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FRANCIS LEAVITT BEAL 1864-1931

• MM 1911, Putnam
• Grand Chaplain 1917-1927

BIOGRAPHY

SPEECHES

FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1917

From Proceedings, Page 1917-427:

Most Worshipful and Brethren:

I feel very keenly interested in the remarks of the sergeant, and you can understand why.

I am deeply sensible of the great honor you do me, sir, in asking me to speak at this famous and time-honored Feast, but I confess to you that as I look about me and see many widely known to the Craft for their Masonic learning and their eloquence, I fear greatly that I shall forever "fall from grace."

I was very carefully taught that all just and upright Masons should look well to the East for light, for inspiration, and for instruction, and hence I really have no choice but to comply with the request of the Most Worshipful. But, as there may be a slight suspicion in the minds of some that the clergy proceed upon the assumption that they have an inalienable right to talk ad libitum and ad infinitum, I should like to recite an incident on that point. The great Bishop Potter, of New York, was one day charging a class of young men whom he was ordaining. He said, "Gentlemen, I want you to remember that the best sermon in the world can be preached in fifteen minutes, and you had better make it ten." (Laughter.)

Now, of course, Brethren, that may be good for the clergy in their sermon work; it may do for my friend Dr. Bush, over there, to have him chained up, or my good friend, Brother Horton, the Senior Grand Chaplain, but we certainly would never think of giving such a rule the force of Masonic law. May I quote these familiar lines from Bryant's Thanatopsis:

"To him, who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware."

And so, Most Worshipful, the student of Masonry, as he labors among the tools and symbols of the Craft, will find their beautiful teachings speaking a various language to him; teaching him to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before the Great Architect of the lives of men; quickening his faith, deepening his hope in immortality, and strengthening his charity to all mankind; pointing him eloquently to the rules and designs laid down by the Supreme Architect upon the great Trestle Board and constantly before him in the Three Great Lights.

The Craftsman feels deeply proud of the great work Masonry has accomplished, from the days of the Operative down the ages until the Operative became merged in the Speculative. He is proud of the large place the Institution has filled in the evolution of history; her record for benevolence and charity, quietly carried on; her long line of the great names of those who have worn the lambskin, from King Solomon to Saint John the Evangelist, and on down to our own immortal Washington.

The Institution comes to us, Most Worshipful, with the dignity of age and redolent with the grateful thanks of widows and orphans and gleaming with names illustrious in history. But, Brethren, this priceless legacy has come to us from the hands of the fathers as a great and sacred trust; not to hold selfishly, but that, inspired and broadened by its light and truth, we may so wisely and faithfully and efficiently use the working tools of the Craft that humanity shall be lifted Godward; given a larger conception of beauty and a deeper consecration to the deeper, the supreme purpose of life, attaining to the ideal, the Divine intention, the symmetrical character of the Great Architect, in whose image we were created.

You may think me heterodox, Brethren, when I say that I am not given much to talking about our labors in the Celestial Temple. I am very much more concerned about our daily labors here that in the uplift and brightness and warmth of the light ever gleaming from the eternal East, we shall day by day catch a renewed vision of high ideal, of noble endeavor; and loyally labor to make it crystallize into great achievement.

We are fully taught Brethren; we know it to be our great privilege and responsibility, rightly to divide our time, and the Three Great Lights ever make our pathway bright and clear. Our Working Tools teach us proper limitations, in conduct and continually remind us of our duty to God, to our Brother, and to ourselves.

A Mason's charity is to be as broad as the universe; his conception of truth and virtue and faith as high as the blue canopy above. And if we rightly grasp the design, we shall see that the great object of our training is to inspire every man raised with the vision and purpose and ideal that the highest and noblest labor of the Master Mason is to be a master workman in the great mission of raising humanity to love the true, the beautiful, and the good. What entrancing vistas of ideal and accomplishment, what an inexhaustible mine of riches, open up before the earnest Mason!

Most Worshipful, the world expects great things of every member of the Ancient Craft, and rightly, too. Our walk must be upright, our actions tried by the square, for we are traveling upon the level of time, entrusted with a great mission. The attentive ear, the instructive tongue, and the faithful breast have important work to do, and to accomplish it, wisdom is requisite.

While asleep by night, a Divine appearance was vouchsafed to the young King Solomon in a dream, and God said to him, "Ask what I shall give thee." Remembering how God had blessed his father David, because he "walked in truth, in righteousness and uprightness of heart before Jehovah, and feeling himself inadequate to the task before him, he nobly asked, "Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people."

We trace our lineage back to this same Solomon, the first Grand Master of the primeval Grand Lodge at Jerusalem. Prestige and power are ours, as an Institution. Bowing before our altars you will find the leaders in philanthropy, business, literature, art, science, and religion. Vast opportunities for humanity's uplift are in our hands, and we are, by our training, in line to do efficient work. In the rush and turmoil of commercialism, of wealth-seeking, there is a very real danger of our adopting a distorted philosophy of life; danger that the nobler impulses of the soul will become atrophied; that the spiritual side of our natures will become dwarfed or, worse yet, ossified. The stress and strain of the present holocaust of world war test the ground-work of faith in God, in governments, and in humanity. Here, it seems to me, we have an anchor, tested and true. Masonry, with its lofty idealism, its high moral tone, its symbolic Scripture teaching, its universality, its deep fraternal charity, is and will be a factor possessed of tremendous potentialities for making a high contribution in the great readjustment to come in the political, commercial, educational, and religious life of the world.

Let me ask you, Brethren, to come apart with me. Let us leave busy, crowded Jerusalem, and journey six miles out into the quiet country and go up the mountainside of Gibeon. Let us, in sacrifice and prayer, seek to-know God's will. It is good for us to be here. Night .comes on, and we are called from labor to refreshment. In this holy place God seems very near, and we are not surprised at being vouchsafed a vision. We are here seeking light. It is the thing we most desire, and the voice says, "Ask what I shall give thee." Now is our opportunity; now is the crucial test of our lives. Shall it be wealth? Think what might be done for the world's betterment, could we have wealth. Shall it be honor? Honor is to be desired. It will add to our influence and consequently widen our field of opportunity for good. Shall it be power? Power to be used for others. Shall it be long life? Certainly this is to be desired, if we can retain our powers. But no, none of these things. We have been lifted out of our narrow selves, up into a nobler plane, a larger place. We have become filled with a zeal and a desire for great things, an intense longing to be a co-worker with the Great Architect in developing His plans for humanity's uplift, and we answer, Give me wisdom. Give us wisdom and light and knowledge, that we may become kingly men, because duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified; Craftsmen zealous in the right division of our time, earnest seekers after light and truth; living exponents of the grand principles for which the Craft exists, and for which it labors. (Applause.)

Distinguished Brothers