Moonlighter
Steilacoom Lodge #2	VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11

November 2002   Newsletter

(Editor here!)

Bro. Tom has a virus in his computer and has been unable to send me any input for this month!  Lets hope this virus is not catching and he will be able to come to Lodge on the 15th!  Maybe by then his computer will be cured and he can send e-mail to everyone!

Thanks

Editor.

Tom K. SW

May all your travels be safe,
May the wind always fill your sails,
May your table be filled with plenty,
And may the sun keep you in its' warm embrace!

Announcements

Kaffee Klatsch

In the Faith,
Jer

Trestle Board for November:

November 15, 2002 Stated Meeting  Pot Luck at 6:30, Stated starts at 7:30  -- Election of 2003 Officers

Hi Brethren,   With the adoption of the Grand Lodge proposed General Fund this past June, the per capita for next year will be $8.00.  Those members who are life members need to send me $8.00; for all others the total is $43.00 ($35.00 Dues and $8.00 for the Assessment). At our last Stated meeting we voted to remit the dues for all 50-year members.  This includes 50 year members who are also Life members.  Let's save the lodge some money on postage.  I will only send out statements to those who don't send in their 2003 Dues and/or Assessment by the end of November.   How many 50 year members do we have?  This question was asked at our last meeting.  Actually, some have more than 50 years.  Here is the list of our 50+ year members: Paul H. Anderson, Everett T. Battson, Lyle E. Boyd, Gerald G. Burg, Robert R. Burt, Albert E. Corey, Deane H. Doering, Richard L. Dunkin, David A. Ekberg, Orvie A. Flynn, Harry W. Forslund, Laurence H. Garlinger, Sherman R. Grice, Jr., Elmer E. Gunnette, Lesterr D. Hansen, Jack F. Helms, Bewell C. Hickey, Robert C. Hitch, Dorsey L. Hughey, Gordon N. Johnston, Delwen B. Jones, Robert L. Kaler, John S. Korsmo, Jack W. Leech, Clayton W. McClintock, Cornell K. Meek, George O. Moseley, Jr., Eugene M. Nist, Frederick C. Osmers, John C. Richards, Thomas L. Riley, John S. Roberts, Merle E. Rogers, John L. Rohrer, John L. Salarski, John Edwin Smith, Hardyn B. Soule, Almor Stern, Raymond A. Sumner, Harold W. Swanson, Maurice A. Tweit, Murrell D. Twibell, Charles E. Walker, James C. Wolfe, and Clifton A. Young.   Wow!  That's quite a list.  If you don't see your name on the list and believe you have 50 or more continuous years as a Mason-give me a holler.  Write, call, or come to Lodge and chew me out.  This will be my last year as secretary so you better hurry!   Stan Cybulski

Hi Brothers and Ladies

As you know I am the new Editor of our Moonlighter!  Some times I get a lot of input from our brothers and some times I don't.  If your Newsletter looks a little thin, write me a note or give it to me in Lodge (hint about more Brothers attending) or even better, e-mail it to me.  My e-mail address is mike.smitson@attbi.com.  I would love to get some little bit of our Lodge History included in our monthly Moonlighter!

This past month (October 2002) has been a very busy one for our Lodge.  First, there was a visit to Willamette Lodge #2 in Oregon; we had a Tri-Lodge meeting in Olympia; our Past Masters Night; and our regular stated meeting.  Our stated for October was also Step-Up Night.  It was a very good night and a good time was had by all that night!

November is starting out with being a very busy month for Steilacoom Lodge.  Installation of newly elected officers have begun!  A lot of Steilacoom Lodge members are traveling to different Lodges for their installations.  One of the first of the season was Henry A. Greene Lodge #250.  It was held on November 2.  It was a very nice Installation.  If you are able to attend an Installation of Officers in the next couple of months, please visit that Lodge and have a good time!

Steilacoom Lodge #2's Installation will be held on December 27, 2002 as it has always been before and will always be in the future.  This year it will be on a Friday!  Weather permitting and you are able, come and see your Lodge's Installation of Officer for 2003!

Thanks

The Editor!

Steilacoom Lodge #2

Tidbit!

Steilacoom Lodge's Second Worshipful Master had a town named after him!  This action was taken because of the tremendous efforts of this man during the Indian Wars.  Worshipful Brother Slaughter died of wounds suffered the Wars.  The town of Slaughter has been renamed.  Do you know the name of this town now?  Answer:  Auburn

 With installations of New Officers for all of Washington Lodges happening in the next couple of months, I thought you might like to read about the Charge of the Master given a few years back...
 

A short Charge delivered to Brother William Winston, on his being installed Right Worshipful Master of Palladian Lodge A.L. 5767; A.D.1767

Immediately after the Investiture and Installment of the rest of the Officers. An ADDRESS to the same LODGE, By Brother W. CALCOTT,

WORTHY BRETHREN,
I flatter myself there is no Mason of my acquaintance insensible of the sincere regard I ever had, and hope ever to retain, for our venerable institution; certain I am, if this establishment should ever be held in little esteem by the members, it must be owing to the want of a due sense of the excellence of its principles, and the salutary laws and social duties on which it is founded.

But sometimes mere curiosity, views of self-interest, or a groundless presumption, that the principal business of a lodge is mirth and entertainment, bath induced men of loose principles and discordant tempers to procure admission into our community: this, together with an unpardonable inattention of those who proposed them, to their lives and conversations have constantly occasioned great discredit and uneasiness to the Craft, such persons being no ways qualified for a society founded upon wisdom, and cemented by morality and Christian love.

Therefore let it be your peculiar care to pay strict attention to the merit and character of those, who, from among the circle of your acquaintance, may be desirous of becoming members of our society, lest through your inadvertency, the unworthy part of mankind should find means to introduce themselves among you, whereby you will discourage the reputable and worthy.

Self-love is a reigning principle in all men; and there is not a more effectual method of ingratiating ourselves with each other, than by mutual complaisance and respect; by agreement with each other in judgment and practice. This makes society pleasing, and friendship durable; which can never be the case when men's principles and dispositions are opposite, and not adapted for unity. We must be moved by the same passions, governed by the same inclinations, and moulded by the same morals, before we can please or be pleased in society. No community or place can make a man happy, who is not furnished with a temper of mind to relish felicity. The wise and royal Grand Master, SOLOMON, tells us, and experience confirms it, that, "the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is to
behold the sun." Yet for this pleasure we are wholly indebted to that astonishing piece of heavenly workmanship, the eye, and the several organs of sight. Let the eye be distempered, and all objects, which though they remain the same in themselves, to us lose their beauty and lustre, let the eye be totally destroyed, then the sense which depends upon it is lost also, and the whole body is full of darkness. So it is with that Mason who has not a frame and temper of mind adapted to our institution, without which the blended allurements of pleasure and instruction, to be found in a lodge, must become tasteless, and of none effect. Likewise let his conduct and circumstances in life be such, as may not have the least tendency to diminish the credit of the society: And be ye ever disposed to honour good men for their virtues, and wise men for their knowledge: Good men for propagating virtue and religion all
over the world, and wise men for encouraging arts and sciences, and diffusing them from east to west, and between north and south, rejecting all who are not of good repute, sound morals, and competent understandings. Hence you will derive honour and happiness to yourselves, and drink deeply of those streams of felicity, which the unenlightened never can be indulged with a taste of.

For by these means excess and irregularity must be strangers within your walls. On sobriety your pleasure depends, on regularity your reputation, and not your reputation only, but the reputation of the whole body.

These general cautions, if duly attended to, will continually evince your wisdom by their effects; for I can with confidence aver, from experience, that nothing more contributes to the dissolutions of a lodge, than too great a number of members * indiscriminately made; want of regulation in their expenses, and keeping unseasonable hours.

To guard against this fatal consequence we shall do well to cultivate the following virtues, viz., prudence, temperance, and frugality. Virtues which are the best and properest supports of every community.

Prudence is the queen and guide of all other virtues, the ornament of our actions, the square and rule of our affairs. It is the knowledge and choice of those things we must either approve or reject; and implies to consult and deliberate well, to judge and resolve well, to conduct and execute well.

Temperance consists in the government of our appetites and affections, so as to use the good things of this life as not to abuse them, either by a sordid and ungrateful parsimony on the one hand, or a profuse and prodigal indulgence to excess, on the other. This virtue has many powerful arguments in its favour; for, as we value our health, wealth, reputation, family, and friends, our character as men, as Christians, as members of society in general, and as Freemasons in particular, all conspire to call on us for the exercise of this virtue; in short, it comprehends a strict observance of the apostle's exhortation; "Be ye temperate in all things;" not only avoiding what is in itself improper, but also whatever has the least or most remote appearance of impropriety, that the tongue of the
slanderer may be struck dumb, and malevolence disarmed of its sting.

Frugality, the natural associate of prudence and temperance, is what the meanest station necessarily calls for, the most exalted cannot dispense with. It is absolutely requisite in all stations: It is highly necessary to the supporting every desirable character, to the establishment of every society, to the interest of every individual in the community. It is a moral, it is a Christian virtue. It implies the strict observation of decorum in the seasons of relaxation, and of
every enjoyment, and is that temper of mind which is disposed to employ every acquisition only to the glory of the giver, our own happiness, and that of our fellow-creatures. If we fail not in the exercise of these virtues (which are essential supports of every lodge of Free and Accepted Masons) they will effectually secure us from those unconstitutional practices, which have proved so fatal to this society.

For prudence will discover the absurdity and folly of expecting true harmony, without due attention to the choice of our members. Temperance will check every appearance of excess, and fix rational limitations to our hours of enjoyment. And frugality will proscribe extravagance, and keep our expences within proper bounds.

The Lacedemonians had a law among them, that every one should serve the gods with as little expense as he could, herein differing from all other Grecians; and LYCURGUS being asked for what reason he made this institution, so disagreeable to the sentiments of all other men? answered, Lest at any time the service of the gods should be intermitted; for he feared, if religion should be as expensive there as in other parts of Greece, it might some time or
other happen that the divine worship, out of the covetousness of some, and the poverty of others, would be neglected. This observation will hold equally good with respect to Masons, and will, I hope, by them be properly applied.

I would not be understood here to mean, that because these three moral virtues are particularly pointed out, as essentially necessary to the good discipline and support of a lodge, nothing more is required, for social must be united with moral excellencies; was a man to be merely prudent, temperate and frugal, and yet be unaccustomed to the duties of humanity, sincerity, generosity, &c., he would be at most but a useless, if not a worthless member of
society, and a much worse Mason.

In the next place, permit me to remind you, that a due attendance on the lodge for your own improvement, and the reputation of Masonry in general, is absolutely necessary; for your own improvement, because the advantages naturally resulting from the practice of principles therein taught, are the highest ornament of human nature; and for the credit of the community, because it is your indispensable duty to support such a character in life as is
there enjoined. The prevalence of good example is great, and no language is so expressive as a consistent life and conversation; these once forfeited in the Masonic character, will diminish a man, not only in the esteem of persons of sense, learning, and probity, but even men of inferior qualities will seldom fail of making a proper distinction.

You are well acquainted that the envious and censorious are ever disposed to foam their judgments of mankind according to their conduct in public life, so when the members of our society desert their body, or discover any inconsistency in their practice with their profession, they contribute to bring an odium on a profession, which it is the duty of every member highly to honour. Indeed, instances of the conduct here decried, I own, are very rare, and, I might say, as often as they do happen, tend still more to discover the malignity of our adversaries than to reflect upon ourselves. For with what ill-nature are such suggestions framed? How weak must it appear in the eye of discernment, to condemn a whole society for the irregularity of a few individuals. **

But to return to my argument; one great cause of absenting ourselves from the lodge, I apprehend to be this:- The want of that grand fundamental principle, Brotherly-love! Did we properly cultivate this Christian virtue, we should think ourselves happiest when assembled together. On unity in affection, unity in government subsists; for whatever draws men into societies, it is that only can cement them.

Let us recollect that love is the new and greatest commandment; all the others are summarily comprehended in this. It is the fulfilling of the law, and a necessary qualification for the celestial lodge, where the Supreme Architect of the universe presides, who is love.

Faith, hope, and charity are three principal graces, by which we must be guided thither, of which charity, or universal love, is the chief, when faith shall be swallowed up in vision, and hope in enjoyment, then true charity, or Brotherly-love, will shine with the brightest lustre to all eternity. "Shall stand before the host of Heaven confest,
For ever blessing, and for ever blest." PRIOR, on xiiith ch. 1 Cor. On the other hand, envy, pride, censoriousness, malice, revenge, and discord, are the productions of a diabolical disposition. These are epidemical disorders of the mind, and if not seasonably corrected and suppressed, will prove very pernicious to particular communities, and more especially to such an establishment as ours.

Now, there is nothing so diametrically opposite to them, and so powerful an antidote against them, as charity, or true Brotherly love; for instance, are we tempted to envy, charity guards the mind against it, charity envieth not. Are we tempted by pride, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Where this virtue is predominant, humility is both its companion and its delight; for the charitable man puts on bowels of mercy, kindness, lowliness of mind. It is a certain remedy, likewise, against all censoriousness: Charity thinketh no evil, but believeth all things, hopeth all things, will ever incline us to believe and hope the best, especially of a Brother.

Therefore, let a constant exercise of this Christian virtue, so essential to our present and future happiness, prove our great esteem for it, and, by its influence upon our lives and actions, testify to the world the cultivation of it amongst us, that they who think or spear evil of us, may be thereby confounded and put to open shame. And as it was a proverbial expression among the enemies of Christianity in its infancy, "See how these Christians love one another," may the same, with equal propriety, be said of Freemasons. This will convince the scoffer and slanderer that we
are lovers of Him who said, If ye love me, keep my commandments; and this is my commandment, that ye love one
another as I have loved you. This will prove to our enemies, that a good Mason is a good man, and a good Christian, and afford ourselves the greatest comfort here by giving us a well-grounded hope of admittance into a lodge of everlasting felicity hereafter.

THUS shall our institution be enabled to repel the destructive power of time, the strongest arm of calumny, and the severest strokes of reproach, till that great and important day when the commissioned arch-angel shall pronounce this awful sentence: "Earth, be dissol'd, with all the worlds on high, "And time be lost in vast eternity." Ogilvie.


* It would be as absurd to imagine, that happiness is found in a numerous lodge, where the members axe indiscriminately admitted, as to think that true greatness consists in size and dimensions; for as Mr. POPE observes, "Let an edifice be ever so vast, unless the parts relate to each other in harmony, the monstrous whole will be but a duster of littlenesses unnaturally crowded together."

** Though there should be Freemasons who, coolly, and without agitation of mind, seem to have divested themselves of all affection and esteem for the craft; we only see, thereby, the effects of an exquisite and inveterate depravation, for the principle is almost always preserved, though its effects seem to be totally lost.