A NEW CHAPTER

From Mason to Minister - Nordskog Publishing

A New Chapter (pgs. 70-73)

After completing the three degrees of the Blue Lodge, I came to a fork in the road. Should I now seek admission into Scottish Rite or York Rite Freemasonry? I had read enough of the book The Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871) by the American Albert Pike (1809-1892) to put me off taking the Scottish Rite route! Albert Pike is very much maligned by - and apparently very much misunderstood by – anti-Masons. I personally found the contents and language of his Morals and Dogma book to be very esoteric. I believe this in itself is an unchristian approach to writing, for Christianity is all about truth done in the light - nothing is purposely hidden. Thus the word “occultish” sums up Pike’s book for me.

It was through reading Morals and Dogma that I was led to believe that there had to be an elite and occultist group - a wheel within the wheels of Masonry if you will - in which and among which the hidden secrets of God and His universe resided. For Pike unabashedly alleges that the Master Mason, after having gone through the first three degrees, has been duped. Wrote Pike:

The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them, but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them.”

(Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, prepared for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S., Charleston, 1871, 819).

In other words, Pike was urging the Master Mason to proceed through the Scottish Rite degrees in order to learn and discern the true nature of Masonry.

At the time, what Pike had written seemed very ominous to me, especially in light of what Scripture has to say about occult practices! Indeed on Pike’s instigation I started reading writings on the Jewish cabala. Thankfully, however, instead of going through the Scottish Rite, I sought and gained entrance into the “more Christian,” as I was told, York Rite.

This being said about Albert Pike and his Morals and Dogma, and whatever terrible things his enemies may have said about him, Pike is reported to have been a staunch Trinitarian Christian till his dying day. I’ll let the reader make up his or her own mind on this! There is much information about him to be found on the Internet that has been written by Freemasons themselves. The Scottish Rite, from what I could see, had very little if anything to do with Scotland-hence, for me, the obvious “Scottish” attraction was assuaged. The Holy Royal Arch, or York Rite Freemasonry, is a branch of what is sometimes referred to as Red Lodge. The Holy Royal Arch is more commonly known as “Chapter.” Royal Arch, or Chapter, is a continuation (even the completion) of the three Blue Lodge degrees, as has been well said: “Pure Ancient Freemasonry consists of but three degrees, that of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.”[1] A cursory search of the Internet revealed the following handy, concise, and verifiable information regarding Chapter:

The Chapter of Royal Arch Masonry itself consists of four degrees: Mark Master; Past Master; Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. The Royal Arch Degree being said to be the climax of Ancient Craft Masonry and Masonic Symbolism. It is described as “the root and marrow of Freemasonry.” It is the complete story of Jewish History during some of its darkest hours. Jerusalem and the Holy Temple are destroyed, the people are being held captive as slaves in Babylon. Here you will join with some slaves as they are set free to return home and engage in the noble and glorious work of rebuilding the city and the Temple of God. It is during this rebuilding that they make a discovery that brings to light the greatest treasure of a Mason - the long lost Master’s Word. Many historians have traced the earliest origins of the Royal Arch Degree to Ireland, late in the 17th century and in England in 1738. In 1752, ambulatory or military warrants for Lodges were introduced. This was instrumental in placing the Royal Arch Degree on a par with the Master Mason Degree. Military lodges were greatly responsible for planting Freemasonry in the Colonies and also gave birth to the use of the Marl and Royal Arch degrees in the “New World.” Lodge records show that the Royal Arch Degree was conferred at Fredericksburg No. 4 on December 12, 1753. George Washington was raised [i.e., symbolically resurrected to become a Master Mason] in this lodge a few months prior to this date. The value of Royal Arch Masonry will be appreciated by all who are exalted to that most sublime degree, particularly by those who are seeking to complete their Masonic education. It reveals the full light of Ancient Craft Masonry, presents it as a complete system in accordance with the original plan and justly entitles you to claim the noble name of Master Mason.”[2]

I don’t suppose either the United States of America’s first president and Church of England Episcopalian George Washington (1732-1799) or Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald (1819-1891), entered Freemasonry for the same reason I did. I was seeking God. I thought that Christians were like sheep - and I didn’t want to be a sheep! That’s why I didn’t attend church to look for God! The truth is that I had been put off of Christianity by the Pentecostal televangelist “preachers” who inundated Canadian television at the time. I was afraid of their Christianity. There were numerous televangelist scandals in the late 1980s, so, understandably, I thought “the church” was only after people’s minds and money. But a new chapter began in my life when I joined the Chapter of Royal Arch Masonry. It was there that I was confronted by “the stone the builders rejected.”

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[1] Articles of Union, Mother Grand Lodge (England), 1831.

[2] (www.themasonict rowel.com/Articles/apendent_bodies/york/further_light_masonry_royal_arch_ mason.htm) 

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE (Review)

 

Neither Here nor There (Review)

Having grown up in the beautiful Vale of the Leven in the 60s and having worked there in the 70s, this book was of special interest to me. My father worked as a boilermaker/plater in Dennys’s shipyard, Dumbarton around the same time as one of my brothers once worked for the Lennox Herald as a reporter/sub-editor. My mother was from ‘old’ Bonhill.

The book’s title is self-explanatory of its contents: Neither Here nor There - Migration: Irish and Scots in Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven 1855-1900 by CG Docherty. As one would expect, the book contains lots of numbers and statistics about the influx of migrants to the area, data regarding their housing and housing situations, (ten a room tenements etc.) and commentary on their places of employment, wages and working conditions. Sources include census records from those times.

The fast-flowing River Leven running through the Vale of Leven from Loch Lomond to the River Clyde lent itself well to the textile and shipbuilding industries that were the big attractions for migrants to the area during the years the book deals with – mostly women to the Vale and men to Dumbarton (see e.g., pgs. 169-70). As an oversimplification, it was the cloth of the Vale with its related bleaching, dyeing, printing, weaving, etc. versus the heavy metal industry with its related red-hot forges and furnaces, riveting, pealing hammers, etc. of Dumbarton.

Though the stats can sometimes be a challenge for those who don’t “do” numbers, the author, methodically but eloquently, delightfully adds to the pot pinches of poetic prose, as he intelligently interacts with the voluminous facts and findings. (This book is no slapped together makeshift raft built by weans for sailing doon the Leven on. With intentions of making it to Dumbarton, a mate and I did this onetime and managed to float down the Leven from Balloch to just beyond the ‘Stuckie’ Bridge before overhanging branches capsised our jerry-built raft! Anyway, how were we supposed to get back to the Vale from Dumbarton in only our swimming trunks?!) The book’s garnered information is professionally end noted with tidy references from whence it was sourced and is neatly set at the end of each chapter. There are some old b/w photos and maps, a helpful index and a Bibliography.

Why Vale folk are referred to as ‘jeely eaters’ is explained:

Whether using natural or artificial products, the dyeing process produced harmful liquids and unpleasant, often noxious, vapours. Those who worked in this industry faced hazardous conditions daily – often with serious consequences. Female print workers were known as ‘jeely eaters’ because their hands were stained permanently red. p. 27.  

One of the ‘Sons of the Rock’ went down with the Titanic:
              

Roderick Chisholm, born in Dumbarton 1868 … was one of nine men selected for the ‘Guarantee Team’ that would sail on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, none of whom survived its sinking.” pgs. 119-20.

Referring to an article in the Lennox, we see something of the discouraging disparagements Irish migrants had to contend with:

[I]n 1864, the Lennox Herald reported that Irish illiteracy was the reason why houses had to be given numbers in Renton, the village with the heaviest concentration of Irish in the Vale of Leven. p. 141.

Though I was witness to sectarianism in the 70s, it was mostly in the form of friendly banter regarding the ‘Auld Firm’, i.e., Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic, (with Celtic FC, of course, being equated with the Irish Catholics and Rangers FC with the Scots Protestants). Docherty alerts us that a version of ‘fake news’ was also around way back then. For he goes on to write:

In towns with identifiable ‘Irish areas’, reportage in local newspapers ensured that there was much attention paid to disputes between the Irish and the Scots and amongst the Irish themselves. Whereas evidence of cooperation, particularly amongst industrial labourers who worked and lived beside each other, was not newsworthy. The Scots and Irish were not in constant conflict with each other, even if some newspapers gave the impression otherwise. pgs. 146-47.

Yet, perhaps paradoxically, the author goes on to inform the reader, “There were employers who expressly refused to hire Irish Catholics, a situation that persisted well into the twentieth century.” p. 175. Like the ‘common old working chap’ in the ‘I Belong to Glasgow’ song, perhaps the perspective on sectarianism in the Vale and Dumbarton changed with ‘a couple of drinks on a Saturday’!

The River Leven will be happy now that the bleach and dyes of the textile and print factories no longer mix together with effluence in the eddies of its waters. Though in our own day the closing of the textile and shipbuilding industries along the stagnant backwaters of her banks have left pockets of depression in the Vale and Dumbarton, however, much of the effluence has been transformed into affluence. Having become part of the Scottish diaspora in the mid-Seventies, I am always impressed on return visits when I see how far we have come.

The stats, facts, and figures so capably verbalised in Neither Here nor There for the years of 1855-1900 is, of course, now all water under the bridge. However, it gives us an informed and detailed sense of who we are and where we have come from. This book has done the Vale and Dumbarton a great service and ought to be on the bookshelf of every home there. We may be neither here nor there but we’ve come a long way. Thank you CG Docherty for writing this part of our history so readably.

RETIREES

                                                                            Retirees

Picture from Web

Looking back over his 30 years working as the Lord’s apostle, Paul wrote, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim. 4:7). Paul was, of course, talking about his life ending here. However, not to be overly dramatic, there are some similarities here to becoming a retiree. Years ago, while working in a railway repair shop, I saw a few retirements. The retiree would be presented with a gold watch, thanked for his lifetime dedication to the railway, and we would applaud. Then, before you knew it, ‘Did you hear that old Trashcan Bill has just died?’ No sooner were they a retiree, than it was their funeral. 

‘What funeral plans do you have for retirement?’ Some people can’t seem to adjust to major life changes.

One of my many reasons for leaving my railway job in Canada to move to Australia was an aversion to the ‘gold watch to pine box’ transition. Excuse the pun, but a dead-end job was not for me! God had graciously converted me just before I moved to Australia. Like every other new convert, I wanted to make sure everyone else got converted too! Australia looked like fertile soil. Of course, with a young family to feed, I also needed a job, hopefully, not a dead-end job. After much study to become a Presbyterian minister some 30 years ago, and after also becoming an Australian army chaplain, I subsequently became a retiree. Retiring from fulltime army, I then did another year working a couple of days a week for Army Reserve. So, my transition to retirement was smoother. The ADF did offer me some help to transition. I had been a writer/author for years, so ‘reinventing’ myself was easy. However, back to fighting the good fight, finishing the race and keeping the faith. Becoming a retiree can be alike running a marathon. You see the finish line approaching, but you’re spent. You use up whatever adrenalin and cortisol you have in reserve to get you over the finish line. Once crossed, you collapse in a heap – and hopefully recover! Of course, there’re are those who take all this in their stride. But, as an army psychologist asked me as I approached the ‘finish line’ exhausted, ‘Are you Superman? No? Then why don’t you let us help you?’ Isn’t that a lot of our trouble? As Christians we can be so busy giving of ourselves, that we neglect ourselves.

Paul adds, ‘I have kept the faith.’ He fought the good fight and ran the race, not for himself, but for Jesus. Isn’t that why we keep going as Christians? We do it in gratitude to our Lord and Saviour. There is a reward, but the subtilty is that it is not for the reward that we fight the fight and run the race. It’s as Job says, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him’ (Job 13:15a). That’s keeping the faith! During our working lives the mantra is ‘soldier on!’ It’s when we become a retiree, we begin to really feel all our aches and pains. We now have more time to discover how busted and broken we really are! Ah, but then there’s that reward for keeping the faith. As Paul said, ’Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing’ (2 Tim. 4:8). The ‘crown of righteousness’ is worth more than every Olympic gold medal together. The Olympic gold medallists earned their reward through arduous physical training and winning the race on the day. However, like our faith, our reward is a gift – paid for by Jesus, ‘the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb. 12:2).