CAN A MASON CONSISTENTLY BE A. FREETHINKER?

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 December 1883, Page 12

CAN A MASON CONSISTENTLY BE A. FREETHINKER?

(by m.m.)

On a perusal of your first number (which please allow me to say is an exceedingly creditable production), I find that you shortly discuss the question, “ Can a Mason be consistently a member of a Freethought Association.” With your permission I will consider the question at somewhat greater length. I may first premise that to be a member of such an association you have simply to have your name enrolled, pay the subscription fee, and get your member’s ticket. I may not be quite right here, but at any rate you have not to subscribe to any particular form or dogma ; of that I am certain. I take it that among the members of a Freethought Association you may find Deists, Theists, Agnostics, Spiritualists, Positivists, Unitarians, and many other shades of religious thought. In fact, any line of thought on that or cognate subjects. I have purposely left out Atheists because I cannot conceive the idea of an Atheist in the sense in which the term is popularly employed, viz ; one who denies Cod. But now let us enquire what is required of a Freemason holding a certificate from either of the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, or Scotland, Each of these ruling bodies has a Book of Constitutions for the guidance of their members, each differing from the other in minor details, but agreeing in all essentials. Centuries before Grand Lodges came into existence Masons were guided more by oral tradition than by written law, but some of the old written laws or regulations have been preserved and are bound up with the aforesaid Constitutions. They are denominated “ Ancient Charges.” These latter are recognized by all legitimate Grand Lodges all over the world. The first article “ Concerning God and religion” it is necessary to quote from. It says : “A Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law, and if he rightly understand the art he will never be a stupid atheist nor an irreligious libertine. He of all men should best understand that God seeth not as man secth, for man looketh at the outward appearance, but Godlooketh to the heart. A Mason is therefore particularly bound never to act against the dictates of his conscience. Let a man’s religion or mode of worship be what it may, he is not excluded from the Order provided he believes in the glorious architect of heaven and earth, and practise the sacred duties of morality. Masons unite with the virtuous of every persuasion in the firm and pleasing bond of fraternal love ; they are taught to view the errors of mankind with compassion, and to strive by the purity of their own conduct to demonstrate the superior excellence of the faith they may profess.” I am aware that some men who belong to the Fraternity will tell you that, to be admitted a Mason you must believe in a personal God and a resurrection from death. Such is the force of personal feeling and sectarian prejudice when allowed to retain their influence over the mind unmolested even of a member of this the most unsectarian Institution that ever existed, —an Institution that may well be termed a Church without a dogma. In the above extract God is translated as “ the glorious architect of heaven and earth,” and, afterwards as the neophyte is initiated into the various mysteries, or degrees, The Great Architect of the Universe —The Grand Geometrician of the Universe The Most High—The Grand Overseer of the Universe —The I AM THAT I AM. What a breadth of view ! what a grandeur of conception is here implied ! Can any thinking, reasoning being suppose for a moment that herein is depicted a man-god,God in the likeness of puny man, however so many times the form may he extended 1 Truly we should view the reflections of such a mind “with compassion.” And yet to the cleverest men amongst us, to the greatest minds of this or any past age, what do these designations, separate or combined, imply ? What meaning do they convey 1 ? Simply the inscrutable mystery of the Unknown, the Isis whose mysterious veil has never yet been drawn aside, before whom the wisest and the best of mortals have ever stood appalled. Indeed it is only perhaps a few of those engaged in the work of Nature’s great revelations,' whose hearts have throbbed with the fearful joy of hope expectant, that the Great Mystery may ever be solved by the finite mind of man. A Mason’s professed work is the research of “the hidden mysteries of nature and science” ; and well may it be said that he of all men should best understand that God seeth

not as man seeth,” for if he is a true Mason he of all men should have the grandest conception of Infinite Power and Wisdom that earthly mortals may hope to aspire to. The dogma of a personal God is not in Masonry, or of it, and even one of the “ profane or outer world ” can see, from the nature of the work on which we are employed, that such cannot he. “ The use made of the Bible in Masonic ceremonies as well as in Masonic ritual,” can only be variously estimated according to the various lines of thought of different members of the Institution. For example : The Christian neophyte, in taking his 08, accepts the Book as a whole, Old and New Testament combined ; the Jew accepts only the Old ; the Mahoramedan accepts neither, but will be bound by the Koran ; the Bhuddist requires the Rig Veda, and the Parsee would (I am credibly informed by an eye witness) consider himself insulted by having the Sacred Volume presented to him, and will only give his sacred word of honor. If this is so (and I believe lam fully warranted in considering these things as facts) the “ vanishing point ” of the Bible in the Lodge, to a Christian believer, is at the invitation of his Jewish brother, and the conception of God to all these men, according to the faith in which they have been educated, must be different, until they each and all attain that grander conception which belongs to Masonry. That many Masons do not attain to that conception I grant, but the why and the wherefore of this we cannot now stop to enquire. That the Old Testament is necessary and of importance in a Lodge will I think be granted by Masons of all shades of opinions, not as an authority for dogma, but as a legendary, historical reference, without which the symbolism and traditional history of Masonry would lose its vitality, and perhaps after a time its form and character. Neither do I see any great objection to its being termed the Sacred Volume, for sacred undoubtedly it is to our Jewish brethren (and a Mason should ever be ready to respect the religious feelings of others). Sacred may it almost be said to be to those who no longer look on it as inspired, notwithstanding the martyrdoms which it is said to have been the cause of, and which after all must be considered as the result of the human intellect on all sides being sunk in the slough of Ignorance. Sacred on account of its being the teacher through all the Ages of one God pure and indivisible, and who, though it clothed at times with powerful and terrible human attributes for good or evil, affords us sometimes a glimpse of that great Jehovah which in this present day we yet stand in awe and wonder of—that inscrutable mystery at which we stand appalled. That Masonic ritual makes use of the Bible, need not surprise us when we consider that, as regards the history of Masonry, the ritual we now possess is such an elaboration of that used by Masons of the olden time that could they re-visit the scenes of their former labors, and again assemble within the walls of those grand old edifices which stand as monuments of their surpassing skill, they would stand transfixed with wonder, if not with admiration. Primitive rituals of the Craft were short and concise. It was when the speculative element was introduced into Masonry that ritual was enlarged and elaborated, and of course partook of the particular line of thought of the individuals performing the work, not perhaps designedly so, but from the natural bent of ideas. But the dogma of a resurrection to life eternal can only have been imported into Freemasonry by those brethren who were anxious to christianize the Institution, for if it may be said to be shadowed forth anywhere, it is in the legend of the third degree. This degree, called the (/ Master Mason,” is comparatively of modern date, for we are informed “ In ancient times no brother, however skilled in the craft, was called a Master Mason until he had been elected into the chair of a Lodge.” We know it was not in use before the year 1716, for up to that period all Masons not having been elected to the chair of a Lodge were called Fellow-Crafts. Its authorship is generally imputed to Drs. Anderson and Desuguliers ; and Oliver says a the legend w r as evidently borrowed from certain tales taken out of the Jewish Targums which were published in London A.D. 1715, from a manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge.” And Dr. Anderson himself said in a work published A.D. 1730, that it “ seems to allude to a beautiful passage in the sixth book of Virgil’s Mhieid.” For the different interpretations, paganistic, political, and biblical, put on this legend by the Craft at the time of its first appearance, I must refer your readers to “ Oliver’s Freemason’s Treasury ” pages 29d-6-7» But that it has an impressive occult

significance and teaching worthy of so beautiful an allegory, I think no true Mason should be ignorant of. The Grand Lodge of England is now busy with the revision of their Book of Constitutions, a work forced on them by the advance of the times. On the completion of that, it would redound much to their common-sense were they to revise, and in some measure reconstruct, the ritual. This can be done without sweeping away any of the real landmarks of the Order, or destroying its beautiful allegory, and they would at least gain credit for consistency from those Indian Princes and other eastern gentlemen who have been initiated under their rule, and for whom certain references in the ritual can have no meaning. Then the ancient and honorable order, venerable with hoary antiquity, instead of posing before the world simply as a charity organisation, to be used in some instances as a masked phalanx of support for Church and State, may in altered circumstances retain more of the bright intellects that fall out of her ranks year by year, to be supplemented by those who never rise to a conception of the nature and objects of the Institution. Then would the East indeed be a place of Light and Wisdom, and the rays of the Sun of Knowledge would shine strong and radiant on all within the circle of its influence. Then might it be truly said that "A Mason's Lodge is a Mason's Church."