The District Grand Lodge of Natal (English Constitution) gratefully acknowledges that this paper was inspired by a book entitled The Making of a Mason’ which served as a model and catalyst for this and subsequent papers. The author of the book, Bro George Draffen of Newington, OBE, O.St.J, RW Past Depute Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland; Past Grand Junior Deacon in the United Grand Lodge of England, and Prestonian Lecturer for 1956. Also a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 EC and twenty‑five years Editor of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Year Book. ‘The Making of a Mason’ was published by A. Levis (Masonic Publishers) Ltd, Terminal House, Shepperton, Middlesex, England
What Is Freemasonry?
The Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons is the oldest, largest and most widely known fraternal organisation in the world. Volumes have been written about it, yet it remains a mystery to many people. This summary, issued by the District Grand Lodge of Natal (English Constitution), is an attempt to present some of the facts and facets of Freemasonry for the information and benefit of those interested.
What it is — and what it is Not
Freemasonry is a charitable, benevolent, educational and religious society. However, it is neither a religion, nor a substitute for one.
Some people believe it is, and that it will conflict with some of the teachings of their own religion. Masonry, however, has no creed, sacraments or religious dogma, ancient or modern. It espouses none of them; neither is it subservient to any. It does seek to inculcate a standard of conduct which it believes will be acceptable to all creeds, but studiously refrains from intervening in the field of dogma or theology.
A declared belief in a Supreme Being is a basic prerequisite for membership. This ensures that each applicant has some form of religious belief before admission, and each Mason is expected to pursue his own worship, in his own fashion, according to his own faith.
Masons do not discuss religion or political matters in their lodges, nor does any lodge endorse candidates of any political persuasion. As an individual, however, the Freemason is urged to meet his responsibilities and play an active part in civic affairs. It charges all its members to be true and loyal to the government of the country to which they owe allegiance, and to be obedient to the laws of any state in which they may be.
Freemasonry is not an insurance or beneficial society but it is a benevolent society. Within the bounds of its resources, it provides assistance and support to the less fortunate through times of hardship, and its members are taught to be of service to mankind.
Teachings
It is educational in that it teaches, by prescribed ceremonials, a system of morality and brotherhood based upon the Sacred Law. It teaches the Golden Rule, that is, that we should treat others as we would like them to treat us. It seeks to make good men better, through its firm belief in the brotherhood of mankind, and the immortality of the human soul.
It is religious in that it teaches monotheism; the Volume of the Sacred Law is open whenever a lodge is in session. Reverence for God is ever present in its ceremonial, and to its brethren are constantly addressed lessons of morality; yet it is not sectarian or theological.
It uses builders’ tools as symbols to teach the basic moral truths, thereby impressing on the minds of its members the cardinal virtues: brotherly love, relief and truth, which should be applied to their everyday activities.
Through the improvement and strengthening of the character of the individual man, Freemasonry seeks to improve the community. Thus it impresses upon its members the principles of personal righteousness and personal responsibility, enlightens them as to those things which make for human welfare, and inspires them with that feeling of charity and goodwill towards mankind, which will move them to translate principle and conviction into generous action.
However, it teaches that a man’s first duty is to his family and connections. It warns that no one should join the Order who cannot well afford to pay the fees and subscriptions, both to his lodge and to the Masonic charities, without detriment to the comfort and wellbeing of those who have any claim to his support.
Its Principles
The principles of Freemasonry are proclaimed as widely as men will hear. Its only secrets are in its methods of recognition and symbolic instruction. It is charitable in that it is not organised for profit and none of its income benefits any individual, but is devoted to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of mankind. It is benevolent in that it teaches and exemplifies altruism as a duty.
Its Benevolence
Every Masonic lodge is encouraged to participate, insofar as the means of its membership will allow, in worthwhile charitable projects. There is the Natal District Benevolent Fund from which relief is granted to Masonic brethren or their dependents in distress, through reason of age, indigence, or other misfortune. The Natal District Masonic Foundation presently provides housing for elderly Masons at Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown and Park Rynie. Together with the other Masonic Constitutions in Natal, the Wesley Francis Memorial Masonic Education Fund grants bursaries to the children of Masons. The Natal District Centenary General Charity Fund has presented the Pain Control Clinic at Addington Hospital with complex specialised equipment, has sponsored a Day Care Clinic at the Highway Hospice at Sherwood, a sun lounge for paraplegics at the Homes for the aged at Greytown and supplies essential equipment to various charitable institutions. It supports such general appeals as Child Welfare in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, charities nominated by Masters of Lodges or Mayors of various country towns in which lodges are established, and the Red Cross Drought and Flood Relief Fund. These are examples of the work that Masons find to do.
Its History
Freemasonry traces its ancestry to the operative crafts which, records indicate, were introduced into England as early as 674 A.D. It is directly descended from those associations of operative craftsmen, primarily the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages. These men, because of their expertise, knowledge and skills, were permitted special travel privileges and moved from country to country employing the secrets and skills of their craft. These master‑craftsmen developed means of recognition and identification to safeguard their profession.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, as cathedral building came to an end, numbers of these operative stonemasons’ guilds or lodges began to accept, as members, men who were not directly connected with the builder’s craft. These were called accepted or speculative Masons. Gradually the lodges came to be composed almost entirely of members of this group, and it is from them that the Freemasonry of today is descended.
In 1717, four lodges of Freemasons meeting in London, formed the first Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the world, which chartered symbolic lodges in many countries including America, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and others. Today there are more than 150 Grand Lodges in the free countries of the world, with membership of more than six million Masons.
Its Composition
The basic unit of all Grand Lodges is the Masonic lodge, sometimes called the symbolic lodge, blue lodge or craft lodge. It is the Masonic lodge which receives petitions from candidates for membership, and confers upon them the principal Masonic degrees which form the foundation of all Masonic progress.
Our lodges in Natal are established at Amanzimtoti, Assegai, Bellair, Camperdown, Dundee, Durban, Empangeni, Harrismith, Hilton, Ixopo, Kloof, Kokstad, Ladysmith, Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg, Margate, Umhlali and Westville.
There are now 34 such lodges under the jurisdiction of the District Grand Lodge of Natal (English Constitution), clearly widely dispersed throughout the District. Lodges under the authority of other Constitutions, Irish, Scottish, and South African, work side by side with the English in complete amity and concord here in Natal.
Its Ultimate Aim
‘Every man needs sincere friendship which is not always the easiest commodity to find. How fortunate we in Freemasonry are that we are given such wonderful opportunities for making and cementing such sincere friendship and goodwill. Eventually man realises that the golden links which sustain interest to the end are the friends who have remained true through the years, who have shared both our happiness and our sorrows, and we well know that many of these friendships have been made in lodge.
Barriers of race, creed, habit, training and interest separate men today, as if some evil genius were bent on keeping man from his fellows; begetting suspicion, uncharit ableness and hate. Amid wars, waste and woe, amidst feud, faction and folly, Freemasonry — the oldest and most widely spread Fraternal Organisation — toils on behalf of friendship.
Each lodge is an oasis of equality and goodwill in a desert of strife, working to weld mankind into a league of sympathy and service. There men meet as man to man without vanity and without pretence, without feud and without reproach. Masonry has no other mission than to ennoble and exalt humanity, to bring light out of darkness, beauty out of angularity, to make every hard‑won inheritance more secure, every sanctuary more sacred, and every life more radiant’.
Freemasonry and the Church
Controversy
From time to time there flares up in the Press and elsewhere, the age‑old controversy about Freemasonry and Religion and the question is asked ‘Can one be a Freemason and a Christian?’ This question has recently been asked again in Britain, and I understand that it is being asked here as well. So let us first of all get that thorny riddle out of the way. ‘Can one be Freemason and a Christian?’ Now this question is based on the assumption that Freemasonry must be a sort of religion itself and therefore is in some way a rival to Christianity. Far from it. Christianity is a religion; it is a way of life in the worship of Jesus Christ — a proclamation of the love of God to all mankind.
Freemasonry is not a religion. It is defined as a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. It is therefore no more difficult for a man to be a Christian and a Mason that it is for him to be a Christian and a Conservative or a Liberal. For Conservatism and Liberalism are not religions either, but systems of politics. No. Freemasonry is not a religion. ‘But’, says the critic, ‘Freemasons have a Bible in the Lodge’. True, but then every court of law has a Bible and every bedroom in our hotels has a Bible. Does that make Law or hotel‑keeping into a religion? But Freemasons open their Lodge with a prayer’. Yes, and so does Parliament open with a prayer, and many a city or town Council does the same. Does that make them a religion? The real confusion arises, of course, because Freemasonry, unlike politics, demands of all its prospective members that they should believe and trust in God.
It does not specify how they should express their belief — it leaves that, quite properly, to religion — but it does demand belief. In this demand Freemasonry is one of the few survivals of the faith of the past — for time was, and not so long ago either, when admission to any profession and organisation, and certainly admission to Universities, was only possible to those who were prepared to express belief in God.
Attempts have been made to get Freemasonry to alter its rules on this subject, but the Craft has, quite properly, resisted all such attempts and holds to its traditional principle — long may it continue to do so — thereby ensuring that although it is not, and never can be, a religion in itself, yet all its members must be men of religion before they can enter the Order, and we hope that through this system of morality the religious life of every member will be strengthened and enriched.
Perfectionists
However, Freemasonry’s connection with the Church is a good deal stronger than you might think. History shows us that Lodges of operative Masons first came into prominence in Europe in the 12th, 13th and 14th ceniuries, at the same time when so many of our great cathedrals and parish churches were being built. You see, such a specialised job as building a cathedral could seldom be carried out by local labour. It would be necessary to employ experts, professional masons who had served their apprenticeship under a master and had made such progress that they were now recognised as craftsmen.
The building of such a church might take several months or it might take a number of years, depending on the size and complexity of the structure, and then, when the building was completed the masons would move on to start work on another church, perhaps many miles away.
Now two things about these mediaeval masons are particularly worth our notice. First, the supreme excellence of their workmanship. They were not working for men; they were working for God, and only the best was good enough. Absolute squareness, scrupulous care on levels and perpendiculars, perfection of finish; these were the high standards they set themselves and without such standards our great cathedral8 and minsters and churches could never have lasted, as they have, down to the present day. Though many of them are appealing for vast sums of money for necessary repairs yet all the defects in the structures now being revealed are due to the natural deterioration of materials or subsequent damage from bombs or traffic or other causes. In not one single case has it been shown that the repairs are due to bad workmanship of the original builders.
No — these old masons were perfectionists.
They were building for God and they were building for eternity. There was no question of ‘Oh! This will have to do for now’. They never considered just the outward appearance; their work was perfect through and through. So this is the first thing about them — the excellence of their workmanship.
The Lodge
And the second thing we notice was the very temporary nature of their employment. They built for eternity, but they themselves were constantly on the move. You see, the nature of their work make it impossible to settle down in any one place for very long. You cannot decide to set up a Cathedral Factory or send out parish churches by parcel post. You have to work on the spot where the thing is going to be for ever, and when it is completed you have to leave it and move on.
And just as our modern contractor, when he is beginning a building, sets up a wooden hut called a Site office, which is the headquarters of everything, so the old mediaeval masons, before they began work on their cathedral, used to put up a hut or a hall or a large room as a temporary structure on the site. And because temporary, they didn’t call it a hall or a hut — they called it a Lodge — and here indeed they lodged during the time that the church was being built. Here in this Lodge were deposited the designs and working plans under lock and key. There was no law of copyright in those days and unscrupulous rivals might borrow and use.
In this Lodge, also, the masons met to discuss the next day’s work, to receive instructions from the master builder, and to admit and educate apprentices in the craft.
Again it was necessary on those occasions to exclude strangers, for the mason’s knowledge had been learned the hard way; it wasn’t lightly to be given away to anyone who happened to want it. The doors were locked and one of them stood outside to give warning of the approach of strangers. And then from time to time, masons from other places would come seeking work, and to make sure that they were genuine and not intruders or cowans, as they were called, it was necessary to have means of recognition — signs, tokens, passwords, known only to those genuinely qualified and not given to anyone who had not proved himself worthy to receive them. These signs, tokens and words were not, of course, ‘the secrets’ themselves, but guards to the secrets. The real secrets consisted of what we would call ‘tricks of the trade’, such as how to form right angles, how to lay levels and prove perpendiculars, and so on. The signs, tokens and words were only given to those who had learnt the trade in a regular and honest way, It was in this way and in this way only that those standards of excellence could be maintained — at the same time making it possible for genuine masons to move freely from one lodge to another and find a fraternal welcome wherever they went.
A Way of Living
Such are the origins of the Lodges of operative masons in Europe. Later generations, realising the immense value of those standards of excellence, found that they need not be limited to operative building only, but could be applied to life. So there came into being the modern system of free and accepted, or speculative Masonry in which men endeavour, by brotherly love, relief and truth, to apply these standards of excellence to their way of living.
There are so many ways of living, so many different motives by which man can do his daily work. A number of men can be doing just the same job with very different motives in mind. There is a delightful story told — I don’t know if it’s true or not but it ought to be — of the time when our Brother Christopher Wren was building St Paul’s Cathedral, and it is said that on one day he disguised himself and went into the workshop to see how is workmen were getting on. And he found three of them there, all doing the same job — smoothing and preparing the stone for the hands of the more expert workmen. And he came to the first man and said ‘What are you doing?’ The man said ‘I’m chippin’ bits off this ‘ere stone until it’s two foot by three foot by two foot six and very boring it is too’. And Wren went on to the next man and said, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m earning one‑and‑six a day and it isn’t very much when you’ve got a wife and six kids to look after and you want to save a bit for your old age’. And Wren went on to the third man and said ‘What are you doing?”Ah!’ said the man, ‘I’m a lucky chap I am. I’m helping a chap called Christopher Wren to build a cathedral’. And they were all doing the same job. This is a splendid example of three different way of looking at life — either as a daily grind that’s got to be done however dull or boring, or as an opportunity to make money to have time for other things or as a part of a grand design by a Great Architect in which every part is important.
The Third Dimension
Full life, like architecture, has to have three dimensions. Some people live in only one dimension, concentrating on self‑interest alone they move forward in a straight line caring for nobody and nothing else. It’s a kind of life, but really you could only call it bare existence.
Others live in two dimensions, letting their straight line broaden out into square measurement, considering others and having some contact with the interests and concerns of their neighbours. This is obviously better, but two dimensional pictures are flat, without depth, and cannot stand up to all the strains and stresses of living.
And some there are who have found the third dimension of life, looking not only forward to their own interests, and sideways to their neighbours’, but also upwards towards God their Maker.
This ‘Three‑D’ living gives height and depth and solidity to everything we do. For thus the square of regularity is converted into the cube of perfection. It is this third dimension of life which is the particular care of religion. It is this third dimension that lifts Freemasonry out of the category of a mere social club and gives it a moral and spiritual value of its own, putting duty towards God, your neighbour and yourself as its three objectives — and putting them in that order.
Long may the historic and honourable connection between the Church and the Craft continue. May our religion help us to see the importance of the third dimension of life in its true proportion and may Freemasonry, by remaining true to its principles, inspire the world with reverence and love for that Great Architect of the Universe by whom and for whom alone we build our churches and our lives, by whose love we are sustained and by whose hand we are guided. To Him be all honour, glory, dominion and praise, henceforth and for evermore.
That the World May Know —
MW Pro Grand Master:
On a number of occasions Grand Chapter has had the benefit of a lecture from W Bro Canon Tydeman. Now it is Grand Lodge’s turn, and it is with pleasure that I call on him for his address under the title “That the world may know —”
RW Bro the Rev. Canon Richard Tydeman, OSM, PJGW:
MW Pro Grand Master and Brethren, such is the nature of our constitution, that there are still far too many people in the world who have entirely wrong ideas about Freemasonry, and not nearly enough Masons who are willing or able to put them right.
So what is it about Masonry that makes it ‘special’ and how can we express this in simple language for the non‑Mason to understand?
Let us go back to the basic question: What is Freemasonry? Answer: a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Yes, Masonry is a system of morality, not a system of belief or a system of faith, but a system of morality. Now morality is a highly topical subject at the present time, with politicians, archbishops and educationalists all crying out for a return to morals. So the next question must be: What are morals? And put into Masonic language the answer is that morals are the building blocks of which all human life is built up.
Let me explain.
Historically, Freemasonry came into prominence in this country in the early eighteenth century at a time of great moral laxity, dishonesty and vice. Into that unfortunate climate came Lodges of men who had promised under solemn oath that they would obey the moral law; trust and assist each other and render themselves more extensively serviceable to the outside world. Religion did not come into it beyond the acknowledgment of a belief in God and a respect for the Holy Bible; and naturally they began and ended their meetings with a brief prayer ‑ as indeed did Parliament, town councils, universities and schools everywhere.
Those early brethren did not recruit or proselytise, they just lived according to their principles and trusted that a favourable opinion preconceived of their institution would prompt other like‑minded men to seek membership. It may have been just coincidence that operative Masons had been using the language of building for so many centuries, but this appealed strongly to our eighteenth century predecessors, and they began to talk in what might be called ‘architectural language’.
In other words they said: man is a craftsman; he is sent here by a Great Architect who has supplied him with working plans in the Volume of the Sacred Law, and whether he builds his life in the shape of a church, or a mosque, a synagogue or a temple, the basic moral rules are the same: it has to be made of materials as near perfection as we can achieve. Just as each stone in a building must be square, level and upright, so each part of our life must have the same qualities. One stone that is not square could ruin the whole building.
In this simple language Masons are still reminded, in a series of symbols and allegories of the basic principles of morality. This does not make Masonry a religion, as some have suggested. Candidates are men of religion before they come in ‑ indeed it is only men of religion who are permitted to come in, for a belief in God is an essential qualification. The nature of the candidate’s religion is not our concern; the shape of his building may be very different from ours, but it has to be built of the same materials and conform to the same rules, ‑ and this is what Masonry constantly declares.
Having expressed his belief in God, the candidate is then instructed how to build on that foundation by obedience to the moral rules and patterns which he finds in his working plans ‑ and those moral rules are the same for all men and all religions.
Oh yes, Masonry has a social side too ‑ that is where the Brotherly Love comes in ‑ and it is a charitable organisation of some magnitude ‑ that is the Relief aspect‑ but perhaps we do not say enough about the Truth, for I think this is one of the things that makes Masonry “special”. You see, there is Brotherly Love in a Sports Club, and charitable Relief abounds in such organisations as Rotary; but Masonry goes further by upholding the eternal Truth of the moral law as symbolised in the eternal rules of good building. It is this side of Masonry that I am always trying to emphasise, and I fmd it is something that most people can appreciate and understand.
But, says the critic, if it is as simple as all that, why the secrecy? Why not let everyone in on the act?
This brings us to another aspect which makes Masonry “special”: I call it “the shared experience”.
Comedians can always get a laugh out of “these Masons with their rolled‑up trouser‑legs”; but that is only a small part of the story. The truth is that to become a Mason one has to approach in a state of self‑humiliation, blind, lame, half‑dressed and penniless, with hangman’s noose at the ready. In this way, and in this way only, can a man accept the privileges of Masonry: he has to come properly prepared and humbly soliciting.
However, the candidate has this consolation and encouragement: he knows that every man in that room has gone through exactly the same experience. There are no short cuts. One can be given a University Degree without actually working for it; one can become a commissioned officer in the Forces without going through the ranks, but there is no other way of becoming a Mason than by sharing in that experience of humility and helpless indigence.
It would be manifestly unfair and inequitable to admit to our ceremonies anyone who has not shared in that experience; hence the secrecy. The old operative Mason guarded the secrets of his craft by sharing passwords and signs. We do the same; but words and signs are not the secrets themselves, they are the guards to that shared experience which is the real secret of Freemasonry.
Now, I can see no good reason why the public should not be told all this so that they can judge for themselves. I am not saying we should open our meetings to non‑Masons ‑ that would defeat the concept of the “shared experience” ‑ but it must surely be a good thing for the world to know what it is that we stand for, and what we have solemnly promised to do.
Of course this puts a tremendous burden on ourselves, and it is right that it should. Just, upright and free men of mature age, sound judgement and strict morals should be prepared to stand up and be counted. If the world knew just how serious are the promises we make, there would be even more criticism of those who are found guilty of “un‑Masonic conduct”. Promises do not cease to operate as soon as the Lodge is closed: we are charged to practise out of the Lodge those duties we have been taught in it, and thus prove to the world the happy and beneficial effects of our ancient institution.
A good building not only has to protect and provide for those within its walls, it also has to look good to those outside, and to stand up to the slings and arrows of the invidious and all the changes of the climate. Freemasonry has succeeded in doing this for several centuries already, and I have no doubt that, with our fidelity, and with our obedience to the moral law, it will continue to grow in strength and significance throughout the centuries that lie ahead.
MW Pro Grand Master:
Brethren, the volume of applause demonstrates, I don’t need to tell you, how fascinating and worthwhile that was, and I express our thanks, very much, to Canon Richard.