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[ As Freemasons, we are all and ought to be, builders. Age
does not matter. In fact, age provides the benefit of learning and experience.
We require the advice, guidance and to a large extent the active participation
of our senior brethren, in the building, strengthening and fortification of
Freemasonry. Their maturity and knowledge will always be assets to our
institution. We value and respect the senior brethren, as we are followers of
the Masonic teaching that, “From time immemorial Freemasonry has taught a
proper reverence and veneration for age”. The senior brethren in turn owe a
sacred duty and that is to assist the Lodge to build brotherhood and knowledge
as per the Masonic teachings and tenets. I read a poem
in “The Treasury of Masonic Thought”, published in 1924 and the sale
proceeds of which were devoted to the building of a Masonic Temple in Dundee. It
conveys a message in a very subtle way and I am sharing it with you all, with a
humble request, that the senior brethren may be pleased to emulate the old man
in the poem. Please read on…-Webmaster]
To the Builders of A Masonic Lodge
“ An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the
evening, cold and grey,
To a chasm vast
and deep and wide.
The old man
crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream
had no fear for him;
But he turned when
safe on the other side,
And built a bridge
to span the tide.
‘You are wasting
your strength when building here
Your journey will
end with the ending days;
You never again
will pass this way.
You have crossed
the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build you this
bridge at eventide?’
The builder lifted
his old, grey head;
‘Good friend, in
the path I have come’, he said,
‘There followeth
after me to-day,
A youth whose feet
must pass this way.
This chasm, that
has been as naught to me,
To that
fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must
cross in the twilight dim-
Good Friend, I
have built this bridge for him’”
Anon.
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