Inside The Circle

Circle Lodge No. 638

P.O. Box 1993 Madison, MS 39130

http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/circlelodge638/

2002 Lodge Officers

Lawson E. Metz

June 2002

11th Practice session - 6:15 PM

18th Regular Monthly Meeting - Covered Dish meal 6:15 PM

25th Practice session - 6:15 PM

Let Us Know

Contacting the Lodge is not a difficult matter. The Lodge Secretary's name appears on each newsletter. If you are unable to contact the Secretary when needed, contact any Lodge Officer and let us know what’s going on with yourself, family, and other area Masons.  In the event a lodge member becomes ill, we want to know. Secretary, Bill Brinkley, Circle Lodge #638, PO Box 1993, Madison MS, 39130, phone (601)853-9165. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

It’s time to learn the work.  Ask yourself today, am I proficient in opening and closing the lodge for the office I currently hold.  Do I want to be considered by the Lodge in November for another office or maybe even a chair?  Do I know enough to prove myself and visit another Lodge?  If you need the practice take advantage of the scheduled practice session.  If you know the work, we need you to teach others.   

Respectfully yours, Bill Brinkley

“A man would probably be most greatly influenced to become a Mason by seeing the teachings of Masonary exemplified in the lives of other Mason…”

It seems in today's troubled world that many are searching for substance, for security, for some reason and sanity in life. These can be found in Masonry.”

As a reminder, a few months ago Brother Walton Youngblood suggested I feature an article he has greatly enjoyed over the years.  In April I feature the first part of the article and now please continue to enjoy this outstanding address. 

“Brethren, as this will be the last issue of the Freemason while I am your Grand Master, I again thank you for affording Billie and me a most enjoyable year. We have made so many new friends and have enjoyed the fellowship of our old friends throughout this great state. We will cherish the memories of our gracious receptions and the kindnesses extended to us. We wish you a most happy and prosperous new year. The article I now share with you is the one I presented at our Southeastern Masonic Conference in Nashville last August. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.”

“I would like to share the testimony of a Methodist minister through a sermon to his church. (Can you imagine this in a church today?) He was the pastor of my church when I accepted Christ and joined the church some fifty years ago. My dad told me that he wanted me to be particular attentive to the Sunday evening sermon as Brother Schultz was going to preach on Masonry. Probably if we were to be told that today, we could be sure that the topic would be against Masonry. This sermon came to my mind as I thought about the topic of this paper and even though Brother Schultz is no longer living, a member of his family kindly furnished me with a copy of that sermon from long ago. I as I reread the sermon, I found it truly did contain the reasons why a man would or should want to be a Mason. I assume from the introductory paragraph that this address was given on the occasion of his return visit to his first pastoral assignment and to the town where he became a Mason. With your indulgence, I share his thoughts with you.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Brethren and friends:  It affords me very great pleasure, I assure you, to be here today to meet and mingle with friends of other days, to enjoy once again your fellowship and your kind hospitality. To be here and to look on your faces brings back the memories of the days when I first began the work of a humble Methodist preacher. As I look out in front of me, I can see across the way the old church in which I preached my maiden sermon as pastor of a splendid people, and where for four happy years we worshipped at its altar and sang the songs of Israel. I tried to preach the Gospel then as best I could and after some twenty years have passed, I can truthfully say that I am still trying to preach the Gospel of Good News to the children of men.

I am glad, in the next place, to be here because it was just on top of the hill, in the old Lodge where I was raised from a dead level to a living perpendicular, caused to stand on my feet and being informed that there I stood a lawful, just and upright Mason - and it was given me strictly in charge ever to walk and act as such; and I may humbly say, that I have tried to obey that injunction.

I offer no apology whatever to any member of this great audience for standing before you and claiming to be a Mason, knowing as I do the principles for which our great Order stands. Masonry is the oldest fraternal organization in the world today. Our ancient brethren dedicated their lodges to King Solomon - they continued until the Babylonian captivity. From then to the coming of Christ into the world, they were dedicated to Zarubbel. And from the coming of Christ to the final destruction of the Temple, they were dedicated to St. John the Baptist.”

More to follow in future newsletters.

This article was written for the Mississippi FreeMason in January 1997.