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We do not remember to have read so lucid a
statement and exposition of the distinction
between a private and a secret order as is
here made by Brother Roberts, Dean of St.
Michael's Episcopal Cathedral, of Boise,
Idaho. If kept in mind, it disarms many of
the critics of Masonry, who identify the
Fraternity with societies with which it has
no affinity, much less affiliations.
ONE may easily think that it is a mere
quibble over words to try to make such a
distinction in the question, "Is Masonry a
secret or private organization?" However, it
does represent an attempt to understand its
spirit and purpose.
A group of English teachers were once trying
to determine what was the most hateful word
in the English language, and they finally
chose the word "exclusive." As a Mason I
should dislike to think of Masonry as
"exclusive" in the sense that it excludes
some, while being a place for special
privilege to others. It certainly is not
secret in the sense that it has a secret
membership or secret ideals. It is only
secret in the sense that all things in God's
world are secrets, waiting for men to unlock
the door that guards them from the careless
and the lazy, by study and work and
perseverance.
Electricity was a secret, but only the sort
of a secret that lured men on to open up the
doors that led into the great world that God
had prepared for us. Medicine was a secret,
but it has been giving up its treasures to
those who will seek to understand. Even the
beauty of nature is a secret, but only such a
secret as waits for the person who so attunes
his life that he may see and appreciate its
glory.
THERE, is no such thing as getting something
for nothing in God's universe, but all its
glories and riches are but waiting for its to
pay the price of thought and persevering
effort to open up the doors that lead to
understanding and appreciation. So you
penetrate into the realm of music, or art -
yes, of character itself.
In that same way, I would conceive Masonry.
Secret perhaps, but not the sort that shuts
men out except as they shut themselves out by
an unwillingness to pay the price of study,
of effort, of perseverance to enter into its
meaning, to appreciate its ideals, to measure
up to its standard of manhood. It is built
upon the secrecy that lures eager men on to
an understanding of its underlying purposes
and visions. It does not bar men out because
of personal dislike unless untrue to itself,
but they bar themselves out by an
unwillingness to enter into its high standard
and the refusal to climb tip to its heights.
Its faith in God; its belief in immortality:
its trust in brotherhood, are not secrets
that refuse to give up their truth to those
who seek and who knock, but they are visions
that must be won, citadels that must be
stormed, discoveries that must be made by the
struggle of men. They are but waiting for men
to enter in and claim them. They are private
in the sense that each must gain them for
himself. They do not lie uncovered for every
careless passer-by to appropriate.
YET we, as Masons, try to appreciate that
faith and idealism, and by earnest thought
and effort try to enter into that perfect
knowledge which comes not by mere profession,
but by personal possession and consecrated
living.
Freemasonry is an institution founded on eternal reason
and truth;
whose deep basis is the civilization of mankind, and whose
everlasting glory it is to have the immovable support of
those two mighty pillars, science and morality. - DR.
Dove.
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