SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.III October. 1925 No.10
THE SOUND OF THE GAVEL
by: Unknown
The long summer days are gone, Autumn is here and the world takes up
its tasks. The judge returns to his bench, the preacher to his
pulpit, the man of affairs to his desk and the teacher to his/her
school - the boys and girls following with no quick step. To some it
is a joy, to other a grind; but, all return to the work appointed
them to do.
Last, but not least, the lodge is opened, tiled and tested; and the
sound of the Gavel in the East calls the Craft from refreshment to
labor. Soon the noisy quarries will be busy, making ready the stone
for a living Temple slowly rising without the sound of hammer or ax;
built by the faith and labor of good and wise men as a shrine of
fellowship and a shelter for the Holy things of life.
The Common Gavel, it is a symbol both of labor and of power.
As the square is no doubt the oldest instrument of our science, so
the Gavel is its oldest working tool - some trace it back to the rude
ax of the stone age. How simple it is - just a piece of metal with a
beating surface at one end and a cutting edge at the other, with a
handle for better effect in use. Every Mason knows by heart the
explanation of its meaning, given him in the First Degree:
"The Common Gavel is an instrument made us of by Operative Masons to
break off the rough and superfluous parts of stones, the better to
fit them for the builder's use; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons,
are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose
of divesting our minds and consciences of all the vices and
superfluities of life, thereby fitting ourselves as living stones for
that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens."
The words are simple; their meaning is plain - searching, too, when
we think of the rough and superfluous things which need to be broken
off and polished away from the best of us, before we are fit to be
used by the Master of all good work. Alas, the words are so familiar
that we, too, often forget how pointed and practical they are,
teaching us the first necessity of the Craft - its need of clean and
square men.
As we listen to those words for the first time, we did not realize
how much meaning they held. No one can. There are so many delicate
touches in Masonry, so many fine arts, that time is needed to see and
appreciate them. Its business is to build men, taking the raw stuff
of us and shaping it into forms of beauty and use. Before us it
holds an ideal and plan of a Temple, into which it seeks to build our
lives as stones. So it begins by using the Gavel, cutting away rough
edges and breaking off ugly vices. Any man who knows himself at all
knows how much it is needed, if he is to be a true man.
Nor did we notice, in the surprise of initiation, that the Gavel is
also used by the Master of the Lodge. With it he opened and closed
the Lodge; with it he ruled. It is the symbol of his power. It is
wonderful, if we think of it, how the humblest tool is put into the
hand of the highest officer. So rough an instru-ment, the commonest
in the quarry, hardly seems to typify a ruler. Yet in the three
principal offices of the Lodge it is the symbol of authority. The
Lodge is ruled not by a Square, still less by a Scepter, but by the
sound of a common Gavel - only Masonry could have thought of a thing
so beautiful.
Nor it is to wondered at, because no tool in the kit of the Craft is
used so often, and in so many ways, as the gavel. Yet, as some one
has observed, in all its variety of uses it remains the same. It is
like a moral principle; it changes not. When the trough ashlar is
first taken from the quarry, the first tool applied to it, in the
process of making it fit for its place, is the gavel. Later, when
the chisel must be used on the stone, the Gavel - is employed to
carry into effect the design of the worker. The Gavel is used in
breaking large stones, or for chipping off tiny fragments; and it is
equally effective for both ends.
While the Square, the Level and the Plumb has each one use and
office, the Gavel is used in many ways, either by itself or with
other tools all the time. Cutting, chipping, driving and setting it
is always busy, always close to the hand of a Mason. Alike for
suppression and for construction,. its work never ends. It is the
first tool of the Craftsman, and the last he uses as Master of the
Lodge, if he is counted worthy of that honor by the merit of his
labor and the trust of his Brethren. The Gavel is capable of doing
great work, or of spoiling good material; it is at once the test and
the triumph of a Mason.
So, naturally, the Gavel is an emblem of power. It is an emblem of
the power for good or ill in the hands of each man, being the
commonest of tools; and also of the power of the Lodge in the hand of
the Master. If wielded roughly, it means ruin. If wielded weakly,
it means failure. If wielded wisely, and in the spirit of brotherly
love, it is a wand of magic and a scepter of good will. Man is
tempted and tested by power as by nothing else. Few are the men able
to use it and not abuse it. No man is a Master Mason, or fit to be
the Master of a Lodge, until he has learned to use the Gavel with
dignity, self-control and gentle skill.
Since the Gavel is a symbol of the power both of Masons and of
Masonry, it behooves us to ask how it is being used. Is the Gavel
only an emblem and nothing more, like many another? Do we actually
use it to cut away the vices and superfluities of life which unfit us
for the use and service of the Master Builder? Or, to put it
otherwise, do we take our Masonry seriously, as a way of learning
noble ways of thinking and living? Or is it a thing of rote, to be
neglected when anything gets in its way - just another order to
belong to? In short, is Masonry the power it should be in our lives
and in the service of mankind?
As the Gavel sounds in the East, calling us to another year of
Masonic Labor, each of us ought to ask himself such questions as
these, and answer them honestly in his own soul. What kind of a
Lodge would my Lodge be if all its members were like me? What value
would Masonry be to the world, if every one of its sons made the same
use of it as we do? Do we answer the signs and summons sent to us by
the Lodge, as we vowed to do at its Altar? If not, what is a Masonic
Obligation worth, and what does it mean - nothing? Such questions
tell us where we are in Masonry, and why we do so little with it.
Surely it only fair to ourselves, as well as to the Craft, to ask
ourselves such questions point blank. The Lodge opens on a new year,
and we need to take stock of our Masonic life and duty. What we lack
more than anything else in America today, as citizens and as Masons,
is a sense of personal responsibility for our laws and institutions,
which enshrine the spirit and genius of our nation. If Masonry had a
great place in the early days of the Republic, it was because Masons
gave it a great place by serving the nation in its spirit. Truth
wins if we are true to it and make it win.
Just now cynical writers in Europe are saying that American Democracy
must fail - that it cannot win. Of course it has not failed, else
there would be more kings and more slaves in the world. But American
is still on trial, and it will win only in as so far as the village
church, and the Lodge over the store, become real centers of
brotherly love and neighborly cooperation and good will. When this
sort of friendly and practical fellowship is abandoned by more than
half of us, then our American Democracy will fail and go to pieces,
or else be only a shadow of itself.
Hear now some amazing facts which ought to make us ponder.
Less than half of our people ever attend, support or are in any way
associated with any kind of church - a fact to make a man stop and
think, if he is aware of what happens to society when the influence
of religion fails or grows dim. Not less amazing is the fact that
hardly fifteen per cent of the Craft ever attend Lodge, or pay any
heed to the sound of the Gavel in the east. It is appalling, such
sheer neglect, by indifference and carelessness, of matters so vital
to the well-being of the nation.
The remedy, so far as Masonry is concerned, is not far to seek. It
lies not far away, but nearby, asking each of us to take a new vow in
his own soul to make his Masonry more real, more active, more in
earnest both in his Lodge and in his life. Any other way there is
none, and it must begin with you and me. It is not Masonry that is
at fault, but Masons who forget and fail of their duty. It is time
for each of us to take up the common Gavel, the first tool of a
Mason, and divest our own soul of its apathy, ignorance, lack of zest
and zeal.
What can we do to help the Master of our Lodge in the Masonic year
now opening? At least we can go to Lodge and be a worker in the
quarry; and our presence will increase, by so much, the influence of
Masonry, and it will teach us to be helpers in the encouragement of
brotherly love and fellowship. No man knows how far a simple act may
go, gathering power as it goes. Our loyalty may be a tower of
strength to fifty men who otherwise may lose heart and fall away. Our
faithfulness will be an inspiration to the Master, who is human like
ourselves, and pledged to bear many burdens in his heart. If each
does his part, the sum of our labor will be very great, and the craft
will increase in usefulness and power among men.
At the end of the day, when the lodge of our life is closed, and the
sound of the Gavel is heard no more, the one thing no man will ever
regret is that he lived in the fellowship of our gentle Craft, and
labored in its service. Our life here amid sun and frost has meaning
to ourselves, and worth to the Master of all Good Work, only as we
invest such power as we have of light and leading to make the hard
old world a little kinder for those who come after us.
The New age stands as yet
Half Built against the sky,
Open to every threat
Of storms that clamor by.
Scaffolding veils the walls
And dim dust floats and falls,
As moving to and fro, their tasks
The Masons ply.
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