"...travel in foreign countries and receive Master's Wages." Our
Operative brethren received their Master's Wages in coin of the
realm.
Speculatives content themselves with intangible wages--and
occasionally some are hard pressed to explain to the wondering
initiate just what, in this practical age, a "Master's Wages" really
are.
The wages of a Master may be classified under two heads; first,
those inalienable rights which every Freemason enjoys as a result of
payment of fees, initiation, the payment of annual dues to his
lodge; second, those more precious privileges which are his if he
will but stretch out his hand to take.
The first right of which any initiate is conscious is that of
passing the Tiler and attending his lodge, instead of being
conducted through the West gate as a preliminary step to initiation.
for a time this right of mingling with his new brethren is so
engrossing that he looks no further for his Master's wages. Later he
learns that he has also the right of visitation in other Lodges,
even though it is a "right" hedged about with restrictions. He must
be in good standings to exercise it. It will be denied him should
any brother object to his visit. If he is unaffiliated, in most
Jurisdictions he can exercise it but once in any one Lodge. If
private business (such as election of officers or a lodge trial) is
scheduled, the Master of the Lodge he would visit may refuse him
entrance. But in general this right of visiting other Lodges is a
very real part of what may be termed his concrete Master's wages,
and many are the Freemasons who find in it a sure cure for
loneliness in strange places; who think of the opportunity to find a
welcome and friends, where otherwise they would be alone, as wages
of substantial character.
The opportunities to see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of
Freemasonry, to take from them again and again a new thought, are
wages not to be lightly received. For him with the open ears and the
inquiring mind, the degrees lead to a new world, since familiarity
with ritual provides the key by which he may read an endless stream
of books about Freemasonry.
The Craft has a glorious history; a symbolism the study of which is
endless; a curious legal structure of which law-minded men never
tire; is so interwoven with the story of the nation as to make the
thoughtful thrill; joins hands with religion in the secret places of
the heart in a manner both tender and touching. These "foreign
countries" have neither gate nor guard at the frontier ...the Master
Mason may cross and enter at his will, sure of wages wherever he
wanders within their borders.
Master's Wages are paid in acquaintance. Unless a newly-made Master
Mason is so shy and retiring that he seeks the farthest corner of
his lodge room, there to sit shrinking into himself, inevitably he
will become acquainted with many men of many minds, always an
interesting addition to the joy of life. What he does with his
acquaintances is another story, but at least the wages are there,
waiting for him.
No honest man insures his house thinking it will but, but the
insurance policy in the safe is a great comfort, well worth all that
it costs. It speaks of help should fire destroy his home; it assures
that all its owner has saved in material wealth will not be lost
should carelessness or accident start a conflagration.
No honest man becomes a Freemason thinking to ask the Craft for
relief. Yet the consciousness that poor is the Lodge and sodden the
heart of the brethren thereof from which relief will not be
forthcoming if the need is bitter, is wages from which much comfort
may be taken.
Freemasonry is not, per se, a relief organization. It does not exist
merely for the purpose of dispensing charity. Nor has it great funds
with which to work its gentle ministrations to the poor. Fees are
modest; dues often are too small rather than too large. Yet for the
brother down and out, who has no coal for the fire, no food for his
hungry child, whom sudden disaster threatens, the strong arm of the
fraternity stretches forth to push back the danger. The cold are
warmed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the jobless given work,
the discouraged heartened.
Master's wages, surely far greater than the effort put forth to earn
them.
Relief is not limited to a brother's own Lodge. In most
Jurisdictions is a Masonic Home, in which at long last a brother's
weary body may rest, his tired feet cease their wandering. No
Freemason who has visited any Masonic Home and there seen old
brethren and their widows eased down the last long hill in peace and
comfort, the children of Masons under friendly influences which
insure safe launching of little ships on the sea of life, but comes
away thankful that there is such a haven for him, should he need it,
even if he hopes never to ask for its aid.
Stranded in a strange place, no Freemason worries about getting aid.
In all large centers is a Board of Masonic Relief to hear his story,
investigate his credentials and start the machinery by which his
Lodge may help him. In smaller places is almost invariably a Lodge
with brethren glad to give a sympathetic hearing to his troubles. To
the brother in difficulties in what is to him a "foreign country",
ability to prove himself a Freemason is Master's wages indeed.
Freemasonry is strong in defense of the helpless. The widow and the
orphan need to ask but once to receive her bounty. All brethren hope
to support their own, provide for their loved ones, but misfortune
comes to the just and the unjust alike. To be one of a world wide
brotherhood on which widow and child may call is of untold comfort,
Master's Wages more precious than coin of gold.
Finally is the right of Masonic burial. At home or abroad no
Freemason, known to desire it, but is followed to his last home by
sorrowing brethren who lay him away under the apron of the Craft and
the Sprig of Acacia of immortal hope. This, too, is wages of a
Master.
"Pay the Craft their wages, if any be due...."
To some the practical wages briefly mentioned above are the
important payments for a Freemason's work. To others, the more
intangible but none the less beloved opportunities to give, rather
than to get, are the Master's wages which count the most.
Great among these is the Crafts's opportunity for service. The world
is full of chances to do for others, and no man need apply to as
Masonic Lodge only because he wants a chance to "do unto others as
he would that others do unto him," But Freemasonry offers peculiar
opportunities to unusual talents which are not always easily found
in the profane world.
There is always something to do in a Lodge. There are always
committees to be served- and committee work is usually thankless
work. He who cannot find his payment in his satisfaction of a task
well done will receive no Master's wages for his labors on Lodge
committees.
There are brethren to be taught. Learning all the "work" is a man's
task, not to be accomplished in a hurry. Yet it is worth the doing,
and in instructing officers and candidates many a Mason has found a
quiet joy which is Master's wages pressed down and running over.
Service leads to the possibility of appointment or election to the
line of officers. There is little to speak of the Master's wages
this opportunity pays, because only those who have occupied the
Oriental Chair know what they are. The outer evidence of the
experience may be told, but the inner spiritual experience is
untellable because the words have not been invented.
But Past Masters know! To them is issued a special coinage of
Master's wages which only a Worshipful Master may earn. Ask any of
them if they do not well pay for the labor.
If practical Master's wages are acquaintance in Lodge, the enjoyment
of fellowship, merged into friendship, is the same payment in a
larger form. difficult to describe, the sense of being one of a
group, the solidarity of the circle which is the Lodge, provides a
satisfaction and pleasure impossible to describe as it is clearly to
be felt. It is interesting to meet many men of many walks of life;
it is heartwarming continually to meet the same group, always with
the same feeling of equality. High and low, rich and poor, merchant
and moneychanger, banker and broom-maker, doctor and ditch-digger,
meet on the level, and find it happy-Master's wages, value
untranslatable into money.
Etherial as a flower scent, dainty as a butterfly's wing, yet to
some as strong as any strand of the Mystic Tie all Freemasons know
and none describe, is that feeling of being a part of the historic
past. To have knelt at the same Altar before which George Washington
prayed; to have taken the same obligation which bound our brethren
of the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717; to be spiritually kin with Elias
Ashmole; to feel friendly over Oliver, Preston, Krause, Goethe, Sir
Christopher Wren, Marshall, Anthony Sayer, to mention only a few; to
be a brother of Craftsmen who formed the Boston Tea Party; to stand
at Bunker Hill with Warren and ride with Brother Paul Revere; to be
an Apprentice at the building of St. Paul's; to learn the Knot from
a Comacine Master; to follow the Magister in a Roman collegium, aye,
even to stand awed before those mysteries of ancient peoples, and
perhaps see a priest raise the dead body of Osiris from a dead level
to a living perpendicular- these are mental experiences not to be
forgotten when counting up Master's wages.
Finally- and best- is the making of many friends. Thousands of
brethren count their nearest and their dearest friends on the rolls
of the Lodge they love and serve. The Mystic Tie makes for
friendship. It attracts man to man and often draws together "those
who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance." The
teachings of brotherly love, relief and truth; of temperance,
fortitude, prudence and justice; the inculcation of patriotism and
love of country, are everyday experiences in s Masonic Lodge. When
men speak freely those thoughts which, in the world without, they
keep silent, friendships are formed.
Count gain for work well done in what coin seems most valuable; the
dearest of the intangibles which come to any Master Mason are those
Masonic friendships than which there are no greater Master's wages. |
