BROTHERS and BUILDERS:
The Basis and Spirit of Freemasonry.
BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON (Litt.D.)

CHAPTER II - THE HOLY BIBLE.



UPON the Altar of every Masonic Lodge, supporting the Square 
and Compasses, lies the Holy Bible. The old, familiar Book, so 
beloved by so many generations, is our Volume of Sacred Law and 
a Great Light in Masonry. The Bible opens when the Lodge opens; 
it closes when the Lodge closes. No Lodge can transact its own 
business, much less initiate candidates into its mysteries, unless 
the Book of Holy Law lies open upon its Altar. Thus the book of the 
Will of God rules the Lodge in its labours, as the Sun rules the day, 
making its work a worship.



The history of the Bible in the life and symbolism of Masonry is a 
story too long to recite here. Nor can any one tell it as we should 
like to know it. Just when, where, and by whom the teaching and 
imagery of the Bible were wrought into Freemasonry, no one can 
tell. Anyone can have his theory, but no one can be dogmatic. As 
the Craft laboured in the service of the Church during the 
cathedral-building period, it is not difficult to account for the 
Biblical coloring of its thought, even in days when the Bible was 
not widely distributed, and before the discovery of printing. 
Anyway, we can take such facts as we are able to find, leaving 
further research to learn further truth.



The Bible is mentioned in some of the old Manuscripts of the Craft 
long before the revival of Masonry in 1717, as the book upon 
which the covenant, or oath, of a Mason was taken; but it is not 
referred to as a Great Light. For example, in the Harleian 
Manuscript, dated about 1600, the obligation of an initiate closes 
with the words: "So help me God, and the holy contents of this 
Book. " In the old Ritual, of which a copy from the Royal Library 
in Berlin is given by Krause, there is no mention of the Bible as 
one of the Lights. It was in England, due largely to the influence of 
Preston and his fellow workmen, that the Bible came to its place of 
honour in the Lodge. At any rate, in the rituals of about 1760 it is 
described as one of the three Great Lights.



No Mason needs to be told what a great place the Bible has in the 
Masonry of our day. It is central, sovereign, supreme, a master 
light of all our seeing. From the Altar it pours forth upon the East, 
the West, and the South its white light of spiritual vision, moral 
law, and immortal hope. Almost every name found in our 
ceremonies is a Biblical name, and students have traced about 
seventy-five references to the Bible in the Ritual of the Craft. But 
more important than direct references is the fact that the spirit of 
the Bible, its faith, its attitude toward life, pervades Masonry, 
like a rhythm or a fragrance. As soon as an initiate enters the Lodge, he 
hears the words of the Bible recited as an accompaniment to his 
advance toward the light. Upon the Bible every Mason takes 
solemn vows of loyalty, of chastity and charity, pledging himself 
to the practice of the Brotherly Life. Then as he moves forward 
from one degree to another, the imagery of the Bible becomes 
familiar and eloquent, and its music sings its way into his heart.



Nor is it strange that it should be so. As faith in God is the corner-
stone of the Craft, so, naturally, the book which tells us the purest 
truth about God is its altar-light. The Temple of King Solomon, 
about which the history, legends, and symbolism of the Craft are 
woven, was the tallest temple of the ancient world, not in the 
grandeur of its architecture but in the greatest of the truths for 
which it stood. In the midst of ignorant idolatries and debasing 
superstitions the Temple on Mount Moriah stood for the Unity, 
Righteousness, and Spirituality of God. Upon no other foundation 
can men build with any sense of security and permanence when the 
winds blow and the floods descend. But the Bible is not simply a 
foundation rock; it is also a quarry in which we find the truths that 
make us men. As in the old ages of geology rays of sunlight were 
stored up in vast beds of coal, for the uses of man, so in this old 
book the light of moral truth is stored to light the mind and warm 
the heart of man.



Alas, there has been more dispute about the Bible than about any 
other book, making for schism, dividing men into sects. But 
Masonry knows a certain secret, almost too simple to be found out, 
whereby it avoids both intolerance and sectarianism. It is 
essentially religious, but it is not dogmatic. The fact that the 
Bible lies open upon its Altar means that man must have some Divine 
revelation - must seek for a light higher than human to guide and 
govern him. But Masonry lays down no hard and fast dogma on 
the subject of revelation. It attempts no detailed interpretation of 
the Bible. The great Book lies open upon its Altar, and is open for 
all to read, open for each to interpret for himself. The tie by which 
our Craft is united is strong, but it allows the utmost liberty of 
faith and thought. It unites men, not upon a creed bristling with debated 
issues, but upon the broad, simple truth which underlies all creeds 
and over-arches all sects - faith in God, the wise Master Builder, 
for whom and with whom man must work.



Herein our gentle Craft is truly wise, and its wisdom was never 
more needed than to-day, when the churches are divided and torn 
by angry debate. However religious teachers may differ in their 
doctrines, in the Lodge they meet with mutual respect and good-
will. At the Altar of Masonry they learn not only toleration, but 
appreciation. In its air of kindly fellowship, man to man, they 
discover that the things they have in common are greater than the 
things that divide. It is the glory of Masonry to teach Unity in 
essentials, Liberty in details, Charity in all things; and by this 
sign its spirit must at last prevail. It is the beautiful secret of 
Masonry that all just men, all devout men, all righteous men are everywhere 
of one religion, and it seeks to remove the hoodwinks of prejudice 
and intolerance so that they may recognize each other and work 
together in the doing of good.



Like everything else in Masonry, the Bible, so rich in symbolism, 
is itself a symbol - that is, a part taken for the whole. It is a 
symbol of the Book of Truth, the Scroll of Faith, the Record of the Will of 
God as man has learned it in the midst of the years - the perpetual 
revelation of Himself which God has made, and is making, to 
mankind in every age and land. Thus, by the very honour which 
Masonry pays to the Bible, it teaches us to revere every Book of 
Faith in which men find help for to-day and hope for the morrow. 
For that reason, in a Lodge consisting entirely of Jews, the Old 
Testament alone may be placed upon the Altar, and in a Lodge in 
the land of Mohammed the Koran may be used. Whether it be the 
Gospels of the Christian, the Book of Law of the Hebrew, the 
Koran of the Mussulman, or the Vedas of the Hindu, it everywhere 
Masonically conveys the same idea - symbolizing the Will of God 
revealed to man, taking such faith and vision as he has found into a 
great fellowship of the seekers and finders of the truth.



Thus Masonry invites to its Altar men of all faiths, knowing that, if 
they use different names for "the Nameless One of an hundred 
names," they are yet praying to the one God and Father of all; 
knowing, also, that while they read different volumes, they are in 
fact reading the same vast Book of the Faith of Man as revealed in 
the struggle and tragedy of the race in its quest of God. So that, 
great and noble as the Bible is, Masonry sees it as a symbol of that 
eternal, ever-unfolding Book of the Will of God which Lowell 
described in memorable lines :-



"Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 
And not on paper leaves nor leaves of stone;
Each age, each kindred, adds a verse to it,
Texts of despair or hope, of joy or moan.
While swings the sea, while mists the mountain shroud, 
While thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud, 
Still at the Prophet's feet the nations sit,"


None the less, while we honour every Book of Faith in which have 
been recorded the way and Will of God, with us the Bible is 
supreme, at once the mother-book of our literature and the master-
book of the Lodge. Its truth is inwrought in the fiber of our being, 
with whatsoever else of the good and the true which the past has 
given us. Its spirit stirs our hearts, like a sweet habit of the 
blood; its light follows all our way, showing us the meaning and worth of 
life. Its very words have in them memories, echoes and overtones 
of voices long since hushed, and its scenery is interwoven with the 
holiest associations of our lives. Our fathers and mothers read it, 
finding in it their final reasons for living faithfully and nobly, 
and it is thus a part of the ritual of the Lodge and the ritual of life.


Every Mason ought not only to honour the Bible as a great Light of 
the Craft; he ought to read it, live with it, love it, lay its truth 
to heart and learn what it means to be a man. There is something in 
the old Book which, if it gets into a man, makes him both gentle 
and strong, faithful and free, obedient and tolerant, adding to his 
knowledge virtue, patience, temperance, self-control, brotherly 
love, and pity. The Bible is as high as the sky and as deep as the 
grave; its two great characters are God and the Soul, and the story 
of their eternal life together is its everlasting romance. It is the 
most human of books, telling us the half-forgotten secrets of our 
own hearts, our sins, our sorrows, our doubts, our hopes. It is the 
most Divine of books, telling us that God has made us for Himself, 
and that our hearts will be restless, unhappy and lonely until we 
learn to rest in Him whose Will is our peace.


"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the 
Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk 
humbly with thy God."


"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy 
neighbour as thyself."


"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. "


"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To 
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
himself unspotted by the world."


"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens."