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MASONRY AND THE STATE.

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ANY of the early Masons of this country forgot that silence and circumspection are of the greatest of Masonic virtues. To keep the reputation of the fraternity unsullied seems not to have been their constant care. Their zeal for the institution led them astray, and too much zeal in anything can do more positive injury than too little zeal. Argument or contention with one who believes, or pretends to believe, that Masons are organized for the purpose of burning barns and committing murder is a futile thing.

In those days of old the world watched Masonry-not to discover its virtues, but to detect its vices. Nowadays the world is too busy to watch anybody or any organization. Masonry must make itself felt-negative virtue is like an unuttered speech, absolutely worthless except to the one who possesses it. These are not times of defense and fortification -they are times of aggression and expansion. In everything the race is to the swift. Construction counts. Destruction falls by its own sword. That is true in Church and in State, in home and in society.

As members of the largest fraternal organization upon earth, "a sacred band of friends and brothers, among whom no contention should ever exist except that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who can best serve or best agree,' we are units of the best government upon earth, "of the people, by the people, and for the people." If there is any relation of one to the other, we ought to know it. If there is any relation, it ought to be of such positive nature, so evident in

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its effect, that the world cannot escape the knowledge of it.

The relation of Masonry to the State must be individual and personal in character. Not as an organization can it have any relation to the State under present conditions. In the exercise of civil government no secret society has a place, but in the formation of ideals and the practice of virtue, thereby making better citizens, it is capable of inestimable aid. The world has a right to ask about that matter, and the answer ought to be apparent in every Mason's daily walk and conversation. The world has the right to ask how it behooves us to be Masons if we are cnly as other men are. But why should we be different from other men, and how? Let me answer that in one respect only-in respect to our thoughts, our ideals.

Ethics is the science of human duty and Masonry teaches it by a series of symbols just as the State teaches patriotism. The flag is nothing in itself but pieces of red, white and blue bunting put together in such form as to violate all the traditions, all the principles and all the rules of art, but to you and to me it is the most beautiful flag in the world, because it means so much,—because every star and every stripe brings a vision of the growth and the greatness of our beloved country; brings visions of blood shed and battles won and lost. But this flag of ours ought to excite visions of the future as well as of the past. For the aging veteran it refreshes a memory which is a blessed heritage. In the fulness of his manhood he fought for it because he loved it. Now he loves it because he fought for it, and that is enough for him, and it ought to be.

But it will not be enough for the coming generation. A flag cannot wave forever upon the mere record of a memory. The best object of a knowledge of the past is to store the mind with material out of which ideals for the future may be

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constructed. That is the first step, but how shall the material be used most effectively?

One cannot construct anything, whether it be a house or a book, until he gets into his mind a very clear image of what he is going to do. Man cannot make much of a State until he has a clear perception of what a State should be. The State that comes

"Into the eye and prospect of his soul"

must be, like Shakespeare's Hero, "appareled in more precious habit."

Our first Grand Master, King Solomon of Israel, said in a proverb, "Where there is no vision the people perish," and what did he mean? What is this wonderful power of vision that saves people from perishing? It is the power of perception, the power of seeing things with the eyes open and the eyes closed, and of seeing them in their right relations. Every nation where the people have not had visions of right living, of the duties which a man owes to his God, his country, his neighbor and himself, has perished, or is perishing, from the face of the earth.

Herein is the value of Masonry in its relation to the State. It cultivates men's powers of perception. It undertakes to make for men visions of right living. To be sure, it teaches other arts and sciences than that of human duty because it believes that man's perception and realization of his duties depend on the degree of culture his mind has received. Every Mason knows right from wrong regardless of whether he does right or wrong. Every Mason has, or ought to have, a point of view from which he can estimate the value of any act or word. In matters of State this is all important. It is much more important that a citizen know what a nation ought to be than that he know what it is. The really great statesman knows both, and that is what makes

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him great. Who shall say that the influence of Masonry is not apparent in the Declaration of Independence, when all but two, or possibly three, of its signers were Masons? Who shall say that Masonry did not aid our most illustrious brother, our first President, in establishing a standard fit for the measurement of all his successors? Who shall say that our late beloved martyr, who deemed it not beneath his dignity to lay aside the habit of State and clothe himself with the lambskin, who shall say that Masonry did not help to form his high ideals of justice between men and nations? These are but two of the great leaders whom we have chosen in the making of a State. These and all other great statesmen, nearly all of whom have been Masons, knew what was right and believed that the right would finally prevail. When John J. Ingalls, at the zenith of his glory, said that "the purification of politics is an iridescent dream," he not only separated himself from any enduring greatness, but did more actual harm to the Nation than did all the thieving politicians of his time.

The man who violates the law is not nearly so dangerous a citizen as he who says and thinks that the law ought to be violated. The man who violates his marriage vow is a safer citizen than the purest free-lover that ever lived. I would rather have for my neighbor a sneaking thief than an honest anarchist. A man who does wrong and knows it is wrong may not escape punishment in this world or the next, but he is a much more desirable citizen than the one who obeys a law, but advocates its violation by others, because he believes it wrong.

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Sincerity of belief is no excuse for a wrong ideal. norance is a better one; in truth, it is the only one. Masonry removes that, and the result is that the true relation of Masonry to the State lies in the revelation of the elements of good citizenship to its members.

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