LESSON OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE 
by Charles A. Merz
The American Freemason - 1914
Part 2 of 2

In the Old Constitutions of the Medieval Freemasons, the
most prominent place of all the Sciences is given to
Geometry and it was made the exponent of its principles and
the key to its mysteries, thus making it synonymous with
Masonry. It is the Science of exact relations and its truths
are unchanging and ever and forever reproducible.

"The lapse of time, the ruthless hand of ignorance and the
devastations of war have laid waste and destroyed many
valuable monuments of antiquity on which the utmost
exertions of human genius have been employed. Even the
Temple of Solomon, so spacious and magnificent, escaped
not the unsparing ravages of barbarous force. Freemasonry,
notwithstanding, has still survived. The attentive ear receives
the sound from the instructive tongue and the mysteries of
Masonry are safely lodged in the repository of faithful
breasts." Yet all these must fade as the leaf fades and die as
the flowers die. When all that is mortal has perished,
Geometry will remain as unerring and eternal as the truths
that it upholds."

Religion plants itself upon the fundamental principle that the
Books of the Old and New Testaments are inspired and are
the ONLY infallible rule of faith and conduct. From the
Scriptures, it deduces a system of doctrine controlled at
every point by the idea of the sovereignty of God. Human
freedom and divine love are affirmed and all deep and
ethical truths are either affirmed or taken for granted, but
foremost of all, God controls beforehand all His creatures
and their actions. It teaches the trinity of the God-head; man
morally depraved by nature; Christ an atoning Saviour; justi-
fication by faith in the Redeemer; eternal happiness in the
other world for believers and eternal punishment for
unbelievers or the impenitent.

Masonry teaches a belief in God as a necessary qualification
for admission; the acceptance of the "Book of the Law" as a
revelation of his will. Its fundamental principle is the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man. Beyond this
belief in a Supreme Being and the "Book of the Law," no
religious test is allowed. The laws governing Masons obliges
them to "that religion in which all men agree," leaving their
particular opinions to themselves; but if a Mason "rightly
understand himself, will never be a stupid atheist or
irreligious libertine."

Masonry enforces all rules of conduct growing out of this
fundamental principle. It has been called a "system of ethics,
moral, religious and philosophical, which relate to the social,
ethical and intellectual progress of man." "A Mason is
obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law" while brotherly
love "is the foundation and copestone, the cement and glory
of this ancient Fraternity." Masons are taught "that every
human being has a claim upon your kind offices, so that we
enjoin it upon you to do good unto all, while we recommend
it more especially to the household of the faithful." The
Mason is taught that his duties to the Fraternity do not
conflict with, but are subordinate to his duty "to God, his
Country, his Family, his Neighbor and Himself." The tenets
of Masonry are Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth, and the
Cardinal Virtues, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and
Justice. He is charged to be "a good man and true" to be "a
peaceful citizen," to "work diligently, live creditably and act
honorably by all men." It makes the law of God the rule and
guide of its works as well as of its faith. Most impressively
does it teach the immortality of the soul and the resurrection
to a future life where the Great Architect of the Universe
presides.

Masonry presupposes this avowal of a belief in the existence
of the Supreme Architect.

On several of these fundamental principles, Masonry and
Religion are in full accord. The laws of Masonry are founded
upon the idea of the nature and perfection of God and the
promulgation of this idea has ever been the object and
design of the Institution. It has been declared a substitute for
Christianity, which it is not. It teaches religious truths but this
is not to be confounded with the Christian religion as a form
of worship. For the most part, it is believed that Masons hold
very positive religious ideas; they stand by the broad facts of
human consciousness; they maintain the existence and unity
of a personal God and affirm the perfect order of the
Universe, This order lies at our very door. The Heavens, the
mountains, the valleys are filled with it. The eye and the
heart only are wanting. Every object in Nature brings the
Supreme Architect near and displays his order.

No poetry is so sublime as that of the Psalmist, Prophet and
Apostle who connects the Great Architect with the green
pastures and the still waters, draws lessons from the
courses of Orion and Arcturus and gather material from
every portion of the visible Universe to portray the Divine
order and beauty. What are the creations of man but copies
of the thoughts of God? Truth to Nature is the sole test of
beauty. That which has no counterpart in God's actual world,
has no favor in man's ideal world. Whatever departs from the
plan of the Supreme Architect and his order, does violence
to human taste and must be rejected as violent and repulsive
"Man the Creator is but man the copyist." Order is Heaven's
first law. Go where we will we cannot escape it. It reigns su-
preme.

Masonry encourages action rather, than profession. It looks
more carefully to deeds than to words. It inculcates only that
which is wholesome in its tendency, healthful in its
influences and of sound as well as of practical importance.
As far as anything can, short of Inspired Wisdom, it meets
the necessities of social life, throws restraints about the
passions of man, cheers the dreary path in which he travels
on this earth and arouses his noblest feelings in behalf of his
brother man. It does not provide for our spiritual welfare, but,
in every manner possible, it prepares us for the reception of
those higher and nobler truths which God has and is ever
revealing to us, which truths themselves are sufficient to
direct us in the path which leads to a glorious immortality.

Masonry has always been of assistance to Religion and has
done much to elevate it to its present spiritual plane. By its
mode of teaching, it has assisted in emancipating Religion
from formalism and from many opinions and propositions
existing in the form of positive assertions, the truth of which
are supposed to have been previously shown as founded on
the Scripture and which are not for discussion but for
acceptance. Such teachings as these are prone to
degenerate into mere assertions of opinion, without ground
and without regard to the aspect they may present to others.
Religion is not necessarily fundamentally distinguished from
morality, for it is contained entire in the precept: "Love your
fellow man and God." Reason may pacify our passions by
elevating them to their true object, but Reason is not
enough. It is the love of God that is the principle at once of
morality, religion and society. It tends to unite all men into
one family and "to make one soul of all souls by the
community of one only love."

While the imperfections of Religion have been touched upon,
these imperfections have been gradually diminishing and are
such only as measured by an absolute standard. Speaking
in a general way, the religions that have been current in
each age and among each people, have been as near an
approximation to the truth as it was then possible for men to
receive. The more or less concrete forms in which it has
embodied the truth, have simply been the means of making
thinkable what would otherwise have been unthinkable. ' So,
for the time, they have served to increase its im-
pressiveness. The consciousness of an Inscrutable Power,
manifested to us through many and varied phenomena,
shows a constant tendency to grow clearer, and to free itself
from many imperfections. There is the certainty that such a
power exists and it is equally certain that its nature
transcends intuition and imagination. Towards this point all
intelligence has ever been progressing. Science must
eventually reach it as she nears her limits and Religion is
relentlessly impelled toward it by comment and criticism.
This is the conclusion that we are bound to reach finally,
without reserve or qualification, for the reason that it satisfies
the most rigorous demands of logic and it grants to Religion
the widest possible sphere of action.

Masonry came not with observation. We are not concerned
with the precise moment when it sprang into existence. Its
growth has been silent and gradual, step by step.
Thousands have found it a help to their daily life and action.
This silent establishment, without any of the usual
paraphernalia of great revolutions and radical changes, this
steady growth from generation to generation, is a conclusive
token of its grandeur and stability. No other institution has or
ever could have marshalled and put in motion the compre-
hensive array of means, motives and influences for the
betterment of mankind and held forth to the astonished eyes
of the world so finished and complete a system of order and
perfection in its work.

Ours is an age of the greatest intellectual activity. Mental at-
tainments, skill, power and achievements were never so
highly esteemed as now. In former times, under different
degrees of culture, physical strength, accident of birth and
hereditary rank and wealth have successively been the
measures of greatness and the objects of ambition and
desire, But today the aristocracy of the world is the
aristocracy of intellect and the gifts of the mind are
everywhere deemed the beet gifts and for this reason,
Masonry is being better understood and appreciated and a
keener interest is being taken in all of her esoteric teachings.

More than six thousand years of research have failed to
reveal to man the latest forces of nature and to lay bare her
hidden springs. Composition, decomposition, crystallization,
cohesion, gravitation - are but names for our ignorance - the
boundaries and confines of our knowledge. The statement
that the apple falls by gravitation remains unchallenged
today, but we know no more than did the wise philosopher
who ascribed its fall to gravitation. The utmost that we can
say is that Nature pursues her course and that events occur
under certain favoring conditions. We are utterly unable to
conceive of any innate or permanently inherent force in
Matter, but by all the laws of thought we are driven to
attribute all power to mind, intelligence, volition. It is just here
that the Master's Degree with its beautiful symbolism helps
us scale the heights and fathom the depths of these
mysteries. It gives us glimpses between the leaves of the
immeasurable volume where God has unloosed the seals.

It teaches us that where Reason fails, Faith must usurp its
place; that what we know not now, we shall know hereafter;
that the Great Architect is ever actively present in the
Universe, upholding all things by the word of his power,
guiding the course of events by his own perpetual flat,
ordaining the seeming evil no less than the seeming good.
This Master Mason's degree is the summum bonum of
Ancient Craft Masonry in that it affords us, as can no other
Degree, that sublime faith which looks within the veil, which
has not a lingering doubt or fear, but can say-"I know in
whom I have believed; I know that my Redeemer liveth."

Masonry superadds to our other obligations the strongest ties
of connection between it and the cultivation of virtue, and furnishes
the most powerful incentives to goodness. - DEWITT CLINTON.