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

hills, and the far 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 the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an
old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he
can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner 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
without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man
to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings 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 fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows
how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with
himself, with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for
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 it is trying to give to all the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[181] Suggested by a noble passage in the _Recollections_ of Washington
Gladden; and the great preacher goes on to say: "If the church could
accept this truth--that Religion is Friendship--and build its own life
upon it, and make it central and organic in all its teachings, should
we not have a great revival of religion?" Indeed, yes; and of the right
kind of religion, too! Walt Whitman found the basis of all philosophy,
all religion, in "the dear love of man for his comrade, the attraction
of friend to friend" (_The Base of all Metaphysics_). As for Masonic
literature, it is one perpetual paean in praise of the practice of
friendship, from earliest time to our own day. Take, for example, the
_Illustrations of Masonry_, by Preston (first book, sect, i-x); and
Arnold, as we have seen, defined Masonry as Friendship, as did
Hutchinson (_The Spirit of Masonry_, lectures xi, xii). These are but
two notes of a mighty anthem whose chorus is never hushed in the temple
of Masonry! Of course, there are those who say that the finer forces of
life are frail and foolish, but the influence of the cynic in the
advance of the race is--nothing!
[182] _The Neighbor_, by N.S. Shaler.
[183] If Masons often fall far below their high ideal, it is because
they share in their degree the infirmity of mankind. He is a poor
craftsman who glibly recites the teachings of the Order and quickly
forgets the lessons they convey; who wears its honorable dress to
conceal a self-seeking spirit; or to whom its great and simple symbols
bring only an outward thrill, and no inward urge toward the highest of
all good. Apart from what they symbolize, all symbols are empty; they
speak only to such as have ears to hear. At the same time, we have
always to remember--what has been so often and so sadly forgotten--that