Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Short Talk Bulletin Vol 02 No 03
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.II March, 1924 No.3
THE HOLY BIBLE
by: Unknown
Upon the Altar of every Masonic Lodge, supporting the Square and Compasses,
lies the Holy Bible. The old, familiar Book, so beloved by so many
generations, is our Volume of Sacred Law and the Great Light in Masonry.
The Bible opens when the Lodge opens; it closes when the Lodge closes. No
Lodge can transact its own business, mush less initiate candidates into its
mysteries, unless the Book of Holy Law lies open upon its Altar. Thus the
Book of the Will of God Rules the Lodge in its labors, as the Sun Rules the
Day, making its work a worship.
The history of the Bible in the life and symbolism of Masonry is a story
too long to recite here. Nor can any one tell it as we should like to know
it. Just when, where, and by whom the teaching and imagery of the Bible
were wrought into Freemasonry, no one can tell. Anyone can have his
theory, but no one can be dogmatic. As the Craft labored in the service of
the Church during the Cathedral-Building period, it is not difficult to
account for the Biblical coloring of its thought, even in days when the
Bible was not widely distributed, and before the discovery of printing.
Anyway, we can take such facts as we are able to find, leaving further
research to learn further truth.
The Bible is mentioned in some of the old manuscripts of the Craft long
before the revival of Masonry in 1717, as the book upon which the covenant,
or oath, of a Mason was taken; but it is not referred to as a Great Light.
For example, in the Harleian Manuscript, dated about 1600, the obligation
of an initiate closes with the words: "So Help Me God, and the Holy
Contents of this Book." In the old ritual, of which a copy from the Royal
Library in Berlin is given by Krause, there is no mention of the Bible as
one of the Lights. It was in England, due largely to the influence of
Preston and his fellow workmen, that the Bible came to its place of honor
in the Lodge. At any rate, in the rituals of about 1760 it is described as
one of three Great Lights.
No Mason needs to be told what a great place the Bible has in the Masonry
of our day. It is central, sovereign, supreme, a master light of all our
seeing. From the Altar it pours forth upon the East, the West, and the
South its white light of spiritual vision, moral law, and immortal hope.
Almost every name found in our ceremonies is a Biblical name, and students
have traced about seventy-five references to the Bible in the Ritual of the
Craft. But more important than direct references is the fact that the
spirit of the Bible, its faith, its attitude toward life, pervades Masonry,
like a rhythm or a fragrance. As soon as an initiate enters the Lodge, he
hears the words of the Bible recited as an accompaniment to his advance
toward the light. Upon the Bible every Masons takes solemn vows of
loyalty, of chastity, and charity, pledging himself to the practice of the
Brotherly Life. Then he moves forward from one degree to another, the
imagery of the Bible becomes familiar and eloquent and its music sings its
way into his heart.
Nor is it strange that it should be so. As faith in God is the corner-
stone of the Craft, so, naturally, the book which tells us the purest truth
about God is its Altar-Light. The Temple of King Solomon, about which the
history, legends, and symbolism of the Craft are woven, was the tallest
temple of the ancient world, not in the grandeur of its architecture but in
the greatest of the truths for which it stood. In the midst of ignorant
idolatries and debasing superstitions the Temple on Mount Moriah stood for
Unity, Righteousness, and Spirituality of God. Upon no other foundation
can men build with any sense of security and permanence when the winds
blow and the floods descend. But the Bible is not simply a foundation
rock; it is also a quarry in which we find the truths that make us men. As
in the old ages of geology rays of sunlight were stored up in vast beds of
coal, for the uses of man, so in this old book the light of moral truth is
stored to light the mind and warm the heart of man.
Alas, there has been more dispute about the Bible than about any other
book, making for schism, dividing men in sects. But Masonry knows a
certain secret, almost too simple to be found out, whereby it avoids both
intolerance and sectarianism. It is essentially religious, but it is not
dogmatic. The fact that the Bible lies open upon the Altar means that man
must have some Divine Revelation - must seek for a light higher than human
to guide and govern him. But it lays down no hard and fast dogma on the
subject of revelation. It attempts no detailed interpretation of the
Bible. The great Book lies open upon its Altar, and is open for all to
read, open for each to interpret for himself. The tie by which our Craft
is united is strong, but it allows the utmost liberty of faith and thought.
It unites men, not upon a creed bristling with debated issues, but upon the
broad, simple truth which underlies all creeds and over-arches all sects -
faith in God, the wise Master Builder, for whom and with whom man must
work.
Herein our gentle Craft is truly wise, and its wisdom was never more needed
than today, when the Churches are divided and torn by angry debate.
However religious teachers may differ in their doctrines, in the Lodge they
meet with mutual respect and good will. At the Altar of Masonry they learn
not only toleration, but appreciation. In its air of kindly fellowship,
man to man, they discover that the things they have in common are greater
than the things that divide. It is the glory of Masonry to teach Unity in
essentials, Liberty in details, Charity in all things; and by this sign its
spirit must at last prevail. It is the beautiful secret of Masonry that
all just men, all devout men, all righteous men are everywhere of one
religion, and it seeks to remove the hoodwinks of prejudice and intolerance
so that they may recognize each other and work together in the doing of
good.
Like everything else in Masonry, the Bible, so rich in symbolism, is itself
a symbol - that is, a part taken for the whole. It is a symbol of the Book
of truth, the Scroll of Faith, the Record of the Will of God as man has
learned it in the midst of the years - the perpetual revelation of Himself
which God has made, and is making, to mankind in every age and land. Thus,
by the very honor which Masonry pays to the Bible, it teaches us to revere
every Book of Faith in which men find help for today and hope for the
morrow. For that reason, in a Lodge consisting entirely of Jews, the Old
Testament alone may be placed upon the Altar, and in a Lodge in the land of
Mohammed the Koran may be used. Whether it be the Gospels of the
Christian, the Book of the Law of the Hebrew, the Koran of the Mussulman,
or the Vedas of the Hindu; it everywhere Masonically conveys the same idea
- symbolizing the Will of God revealed to man, taking such faith and vision
as he has found into a great fellowship of the seekers and finders of the
truth.
Thus Masonry invites to its Altar men of all faiths, knowing that, if they
use different names for the "Nameless One of an Hundred Names," they are
yet praying to the one God and Father of all; knowing also, that while they
read different volumes, they are in fact reading the same vast Book of
Faith of Man as revealed in the struggle and tragedy of the race in its
quest of God. So that, great and noble as the Bible is, Masonry sees it as
a symbol of that eternal, ever-unfolding Book of the Will of God which
Lowell described in memorable lines:
Slowly the Bible of the race is writ,
And not on paper leaves, nor leaves of stone;
Each age, each kindred, adds a verse to it,
Text of despair or hope, of joy or moan,
While swings the sea, while mists the mountain shroud,
While thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud,
Still at the Prophets' feet the nations sit.
None the less, while we honor every Book of Faith in which have been
recorded the way and Will of God, with us the Bible is supreme, at once the
mother-book of our literature, and the master-book of the Lodge. Its truth
is inwrought in the fiber of our being, with whatsoever else of the good
and the true which the past has given us. Its spirit stirs our hearts,
like a sweet habit of the blood; its light follows all our way, showing us
the meaning and worth of life. Its very words have in them memories,
echoes, and overtones of voices long since hushed, and its scenery is
interwoven with the holiest associations of our lives. Our father and
mothers read it, finding in it their final reasons for living faithfully
and nobly, and it is thus a part of the ritual of the Lodge and the Ritual
of Life.
Every Mason ought not only to honor the Bible as a great Light of the
Craft; he ought to read it, live it, love it, lay its truth to heart and
learn what it means to be a man. There is something in the old Book which,
if it gets into a man, makes him both gentle and strong, faithful and free,
obedient and tolerant, adding to his knowledge virtue, patience,
temperance, self-control, brotherly love, and pity. The Bible is as high
as the sky and as deep as the grave; its two great characters are God and
the soul, and the story of their romance. It is the most human of books,
telling us the half-forgotten secrets of our own hearts, our sins, our
sorrows, our doubts, our hopes. It is the most Divine of Books, telling us
that God has made us for himself, and that our hearts will be restless and
lonely until we learn to rest in Him whose will is our peace.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as
thyself."
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye
even so to them; for this is the law and the Prophets."
"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted by the world."
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens."
Copyright, 1924, by The Masonic Service Association of the United States.
The contents of this Bulletin must not be reproduced, in whole or in part,
without permission.
Published monthly by The Masonic Service Association of the United States
under the auspices of the member Grand Jurisdictions.
Entered as second-class matter September 6, 1923, at the Post Office at
Washington, D.C., under the Act of August 214, 1912. Acceptance for
mailing at special rate of Postage provided for in section 1103, Act of
October 3, 1917, authorized February 17, 1923.
