The Three Degrees of Masonry
The Three Degrees of Masonry
An Address Before Keith Chapter Rose Croix
Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Halifax, NS
Easter 1954
By Reginald V. Harris 33*
A Man’s Masonic stature is not to be measured by the number of degrees he has or the offices he has held. The titles by which he is addressed may be high sounding; the regalia he wears may be rich and gaudy, but neither means anything if they adorn a man whose spiritual stature has not increased as he advanced in Masonic knowledge.
There are only three degrees in Masonry; some never get beyond the first degree; some do reach the second degree; I know of few who have attained to the third.
It is a source of much interest to many outside the Craft as to why men join the Order. There is a ever-ending stream of petitioners knocking for admission. Some come prompted by the recollection that father or brother was a Mason; others conjure up a group of men, most of whom are influential in the business world, or public life, or the professions, and they believe Freemasonry will help themselves. Another hears of Masonic banquets, of parades, of clubs and good times, and he seeks the circle of good fellowship. Still another wonders what there is in Freemasonry that is secret and he comes impelled by mere curiosity and inquisitiveness.
Such men seldom mean anything to the Order; they get their degrees, attend a few meetings; they are on hand for festive occasions; they wear Masonic emblems on their fingers and coat lapels but when they hear Freemasonry adversely criticized they can say nothing in its praise; they conceal their emblems and deny their membership.
Some of them have their eyes on other goals —we seldom see them again—but we often find their names among the suspended members.
Some few go on and attain high office; they love the titles by which they are addressed and the plaudits of the crowd, but their swords are never drawn in the cause of Masonry. They have attained to the First degree, of which the Password is “Self.”
But there are others—sincere in their declaration that they “solicit our privileges, prompted by a favorable opinion preconceived of the Fraternity, a desire for knowledge and a sincere wish to be serviceable to their fellowmen.” On such men must depend the very existence of Freemasonry. In their hearts they come—with a desire to ally themselves with all that is good, a desire to maintain a code of conduct emblematic of good citizenship. Outside the Order he may never have understood its aims and purposes.
He may have never heard of “the Lost Word” or “Masonic Light” or “Truth,” but with such motives in his heart and once inside our doors he grasps something of its meaning; it lures him on in the cause of service wherever there is work to do without the hope of fee or reward. He may serve as keeper of the wardrobe, or audit the accounts, or visit the sick in the hospitals. He may direct a rehearsal or play a minor part in a degree. Outside the Lodge we usually find him serving his City or Town, in its Council or School Board, as a volunteer fireman or as a private in the ranks. He helps to solve the problems of his Church—serving on its committees or boards; and when at last he lays down the working tools of life there are few to fill his place. Such a Mason has attained to the Second degree, whose password is “Service”. Before considering the Mason who has attained to the Sublime degree of Master Mason, let us review our earliest days as Masons.
Each of us well remembers the occasion when we first stood outside the door of the Craft lodge and knocked. We were asked what we desired? We learned that the right answer was “Light.” In the Second degree we again knocked and asked for “More Light.” in the Third degree the answer was “Further Light.” We later heard of a “Lost Word.” In the Fourth degree we declared we sought “Truth and the Lost Word.” and so on. The answer we gave was “Light” or “Truth” or “The Lost Word.” Always seeking but never finding. In the 14th we were actually given the word but failed to hear it.
In the 17th, we were still “a humble and patient seeker after Truth,” still seeking the True Light; in the 18th degree we found the Temple demolished, the tools and columns of Masonry broken and destroyed, the greatest confusion reigned (as in the Third degree, when there were no designs upon the Trestle Board). Our Shepherd was smitten and the Word was lost. Later we were told that Faith, Hope and Love were valuable aids to us in our search.We were told that by embracing the new law “to love one another” we would be led to the Word, which is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
What is this Lost Word?
Shall we find it if we explore other Masonic orders? Or go higher in the Scottish Rite? Brethren I have explored all these so-called higher degrees and I am still seeking the Lost Word. In all ages and everywhere there has been this search for that which was lost. It is as old as man himself.
On a clay tablet recently recovered from the ruins of a city upon the Euphrates they found a hymn about a Word—7,000 years ago. Something that was lost—a Word. It is symbolized in the Egyptian mysteries; in those of Eleusis and Mithras; in those of Scandinavia and the Teutonic race; in those of the Celtic race and the Saxon peoples. We find it in the Legend of the Holy Grail, so beautifully told by Tennyson in his Idylls of the King, the sacred cup used at the Last Supper; brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea and laid up at ancient Glastonbury. After his death “the times grew evil and the holy cup was caught away to Heaven and disappeared.”
The Knights of King Arthur see it in their hail covered and they leap to their feet and swear that, for a year and a day, they will take up the Quest.
The vision comes to each according to the soul of each.
Sir Galahad, virgin in body and soul, alone achieves the Quest and goes with it into the City of God. He represents the immortal search for perfection, the search for the Lost Word. Another example is the German legend of the Blue Flower, so well retold by Dr. Henry Van Dyke; the Blue Flower, sought along many and various paths and with varied fortune, but never found. Then there is that other beautiful story of the other Wise Man, the fourth Magus led by a star on his way to join his fellow Magi in Bethlehem, who turned aside to minister comfort to a dying stranger, and arrived too late. He wanders for 33 years in search of his lost Christ, spending his substance in good works.
He joins the crowd on that first Good Friday—hoping to catch a glimpse of Christ, but is turned aside by the cry of a girl sold into slavery, and in his dying moments he hears those wonderful words “In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it Unto Me.” Brethren, he found the Lost Word.
In Alpine climbing there always seems to be another peak in the distance which appears to be the summit—only to find on reaching it there is a still higher one in the farther distance. In Masonry there is no finality because the virtues it teaches know no limit of development short of the perfect standard of the Perfect Master.
We must go on; impelled to go on; guided by the virtues we profess to practice until we reach the summit, the humanly unattainable summit— until we find the Lost Word.
All through the pages of that wondrous book upon our altars, through the smoke of Sinai, through psalm and proverb, through prophecy and parable, is heard the everlasting truth of one God who is love—who requires of men that they love one another, do justly, be merciful, keep themselves unspotted from the World and walk humbly before Him in whose hand they stand.
Our place as Masons is unique. We set ourselves high standards of conduct, are we not expected to follow them?—or are they merely beautiful ceremonies intended to entertain?
If I am consistent, then the obligations I have assumed at our altar must materialize into action for the good of others. Masons are no longer ordinary men—content to grub along in the ebb tide of social responsibility. Masonry has failed in each one of us if it leaves us as it found us—content and satisfied with old standards. We must be pioneers—with a vision of new and exalted standards, for the truths inculcated here, if truly lived, lead men in the way of God.
William Booth—the valiant founder of the Salvation Army, once sent an Easter message to his officers and members; just one word — ”Others.” What a wealth of meaning is in that one word “Others!”
The life that counts is the life that serves. Let us by our service to others demonstrate that Freemasonry includes men who exert by the lives they live those benign influences of absolute justice, a conscientious discharge of public and private duty; a wholesome respect for law and authority and an unswerving allegiance to the cause of righteousness.
Those are the standards set before us from the E. A. degree to the 33rd, and in every other degree in Freemasonry.After all, the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule are the rockbed of Freemasonry and only the Mason who tries to live (I don’t say, succeeds in living) according to that divine teaching is seeking the Lost Word.
What is a Masonic Temple?
Is it only a pile of bricks and mortar, concrete and stone? Is it only a collection of beautiful lodge rooms? It is all that and more. It stands, next to the Church of God, as an honest effort for the building of character, for the strengthening of faith, for the increase of patriotism. It serves no purpose unless it is a great power house which radiates out great forces and influences through the lives and the service of its members. Only the consecration and dedication of ourselves to its cause and its ennobling influences will convince mankind that Freemasonry is not a purposeless order, that it will aid us in the search for Christ and will aid Christ in His search for us.
Such men, energized by the wondrous teaching of Freemasonry, radiate their influence into their service for others, their homes are homes of happiness where Christ is ever a welcome guest; their work for their Church speaks of the reality of their lives; their earnestness of purpose, their love of God.
If one-tenth of the members of the Craft in this city; if just those of the Scottish Rite, were to live for one year, or even for one month, a week or a day, in accord with the wonderful vision of Freemasonry, the emphasis it places on spiritual values, the insistent urging to seek the
Lost Word, there would be effected in the life of our Province a transformation undreamed of by us now.
As King Arthur says;
A glorious company, the flower of men,
To serve as model for the mighty world;
And be the fair beginning of a time.
I made them lay their hands in mine and swear;
To reverence the King as if he were
Their conscience and their conscience as their King;
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ;
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs;
To speak no slander nor listen to it;
To honour his own word as if his God’s.”
Let me recall those great words of Dr. Joseph Fort Newton, who speaks of the true Mason as “one who finds good in every faith, that helps any man to lay hold of divine things; who knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope; who has kept faith with himself with his fellow man, with his God; to those ears no voice of distress comes in vain, whose hand no other seeks without response; who feels the benign influence of Freemasonry in his very soul; who seeks to ennoble others and himself—In his hand a sword for evil; in his heart a bit of a song, glad to Live but not afraid do 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. Only such a man has found the Lost Word; only such a man has attained to the Sublime degree of Master Mason.
Courtesy of Bro Plante
(Great Grandson of Bro Harris PGM)
