Being A Master.

BEING A MASTER .

Address by Bro . Hon . Myron H . McCord , Governor of Arizona at Masonic Banquet at Bisbee , 11 th November 1897 . WHEN I was a school boy I was compelled to write compositions from a subject given me . Unfortunately ,

perhaps , I have never since learned to write or speak without a subject . I have therefore chosen for my subject this evening a verse from the Scriptures . It is the twenty-fifth verse of the ninth chapter of the First of Corinthians : " And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things . "

In using this language , St . Paul seemed to have reference to the athletic contests of the Olympian games , to illustrate and enforce the conditions of successful life , not only of the Christian but the layman . But the Brother of the Lodge , when he hears

St . Paul talk of becoming Masters , the language of the Lodge suggests Master Masons , and he understands St . Paul to be telling how men must live to become Masters in Masonry . Notice the perfect agreement of the ancient charge with the apostle ' s doctrine .

First stands the foundation principle that without merit there is no true honour ; that amongst Masons there is perfect equity of rights , and all preferments are based upon real worth of character and personal merit only . In Masonry , as out of it—r" Worth makes the man , the want of it the fellow ; The rest of it is but leather and prunello . Honour and shame from no conditions rise . Act well your part—there all the honour lies . "

St . Paul said in this Masonic and laconic text : " Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things . " He did not use the word temperate in a narrow sense , but in a broad one , meaning that the whole of man and the whole of life are brought into subjection to the law of wisdom and right being and right doing .

This ancient charge , agreeable to the apostle's text , defines Masonry to be the " science of right and living . " What is Masonry ? Answers may differ , but I give you an answer to be considered , and , I hope , never forgotten ; Freemasonry is not a Lodge , nor a promise , nor a card , nor a grip , nor a secret :

Freemasonry is the science of human life . Life is the most sacred thing intrusted to the care and keeping of man , and to the thoughtful man all life , vegetable life and animal life in the higher degree , is sacred . How to perfect that life is the object and the study of Freemasons .

My Brethren , instead of entertaining you on this occasion with interesting traditions of St . John , I would evince my love for you and the Order by discussing how we may show ourselves worthy of the ancient and honourable name we bear , and the Order we represent . What are the essential qualifications of Masonry ? I answer : First , an essential qualification and requirement of a

Mason is intelligence . Said Thomas Jefferson : " If you are not a thinking man , to what purpose are you a man at all ? " The foundation of the misery , discontent and crime of the world is ignorance . In the science of human life is a curse , and the chief study of mankind is man—not how to make money , but how to make men . Masonry may have begun in building a temple for

Solomon , but its work is now in building Solomons for the temple . What is a Masonic Lodge ? What is its dimension ? It may be a cave , a chamber or a hall , of small or large dimensions ; symbolically a Lodge represents the universe , and conveys the idea of immeasurable space and of the universality of Freemasonry .

Our east represents sunrise , our west is sunset , our south is all between from the centre to the circumference , and from the earth to the heavens . Brethren , here is work for the Lodge . Ask a brother to come to the Lodge meetings , he asks : " Is there any work on hand ? " If not , then he will not be there . But we use the work in a technical sense—work on others . There is the

work of the skilful Master to see that there is always work on the trestleboard . Shame on a Lodge of Freemasons that is ever out of work . Brethren , we are builders of character , and it is our duty to instruct oue and another . The Masonic Lodge is indeed a universality in which the whole science of human life is taught .

It is a school for every nation and people under the sun . Here men may learn to subdue their passions , circumscribe their desires , and improve their mind . Here are enforced the four cardinal virtues—which conduce to length of day , true happiness in this life , and a rational hope of happiness hereafter .

In Masonic parlance , wisdom is to be found in the east , but it is not to be kept there . As the sun spreads light over the earth , so the east is to spread wisdom over the Lodge , dispersing it to every member . Another Masonic virtue , which every Mason owes to himself , is industry . Man ' s very constitution , all his

physical and mental make-up , shows him formed for a Jife of activity . Industry is the normal state of a manl y man . Experience and observation alike show that idleness is a curse , and industry a blessing . The edict of toil announced to man in the Garden of Eden was a blessing , and was intended to be such .

Being A Master.

In the eyes of a good man the infidel is not held in high esteem ; and yet the Bible assures us that a shiftless and lazy man is worse than an infidel , because he that provideth nolj for his own hath denied the faith , and is worse than infidel . The man who is a speculative infidel and practical believer is better that a man who is a speculative Christian and a practical infidel .

The difference in the attainments , achievements and circumstances of men is generally the measure of the difference of their industry . Farmers , miners , lawyers , preachers , physicians , merchants , and suitors for the hands and hearts of women , fail by indolence where others succeed by industry . It is no more genteel or manly that ic is profitable to be idle .

Industry is honourable and noble . It is cruelty to children to raise them to be do-nothings . Masonry is a school of industry . Its symbols are working tools ; its ceremonies relate to industrial pursuits : its admonitions relate to honest dealings for honest work ; its ancient charge specifies that " none shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother , nor supplant him or put him out

of his work , if he be capable to finish the same , for no man can finish another man ' s work so much to the Lord ' s profit unless he be thoroughly acquainted with the design and draughts of him that began it . " But self-mastery is the Masonic word which represents the constellation of virtues that distinguish the true Mason as a man among men . Intelligence relates to mind , industry to economics .

Self-mastery is moral . An idle mind is the devil ' s workshop , a lazy man is the devil's clothes-horse , but a deceitful , slanderous hypocrite is the devil himself turned loose in society . The bull loose in a china shop may be a coarse figure , but may duly suggest the libertine loose in society where chinaware is human and the material broken is human hearts , lives and hopes . Equal social purity for man as for woman is the teaching of Masonry , and one of its most worthy precepts .

I would suggest to the Brethren the propriety of considering the ancient charge , which says : " You may enjoy your lives with innocent mirth , treating one another according to ability , but avoiding all excess or forcing a brother to eat and drink beyond his inclination , or hindering him from going where his occasions may call him , or doing anything offensive . "

This applies to a Mason as relates to himself . That is what a Mason should do and be , if he were alone in the world . But we are not alone , and therefore we should speak of those marks and virtues of Masonry which relate to others outside of the Lodge , or society in general . ... Within , the Lodge the three great Masonic tenets are brotherly love , relief and truth . Masonic

honours grow from these . Without the Order , I would say that the duties of Masonry are comprehended in two things—charity towards the needy , and public spirit for the public good . Man is related to his fellows as the links of the chain are related to each other . The charity of a Mason is that of a good Samaritan , Public spirit includes courtesy . Be courteous . Sympathise with humanity and practice the golden rule in civil and business life .

I have now spoken of the Mason as to himself and his relations to his fellow beings , but we have not yet completed our study . The Masonic emblem of the All-Seeing Eye reminds us of our relation to Almighty God . Our ancient charge teaches us that " a Mason is obliged by his obligation to obey the moral law ;

and if he rightly understands the art he will never be a stupid atheist nor an irreligious libertine . " Hence , in the eye of Masonry , to use profane language is neither brave , polite or wise , but is as wicked as it is foolish . To keep the Sabbath day is to remember God . To live for eternity is wise for a man who is soon to be done with time . To be a Mason is to be a good man .

There is no truth brought out in any degree beyond the Master Mason ' s degree that is not embodied in that degree or in the two that precede it . Every phase of morality , every teaching of virtue and uprightness of the Order are contained within the blue Lodge degrees . Freemasonry , as here taught , is the science of right living towards one ' s self , his fellow men , and his God . — ' Voice of Masonry . "

What Is Masonry?

WHAT IS MASONRY ?

Translated from " Boletin Masonico" ( Mexico ) by Bro . Eli Broad . WE are asked every day " What is Masonry ? Which are its mysteries , of which so much is spoken about to the initiates and which are never revealed to them ? " This question , which various times has been put to us , even by Freemasons

merits consideration , and we are going to answer it . We cannot , nevertheless , do less than demonstrate certain surprise , when an initiate interrogates us on this matter , and we consider that he

has not taken the trouble to reflect or that only the superficies of the forms have touched him . We agree—if it is exacted from us —that Freemasonry has now become almost vulgar ; it is not now what it was primarily ; but we will add that it is not necessary