Brothers....
WHEN IS A MAN A MASON?
A man is a mason when he can look over the hills, the rivers and the horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things and yet have faith, hope and courage which is the root of every virtue.
When he knows that down in his 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 his fellow man.
When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.
When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of and old forgotten joy, when he hears the laughter of a little child.
When he can be happy and high minded amid the meager drudgeries of life.
When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead.
when no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid with out response.
When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meaning in life, whatever the name of that faith may be.
When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn and see something beyond sin.
When he knows how to pray, how to love, and how to hope.
When he has kept the faith with himself, with his fellowman, and with his GOD; in his hand, a sword of evil, in his heart a bit of a song -- glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which is trying to give it to the world.
-Reverend Joseph Fort Newton-
