Short Talk Bulletin Vol 12 No 08

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Short Talk Bulletin

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN -Vol.XII   August, 1934   No.8 

GIFTS OF THE MAGI 

by: Unknown 

“. . . and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto  
him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”  (Matthew 21:11) 
“A young man asks, ‘What will I receive from Freemasonry if I become  
a member?  My father was a Mason, and I’d like to be, but I want to  
know what the Order has to offer me.’” 
Freemasonry “offer” nothing.  The petitioner requests; the Lodge may,  
or may not, give.  But the question is entirely legitimate; any young  
man sufficiently thoughtful to want to know something of the Craft  
which he expresses a desire to join, is good material for a Lodge,  
and should receive a satisfying answer. 
The first gift of Freemasonry is that of standing in the community.   
To pass the investigation of a competent committee, and the secret  
and unanimous ballot of a Lodge, is to be stamped with the earmark of  
a good character.  Freemasons have an enviable reputation.  To become  
one is to share in that reputation, since acceptance as a Freemason  
marks recognition of character by men well thought of in the  
community.  Cicero said:  “To disregard what the world thinks of us  
is not only arrogant, but utterly shameless.”  If his Freemasonry  
makes the world think better of a man, it is worth all it may cost in  
time and effort.	 
The young man who becomes a Freemason has the privilege of giving  
charity and relief to those less fortunate, in a way which is  
beautiful, because it is secret and unselfish.  Addison wrote:   
“Charity is a virtue of the heart and not of the hands.”  As all know  
who are concerned in Masonic charity, it is truly of the giving  
spirit. 
The young Mason has also the privilege of receiving charity and  
relief for himself, should he need it.  It is to be emphasized that  
Freemasonry is not primarily a charity and relief organization.   
These are incidental to her practice and ac result of her teachings.   
No Freemason has a right to either, but he has certainty of receiving  
both, should he, or those dear to him, be in need. 
This gift of the Craft makes a greater appeal to men as they grow  
older.  To the young man just facing the world, with the future  
stretching hopefully before him, the possibility of needing the  
comfort of a hand on his shoulder, a check for a ton of coal, a  
helping hand for a penniless widow, seem remote.  But he receives the  
precious privilege of giving to those who have traveled further on  
life’s pathway.	 
Gifts of Freemasonry are the opportunities she provides for service  
other than charity; service in friendships, service to the ill,  
service to brethren in trouble, service to the Lodge.  Nor care that  
the service to be rendered may not be great.  Wordsworth sang: “Small  
service is true service while it lasts The daisy, by the shadow that  
it casts, Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.” 
As all know who have lived, service to others generates the greatest  
happiness.  He who lives for himself alone, lives miserably.  He who  
lives somewhat for others finds that peace which passeth  
understanding. 
The Ancient Craft gives her sons a liberal education in the difficult  
art of character building.  World activities are founded upon  
ramifications of character.  We travel in a railroad train at  
dizzying speeds, secure in the belief that the engine is controlled  
by a man of “character;” sober, reliable, industrious, careful,  
cautious and able.  We never see him; we do not know him personally;  
but we believe that he could not be where he is, had he not  
demonstrated character.  Business is done on credit, which is only  
faith in a man’s word.  We accept as money a piece of paper with a  
name on it, certain that the character of the maker of the check and  
the officials of the bank, will secure to us the money for which the  
checks calls for.  We have faith in the character of the doctor, our  
lawyer and the judge in the court.  Character is the foundation of  
our civilization.  Freemasonry offer such opportunities for the  
development and the increase of the stature of character as can be  
found nowhere else in like amount. 
“Many men build as cathedrals were built, the part nearest the ground  
finished first; but that part which soars towards heaven, the turrets  
and spires, forever incomplete.” Beecher’s simile need not apply to  
Freemasonry; he who does not finish his turret and his spire of  
character in the Fraternity fails because he will not, not because he  
cannot. 
To the Freemason the Lodge offers the gift of intelligent patriotism.   
Not the “one hundred per cent American, America first and the devil  
take the hindmost” patriotism of the demagogue, but the real  
patriotism of genuine love of country, which comes to those who  
genuinely try to make their country lovable.  The history of  
Freemasonry in this nation is inextricably intermingled with the  
stirring events and the deathless deeds of literally hundreds of  
Masonic patriots without whose devotion the United States might not  
have been a nation.  Paul Revere, Warren, Washington, Marshall,  
Jefferson, Lafayette and Franklin - pages might be filled with  
immortal names of great men in our history who have known and loved  
and used the Ancient Craft for the betterment of the nation. 
“For how can man die better 
Than facing fearful odds 
For the ashes of his fathers 
And the Temples of his Gods?” 
It is this patriotism which Freemasonry teaches; we may not keep the  
bridge with old Horatius, but in the Lodge we can and do learn to  
reverence the “ashes of our fathers” and the Temples of our liberties  
and our traditions. 
Freemasonry gives to her sons the gentle gift of fellowship.  Our  
fiends are those we know well, who love us, perhaps, as much because  
of our faults as in spite of them.  Those with whom we fellowship we  
may see only once, and yet, because of our common bond, we know them  
as men who might become friends, did opportunity offer; it is to be  
hoped that they fell thus of us.  The spirit of fellowship in a Lodge  
cannot elsewhere be found.  We come to the tiled door a stranger;  
when passed within we are not among strangers, but brethren.  William  
Morris phrased it thus:   
“Forsooth, brethren, fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is  
hell; fellowship is life and lack of fellow-ship is death; and the  
deeds that ye do upon earth, it is for fellowship’s sake that ye do  
them.” 
Freemasonry stops not with fellowship.  She gives the gracious gift  
of the most favorable opportunity to make friends which can come to  
any man. 
“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life  
he will soon find himself left alone.  A man, Sir, should keep his  
friendships in constant repair.” 
Samuel Johnson’s philosophy might have been written of his who finds  
the Lodge the cradle of new friendships.  The initiate is vouched for  
to his fellows.  This is a “man,” so the committee has said.  He is  
worthy.  He is well qualified.  His reputation suffers not under the  
tongues of his friends.  He is honest, upright, of good character.   
What the committee has said of him to the Lodge which accepts him,  
other committees and the Lodge have said of every member the newly- 
made brother will greet.  Surely no happier beginning to friendships  
could be imagined.  The young Master Mason who cannot find in his  
Lodge the men who will later become the friends of his heart - surely  
is he fortunate in his choice of a Lodge! 
The Lodge gives the gentle gift of innocent recreation to her sons.   
The initiate will find here a conception of “good time” quite  
different from that of the world without.  The “good time” of a Lodge  
smoker, banquet, informal picnic, entertainment, ladies’ night,  
concert, Masonic talk or what-have-you; has a charm all its own quite  
distinct from similar functions arranged by other bodies.  “Pleasure  
the servant. Virtue looking on,” wrote rare Ben Johnson, almost as if  
he had learned the phrase in the pleasures of refreshment in Lodge. 
The “camaraderie” of the social hour of the Lodge cannot be equaled  
elsewhere.  Within these portals where men upon the level and part  
upon the square, the “good time” is not confused by questions of “who  
is he?” or “what does he do?”  Men enjoy Lodge functions not only  
because of the “innocent mirth” which the Old Charges enjoin, but  
because of the freedom and happiness; one must accept all others in  
the Lodge at face value. 
A great gift of the Fraternity is that of home in a strange place.   
That “The Mason is never homesick” is a truism.  In practically any  
town in the land - aye, in thou-sands of towns the world over - are  
Freemasons and Freemason’s Lodges.  Come to any Lodge a stranger and  
knock on the door.  If the knocker can prove that he is a member a  
royal welcome awaits, warming to the heart, easing the pain of  
loneliness, comforting to him who is far from those he loves and  
knows.  One thinks naturally of Byron’s: 
“Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, And will  
look brighter when we come.” 
and Shakespeare’s: 
“His worth is warrant for his welcome.” Nor is this “home for the  
homeless” all sentiment.   
Many a Mason has been stranded in a strange place - and been speeded  
to his destination by brotherly hands.  Many a man in a town he does  
not know has entered it a stranger and departed with new friends upon  
his list.  The Mystic Tie is a “real” tie, too strong for breaking,  
be the strain put upon it never so great. 
A gift of the Fraternity which it is good to take from the box of  
memory and muse upon is that of kinship with the old.  To do as all  
good brothers and fellows have done who have passed this tiled door  
before is inspiring to all but the most practical minded.  To kneel  
where George Washington knelt; to take the obligation which was  
sacred to Benjamin Franklin; to sit, in fancy, with the first Grand  
Master in London; to be initiated with Elias Ashmole; to look over  
the shoulder of the unknown priest whose careful penmanship lives to  
this day on our Regius poem; to gather with Athelstan and the great  
Assembly in York a thousand years ago - to go back, back, and still  
further back, through the Roman Collegia, Ancient Mystery, into Egypt  
and perhaps the very birth of the legend of Isis and Osiris - be  
spiritually one of a long line of brethren who have knelt at this  
Altar, taken these vows, lived this life and loved these teachings -  
that is a gift all Freemasons may have for the taking, and which none  
take but value. 
“O, there are Voices in the Past 
Links of a broken chain; 
Wings that can bear me back to times 
Which cannot come again; 
May God forbid that I should lose 
The echoes that remain.” (Proctor) 
A companion gift is the kinship with the present day.   
More than three million men in this nation are now living who have  
taken the Masonic obligations, and who hail the new brother, as he  
may hail them, with that dearest of titles given by man to men -  
“Brother!”  These three million - more than four millions in the  
world - will look upon the work you may do in the Lodge as important.   
Anciently it was written “Laborare est orare” - to labor is to pray.   
He who accepts the responsibilities of Masonic membership will learn  
to pray by unselfish labor; labor on committees, labor on fellowcraft  
teams, perhaps labor in conferring degrees.  Labors of love, all, but  
all bringing their own reward.  Not the least of her gifts is this  
opportunity the Ancient Craft puts before her sons, that they may  
work for the common good. 
One of Freemasonry’s most precious gifts to those who seek her light  
is her emphasis on religion.  Freemasonry is not a religion -  
Freemasonry is “religion,” which, without the qualifying article, is  
quite a different matter.  A Religion is a method or mode of worship  
of God as conceived in that system.  “Religion”, with no qualifying  
article, is knowledge of, obedience to, dependence on and utter  
belief in Deity.  The Freemason mat worship any God he pleases, and  
name as he will; God, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Primordial Urge  
or Great First Cause.  Freemasonry’s term for Deity is “The Great  
Architect of the Universe,” but she cares no whit what her sons may  
call Him in their prayers. 
For a thousand reasons men may wish to “become” Freemasons, but the  
great reason why men “remain” Freemasons, devoted to the principles  
and teachings of the Order. is vitally concerned with this non- 
doctrinal, non-sectarian, non-dogmatic teaching of religious truths  
which neither conflict not interfere with the tenets and practices of  
any religion; nay, which buttress and uphold the teachings of the  
Church. 
All men at heart are religious and desire kinship and communication  
with a Supreme Power.  Many men do not phrase this need to  
themselves; many never think of it.  Yet it is within all, as truly  
as hunger and thirst for material food and drink are present.   
Freemasonry satisfies this hunger in men who cannot, or do not,  
appease it in church; Freemasonry adds to the hunger, and therefore  
to the satisfaction, of men who “do” find in the church the  
gratification of a spiritual need the stronger that they may not put  
it into words. 
In a Lodge emphasis is everywhere upon an Unseen Presence.  Lodges  
are erected to God.  Freemasons open and close Lodges with Prayer.  A  
candidate receives the benefit of Lodge prayer and later must pray  
for himself.  The number three is everywhere in Lodge - three  
degrees, three stations, three principal officers, three Great  
Lights, three Lesser Lights, three steps on the Master’s Carpet,  
three pillars . . . and three is the numerical equivalent of the  
triangle, most ancient symbol of Deity.  The initiate may learn of  
this as he will; he cannot escape the implications of the Letter “G”  
whether he will or no.  As millions have learned before him, he will  
come to the conviction that there is a “Winding Stair,” which “does”  
lead to a “real’ Middle Chamber the Letter in the East stands for a  
“reality,” to know and understand which is the end and aim of life. 
The young man petitions a Lodge, is passed by the committee, receives  
a favorable ballot of his fellows, and lives thereafter with the  
proud privilege of wearing a Masonic apron and saying to those who  
ask, “I am a Master Mason.”  For a little space he walks forward up  
the hill; then he turns his steps downward on the sunny side, facing  
the western sun.  At long last the shadows fall and he steps into the  
sunlight beyond the horizon. 
Then he has that precious heritage which is for all Masons, and only  
for Master Masons - to be laid to rest with the tears of his  
brethren, the white apron of initiation the only decoration on his  
bier, the solemn words of the comforting Masonic service in the ears  
of his relatives and friends, and, at the end, peace under the Sprig  
of Acacia of immortal hope.  Surely this is not least among the gifts  
which the gentle Craft has for those who love her and whom she loves. 
The greatest gift?  It is, of course, a matter of opinion.  To some  
it will be one, to others another of those here so slightly sketched.   
Sadly sang the great Persian poet: 
“There was a Door to which I found no key 
There was a Veil through which I might not see; 
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee 
There was - and then no more of Me and Thee.” 
To many, her greatest gift is  this; Freemasonry gives to her sons a  
Key.  Many never fit it to the door.  Others turn the Key, but never  
push the portal wide.  Some there are who swing the gate on its  
hinges to enter the “foreign countries” of Freemasonry, there to  
wander and to ponder, to study, and to learn, to delve and to dig  
into the foundations, the symbolism, the history, the inner meaning  
of the old, old society.  For these are the gifts transcending gold  
and frankincense and myrrh; gifts of spiritual satisfaction, of  
knowledge gained, of understanding won.  
For many pleasures of this life man has invented names,; the glory of  
music, the loveliness of painting, the beauty of sculpture, the  
satisfactions of the body, the happiness of unselfishness.  For  
others, more ethereal, no words have yet been coined.  But the Key  
leads to the door, beyond which stretches the path to knowledge of  
those unknown, unnamed joys which only the possessors understand. 
In Freemasonry, as in the Great Light, it is said: 
“Ask and ye shall receive; Seek and ye shall find;  
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” 
He who asks, seeks and knocks, in Freemasonry will receive gifts as  
beautiful as they are indescribable, as desirable as they are  
imponderable.  And here the word of those older and wiser in the  
Craft, since it is not given to any man to catalog in words that  
which no words may limn. 
Say to the you man who asks you what he will find in Freemasonry;  
“You will receive what you expect and all you expect.”  Say to him:  
“If you expect little and give much, you will receive far more than  
tongue may tell.”  Finally, sat unto him: “Ask of Freemasonry what  
you will - and it shall be given to you, even the gifts of the Magi.   
But ask of her nothing, unless you come with a heart open first to  
give.” 
“FOR THAT, AND THAT ONLY, IS BROTHERHOOD!”