June, 2008
Page 10
¡±and improve myself in
Masonry¡±
Freemasons are encouraged from the very beginning of their Masonic instructions to be seekers of truth. So it would seem to be apparent that all people, especially Freemasons, should strive not only to seek the truth, but to practice it. I understand there are certain liberties taken when fishermen are telling of the prize catch they made. But subjecting their mounted prize to the measuring tape quickly brings them back to reality when they realize the fish hasn¡¯t grown that extra inch or two ¨C no matter how many times the story is told. Even if this type of exaggeration is tolerated in a good sainted way, it only has the potential to affect the individual¡¯s reputation for truthfulness. Not so when deliberate untruths are told about someone else; they have the potential to malign and slander another person ¨C but no matter how many times the falsehoods are told or enhanced, they don¡¯t alter the truth.
Deliberate,
untruthful statements and/or charges made against another is the most malicious
form of thievery that one person can commit against another, no matter what the
reason. And, like the example of the fisherman, no matter how many times false
statements are made or printed, they do not change the ¡°Truth.¡± There is a
lecture in one of the organizations of the Masonic Family that deals with this
issue most eloquently in these words: ¡°Truth is eternal and unchanging.
Fidelity may waver, Constancy may fail, Loyalty may falter, and Faith may grow
dim, but truth never changes. Seek ye to know that which is true, and having
found it, hide it close in thine heart and make it thine own, and all these others, Fidelity, Constancy,
Loyalty, Faith, and Love shall be added,¡±
Both of these articles taken from the
March, 2008 Issue of the Southern