aws, and make a map of it,
finding the infinite even in the infinitesimal, shows that the mind of
man is akin to the Mind that made it. Also, there are two aspects of
the nature of man which lift him above the brute and bespeak his
divine heredity. They are reason and conscience, both of which are of
more than sense and time, having their source, satisfaction, and
authority in an unseen, eternal world. That is to say, man is a being
who, if not actually immortal, is called by the very law and necessity
of his being to live as if he were immortal. Unless life be utterly
abortive, having neither rhyme nor reason, the soul of man is itself
the one sure proof and prophet of its own high faith.

Consider, too, what it means to say that this mighty soul of man is
akin to the Eternal Soul of all things. It means that we are not
shapes of mud placed here by chance, but sons of the Most High,
citizens of eternity, deathless as God our Father is deathless; and
that there is laid upon us an abiding obligation to live in a manner
befitting the dignity of the soul. It means that what a man thinks,
the parity of his feeling, the character of his activity and career
are of vital and ceaseless concern to the Eternal. Here is a
philosophy which lights up the universe like a sunrise, confirming the
dim, dumb certainties of the soul, evolving meaning out of mystery,
and hope out of what would else be despair. It brings out the colors
of human life, investing our fleeting mortal years--brief at their
longest, broken at its best--with enduring significance and beauty. It
gives to each of us, however humble and obscure, a place and a part in
the stupendous historical enterprise; makes us fellow workers with the
Eternal in His redemptive making of humanity, and binds us to do His
will upon earth as it is done in heaven. It subdues the intellect; it
softens the heart; it begets in the will that sense of self-respect
without which high and heroic living cannot be. Such is the philosophy
upon which Masonry builds; and from it flow, as from the rock smitten
in the wilderness, those bright streams that wander through and water
this human world of ours.

III

Because this is so; because the human soul is akin to God, and is
endowed with powers to which no one may set a limit, it is and of
right ought to be free. Thus, by the logic of its philosophy, not less
than the inspiration of its faith, Masonry has been impelled to make
its historic dem