April 2023 Trestleboard

The Trestleboard is an official publication of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32, which is a legally constituted Masonic Lodge operating under charter granted by the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Utah. The Trestleboard is published for the sole and exclusive use of the members of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32, and any other use is expressly forbidden.  The editor of The Trestleboard is Glen Van Steeter.  Submissions of educational articles or other announcements may be sent to the editor at [email protected], and if selected for publication, will be given full attribution. All submissions are subject to the approval of the Worshipful Master of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32 and the editor of the Trestleboard.

The Lodge Secretary endeavors to keep our roster as accurate as possible. If you are moving, changing your mailing address, phone number or email address, please update your information in GrandView or notify the Secretary so that your information can be kept current.

Twin Peaks Lodge Secretary

April Calendar

• Monday, April 3 @ 7:30pm – April Stated Meeting. We will have a special presentation by R.W. Moore Chapter of DeMolay. Dinner will be served at 6:15pm prior to the meeting. Friends and family are invited. Presentation at 7:00pm. Guests are also invited. Meeting opens at 7:30. Dress is business.
• Monday, April 10 @ 7:00pm – Special Esoteric Educational Night. We are trying something new. Come attend our first educational Night where we are having an guided discussion on the Esoteric lessons of the three degrees. Open to masons only.
• Monday, April 17 @ 7:00pm – Degree Practice. TBD.
• Monday, April 24 @ 7:00pm – We are doing something a little different this month. Oquirrh Lodge #19 is holding a double EA degree at the Midvale Masonic temple. We are supporting them and helping in their degree. So we decided to host our meetup beforehand at 6:00pm downstairs at the lodge building. Dinner will be a catered slow cooked chicken. Cost is $15 per person. Please RSVP to Ephraim Sng so we can prepare the right amount of food. Dress is formal if you are attending the degree, business casual for guests.

Sickness and Distress

• Fortunately, I believe all brothers and families are in overall good health. Let’s express our gratitude and keep it that way!

If you happen to hear about a brother who is in distress, please contact either the Worshipful Master or the Lodge Secretary ASAP so that the Lodge can put itself in a position to assist.

FROM THE EAST

Last month, I had the opportunity of visiting London where I stopped by the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). As a Freemason, it was fascinating to see the artifacts and history contained there. With Worshipful Brother Bob’s educational articles about the Landmarks and Constitutions, it was exiting for me to see them in person and read about the history of how they came about and evolved. It was a rich and rewarding experience.

During my tour of parliament, I heard a quote by Brother Sir Winston Churchill, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” It resonated with me. Our buildings and environment can influence our behavior and shape our lives. The people who we surround ourselves with, as well as our physical environment.

I have been excited with the energy and new things we are trying in our lodge to make our degrees more solemn, beautiful, and impactful. Not just for the candidates, but for all those in attendance. I’m excited to share a few more ideas I’ve picked up during my travels.

I also visited Arizona and attended Glendale Lodge where I was immediately warmly welcomed and accepted. It reminded me of a quote I first heard when joining the Fraternity, “Through these doors there are no strangers; Only friends you’ve yet to meet.” What other organization do you welcome a compelte “stranger” and treat him as a “brother?” As I reflect on my travels, I am proud to belong to a organization where you can find a brother anywhere in the world and have a commonality based on a moral foundation.

In a world that often seems divided and fragmented, it is easy to feel alone and disconnected. But Freemasonry reminds me that there is still a place for fellowship and civil discourse, and that associating ourselves with good men, we can accomplish great things.

On the Square,
Ephraim Sng, Worshipful Master

Masonic Anniversaries

These brethren were raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in the month of April.

• Brother Robert Milbourn, raised on April 27, 2009 and has 14 years of service.
• Most Worshipful Brother Dean Rein, raised April 29, 1995 and has 28 years of service

Happy Birthdays!

These brethren were born in April. Make sure and wish them a “Happy Birthday!” when you see them this month!

• Brother Harold Lish, born on April 19.
• Brother Richard “Ric” Wailes, born on April 28.

The Mason’s Pledge: Becoming Better Men

I will do more than belong – I will participate
I will do more than care – I will help
I will do more than believe – I will practice
I will do more than be fair – I will be kind
I will do more than forgive – I will love
I will do more than earn – I will enrich
I will do more than teach – I will serve
I will do more than live – I will grow
I will do more than criticize – I will offer solutions
I will do more than be friendly – I will be a friend
I will do more than just pay dues – I will make a difference

Report on Past Events

Food Bank

We had the opportunity to volunteer at the Utah Food Bank alongside the Carpenters Union for the month of March. The Utah Food Bank is always appreciative of our help and it’s great to work alongside one another in service.

Reminder that our next time to volunteer at the Utah Food Bank will be Saturday, May 6.

Meetups

Our March meetup at Archibald’s Restaurant was well attended. We had four interested prospective parties in attendance and plenty of brothers.

Reminder that for April, we have having our meetup at the Midvale Masonic Temple at 6:00pm, then helping Oquirrh Lodge #19 with their double Entered Apprentice Degree. The meetup portion is open to all, the degree is for all Masons including our Entered Apprentices.

Upcoming Events

Masons at Work Picnic

Demolay “Father’s Talk” Presentation

Masonic Education

Freemasonry and the Game of Basketball

A month ago, Salt Lake was filled by many visitors attending the NBA All Star game. I learned recently that the game of Basketball was actually invented by a Brother Freemason.

Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball in gymnasium called the International YMCA Training School (now known as Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts during the winter of 1891-1892. The college students didn’t have a winter sport that compared to football and lacrosse of the summer seasons. So he invented the game to help athletes keep in shape during the colder season. He was only 30 years old at the time.

Brother Naismith was also an author of numerous articles and books, a physical educator ,and Presbyterian minister with degrees in philosophy, religion, physical education and medicine.

Dr. Naismith was initiated into Roswell Lee Lodge in that town. He later joined Lawrence Lodge #6 in Kansas where he served as the Worshipful Master. (Notice his watch FOB on his vest.)

It inspires me to learn about the diverse backgrounds of Masons who have made significant contributions to society.

Submitted by Worshipful Brother Ephraim Sng

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MacKey’s Landmarks
One of Masonry’s most prolific Masonic authors/writers during the 1800’s, Albert Gallatin MacKey was a physician who gave up private practice in 1840 to write, mainly about Freemasonry, until his death in 1881.

Worshipful Brother Mackey was Master of Solomon Lodge #1 in Charleston, South Carolina in 1843, and served as Grand Secretary and Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina. He was also Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. A very busy Brother, indeed. He authored “An Encyclopedia of Masonry”, a massive 2-volume work for which Freemasonry in general, and this Mason in particular, are very grateful. From his Encyclopedia, here are his 25 Masonic Landmarks, with his comments thereon.

The modes of recognition are, of all the landmarks, the most legitimate and unquestioned. They admit of no variation, the evil of such a violation of the ancient law has always made itself subsequently manifest.

The division of symbolic Masonry into three degrees is a landmark that has been better preserved than almost any other; although even here the mischievous spirit of innovation has left is traces, and by the disruption of its concluding portion from the third degree, a want of uniformity has been created in respect to the final teaching of the Master’s Order, and the Royal Arch of England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, and the “high degrees” of France and Germany are all made to differ in the mode in which they lead the neophyte to the great consummation of all symbolic Masonry. In 1813 the Grand Lodge of England vindicated the ancient landmark, by solemnly enacting that ancient Craft Masonry consisted of the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason, including the Holy Royal Arch. But the disruption has never been healed, and the landmark, although acknowledged in its integrity by all, still continues to be violated.

The legend of the Third Degree is an important landmark, the integrity of which has been very well preserved. There is no Rite of Masonry, practiced in any country or language, in which the essential elements of this legend are not taught. The lectures may vary, and indeed are constantly changing, but the legend has ever remained substantially the same. And it is necessary that it should be so, for the legend of the Temple Builder constitutes the very essence and identity of Masonry. Any Rite which should exclude it, or materially alter it, would at once, by that exclusion or alteration, cease to be a Masonic Rite.

The government of the fraternity by a presiding officer called a Grand Master, who is elected from the body of the Craft, is a fourth landmark of the Order. Many persons suppose the election of a Grand Master is held in consequence of a law or regulation of the Grand Lodge. Such, however, is not the case. The office is indebted for its existence to a landmark of the Order. Grand Masters, or persons performing the functions under a different but equivalent title, are to be found in the records of the Institution long before Grand Lodges were established; and if the present system of legislative government by Grand Lodges were to be abolished, a Grand Master would still be necessary.

The prerogative of the Grand Master to preside over every assembly of the Craft, wheresoever and whensoever held, is a fifth landmark. It is in consequence of this law, derived from ancient usage, and not from any special enactment, that the Grand Master assumes the chair, or as it called in England, ‘the Throne” at every communication of the Grand Lodge, and that he is also entitled to preside at the communication of every subordinate Lodge where he may happen to be present.

The prerogative of the Grand Master to grant dispensations for conferring degrees at irregular times, is another and a very important landmark. The statutory law of Masonry requires a month, or other determinate period, to elapse between the presentation of a petition and election of a candidate. But the Grand Master has the power to set aside or dispense with this probation, and to allow a candidate to be initiated at once. This prerogative he possessed before the enactment of the law requiring a probation, and as no statute can impair his prerogative, he still retains the power.

The prerogative of the Grand Master to give dispensations for opening and holding Lodges is another landmark. He may grant, in virtue of this, to a sufficient number of Masons, the privilege of meeting together and conferring degrees. The Lodges thus established are called “Lodges under Dispensation.”

The prerogative of the Grand Master to make Masons at sight is a landmark which is closely connected with the preceding one. There has been much misapprehension in relation to this landmark, which misapprehension has sometimes led to a denial of its existence in jurisdictions where the Grand Master was, perhaps, at the very time substantially exercising the prerogative without the slightest remark or opposition.

The necessity of Masons to congregate in Lodges is another landmark. It is not to be understood by this that any ancient landmark has directed that permanent organization which constitutes one of the features of the Masonic system as it now prevails. But the landmarks of the Order have always prescribed that Masons should, from time to time, congregate together for the purpose of either Operative or Speculative labor, and that these congregations should be called Lodges. Formerly, they were extemporary meetings called together for special purposes, and then dissolved, the brethren departing to meet again at other times and other places, according to the necessity of circumstances. But Warrants of Constitution, and annual arrears are modern innovations wholly outside the landmarks, and dependent entirely on the special enactments of a comparatively recent period.

The government of the Craft, when so congregated in a Lodge, by a Master and two Wardens, is also a landmark. A congregation of Masons meeting together under any other government, as that, for instance, of a president and vice-president, or a chairman and sub-chairman, would not be recognized as a Lodge.

The presence of a Master and Two Wardens is as essential to the valid organization of a Lodge as the Warrant of constitution is at the present day. The names, of course, vary in different languages, the the officers, and their number, prerogatives, and duties are everywhere identical.

The necessity that every Lodge, when congregated, should be duly tiled, is an important landmark of the Institution which is never neglected. The necessity of this law arises from the esoteric character of Masonry. The duty of guarding the door, and keeping off cowans and eavesdroppers, is an ancient one, which therefore constitutes a landmark.

The right of every Mason to be represented in all general meetings of the Craft, and to instruct his representatives , is a twelfth landmark. Formerly, these general meetings, which were usually held once a year, were called “General Assemblies” and all the Fraternity, even to the youngest Entered Apprentice, were permitted to be present. Now they are called “Grand Lodges,” and only the Master and Wardens are summoned. But this is simply as the representatives of their members. Originally, each Mason represented himself; now he is represented by his officers.

The right of every Mason to appeal from the decision of his brethren, in Lodge convened, to the Grand Lodge or General Assembly of Masons, is a landmark highly essential to the preservation of justice, and the prevention of oppression. A few modern Grand Lodges, in adopting a regulation that the decision of subordinate Lodges, in cases of expulsion, cannot be wholly set aside in cases of appeal, have violated this unquestioned landmark, as well as the principles of just government.

The right of every Mason to visit and sit in every regular Lodge is an unquestionable Landmark of the Order. This is called “the right of visitation.” This right of visitation has always been recognized as an inherent right which inures to every Mason as he travels throughout the world. And this is because Lodges are justly considered as only divisions for convenience of the universal Masonic family. This right may, of course, be impaired or forfeited on special occasions by various circumstances; but when admission is refused to a Mason in good standing, who knocks at the door of a Lodge as a visitor, it is to be expected that some good and sufficient reason shall be furnished for this violation of what is, in general, a Masonic right, founded on the landmarks of the Order.

It is a landmark of the Order, that no visitor unknown to the brethren present or to some one of them as a Mason can enter a Lodge without first passing an examination according to ancient usage. Of course, if the visitor is known to any brother present to be a Mason in good standing, and if that brother will vouch for his qualifications, the examination may be dispensed with, as the landmark refers only to cases of strangers, who are not to be recognized unless after strict trial, due examination, or lawful information.

No Lodge can interfere in the business of another Lodge, nor give degrees to brethren who are members of another Lodge. This is undoubtedly an ancient landmark, founded on the great principles of courtesy and fraternal kindness, which are at the very foundation of our Institution. It has been repeatedly recognized by subsequent statutory enactments of all Grand Lodges.

It is a landmark that every Freemason is amenable to the laws and regulations of the Masonic jurisdiction in which he resides, and this although he may not be a member of any Lodge. Non-affiliation, which is, in fact, in itself a Masonic offense, does not exempt a Mason from Masonic Jurisprudence. Certain qualifications of candidates for the initiation are derived from a landmark of the Order. These qualifications are that he shall be a man-unmutilated, free born, and of mature age. That is to say, a woman, a cripple, or a slave, or one born into slavery, is disqualified for initiation into the Rites of Masonry.

Statutes, it is true, have from time to time, been enacted, enforcing or explaining these principles; but the qualifications really arise from the very nature of the Masonic Institution, and from its symbolic teachings, and have always existed as landmarks.

A belief in the existence of God as the Grand Architect of the Universe, is one of the most important landmarks of the Order. It has been always admitted that a denial of the existence of a Supreme and Superintending Power is an absolute disqualification for initiation. The annuls of the Order never yet yet have furnished or could furnish an instance in which an avowed Atheist was ever made a Mason. The very initiatory ceremonies of the First Degree forbid and prevent the possibility of such an occurrence.

Subsidiary to this belief in God, as a landmark of the Order, is the belief in a resurrection to a future life. This landmark is not so positively impressed on the candidate by exact words as the preceding, but the doctrine is taught by very plain implication, and runs through the whole symbolism of the Order. To believe in Masonry, and not to believe in a resurrection, would be an absurd anomaly, which could only be excused by the reflection, that he who thus confounded his belief and his skepticism was so ignorant of the meaning of both theories as to have no rational foundation for his knowledge of either.

It shall be a landmark that a “Book of the Law” shall constitute an indispensable part of the furniture of every Lodge. I say advisedly, “Book of the Law”, because it is not absolutely required that everywhere the Old and New Testaments shall be used. The “Book of the Law” is that volume which, by the religion of the country, is believed to contain the revealed will of the Grand Architect of the Universe. Hence, in all Lodges in Christian countries, the “Book of the Law” is composed of the Old and New Testaments; in a country where Judaism was the prevailing faith, the Old Testament alone would be sufficient; and in Mohammedan countries, and among Mohammedan Masons, the Koran might be substituted. Masonry does not attempt to interfere with the peculiar religious faith of its disciples, except so far as relates to the belief in the existence of God, and what necessarily result from that belief. The “Book of the Law” is to the Speculative Mason his spiritual trestle-board; without this he cannot labor; whatever he believes to be the revealed will of the Grand Architect constitutes for him this spiritual trestle-board, and must ever be before him in his hours of speculative labor, to be a rule and guide to his conduct. The landmark, therefore, requires that a “book of the Law,” a religious code of some kind, shall form an essential part of the furniture of every Lodge.

The equality of all Masons is another landmark of the Order. This equality has no reference to any subversion of those graduations of rank which have been instituted by the usages of society. The monarch, the nobleman, or the gentleman, is entitled to all the influence, and receives all the respect, which rightly belong to his position. But the doctrine of Masonic equality implies that, as children of one great Father, we meet in the Lodge upon the level-that on that level we are all traveling to one predestined goal-that in the Lodge genuine merit shall receive more respect than boundless wealth; and that virtue and knowledge alone should be the basis of all Masonic honors, and be rewarded with preferment. When the labors of Lodge are over, and the brethren have retired from their peaceful retreat, to mingle once more with the world, each will then again resume that social position, and exercise the privileges of the rank, to which the customs of society entitle him.

The secrecy of the Institution is another and most important landmark. The form of secrecy is a form inherent in it, existing with it from its very foundation, and secured to it by its ancient landmarks. If divested of its secret character, it would lose its identity, and would cease to be Freemasonry. Whatever objections may, therefore, be made to the Institution on account of its secrecy, and however much some unskillful brethren have been unwilling in time of trial, for the sake of expediency, to divest it of its secret character, it will be ever impossible to do so, even were the landmark not standing before us as an insurmountable obstacle; because such a change of its character would be social suicide, and the death of thee Order would follow its legalized exposure. Freemasonry, as a secret association, has lived unchanged for centuries, as an open society, it would not last for as many years.

The formation of a speculative science upon an operative art, and the symbolic use and explanation of that art, for the purpose of religious or moral teaching, constitute another landmark of the Order. The Temple of Solomon was the symbolic cradle of the Institution, and therefore, the reference to the Operative Masonry which constructed that magnificent edifice, to the materials and implements which were employed in its construction, and to the artists who were engaged in the building, area all components and essential parts of the body of Freemasonry, which could not be subtracted from it without an entire destruction of the whole identity of the Order. Hence, all the comparative modern rites of Masonry, however they may differ in other respects, religiously preserve this Temple history and these operative elements, as the substratum of all their modifications of the Masonic System.

The last and crowning landmark of all is, that these landmarks can never be changed. Nothing can be subtracted from them-nothing can be added to them-not the slightest modification can be made in them.

As they were received from our predecessors, we are bound by the most solemn obligations of duty to transmit them to our successors.

And thus you have it, all 25 of MacKey’s landmarks. Each Grand Lodge has accepted some or all of these, in one form or another. I hope you have enjoyed this article, and I welcome your thoughts on it.

Submitted by Worshipful Brother Robert “Bob” Hartman, PM