less liberty,
but better men, cleaner minded, more faithful, with loftier ideals and
more heroic integrity; men who love the right, honor the truth,
worship purity, and prize liberty--upright men who meet all
horizontals at a perfect angle, assuring the virtue and stability of
the social order.

Therefore, when Masonry, instead of identifying itself with particular
schemes of reform, and thus becoming involved in endless turmoil and
dispute, estranging men whom she seeks to bless, devotes all her
benign energy and influence to _ennobling the souls of men_, she is
doing fundamental work in behalf of all high enterprises. By as much
as she succeeds, every noble cause succeeds; by as much as she fails,
everything fails! By its ministry to the individual man--drawing him
into the circle of a great friendship, exalting his faith, refining
his ideals, enlarging his sympathies, and setting his feet in the long
white path--Masonry best serves society and the state.[170] While it
is not a reformatory, it is a center of moral and spiritual power, and
its power is used, not only to protect the widow and orphan, but also,
and still more important, to remove the cause of their woe and need by
making men just, gentle, and generous to all their fellow mortals. Who
can measure such a silent, persistent, unresting labor; who can
describe its worth in a world of feud, of bitterness, of sorrow!

No one needs to be told that we are on the eve, if not in the midst,
of a most stupendous and bewildering revolution of social and
industrial life. It shakes England today. It makes France tremble
tomorrow. It alarms America next week. Men want shorter hours, higher
wages, and better homes--of course they do--but they need, more than
these things, to know and love each other; for the questions in
dispute can never be settled in an air of hostility. If they are ever
settled at all, and settled right, it must be in an atmosphere of
mutual recognition and respect, such as Masonry seeks to create and
make prevail. Whether it be a conflict of nations, or a clash of class
with class, appeal must be made to intelligence and the moral sense,
as befits the dignity of man. Amidst bitterness and strife Masonry
brings men of every rank and walk of life together as men, and nothing
else, at an altar where they can talk and not fight, discuss and not
dispute, and each may learn the point of view of his fellow. Other
hope there is none save in this spirit of f