BROTHERS and BUILDERS:,
The Basis and Spirit of Freemasonry.
BY: JOSEPH FORT NEWTON (Litt.D.)
CHAPTER 1.
THE ALTAR.
A MASONIC LODGE is a symbol of the world as it was thought to be in the
olden time. Our ancient Brethren had a profound insight when they saw that
the world is a Temple, over-hung by a starry cannd square - yet their insight
is still true. The whole idea was that man, if he is to build either a
House of Faith or an order of Society that is to endure, must imitate the
laws and
principles opy by night, lighted by the journeying sun by day, wherein man
goes forth to his labor on a checker-board of lights and shadows, joys and
sorrows, seeking to reproduce on earth the law and order of heaven. The
visible world was but a picture or reflection of the invisible, and at its
centre stood the Altar of sacrifice, obligation, and adoration.
While we hold a view of the world very unlike that held by our ancient
Brethren - knowing it to be round, not flat aof the world in which he lives. That is also our dream and
design; the love of it ennobles our lives; it is our labor and our
worship. To fulfil it we, too. need wisdom and help from above; and so at
the centre of our Lodge stands the same Altar - older than all temples, as
old as life itself - a focus of faith and fellowship, at once a symbol and
shrine of that unseen element of thought and yearning that all men are
aware of and which no one can define.
Upon this earth there is nothing more impressive than the silence of a
company of human beings bowed together at an altar. No thoughtful man but
at some time has mused over the meaning of this great adoring habit of
humanity, and the wonder of it deepens the longer he ponders it. The
instinct
which thus draws men together in prayer is the strange power which has
drawn together the stones of great cathedrals, where the mystery of God is
embodied. So far as we know, man is the only being on our planet that
pauses to pray, and the wonder of his worship tells us more about him than
any other fact. By some deep necessity of his nature he is a seeker after
God, and in moments of sadness or
longing, in hours of tragedy or terror, he lays aside his tools and looks
out over the far horizon.
The history of the Altar in the life of man is a story more fascinating
than any fiction. Whatever else man may have been - cruel, tyrannous, or
vindictive - the record of his long search for God is enough to prove that
he is not wholly base, not altogether an animal. Rites horrible, and often
bloody, may have been a part of his early ritual, but if the history of
past ages had left us nothing but the memory of a race at prayer, it would
have left us rich. And so, following the good custom of the men which were
of old, we set up an Altar in the Lodge, lifting up hands in prayer, moved
thereto by the ancient need and aspiration of our humanity. Like the men
who walked in the grey years agone, our need is for the living God to
hallow these our days and ve2rs, even to the last ineffable homeward sigh
which men call death.
The earliest Altar was a rough, unhewn stone set up, like the stone which
Jacob set up at Bethel when his dream of a ladder, on which angels were
ascending and descending, turned his lonely bed into a house of God and a
gate of heaven. Later, as faith became more refined, and the idea of
sacrifice grew in meaning, the Altar was built of hewn stone - cubical in
form - cut, carved, and often beautifully wrought, on which men lavished
jewels and priceless gifts, deeming nothing too costly to adorn the place
of prayer. Later still, when men erected a Temple dedicated and adorned as
the House of God among men, there were two altars, one of sacrifice, and
one of incense. The altar of sacrifice, where slain beasts were offered,
stood in front of the Temple; the altar of incense, on which burned the
fragrance of worship, stood within. Behind all was the far withdrawn Holy
place into which only the high priest might enter.
As far back as we can go the Altar was the centre of human Society, and an
object of peculiar sanctity by virtue of that law of association by which
places and things are consecrated. It was a place of refuge for the hunted
or the tormented - criminals or slaves - and to drag them away from it by
violence was held to be an act of sacrilege, since they were under the
protection of God. At the Altar marriage rites
were solemnized, and treaties made or vows taken in its presence were more
holy and binding than if made elsewhere, because there man invoked God as
witness. In all the religions of antiquity, and especially among the
peoples who worshipped the Light, it was the usage of both priests and
people to pass round the Altar, following the course of the sun - from the
East, by way of the South, to the West- singing hymns of praise as a part
of their worship.
heir ritual was thus an allegorical picture of the truth which underlies
all religion - that man must live on earth in harmony with the rhythm and
movement of heaven.
>From facts and hints such as these we begin to see the meaning of the
Altar in Masonry, and the reason for its position in the Lodge. In English
Lodges, as in the French and Scottish Rites, it stands in front of the
Master in the East. In the York Rite, so called, it is placed in the
centre of the Lodge - more properly a little to the East of the centre -
about which all Masonic activities revolve. It is not simply a necessary
piece of furniture, a kind of table intended to support the Holy Bible,
the Square and Compasses. Alike by its existence and its situation it
identifies Masonry as a religious institution, and yet its uses are not
exactly the same as the offices of an Altar in a cathedral or a shrine.
Here is a
fact often overlooked, and we ought to get it clearly in our minds.
The position of the Altar in the Lodge is not accidental, but profoundly
significant. For, while Masonry is not a religion, it is religious in its
faith and basic principles, no less than in its spirit and purpose. And
yet it is not a Church. Nor does it attempt to do what the Church is
trying to do. If it were a Church its Altar would be in the East and its
ritual would be altered accordingly. That is to say, Masonry is not a
Religion, much less a sect, but a Worship in which all men can unite,
because it does not undertake to explain, or dogmatically to settle in
detail, those issues by which men are divided. Beyond the Primary,
fundamental facts of faith it does not go. With the philosophy of those
facts, and the differences and disputes growing out of them, it has not to
do. In short, the position of the Altar in the Lodge is a symbol of what
Masonry believes the Altar should be in actual life, a centre of union and
fellowship, and not a cause of division, as is now so often the case. It
does not seek uniformity of opinion, but it does seek fraternity of
spirit, leaving each one free to fashion his own philosophy of ultimate
truth. As we may read in the Constitutions of 1723 :-
"A Mason is obliged, by his Tenure, to obey the moral Law; and if he
rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an
irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient Times Masons were charged in
every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it
was, yet 'tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that
Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to
themselves; that is, to be good Men and true, or Men of Honour and
Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be
distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the Centre of Union, and the Means
of conciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remained at a
perpetual Distance. "
Surely those are memorable words, a Magna Charta of friendship and
fraternity. Masonry goes hand in hand with religion until religion enters
the field of sectarian feud, and there it stops; because Masonry seeks to
unite men, not to divide them. Here, then, is the meaning of the Masonic
Altar and its position in the Lodge. It is, first of all, an Altar of
Faith - - the deep, eternal faith which underlies all creeds and
verarches all sects; faith in God, in the moral law, and in the life
everlasting. Faith in God is the corner-stone and the key-stone of
Freemasonry. It is the first truth and the last, the truth that makes all
other truths true, without which life is a riddle and fraternity a
futility. For, apart from God the Father, our dream of the Brotherhood of
Man is as vain as all the vain things proclaimed of Solomon-a fiction
having no basis or hope in fact.
At the same time, the Altar of Masonry is an Altar of Freedom - not
freedom from faith, but freedom of faith. Beyond the fact of the reality
of God it does not go, allowing every man to think of God according to his
experience of life and his vision of truth. It does not define God, much
less dogmatically determine how and what men shall think or believe about
God. There dispute and division begin. As a
matter of fact, Masonry is not speculative at all, but operative, or
rather co-operative. While all its teaching implies the Fatherhood of God,
yet its ritual does not actually affirm that truth, still less make it a
test of fellowship. Behind this silence lies a deep and wise reason. Only
by the practice of Brotherhood do men realize the Divine Fatherhood, as a
true-hearted poet has written
"No man could tell me what my soul might be; I sought for God, and He
eluded me; I sought my Brother out, and found all three."
Hear one fact more, and the meaning of the Masonic Altar will be plain.
Often one enters a great Church, like Westminster Abbey, and finds it
empty, or only a few people in the pews here and there, praying or in deep
thought. They are sitting quietly, each without reference to others,
seeking an opportunity for the soul to be alone, to communicate with
mysteries greater than itself, and find healing for the bruisings of life.
But no one ever goes to a Masonic Altar alone. No one bows before it at
all except when the Lodge is open and in the presence of his Brethren. It
is an Altar of Fellowship, as if to teach us that no man can learn the
truth for another, and no man can learn it alone. Masonry brings men
together in mutual respect, sympathy, and good-will, that we may learn in
love the truth that is hidden by apathy and lost by hate.
For the rest, let us never forget - what has been so often and so sadly
forgotten - that the most sacred Altar on earth is the soul of man - your
soul and mine; and that the Temple and its ritual are not ends in
themselves, but beautiful means to the end that every human heart may be a
sanctuary of faith, a shrine of love, an altar of purity, pity, and
unconquerable hope.