SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.III June, 1925 No.6
THE LEVEL AND THE PLUMB
by: Unknown
Before you could become a Fellowcraft it was demanded of you that you
become proficient in the work of the First Degree; that you learn "by
heart " a certain portion of the Ritual, and make yourself competent
to "stand and deliver " it on occasion.
Such a memorization is the sole survival of that ancient custom of
Operative Masonry of demanding from the Apprentice, who had served
the legal time (usually seven years), a Master's Piece; and example
of ability in Masonry by which his fellows could judge whether or no
he had made good use of his time and was fit to be "passed " from the
state of being but an Apprentice, to that of being a Fellow (or
companion) of the Craft.
Alas, that our modern Master's Piece is so modest in its required
effort! For it takes no one very long, nor does it make much of a
drain upon time or patience, to "learn the words " by heart. Lucky is
he whose instructor is not content with teaching him just the words
and their order, but who insists upon in-structing as to their
meaning and their history.
The modern Fellowcraft Degree is, as a whole, emblematical of
manhood; to attain is to be grown up, Masonically speaking. As the
entered Apprentice Degree speaks of birth and babyhood, of first
beginnings and first principles, so does the degree of Fellowcraft
speak of growth, of strength and of virility to those who have inward
and spiritual ears with which to hear. No thoughtful man can avoid
the impression that this degree is an attempt to emphasize the vital
need of knowledge; to encourage study and research, to bring out the
beauty of wisdom. It is true that the liberal education which the
degree was once sup-posed to outline and encourage is no longer
either liberal or educational in fact; but it is still symbolical of
all that a good Mason should learn.
To understand the degree and what it attempts to do, one must have
some knowledge of its history, and of William Preston, who brought
the vigor of a trained mind to bear upon the often hasty and ill
considered lectures with which it progenitors were given. He turned
these lectures into the elaborate exposition of the five senses, the
seven liberal arts and sciences which we now have. In Preston's day
such an exposition of knowledge was all inclusive; it is not
Preston's fault that he knew nothing of science as we know it; that
he knew nothing of medicine or biology or archeology or criticism, or
electricity or astronomy in the modern sense. There are those who
would substitute for the Prestonian Lectures and the Prestonian-Webb
form of the degree, wholly modern exposition of the obtaining of
knowledge. With such as these we have nothing to do; our Fellowcraft
Degree is hallowed with age, and it is a lovely thing to do as have
all those good brothers and fellows who have gone this way before us.
But there is nothing to prevent us from reading the degrees
symbolically. We do not have to accept it as literal, any more than
we have to accept the first verse of the seventh chapter of
Revelations:
"And after these things I saw four Angels standing on the four
corners of the earth . . . "
as proof that the earth is square and not round. We can consider the
meaning of the degree, and govern ourselves accordingly. And if we
do so, we will start now, at once, to make ourselves earnest students
not only of Masonic knowledge, but of knowledge in general. For of
knowledge and its obtaining, this degree is most certainly a teacher;
from the time of entry through the West Gate until the finish of the
lecture, the entered Apprentice in the process of being "passed " is
instructed, taught, given knowledge and urged that only by knowledge
can he hope to obtain complete growth and the final glory of Masonry
and of life, the Sublime degree of Master Mason.
The most outstanding symbol in the degree of Fellowcraft is the
Flight of Winding Stairs. In the Book of Kings we find;
"They Went up With Winding Stairs into the Middle Chamber. " We go up
"with winding stairs " into "The Middle Chamber of King Solomon's
Temple. " Also we travel up a winding stairs of life, and arrive, if
we climb steadfastly, at the middle chamber of existence, which is
removed from birth, babyhood and youth by the steps of knowledge and
experience, but which is not so high above the ground that we are not
as yet of the earth, earthy; not so high that we can justifiably
regard it as more than a Stepping Off Place from which we may,
perhaps, ascend to the Sanctum Sanctorum; that Holy of Holies, in
which our troubled spirits find rest, our ignorance finds knowledge,
and our eyes see God.
There is a symbolism in the fact that the stairway "Winds. "
A straight stairway is not as easy to climb as a winding one, which,
because of the fact that it does wind, ascends by easier stages than
one which climbs as a ladder. But, also, a straight stair has the
goal in sight constantly, and while it may be more difficult in the
effort and strength required, it is easier because one can see where
one is going. There is no faith needed in climbing a ladder; one can
visualize the top and have its inspiration constantly before one as
one rises rung after rung.
But the winding stairway is one which tries a man's soul.
He must "Believe, " or he cannot reach the top. Nothing is clear
before him but the next step. He must take it on faith that there is
a top, that if he but climb long enough he will, indeed, reach a
middle chamber, a goal, a place of light. In such a way are the
Winding Stairs and the Middle Chamber symbols of life and manhood.
No man knows what he will become; as a boy he may have a goal, but
many reach other Middle Chambers than those they visualized as they
started the ascent. No man knows whether he will ever climb all the
stairs; the Angel of Death may stand but around the corner on the
next step. Yet, in spite of a lack of knowledge of what is at the
top of the stairs, in spite of the fact that a Flaming Sword may bar
his ascent, man climbs. He climbs in faith that there is a goal and
that he shall reach it; and no good Mason doubts but that for those
who never see the glory of the Middle Chamber in this life, a lamp is
set that they may see still farther in another, better one.
We are taught that we should use that which God gave us, the five
senses, to climb the remaining seven steps of the stairway, which are
the seven liberal arts and sciences. Again we must remember that
William Preston, who put such a practical interpre-tation upon these
steps, lived in an age when these did indeed represent all of
knowledge. But we must not refuse to grow because the ritual has not
grown with modern discovery. When we rise by Grammar and Rhetoric,
we must consider that they mean not only language but all methods of
communication. The step of logic means a knowledge not only of all
methods of reasoning, but of all reasoning which logicians have
accomplished. When we ascend by Arithmetic and Geometry, we must
visualize all science; since science is but measurement, and all
measurement in the true mathematical sense, it requires no great
stretch of the imagination to read into these two steps all that
science may teach. The step denominated Music means not only sweet
and harmonious sounds, but all beauty; poetry, art, nature, loveli-
ness of whatever kind. Not to familiarize himself with the beauty
which nature provides is to be, by so much, less a man; to stunt, by
so much, a striving soul. As for the seventh step of astronomy,
surely it means not only the study of the solar system and the stars,
as it did in William Preston;s day, but also the study of all that is
beyond the earth; of spirit and the world of spirit, of ethics,
philosophy, the abstract . . .of deity.
Preston builded better than he knew; his seven steps are both logical
in arrangement and suggestive in their order; the true Fellowcraft
will see in them a guide to the making of a man rich in mind and
spirit, by which, and only by which riches, can the truest
brotherhood be obtained and practiced.
The Fellowcraft Degree is one of action. Recall, if you will, where
you wore your Cable-Tow; but think not that it confines action; it
urges it. A great authority has stated that the words come from the
Hebrew, and mean, effect "his pledge. " Here, then "His Pledge " is
for action, for a doing, a girding up, an effort to be made. What
effort? To climb, to rise! How? By the use of the five senses to
take in and make Knowledge a part of the mind and heart. What
Knowledge? All Knowledge!
Conceived thus, the Fellowcraft Degree, from being a mere ceremony, a
stepping stone from the Apprentice Degree to that of the Master,
becomes something sublime; it is emblematic of the struggle of life,
not materially, but spiritually, and it is a symbol with high hope
and encouragement constantly held forth. There "is " a Middle
Chamber; the steps "do " lead somewhere; man "can " climb them if he
will. Not for the drone, the laggard, the journeyer by the easy
paths upon the level, but for the fighter, the adventurer, the man
with courage. for that which is not worth working for and fighting
for is not worth having. It is no easy journey that we make through
life, and it is no easy journey that we make through the mazes of
this degree. In its Middle Chamber lecture are profound
philosophies, deep truths, great facts concealed. He who is a true
Fellowcraft will study these for himself; he will not be content with
the Prestonian lecture as an end; it will be to him but a means.
For thousands of years men saw the rainbow and the best they could do
was call it a promise of God. So, indeed, it may be to us all, but
it is also a manifestation of beauty in nature, it is caused by the
operation of well-understood laws, and when artifi-cially produced in
the spectroscope, it is the key with which we unlocked the mysteries
of the heavens. For as long as man has lived upon this earth the
lightning has flashed and the thunder roared to no end but terror and
beauty. In the last few hundred years man has read the first part of
the mysterious story of electricity and taken for himself the power
God put in nature. Had man been content merely with what he saw and
heard he would still be as ignorant as the beasts of the field.
So should the mysteries of the Fellowcraft be to you, my brother. It
is but a great symbol, given in one evening, of all that a man may
make of his life. It is a lamp to guide your feet; not, as Preston
would have had it, both the feet and the path. Preston and his
brethren were Speculative Masons, indeed, but we are enlightened as
he never was; so that if we fail to use the light he lit, or see by
its radiance a greater Stairway and a higher climb than ever he
visualized, the fault is within us, and not in our opportunity.
There are thousands who pass through this degree who see in it only a
ceremony, just as there are thousands who see in a rainbow only the
color in the sky, thousands who see a lightening flash only as a
portent of danger. Be you not one of these! Do you see the Winding
Star an invitation, an urge to climb, to learn, to know, to reach
that Middle Chamber of your life from which you can look back on an
effort well made, a life well spent, a goal well won; and then
forward . . . to what awaits you in the final degree? For the
Sublime Degree of Master Mason, to which you aspire and which one day
may be granted you, is a symb-ol, too . . . perhaps the greatest
symbol man has ever made for himself to point a way up a yet greater
Winding Stair to a more vaulted Upmost Chamber, where the real Master
Mason, raised from a Fellowcraft, may reach up as a little child, and
touch the hand of God!
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