Official Visit Muskoka Lodge #360 – March 04, 2008
By R.W. Bro. Harold J. Johnson, DDGM

Keeping the Faith

Brethren we are told very clearly that the fundamental principles of our craft are brotherly love, relief, and truth at our first encounter with masonry. You will notice that the first of those principles is brotherly love. This would indicate that perhaps this is the most important of all of the principles and we should take special care to guard it from our ownegos and temperaments. We are all individuals with deep seated personalities and we can often get ourselves into hot water with one another with the greatest of ease due to those diverse personalities. We need as a caring brotherhood to be aware of the feelings of others and also to, as they say in the working world, “think outside the box”.

Before we take offence at the statements or actions of our brethren we need to take a step back and look at it from their point of view, to try and see the issue or statement in a different light. Too often of late we see our craft stressed and confronted with issues of intolerance which if left to fester can become an obsession. We need to speak brother to brother on these issues and keep an open mind. We are here to help each other attain those virtues and qualities that we so eloquently espouse in our ritual, to assist each other to become better men and assets to our society but if we are intolerant ourselves or close our minds to the views of others we shred the very fabric of brotherly love.

There are times in our craft when we must, as leaders, confront our brethren and be firm in our resolve to correct some of the problems we encounter. We must be careful not to do so in a vindictive manner but keep the ideals of brotherly love at the forefront. We must try in the vernacular of today’s society to “ cut our brethren some slack” but there also comes a point in time where we must be firm.

Acceptance of the fact that we are trying to improve the work or are acting in the best interests of our lodges may be thwarted by an individual who is not listening or is obsessed with his own view point. If we do not like the message, we still need to be respectful of the messenger. Tolerance and Brotherly love are essential if we as a fraternity are to move ahead while maintaining those ideals we truly espouse Intolerance can lead us to disregard the third of those three principles we are taught when we first join the craft. The principle of truth.

Brethren we so often take sides or viewpoints and try to justify or rationalize our decision especially when driven by intolerance. We start to twist the real truth of the issue in a very subtle manner to add some credence to our viewpoint and in the process the truth on the issue can be easily lost. We in fact can obsess so much on our justification that we convince ourselves in our own minds that the rationalizations we are using to solidify our views are both real and truthful. If we take a few moments on these issues to step back and look at them from a different perspective we may find that the real truth has been overshadowed by our attempts to sway the issue to our own point of view. We need to recognize this trend and do our best to correct within ourselves our own views and take the higher virtue of truth.

The second of the principles is relief and having spoken on that issue at my last visit in Huntsville I will limit my remarks on this principle to encouraging you to continue to practice that virtue in it’s most ample sense.

Finally my brethren we are about to address that perpetual question of the secrets of a Masonic Lodge. Much has been said over the years about our secrets and what they consist of but this evening I want to address a most important question that was raised in an open lodge session just a few short years ago.

We have all heard that if we simply go to our local libraries, we can find all sorts of books about masonry and if we read carefully, that all of our ritual and what we may consider to be secrets, are printed in black and white within the pages of some of those books.

The question that evolved from the discussions that night was if these so called secrets are really contained in those books, why do we as masons try to keep them or pretend that no one else has access to them?

The floor was then opened to that question and many brethren took part expressing their views that we may be kidding ourselves about the real secrecy and secrets of Masonry.

Further discussion took place surrounding the ideas of what those secrets really are, something I will not be addressing in this speech as some of our DDGM’s have purposely and eloquently outlined that part of the subject in past years.

One of the questions that followed in the discussions of the evening was do I as a mason really need to concern myself about keeping those secrets and Could I not simply tell my wife or close confidant what they are.

I must admit to feeling uneasy and perking up my ears while remaining silent to see where this was all leading to. One person in fact stated that he saw no reason not to tell his wife.

What then prevents us or at least should prevent us from divulging those very landmarks we hold so dearly? Many opinions were offered that evening but they all seemed to skirt the issue or at least the real issue that kept going through my mind.

Who of us would dare to reveal these secrets or any part of the ritual after having stated that we would not write, mark, print, carve, engrave, or delineate. and then receiving a warning to cautiously shun all occasions which may inadvertently lead us to do so.

We as masons confess to the belief in a supreme being. We obligate ourselves to keep our word and not reveal those secrets and express our belief that our supreme being will punish vice and reward virtue.

Does the fact that there supposedly exists in print all of those landmarks we cherish so dearly, exonerate us from any obligation to fulfill the vows we have taken?

This issue boils down to our own personal integrity. That is the real virtue that is on the line here. When you knelt at the altar to take your obligations It was you personally that stated you would keep those secrets. Not to do so would speak volumes about your own character and integrity. Are you willing to place your own integrity on the line? I certainly hope not.
My brethren I sincerely hope that you will keep the faith with me on all of these principles and hold integrity to the highest of standards.