THE CHARITY FUND
"I've been going over the lodge records," said the
Yearling Brother to the Old Past Master in the corner, "and I am plumb
discouraged."
"Why, the lodge records ought not to discourage you," smiled the Old
Past Master. "Seems to me we have a right nice lodge record; books all
straight, money in the bank, charity fund growing, and everything."
"That's the trouble...charity fund growing," answered the Yearling
Brother. "It doesn't seem to me we do enough to justify ourselves or our
existence. We have one brother in the Home. We are putting one young man through
school, and we are buying three widows coal and paying one girl's bills out west
so she can recover from threatened tuberculosis. And that's all. And we are a
great big lodge."
"Well, wait a minute," said the Old Past Master. "When you say
"all" you mean all the big things. Of course, we spend some money all
the time for immediate relief...
"Of course," agreed the Yearling Brother. "But it seems to me we
ought to do more big things."
"Such as putting a few more brethren in the Home?" smiled the Old Past
Master.
"Well, of course, we can't put a man in the Home who doesn't need or want
to go there," answered the Yearling Brother.
"How about buying some coal for your family, then?"
"Me? Why, man, I am no object for charity...."
"Well, do you know any brother of this lodge, or any relative of any
brother of this lodge, who needs coal?"
"Er....no, I don't. But there must be such. We ought to take care of
them."
"Well, why don't you go and hunt them up!"
"How can I hunt them up?" defended the Yearling Brother. "If they
don't tell me, how would I know?"
"Exactly. And if they don't tell the lodge they need coal the possibilities
are they don't need it."
"Now let me clarify your mind a little. You evidently have the impression,
which so many people have, that the Masonic order is founded and conducted
entirely for charity, for relief and assistance. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Masonry is not an organization conducted for charitable purposes. It
is not a mutual benefit association. Men are not permitted to join a lodge with
the idea that they can get help from it. There are several very good Orders,
whose insurance and relief and benefits are the principle things to be
considered. A man who wants that sort of insurance should join one of them. But
Masonry is devoted to teaching, not to helping with material aid. True, we do
help; for we practice, as we teach, brotherhood. But we are not an organization
for that purpose.
"If you have a blood brother, you don't expect to support him. You don't
expect him to regard his blood relationship as a reason why he should sponge on
you. You don't expect him to be continually asking for charity. If he has hard
luck, or gets sick or is down and out, you put your shoulder to his wheel and
push for the two of you. So do Masonic brethren, when one of their own gets in a
hard case. But Masonry can choose her brethren, which the blood brother cannot
do. Consequently, we aim to take into the order only men who will be pushers and
not pushees.
"You think we ought to do more than we do. I tell you we are doing all
there is to do. We are an upright, self-respecting, self-supporting lot. We have
a fine membership. We have picked and chosen wisely. Only a few of us have
fallen by the wayside. Those few we do our whole duty by. The reason we don't do
more is that there is no more do. The reason the charity fund grows is because
we are wise enough to get only those members who won't need to use it."
"But," demanded the Yearling Brother. "If you carry the argument
to its logical conclusion, the best lodge would be the lodge which had no
indigents, and the charity fund of which would have no need for existence."
"Surely, the best lodge is the lodge with the best membership, of course.
But if it has no need to use charity among its own members, there are always
ways to use the funds for others. We contribute our share to the Home, for
instance, whether we have a guest there or not. And we will forever, and when
Brother Wells dies, we will be paying our pro
rata for the brethren of other lodges, just as they now pay something
towards our brother.
"The great objective of Masonry is to teach. It teaches good men to become
better men. It teaches the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It
teaches the need of knowledge and the need of virtue. It teaches men to
circumscribe their passions. It teaches toleration and uprightness and
character. Its great end is to make men better men, and thus the world a better
place in which to live. If we did nothing but charity, if all its efforts and
all its funds went to charity, these great ends could not be so well
accomplished. Masonry is charitable and its hand is behind all the fallen
brethren, but it tries to pick brethren who will not fall, knowing that the more
men who stand on their own feet, the more there will be to help those who do
stumble, and the better it can teach its great lessons.
"Don't get off on the wrong foot, brother. This lodge does all it should
do, all it can do, all it ought to do. No real appeal for help ever went unheard
within its doors. And our resources would be behind that charity fund if it
needed it. But thank the Great Architect, that we don't need to do more, that
enough men in this lodge have learned the lesson of life as well as of Masonry,
are discriminating in the selection of brethren who will help the lodge teach,
rather than those who will help it become but a refuge of those who want
help."
"What I need," confessed the Yearling Brother, "is some one to
talk sense to me."
"What you need," countered the Old Past Master, "is experience;
and a few years in Masonry. Time will give you both."
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