"Old Tiler Talks" by Carl Claudy -1924
FOOLISH QUESTIONS
"Jones is a nut!" remarked the New Brother to the Old Tiler. "I
went with him yesterday to look up an applicant for membership. I
didn't know much about such things, so I let him do the talking.
And the questions that man asked!"
"What did he want to know?"
"First, he wanted to know what kind of job the applicant held,
how long he had been there, where he had worked before, was he
satisfied, did he like his boss, how much he made and whether he
saved any of it or spent it all!"
"Quite right, too," commented the Old Tiler. "He wanted to know
if the applicant was a solid citizen, able to pay his dues and
unlikely to become a charge on the lodge. Chap who holds a job
today and leaves it tomorrow for another is apt to be an
applicant for charity."
"But that's one of the things a lodge is for- charity," said the
New Brother.
"To its members who are in need, yes," answered the Old Tiler.
"But no lodge willingly takes in members who may need charity.
Masonry is not a crutch for the indigent. It is a staff for those
who go lame in life's, journey, but when a man starts out lame he
has to get crutches from some other institution."
"He asked, 'Why do you want to become a Mason?' that seemed to me
an impertinence. A man's reasons for wanting to join Masonry are
no business of ours."
"Is that so!" answered the Old Tiler. "Son, you know so many
things that are not so! I have been on the petitions of a great
many men and that is always my first question. I have heard many
answers. Some men want to join because their fathers were Masons.
Some think it will help them in life. Some frankly say they want
to make friends so they can be successful. Others think that
Masonry will help them in their religion. Still others want to be
Masons because they want to belong to a secret society."
"But why is that our business?"
"A man who wants to join a fraternity because his father
belonged, is good material," answered the Old Tiler. "He wants to
imitate his father. As his father was a Mason it is probable that
he was a good man. If the applicant desires to imitate a good
man, and thinks we can help him, his motives are worthy. The man
who wants to become a Mason to stiffen his religious belief is
not a good candidate. Masonry demands no religion of its
applicants, merely a belief in Deity. A man with religious
convictions which are slipping and looks for something to prop
them up, should go elsewhere than the Masonic Altar. Asking
nothing but a belief in God, we have a right to demand that that
belief be strong, well-grounded, unshakable, and beyond question.
"The man who says he wants to join the Masonic order because he
wants to belong to a secret society doesn't get asked and more
questions! He is through right there. Masonry is no haven for
curiosity seekers. The chap who thinks Masonry will make him
friends who will help him in his business gets nowhere with a
good committee. Masonry is not a business club. Imagine a man
going to a minister and saying: 'I want to join your church so I
can sell lawn mowers to your members.' Would the minister want
him? Masonry is not a church, but it is holy to Masons. Masonry
is a bright and shining light in a man's heart which must not be
sullies by profane motives. To attempt to use Masonry for
business is like using the Bible to sit on- diverting from the
proper purpose that which should be held sacred.
"The man who answers that question by saying, 'I have always
heard of Masons as men who receive help in being good men; I
would like to have the privilege of becoming a member,' is
approaching the matter in the right spirit. Masonry doesn't hunt
the man, the man must hunt the lodge. And he must hunt with a
pure motive, or cannot join any good lodge, with a good
committee. The motive is vitally important. We want to know if he
can afford $50 for a fee and $5 a year for dues. If they have to
rob their children to join we have no use for them. We want to
know if a man stands well with his fellows outside the lodge; if
so he is apt to stand well with them inside. If he has few
friends and those of doubtful character, the chances are he is
not good timber for us.
"Masonry is what we make it. Every good man who comes into a
lodge helps the fraternity. Every insincere man, every scoffer,
every dishonest man who gets into lodge, injures the fraternity.
Masonry can accomplish good in the hearts of men only as it is
better than they are. When it becomes less good than the average
man, the average man will not want to join, and Masonry's power
will be gone.
"The price of liberty, so we are told, is eternal vigilance. The
price of quality in a lodge is eternal care by the investigation
committee. An important job, it should be approached with the
idea that the future of the lodge and of Masonry to some extent
rests on the man making the investigation.
"Hm. Thanks. See you later."
"You're welcome- but what is your hurry?"
"Got to find Jones and tell him I'm the nut. Then ask the Master
to let me go with him again and see if I can't see something else
in his questions besides foolishness!" answered the New Brother.
Fraternally,
Carl Johnson, 32'
Burlington Masonic Lodge #254
Grand Lodge of Washington, Free & Accepted Masons
Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Bellingham
Orient of Washington
"Old Tiler Talks" by Carl Claudy -1924
ACTING AS CHAPLAIN
"I was embarrassed in lodge tonight!" announced the New Brother
to the Old Tiler. "I don't think the Master ought to make me feel
that way!"
"That's too bad," answered the Old Tiler, with ready sympathy.
"Did he call you down for something?"
"Oh, no. The Chaplain was absent, and the Master asked me to act
in his place."
"Why should that embarrass you?" asked the Old Tiler, still
sympathetic.
"It embarrassed me horribly to say I wouldn't."
"Oh, you refused?"
"Of course I refused! My embarrassment was bad enough as it was,
but to get up in front of the Altar and offer a prayer! Man, I
couldn't do that!"
"You surprise me!" answered the Old Tiler. "But let that pass.
Who did act as Chaplain?"
"The Master asked the speaker of the evening, some brother I
never saw before. He made a beautiful prayer, too. I heard him
tell the Master he didn't know the prayer in the ritual, but the
Master said that didn't matter, which I thought rather odd."
"Can you remember what the stranger said?" asked the Old Tiler.
"Pretty well, I think," answered the New Brother. "It was not
long. He went to the Altar and kneeled, and then said 'Almighty
Architect of the Universe, we, as Master Masons, standing in a
Masonic Lodge erected to thy glory, humbly petition that Thou
look with favor upon this assembly of Thy children. Open our
hearts that the eternal Masonic truth may find ready entry that
we be enabled to make ourselves square stones, fitting in Thy
sight for the great Temple, eternal in Thy heavens. We ask it in
the name of the All-seeing Eye, Amen."
"That was a pretty prayer," responded the Old Tiler.
"But it wasn't the ritual prayer," objected the New Brother.
"No, nor it wasn't by the appointed Chaplain," retorted the Old
Tiler. "What difference does it make to God whether we pray the
same prayer at every lodge opening? It must be the sincerity and
the thought behind the prayer which count in His sight, not the
words. But in your refusal to act as Chaplain, it seems to me you
put yourself in an unfortunate position. You shave yourself,
don't you?"
"Why, er, yes! What has that got to do with it?"
"Tomorrow morning, when you shave yourself, you'll look in the
mirror and you'll say 'Hello, coward!' and that's not nice, is
it?"
"Do you think I was a coward?" asked the New Brother, wistfully.
"Scared stiff!" smiled the Old Tiler. "So conceited, so filled
with the idea of all your brethren admiring you, you couldn't
bear to forget yourself, lest they falter in their admiration.
Sure, that's cowardly. You ducked a duty because of conceit!"
"Old tiler, you use strong words! It was not conceit. It was
modesty. I didn't think I was able."
"Don't fool yourself! You told me you were embarrassed. Why is a
man embarrassed in public? Because he is afraid he won't do well,
won't make a good appearance, won't succeed, will be ridiculous.
So you refused the pretty compliment the Master paid you, and
refused your brethren the slight service of being their
mouthpiece."
"But I have never prayed in public!"
"Neither has any other man ever prayed in public prior to his
first public prayer!" grinned the Old Tiler. "But please tell me
why a man should be embarrassed before God? We are taught that He
knoweth all things. If we can't conceal anything from Him, He
knows all about you! A man may be ashamed of himself, sorry for
what he is and has been, but embarrassed, in prayer? As for being
embarrassed before you brethren, that's conceited. Almost any man
is a match for an army if he has God with him. The man on his
feet who talks aloud to God has no need to consider men. If men
laugh, shame to them. In all my many years as a Mason, I never
yet saw any man smile or say a word of ridicule at any one's
petition to Deity out loud which touched the hearts of all
present who admired their fearlessness in facing the Great
Architect and saying what was in their hearts. I never heard a
man laugh when a Chaplain, ordained or substitute, made a
petition to Deity. Whether it was the petition in the ritual, or
one which came from the heart, be sure the Great Architect
understood it. As for asking a blessing in the name of the
All-Seeing Eye, what difference does it make to God by what name
we call Him? That is a good Masonic name, sanctified by the
reverent hearts of generations of men and Masons.
"For your own peace of mind, tell your Master you made a mistake
and that you are sorry, and that if he will honor you by giving
you an opportunity to pray for yourself and your brethren, you
will, in the absence of the Chaplain, do your reverent best. And
when you kneel before that Altar you will forget, as all
Chaplains must who mean what they say, that any listen save the
One to whom the prayer is addressed!"
"Old Tiler, I'll try to do it!" cried the New Mason.
"Humph!" grunted the Old Tiler.
Fraternally,
