Masonry And Its Use.

saying that which is concerned with roots . Combining in a wide-embracing , though restricted fellowship , through a long and honourable history , men of religious spirit , of beneficent activities , although of widely different experiences and creeds , political and religious , Masonry illustrates

true radicalism . As tho philologist finds a few common roots at the base of all languages , and so diseovers the point of union aud fellowship between diverse peoples , so Masonry

aims to conserve the root ideas that control the lives of men , and by their union give a ground for more generous fellowship—a communion in which what is best will prove itself by its evident superiority to what is worse .

This answer to the first question , What is Masonry ? makes evident what must be the answer to the second question , Of what use is Masonry ? A few months ago a saying went the rounds of the newspapers that a certain unknown Mason had pronounced Masonry at once the most

harmless and useless thing in existence . If any Mason ever said so ho must have had a fit of despondency , brought on by contemplating aotual Masonry in the presencg of its exalted ideals . The saying , wherever or however it originated , is false . A horticulturist , talking of apple orchards ,

may commend a particular kind of apple as of fine flavour , a good bearer and a good keeper . A farmer present may shako his head and offer to take the speaker to his orchard and show him that he is wholly wrong . That farmer can point to trees of that vaunted variety whioh bear only

shrivelled , gnarly fruit , in small quantities , fruit that decays before it ripens . The horticulturist has only one answer : " Nothing that is good grows to its best without appropriate treatment . " The value of Masonry is to be measured , as is the value of all products , by its best , not by its worst

condition . Indeed , could it be shown to be true that the ideals of Masonry are nowhere realised , that wonld only bo a reason for new exertions , never a reason for abandoning the ideals

But Masons may , with due modesty , claim that the practical utility of Masonry is apparent to any one who cares to give attention to it ; that its ideals are in part realised ; that there is some good , fairly ripe fruit . Three particulars may be noted :

First—Masonry forms a bond of union between mon of different classes in society . Its dictum , " Wo meet upon tho level , " abolishes all distinctions between members as

members . Prince and peasant , ruler and ruled , capitalist and borrower , employer and employed , the well-paid and the ill-paid , the rich and the poor , meet together and reco ^ uise that " the Lord is the maker of them all . "

A person must bo very ignorant or else the victim of a blinding prejudice who , in theso days of social strife , sees no uso in such a blotting out of ordinary distinctions . While no man as a Mason is required , or oven permitted to be false to hia own social views , every man who is

a Mason has peculiar opportunities for modifying his social views and perceiving at least a modicum of worth in the views of a man at some other point in tho social scale . It needs not that a Masonic Lodge should act directly on disturbing social questions . It is essential not only to the

principles of Masonry , but to its utility as well , that it should never discuss tho burning social questions ; in order that it may bo able to furnish a common ground where dovotees of most diverse social theorios may meet , not as combatants , but as friends , so not for victory but for instruction—that kind of instruction which is received

without resistance , because not directly intended on either sido ; that instruction which enlarges tho view of all partios , inclining them to discuss their theories without personalities . Tho brethren of tho mystic tie , divided most widely in their views as to tho right relation between capital and

labour , havo been able to contend for their respective theories with greater fairness and kindness outside of tho Masonic Lodge , because no contention was ever permitted insido tho Lodgo-room , becouso there all brethren dwell togethor in peace and unity , meeting on tho level and

parting on the square . Second . —Masonry unites men of different political views . ¦ It unites the men not their views . It has nothing to do with their views , nothing to say about them . A Masonic Lodgo nover tjan bo of any political party . Its members

may at will be members of any political party or of none . Whatever narrow-minded party leaders may aver , no thoughtful citizen of any party ever believes that the partisan is the patriot . Our country has felt the shock of war and is still suffering from its results because party Spirit took tho place of patriotism , sectionalism was sub-

Masonry And Its Use.

stituted for nationalism . Masonry is of use iu bringing together some partisans and compelling them for a time to see each other simply as men , thus introducing something more generous iuto their thoughts and feelings than ever could como from party spirit . Masonry is a political

agent only as it gives opportunity for politicians to maintain fraternal association with political opponents , and so modifies the bitterness of political contests , and sometimes modifies the result by suggesting something better than either party leader would alone havo planned . Iu the

political campaigns , as in tho campaigns of our civil war , those whose convictions place them on opposite sides are not less loyal to their convictions , but are more manly in

their conflict with the foe , to whom , in the intervals of strife , they havo extended the hand of human fellowship , from whom thoy havo received the sign of Masonic brotherhood . He who can see no reason for the existence

of a fraternity which modifies the hatreds and enmities of life is a good deal loss thau Christian , if indeed he doss not deserve to bo classed with the savage whose insatiable hatred he prefers . Third . —Masonry unites men of various religions views .

This would bo folly if the object were an association to propagate a religion . There are many religions in the world . Masonry discriminates between them , pronouncing in favour of a biblical religion . Yet Masonry does not attempt to defino either what the BIBLE is , or what religion

may fairly bo said to be founded upon it . What Masonry might be or do in a land where there was no BIBLE is hardly worth discussing . The Christian church goes everywhere with the BIBLE , reduces to writing spoken

languages and translates the BIBLE : into the languages created for it . Thus among any people of earth where Masonry could go , the light could be none other than that which here shines for Gentile and Jew as they stand together on the tessellated pavement .

But there remains diversity when Masonry has shut out from her fellowship all heathen religions , as well as atheism and infidelity . The Roman Catholic church may pronounce its ban against Masonry , but no Lodge is closed against a man for the reason that he is a Roman Catholic . Some Protestant churches have seen fit to forbid their

ministers or members to unite with Masonio Lodges , yet no Lodgo shuts its doors against anyone of these in retaliation for the acts of his church . Protestants of all sects , Roman Catholics and Jews , may all meet on one common level as Masons . Whore else can they , this side the grave ?

With these may meet men of less formal religious views ; somo with strange religious hobbies , incongruously shaped from joinings of conflicting texts of Scripture ; others with f cagincntary views , held in somo sort of unity by a philosophy of the crudest form ; many with traditional views inherited with their blood and bones—some curious

mixture of ancient paganism and modern Christianity . They look from a false standpoint who criticise this fraternity oE men of various religious views , all—in some sense , more or less clear—founded on the BIBLE . If the object wero tho propagation of Christianity , such a

fraternity would nob be of first importance . There is no pietence ^ on tho part of any who know wh at Masonry is tbat iti is fitted to propagate either Christianity or any other specific form of religion . For this very reason it furnishes a common standing ground on which all men who accept the Bible as tho word of God , and tho rule of life , can

meet . Tho use hero is similar to that which we have seen in social and in political matters . Prejudices that exist between Jews and Christians , between Roman Catholics and Protestants , between different families of Protestants ,

have their ground in a want of personal acquaintance between porsons holding these faiths . Prejudice is often in the way of mutual help . Masonry tends to break down tho prejudice . So it affords an opportunity for helpful religious work , to any who are so disposed . Pious men

are often densely ignorant of the real lives of men who aro not pious , but only in a vague sense religious . Paganism is quite as possible under forms of Christianity , as under the old religions of Greece or Rome . Whatever may bo thought tho proper method to reach the modern pagan , our

next door neighbour , one thing is very plain , he must know us as his friends , his fellows , before we ever can know tho man we desire to reach . I am revealing no secret of Masonry when I say that every Lodge room contains at least one specimen of the modern pagan , porhaps many . So this association affords opportuuity