At the start of the journey which the initiate into Freemasonry takes, he is told to "keep sacred the Mysteries of the Order." What are the mysteries? Ask any number of Brethren this question and the replies are varied and significant. For the mystery is that part of the ceremony which is least understood by them.

The candidate enters the Lodge in a state of darkness, and at the proper time he is restored to light. The word "restored" signifies that he has made no progress actually, but that he has been exposed to the Truths of Freemasonry during his initiation. He sees the light of day even as he saw it before he was deprived of light by Freemasons. Is this a mystery? We may answer, yes. But there is a deeper one than this.

In the north-east corner of the Lodge he has impressed upon him the need for Charity, and also his own inability to do anything about lit. For he cannot - he dare not give, although he might be constrained to do so. Is this also a mystery? One might answer “yes.” But still we have to go deeper invested with the lambskin and the significance of the greater and lesser lights is pointed out to him. He is given a lecture on the Tracing Board and finally he is told to "Keep sacred and inviolate the mysteries of the Order."

All are mysteries to him, and I fear too many who sit in Lodge as well. But we have to go even deeper for the true mystery of Freemasonry.

I think the key to this puzzle is given in the sentence, "To converse with well-informed Brethren." And well-informed Brethren, we must remember, means well-informed, those who will be most capable of explaining what the initiate has gone through, and of pointing out the lessons which his experience symbolizes. Thus we see that by slow and painful stages we finally get to the Soul of man or to his mind.

The mind or the soul of man has been a closed book for countless ages to all but the most advanced Freemasons or Mystics. And all the rituals have been written to enable us to learn something about it. When we initiate a man we initiate his body-we cannot do otherwise, but we do so in the hope that his soul or mind may be impressed thereby. And it is here in the soul of man that we find the true mystery of Freemasonry. "Man know thyself" strikes more forcibly when we recall this.

A man may see in the rough ashlar a common stone with no potentialities. After initiation we hope that he sees it in a different light and with chisel and hammer will set about making it smooth and fit to adjust his jewels thereon. But he is not a Freemason in the highest sense until he learns that the stone, however rough or smooth it may be, has within it countless billions of atoms-all in motion and all active, and that every particle of matter is alive with God. Also that he is in no wise different, but is charged with a Spiritual energy which he alone can know, and which cannot be touched by another. This, to my mind, is the true mystery of Freemasonry.

Therefore it behoves us all to have active and alert minds, to be what the ritual calls "well-informed," not with a surface knowledge alone, but with a calm poise and a peace which is a sure indication of having founding a measure "that which was lost." Such a man rules his world by his understanding of Good-or God-for our ritual tells us that "God is the chief good." And having found this good we have found all.

Published in Masonic Bulletin-BCY-Oct. 1946 by Bro. Rev. T.C. Jones, Unity Lodge, No. 106