. Under this is included fiction, poetry, drama, humor, music and all
such other books as do not fall easily under the heads already given.

Having received this bird’s-eye view of the vast scope of the literature of Masonry you
doubtless are asking in your own mind how you may secure the use of it.

There are many publications available for those looking for further Light in Masonry,
such as, Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Gould’s History of
Freemasonry, and many other books covering all Masonic subjects. The Worshipful
Master or Secretary of your Lodge will give you the necessary information on how to
obtain the books you desire. We feel it is our duty, to urge you to make use of every
opportunity to find further Light in Masonry.

You have entered that country called Freemasonry; it spreads out from your feet farther
than your eye can reach through time and space, its great themes are like mountain ranges
and fertile valleys. This land belongs to you, and the Masonic literature exists to help you
put yourself in possession of it.

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