Making Good Men Better Part 2

If you were present at Madawaska Lodge on Monday night you may find yourself experiencing a sense of déjà vu. That’s because my talk tonight is on the same theme of how we enable good men to make themselves better . 
 

The Lucifer Effect
In a famous experiment called the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 a psychologist at Stanford University, Phil Zimbardo, gathered 20 perfectly healthy and mentally stable young volunteers. The experiment was supposed to last two weeks, but after six days it had to be shut down because the guards were humiliating and tormenting the prisoners with an intensity no one had predicted.

Phil Zimbardo has since used the experience as a way of understanding why seemingly moral people commit horrific acts.

The Stanford Prison Experiment shows that people behave as to how those around them behave, how they are EXPECTED to behave and how they themselves are treated. As Eliza Doolittle says in Pygmalion ”Because you see, Lady Higgins, " . . . the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.”

What does Freemasonry do for good men? Does regular Lodge attendance “induce the habit of virtue and strengthen the fundamental principles of the order, Brotherly love, relief & truth”? There are many examples we could study. On Monday night I talked about Ernest Shackleton. Tonight I want to briefly look at another famous mason, who incorporated Masonry into many of his writings.  He was a Nobel prize winner in literature but perhaps his greatest test was the loss of his son , John

Rudyard Kipling

Born in Bombay, India in 1865. In 1885 the Lodge of Hope & Perseverance # 782  in Lahore, Punjab, India was seeking a Secretary. He was initiated at the age of 20 + 6 months and immediately was made Hon Secretary.

In 1922, Kipling, who had made reference to the work of engineers in some of his poems and writings, was asked by a University of Toronto civil engineering professor for his assistance in developing a dignified obligation and ceremony for graduating engineering students. Kipling was very enthusiastic in his response and shortly produced both, formally entitled "The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer". Today, engineering graduates all across Canada are presented with an iron ring at the ceremony as a reminder of their obligation to society.

n 1926 Kipling published a volume called Debits and Credits. In it there are no less than four Masonically inspired stories, all four emanating from the imaginary London Lodge, Faith and Works, No. 5837, E.C. One of th stories entitled "In the Interests of the Brethren," ,first published in   1918 is all Masonic, being a record of the doings at a special Lodge of Instruction held two afternoons and two evenings each week for soldiers sick and on leave during the War. You must read the story for yourselves.

Kipling knew personal tragedy at the time as his only son, John Kipling, died in 1915 at the Battle of Loos,

He had exerted great influence to have his son accepted for officer training at the age of only 17.[37]

John suffered severe shortsightedness, just like his father. His eyesight was so bad he was unable to read the second letter on the optician's chart, even with thick glasses, and had been refused entry to the Forces three times. It was only Kipling's connections with his life-long friend Lord Roberts, Commander-in-chief of the British Army, that got his son a commission.

John was accepted into the regiment in 1914 and lived the life of a typical upper-middle-class subaltern. Though never a playboy, the young Kipling was a regular visitor to London nightclubs and loved the country house parties at the family home, Bateman's, in East Sussex.

The Battle of Loos

 Immediately prior to the troops attacking the German lines, at around 6:30 a.m., the British released 140 tons of chlorine gas with mixed success—in places the gas was blown back onto British trenches. Due to the inefficiency of the gas masks at the time, many British soldiers removed them as they could not see through the fogged-up talc eyepieces, or could barely breathe with them on. This led to some British soldiers being gassed by their own chlorine gas as it blew back across their lines.

The fighting subsided on 28 September with the British having retreated to their starting positions. The British attacks had cost over 20,000 casualties, including three divisional commanders;

On August 26, John went into battle. The next day - only his second on the front line - he was dead. This had an enormous effect on Kiplings personal life not least in his marriage .

Partly in response to this tragedy, Kipling joined the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission), the group responsible for the garden-like British war graves that can be found to this day dotted along the former Western Front and all the other locations around the world where Commonwealth troops lie buried. His most significant contribution to the project was his selection of the biblical phrase "Their Name Liveth For Evermore" found on the Stones of Remembrance in larger war graves and his suggestion of the phrase "Known unto God" for the gravestones of unidentified servicemen.

One of his more poignant poems was written after his son’s death. It is particularly appropriate to recite it on the Eve of Remembrance Day.

My Boy Jack

Have you news of my boy Jack?" Not this tide.

"When d'you think that he'll come back?" Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?: " Not this tide.

For what is sunk will hardly swim, Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?" None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind--

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,

This tide,

And every tide;

Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

Making Good Men Better

I’m convinced that masonry enables good men to become better men. A good discussion question is whether Masonry makes them so or enables them to make themselves better. I’m personally inclined to the latter.

Our task as Freemasons is to not only erect the path toward mature masculinity, but to make sure that our members are on it themselves; and those who come after them will also be on it.

Freemasonry’s strength lies in the fact that it offers the right model by which men can grow and achieve balance in their human and spiritual lives.

Brethren. The capacity of masonry to enable good men to make themselves better is a quality of which this world is in great need.   You can help fill this need by your diligence in selecting good men and focussing hard on the condition of masonry in your Lodge. We will then truly induce the habit of virtue and strengthen the fundamental principles of the order, Brotherly love, relief & truth.