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“Nothing Succeeds
Like
THE GEORGIAN”
VOL. vn. NO. 174
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AND NEWS
ATLANTA, GA., MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 190.0.
“Nothing Succeeds
Like
THE GEORGIAN”
PRTrtT?.' In Atlanta—TWO CENTS.
JTrfcAljili. on Tratna—FIVE CENTS.
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THE SECRET OF MASONRY
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By F. L. SEELY, 32*
Publisher The Georgian
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M ANY who look over this edition of The Georgian—I mean
many who are not within the secret vale of the great
Masonio body—will ask themselves, with more or less of
a critical attitude, why so great an amount of money should be
spent on so beautiful a building as that we dedicate today, a pic
ture of which Is shown on the first page of this paper.
Some will wonder if the order of Freemasonry, being built
upon a belief in God,’is justified in consuming so great an amount
of money that could have gone to charitable, educational or other
'benevolent causes. ,
V Of course, good reader, we must admit at the outset that the
peculiar nature of the order of Masonry—its absolute secrecy—
makes suoh a conjecture out of place—for no one but a Mason
knows of the workings of the craft, and few even of those who
are Masons know of the scope of its work—oharitable and other
wise. i
The secret of Masonry is its secrecy. Men guard its secrets
as they guard their lives; the teachings of the order burn their
imprint into men’s souls in a manner that they are not likely to
forget, and this knowledge and pledge of secrecy make men love
it and perpetuate it as they would under no other circumstances.
Not much of Masonry can bo told to the world. A knowledge
of it can only be gained by men who can pass the requirements
of the order, and obtain the information by the long, tedious and
ancient route. There are many facts about it, however, that the
world at large should be more familiar with, and a knowledge of
which would do much to draw greater admiration for Freema
sonry, and the first, in order of their interest, seems to me to be
the fact that the secrets of this mysterious order are never re
corded anywhere in the world but in men’s minds. They are
handed down from generation to generation—from man to man—
in the order information was handed down centuries ago. No
books contain these secrets—no stone tablets record them — no
thief can steal them, for they are written only in man’s mind,
and the memory dies with him, tho they will live forever with his
brothers, to whom he has imparted them.
No man becomes a Mason except he be drawn to the order.
He is never asked to become a member and any member who
would solicit a man’s membership would not be considered worthy
of the great secrets and benefits of Freemasonry.
Men must go into Masonry for the love of it or not at all.
There seems to the uninitiated to be so many kinds of Masons
that there may be somewhat of bewilderment in the degrees, so-
called, but in reality it is very simple. Three degrees in Freema
sonry—the first, second and third—make men “Master Masons’’
Masons pure and simple,' and as much of a Mason as any man
in the world, be he the president of the United States or the king
of England (both of whom are Freemasons), or be he the hum
blest citizen of our commonwealth.
These first three degrees cost men from $25 to $50 initiation
fee, depending on the location of the lodge, and attendant ex
penses, and after once a member the yearly expense is from $2
to $5. ' J
From the Blue Lodge, so-called, or the third degree, go two
branches of higher degrees,* as do the two prongs of the letter Y,
both starting from the Blue Lodge of Master Masons. One branch
is the York rite, ending in the degree of Knight Templar. This
order is the order of Christian Knighthood, for while no man is
a Mason without a confessed belief in God, no man is a Knight
Templar without a belief in Jesus Christ, the Savior. These de
grees are reached thru the Royal Arch chapter, which follows
the Blue Lodge.
The emblem of the Blue Lodge is the square and compass;
of the chapter, the keystone, bearing the secret inscription H. T.
W. S. S. T. K. S.; of the Knights Templar, the Maltese cross, the
cross, crown, etc.
The other branoh of the Y leads to the thirty-second degree
Scottish rite, and is not a Christian order, but is enjoyed and
blessed by thousands of faithful adherents of the Jewish and sim
ilar faiths.
The emblem of the Scottish Rite is the double eagle.
There is a thirty-third degree—a great honor, the highest
gift of Masonry—for which no man may apply—a gift, in real
ity, that few ever get. It is given by the highest Masonio
body as a reward for devotion and work in the order of Free
masonry. There are butsixthirty-third degree Masons in Geor
gia out of nearly 40,000 Masons in this state. This body is
ruled over by the grandest men of our time—men whose lives
are molded to the high Ideals they portray, and men many of
whom almost live the lives of Apostles.
Such a man is that grand old patriarch of our own state—«
Ur. Richard Joseph Nunn, of Savannah.
There is one other body in tho Masonic order that does not
come within either of these branches of higher degrees, and is
exclusive and not widely known, even among Masons—the Or
der of Knights of the Cross of Constantine.
There are probably less than a dozen bands of this order in
the United States, altho it is the oldest Masonic body of which
we have record, and the Georgia branch is limited to 83 members.
The Mystio Shrine, or the “Shrine,’’ is a body that has noth
ing to do With Freemasonry, but no man may be a “Sbriner" un
less he is a York Rite or a Scottish Rite Mason.
The “Shrine’’ is the playground of Masonry—It is the pan-,
acea for the grouoh and the place where men are not'“Mr.;” but
“Bill” and “Jim” and “John.”
The idea seems to be in the minds of many that Masonry is
all more or less a matter of trifling initiations—"riding the goat”
and the like—but it is to be regretted that such impressions have
ever been given impetus, for Masonry, while it may have things
about it that appeal at times to the humorous instincts of men, is
a far more serious and dignified matter than is commonly sup
posed. It deals with men’s lives and better natures; it deals with
their cares and their anxieties, and finally with their sickness and
their death, and one of the most sacred ceremonies it performs is
the Masonic burial.
Masonry is kind and loving and helpful; it is charitable to its
brothers, and patient.
No honest, Upright man is ever forced from his Masonic affil
iations by poverty, for if he can not meet his dues the lodge
does, and the idea that only those with money can belong to the
order is a wrong one.
Masonry’s aim is to help and to live the principle that all
men are brothers, and the fact that in some rare instances men
join the order for gain, or live as does not become the ideals that
Masonry endeavors to teach, is regretted most by Masons them
selves .
Masonic charity is almost as secret as are the workings of
the order itself. The funds for this purpose are in most cases
placed in the hands of officers whose gifts are reported to no one,
and no one but himself knows to whom the help has gone, nor
does the recipient know who it came from.
Freemasonry is a great brotherhood of men, whose earliest
crude beginnings date back thru the centuries; it is bound up in
the greatest and strongest system of secrecy the world has ever
seen; it has lived the test of time and tho men change and sys
tems change, and inventions come and go, still the true and an
cient form of Freemasonry seems to be invulnerable to all the
things of time, and it will roll on thru the ages the great myste
rious something to the eyes of the world, but a rock of strength
to those who understand it.
The secret of Masonry is its secrecy, but its strength is the
God that it acknowledges.
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