THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

acts, the form and color and glory of his life._ Happily, owing to the
growth of the race in spiritual intelligence and power, the highest
truth is no longer held as a sacred secret. Still, if art has efficacy
to surprise and reveal the elusive Spirit of Truth, when truth is
dramatically presented it is made vivid and impressive, strengthening
the faith of the strongest and bringing a ray of heavenly light to
many a baffled seeker.
Ever the Quest goes on, though it is permitted some of us to believe
that the Lost Word has been found, in the only way in which it can
ever be found--even in the life of Him who was "the Word made flesh,"
who dwelt among us and whose grace and beauty we know. Of this Quest
Masonry is an aspect, continuing the high tradition of humanity,
asking men to unite in the search for the thing most worth finding,
that each may share the faith of all. Apart from its rites, there is
no mystery in Masonry, save the mystery of all great and simple
things. So far from being hidden or occult, its glory lies in its
openness, and its emphasis upon the realities which are to the human
world what light and air are to nature. Its mystery is of so great a
kind that it is easily overlooked; its secret almost too simple to be
found out.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Matt. 13:10, 11.
[48] _Unwritten Sayings of Our Lord_, David Smith, vii.
[49] By occultism is meant the belief in, and the claim to be able to
use, a certain range of forces neither natural, nor, technically,
supernatural, but more properly to be called preternatural--often,
though by no means always, for evil or selfish ends. Some extend the
term occultism to cover mysticism and the spiritual life generally, but
that is not a legitimate use of either word. Occultism seeks to get;
mysticism to give. The one is audacious and seclusive, the other humble
and open; and if we are not to end in blunderland we must not confound
the two (_Mysticism_, by E. Underhill, part i, chap. vii).
[50] Much time would have been saved, and not a little confusion
avoided, had this obvious fact been kept in mind. Even so charming a
book as _Jesus, the Last Great Initiate_, by Schure--not to speak of
_The Great Work_ and _Mystic Masonry_--is clearly, though not
intentionally, misleading. Of a piece with this is the effort,
apparently deliberate and concerted, to rob the Hebrew race of all
spiritual originality, as witness so able a work as _Our Own Religion
in Persia_, by Mills, to name no other. Our own religion? Assuredly, if
by that is meant the one great, universal religion of humanity. But the
sundering difference between the Bible and any other book that speaks
to mankind about God and Life and Death, sets the Hebrew race apart as
supreme in its religious genius, as the Greeks were in philosophical
acumen and artistic power, and the Romans in executive skill. Leaving
all theories of inspiration out of account, facts are facts, and the
Bible has no peer in the literature of mankind.
[51] Some there are who think that much of the best work of Mr. Waite
is in his poetry, of which there are two volumes, _A Book of Mystery
and Vision_, and _Strange Houses of Sleep_. There one meets a fine