Arizona republican., 1921-02-21
Sermon Delivered Last Evening
 To Visiting Masons At Central
 Christian Church By Rev. Elmore

On behalf of the congregation of the central Christian church, as well as in my own behalf, I extend to our guests this evening the most hospitable re- reption, the heart jest welcome, and we would express for the visiting Masons me most delightful sojourn in our city. l am to address you upon Gates of the Temple"
 When Baird Taylor first visited St. Peters in Rome, he wrote this state ment: The awe I felt in looking up at the colossal arch of marble and gold exalted, ennobled rue, beings, in the form we are, planned the glorious edifice. and it seem ed that in god-like power and persever ance they were in- deed but little lower than the angels. | felt that if fallen, my race was still mighty and imnfortal"
 No ser1ous mind ed man has ever walked in the Temple of Free Masonry and looked upon the wonders and mysteries of a Masonic lodge room who has not experienced similar emo tions. Beings, in the form we were, planned that gloriol IS temple, and it seemed that in gotl-like power and perseverance they were indeed but little lower than the angels. We feel that, if fallen, our race is still mighty
 
 lect from Holy writ one lonely verse of scripture to express my own highest conception of Masonry, and if l were asked to designate one single verse in the Bible as the Masonic verse, ] would choose the second verse of the forty sixth chapter of Ezekiel, "He shall worship at the threshold of the Gates, and then he sh all go forward This passage involves the two cardinal things in Masonry, worship and work silence and service, the inner and the outer. These arc the two great gates of the temple. The inner realm oi meditation upon great ideals, the outer practical, commonplace experiences oi ministry to men,
 He who seeks to improve himself ir Masonry is led to the Gate of Silence One of the very first things we learr is that we must not talk too much Occasionally we hear other voices others speaking, but we are cautioned from the very beginning that we are il the precincts and the pavilions of q great Temple, and still. small voice keeps saying unto us "Be still, ana know that am Cod
 believe thar the first impression that comes into the heart of Masor as he starts on his way is reverence He is conscious of that ancient trutl that silence is golden, and that ''Got is in the Holy Temple, and that al the earth must keep silence before Him." He learns at the very beginning the secret of all great lives, humility child-likeness, receptiveneSs.
 Charles Lamb said of Coleridge, HI, has a hunger for eternity" And thi. is true of every man in human histor, who has left the holy touch of might! things upon his race. Every trul, good and great man has somewher' in the background of his life a grea secret solitude, an area of silence, ou of which there has flowed into his sou an indescribable and indefinable cleans. ing power that has made him wha he is.
 The Mason, the good Mason, learn that silence is the law of efficiency The world keeps saying to us, De liver the goods" all the while un conscious of the fact that the mal must have the goods before he can de liver them The world says to us Step lively" God says. Work Say the world to men, produce results, but God says to us. Prepare the soul. Masonry teaches its men that we mus hear before we can speak, we mus learn before we dare try to teach, w must first open our hearts and receiy before we go out in the world to give
 
 with him on a holiday, were amoye and worried because Turner abandone them early in the morning and wen off to a little mountain lake and sa iown and dreamed. And about sunse hey came back to this lake, and foun the boy still sitting there. and the prodded him with fun and ridioul. But this youth turned to his com pa-hons. and out of a dreamy eye h said. .I may have wasted my day, but he says, T have learned how a noun tain lake looks when you drop pebble into it." Twenty years later the great est art critic of England, teaching som of his friends the glory of one Turner's canvases said. You may cl an inch from Turner and is contain eternity" And every one who has his heart the power to stamp some i'm mortal and infinite touch of power an grace upon the human heart is a ma who somewhere back in his life foun he solitudes and entered the gates silence.
 It is just this that saves us from il pitiable superficiality that sweeps ov' the world, and moves what the re, erend man calls, the common herd. is just this lowIiness in the present of high mountains, this taking off one's hat at the open expanse ar surge of the infinite sea, it is just tn gift of lowing the head, and taking O he shoes from our feet, and the real zation that we are standing on ho ground that makes it possible f, great ideals and mighty principles sweep down over the soul and for tru1 and beauty to cleanse and gird ol hearts
 Saint Augustine came to the seasit one day to mediate and he saw a lit solden- haired girl dipping up wat from the surge and carrying it bat and pouring it into a hole she had dl out in the sand. He watched her f a while and wondered, and then went down and laid his hand on u little childs head and asked her wh she was doing, and with the innocen and unsophistication of childhood sl looked up into the great saints ey and said, q have built me a lit house in the sand, and l am going O
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