‘The study side of Freemasonry’

    

“Masonry has no use for a blind, stupid devotion vouchsafed her by wooden men who do not know why they serve her, but what she loves is the intelligent loyalty of thinking men who have a reason for the faith that is in them.”

Delmar Duane Darrah

Grand Master

Grand Lodge of Illinois

1912

My favorite Masonic activity anymore is just staying home and reading our history—the more obscure, the better. The news Thursday of Masonic University reopening in New York (see post below) reminded me of a favorite speech from the past. More than a century ago, the Grand Lodge of Illinois had a remarkable Grand Master. Delmar Darrah was a professor of elocution at Wesleyan, so I’m not surprised he delivered first rate oratory. (Are there professors of elocution today? I can’t imagine it.) Maybe you remember him from this previous Magpie post.

I’m a huge fan of the style of rhetoric employed so often by Masonry’s leaders during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We just don’t hear eloquence of that timbre or on that frequency any more. Maybe because there aren’t elocution professors.

MW Delmar Darrah

At the Grand Lodge of Illinois’ seventy-third Annual Communication at Chicago in October 1912, MW Darrah spoke of many things, but doted specifically on what he termed “Intellectual Masonry.” In addition to the unflinching delivery, the content of this excerpt of his speech merits revisiting 113 years later.

Intellectual Masonry.

There is no subject connected with our distinguished fraternity in which I am more deeply interested than that of the study side of Freemasonry. No similar organization on the face of the earth can boast of traditions as ancient, of usages and landmarks as universally known, of symbolism so sparkling with brightest jewels, of philosophies both ancient and modern; of a ritual in sentiment as lofty, in diction as eloquent, and so universally spoken. And yet, the institution is but little understood by even its most devoted members.

There are many of us who can recite our ritual from Alpha to Omega without the omission of a word or syllable, unconscious of the fact that behind the play of words lie concealed thoughts and meanings which invite our investigation and well repay us for our research. Too many Masons perform their duty like the religious devotee who recites his catechism in mechanical style, and arises from his knees conscious of but one fact—that of a duty performed.

The demand of the hour is not for men who can recite the ritual but for men who know what that ritual means, and who are willing to display its teachings in their daily lives and conduct. I quote from a distinguished writer: “Masonry has no use for a blind, stupid devotion vouchsafed her by wooden men who do not know why they serve her, but what she loves is the intelligent loyalty of thinking men who have a reason for the faith that is in them.”

A ritual is merely the vehicle by which we convey to the minds and hearts of men moral precepts and great truths; if it has for its object any other purpose, it is merely sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Our ritual is an exposition surfeited with excellent maxims of right living. We in Illinois acknowledge no superiors in the matter of ritualistic perfection. In the midst of our present ecstacy of ritualism it might be well to inquire whether our oral moralizing tends to better living or is it merely a revel in fine words and agreeable rhetoric. It is one thing to talk Masonry, but to think it and act it is quite another. There is a vast difference between Masonry of the tongue and Masonry of the deed. The whole trouble with our present system is that it does not teach men to think but to remember. We will never have better Masons until we have more thinking Masons, for the thinker is he who strives to awaken from the dream of life in which the multitude pass a listless existence.

It is a fact that the burden of our lodges is today carried forward by about ten percent of the membership. The greatest problem which confronts us is how to interest the 90 percent of dues-paying non-attending members. So long as we offer them nothing but a program of degrees ground out by rule and rote we can hope for little improvement.

I am a supporter of the study side of Masonry and believe that we should exert our best endeavors toward an understanding of our history, traditions and symbolism. Believing such to be a necessary part of the education of every Mason, I arranged with the Board of Grand Examiners for the introduction of two thirty-minute talks at our schools upon the subject of history and symbolism.

While the innovation was not well received by some of our ritualistic brethren, I believe that some good was accomplished in bringing about a better understanding of the history of the fraternity, as well as stimulating many brethren toward individual Masonic study and research.

I would not for one moment advocate the abatement of the diligence exerted toward correctly teaching our ritual, nor would I abandon our present system of schools, but I would urge that means be adopted that will bring to the Masons of Illinois a better understanding of the institution of which they are members. Doubtless this can best be accomplished in the lodges themselves, by the formation of study clubs, the promotion of lectures and addresses by competent brethren, and by reading Masonic books. The subject is well worthy of serious thought and I leave it to the earnest consideration of the progressive Masons of this great state.

     

‘Washington Bible in Illinois’

    

Magpie file photo

The George Washington Inaugural Bible, owned by St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York City, will be on public display Sunday in Illinois.

Perhaps not since the early Mormons settled in Illinois in the 1840s has so significant a Masonic VSL been seen there, but the George Washington Inaugural Bible will be put on public display Sunday at Euclid Lodge 65.

Euclid 65 was set to labor October 2, 1849, and to mark its 175th anniversary, the lodge will host an open house from 11 a.m. to three in the afternoon. The lodge is located at 31 West Jefferson Avenue in Naperville.

As you know, the historic Bible is owned by St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York City. It was this lodge that provided this KJV Bible, printed in 1767, to the inauguration of President George Washington in Manhattan April 30, 1789. You can read about that here.

The lodge shares this national treasure by occasionally honoring requests to exhibit it around the country.

Read Euclid Lodge’s history here.

     

‘A voluntary league for freedom and virtue’

    

(Not the source of the speech quoted below.)

It is Independence Day in the United States. In observance, let me share an excerpt from a speech delivered in 1848 during the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. E.R. Roe, the Right Worshipful Grand Orator, observed:

Masonry is a voluntary league for the promotion of Freedom and Virtue. In examining this proposition, we do not ask you to follow us through the difficult mazes of ancient Masonic history. Go back only a single century, when Masonry was unquestionably what it is now. It was then practiced by our forefathers in England and America, and bore its present English name. It is therefore easy to trace it, step by step, to the present hour. And when we say that its progress has been so interwoven with the spread of Liberty among men that the history of Freedom is but an account of the influences of Masonry, we simply state a proposition susceptible of the most ample proof. Long before the cardinal principles set forth in the glorious charter of our liberties had become the acknowledged textbook of Freedom for the world, they were taught around the Masonic altar in our lodges. The official jewel of your Senior Warden...is to us but the familiar emblem of that equality proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal.” And no well-regulated lodge is ever closed without the reiteration of this principle from the Warden’s lips. That “all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” is another fundamental principle in Masonry. The will and the welfare of the many determine the choice of our officers; and the Master of a lodge, and you, Most Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge, feel that you but represent the will of the majority. Like the chief officer of our National and State Governments, Masters of Grand and Subordinate lodges are required, at their installation, to pledge themselves, in all their official acts, to abide by the Masonic constitutions.

But the resemblance between the character of our National government and the Masonic institution stops not here. Both are governed by a written constitution; both acknowledge the controlling voice of the majority; both admit no official superiors, but such as themselves have chosen; both limit the terms of office by the previously determined will of the electors. A general and a local government are common to both. The stranger from every kindred and every clime may be naturalized and fraternized in both. “Liberty-Equality-Fraternity” — words which have been linked together and proclaimed with such magic power by the people of France in their late successful revolution, and which now promise to become the watchword of Freedom to all Europe—these have for ages been familiar to the ear of every Mason. Many a listening ear had hung upon the lips of him who fell at Bunker Hill, and thus caught the first principle of Freedom from their beloved Grand Master, the lamented Warren! The leading spirits of Boston, in its revolutionary days, had assembled with him around the same Masonic altar, and together invoked the blessings of Jehovah for the freedom of the world. Long before the declaration of American independence, there were Grand Lodges in Massachusetts, in Virginia and South Carolina, and subordinate lodges were at work in most of the other colonies. In the army of the Revolution the practice of its solemn rites was not omitted; and we have authentic records of “Washington Lodge,” of which General Patterson was Master, and which was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts as a Traveling Lodge in the army. Montgomery was an active Mason; Gates was a Mason; Sullivan, Lincoln, Knox, Lee, Schuyler, De Kalb, Lafayette—these were names which adorned the Order then. Finally, that great and good man, whose example should weigh so much with every American—Washington—was an ardent and active Mason.

And now think you this glorious institution, the foundation of whose Temple was laid upon the level of equality, reared by the plumb of moral rectitude and squared by the square of virtue; whose lively stones were, by the Masonic trowel, cemented together with, brotherly love and affection; whose capstone was no less than “Him whom the builders rejected,” but who “has now become the head-stone of the corner;” whose boundaries were vast as from east to west, from north to south, and within whose solemn precincts were equally welcome the men of every clime, and upon whose sacred altar the Holy Bible lay always open, guiding them and urging them to that active virtue which manifests itself in brotherly love, relief and truth; think you that Masonry, who first taught her votaries the golden rules of freedom and equality among themselves, did not thereby aid in the awaking that longing for Political Liberty which first lighted the torch of Revolution at Lexington and Concord? Aye! Masonry was at Bunker Hill! She saw the life-blood flow when Warren fell, but faltered not. She accompanied the little army through the terrible struggle which succeeded, and whispered her immutable principles into the ear of Washington. She followed Franklin to the hall of Congress, and watched over the national council. The Declaration of Independence had made her principles the political creed of a nation; and when the storm of war was over, and triumphant Peace saw the assembled representatives of the nation consulting upon a future form of government, who shall say that she did not aid in tempering the rancor of sectional discord, and thus promote that Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice, which brought their deliberations to so happy an end!

And now let us reply to the oft-repeated charge, in times of persecution, that Masonry is a political institution. Truly it is even so! But that its influences are of a partisan character; that it ever sustains one party, composed of its members, and opposes another, which is not; that it ever plots for political power; that it ever kneels for political favor; that it ever swerves from political duty, or shrinks from its responsibility, is false! Within the halls of Masonry the din of political discord is never heard. Around her altars gather not only the men of every clime—Christian, Jew, Mahometan and heathen—all who are willing and worthy to join the league of Brotherly Love, but every sect and every party of each. And he who thinks that Masonry can harmonize all these, till they shall come together for a common government or common creed, would give her superhuman power. No, no. The follower of Mahomet leaves his turban and his crescent at the door; the Christian takes his Jewish brother by the hand, and leaving without the emblematic cross, which separates their faith, they approach the shrine of Masonry together, and bow before the altar of Jehovah, the common God of all.

But there is a mode in which Masonry exerts a political influence—by teaching to its votaries the principles of equality, the necessity of law, the duty of subordination, and the excellence of order in all things. The influence of Masonry is, then, of a general, not of a partisan nature. It prepares men for the reception of political freedom; but that freedom is based upon the most perfect submission to the authority which the majority have chosen to rule. And this is the true reason why tyrants in all countries have opposed its progress. The doctrine that “all men are created equal,” is incompatible with arbitrary power.

(Source: Jewels of Masonic Oratory, New York, 1900.)