Says
Greybeard
by Carl H. Claudy
The Master
Mason - January 1924
"BROTHERLY love? Oh, yes, the "lodge is
full of it. Curious the way it manifests itself, sometimes, but
when you dig down deep enough into men's hearts, you find a lot
of it.
"What? Oh, no, certainly not! Men don't go around
demonstrating their affection like a lot of girls, you know. But
you don't have to see a demonstration to know the feeling is
there. The trouble with so many young Masons is their
misunderstanding of the term 'brotherly love,' though high
heaven knows the words are sufficiently easy to
understand.
"'Brotherly,' now, means 'like a brother.' Sure I
know a lot of brothers hate each other, but they don't act like
brothers. There have been cowardly soldiers, and forsworn
ministers, and corrupt judges, but when you say a man is 'like a
soldier,' you mean 'brave and true;' when you say he is 'good as
a minister' you mean one who 'truly does his honest best.' When
you say 'upright as a judge' you mean 'as straight as the best
of judges.' And when I say 'brotherly' means 'like a brother,' I
mean, like a brother who is acting as a good brother likes to
act.
"As for love,' there are more definitions than there are
words in my mouth (which are several). But in connection with
the 'brotherly' the word means that true affection which first
considers the good of the person loved.
"Masonry teaches
brotherly love. Lots of its scholars are a long way from 100 per
cent perfect in their lessons. But a lot more could get 'E' on
their report card if the Lodge gave out evidences of scholastic
standing!
"For instance, there was B'Jones. 'Twasn't his
name, but it will serve. B'Jones undertook to do a piece of work
for a hospital. It took him a year. At the end of the year his
business was in shreds and tatters. He had one of those
businesses that needs a man's personal attention.
"His
attention had gone to his hospital, which, by the way, was built
and flourishes, to the everlasting credit of his city. It ought to
be called the B'Jones hospital, but it isn't. Never
mind.
"A lot of his brethren in his Lodge got to know about
B'Jones. They called a meeting, called it the B'Jones meeting,
issued stock in the B'Jones association, bought the stock,
started B'Jones off all over again, and let him pay them back as
he could. All this, mind you, without B'Jones ever asking for a
cent. Brotherly love, my son, in the best meaning of the
word.
"There was poor old Smith. Smith, during his lifetime,
came to Lodge every night. He wasn't very bright, was Smith.
Couldn't learn the work. Had no presence. Couldn't make a speech
to save his life. Never was called on at banquets. Never did
anything audible. But he was always on committees and he always
passed around refreshments and he attended every funeral, and he
was always down ahead of the meeting to see if the room was
clean, and if it wasn't, he'd sweep it out.
"Gave the
best he had in service. Well, Smith died. Men do, you know; an
awful lot have, already. At the funeral, we found out Smith left
an invalid wife and two half grown children and no assets. It's
the Lodge's business to take care of such, and we did it. But
three men in the Lodge with more money than ability to keep it
to themselves, subscribed enough cash to put the boy through a
good business school and the girl through a normal school, so
they could earn their own living. Charity? Nonsense! The Lodge
attended to the 'relief.' The three attended to the brotherly
love stuff. They just remembered what old Smith was and how he
gave, and so they turned to and gave. Me, I think it was Smith
did most of the loving. The three just acted in reflex to
Smith's loving heart, that so cared for his brethren and his
Lodge he was always engaged in this brotherly
business.
"Do you know Brown? Brown runs a garage. Also,
Brown ran a temperature until the doctors took him off to the
hospital to cut out his something-or-other - I dunno-what. Well,
the garage was about to cash in. Garages don't run themselves,
and there wasn't any one we could hire to run it. So six
brothers of this Lodge spent two hours a day each at the place,
looking after it. Sure, we did a bum job, and Brown says we are
the worst garage keepers in the world, but we saved the shop
from being wrecked and looted, and Brown thinks Masonry means
something. One reason we did it was because of that brotherly
love idea; me, I think sitting around a cold garage selling
gasoline is about the uneasiest apology for loafing I
know!
"Sure I could talk all night about it. But what's the
use? The fellows to whom 'brotherly love' is just words won't
read what I say and those who know what they really mean don't
need to read.
"But get it firmly fixed in your mind, young
man, more than one man has gone into a Lodge and curled his lip
when he learned that he was supposed to be a brotherly lover,
and turned around and wept when he found that he was being loved
like a brother by a lot of men he didn't know cared what became
of him.
"What? Why, of course, it does. Masonry works
miracles all the time, and the commonest of them and the one she
works oftenest - I suppose so she can keep her hand in - is
teaching hard-hearted citizens to be soft-hearted Masons;
teaching men the real meaning of the words 'brotherly' and
'love' until they, too, become teachers."
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