The first chapter of the work which the Editor long has promised to the Craft. Others will follow in succeeding issues. INTRODUCTION WHAT IS RELIGION? What is Masonry? What is the relation, if any, between them? Is Masonry a religion? If so, what religion is it? What is a religion as distinct from Religion? If Masonry is not a religion, what is its attitude toward Religion? That is to say, what is the Religion of Masonry, and how are we to interpret it? Such questions, and others of a sort similar, have been more discussed than almost any other questions connected with the existence and study of Masonry. They are asked by friends and foes alike, often from different motives and with widely differing answers. Nor is it to be wondered at, remembering the confusion of thought in the minds of men regarding religion and what they mean by it. By the very fact that the things of religion are so important, so decisive, and touch life so deeply, men want to know how Masonry is related to the chief interest of human life. In what mood or from what motive soever the question is asked, it is fair and proper to ask it. As a clearance of issues, if nothing else, there is need of a careful, reverent, discriminating, sympathetic study of the matter, in order to clarify our own thought and to set it forth in a manner worthy of its importance. Obviously, if we are to study the question to any profit, we must know what we mean by the words we use and the realities with which we have to do. But first, by way of introduction, it may be well to survey, in swift glance, the situation as it stands in the Masonry of our day in its formal attitude to religion. I IN THE organized Masonry of the world one discovers at least three different attitudes in respect to the relation of the Craft to religion. They are far apart, as will presently appear, and it is difficult to see how they can be reconciled, in view of the sentiments which religion evokes and its essentially conservative spirit. Each of these attitudes, it need hardly be said, is due to differences of race, as well as of religion, to say nothing of the different environments in which they developed; and here. we have to do with forces hard to manage. For the same reason, it behooves us to invoke all our powers not simply of toleration, but of insight and understanding, if we are not to lose ourselves in a tangle of racial prejudices and antipathies, to say nothing of the unholy confusion which religion, by the strangest freak of fact, has the power to create. (1) In English-speaking lands, as we know well enough, our Masonry is essentially and nobly religious, both in its faith and its practice, and we are quite well agreed as to what we mean by the Religion of Masonry. To enter our Lodges a man must confess - not merely profess - his faith in God - though he is not required definitely to define in what terms he thinks of God - in the principles and practice of morality, and in the immortality of the soul; though here again the exact nature of the future life, whether it be a physical resurrection or a triumph of spiritual personality, is not usually defined. In some Grand Lodges, however, the Monitors do specifically state that they mean "the resurrection of the body." THE MOST elaborate statement, so far as I am aware, is that adopted by the Grand Lodge of New York, as a preamble to its Constitution and Laws. It is an expression of "the simplest form of the faith of Masonry, not exhaustive, but incontrovertible and suggestive," to which is added a brief exposition intended to utter, so far as such things can be uttered, the atmosphere of thought and attitude of heart implied in the statement of religious truth, which is quite as important as the statement itself. It is as follows: "There is 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." SUCH IS the statement of Masonic faith and teaching in English-speaking lands, lucid, concise, noble in its simplicity and comprehensiveness, in all ways worthy of the Craft and of the Grand Lodge which put it forth. Others would go even further into detail, but a majority, perhaps, prefer a statement less detailed content to leave much of what is here stated specifically to be assumed as implied and understood, by virtue of the religious and racial environment in which we live. Still, it is well to have an authoritative and detailed pronouncement of a great Grand Lodge, if only to prevent any possible misinterpretation and misunderstanding as to the attitude of the Craft. (2) In German lands, as well as in the three Scandinavian Grand Lodges, it is demanded that a man be definitely Christian - that is to say, trinitarian - in his religious faith before he can be admitted into the fellowship of the Craft. In consequence of this attitude - quite uncompromising, so far as the old Prussian Grand Lodges are concerned - Jews are refused admission even to the Craft Degrees. Howbeit, in late years there has grown up a "Humanitarian" Masonry, as it is described, in Germany, which does not require a strict Christian, or trinitarian, faith as a basis of fellowship. There has been some friction between the two kinds of Masonry in German, but a tacit treaty of understanding seems to have been reached by which they can live together in mutual, if rather formal and distant, goodwill. It ought to be added. however, that even the old Prussian Grand Lodges found no great difficulty, in pre-war days, in meeting French Masons, who take a very different attitude. (3) Of Masonry in Latin lands it is enough to say that - excepting that part of it which lives under English obedience or in affiliation with the Grand Lodge of England - it is frankly Agnostic in its attitude toward the fundamental faiths of religion. Neither French nor Belgian Masonry requires faith in God as a condition of fellowship, much less do they forbid such faith - though in Belgium such faith is required in some of their higher degrees, with which we have not to do here. They simply refuse to ask what faith a man may hold on the subject, and avoid retaining anything in the ritual which implies that Masonry rests upon or seeks to cultivate, faith in God. It is not my wish to discuss, here and now, the wisdom or unwisdom of this attitude, still less to recite the historical reasons why French Masonry took and maintains its present position. It is sufficient to indicate the wide gulf between the Christian Grand Lodges of Sweden and Germany and the Agnostic Grand Lodge of France; and the almost equally wide gulf between both of them and the Masonry of our English-speaking lands. II BY THE same token, one finds among Masons in English- speaking lands the widest differences of opinion in regard to the relation of Masonry to religion. First of all, there are those who hold that Masonry is a purely social and philanthropic fraternity and has nothing to do with religion at all, except to acknowledge its existence, accept its fundamental ideas, and respect its ordinances. Having done that in a formal manner, its duty to religion is done, and it is free to take up its work of "Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth" - the truth being moral truth and teaching set forth in its symbols and its ritual. For example, in the "Royal Masonic Cyclopedia" we find these words: "But, above all things, let it be clearly seen as a purely social institution, having no political or religious tendency at all, tending to make men friendly upon vastly different grounds than those of agrarian and political rights." It is astonishing how wide-spread this attitude is, both in spirit and in practice. Many Brethren, more, perhaps, than express themselves, object to - though they are good enough to tolerate as a kind of weakness or folly - emphasis upon the religious aspect of Masonry and the high spiritual meaning of its symbols. Indeed, it is much to be feared that the Order - which word Dr. Johnson defined as "a religious fraternity" - is actually in danger of becoming what they hold it to be, merely a social order devoted to fellowship and philanthropy. If such is to be the future of Masonry, it will assuredly lose what some of us hold to be its distinctive quality and tradition, and become one more society among so many - useful and valuable, to be sure-but in nowise the Masonry by which our fathers set so much store. HOW ANYONE can so interpret Masonry is rather difficult to understand, in view of the facts of initiation and the spirit of the Lodge. Nor does it help matters to say that Craft Masonry is ethics, and the Royal Arch religion. Others are content to say that Masonry is "the handmaid of religion," a well-worn phrase which, if it means anything, implies that our Craft is a kind of servant to do the menial work of religion; as if religion were some haughty Dame too proud and arrogant to stoop to the common tasks of life. Whereas religion, if it has any worth or beauty, is the faith and spirit in which we do the humblest work of the world. As George Herbert put it, writing in his little rectory at Bemerton, as the birds nested in the eaves : Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws Makes that and the action fine. It is the business of Masonry to cut, carve, polish, and place in order of wall, pillar and arch the stones of a Temple of Brotherhood, founded upon spiritual faith and moral truth, built in accordance with the laws of God, by His aid, and in His holy name. As such it is manifestIy more than a mere social order inculcating ethical ideals and practicing philanthropy. As Arthur Waite put it picturesquely: "It is possible and is true to affirm that Masonry was born in a tavern, but it belongs to God Almighty; it began to make the life of the tavern like a vestibule for the life of the church." AT THE other extreme, we find those, both friends and foes, who regard Masonry as a sufficiently organize system of spiritual thought and practice to be entitled to be called a religion. By a religion they mean a definite creed arid certain distinctive rites expressing its faith and spirit, and both of these they find in Masonry. Such is the position of the Catholic Church, and of a section of the High Church Party of the Church of England, which is Catholic in all respects except in actual allegiance to the Roman See. They really regard Masonry as a rival religion of a naturalistic kind, to which, by all the obligations of their own faith in Divine revelation, they must be opposed; and it must be confessed that French Masonry, with the Bible off the Altar and the name of God omitted from the ritual, does justify such a description. Other elements, of course, enter into the opposition of Catholic and Anglo-Catholic opposition to Masonry, but on the distinctively religion side this is the basis and sum of it. What, then, is the truth of the matter? Is Masonry a religion? The leaders and students of the Craft, as well as the rank and mass of its members, in English-speaking lands at least, do not regard Masonry as a religion - though, as has been said, it has certain features which, in the strict technical sense, might lead those to regard it as such who wish, from whatever motive, so to regard it. As some of us prefer to put it, Masonry is not a religion but Religion - not a church but a worship, in which men of all religions may unite, unless they insist that all who worship with them must think exactly and in detail as they think about all things in the heaven above and in the earth beneath. It is not the rival of any religion, but the friend of all, laying emphasis upon those truths which underlie all religions and are the basis and consecration of each. Masonry is not a religion, but it is religious. III IF WE look at the matter historically, we find an interesting development in the attitude of Masonry to religion. The oldest extant document of the Craft - the Halliwell Ms. - known as the Regius Poem - dated about 1390, is not only Christian but definitely Catholic. Its discoverer held it to be such a document as a priest might have written, opening with an invocation to the Trinity and the Virgin Mary, and including instruction as to the proper way to celebrate the Mass. The early craft-Masons were loyal churchmen, and so far as we have record remained so throughout the cathedral building period. With the advent of the Reformation all was changed. Masonry became allied with the movement, or group of movements, out of which came the freedom of the peoples, the liberty of conscience, and the independence of manhood. At any rate, from the time of Edward VI on the Craft was emphatically Protestant in its affinities, as is shown by the invocations of the Old Charges of the period, of which the Harleian Ms. is a notable instance. But, while Masonry became Protestant in its spirit and principles, it still remained Christian, and continued to be distinctly so until a much later time. just what happened at the time of the "revival" in 1717, and in the period of the formation of the first Grand Lodge, is hard to know accurately. The background is dim and the facts are few, much as we should like to know details of the influences which played upon the men who devised the Constitutions of 1723, which Gould said, "may safely be attributed to Anderson." THE "REVIVAL," as we describe it, not only gave Masonry a new form of organization in the Grand Lodge, but a new attitude toward the church and religion - an attitude the full import of which was not understood until years afterward, and then it made a schism which lasted for half a century. The article on "God and Religion" in the Constitutions of 1723, if read in the setting of that time, is an extraordinary pronouncement, at once revolutionary and prophetic. In a word, just as in the Reformation Masonry severed its connection with Catholicism, so in 1723 it severed itself, once for all, from any one church or sect, making itself henceforth free from any system of theology. It proposed to unite men upon the common eternal religion "in which all men agree," asking Masons to keep "their peculiar opinions to themselves," and not to make them tests of Masonic fellowship. Only a few, however, realized how far-reaching such a platform really was, but by the middle of the century its meaning was discovered, and a rival Grand Lodge was organized in 1751 - using the religious issue as a pretext, if nothing more, because other motives and influences mingled - calling itself "Anxient," on the ground that the "Modern" Grand Lodge had departed from the faith. The two Grand Lodges existed side by side for fifty years and more, not without friction, but the "Moderns" finally won, disengaging Masonry from specific allegiance to any one religion, to the exclusion of others. In the Lodge of Reconciliation, in 1813, the universal religious character of the Craft was finally affirmed, and the last definite trace of dogmatic theological influence vanished from our Fraternity - let us hope forever. HOWBEIT, not all Masons were satisfied with the situation, and Hutchinson, a gifted and gracious man, in "The Spirit of Masonry" - a little classic to this day - made plea for a definitely Christian Masonry; as did Oliver and others. Even as late at 1885 the late Brother Whymper repeated the plea very persuasively in an able book, "The Religion of Freemasonry," but to no avail. He even went so far as to urge that Jews, Hindoos, and Mohammedans might be allowed to have Lodges of their own, if they wished, though not within, or not entirely within, the regular fellowship of the Fraternity - a thoroughly impossible suggestion on the face of it. Let us hope that the matter is now finally settled, and that Masonry will never again be the servant - handmaid or otherwise - of one religious dogma or creed, save its own universal creed of fundamental religion, but will continue to be "the center of union, and the means of conciliating true friendship," not only among persons but among faiths "that otherwise must have remained at a perpetual distance." For, to say no more, Masonry is a system of moral mysticism, expressing faith in God and the eternal life in old and simple symbols of the building art, awakening the better angels in the nature of man and teaching the brotherly life. Its aim is to aid its sons to win a clearer conception of their duty to God and man, to develop their spiritual faculties, to refine and exalt their lives in fellowship and service, leaving each one to add to its profound and simple faith such elaborations and embellishments as may seem to him to be true and beautiful and good, with due respect for and appreciation of the thought and faith and dream of his Brothers and Fellows.