FREEMASONRY - JUST WHO ARE THE FREEMASONS?

That's not a surprising question. Even though Freemasons are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world, MASONS or FREEMASONRY, and even though almost everyone has a father or grandfather or uncle who was a Mason, many people aren't quite certain just who Masons are or what freemasonry is about.

The answer is simple. Freemasons are members of a fraternity known as Freemasonry or Masonry. A fraternity is a group of men (just as a sorority is a group of women) who join together because:

• There are things they want to do in the world.
• There are things they want to do "inside their own minds."
• They enjoy being together with men they like and respect. (We'll look at some of these things later).

FREEMASONRY EXPLAINED - WHAT IS IT?

No one knows just how old freemasonry is because the actual origins have been lost in time. Probably, it arose from the guilds of stone masons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land.

In 1717, Freemasonry members created a formal organization in England when the first Grand Lodge was formed. A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Freemasonry in some geographical area. In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge of Freemasonry in each state and the District of Columbia. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge of Freemasonry in each province. Local organizations of Freemasony are called lodges. There are freemasonry lodges in most towns, and large cities usually have several. There are about 13,200 lodges in the United States.

WHAT ARE THE MASONS?

Masons are men who have decided they like to feel good about themselves and others. They care about the future as well as the past, and do what they can, both alone and with others, to make the future good for everyone.

Many men over many generations have answered the question, "What are the Masons?" One of the most eloquent was written by the Reverend Joseph Fort Newton, an internationally honored minister of the first half of the 20th Century and Grand Chaplain, Grand Lodge of Iowa, 1911-1913.

WHEN ARE MEN CONSIDERED MASONS?

Freemasons and virtue:
When they can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of their own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage -- which is the root of every virtue.

Masons and nobility:
When they know that down in their heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love their fellowman.

Freemasons and sympathy:
When they know how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins -- knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.

Fraternal friendship:
When they have learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with themselves.

Masons and life:
When they love flowers, can hunt birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child.

Happiness:
When they can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.

Masons and rememberence:
When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue themselves like the thought of one much loved and long dead.

Freemasons and aiding a distressed voice:
When no voice of distress reaches their ears in vain, and no hand seeks their aid without response.

Faith:
When they find good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be.

Masons and fellow man:
When they can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin.

Hope:
When they know how to pray, how to love, how to hope.

Masons and their God:
When they have kept faith with themselves, with their fellowman, and with their God; in their hand a sword for evil, in their heart a bit of a song -- glad to live, but not afraid to die! - Masons.

Mason and Secrets:
Such men have found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world. These are the Masons.

[Source: Detroit Lodge No. 2 F&AM.]