‘A symposium of symbolism’

    

Joseph Fort Newton by Travis Simpkins.

If the influence of Masonry upon youth is here emphasized, it is not to forget that the most dangerous period of life is not youth, with its turmoil of storm and stress, but between forty and sixty. When the enthusiasms of youth have cooled, and its rosy glamour has faded into the light of common day, there is apt to be a letting down of ideals, a hardening of heart, when cynicism takes the place of idealism. If the judgments of the young are austere and need to be softened by charity, the middle years of life needs still more the reinforcement of spiritual influence and the inspiration of a holy atmosphere. Also, Albert Pike used to urge upon old men the study of Masonry, the better to help them gather up these scattered thoughts about life and build them into a firm faith; and because Masonry offers to every man a great hope and consolation. Indeed, its ministry to every period of life is benign. Studying Masonry is like looking at a sunset; each man who looks is filled with the beauty and wonder of it, but the glory is not diminished.

Joseph Fort Newton

The Builders

1914

Born on this date either in 1876 or 1880, depending on your source, in Decatur, Texas was Joseph Fort Newton.

He was made a Mason in Friendship Lodge 7 in Dixon, Illinois in 1902. His is one of those Masonic stories that weave together the man, the vocation (a minister and doctor of divinity; attorney; author), and the Masonic life. Newton is remembered for one particular message: “We can never have a religion of brotherhood on earth until we have a brotherhood of religion.”

He was the author of books. The Builders was not the only one, but may be the most famous due to its ubiquitous gifting to new Masons, its frequent reprintings, and translations into diverse languages. From his The Religion of Masonry: “In its modern form at least, our Masonry is a symposium of symbolism in which three streams or strands of faith unite, by which man is a Builder of a Temple, a Pilgrim in quest of a lost Truth, and, if he be worthy and heroic, a Finder of the Sublime Secret of Life.”

Making him especially dear to my own heart, Newton was editor of the two finest periodicals in early twentieth century American Masonic publishing: The Builder and The Master Mason. He also was a popular and well traveled lecturer—all the above in addition to his ministerial labors and family life and other pursuits.

We’ve all read a great many books about Freemasonry, tracing the changes in speculative focus over the generations, from the personal use of symbols to various mystical interpretations of the rituals to the psychology of Craft teachings to the cultural anthropology of it all and more. Recent years have brought us ideas on occultism, “magick,” and even psychotropic drugs(!). I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to seeking the next shiny thing (ergo the title Magpie), but now that I’m not only between forty and sixty but actually am very near the latter age, I find myself taking more comfort in the Masonic messages bequeathed to us from more gentle times.

Newton’s The Builders was published in 1914, The Year of Creation of the world we today inhabit, with our hindsight of world wars, the “isms” that begat genocides, and the polluting byproducts of wondrous sciences and technologies. I leave you with the most quoted words of The Builder, its concluding paragraph actually:

When is a man a Mason? When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage—which is the root of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins—knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters, subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead. When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song—glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world.