By V.W.Bro. Harold W.Hughes GROnt. 1957


          THE ALTER



   In the center of the lodge stands the Alter. On the
East, South and West, should be placed one of the represent-
atives of the Three Lesser Lights, but never on the North,
for that is the place of darkness.

   On its top, in due arrangement, should lie the Three
Great Lights. Thus arranged, it may well be considered "the
most important article of furniture in the lodge."

   Too universal in its use, both through space and time to
admit our tracing its history here, we must content ourselves
with some reference to the ideas embodied in it.

   To this end let us remember here and everywhere, that
the Masonic life is not that which occurs in the lodge room
alone, for that is but its allegorical picture, its tracing
board. But it is that which a mason should do and be in all
circumstances, under the inspiration of the Fraternity and
its teachings. Thus understood, the Alter stands symbolically
for something that must operate at the center of Masonic
life.

   Often serving as a table whereon the worshipper may lay
his gifts to God, the alter may remind us of the necessity of
that human gratitude which lead us to return to Him the gifts
He has showered upon us.

   This is that teaching of stewardship found in all
religions to remind us that our very lives are not our own,
having been bought with a price, and that our talents are
held in trusteeship to be rendered again to Him to whom they
belong.

   Thus stated, I know the matter may sound unappealing but
once we encounter a man who lives his life as a stewardship
held in the frail tenure of the flesh, we see to what high
issues the character of man may ascend.

   In its proper sense also, the Alter serves as a sanc-
tuary, a place of refuge, and this too has much to tell us.

   In the earlier centuries of our era, before the complete
development of the common law, the hunted criminal, fleeing
from his pursuers, would escape to a church and lay hold of
the Alter; in that he found safety and a chance to prove his
innocence, if innocent he was.

   Out of this rose the beautiful custom of Santuary, the
chivalrous unselfish harboring of the weak, the sorrowful
and the afflicted.

   A man is no true mason in whose nature there is not at
least one inner chamber in which the weary may find rest and
the weak may have protection.