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Short Talk Bulletin Vol 01 No 08
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.I August, 1923 No.8
BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS GUARDED BY THE TILER'S SWORD
by: Unknown
Let me introduce the speaker of the evening, although, as presiding
officers so often say, he hardly needs an introduction. I believe that
most Masons know him well and, after I describe him, you will easily
recognize him. He is the Tiler of his Lodge and a very interesting man to
meet. You will find it worth while cultivating his acquaintance.
I have met him wherever I have been privileged to visit lodge. He is a man
of uncertain age. He is old in wisdom, in his knowledge of Masonic Lore,
and in his understanding of human nature. He is young with that spirit of
eternal youth that comes with fulfillment of the sweet law of Brotherhood.
He knows all the Brethren intimately and never misses a meeting of his
lodge. He has seen young men hesitatingly enter the preparation room for
the first time; he has seen them passed and raised, watched their
enthusiastic progress through the stations, served under them as they sat
in the Oriental Chair, and walker with drawn sword at the head of the
procession as they were carried to their last resting place.
His name is legion but I prefer to call him Peters, because everybody calls
him by his first name; and if your think tank is working tonight, you will
recognize the appropriateness of calling him Peter.
He does not get into the lodge room very often and would be particularly
embarrassed if called upon to make a speech. I have seen him come into the
room on large meeting nights to help the deacons purge the lodge. He will
cast his eyes carelessly over the crowd and then confidently couch for
every man in the room. I have sometimes wondered whether he possesses
uncanny wisdom or whether he is simply faking.
But let us go out into his little room that is furnished with a cast-off
table and some chairs that were
used in the lodge room before it was remodeled; let us light the cigar,
cigarette or pipe that Masonic custom denies us in the lodge, tilt our
chairs back against the wall, lay our heads against that greasy spot left
by many heads that have rested there before ours, and listen to this
Masonic Philosopher.
"I have often wondered," says Peter, "about these Masonic Symbols.
Generally when you fellows are in there watching the work I am out here by
myself, and so you see I have lots of time to think. Sometimes I am
puzzled by what the Ritual says in its explanation of these symbols. Take
for instance, those nine emblems of the Third Degree. I suppose most of
you fellows have forgotten all about them because you generally come
streaming out here and throw your aprons in a pile for me to straighten out
about the time the Master starts on his lecture. The only time you stay is
when the Master tells you there is going to be coffee and sandwiches after
the work, and then you hang around during the lecture.
"There is one of those emblems that has given me more trouble than anything
else in Masonry; it is the one in which you see a book lying on a velvet
pillow with a sword over the top. The Masters tells you that it is the
Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's Sword, and that it reminds us
to be ever watchful and guarded in our thoughts, words, and actions,
particularly when before the enemies of Masonry, ever bearing in mind those
truly Masonic virtues,; silence and circumspection. Now, that never seemed
just right to me.
"Those old boys who gave us this Ritual had pretty good ideas about
symbolism, and the things they used as symbols generally meant just exactly
what they told you about them. It is funny how much meaning they could get
out of such things as a trowel, a square or a level. True symbolism, you
know, isn't forced. It just comes naturally. The moment you hear the
explanation, you say, 'Of Course! Why didn't I think of that before?'
That is why I could never see what there was about that book and sword to
teach us to be watchful and guarded in our thoughts, words and actions.
"You know the Chinese with their three monkeys, one with his hands over his
ears, the other with his hands over his eyes, and the third with his hands
over his mouth made a much better symbol of being watchful and guarded than
our book and sword, and the same thing holds true in regard to silence and
circumspection. If that is what we want to teach, we had better get rid of
that book and sword and throw a picture of the three wise monkeys on the
screen.
"Some time ago I read a book written by a great man who had spent his life
studying Masonry. One thing that makes me want to study Masonry is that so
many great men have found it worthy of such deep study. This writer seemed
to have the idea that Masonry didn't always say just exactly what it meant.
He said something about the real truth of Masonry being hidden in the
Ritual instead of being revealed by it; that you had to search out the real
meaning of the Masonic Symbols for yourself. That always stuck by me. I
was talking to one of the brethren about it and he agreed with this Masonic
writer. This brother said we don't sell the secrets of Freemasonry; when a
man pays for his degrees, we only sell him the tools and he must use them
to dig out the secrets for himself. And so I dug away at the old book and
sword trying to understand what it really meant until the other night when
one of these Service association fellows came around and talked to us.
"He showed us how much the Masons had to do with the founding of this
government. He told us how Paul Revere's ride was organized among Masons
and how all the fellows that helped Paul Revere make that ride were his
Brethren, while Paul Revere himself was Provincial Grand Master of Masons
in Massachusetts. He told us of the Boston Tea Party, and how the little
affair was arranged at the Old Green Dragon Tavern, which was nothing more
or less than a Masonic Temple. He told us about John Hancock, Benjamin
Franklin, Joseph Warren, Lafayette, and George Washington; and ever so many
more of those early patriots who were all Masons, and how it was by working
together as Masons that they carried out on the Revolutionary War, and then
afterwards built this nation of ours. he told us about the constitution of
the United States. You know the interesting thing about that is not that
these men were Masons, many of our prominent citizens today are Masons, but
that the same group of men who were leaders of our Fraternity were also
leaders of the nation at that time. And then he told us how, because our
Brethren had laid the foundation of this nation and because that foundation
was in accord with Masonic principles, it was our duty to build the rest of
the Temple to Liberty in America, and to watch over it and guard it with
our very lives.
"So I got the thinking about that old Book and sword and it seemed to me
that perhaps after all there was a real meaning behind it that was
concealed rather than revealed in the Ritual, as that Masonic writer that I
told you about said; and it seemed to me that Book of Constitutions,
instead of being a symbol of silence and circumspection, was a symbol of
constitutional government such as we have in this country. Our Book of
Constitutions, you know, is our Masonic fundamental law, just as the
Constitution of the United States is the fundamental law of our nation. So
you see how naturally it becomes the symbol of constitutional government.
"That Sword over the Book is this little old sword lying here on the table
beside me. You know, this sword isn't any good to hurt anybody with, but
it is just a symbol by which Freemasonry protects itself against cowan's
and evesdroppers. So it is just a symbol of Masonry on guard and, as the
Book of Constitutions is a symbol of constitutional government, the Tiler's
Sword is a symbol of Masonry on guard. Do you see what I'm getting at? I
believe the Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's Sword teaches us
that Masonry should always be the Guardian of Constitutional Government.
"I was telling another Brother about this the other night and he told me I
was wrong because Masonry was older than the United States government and
the symbol, he said, must be older than this country of ours. So I got to
thinking about that too and it came to me that much of this speculative
Masonry that we have today comes to us from England. Of course, I
understand that Masonry as we know it has been gathered together from nay
countries. Some fellows say that we get it direct from the boys that
worked on King Solomon's Temple but it may be that isn't quite right.
Speculative Masonry, in its present form at least, did have its origin in
England, and you know that a lot of the ideas about constitutional
government that were accepted by us were first brought into practice back
in England before the United States became a free country. And so I
thought it very likely that even back then in those days our English
Brethren, just like our Revolutionary Brethren were fighting for
constitutional government and maybe they had as much to do with getting it
in England as George Washington, Paul Revere and the other boys had with
getting it in this country.
"But I'm inclined to agree with Brother Mackey, who believed that our
monitorial definition of this emblem is a modern one, and was introduced by
Brother Webb. It does not appear in the first edition of Webb's Monitor,
but I found it in the second edition, printed in 1802. Mackey says, 'This
interpretation of Webb is a very unsatisfactory one. The Book of
Constitutions is the Symbol of constituted law rather than of silence and
circumspection, and when guarded by the Tiler's Sword it would seem
properly to symbolize regard for and obedience to law, a prominent Masonic
duty.'
"So, until somebody shows me that I am wrong, I am going to believe every
time I see that book and sword on the screen that the book is the
Constitution of the United States and the sword is Freemasonry on guard;
and instead of teaching me to be watchful and guarded in all my thoughts,
words and actions; it is going to teach me to be ever watchful and guarded
against the enemies of my nation and its Constitution, so that when I get
up into the Grand Lodge above those old boys up there that built this
nation are going to meet me with the Lion's Paw, and vouch for me when the
Supreme Grand Master of the Universe takes the Pass."
That is Peter's story of the Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler's
Sword. You may take it or leave it, but somehow or other I think he is
right. At least, ever since I heard tell that story I have had a new
thrill while listening to the Master explaining the nine Masonic Emblems in
the Third Degree; and I say to myself, "Well, that is all right for the
candidate. We can't give him all the light at once, because he would
simply be blinded by its brilliance. But, for myself, I have been out in
the anteroom with Peters using our working tools in a search for further
Masonic light, and I know that sword and book mean that it is up to me to
fight the enemies of constitutional government and to protect our
Constitution from those seeking to destroy it. And with the help of the
Great Architect of the Universe, and my nearly three million Brethren, I am
going to do that little job!
Copyright 1923 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 its Member Grand Jurisdictions.
