Short Talk Bulletin Vol 11 No 02

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Short Talk Bulletin

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI   February, 1933   No.2 

A MASTER’S WAGES 

by: Unknown 

“. . . travel in foreign countries and receive Master’s Wages.” 
Our Operative brethren received their Master’s Wages in coin of the  
realm. 
Speculatives content themselves with intangible wages - and  
occasionally some are hard pressed to explain to the wondering  
initiate just what, in this practical age, a Master’s Wages really  
are. 
The wages of a Master may be classified under two heads; first, those  
inalienable rights which every Freemason enjoys as a result of fees,  
initiation and the payment of annual dues to his Lodge; second, those  
more precious privileges which are his if he will but stretch out his  
hand to take. 
The first right of which any initiate is conscious is that of passing  
the Tiler and attending his Lodge, instead of being conducted through  
the West gate as a preliminary step to initiation.  For a time this  
right of mingling with his new brethren is so engrossing that he  
looks no further for his Master’s Wages.  Later he learns that he  
also has the right of visitation in other Lodges, even though it is a  
“right” hedged about with restrictions.  He must be in good standing  
to exercise it.  It will be denied him should any brother object to  
his visit.  If he is unaffiliated, in most Jurisdictions, he can  
exercise it but once in any one Lodge.  If private business (such as  
election of officers or a lodge trial, etc.) is scheduled, the Master  
of the Lodge  he would visit may refuse him entrance.  But in general  
this right of visiting other Lodges is a very real part of what may  
be termed his concrete Master’s Wages, and many are the Freemasons  
who find in it a sure cure for loneliness in strange places; who  
think of the opportunity to find welcome and friends where otherwise  
they would be alone, as wages of substantial character. 
The opportunities to see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of  
Freemasonry, to take from them again an again a new thought, are  
wages not to be lightly received. For him with the open ears and the  
inquiring mind, the degrees lead to a new world, since familiarity  
with ritual provides the key by which he may read an endless stream  
of books about Freemasonry. 
The Craft has a glorious history; a symbolism the study of which is  
endless; a curious legal structure of which law-minded men never  
tire’ is so interwoven with the story of the nation as to make the  
thoughtful thrill; joins hands with religion in the secret places of  
the heart in a manner both tender and touching.  These “foreign  
countries” have neither gate nor guard at the frontier . . . the  
Master Mason may cross and enter at his will, sure of wages wherever  
he wanders within their borders. 
Master’s Wages are paid in acquaintances.  Unless a newly-made Master  
Mason is so shy and retiring that he seeks the farthest corner of his  
Lodge Room, there to sit and shrink into himself, inevitably he will  
become acquainted with many men of many minds, always an interesting  
addition to the joy of life.  What he does with his acquaintances is  
another story, but at least the wages are there, waiting for him. 
No honest man insures his house thinking it will burn, but the  
insurance policy in the safe is a great comfort, well worth all that  
it costs.  It speaks of help should fire destroy his home; it assures  
that all its owner has saved in material wealth will not be lost  
should carelessness or accident start a conflagration. 
No honest man becomes a Freemason thinking to ask the Craft for  
relief. Yet the consciousness that poor is the Lodge and sodden the  
hearts of the brethren thereof from which relief will not be  
forthcoming if the need is bitter, is wages from which comfort may be  
taken. 
Freemasonry is not, “re se,” a relief organization.  It does not  
exist merely for the purpose of dispensing charity.  Nor has it great  
funds with which to work its gentle ministrations to the poor.  Fees  
are modest; dues are often too small rather than too large.  Yet, for  
the brother down and out, who has no coal for the fire, no food for  
his hungry child, whom sudden disaster threatens, the strong arm of  
the Fraternity stretches forth to push back the danger.  The cold are  
warmed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the jobless given work,  
the discouraged heartened. 
Master’s Wages, surely far greater than the effort put forth to earn  
them. 
Relief is not limited to a brother’s own Lodge.  In most  
Jurisdictions there is a Masonic Home, in which, at long last, a  
brothers weary body may rest, his tired feet cease their wandering.   
No Freemason who has visited any Masonic Home and there seen old  
brethren and their widows eased down the last long hill in peace and  
comfort; the children of Masons under friendly influences which  
insure safe launching of little ships on the sea of life; comes away  
thankful that there is such a haven for him, should he need it, even  
if he hopes never to ask for its aid.  
Stranded in a strange place, no Freemason worries about getting aid.   
In all large centers is a Board of Masonic Relief to hear his story,  
investigate his credentials and start the machinery by which his  
Lodge may help him.  In smaller places is almost invariably a Lodge  
with brethren glad to give a sympathetic hearing to his troubles.  To  
the brother in difficulty in what to him is a “foreign country,”  
ability to prove himself a Freemason is Master’s Wages, indeed. 
Freemasonry is strong in defense of the helpless.  The Widow and the  
orphan need ask but once to receive bounty.  All brethren hope to  
support their own, provide for their loved ones, but misfortune comes  
to the just and unjust alike.  To be one of a world wide brotherhood  
on which widow and child may call is of untold comfort, Master’s  
Wages more precious than the coin of gold. 
Finally is the right of Masonic burial.  At home or abroad no  
Freemason, know to desire it, but is followed to his last home by  
sorrowing brethren who lay him away under the apron of the Craft and  
the Sprig  of Acacia of immortal hope.  This, too, is Wages of a  
Master. 
“Pay the Craft their Wages, if any be due . . .” 
To some the practical wages briefly mentioned above are the important  
payments for a Freemason’s work.  To others, the more intangible but  
none the less beloved opportunities to give, rather than get, are the  
Master’s Wages which count them. 
Great among these is the Craft’s opportunity for service.  The world  
is full of chances to do for others, and no man need apply to a  
Masonic Lodge only because he wants a chance to “do unto others as he  
would others do unto him.”  But Freemasonry offer peculiar  
opportunities to unusual talents which are not always easily found in  
the profane world.  
There is always something to do in a Lodge.  There are always  
committees to be served - and committee work is usually thankless  
work.  He who cannot find his payment in his satisfaction of a task  
well done will receive no Master’s Wages for his labors on Lodge  
committees.  
There are brethren to be taught.  Learning all the “work” is a man’s  
task, not to be accomplished in a hurry.  Yet it is worth the doing,  
and in instructing officers and candidates many a Mason has found a  
quiet joy which is Master’s Wages pressed down and running over. 
Service leads to the possibility of appointment or election to the  
line of officers.  There is little to speak of the Master’s Wages  
this opportunity pays, because only those who have occupied the  
Oriental Chair know what they are.  The outer evidence of the  
experience may be told, but the inner spiritual experience is  
untellable because the words have not been invented. 
But Past Masters know!  To them is issued a special coinage of  
Master’s Wages which only a Worshipful Master may earn.  Ask any of  
them if they do not pay well for the labor. 
If practical Master’s Wages are acquaintances in Lodge, the enjoyment  
of fellowship, merged into friendship, is the same payment in larger  
form.  Difficult to describe, the sense of being one of a group, the  
solidarity of the circle which is the Lodge, provides a satisfaction  
and pleasure impossible to describe as it is clearly to be felt.  It  
is interesting to meet many men of many walks of life; it is heart- 
warming continually to meet the same group, always with the same  
feeling of equality.  High and low, rich and poor, merchant and  
money-changer, banker and broom-maker, doctor and ditch-digger all  
meet on the level, and find it happy - Master’s Wages, value  
untranslatable into money. 
Ethereal as a flower scent, dainty as a butterfly’s wing, yet to some  
as strong as any strand of the Mystic Tie all Freemasons know and  
none describe, is that feeling of being a part of the historic past.   
To have knelt at the same Altar before which George Washington  
prayed; to have taken the same obligation which bound our brethren of  
the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717; to be spiritually kin with Elias  
Ashmole; to feel friendly with Oliver, Preston, Krause, Goethe, Sir  
Christopher Wren, Marshall, Anthony Sayer to mention only a few; to  
be a brother of Craftsmen who formed the Boston Tea Party; to stand  
at Bunker Hill with Warren and ride with brother Paul Revere; to be  
an apprentice at the building of St. Paul’s; to learn the Knot from a  
Comacine Master; to follow the Magister in a Roman “Collegium,” aye,  
even to stand awed before those mysteries of ancient peoples, and  
perhaps see a priest raise the dead body of Osiris from a dead level  
to a living perpendicular - these are mental experiences not to be  
forgotten when counting up Master’s Wages. 
Finally - and best - is the making of many friends.   
Thousands of brethren count their nearest and their dearest friends  
on the rolls of the Lodge they love and serve.  The Mystic Tie makes  
for friendship  It attracts man to man and often draws together  
“those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.”   
The teachings of broth-erly love, relief and truth; of temperance,  
fortitude, prudence and justice; the inculcation of patriotism and  
love of country, are everyday experiences in a Masonic Lodge.  When  
men speak freely those thoughts which, in the world without, they  
keep silent, friendships are formed. 
Count gain for work well done in what coin seems most valuable; the  
dearest of the intangibles which come to any Master Mason are those  
Masonic friendships than which there “are” no greater Master’s Wages.