Science of right living

Title

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SCIENCE OF RIGHT LIVING Probably there is r.o better name for Freemasonry than the Scince of Right Living. Like every other rcience moral and phy sical, in order to be rightly estimated, it must be studied in its his tory and philosophy. It has been well said that history does not furnish its parallel. Its traces are to be found in the remotest ages and in Lhe most varied conditions of human family. Il exists where other worthy orders have not successfully penetrated. It has withstood the upheaval of revolution, the devastation of war, the frenzied attacks of fana ticism and lhe intensity of persecutions. Splendid as is its historic glory, it is only, however, when we enter the inmost shrinr and catch the spur, rather than the letter of Freemasonry, that the compelling power of its merits is fully realized. The external - beautiful and impressive as are the rites and ceremonies, and symbolism is never without great objective va lue in attracting the senses through which the approach to the soul has lo be made - is insignificant as compared with the internal. It is lhe difference between lhe temporal and the eternal, the material and spiritual. Freemasonry iustifies its existence not by antiquity, but by principle, which, doubtless, accounts for its antiquity. Its object is lo develop character — character strong in spn lual ehmont3 _ and to bind men logelher in lhe everlasting and immutable principles of troth, virtue and love, with a hold that is as strong ’ right itself and as enduring as humanity: lo recognize man only as a man: to tench that true men lhe world over should unite and contend for the supremacy of good over evil: lo leach, not pohtics but morals; lo losler no partisanship, but the recognition ol leal merit wherever found: to have no narrower limits in which, lei»«k for the elevation of man than the outlines o. the world. Uzlh such inspiration the outcome could not be leas than the embodiment of what is truest and best and noblest in life. It is not surprising then that wherever Freemasonry has been allowed to exercise its .mfluence. it has been a power >n developing a high tvpe of manhood. The most ancient, lhe most universal, the most'moral of all purely human institutions, it appeals resistlesslv lo lhe highest sentiments of man and compels his admuaUon, confidence, support and reverence. - N XV. Bro. Donald A. Stewart. Grand Master of lhe Grand Lodge <>) British Columbia. 291 February, 1938

Date

1958

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

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