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“Nothing Succeeds Like THE GEORGIAN” VOL. vn. NO. 174 w* "1(111,1! ■■ i ik, •»» - f% |yr\ I 1 J r. a^> AND NEWS ATLANTA, GA., MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 190.0. “Nothing Succeeds Like THE GEORGIAN” PRTrtT?.' In Atlanta—TWO CENTS. JTrfcAljili. on Tratna—FIVE CENTS. SB® j «WW | THE SECRET OF MASONRY \ V By F. L. SEELY, 32* Publisher The Georgian gpl® - 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. ( , 'i