SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.X   August, 1932   No.8

TRUTH

by: Unknown

It is an odd fact that Freemasonry’s direct teaching in regard to 
Truth is less important than her indirect teaching.
In the entered Apprentice’s Lecture we learn of Truth as “the 
foundation of every virtue.  To be good Men and True is the first 
lesson.” etc.  But these teachings regarding the third Principal 
Tenet are of Truth in its narrower and more restricted sense - that 
use of the word as a synonym for sincerity, right dealing, absence of 
deceit, straight forwardness.
Philosophers distinguish several verities of Truth - logical truth, 
the conformity of reasoning to premises; ontological, metaphysical or 
transcendental truth - the doctrine that the existence of Deity is 
proved by the very idea of his existence; absolute truth - the 
reality behind the appearance or idea.
These conceptions of Truth have led to the more common use of the 
word, as that which is believed to be so, as distinct from that which 
is known to be opposite of the fact.  The witness who swears to tell 
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth indicates no 
more than his intention to state that which is known to him, believed 
by him; that he will not intentionally deceive.  A witness may 
testify to something which is not a fact and be unperjured, provided 
it is a fact to “him.”  A man, ignorant of astronomy may truthfully 
testify that the sun moves from east to west between morning and 
night.  His testimony is the truth as he knows it.  That actually the 
earth moves beneath the sun, while the sun stands still, does not 
make him untruthful.
The truth is not always easy to define.  Some questions have several 
answers, all correct.  Other questions cannot be answered, “as 
asked,” correctly.  For instance, “how many feet in a mile?”  has 
only one true answer:  5,280.  But “what two whole numbers added 
together make 5,280” has 2640, answers, “all” correct!  “What are the 
“only” two numbers, added together, that result in 5,280” cannot be 
answered correctly, “in the terms in which it is asked,” because 
there are not “only two” numbers, the addition of which so result.  
In mathematics are many conceptions which have no actual truth behind 
them.  By the very laws of mathematics, we cannot imagine a square 
root of “minus one.” A root, multiplied by itself, must give the 
number of which it is a root.  No number, plus or minus, multiplied 
by itself produces a minus quantity.  Yet this very conception of the 
square root of minus one is constantly in use in mathematics, though 
it has no objective existence and no mathematical answer.
The entered Apprentice Lecture teaches of truth as opposed to deceit, 
truth as a foundation of character, truth in the moral sense.  In 
this sense Truth really is the foundation of every virtue.  There is 
no justice without truth; there is no philanthropy without truth; 
there can be no self-sacrifice, no bravery, no rectitude - no virtue 
of any kind - without a foundation in that which is sincere and 
honest, as opposed to that which is lying and deceitful.	
This aspect of truth is only part of the Third Principal Tenet.  It 
is vitally important, it must be learned, pondered and observed, but 
it compares with the absolute Masonic Truth as compares the moon to 
the sun.
To grasp the idea of Absolute Truth is not given to many,  All 
abstract ideas require real mental labor to formulate. The thought of 
fundamental, unchangeable, inescapable verities behind the form, 
substance and phenomena of life, is not easy.  Yet difficulty but 
makes the idea the more precious when it does become a part of a 
Freemason’s mental concepts.
A manufacturer is to make a table.  Before he puts pencil to paper he 
forms an idea of what a table looks like.  He reduces this idea to a 
drawing and specification; it then becomes an idea made manifest, so 
that others can understand it.  But it is not yet a table.  When the 
wood-worker constructs the table from materials, cutting and fitting 
them from the plans, the idea becomes embodied.  The table is now all 
three - idea, idea manifest, and idea embodied.  To the observer it 
is possessed of form and substance. is hard, varnished, throws a 
shadow, and can support other objects - in fact, a table.
The Absolute Truth of the table is probably quite different.  For all 
its seeming solidity and weight, we know that it is far more space 
than matter.  We know that its atoms are composed of electrons, 
whirling at inconceivable speeds about a central proton, and that if 
we could see it as it “really” is, not as it appears to the human 
senses, it would be a collection of bounding, moving, swinging, 
revolving particles of electricity, the force of which, if all were 
suddenly let loose, would be sufficient to wreck a city.
But not a single scientist can yet even imagine what an electron 
“really” is - the Absolute Truth of it escapes the laboratory.
Freemasonry is not all concerned with proving the verity of Deity.  
She accepts a Great Architect as Truth.  But as we have seen, Truth 
has more than one classification.  The Absolute Truth of Deity can no 
more be known to man on earth than the Absolute Reality of the table 
can be realized by those who use it.  Our perception of the world and 
life is sense bound.  From seeing, hearing , touching, tasting and 
smelling; we reason, think and believe.  Many aspects of physical 
things do not touch our five senses - for instance, the speed of the 
electron, the size of the atom.  And unimaginable aspects of Deity 
cannot enter our minds, because a finite mind can never comprehend 
that which is infinite.
Freemasonry teaches that the True Word was lost.  She offers a 
substitute.  To search for That Which Was Lost is the reason for 
Masonic life.  While we know that the search must be as fruitless as 
it must be endless, we find joy and usefulness in the effort, not in 
the results.  Important to the Freemason is not the comprehension of 
the idea of the Absolute, but that he seeks it in his conception of 
the Most High.
The great Freemason, Lessing, said: “Pure Truth is for God alone” - 
phrasing in six words both the impossibility of mortals ever finding 
it, and the reason we should seek it!  Cicero, too, knew why we must 
seek.  When he said; “our minds possess by nature an insatiable 
desire to know the truth” he uttered a truism, no matter what aspect 
of Truth is considered.  Chesterfield capped them both with his 
famous “Every man seeks for truth - God, only, knows who finds it.”
“Our ancient friend and brother, the great Pythagoras” was poet, 
philosopher and scientist when he stated “Truth is so great a 
perfection that if God would render himself visible to man, he would 
choose light for him body and truth for his soul.”
Few men are able to tell others of the eternal verities, even if, at 
long last, they win them.  To “Tell The Truth,” meaning to state the 
fact or belief as known, is easy.  But to tell the Truth unto men is 
like singing music to the tone deaf, teaching differential calculus 
to six year old child, speaking in a language the hearer does not 
understand.  He who even thinks he knows the Lost word may never tell 
it - no syllables formed by mortal tongue may speak it.  Listen to 
John Ruskin, sage of sages:  “Childhood often holds a truth with its 
feeble fingers which the grasp of manhood cannot retain - which it is 
the pride of utmost age to recover.”  the very young and the very old 
know that which they cannot tell to us of the middle years.  As 
Freemasons, we know a Truth we cannot tell even to the initiate, who 
must find it for himself in the midst of our symbols and our 
teachings.	
The great light holds a thousands truths - and one great Truth.  
Alas, that some are so blinded to the latter that, finding an 
apparent failure of conformity between page and page, they see not 
the Truth behind.  Such men  cannot sea the water for the waves, or 
find the forest because there are too many trees!  A collection of 
books, the Bible has been translated and retranslated.  Our Bible has 
come down to us through the hands of thousands of willing, devout 
workers, each with the faults and frailties of mankind.  Some copied 
well, some copied ill; some historians were accurate, others allowed 
play to their imaginations.  “Of course” in this mighty literature 
are self contradictions; “of course” different prophets, historians, 
singers and inspired leaders saw different aspects of the truths they 
taught, and so taught differently.  Recall the story of the two 
knights of old who fought to exhaustion over the color of a shield, 
one saying it was black, the other white.  When the contest was over 
they examined the shield together and found one side white and the 
other black.  So with these different manners of teaching in the 
Great Light - each teaches the Truth as its writer saw it.  The 
“real” truth, the “whole” truth - the “Absolute Truth,” is to be 
found in no verse, chapter or book, but in the Book of Books as a 
whole! 
From the beginning of time man has attempted to visualize that which 
he cannot imagine!  He would put into words, write upon paper, limn 
on canvas, shout to the housetops, that which he cannot conceive.  
What is the conventional idea of heaven?  Place of Golden Streets, 
flowing with Milk and Honey!  Why?  Because gold is precious and 
beautiful, and milk and honey good; and hard for the lowly and poor 
to get.  Injustice oppressed man for centuries; justice became a 
hope.  A just judge, no matter how severe, was far better than an 
unjust judge.  Hence we have an early conception of God as a strict, 
stern, implacable judge.  Later on - much later - came the idea of a 
merciful judge, a loving, kindly, compassionate father.
As man has grown and learned, so has his conception of Truth of the 
Great Architect of the Universe grown more beautiful.  Will any 
contend that man is perfect?  Nay, man humble or exalted, man learned 
or ignorant, man wise or foolish, can not conceive the unthinkable 
majesty and beauty, the stupendous power and glory, the unphraseable 
marvel, which must be the Absolute Truth of the Great Architect.
The dearest hope of all mankind since the first man cried the birth 
cry, was agonized down the centuries by Job:  “If a man die, shall he 
live again?”  And the centuries have given a hundred answers.  
Immortality in men’s minds is as different as the men!  To some it is 
rest; to others opportunity to do all that life denied them; to some 
it is pleasure; to others it is knowledge; to yet others it is 
formless, ageless, boundless contemplation, the Nirvana of the 
Buddhist.  But no thinking man believes that his most glorious 
conception of immortality can compare to whatever may be the Absolute 
Truth of that Magnificent belief.
Concrete truths are all relative; Absolute Truth is unchanging.  We 
think of men as good or bad, moral or unethical, wise or ignorant 
only as compared to others.  Absolute goodness, morality and wisdom 
we cannot know here; we cannot know the Absolute Truth of anything.
“But we may search for it.”  We may so order our lives, so read the 
Great Light, so follow the teachings of the ancient Craft that our 
quest of “That Which Was Lost” brings us one step nearer to the 
barrier which forever separates mortal eyes from Immortal Truth.
That he who quests earnestly and seeks sincerely will, at long last, 
pass that barrier and with his own eyes see that the Absolute is the 
magnificent Truth of Freemasonry.
“SO MOTE IT BE!”


