Loss of the
Word
It may have
happened as told in Masonic
tradition. Yet we feel certain the
“Word” was used during the time the
First Temple was standing. The
ceremonies of the Most Excellent
Degree would so indicate. The loss
may have occurred during one of the
periods when King Solomon reverted
to idolatry. Or the loss may have
been during the reigns of any of the
many weak kings that succeeded
Solomon and before the destruction
of the Temple. Certainly, if not
before, it occurred at the time the
Temple was burnt. We are at a loss
to know which is correct.
At least the
true pronunciation was lost and
remained buried until the building
of the new Temple, when we are told
that it was found. Whether our
ritual is or is not correct at this
point is not important. We are told
it was found.
The Jews used
in the Bible a number of names for
Deity. In the English version they
have been translated in different
forms depending upon the sense in
which the word was used. The study
of why and how the “Name” has been
translated is not here important. We
do know however that the Jews were
forbidden to pronounce the true name
God, and that, only the High Priest
might do so. How and when this was
done is familiar to you.
After Moses
received the “Name,” it was kept in
the Ark in a sacred place, until
such time as a permanent place could
be secured. When the Jews had
occasion to use the “Name,” they
would substitute for it the word “Adonay.”
The Word when it appeared in their
Scriptures was never spoken.
God promised
the Israelites that they would have
a permanent home in the Land of
Promise and that He would deposit
His name in a permanent place. This
place would then become sacred and a
center of worship for the people and
they were to consider this place as
God’s dwelling place. As we know
Jerusalem became the place for the
erection of the Temple, in which was
placed the Ark, the place of
deposit.
We have now
advanced to a point where it is not
necessary to our religion that there
be such secrecy, or that the “Name”
be known to only a few, but we do
hold the “Name” in reverence, and we
do expect that those who pronounce
it always do so with reverence in
their hearts.
Masonic
Adaptation
Having now
shown why we have a “Name,” how it
was lost and later found, may we now
seek the reason why this has been
incorporated in the Masonic degrees
and particularly the Royal Arch.
I will not
attempt here to give a history of
the Chapter degrees. This has been
done before. When Masonry changed
from its operative form to a
speculative system, it became
necessary to incorporate in the
several degrees a lesson, or
lessons, that would be of interest
to the Craft and which would assist
the members in their moral and
spiritual life. Where in all history
or literature was there anything
more worthy of that place than the
story of the loss and recovery of
the “Word.” Surely there can not be
anything more uplifting.
In the words
of Com. Joseph E. Morcombe:
“What, then,
is this Word - what underlies the
paradox of that which is forever
being lost and yet forever found? It
is the secret of the ages and the
revelation of all recorded time. It
is the indwelling dream of the
mystic, the deepest thought of the
philosopher, the ecstatic vision of
the poet and the passionate speech
of the prophet. Men of the Old Aryan
race knew its accents in the earthly
paradise beyond the Himalayas. The
priest of Egypt whispered it in the
ears of the dying as he passed to
the judgment hall of Osiris. It was
given to Moses in the thunders of
Sinai and it found softer speech in
the words of One who called the
children to Him in old Judea. It is
the monopoly of no age, for it
abides in ancient tradition and
abounds in the latest developments
of science. It is confined to no
creed, no school of philosophy.
The savage,
bowing to his idol, strives to
pronounce it and he whose loftiest
intellectual flight is aided by
heaven-pinioned Faith halts in its
utterance. It is, in short, that
portion of Absolute Truth which
every man must seek and find for
himself-that individual revelation
from the Unerring and the All-Good.”
Do you wonder
that we make the search a part of
the ritual? Or that we spend our
lives in a search for such a worthy
object?
The Word in
Masonry
The “Word” is
found in some form in every degree
in Masonry, and there is an inner
explanation of every Masonic symbol
which centres on a hidden Divine
Word, which can only be found by the
pure in heart after a diligent
search, because it is not open to
the superficial seeker. He may deny
its existence, but either openly or
in some cryptic message it is always
present.
The candidate
approaching the door of the Entered
Apprentice lodge is in darkness, and
receives light but partially upon
his admission. He has however, laid
the first stone in his Masonic
edifice and receives some important
knowledge upon which he may begin to
build. In the Fellow
Craft degree,
he receives further instruction,
particularly in the arts and
sciences as applied to Masonry. In
the Master’s degree, he learns many
thing of importance and is given a
“substitute” word, with the
information that a further search
will well repay the time and effort.
To the true seeker for knowledge
there is no rest here. Study and
time must be taken to assimilate the
lessons presented and to conform his
manner of life to meet their
requirements. He then goes on and in
the next degree, there is presented
to him “a white stone, and in that
stone a new name written, which no
man knoweth save him that receiveth
it.” Then in the Most Excellent
Master’s degree he sees the
culmination of the dream of the
Jews; their Temple, with its
magnificent furnishings; its altar;
its Holy of Holies and the
acceptance of this structure by the
Most High God. Lastly comes the
Royal Arch, the topmost pinnacle of
his search and with it the
fulfilment of the promise long ago
made.
The Mason must
Be Worthy
No man worthy
of the “Name” can pass through these
degrees without trying to make of
himself something better. He must
strive to conquer his faults and
take unto himself the qualities
which make a perfect man.
The Brahmans
have a system whereby in
introspection they hope to realize a
state of perfection. They shut
themselves off from the world and
hope by intense thought to conquer
self. No doubt this may help the
individual but it is a selfish plan,
and does not conform to our system
of going out in the world as Master
Masons to teach the uninformed, and
to spread abroad a knowledge of the
Craft. The Brahman, as well as many
other systems of theology, is for
the individual and not for others.
It is not a true search for the Lost
Word. The search means that we must
seek to make ourselves worthy of the
“Name,” that we must remake our
souls.
How
challenging, how significant, how
eloquent of many deep things of the
soul, is this ancient search for the
Divine Word, being as it is
humanity’s unconscious confession
that in some manner it has lost out
of its heart something holy and
sacred and fine; that the great
enterprise of life must be to
recover the “Ineffable Name,” and
that if a man pursues the quest, he
may, at last, find his way to that
hallowed Holy of Holies where he may
hear its mystic syllables. Strip the
quest, as you may, of all its
mythologies and baseless traditions,
deprive it even of any historical
basis at all, it will remain for us
as the very symbol of man’s age long
search for God. What a search that
has been!
The Word Is
God!
Through the
hills and valleys of years, through
the days and nights of history,
through wars and through peace,
through life and through death, the
human soul, unconquered, undismayed,
holding fast to its native idealism,
has been seeking through the shadows
and the mists for that Lost Word
which is God.
Thus it is
that the ancient secret is, after
all, an open secret, available to
him who will make the quest and pay
the price, for the “Word” is very
near to you even in the heart. There
is a spirit at the centre of the
soul which stands ready whenever you
give Him free course with you to
manifest the Divine Name, even that
Lost Word which must forever remain
lost to the worldly, to the selfish,
the vain and the impure. But it may
be found any day and any place by
the simple, the innocent and the
childlike or to those who sincerely
desire to find it. It is an ideal
for which we must search and if we
earnestly seek to make ourselves
worthy of that ideal, we will find
the Lost Word.
Can we now
wonder why the Royal Arch Degree is
as it is, or why it was made the
principal degree of Masonry?
The Royal Arch
Mason
- Vol. X
Fall, 1971
by Lyle S.
Evans, PGHP, Ohio
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