Short Talk Bulletin Vol 10 No 08

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Short Talk Bulletin

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.X   August, 1932   No.8 

TRUTH 

by: Unknown 

It is an odd fact that Freemasonry’s direct teaching in regard to  
Truth is less important than her indirect teaching. 
In the entered Apprentice’s Lecture we learn of Truth as “the  
foundation of every virtue.  To be good Men and True is the first  
lesson.” etc.  But these teachings regarding the third Principal  
Tenet are of Truth in its narrower and more restricted sense - that  
use of the word as a synonym for sincerity, right dealing, absence of  
deceit, straight forwardness. 
Philosophers distinguish several verities of Truth - logical truth,  
the conformity of reasoning to premises; ontological, metaphysical or  
transcendental truth - the doctrine that the existence of Deity is  
proved by the very idea of his existence; absolute truth - the  
reality behind the appearance or idea. 
These conceptions of Truth have led to the more common use of the  
word, as that which is believed to be so, as distinct from that which  
is known to be opposite of the fact.  The witness who swears to tell  
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth indicates no  
more than his intention to state that which is known to him, believed  
by him; that he will not intentionally deceive.  A witness may  
testify to something which is not a fact and be unperjured, provided  
it is a fact to “him.”  A man, ignorant of astronomy may truthfully  
testify that the sun moves from east to west between morning and  
night.  His testimony is the truth as he knows it.  That actually the  
earth moves beneath the sun, while the sun stands still, does not  
make him untruthful. 
The truth is not always easy to define.  Some questions have several  
answers, all correct.  Other questions cannot be answered, “as  
asked,” correctly.  For instance, “how many feet in a mile?”  has  
only one true answer:  5,280.  But “what two whole numbers added  
together make 5,280” has 2640, answers, “all” correct!  “What are the  
“only” two numbers, added together, that result in 5,280” cannot be  
answered correctly, “in the terms in which it is asked,” because  
there are not “only two” numbers, the addition of which so result.   
In mathematics are many conceptions which have no actual truth behind  
them.  By the very laws of mathematics, we cannot imagine a square  
root of “minus one.” A root, multiplied by itself, must give the  
number of which it is a root.  No number, plus or minus, multiplied  
by itself produces a minus quantity.  Yet this very conception of the  
square root of minus one is constantly in use in mathematics, though  
it has no objective existence and no mathematical answer. 
The entered Apprentice Lecture teaches of truth as opposed to deceit,  
truth as a foundation of character, truth in the moral sense.  In  
this sense Truth really is the foundation of every virtue.  There is  
no justice without truth; there is no philanthropy without truth;  
there can be no self-sacrifice, no bravery, no rectitude - no virtue  
of any kind - without a foundation in that which is sincere and  
honest, as opposed to that which is lying and deceitful.	 
This aspect of truth is only part of the Third Principal Tenet.  It  
is vitally important, it must be learned, pondered and observed, but  
it compares with the absolute Masonic Truth as compares the moon to  
the sun. 
To grasp the idea of Absolute Truth is not given to many,  All  
abstract ideas require real mental labor to formulate. The thought of  
fundamental, unchangeable, inescapable verities behind the form,  
substance and phenomena of life, is not easy.  Yet difficulty but  
makes the idea the more precious when it does become a part of a  
Freemason’s mental concepts. 
A manufacturer is to make a table.  Before he puts pencil to paper he  
forms an idea of what a table looks like.  He reduces this idea to a  
drawing and specification; it then becomes an idea made manifest, so  
that others can understand it.  But it is not yet a table.  When the  
wood-worker constructs the table from materials, cutting and fitting  
them from the plans, the idea becomes embodied.  The table is now all  
three - idea, idea manifest, and idea embodied.  To the observer it  
is possessed of form and substance. is hard, varnished, throws a  
shadow, and can support other objects - in fact, a table. 
The Absolute Truth of the table is probably quite different.  For all  
its seeming solidity and weight, we know that it is far more space  
than matter.  We know that its atoms are composed of electrons,  
whirling at inconceivable speeds about a central proton, and that if  
we could see it as it “really” is, not as it appears to the human  
senses, it would be a collection of bounding, moving, swinging,  
revolving particles of electricity, the force of which, if all were  
suddenly let loose, would be sufficient to wreck a city. 
But not a single scientist can yet even imagine what an electron  
“really” is - the Absolute Truth of it escapes the laboratory. 
Freemasonry is not all concerned with proving the verity of Deity.   
She accepts a Great Architect as Truth.  But as we have seen, Truth  
has more than one classification.  The Absolute Truth of Deity can no  
more be known to man on earth than the Absolute Reality of the table  
can be realized by those who use it.  Our perception of the world and  
life is sense bound.  From seeing, hearing , touching, tasting and  
smelling; we reason, think and believe.  Many aspects of physical  
things do not touch our five senses - for instance, the speed of the  
electron, the size of the atom.  And unimaginable aspects of Deity  
cannot enter our minds, because a finite mind can never comprehend  
that which is infinite. 
Freemasonry teaches that the True Word was lost.  She offers a  
substitute.  To search for That Which Was Lost is the reason for  
Masonic life.  While we know that the search must be as fruitless as  
it must be endless, we find joy and usefulness in the effort, not in  
the results.  Important to the Freemason is not the comprehension of  
the idea of the Absolute, but that he seeks it in his conception of  
the Most High. 
The great Freemason, Lessing, said: “Pure Truth is for God alone” -  
phrasing in six words both the impossibility of mortals ever finding  
it, and the reason we should seek it!  Cicero, too, knew why we must  
seek.  When he said; “our minds possess by nature an insatiable  
desire to know the truth” he uttered a truism, no matter what aspect  
of Truth is considered.  Chesterfield capped them both with his  
famous “Every man seeks for truth - God, only, knows who finds it.” 
“Our ancient friend and brother, the great Pythagoras” was poet,  
philosopher and scientist when he stated “Truth is so great a  
perfection that if God would render himself visible to man, he would  
choose light for him body and truth for his soul.” 
Few men are able to tell others of the eternal verities, even if, at  
long last, they win them.  To “Tell The Truth,” meaning to state the  
fact or belief as known, is easy.  But to tell the Truth unto men is  
like singing music to the tone deaf, teaching differential calculus  
to six year old child, speaking in a language the hearer does not  
understand.  He who even thinks he knows the Lost word may never tell  
it - no syllables formed by mortal tongue may speak it.  Listen to  
John Ruskin, sage of sages:  “Childhood often holds a truth with its  
feeble fingers which the grasp of manhood cannot retain - which it is  
the pride of utmost age to recover.”  the very young and the very old  
know that which they cannot tell to us of the middle years.  As  
Freemasons, we know a Truth we cannot tell even to the initiate, who  
must find it for himself in the midst of our symbols and our  
teachings.	 
The great light holds a thousands truths - and one great Truth.   
Alas, that some are so blinded to the latter that, finding an  
apparent failure of conformity between page and page, they see not  
the Truth behind.  Such men  cannot sea the water for the waves, or  
find the forest because there are too many trees!  A collection of  
books, the Bible has been translated and retranslated.  Our Bible has  
come down to us through the hands of thousands of willing, devout  
workers, each with the faults and frailties of mankind.  Some copied  
well, some copied ill; some historians were accurate, others allowed  
play to their imaginations.  “Of course” in this mighty literature  
are self contradictions; “of course” different prophets, historians,  
singers and inspired leaders saw different aspects of the truths they  
taught, and so taught differently.  Recall the story of the two  
knights of old who fought to exhaustion over the color of a shield,  
one saying it was black, the other white.  When the contest was over  
they examined the shield together and found one side white and the  
other black.  So with these different manners of teaching in the  
Great Light - each teaches the Truth as its writer saw it.  The  
“real” truth, the “whole” truth - the “Absolute Truth,” is to be  
found in no verse, chapter or book, but in the Book of Books as a  
whole!  
From the beginning of time man has attempted to visualize that which  
he cannot imagine!  He would put into words, write upon paper, limn  
on canvas, shout to the housetops, that which he cannot conceive.   
What is the conventional idea of heaven?  Place of Golden Streets,  
flowing with Milk and Honey!  Why?  Because gold is precious and  
beautiful, and milk and honey good; and hard for the lowly and poor  
to get.  Injustice oppressed man for centuries; justice became a  
hope.  A just judge, no matter how severe, was far better than an  
unjust judge.  Hence we have an early conception of God as a strict,  
stern, implacable judge.  Later on - much later - came the idea of a  
merciful judge, a loving, kindly, compassionate father. 
As man has grown and learned, so has his conception of Truth of the  
Great Architect of the Universe grown more beautiful.  Will any  
contend that man is perfect?  Nay, man humble or exalted, man learned  
or ignorant, man wise or foolish, can not conceive the unthinkable  
majesty and beauty, the stupendous power and glory, the unphraseable  
marvel, which must be the Absolute Truth of the Great Architect. 
The dearest hope of all mankind since the first man cried the birth  
cry, was agonized down the centuries by Job:  “If a man die, shall he  
live again?”  And the centuries have given a hundred answers.   
Immortality in men’s minds is as different as the men!  To some it is  
rest; to others opportunity to do all that life denied them; to some  
it is pleasure; to others it is knowledge; to yet others it is  
formless, ageless, boundless contemplation, the Nirvana of the  
Buddhist.  But no thinking man believes that his most glorious  
conception of immortality can compare to whatever may be the Absolute  
Truth of that Magnificent belief. 
Concrete truths are all relative; Absolute Truth is unchanging.  We  
think of men as good or bad, moral or unethical, wise or ignorant  
only as compared to others.  Absolute goodness, morality and wisdom  
we cannot know here; we cannot know the Absolute Truth of anything. 
“But we may search for it.”  We may so order our lives, so read the  
Great Light, so follow the teachings of the ancient Craft that our  
quest of “That Which Was Lost” brings us one step nearer to the  
barrier which forever separates mortal eyes from Immortal Truth. 
That he who quests earnestly and seeks sincerely will, at long last,  
pass that barrier and with his own eyes see that the Absolute is the  
magnificent Truth of Freemasonry. 
“SO MOTE IT BE!”