Short Definition of Freemasonry
WHAT is Freemasonry?
By Elbert Bede, 5 - 15 minute Talks Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply
All rights reserved.
What is there about it that has attracted the patron age of
Kings, Potentates, Presidents and many others whose names have been emblazoned
upon the pages of history? What is there about it that has caused such men as
George Washington to prize membership therein and such men as Albert Pike to
devote their lives to it? 
What is Freemasonry?
What is there about it that has brought it into disfavor
with totalitarian rulers, political and ecclesiastical?
What is Freemasonry?
What is there about it that has enabled it to survive
persecution by tyrants and caused it to flourish wherever men are free?
How may Freemasonry be briefly defined? A brief definition
for the novitiate who wishes to tell his friends what he has received? A brief
definition for the curious among the profane?
Some say Freemasonry is a liberal education, but that
definition does not satisfy. It may be the source of a liberal education for
those who devote sufficient time to a study of its Lessons and Teachings, its
Allegories and Symbols, but Freemasonry can supply only the material and the
vehicle. It cannot funnel knowledge into the minds of men.
Some say Freemasonry is a religion, but many Freemasons will
not agree with that definition. True, there are contained in the Lessons and
Teachings of Freemasonry full instructions for leading an upright and Christian
life, and the obligations of Freemasonry are taken in the name of God, but
Freemasonry imposes no religion upon its votaries, and denies them no religion.
It has no creeds, no dogma. Craft Freemasonry does not differentiate between
Jew, Gentile, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, or member of any sect that
recognizes and believes in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry teaches that death is
not annihilation and that there is life
or existence of some kind in another realm beyond this one.
Samuel Hemming is credited for saying, Freemasonry is a "system of morality veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols."All of us have heard that one. Then, we need
only an explanation of the allegories and an interpretation of the symbols, but
every one of millions of Freemasons may have one or more of his own
explanations of each allegory and one or more of his own interpretations of
each symbol, and each of his explanations and interpretations will be correct
so far as he is concerned, so we may get millions of definitions from the same
allegories and the same symbols.
What does Freemasonry require its votaries to believe? What
else does it require of them? If we had
answers to those questions, we might evolve a definition of Freemasonry.
Freemasonry asks its votaries to believe nothing except what, to their minds,
seems reasonable. Freemasonry requires no Brother to do anything other than
those things he knows he should do whether or not he is obligated to perform
them. About all that Freemasonry asks its votaries to do is to so act that they
may be prepared for life beyond the veil, but Freemasonry has many beautiful
ceremonies that illustrate and emphasize
these simple things.
If we knew whence came the principles, the lessons and the
teachings of Freemasonry, perhaps we might evolve a brief definition of
Freemasonry; but the principles of Freemasonry, the great truths upon which it
is founded, existed at the beginning of time. They have existed in full
splendor from that time to this, and will continue to exist until time shall be
no more. If we knew what conditions were when time started, or what they will
be when time ceases, we might have the basis for a brief definition of Freemasonry.
Students have spent lives delving into the mysteries of
Freemasonry without discovering a concise, or even full, answer to our
question. There is no ready answer for the world that the world would
understand. Freemasonry is an Institution, but it is more a theory or
philosophy of life. It is what is in the heart, not always what the tongue
proclaims.
There may be no better answer than "Freemasonry is what Freemasons ARE."
