FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICITY

by
Wor.Bro. J. R. CLELAND, Deputy President, P.P.A.Gd.Chap.(Kent).

Quotations.

"Remember that miserable conventionality is a power that dwarfs intellect
and is the mother of nonentity." - Alexander Cannon, "The Invisible
Influence."

"If through the Hall of Wisdom thou wouldst reach the Vale of bliss, disciple,
close fast thy senses against the great dire heresy of separateness, that
weans thee from the rest." "The Voice of the Silence," (Fragment 1.)

"Infinity admits of no qualification and there is no for ever in Eternity." - Ray
Knight, "The Wheel of the Law."

"Man was made of Life and Light, with Soul and Mind; of Life the Soul, of
Light the Mind." - Divine Poemander of Hermes, 34.

"God and the Father is Light and Life, of which man is made. If therefore
thou learn and believe thyself to be of the Lie and Light, thou shalt again
pass into Life." - ibid, 50.

"It is a strange trait in certain religious temperaments, that, if you prove a
man's religion to him on a rational basis, he is undeniably shocked." - "The
Initiate."

"Creeds are but footholds on an icy slope
Cut by a guide for men that need to rope
While slowly mounting to their alpine hope.
When to the summit comes the adventurous climber

He flings all fetters free,
Inbreathes Immensity
And chants Love's simple hymn."
W. L. Wilmshurst, "The Way to the East,"

"In Excelsis."

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God." - Ephesians, ii 19.

"The life of Man is the knowledge of God.  But this knowledge lives and
moves.  It is not a dead thing embalmed once for all in phrases." -
Westcott.

"It is folly to expect men to do all that they may be reasonably expected to
do." - Richard Wharton, Abp.  Dublin, 1787-1863.  APOPHTHEGEMS, p.219.

"I believe, because it is impossible." - Tertuilian.

"The greater part of what my neighbours call good, I believe, in my soul, to
be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good
behaviour." - Thoreau, "Walden."

"From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are
wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this
was, they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture." -
Somerset Maugham, "Cakes and Ale."

"I wager 'tis old to you
As the story of Adam and Eve, and possibly quite as true."
Robert Browning, "Ivan Ivanovitch."

"I'll tell thee everything I can 
There's little to relate.  
I saw an aged, aged man 
A-siting on a gate."

- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking-glass."

 
We have often heard it said that Freemasonry is a Universal Science, and
so it is, if we truly interpret the word "Science" as meaning "ordered
knowledge" or, perhaps better, "ordered knowledge of realities," and if we
take 'universal' as implying the possession of the key to that knowledge,'
which is all-embracing and alive.

At the very commencement of our career in Freemasonry we are given a
definition; Freemasonry is "a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols." Freemasonry is 'peculiar' in that it deals with
that one, absolute truth which is peculiar to all religions and philosophies,
and upon which all are based. It is a 'system' logical and coherent, which,
if properly applied, is certain in its ultimate action upon the practitioner. It
is a 'morality,' in the older sense of the word as descriptive of that type of
dramatic instruction in which the various components of man, or sometimes
the virtues and vices, were introduced as characters in the play.  In the
work of the Lodge, the component parts of the aspirant are represented by
living actors - the Officers of the Lodge - who, by their actions and
reactions, upon and around the Candidate, present a picture of the
changes in condition which should be taking place within the Candidate
himself.

The teachings of Freemasonry are 'veiled in allegory.' The discrepancies
between the story enacted and any so-called historical record upon which
it is based are so obvious and glaring that, on the very face of it, it cannot
be anything but allegorical.  Freemasonry is 'illustrated' - copiously
illustrated - by symbols, all of which combine to build up a picture of
cosmic truth which can be of universal application, open to the most
diverse interpretation and untrammelled by all conditions pertaining to Time
and Space.

It is a task of supreme difficulty adequately to express facts of a higher level
in terms of one lower.  We all know from our own experience how difficult
can be the task of translating experience upon the level of desire - even
everyday emotions - in terms of language, which pertains to the etheric
level of the physical.  Yet, here we have two levels which adjoin. How much
more difficult, therefore, must be the task of such translation when the gap
is one of four, five or even six planes between the level of actual experience
and the level upon which one seeks to express it.  To be able to bring the
level of experience and that of expression into line, one must be able to
experience both, in full measure, and be able to express each fully in its
own terms, before the attempt is made to express either in terms of the
other.  And this, of course, in the case we now have under consideration,
demands a very high degree of development.

Freemasonry is, for me at least, the most all-embracing and most adaptable
expression of Catholicity, using the word 'catholicity' in its true sense as the
expression of Universality. No matter by what road the approach to its truth
is made - be that approach religious or philosophical, mystical or occult,
material or metaphysical - always there is a message awaiting the Seeker,
a helping hand outstretched to give assistance and a voice to offer
encouragement to those who falter by the way.  At all stages, from the
lowest depths to which man has fallen, up to the highest heights to which
he can hope to attain - and beyond - in the Masonic work he can give
expression to the highest that is in him.  Ever and always the Master - that
is, himself, if he but knew it - cries out, 'Friend, come up higher.' and it
rests with the individual aspirant to make response, to accept or to decline
the invitation.  Yet, woe to him who tries to take a higher place than that to
which he has become entitled.

If we were to make a survey of the varieties of outlook adopted by the
various religions and philosophies, we could, I think, establish an inherent
probability - far more than a mere possibility - that each is an attempt in
some measure to express some aspect or aspects of One Truth. In so far
as each recognises that, in a humanity such as ours, there must be almost
as many avenues of approach to truth as there are individuals to tread
them, such bodies can be universal in application, truly Catholic.  In so far
as each fails to recognize the need for such diversity of approach, they
remain "cribbed, cabined and confined" within the boundaries of self-
erected prison walls, and fail to make universal appeal.  Among the
followers of each and every religion there are to be found people who are
recognisable as fulfilling the requirements of the One Holy Catholic Church
of God.  Yet among the many who 'profess and call themselves Catholic'
there are those who have not yet begun to glimpse the first implications of
the word.

Catholicity, true universality, has always been an object of suspicion, fear
and dislike among men, principally because it excludes - I use the word
advisedly - compulsion and exclusiveness.  Always each man fears that its
acceptance might interfere with his own pet prejudices, principally because
of an inward suspicion that these prejudices might possibly be wrong.
There has always been this tendency to confine himself within some sort
of cage or limitation, a kind of self-begotten "ring-pass-not" into which he
tries to entice his fellows, without for one moment considering that the
atmosphere of his particular little cell may be wholly unsuited to their
constitutions.

One thing is certain: Catholicity can never be static.  The moment it
becomes static it dies, and ceases to be universal.  The first essential and
inescapable sign of life is growth.  Life expresses itself in growth and
movement.  And this is the fundamental argument against what is called
the 'Doctrine of Finality.' If, for purpose of argument, we say that
Christianity is final, then it necessarily follows that it is dead.  I do not find
it so. I, for one, believe that Christianity is the latest and most complete
revelation of Truth yet given to mankind, but I realise that, for many of my
brethren, there are products of revelation which are more suited to their
capacities or outlook.  If, however, I am forced to accept it as a fact that
Christianity teaches that there can be no further nor fuller revelation on the
same lines, then I must go elsewhere to seek for that life and its
accompanying growth which such teaching would deny to me.  As a living
man, holding the sure conviction that I am, in essence, pure spirit, although
temporarily contacting the lower planes of matter in a body or bodies, and
through the agency of a soul, I know that I also must continue to grow, or
I must die the death.  It has even been argued that growth by seeming
retrogression may be better than the apathy engendered by standing still. 
"I am the gambling of the cheat," says Shri Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita.

Catholicism, to survive, must manifest powers of growth and of expansion. 
Hence, as it is understood today, it can never be truly Catholic.  Its
opponent, Protestantism, suffers from exactly the same trouble.
Exclusiveness invariably forbids universality.  I know of no body nor
organization among men which can truly claim to be Catholic.  There are
many which try to put forward the Catholic - or universal - truth, as they see
it. Freemasonry, forbidding religious and political discussion and
controversy within the precincts of the Lodge, perhaps comes nearest to
the requirements of true Catholicity.  As I wrote this paper the Convocations
of Canterbury and of York were meeting to consider the revision of the
Canon Law of the Church of England, a code which has remained
unchanged for 300 years.  The Archbishop of York, Dr. Garbett, has made
a note-worthy remark.  He has said that there can be no "unchangeable
laws in a living Church," in making which statement he is nearer to Truth
than, in all probability, he himself would care to admit.

In this paper we are considering the relationship between Freemasonry and
true Catholicity.  In order to do so it will be necessary to recapitulate the
basic truths of this Universal or Catholic faith, and to use certain illustrations
to elucidate these truths. In our earlier studies we have taken most of our
illustrations from the basic Aryan teachings, as embodied in Hinduism.  But
now, I must ask to be forgiven if I take my illustrations from that expression
of religious truth which is, for me, the highest, and which has the merit that
it is probably that which is best known to the vast majority of my hearers
and of those who will read these pages; I mean Christianity. I propose to
use the Christian Creeds as a bridge, or a common ground, to link the two
systems - which are one - thus complying with the occult maxim that, as
every unity is, in essence, a trinity, it is only by examining it as such that it
can be fully comprehended: I hope to demonstrate that Freemasonry is
synonymous with Catholicity, teaching the same fundamental truth, and that
any divergence or misunderstanding which may have arisen in the past, or
which may now exist, between Freemasonry as practised and Catholicism,
has only come about when one or other has failed, in more or less
measure, to express Catholicity.  Catholicity is the expression of the
Universality of Deity through the medium of men, as integral parts of Deity,
and, as such, Sons of God.  Freemasonry. as a universal science, can
express the balance of that universality at any moment upon any of the
levels which intervene between God and Man.  Religions and Philosophies,
accentuating one or more facets of truth at the expense of other facets of
the same truth, thereby debar themselves from the power to express that
truth in its universality and completeness.

Some few Churches there are, not necessarily labelling themselves
Christian, which, in themselves, express Catholicity; but their followers insist
upon erecting barriers, limiting themselves within shells, building prisons,
all of which are denials of that Catholicity.  The same tendency exists in
certain sections of Freemasonry, but Freemasonry is so designed, built up
and expressed that it is almost impossible to limit it in essentials.

In the search for God - call it religion if you like - as in every sphere of
manifested life, "one man's meat is another man's poison," and it has been
truly said that more people have built up hells-upon-earth for themselves
and for others through genuine religious conviction, than have done so
through deliberate wrong-doing.

In the realm of his own lodge, that subjective lodge which is made perfect
in the development of the man himself, and in the cooperation of his
various vehicles, no religious discussion is permissible. "There is no religion
greater than Truth." Man is made in the image of God, and, therefore,
contains within himself all truth.  In so far as he limits the scope of his
researches into that truth, he introduces religious discussion into his lodge
and produces an element of disharmony which frustrates its work. If
Religion is the whole Truth, it follows that it must be truly universal, really
Catholic, and this leaves no room for discussion in this sense of the word. 
The very term 'a religion' implies that the organization to which it refers is
limited, is one of a number; and at once introduces that limitation which is
the negation of 'Religion.'

Therefore, with apologies in advance to any of my brethren in Christianity
upon whose pet corns I may inadvertently be treading in the course of my
approach to the Christian Creeds and my interpretation of their content, I
will commence with the statement that, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, these Creeds were originally intended as expressions of this full
Catholicity.

Fortunately we are not confined to the study of one credal form, and the
parallels and discrepancies between the various expressions of belief
enable us to build up a very fair picture of the original intention, a picture
which corresponds so closely with the traditional teachings of the Ancient
Wisdom as to leave little room for reasonable doubt that the creeds were
intended as an outward expression of this inner truth.

The early creeds used in the first Christian communities were short
statements of belief which served not only as reminders of the facts, but
also as passwords or signs of recognition.  In their present forms, most of
the creeds embody three distinct phases :-

1. A statement of the ancient formula of Cosmogenesis

2. The insertion into this formula of a portion of the Rubric for the guidance
of the Hierophant in the Egyptian form of Initiation, of which our Masonic
Craft is an embodiment; and,

3. A powerful tendency to materialization which sought to interpret the
resultant combination of formulae in terms of biography of an historical
individual.

One writer says:- "Nothing can be stronger than the language of the Fathers
of the Church down to the fifth century on the care with which the Creed
was to be kept secret. It was to be preserved in the memory only. The
name Symbolum is used for it, of which the most probable explanation is
that it meant a password whereby Christians recognised each other.  St.
Augustine says 'You must not write down anything about the Creed
because God said, "I will put MY law in their hearts, and in their minds I will
write it." Therefore the creed is learned by hearing and is not written on
tablets nor on any material substance but in the heart.'

"It is therefore not surprising that there is no specimen of a creed until the
end of the second century, and really the most ancient public written creed
is about the end of the third century." (The Rev. J.R. Lumby, D.D., "The
History of the Creeds.")

In the original formula there were four heads and, as it was a statement of
corporate rather than of individual belief, it commenced, 'We Believe.'

The first head was, broadly, a statement of belief in God the Father, as the
ultimate source of our system, including the world itself and everything in
it, whether seen or unseen.

The second head affirmed belief in God the Son, onely-begotten - not
only-begotten or, as it were, the one and only, but onely-begotten or
alone-born, that is begotten-of-one-alone and not of a syzygy or pair -
begotten before all aeons, not made but emanated, confirming the unique
peculiarity.  He is described as "of one substance with the Father, true God
from true God, true Light from true Light, by Whom (i.e. The Light) all forms
were made." "Who, for us men, came down from heaven and entered the
DENSE SEA, whence to arise again in ever greater glory to a kingdom
without end."

The third head expressed belief in the Holy Spirit, the 'Life-giver' emanating
also from the Father, equal with Him and with the Son in glory, and
manifesting through His Angels.

Fourth, and last, there is recognition of ONE BROTHERHOOD of Holy Men,
as a step towards the Greater Brotherhood above.  There is one Initiation
by which comes release from the fetters of sin and escape from the wheel
of Birth and Death into Eternal Life.  This fourth head is later linked with the
third, so that each Creed has three main divisions linked to the Three
Universal Aspects of Trinity.  Of these the first has one clause only, the
second has seven and the third four, making twelve in all, which is itself
most significant.

The condensed formula appears to have been given by the Christian
Master, to the Heads of the Essene Community of Mount Serbal.  Like the
Buddha's formula of 'The Four Noble Truths,' it was given as a mnemonic,
calling to mind much more than what is directly expressed in the words,
each clause being taken as a focus for further expansion and explanation.

Always, where true brotherhood is recognised, we find an expression of a
common Motherhood with, as it were, a triple expression of Fatherhood. 
Compare for instance the Mother Mary in Christianity and the three Fathers,
God or JHVH, and the Holy Spirit, held in balance by Joseph, the skilled
artisan or craftsman, with the three aspects of the Master as 'Lord,' 'Christ'
and 'Jesus.' In Freemasonry we have the Mother Lodge with its Three
Principal Officers, S.W. and W.M., with the J.W., the skilled craftsman,
holding the balance.  Or take Man himself as Monad and Personality,
balanced in the Individuality, wherein alone lies full potentiality of
craftsmanship.  The same three aspects are reflected in the three Craft
Degrees as also in the Three Grand Originals of the Holy Royal Arch.

In the Egyptian Rubric the Teaching was delivered largely in a long series
of rites and ceremonies, dramatic forms in which the Aspirant was himself
the principal actor.  The culmination at which these aimed was that he
should 'enter the Path,' pass from the domain of the Lesser Mysteries to
that of the Greater.  Part of the rubric for the High Priest in this culminating
ceremony - that called by the Buddhists the 'Sotapatti' - is, then, included
in the Christian Creeds.  Parts of this ceremony we have previously
considered, and we have noted that it bears close resemblance to the
scheme of our M.M. and H.R.A degrees.  The instructions have been cast
in the form of a narrative of the Descent of the Logos into Matter, as
symbolised in the ritual itself.  The actual instruction formula, inherited by
the ancient Egyptian hierarchy from that of Atlantis, read:- "Then shall the
Candidate be bound upon the wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be
buried, and shall descend into the underworld; after the third day he shall
be brought back from the dead, and shall be carried up into heaven to be
on the right hand of Him from whom he came, having learnt to guide (or
rule) the living and the dead:"

This formula appears to have been inserted into the original Christian Creed
by the leaders of the Essene Community, evidently with a view to
preserving that portion of the Wisdom teaching which it embodied.  This
probably happened after the Master had left them.

Let us then consider the Creeds now in use and their implications but, first,
let me quote the formula known as the Old Roman Creed, probably dating
from the fourth century A.D., but sometimes attributed to as early as the
end of the First.

A. 1. I believe in God, Father Almighty.

B. 2. And in Christ Jesus, His only Son, our Lord.

   3. Who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary,

   5. The third day He rose from the dead..


   4. crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried.

   6. He ascended into Heaven,

   7. sitteth on the right hand of the Father,

   8. thence He shall come to judge living and dead,

C. 9. And in the Holy Ghost, 

  10. Holy Church,
 
  11. remission of sins,

  12. resurrection of the flesh.

A very concise statement of what may be described as the form and
arrangement of the materialised clauses, before the final setting.

First, then, let us take the creed as it issued from the Council of Nicaea in
A.D. 325.  It reads, dividing the clauses as before :-

A. 1. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
      Maker of all things visible and invisible.

B. 2. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God begotten of the Father,
onely-begotten (or alone-born), that is, of the substance of the Father; God
of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten not made, being of
one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made, both those
in heaven and those in earth.

   3. Who for us men and for our salvation descended; was incarnate, and
was made man,

   4. suffered,

   5. and rose the third day,

   6. ascended into the heavens

   7. (omitted)

   8. and cometh to judge the quick and the dead

C. 9. And in the Holy Ghost.  Amen.
  
  10. (omitted)
  
  11. (omitted)
  12. (omitted)
 
That was the whole original as put forward by this Council.  It is true that
they added an anathema which merely sufficed to show their complete
misapprehension of the meaning and purpose of the form.  We may
neglect it, as having nothing to do with the Creed itself, but, for the sake of
completeness, may note its terms :-

"But those who say, 'there was when he was not' and 'before he was
begotten he was not,' and that 'he came into existence from what was not,'
or who profess that the Son of God is of a different person or substance,
or that he is created or changeable, or variable, are anathematized by the
Catholic Church."

The Creed now used with the title Nicaene is the outcome of later
amendments and additions, most of which were made, or at least
approved, at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381.  We find it
sometimes called the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed and it reads :-

A. 1. We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth and of all things visible and invisible.

B. 2. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the onely-begotten Son of God,
begotten of His Father before all aeons; God of God, Light of Light, Very
God of Very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the
Father, by Whom all things were made.

   3. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down   from heaven and
was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

   4. And was crucified also for us; under Pontius Pilate He suffered and
was buried,

   5. and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures,

   6. and ascended into heaven,

   7. and sitteth on the right hand of the Father,

   8. and He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the
dead: Whose kingdom shall have no end.

C. 9. And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets.

  10. And we believe one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

  11. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of in,

  12. and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world
to come.  Amen.

Here we have all three phases in full swing.
There are two other Creeds, consideration of which will help us, when they
are used for purposes of comparison.  They are those known as the
Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed.  Of these the 'Apostles'' so
closely resembles the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan in general outline that we
may consider them together as one statement of belief.  The Athanasian
Creed is probably the only creed which is the work of one hand.  It is, of
course, of later date than the others, but it is essentially an expansion of the
original Nicaean, omiting the anathema and inserting an extended and
comprehensive elucidation of the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity.  It contains
all twelve clauses by implication although several are not directly stated. 
There is no mention of Pontius Pilate nor of the Church as such. The
earliest example is that which was in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, dated
about the end of the seventh century.

Objection has sometimes been raised to the Athanasian Creed on account
of its opening and closing clauses, but I think the objection arises from a
misunderstanding of their implications, so I will deal briefly with them, as
they embody a truth which is essential to our understanding of universality.

The opening clause is "Whosoever will be saved before all things it is
necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith, which faith except everyone do
keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly," and
the closing sentence, "This is the Catholic Faith which except a man believe
faithfully, he cannot be saved?"

Now in the light of the Wisdom teachings and of those essentials which we
have found preserved in one form or another in all faiths, the meaning
should be clear to us as a statement of universal fact.

I would suggest paraphrasing the opening somewhat as follows:-


Whosoever wishes to be safe, in the sense of having passed that stage
when there remains any danger of failing to meet the minimum
requirements for the continuing of his evolution to completion in our
humanity, before he does anything else it is necessary that he should gain
understanding of the facts of evolution which have been handed down from
time immemorial, for, until he has adequately fulfilled this condition, without
the clarity of such understanding being dimmed by any considerations of
the lower vehicles, he cannot proceed, but must postpone any further
evolution 'until time and circumstance shall restore' the required conditions
when, in a new age, he can step in at the head of another evolving
humanity."

And the final clause simply restates that without having made the necessary
progress he is not yet certain of staying with this humanity.

Before going on to analyze the Creeds, I would like to recall that a certain
Judah Hallevi of Castile, about 1140 A.D., composed a famous work "
AL-Khazari " in defence of what he called "the despised faith." It relates how
the King of the Khazars, in his search for 'right belief,' was dissatisfied with
the answers to his questionings received in succession from a Philosopher
of the Avicenna type, from a Christian Scholastic and from a Muslim Doctor
of the Mu'tazilite School.  Finally he questions a Jewish Rabbi, who
answers, "I believe in the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Israel, who led
the children of Israel out of Egypt with signs and miracles . . . . . . . . . our
belief is comprised in the Torah." This answer is supplemented by, "To this
the believer attaches the following articles of creed which complete the
Jewish belief, viz.

1. the recognition of God's sovereignty,

2. His eternity,

3. the providential care which He bestowed upon our forefathers,

4. that the Torah emanated from Him, and

5. that the proof of all this is to be found in the delivery from Egypt."

This led up to the famous "Thirteen articles of Creed," still in use.

And, now, let us review the Apostles' and Nicaene Creeds, as found in the
Liturgies.

I. 1. "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and
of all things visible and invisible."

The allusion in the Apostles' Creed is to the highest conception then
possible to the average man, to That to which we have referred elsewhere
as the Logos of our Solar System.  In the Nicaene the concept is extended
to embrace the First Cause of All.

From this Father all things came and to Him all must return, not to abandon
nor forfeit the consciousness gained on the lower planes of manifestation,
but to become each a conscious unit of a Single Whole, a facet, or perhaps
better a focus, of that infinite all-embracing consciousness. "Then shall the
Son also be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may
be all in all." 'Heaven and earth' appear in the original formula to have been
expressed as 'the system' and 'our world, and all things therein, whether
seen or unseen,' reference being apparently to the Solar System, with the
Earth as an adjunct.  A hint of the confusion of thought remains today in
the dual use of the word 'heaven' in common speech.

II. 2. "and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the onely-begotten Son of God,
begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very
God of Very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the
Father; by Whom all things were made; Who, for us men and for our
salvation, came down from heaven."

So runs the Nicaene.  The Apostles' contains only the first few words.  It is
to be noted that the original formula did not contain the words 'Jesus
Christ,' and there is good reason to suppose that, in their present form,
they are a misreading of a Greek term referring either to 'The Chiefest
Healer' or 'The Most Holy One,' the Greek reading being itself a translation
from a still older reading in another tongue.

The name JESUS, in its various forms, such as Jeshua, Joshua, Jesu,
Jehu, Gizeh, Jason, Isus, and so on, was revered in many older faiths in
prechristian times and it is notable that the Master Jesus is attended by
twelve chosen Disciples, that Joshua made the crossing of Jordan with
twelve companions, that Jason sailed upon his famous voyage in search
of the Golden Fleece with twelve others and that the Roman altar of fire
sometimes appears surrounded by the figures of twelve gods. All these
numerical analogies tell the same story, which appears in Freemasonry in
the Holy Royal Arch, wherein the central Symbol is set in the midst of the
banners of the twelve tribes, as the Earth is set within the circle of the
Zodiac.  That a representative of Deity, bearing a name with similar
etymological significance to that of Jesus, was almost universally
worshipped in early times seems clear.  And, in many cases he seems to
have had the title equivalent to the Greek 'monogenes,' born-by-one or
onely-begotten.  Such a one must come into manifestation, it is said, at the
beginning of every major cycle of becoming, but, thereafter, all that which
becomes must do so from the interaction or cooperation of two.  The whole
concept is, perhaps, the most difficult for the ordinary man to grasp, yet it
is perfectly natural and each successive act of this type is confirmation of
the immutable law of Creation, which the Master comes "not to destroy, but
to fulfil." We have here to deal with the only direct manifestation of the
Unmanifest and "without Him was not anything made that was made." His
ensouling and energising essence is, the principle behind all organic life. 
So the title ' onely-begotten' can refer only to the Second Aspect of a
Logos. 'Before all the worlds' is, literally, 'before all the aeons,' indicating
that the Second Person is first-in-time and greatest of all the aeons or
emanations of the First Person or Father.

"for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven."

It is fundamental truth that man is an immortal spirit, is of the very nature
of the Father, yet, but for the sacrifice of the Son, in pouring Himself into
the lower planes and thus limiting Himself in vestures of their materials, the
Causal Body, the link between heaven and earth, between God and Man
incarnate, could never have come into being; a man could not have
become a living soul.  This Causal Body is the true GRAAL, the vase or
vessel to hold the Elixir of Life.  Thus, in very truth, the Son is Salvator and
Mediator, as well as being the Creator of man and of all things, for, without
Him, the gap could not have been bridged and the Individuality, the
three-fold living soul, of man could never have had conscious being.

II. 3. "and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary."

This is the Anglican Prayer Book reading. It has always been a puzzle to
many that the birth of the Second Person could be the outcome of any
activity on the part of the Third Person.  The ordinary man cannot get away
from the idea of Time, and sees the Third Person as holding the relation of
offspring, rather than that of progenitor, of the Second Person.  The
contradiction is only apparent, and we are dealing only with a further stage
in the descent of Spirit into Matter.  The meaning has been further confused
by a totally unwarranted change of preposition on the part of some
translator.  This mistake is so obvious that, but for the fixed presumption of
material historicity of the sentence, it could hardly have been missed by
any scholar.  Even in the latest Greek readings there is only one
preposition to govern the two nouns, and the sentence reads literally, "was
incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary." The Monadic Essence,
having come down into matter, now takes a garment of the visible, tangible
material which has already been prepared for its reception by the activity
of the Third Person, acting upon what would otherwise have remained
unproductive or virgin matter.  Of its own motivation or activity the atomic
matter of each level does not enter into any sort of combination.  It remains
inert and unproductive until some outside stimulus is applied.  This outside
stimulus is the energy of the Third Person which, applied upon the physical
level, brings into existence those fixed arrangements of atoms which we
know as the Chemical Elements.  It builds the ultimate physical atoms into
protons, neutrons, electrons, and combines these into atoms, molecules
and so on, a process which still continues.  Forms appear, built up from
these, ready for the vitalising principle of the Second Person to inhabit
them.  The materialising tendency has been further aggravated by the
change from Maia to Maria - from Mother to Mary - a perfectly natural
change in the confusion with Mare, the sea, a term so universally used to
denominate those levels upon which the creative action takes place.

Behind the Mystery of the Virgin Birth lie three essential meanings:-

1. The Incarnation of the Logos and the manifestation in matter of the
Second Person;

2. The becoming of the human 'living soul,' the Individuality in each unit ;

3. The Birth of the Christ-principle in the man who is ready for the Path of
Return.

The idea of a Virgin Birth is much older than Christianity, and sometimes
that which we have called the Virgin is referred to as the Widow, or as the
World-Mother.  Under such designations She has received tribute from men
in all ages.  Indeed the best known Temple of the Virgin is the Parthenon
in Athens.

"and was made man."


Here is a most significant clause which clearly indicates that the coming of
the Monadic Essence to the human level is a separate stage, later in time
than the descent into matter.  The insertion of this clause contradicts flatly
the suggestion that the "taking flesh of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary"
might refer to a human birth.  The clause does not appear in the Apostles'
Creed, but it is found in the draft of that of the Council of Nicaea, where the
fact that it is a later step is further accentuated in the reading "and was
made flesh, and was made man." The Apostles' shows the materialisation
at its lowest limit in the utterly gross rendering "conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary."

II. 4. "and was crucified also for us: under Pontius Pilate He suffered and
was buried,"

The variation in the order of events here in the two creeds is interesting. 
That much maligned man, Pontius Pilate, managed to get dragged into the
scene through an error which was probably quite fortuitous in the first
instance, PONTOU PILETOU (the dark sea) becoming PONTIOU PILETOU
by insertion of an iota, and which only later became accentuated by a
change in preposition, when Epi was substituted for Hupo. Once the proper
name had been substituted for the reading "the Dense Sea" the mischief
was done, and the change of preposition merely lessened the chance of
enquiry, while polishing the phraseology.  In the earlier transcriptions the
actual intention is made clearer still by the use of the dative case, which
showed that the expression was intended to refer to a place and not to a
person, but the change to genitive seems to have taken place even before
the insertion of the fatal iota.  The meaning is perfectly clear," He endured
the dense sea."

Neither of these Creeds expresses the original idea fully. In the Apostles'
some stages are omitted, and in the Nicaean there is some confusion of
arrangement.

"was crucified, dead and buried," of this one writer says, "The astounding
evolution of a perfectly reasonable allegory into an absolutely impossible
biography has had a very sad influence upon the entire Christian Church
and upon the faith which it has taught."

It is useless to turn to the Gospels for help in unravelment.  I doubt if any
merely human mentality is capable of disentangling completely the mixture
of Solar myth, Christ allegory, Initiation rubric, Morality drama and tradition
of the real life of the Master Jesus therein set forth.

The Crucifixion and Resurrection are Initiatory rites, applicable upon all
levels.  They are a part of the Christ allegory.  The fact that the date of their
annual commemoration is not fixed links them closely with the Solar myth
and, while there certainly has been a tendency in this Century to ride the
horses of the Solar myth to death, yet, over and above the mass of
speculation and exaggeration which has been indulged, there lies a germ
of fundamental truth, for the course of the Sun has been used as an
allegory in all ages.  "As above, so below;" again the old maxim holds, in
this method of communication of truth.  In my paper on the "Masonic Trinity
and Way of the Cross" I have already dealt sufficiently with the Cross
symbolism, so I need not repeat.  The Cross has been used as a symbol
from the very earliest times and it might be interesting here to note that
amulets of a cross rising from a heart - so supremely applicable to the
Masonic Craft - such as can be purchased today at any Roman Catholic
dealers', were in Use in Egypt in the days of the earliest Dynasties.

In the Holy Royal Arch the words of the Prophet Ezekiel (ix-4) are quoted
"And the Lord said unto him (him who was clothed in white linen, with a
writer's inkhorn by his side) 'Go through the midst of the city, through the
midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.'
"

The words here translated 'set a mark' mean literally 'mark Tau' which is to
say that he was to mark them with a gross.

There are several forms evolved from the simple cross within the circle. 
There are two main lines of development . In the first the circle falls away
and the symbol evolves into the Swastika, the Sawastika, the Maltese Cross
and other derivatives.  In the second the cross grows out to embrace the
circle, which remains at the centre as a rose, a star or one of countless
other emblems. Interpretations of Cross symbolism are possible, at all
levels, from the most gross forms of phallicism to the highest Spirituality,
and beyond to Cosmic levels.  Everything goes to show that, in Christianity,
the figure was in use long before the cross was added.  It is a figure of a
living Christ and in the earliest known examples of the crucifix, dating to
about the fifth century (e.g. on the gate of Sta. Sabina in Rome and on a
contemporary ivory in the British Museum) still had the living figure. 
Marucchi, the well-known Catholic archaeologist says, "It is to be remarked
that the Christ is here represented as still living, with the eyes open and
without any mark of physical suffering." Only in the twelfth century do "they
cease to represent the Christ as living and triumphant on the cross." The
cross then remains as a symbol of voluntary sacrifice, the Logos sacrificing
and humbling Himself, and bearing with enormous patience the crushing
limitations of His almighty power, in order that the manifold forms which He
has filled with His Life, may gradually expand without breaking, that each
spark of the Life may come to realise itself as one with Him, in service to
Him and to all its kind.  Man himself, did he but realise the fact, is thus
crucified and limited in matter, and so the supreme sacrifice is perpetuated. 
If man does not realise this it is because the 'living soul,' the ' Christ-in-
man' continues to identify itself with the cross to which it appears to be
bound.  The cross-symbol is a sure touchstone to distinguish good and evil
in the intricacies of this mortal life, for it has been truly said "only those
actions through which shine the Light of the cross are worthy of the life of
the disciple." The real key to happiness, as to brotherhood, lies in willing,
self-sacrificing love.

We have seen the full process in action in the Egyptian ritual and this
setting survives to a very large extent in the Masonic Craft of today,
although symbolically only.

The Apostles' Creed as used in many churches today has here, " He
descended into Hell," accentuating that while the body was "dead and
buried," He Himself was alive and fully conscious, undergoing tests and
instructions, to familiarise Him with the new environment and to teach Him
self-confidence and self-reliance, to enable Him to preach to the "spirits in
prison," those still imprisoned in the flesh.

II. 5. "The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures."

Many, who take the Gospel narrative literally, find it difficult to correlate the
interval between Friday night and Sunday morning with the 'three days,'
and especially with the words of the Master "the Son of Man shall remain
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The change occurred
in the days of watering down the Mysteries to meet the needs of weaker
and less worthy candidates and of more ignorant and more
financially-minded priests.  Largely for financial reasons, it was most
conveniently discovered that the 77 hours of the rubric was a clerical error
for 27, and that after the third day 'should read' on the third day and so
wealthy patrons were saved from two days of solitary confinement and
extreme physical discomfort.  The form in which the Gospel narrative is cast
shows obvious signs that the facts and their real meaning had already been
largely forgotten.

II. 6. "and ascended into heaven." Here is that tremendous experience
which we have seen as the first awakening of the Intuition, of
consciousness upon the Buddhic level For the first time man knows the fact
of spiritual brotherhood with his fellows, and with all that lives, in union with
the Father of All.  It is a step from speculation and theory to actual
knowledge which is startling, stupendous and sometimes overwhelming. 
It inevitably changes the whole outlook on life.

II. 7. and sitteth on the fight hand of the Father,"

    8. and He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the
dead; whose kingdom shall have no end."

The Egyptian rubric reads "having learned to guide the living and the dead."
In the Regula of Apelies, disciple of Marcion, we find "whence He hath
come to rule" etc.  Personally, I believe this to be the older reading but it
is admittedly difficult for some to grasp, cutting out, as it does, reference
to a 'second coming' in time, and spreading the 'Day of Judgement' into
an eternal NOW.  It also accentuates the fact that each and every man is
capable of becoming consciously one with the Father Almighty, to
cooperate in the work of guiding all creation, whether living or dead.  The
lesson is that all powers of mind are held in trust for use in service to all
creation, without distinction and without limit.

III. 9. "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets."

Back again to the original formula.  The Council of Constantinople 381 A.D.,
reinstated the wonderful title 'Giver of Life' but, so far as this function is
concerned, we have drifted far from the old faith. It has, been suggested,
with some truth, that the Churches, in their denunciations of birth-control
and contraceptives, have gone so far as actually to imply denial of this
function of the Holy Spirit, or, at least, to suggest that it can be overridden
by human agency.

The whole idea of the Holy Spirit links strongly with the ancient teaching of
the primary creative force of light and fire.  This Aspect of Deity is
represented as manifesting in tongues of fire.

III. 10.  " and I believe one catholic and apostolic Church."

'I believe,' not 'I believe in.' 'Catholic' means universal, which must imply
that this Church has an appeal to all, 'without distinction of race, creed,
sex, caste or colour and 'Apostolic' demonstrates clearly that it is a Church
which is initiated and guided by Apostles or Messengers.  This will be seen
to be the case if we carry our researches into its manifestations in the outer
religions of mankind.

III.  11. "I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins."

There is no idea at all resembling the modern 'forgiveness' even implied. 
This is a clear statement of the fact that the Aspirant recognises that he
must rise through the watery levels, setting himself free from all the
limitations of sin and error before entering upon the Path proper.  Baptism
is always an initiation rite, be it of water or of fire.  The first great initiation
is in very truth 'a baptism for emancipation from the bonds of sin.'

III. 12. "and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world
to come."

As is almost invariably the case in such formula, 'the dead' are those
whom, in our everyday physical lives, we designate as 'the living.'

Volumes have been written upon the subject of 'the resurrection of the
body,' the 'agenrisyng of fleish' as an English Creed of about 1400 A.D.
calls it.  On the face of it this cannot mean the rehabilitation of the same
actual physical body, not only because the body is changing every day
during its existence, but because the elements of which it is composed
have formed part of many other bodies and will go on forming part of
others until such time as they evolve beyond that stage of development
wherein such participation in body-building is necessary for their evolution.

The clause covers a fundamental belief in the natural fact of reincarnation
for the inhabitant of the 'body.' As with the elements making up that body,
so must he reincarnate until he reaches a stage wherein this is no longer
necessary for his evolution.  As they form part of his fleshy envelope, so
does he himself form part of the material envelope through which THAT, of
which he forms a part, manifests.  If the clause bore the commonly
attributed physical meaning, how could one interpret the words of St. Paul
to the Philippians when he describes himself as striving "if by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead"?

'the life of the world to come' is literally 'the life of the coming age.' One
Celtic Creed renders it simply I believe in the life after death."

Well, brethren, there is the story as told in the Christian Creed, so now let
us consider Freemasonry and its teachings in the light of this and our
earlier studies.

What has Freemasonry to do with all these matters?

Are we not Sons of the widow ? Are we not brethren in the spirit? Have we
not all a new Mother in the Lodge and do we not all reach the new birth
therein by the agency of Three Fathers? Do we not recognise and teach the
Brotherhood of Man under the ultimate Fatherhood of God? Are we not
creative entities, co-operating in the work of Creation with God Himself ?

The answer to all these rhetorical questions is quite definitely in the
affirmative.

The more-than-hint of a Solar Cult-pattern in the Masonic Ritual gives, in my
opinion, the safest clue to the whole position of Freemasonry as a Universal
Science, as a statement of THE UNIVERSAL SCIENCE.

We an told that the Three Lesser Lights in the Lodge represent the Sun, the
Moon and the Master of the Lodge," and the teaching is even more clearly
emphasised in the T.B. of the E.A. Here we find the Sun and Moon, one on
either side, supporting the Blazing Star at the Centre. Many of you will
doubtless remember that, in the working out of the parallel between the
stages in the Christian Initiation scheme and that of the Masonic Craft, we
attributed broadly; Birth to the E.A., Baptism to the F.C. and Mark Man,
Transfiguration to the Mark Master and R.A. Mariner, Crucifixion to the
M.M., Resurrection to the I.M., culminating in his installation of his
successor, and Ascension to the H.R.A. In doing this we noted that in either
scheme the stage of Transfiguration was capable of standing as complete
in itself, and that it could be placed in any position in the scheme, or could
even be omitted altogether without detriment to the whole as a sequence.


We now, I hope, understand considerably more of the basic necessity for
viewing all such schemes in the light of the facts of cosmo-genesis, more
especially in reference to our own Solar System, the SUN of which is the
physical manifestation or focus of its Logos.  We may now consider for a
moment the further implications of the E.A.T.B., in which the symbol of that
Transfiguration is set out as plainly as may be.  We have been told that this
board is a complete precis of the Path and its various stages.  The Ladder
is the ascent of the mounting consciousness, up which all must inevitably
climb - not forgetting that it is, in essence, the same ladder by which the
Spirit made the descent.  At the bottom it rests upon a symbol of that which
is to come.  At the top we find, as we ought to expect, a complete figure
of the Transfiguration.  At the Centre is the Blazing Star, the Source of Light
as the agent of Creation, Preservation and of Transmutation, all three uses
to which we find light and its derivatives, fire and heat, put in daily practice
in our everyday world.  Christianity sees this ultimate Light as the
Christ-principle in man.  It shines in all its splendour as Light of Light, the
focus of the One Light within each individual derivative spark.  Each such
unit of creation depends for its very existence upon the presence within it
of a portion of the Light, the first manifestation of the vibration of the Word
of God, when He said "Let There Be LIGHT."

In the Gospel narrative the Representative of this Light appears flanked by
figures of Moses and Elias.  In the T.B. these are shown as the Sun and the
Moon.  In man himself, the manifested Individuality is flanked by the Monad
and the Personality.

All these symbols are parallels.  Moses, so uncompromisingly material in
his general outlook, whose very name implies 'saved from the waters,'
stands for the personality and matter, symbolized in the Moon with which
also his name has a close link. As the source, for this earth, of reflected
Light, the Moon is essentially the symbol of Matter, seen as a reflection,
reversal or mirror-image of Spirit.  The Moon was the first Physical Planet
in our Earth Scheme.  The link is close with the human personality, so
close that, when it becomes too marked, we describe the man as lunatic
or moon-struck.

Elias is the representative of the Sun; 'my God is Jahwe' is the literal
meaning, the word being, in this form, identical with the Greek word for the
Sun, Hellos.  We find the word in common use in such common derivatives
as heliocentric, heliograph and so on.

The common link between all systems is LIGHT - not the direct light of the
Sun, which is but a focus, nor that of the Moon, which is but a reflector -
but the Light from the activity of whose vibration even they also were called
into existence.  The First Chapter of the Book of Genesis - and indeed all
other such cosmologies - states that the first word of Creation was 'Let
there be Light.' 'And there was Light' and from that Light came the Sun and
the Moon and all the infinite multitudes of modifications, combinations and
permutations which we label as Creation or Nature.  From this Light came
also such manifestations as sound, taste, smell, touch, and all the wonders
of Creation upon which such vibratory senses can be exercised and to
which they respond.  All is Light.

Our ancient brethren knew what they were about when they set AGNI, God
of Fire and Lord of Light, at the Head of their Pantheon, with the title AGNI
DEUS, which root sounds, in Christian lands, underwent a permutation of
its terminations to become AGNUS DEI, the Lamb of God, the central
symbol of the "Light of the World" which has, in very truth, been 'slain from
the beginning of the world' that all creation might have being.  Without it
there could be no manifested Life.

In Freemasonry we have the symbolic rendering in its widest and most
all-embracing form.  The representative of the Master, in his advance to the
E. in the III degree, and in that which follows, mirrors that great Cosmic
Sacrifice, descends into the cruciform womb of Matter hollowed to receive
him.  Thence he arises, in the constellation of the Lion, which momentarily
"lies down with the Lamb," for the purpose of completing the Great Work. 
And, so, as a Rose set in the centre of the cross, he comes again to a new
birth and to a reunion with the companions of his toil.

Ever and again it is the same old story that is told.  The Ancient Wisdom,
Freemasonry and, the link which we have chosen to use here, Christianity,
all tell the story, in their various ways, of the descent of Spirit into Matter
and the consequent veiling of the Light; all tell of the possibility of
developing and expanding the individual consciousness, and of the
guidance of the Inner Light in its increasing splendour which will enable the
Aspirant to reach out and, in fullest possible illumination, to grasp the prize
of Eternal Life, to become once more an integral, inseparable portion of the
Central Flame, the One Light of the Logos whence he sprang, but, by his
wanderings and prodigality in the far country of his exile, having gained that
which never again, save by his own volition and urge to serve, can he lose,
full consciousness.

Which one of us can say what lies beyond? Not I! Yet, may it not be - I
make the suggestion in all humility and reverence - that the very highest
conception of Deity which man, as such, is capable of envisaging is
Himself evolving.  May it not be that He is waiting to make his next step
forward when He shall have gathered in the fruits of the development of
those particles of His Light which, in very truth His children, His direct
offspring, living, moving and having their being in Him, He sent out to sow
and to reap and to bring in their harvest to His store.

Why must we postulate an end ? Why must we ever seek finality? Surely,
brethren, there can be no finality in Eternity, whose circle, of radius and
circumference infinite, must endure to all infinity.  If there is an Eternity at
all, it must stretch both ways.  The key to its accomplishment lies in the
application of the quaternary, the Cross, the Cardinal Points, and in that
which links them, the saltire cross of sacrifice, the Four Tassels at the
corners of the Pavement, the four Cardinal Virtues to be developed.  The
Regents of the Four Cardinal Points, whom we have so often encountered
in our travels, are the Guardians of the Four Qualifications which must be
attained in the Personality, before progress can be made.

There must, obviously, be many interpretations of the eight points graded
to meet the needs of different types of men.  So, in closing, I will only
suggest one, which happens to appeal to me personally, and which I
sometimes envisage in the Lodge.

In this interpretation the Four Qualifications occupy the four Cardinal Points;
Discrimination in the East, Desirelessness in the South, Good-Conduct in
the West and Love in the North.  The points of the saltire cross marked by
the Tassels have the Four Virtues; Prudence in the N.E., Temperance in the
S.E., justice in the S.W., and Fortitude in the N.W.

By this arrangement we find that the Fortitude of the Candidate is first
tested on his entrance in the N.W. but unbeknown to himself.  He passes
by the point of Love in a state of darkness, ignorant of its resplendent
virtue, but in the N.E. learns that Prudence in physical contacts which
enables him to acquire the qualification of Discrimination as an E.A.; in the
East; Passing into realms of matter in the S.E. he learns to practise
Temperance, which, from a natural tendency, leads him to the qualification
of Desirelessness in the South, the outstanding mark of the F.C.; Passing
on his way he acquires the principles of justice in the S.W., which help him
to develop habitual Good Conduct in the West as a M.M.; and so he
returns to the N.W., where his Fortitude is consciously developed on a
higher level than when he first unknowingly practised it.  Now he
understands the dangers which beset him on the Path, and the conscious
practise of the virtue enables him to reach the Chair in the North, wherein,
as Master Elect, he, alone among all his fellows, can be seated for a time
in preparation for the opening of the higher cycle.

Love makes the world go round. It may be a trite saying, but it is veritably
true.  Without this Fourth and greatest Qualification, no man can truly say
that he is Ruler in his own Lodge.  The practise of Love as a final virtue,
and its acquisition as the final qualification, demands, above all things, an
infinite patience.  On his first entrance into the Lodge he has learned the
elementary practise of this virtue in deep humility, and its application grows
steadily in the practise of the hidden mysteries of nature and science,
building up a capacity to undergo even the 'last and greatest trial of his
fortitude and fidelity.' Thence it leads on to that even more extended
patience which is necessary for the practise of Mastership. It continues
even then to grow and expand, becoming more and more exacting in its
demands, so as to embrace that infinite degree of patience which must be
practised in the creation and guidance of a humanity, a world, a solar
system, a universe, and beyond.

The words of St. James which I have so often quoted, are applicable upon
all levels, becoming ever more exacting in their demand as the Aspirant
ascends the ladder. With them, then, I leave you for the present:-

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have the
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.  If any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the
wind and tossed."

PEACE TO ALL BEINGS!


So mote it be.