Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

446 LIBYAN
LIGHT
more annually for its maintenance and increase,
would secure to every Lodge in the
land a rich treasury of Masonic reading for
the information and improvement of its members.
The very fact that Masonic books were
within their reach, showing themselves on the
well-filled shelves at every meeting, and ready
at their hands for the mere asking or the
trouble of taking them down, would induce
many brethren to read who never yet have
read a page or even a line upon the subject of
Masonic history and science .
Considering the immense number of books
that have been published on the subject of
Speculative Masonry, many of which would
be rendered accessible to every one by the establishment
of Lodge libraries, the Mason who
would then be ignorant of the true genius of
his art would be worthy of all shame and reproach
.
As thoughtful municipalities place public
fountains in their parks and at the corners of
streets, that the famished wayfarer may allay
his thirst and receive physical refreshment so
should Masonic Lodges place such intellectual
fountains in reach of their members, that
they might enjoy mental refreshment. Such
fountains are libraries ; and the Lodge which
spends fifty dollars, more or less, upon a banquet,
and yet does without a library, commits
a grave Masonic offense ; for it refuses, or at
least neglects, to diffuse that light among its
children which its obligation requires it to do .
Of two Lodges-the one without and the
other with a library-the difference is this,
that the one will have more ignorance in it
than the other . If a Lodge takes delight in an
ignorant membership, let it forego a library .
If it thinks there is honor and reputation and
pleasure in having its members well informed,
it will give them means of instruction .
Libyan or Lybic Chain . The eightyfifth
grade of the Rite of Memphis ; old style .
Licht, Hitter von Wahren . Knight of
the True Light, presumed to have been
founded in Austria in 1780, by Hans Heinrich
Freiherr von ticker and Eckhoffen . It
consisted of five grades .
Lichtseher, Oder Erleuchtete. (The
Enlightened .) A mystical sect established at
Schlettstadt by Kilper Martin Steinbach, in
the sixteenth century . Mentioned in the
Handbuch, in 1566, by Pastor Reinhard Lutz .
It delved in Scriptural interpretation .
Lieutenant Grand Commander. The
title of the second and third officers of a Grand
Consistory in the Ancient and Accepted Scot-
* The three most important Masonic libraries
inAmerica are : The Grand Lodge Libraryof Iowa,
at Cedar Rapids, it having a separate building
devoted entirely to its uses, and containing a large
number of books and collections, many of which
are rare. The Grand Lodges of both Pennsylvania
and Massachusetts have been ardent collectors
of Masonic literature. The Grand Lodge
of Massachusetts has lately acquired by gift
of the late Samuel R . Lawrence his own library
and that of Enoch T. Carson, which he had
purchased . [E . E. C .)
tish Rite, and the second officer in a Supreme
Council .
Life. The three stages of human life are
said in the lectures to be symbolized by the
three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, and
the doctrine is illustrated in the Third Degree
by the emblem of the Steps on the Master's
Carpet, which see.
Life, Eternal. See Eternal Life .
Life Member. It is the custom in some
Lodges to permit a member to become a life
member by paying dues for some number of
years (21 to 25) determined by the By-Laws of
the Lodge or the immediate payment of a sum
of money, after which he is released from any
subsequent payment of quarterly or yearly
dues . Such a system is of advantage in a
pecuniary sense to the Lodge, if the money
paid for life membership is invested in profitable
stock, because the interest continues to
accrue to the Lodge even after the death of a
member. A Lodge consisting entirely of life
members would be a Lodge the number of
whose members might increase, but could
never decrease. Life members are subject to
all the discipline of the Lodge, such as suspension
or expulsion, just as the other members
. [Such Life Membership is, however, not
recognized by the Grand Lodge of England,
which restricts the privileges of the Craft to
those who continue to be subscribing members
of some Lodge . (Report of G . L. of England
for June, 1873 .)-E. L . H .)
Light . Light is an important word in the
Masonic system . It conveys a far more recondite
meaning than it is believed to possess by
the generality of readers . It is in fact the first
of all the symbols presented to the neophyte,
and continues to be presented to him in various
modifications throughout all his future
progress in his Masonic career . It does not
simply mean, as might be supposed, truth or
wisdom, but it contains within itself a far more
abstruse allusion to the very essence of Speculative
Masonry, and embraces within its capacious
signification all the other symbols
of the Order . Freemasons are emphatically
called the "sons of light," because they are,
or at least are entitled to be, in possession of
the true meaning of the symbol ; while the
profane or uninitiated who have not received
this knowledge are, by a parity of expression,
said to be in darkness .
The connection of material light with this
emblematic and mental illumination, was
prominently exhibited in all the ancient systems
of religion and esoteric mysteries .
Among the Egyptians, the hare was the
heiroglyphic of eyes that are open, because
that animal was supposed to have his eyes
always open. The priests afterward adopted
the hare as the symbol of the moral illumination
revealed to the neophytes in the contemplation
of the Divine truth, and hence,
according to Champollion, it was also the symbol
of Osiris, their principal divinity, and the
chief object of their mystic rites-thus showing
the intimate connection that they maintained
in their symbolic language between the