In True Acclaim.

IN TRUE ACCLAIM .

IF asked to give the central thought in Masonic teachings , to point out the one sentiment central in its universe of inspiration and instruction , as a sun central in a planetary system , pouring its flood of light and blessing everywhere and in unmeasured profusion , I would say , " That central thought is

' the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man . In this field of moral thought , I am sure , is to be found the old homestead of Masonry , and around its hearthstone , lingering still , are the echoes of this voice of divine and human sentiment . It cannot be unpleasant for us to tarry here , for do we not all appreciate

the charms thac cluster around the spot we call our " old home " ? The melody of " Home , Sweet Home "is the anthem of the soul . Day by day , as the years by years are numbered in scores , the eyes of our spirits look into the windows of the homes of our

youth , and the ears of our hearts hear again and again the voices of the paternity and union of the old family home . May it not then be refreshing to return again to our old Masonic homestead and imbibe again the inspiration of the hallowed sentiment taught us at its altar and committed in sacredness to our keeping .

Let me remind you , then , that first of all , last of all , and all in all , Masonry leads us with one hand to the sublime fact of a Father God , a God of all creation and Father of all human souls , and with the other hand it conducts us over and above the rough and rugged road of apparently irreconcilable conditions , to the glorious truth that all men are Brethren .

The first lesson taught us in Masonry , its A . B . 0 . instruction , relates to the Great Architect of the Universe . No one enters the door of Masonry without his thought being first directed to a contemplation , and from his entering until his retiring , he is never beyond the view of some reminder of * this

all-pervading fact , in whatever condition of mental or physical darkness he may be . Masonry does not leave the hungry minds of men unfed . When they ask for bread , it does not give them a stone . It does not exact of them simply a confession to the belief that there exists a supreme being , nor does it leave them

with the declaration of such a fact only . But rather does it build them up in its teachings , from the declaration strong and certain , of such a truth into a high degree of knowledge of the universal evidences , the indisputable certainties of that truth . It does not leave its recital of that declaration merely as a

reference that might be made to an unexplainabie myth or mystery , but on the contrary , it piles up a pyramid of deductions out of the facts of the universe which becomes a gibraltar of truth to every studious Mason . Nature and its forces , science and its laws , history and its philosophy , are utilised to proclaim the fact

that in them and through them moves the spirit of an infinite being ; that behind the movements of the universe , as behind the lifting of a man ' s arm , there is a will mightier than the inertia of matter ; that through the ascertainments of sages and

philosophers and scientists a wisdom is detected which is far beyond that of the wisest of men ; that in the changing scenes of the history of human events there have constantly developed , in a ceaseless evolution , the better elements of this human nature of ours , the diviner sentiments of brotherly love .

To say that God exists is not proof , but to make manifest a design in creation and an order pervading the superhuman forces of the universe , or to uncover the truth that consciousness precedes the working of the laws of evolution , by which things come into form , is to make the way clear for the deduction

that a superhuman intelligence is their author , and that it continues to guide and direct them . That is proof that God exists . Masonry conducts men out into God ' s marvellous homestead —God ' s universe . It there causes him to observe the wonders

of effect , the marvellousness of result , but it insists that he shall not rest from his labours in that field of wonder , but rather that he shall journey backward and backward to the primal cause of thein all , and it tells him , " That cause is God . " It invites him

to observe , all the way along that journey , the beauty , the order , the symmetery and the beneficence which pervades every portion of all created things . It reminds him that these exhibitions of infinite wisdom , infinite power , infinite presence , and infiuite beneficence are the embodiment of infinite love .

lhe school of Masonry teaches the highest possible science , because it takes the sciences of the schools of men and appropriates them as a foundation on which to build a truer knowledge of the purposes of the Author of all the sciences .

Newton saw an apple fall from a tree , and queried why it " did not fall upward instead of downward . In his researches he followed the line of reasoning suggested by his query backward until he was able to promulgate the law of gravitation , and there

the mission of his investigation ended . The further query , How came that force into existence , what mind unfettered that eternal energy , what intelligence defined the limitations of its sway ? the scientist left for others to answer . The teachiugs of Masonry prompt us to utilise such conclusions of the scientist , and to

In True Acclaim.

search backward from the cause he discovers , backwards as far as possible for human intellects , towards the first , the primal cause , and when in that search we have reached so close to that primal cause that we observe its infinite power and wisdom , these teachings appeal to our better judgments to declare the only rational conclusion , and say , " There is the infinite God . "

The researches that are suggested by our Masonic school lead us in this way to the inevitable conclusion that God is everywhere present , and that in this omnipresence He is as far beyond our mental conception as is the endlessness of space itself ; that no less is He present in the atom too small for our

detection than in the largest globe coursing its way throughout His boundless universe . . And , too , these researches lead the Mason to rationally conclude for himself , and in the contemplation of his own being , that he is spiritually and physically , and of necessity , as much the product of infinite power and wisdom as

the forces and the visible substance of natural things can possible be . Thus by our own peculiar plans and methods the Mason is happily directed into those considerations of the facts of nature which will , if pursued with diligence , candour , and enlightened reasou , confirm him in the conclusion that God is not only the God of all nature , but as well the God of all men .

Masonry lifts up the " Book of the Law , " and its sacred writings are placed before the eyes of every Mason . la thai book the Mason reads the confirmation of the deductions of his own reason . It tells him , as he had already concluded , that " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth , " that " He

hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth , " that " His mercy endureth forever , " and he finds there , to his great gratification , the happy exclamation which his own heart had uttered from its own experience : " Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity . "

Such teachings and deductions are the fundamental instruction of this Fraternity . Its ceremonies and its methods , . its symbols and its allegories , are but helps and appliances for their forcible and effective inculcation . They are the applied means of an acceptable demonstration , when developed to their limits , of the fact of a Supreme Architect of the Universe , Who

is imbued with the sublime attributes of power , wisdom , mercy , and love . In their intended application to the affairs of life , they proclaim the fact that Masonry is the friend of humanity , by the service it renders in chasing away those dark shadows which irrational conceptions of the Almighty have caused to fall like a pall of death upon the minds and affections of men .

In their influence upon the ethical characteristics of mankind , by their lifting up the torch of reason lighted by the heavenly glow of a faith in Deity , well founded , they have served to banish the gloom of superstitious fear , to soften and wear away the

rough phases of human brutality , to smooth down the walls of intolerance , to inculate the sentiment of universal relationship between all nations and all men , to grow men into the fullness of their intended manhood .

In all the lines of the history of Freemasonry , whether it be the one we are taught to regard as genuine , or whether it be the one others have honoured with the distinction of authenticity , in them all , and without an exception , Deity is not only recognised , but in most of them He is enthroned as the one Great Architect

of the Universe . Whether we search in Jerusalem , in Egypt , in India , in Britain , in Eome , in Persia , or elsewhere , for the birthplace of the Fraternity of Freemasonry , in each land which claims to possess that historic spot we find an altar of reverence to the Almighty erected—a home where Masons learn to reverence Him and imbibe a spirit of fraternity towards mankind . And to-day

Freemasonry has a recognition and an abiding place in every civilised land ou the globe , and in every such spot it is , like Abraham , the friend of God , and like Christ , the friend of man : an avowed advocate of belief in the God of the universe of nature , the author of its ascertained forces , and an undisguised advocate of a universal humanity evolved from a common source and joined in a common relation to the Author of all .

It will not be presumed , I know , that I am seeking to impress the idea that Masonry constitutes a university for mental training from which all of its membership become graduates as Master Masons , possessed of diplomas , assuring the world that they have attained to the knowledge of certainty concerning the

Almighty , His existence and attributes . Far from that . The sun , the moon , the stars above us , and the earth beneath us , its diurnal revolutious , its depth of ocean and beauties of landscape , its wealth of needful productions for man ' s protection and subsistence—all these , and more , which are known and read of all men , are magnified by Masonry in its system of instruction ,

and are made to become most forcible object lessons in that chain of logical reasoning which can but tend to elevate the thoughtful mind from nature up to nature ' s God . The Mason is placed in an attitude whereby he can the more easily expand his acquired knowledge of nature and men into a rational conviction that there is a Creator of all matter and a Father of all souls . I recall an interesting conversation with oue of our country ' s