~ Charity (Love) the Cornerstone of Masonry ~

By Gerald (Jerry) L. Carver
Senior Grand Warden
October 2004

When we think of Charity we often think of the Masonic relief that we give to our worthy needy Brothers, their widows and orphans.  We think of the professional assistance that our Scottish Rite Foundation provides to pre-school children with language disorders.  We think of the many Shriner hospitals which provide free medical care to children.  We think of providing assistance to the needy in our community and elsewhere.  But while Charity includes benevolent acts, the Charity that we are taught during our first entrance into Masonry is much more.

On page 91 and 93 of the Ahiman Rezon, we are taught that the three principal rounds of that Mystical ladder to Heaven, where all good Masons hope to arrive, is Faith Hope and Charity, but that the greatest is Charity.   According to the 1924 new and revised edition of “An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences” written by Brother Albert G. Mackey and revised by Brothers William J. Hughan and Edward L. Hawkins, the word Charity as Masons are to define it and as the eminent Apostle Paul used in the Holy Scriptures was derived from a Greek Word which means Love.  In Albert G. Mackey’s 1852 second edition of “A Lexicon of Freemasonry”, He states that “Charity is the chief corner stone of our temple, and upon it is to be erected a superstructure of all the other virtues, which make the good man and the good Mason”.  He goes on to say: “The true Mason will be slow to anger and easy to forgive.  He will stay his falling brother by gentle admonition, and warn him with kindness of approaching danger.  He will not open his ear to his slanderers, and will close his lips against all reproach   His faults and his follies will be locked in his breast”,

As recorded in Mackey’s “An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry” as revised by Brother Robert I. Clegg in 1929; Brother and Colonel Edward M. L. Ehlers, a soldier in the Civil War and a past Grand Secretary of New York, wrote these words about Masonic Charity: “Charity is the brightest jewel in the Masonic crown.  Not the Charity circumscribed by the narrow limits of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, binding up the wounds of the afflicted, but that broader and nobler Charity that regards all men as Brothers.  The Charity that writes a Brother’s vices in water and his virtues in enduring brass.  This Charity whose superstructure is friendship, morality, brotherly love; whose capstone is holiness to God”.

As young men, middle aged men, and older men of good character consider joining our great fraternity, they are looking for that friendship and bond which exists among the Brethren and transcends that which is available to them in society.  They are seeking that bond of Charity or Brotherly Love that they have seen displayed by the Masonic Brethren.  As we look to the ways that we as Freemasons need to meet the challenges to our Fraternity, may we first look to Freemasonry’s Cornerstone of Charity or Love and make sure that it is well placed in the foundation of our individual lives so that others may see the good of our fraternity through our own actions with others and especially with a Brother Mason..