The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-12


 Sacred Book upon which every mas ter mason must bow his head. It is,
 No man liveth unto himself No
 human being or atom can find the full
 expression of existence save in cor
 porate life. Life is not in the soli-
 tude, but in the multitude. Whatever
 may be the natural endowment, it is their expression in our relations with out fellow men that makes them exist for us and gives 10 them increasing power. All the faculties and emo exist powerlessly In the musicians soul without the instruments for its expression. Man Is the harp of a thousand strings In whom our intel lectual and moral faculties, like fin gers, waken harmonies, which. vibrat- ing, send back to us harmonies- of | thought and life, thrilling us with ecstasy, and stimulating those very sion. We are dependent each upon the other for the fullness of our lives, and fraternity is but realization of that dependence. It Is the giving of 1, of their selves in return.
 Fraternity Means Sympathy.
 "FraternIty has the practical mean ing of love. There is nothing so ter
 rible as to feel that no one cares. l
 cannot imagine hell more bitter
 
 drive out Of the soul all it's diviner
 impulses more quickly and give the impulse to moral self-destruction; nothing which will so inspire to all that is noblest and best as the knowI- edge that we are loved-that some
 one cares. And that is just what 1t
 ought to mean in masonry; no mat
 ter what may be the foibles of the personality, one shall know that he is our brother, and that he has our af- lection and interest as such, for the development of all that is highest and
 best in him.
 And fraternity means sympathy
 with the weakness of our brothers character, with him in the trials and sion of that sympathy in whatever
 practical way is possible.
 Saw the Flag.
 "I am thinking now of some old Grand Army men who were travelling over a new road in the Rocky noun tains. At one point the scenery was | known to be unsurpassed in the
 world. At this point they disem parked to enjoy it. They saw the mountains rising, one above another, till n the far distance they glittered with their crowns of snow, losing their peaks in
 the heecy clouds. There wheeled in vast circles great eagle, on broad stretched, yet seemingly notionleSS, plnionS, mounting into the eye of thei sun. Far below stretched a valley through which a foaming brook made its way. Sweeping the valley with his powerful glass, one of them saw a log hut, garden and cultivated fields and flying from a staff, the American flag. Tt must be comrade,' he said, ~alone
 in the wilderness They went down to him. They saw the old button in his coat. He told them of his life after the war, when, broken in health and impoverished, he and his faithful | wife tried their fortunes in the wilder | ness of the west He told of her | death, and the terrible struggles of his history And they, men famed in the land for their achievements put their
 arms about him, mingled their tears | with his tears, gave him that sympa- | thy which was as balm to his pain blessed him with the substance with which they had been blessed, then hand clasped hand in the strong grip
 of comradeship, and they left him alone with his sacred dead, and with
 a never-dying memory of their fellow l ship. It is just that which men need and just that which masonry means | that each shall be to each as A shad- ow of great reck in a weary land.' | And 1t means also moral support. Many a man would have been saved to | a high moral life if he had had The fraternal counsel and moral encour- agement that he needed. but did not receive. How little of such fraternity do we live! Yet that is the ideal of
 masonry, which, is truly lived, would | regenerate our human society, upIift | mankind and transform the warfare
 of our industrial life. with all its in human greed and cruelty, into an in stitution of peaceful ministry, whose | material rewards would surpass a
 thousand times that which we now
 enjoy.
 'Second-What is the moral ideal ?'' | Tt stands for temperance, chastity, honesty, fidelity to friendship, right l and truth. The incorporate mason is
 as much a contradiction as an intem- | perate Christian. Masonry inculcates l self-coptrol and bids us strive that our | brother, influenced by our example as
 moral influence, shall be self-con- | trolled also. The failure to try to live | in accordance with the principles we | profess is as condemnabIe in us as | in the church member. The libertine | like Judas, may be found among the | elect-but his rightful place Is not l there. It is such characters which the world has a right to expect from | stand for the possession of those moral | qualities in every community.
 Spiritual Teachings.
 | 'Third-What are the spiritual teachings of masonry?
 When the traveller was approach Ting the great temple of Solomon he | would see, first of all, the great domes, roofs and towers, standing in beautiful 1 and symmetrical proportions against | the sky. Then he would see the piI- lars, massive and strong, from which | they rise; but he would know that | the whole superstructure must rest | upon foundation deep laid and se- | cure. Thus it is with the edifice which | masonry would build. The fraternal | ideals of masonry are beautiful; but | they must depend upon the perfec-
 ton of their moral support. and the | strength and performance of those | moral principles must depend upon | that which lies deep and hidden un-
 seen in the realms of the soul-our